Netflix recently served fans of a thriller with an amazing survival film called Nowhere, and we have lost all cool. The movie is intriguing, has great cinematography, and feels ridiculously real at times. Directed by Albert Pinto, the movie stars actress Anna Castillo in the leading role of a pregnant woman who goes to lengths to survive and save her baby.
The movie does not have an elaborate cast, putting the spotlight on Anna’s character of Mia, though it also has talented actor Tamar Novas in the role of Nico as well. The Spanish film found its way to our screens after the collaborative effort of Ernest Riera, Miguel Ruz, Indian Lista, Seanne Winslow, and finally, Teresa Rosendoy, all of whom collectively wrote Nowhere’s screenplay.
The movie follows the story of a pregnant woman named Mia, who finds herself completely knocked away from land because of an extremely violent storm that hit the container in which she was hiding hard. Turns out Mia had escaped from a totalitarian country and had been living her life, hiding herself and her baby bump in the shipping container.
With the storm hitting her, Mia stays inside the container to protect her baby, but it only causes things to go very wrong. It is only after the storm passes that Mia realizes that she is stranded in the sea, completely alone with no way of getting back to land. Oh, did we tell you that she is very pregnant as well?
This kickstarted her fight for her and her baby’s life and a brutal and harsh journey. While the movie struggles to find its direction during the starting mark, it gets more and more interesting not just because of Mia’s situation but also because of the way the actress has played the character that makes you want to empathize with her.
The movie does not touch much on Mia’s background, and it does not take the time to set up an arc for her, but her present situation, her being stranded alone in a container floating on the sea, is more than enough for the viewers to relate to her story.
With the introduction of the film being done and dusted, let us now tell you more about the plot of the film and its ending.
Nowhere Ending Explained
The movie Nowhere opens with a couple named Mia and Nico deciding to escape from Spain in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere. Why did they want to escape? Well, the movie is not set in the present day. Instead, it is set in a time where the average man has to struggle to find the basic necessities to survive.
The situation of the world is dire and post-apocalyptic, where the rich and powerful have taken control of things in their hands. Corruption runs in people’s veins, and most of the people have been rendered completely helpless. We are told that Europe and places around it have been experiencing a shortage of necessities, leading the government to not be able to help the people.
Spain has also been hit hard, and the government there has resorted to cruel ways. If there were not enough resources, then one way of dealing with the situation was by reducing the number of people who required those resources. The situation was especially bad for women and young kids, whom the powerful thought contributed nothing to society.
Because of the danger that constantly lingered on the lives of women and children, many couples and families decided to escape, Mia and Nico being one of them. They were especially scared because not only was Mia pregnant, but she had also been forced to give up on her firstborn, Uma, her daughter, who had been dragged away by the military.
Mia was pregnant once again, and that made her an obvious target, so the couple had to be discreet about their escape, not wanting Mia to go through the same fate Uma did. Since the day of Uma’s disappearance, Mia had been living in guilt, blaming herself for getting her daughter killed.
The Escape Plan
Nico had figured out the plan, deciding that they would flee to Ireland and build their lives once again from there. But obviously, the plan goes wrong right from the start as the two get separated. Hoping to find each other at the port, Mia gets into the truck that was supposed to take them to the port, but soon, the truck gets stopped by the military, who insists on opening it and checking its contents.
Finding a bunch of people inside and realizing that they were all trying to escape, everyone inside the truck gets killed within a few minutes. But thankfully, Mia had managed to hide herself from the sight and was the only one alive.
Mia desperately tries to get into contact with Nico, but to no avail, and ends up getting loaded into a ship through a cargo container that would discreetly take her out of the country. Not knowing if she’ll get to see Nico’s face again, she prays for all three of them to be safe till the end of their journey.
Where It All Went Wrong
But things get more twisted as an extremely violent storm soon hits the water, shaking the ship to its core and rolling the container off the ship and into the water. Through a small hole, Mia noticed several containers stuck floating in the waters along with her own.
The situation was terrifying, and she did not know if there was even a way out, but the fact that her first daughter had passed away, leaving Mia burdened with the guilt of it all, pushed her to do her best to save her second child. She spends time inside the container for as long as possible and even ends up giving birth in it, all alone.
She births another daughter and names her Noa, and her existence is enough for her to have the resolve to at least make sure that her daughter gets to live. She did whatever she could to get the water out of the container, to keep her baby safe and warm, and to get herself some food.
She turned to finding fish in the sea to be her food just so that she could produce milk for her baby. But this bare minimum comfort only lasted so long. Soon, the water started getting inside the container, and the situation looked rough.
The Last Attempt
Mia knew the container would drown, so she decided to get out and climb on top of it for some time. Almost twenty days Mia and her daughter were forced to spend in and on the container, and soon, Nico’s calls came. Mia must have wanted to hear some good news, but it turns out Nico was never safe to begin with since he had been shot by the military, and chances were he was not going to survive.
But Mia tells her about their daughter to him, hoping the news will keep him going for some time. That is the last conversation that the couple share, and the call gets cut with Mia never finding out if she would be able to meet her husband ever again.
Being left stranded without food and drinking water and having to take care of a newborn was taking a toll on Mia, even making her have hallucinations where she thought that she still had time on the container. But the reality hit her fast, and eventually, she was forced to get off the container and away from it.
This meant that she had to find craps of stuff from inside the container to makeshift a raft, something that would float to keep her baby out of water. With Noa on the floating device and Mia just barely hanging on to it, she soon started to lose consciousness.
In a last attempt to call for help, Mia got the fish out of the Tupperware containers, which were also her makeshift raft, and she started throwing them into the sea. It seemed strange at first, but since the fishes attracted the seagulls, who also happened to be noisy, the plan started to make sense.
The sound of the seagulls and their wings flapping at the water’s surface created enough chaos for a nearby fisherman and his family to notice the commotion and approach the scene. Thankfully, they were kind enough to get the baby out of the water but failed to find Mia.
Upon pulling the rope that was tied to the raft where they had found the baby, the fishermen’s family found a woman, Mia, attached to its other end. They got the mother and the baby on board their boat to safety and, through multiple attempts of CPR, were finally able to revive Mia.
Ending Explained
Waking up only to realize that she had been safe and that she would be able to reach Ireland, Mia took comfort in the fact that she was not going to disappoint her husband and would even fulfill the promise of surviving and living a happy life with her beautiful daughter.
The story of Nowhere explores a mother’s resilience and the lengths a parent would go to just to save their child. The movie definitely feels realistic and keeps you on the edge of your seat, making you doubt Mia’s survival. Over the course of the movie, the makers also manage to explore the guilt Mia carries from the start of the movie till the end.
Mia had wanted to give up so many times, but she pushed through solely because of her daughters. The death of her first daughter, Uma, loomed over her head constantly, and she blamed herself for it. And the fear of losing her second daughter as well was also terrifying for her. She would not have been able to survive the guilt that would have come if Noa had died.
So, she had no option but to survive. Especially after finding out that Nico might not see them again and that he might not even be alive, Mia felt even more responsible for taking care of her daughter, making sure to stay with her for as long as possible as her only parent.
