THE DARKEST MINDS
(12A)
★★★ ★★
ADAPTED from the first instalment of a trilogy of young adult novels penned by Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds conjures dystopian nightmares that will be achingly familiar to fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent series.
A pathogen called Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration (IAAN) delivers a fatal blow to 98% of the children’s population.
Survivors are blessed with potentially deadly powers.
US President Gray (Bradley Whitford), whose son Clancy (Patrick Gibson) is among the afflicted, orders children to be forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to rehabilitation camps where they are colour-coded based on their newfound abilities.
Green, Blue and Yellow are permitted to live under armed guard, while Orange and Red are eliminated via lethal injection.
Sixteen-year-old Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg) is an Orange but has lived under the radar as Green in Thurmond rehabilitation camp, where Dr Cate Connor (Mandy Moore) takes a keen interest in the youngster.
The medic risks her life to smuggle Ruby out of the facility to join the fight against the government as part of the Children’s League.
A shocking vision wrenches Ruby away from Cate and the teenager aligns herself with three fugitives – a Blue called Liam (Harris Dickinson), a Green called Chubs (Skylan Brooks) and a Yellow called Zu (Miya Cech) – who are searching for the fabled safe haven of East River.