Ultimately, this film is centred around widespread flooding which results in a food crisis. This is made worse by the story following a new Mother (Jodie Comer) as she tries to support he child in the new world with the help of the Father, known as "R" (Joel Fry).
Firstly, Mother and R escape the city and enter the countryside, where we meet the Mother in law (Nina Sosanya) and Father in law (Mark Strong) of Mother. Living on a somewhat large forest based homestead, the family stay here until they run out of food. Venturing back into, presumably the city without Mother in search of food, two things happen. First, a Father and Son are let into the home by Mother, eat some food, then leave. No dialogue, no explanation and aren't seen again. Then, R and the Father in Law return without the Mother in Law. We later find out she's been trampled to death when sourcing food. Why you'd encourage an elderly lady to fight a mob to get food rations rather than leaving her in the car and sending the two men is a question unanswered.
Now, I must stress that this film was set in the United Kingdom. A relatively small country with a heavy population density. In addition, it has very strict gun laws with access to anything other than an air rifle being extremely difficult, and hunting rifles/assault rifles virtually impossible.
With that in mind, a fast follow to the return of the failed food run sees the Father in law shoot himself with a rifle, leaving his son, daughter in law and newly born grandson alone. Top marks to him.
Upon this happening, rather than staying in the isolated and safe homestead with the rifle, the family choose to leave and go to a shelter. They then find out the shelter will only take children and ONE parent. So that sees R disappear, not to be seen again for the majority of the narrative.
The shelter goes fine for Mother. She's fed, makes a friend (also with small child), all is well. Until a group of militia turn up with the impossible to obtain, military grade assault rifles mentioned above, break into the shelter and take the supplies. Everyone bolts and in the confusion Mother + new friend hop into a car with two random men, instructing them to drive!
And that they do. We don't know who they are, where they're going or how long they've been driving but after a time lapse and precisely zero dialogue, Mother and Friend get grumpy about their fast driving and tell the men to bail them out.
They now wander the wilderness for a while, have a houseparty in a derelic home with Benedict Cumberbatch who's passing in the opposite direction, and make their way to "one of many islands" where new communities are starting up. It just so happens, that Mother's friend knows the head of one of these communities, what luck!
Now with a couple of notable exceptions, Britain's coastal "islands" are tiny. Glorified rocks in most cases. And the one Mother and friend arrive on is no exception. Run by a slightly odd retiree who seems to be trying to make a cult, they both go to the island, before Mother has a change of heart and wants to return home. She had this epiphany after swimming naked in the sea, where we see Comer's nude breasts (despite not seeing this at all in a multitude of breast feeding scenes, which would have been more logical/appropriate).
She then gets back on the mainland and treks for what seems to be months through endless forest back to London. For context, you could walk from London to the border of Scotland is under two weeks, so I'm not sure where she's gone.
Finally, she returns to London. Judging by the growth of her child, it's been about 2 years-ish. The flood is still there - somehow. It's dropped enough however to enable her to return home to their flood damaged house. Perfect timing because R walks back in. He's not dead after all and they can begin again.
Firstly, Mother and R escape the city and enter the countryside, where we meet the Mother in law (Nina Sosanya) and Father in law (Mark Strong) of Mother. Living on a somewhat large forest based homestead, the family stay here until they run out of food. Venturing back into, presumably the city without Mother in search of food, two things happen. First, a Father and Son are let into the home by Mother, eat some food, then leave. No dialogue, no explanation and aren't seen again. Then, R and the Father in Law return without the Mother in Law. We later find out she's been trampled to death when sourcing food. Why you'd encourage an elderly lady to fight a mob to get food rations rather than leaving her in the car and sending the two men is a question unanswered.
Now, I must stress that this film was set in the United Kingdom. A relatively small country with a heavy population density. In addition, it has very strict gun laws with access to anything other than an air rifle being extremely difficult, and hunting rifles/assault rifles virtually impossible.
With that in mind, a fast follow to the return of the failed food run sees the Father in law shoot himself with a rifle, leaving his son, daughter in law and newly born grandson alone. Top marks to him.
Upon this happening, rather than staying in the isolated and safe homestead with the rifle, the family choose to leave and go to a shelter. They then find out the shelter will only take children and ONE parent. So that sees R disappear, not to be seen again for the majority of the narrative.
The shelter goes fine for Mother. She's fed, makes a friend (also with small child), all is well. Until a group of militia turn up with the impossible to obtain, military grade assault rifles mentioned above, break into the shelter and take the supplies. Everyone bolts and in the confusion Mother + new friend hop into a car with two random men, instructing them to drive!
And that they do. We don't know who they are, where they're going or how long they've been driving but after a time lapse and precisely zero dialogue, Mother and Friend get grumpy about their fast driving and tell the men to bail them out.
They now wander the wilderness for a while, have a houseparty in a derelic home with Benedict Cumberbatch who's passing in the opposite direction, and make their way to "one of many islands" where new communities are starting up. It just so happens, that Mother's friend knows the head of one of these communities, what luck!
Now with a couple of notable exceptions, Britain's coastal "islands" are tiny. Glorified rocks in most cases. And the one Mother and friend arrive on is no exception. Run by a slightly odd retiree who seems to be trying to make a cult, they both go to the island, before Mother has a change of heart and wants to return home. She had this epiphany after swimming naked in the sea, where we see Comer's nude breasts (despite not seeing this at all in a multitude of breast feeding scenes, which would have been more logical/appropriate).
She then gets back on the mainland and treks for what seems to be months through endless forest back to London. For context, you could walk from London to the border of Scotland is under two weeks, so I'm not sure where she's gone.
Finally, she returns to London. Judging by the growth of her child, it's been about 2 years-ish. The flood is still there - somehow. It's dropped enough however to enable her to return home to their flood damaged house. Perfect timing because R walks back in. He's not dead after all and they can begin again.