Even though PD James is said to have been happy with Alfonso Cuarón’s adaptation of her 1992 novel, The Children of Men , the film, apart from the many changes in the plot, makes a crucial one by stating women are barren. In James’ layered, dystopian novel, the human race has become sterile and is dying out. The film focusses on a draconian immigration policy, and by making Kee, a person of colour and an illegal immigrant the first woman to be pregnant after 18 years, looks at race and at Africa being the cradle of civilisation.
A still from Children Of Men
Clive Owen as Theo Faron is not as unlikeable as his print avatar. His child dies in a flu pandemic and not by being run over by Theo. The book offers no redemption for Theo. Even though he does the right thing, there is the seed of corruption waiting to overpower the fragile thread of good in him. Xan, the not-so-benevolent dictator and Theo’s cousin, is inexplicably written out, as are the coldly-cruel Omegas — the last children to be born on earth. Michael Caine plays Jasper Palmer as this cool, long-haired dude, a far cry from his paranoid, needy and gutless print version. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke is closer to Rolf from the book. Unlike Rolf, however, he is portrayed as a misguided revolutionary, and doesn’t go through the devastating horror and shame of finding out the truth about the baby’s father.
07bg_(l to r) Charles Dutton, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, Dennis Quaid and Tyrese Gibson in Screen Gems' supernatural action thriller LEGION.
Greatest story ever told
Children of Men was released in the US on Christmas Day and has very strong echoes of the Nativity. The delightfully pretentious Legion also had a Christmas theme. The Archangel Michael (a dapper Paul Bettany) cuts off his wings when he lands in LA to head off to a diner called, believe it or faint, Paradise Falls. In this post-apocalyptic thriller, Michael must protect a pregnant waitress, Charlie, as her child is the saviour of mankind. Despite a strong cast, including Dennis Quaid and Tyrese Gibson, the only memorable scene in the film is the sweet granny scampering across the ceiling like a spider.
Body as a battleground
Fertility is a strong motif in science fiction. In The Handmaid Maid’s Tale , adapted from Margaret Atwood’s eponymous novel, a toxic environment and sexually transmitted disease have rendered humans sterile. As always, the rich and powerful hire handmaids to bear their children.
The Handmaid's Tale -- "The Bridge" Episode 109 -- Offred embarks on a dangerous mission for the resistance. Janine moves to a new posting. Serena Joy suspects the Commanderís infidelity. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Janine (Madeline Brewer), shown. (Photo by: George Kraychyk/Hulu)
The multiple-Oscar winning Mad Max: Fury Road sees Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa (writer-director George Miller sure has a way with names!), helping evil Immortan Joe’s five wives kept for breeding escape across a desert wasteland after the world has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. The suitably silly Babylon AD had Vin Diesel escort the pretty Aurora, who is expecting twins, through a war zone with the world’s baddest baddies after them.
She will be back
Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies is the mother everyone might like to have — even though poor John Connor has to deal with intense stuff like “the future is not set but what we make for ourselves”. Living as an outlaw might be fun, but being off the grid might be tough — what, no Instagram? Sarah evolves from a young waitress in The Terminator with a remorseless killing machine after her, to the muscled trigger-happy warrior in Judgement Day . In the gloomy, doomy Terminator Salvation, Bryce Dallas Howard is John Connor’s pregnant wife, Kate. The child’s fate sank along with the sequels.
No one can hear you scream
The Alien movies had a troubled relationship with birth, starting from the little critters that burst spectacularly from one’s chest in Alien, to Alien 3 where Ripley kills herself rather than deliver an alien, and Alien: Resurrection where humans are used as incubators for alien embryos. Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus, sees a sterile archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) get pregnant with an alien, thanks to android David’s nefarious plans. She eventually uses a hi-tech surgery table to extract a squiggly creature from her stomach.
Last year’s Blade Runner 2049 , a sequel to Scott’s Blade Runner, has a replicant baby at the centre of action. If replicants (android slaves) can reproduce sexually, that would mean war, which is why K is tasked with retiring the child, leading to poignant questions about the humanity of machines.
A new hope
In everybody’s favourite space opera, Star Wars , miracle babies are quite the thing. Anakin Skywalker, the one to bring balance to the Force, is conceived without a father. In the third prequel, Revenge of the Sith , Padme giving birth to twins Luke and Leia, is juxtaposed with Anakin being fitted with his famous armour and being reborn as black knight, Darth Vader.
The new trilogy has done away with miracle babies and Immaculate Conception — at least in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi . The third movie might slip in a miracle or two to tell us about Rey’s origins.
