Songbird: The Movie That Could Have Been A Reality (Spoiler Review)

Songbird: The Movie That Could Have Been A Reality (Spoiler Review)

Dallas Alphonso, Assistant Editor

Covid-19 is a pretty big part of our lives now, and will always be a part of history, so it only makes sense for this horrible virus that infected our everyday lives to inspire movies, shows, songs, and other forms of entertainment. On December 11, 2020, a movie was first released through premium video on demand called “Songbird,” a science fiction thriller film based on Covid-19. The movie “Songbird” has a runtime of one hour and thirty minutes in total.

In the movie “Songbird” the COVID-19 disease has mutated into the virus Covid-23, and the world is completely shut down as well as being in its fourth pandemic year. The people in the United States are required to take temperature checks on their cell phones daily at 9 am every morning, while those infected with COVID-23 are taken from their homes by force and are put into quarantine camps otherwise known in the movie as the Q-Zones or concentration camps. When infected people are taken to these camps, they are either left to die, or forcibly get better instead of doing it in their homes.

Nico Price, a motorbike delivery man, has immunity to the virus, due to the fact he was already infected with the virus before as well as a rare other few people in the world. Nico is also in a virtual relationship with Sara Garcia, a young artist living with her grandmother whom she calls “Lita” whose lockdown prohibits them from physical contact. Nico works for Lester, Lester is a guy who specializes in delivering packages to wealthy individuals. One of their biggest clients is the Griffins. Piper Griffin and William Griffin, whose daughter Emma Griffin sadly has an auto-immune disorder. William Griffin is having an affair with an online streamer named May.

May makes a living selling covers of classic songs online where she meets and develops a special bond with disabled military veteran Michael Dozer. Michael Dozer works for Lester as a drone operator. All of these stories come together in the movie, and that is actually one of my favorite things about this movie. I know that it is very common for movies to have multiple storylines, and then bring them all together at some point in the movie, but this is a movie about a horrible virus that is now airborne and somehow still finds a way to connect all of their stories amazingly.

In this movie, Sara Garcia’s grandmother, also known as Lita, catches the virus, so that means Sara was exposed to it because they live in the same apartment. Before Lita, Nico, and Sara found out that Lita had the virus, Nico and Sara were planning on running away from everything, but the only way they could do that was if the virus was gone or Sara had a yellow immunity bracelet. A yellow immunity bracelet is a bracelet that the people who are immune wear so that when they go out they can show it to the guards when they pass so they don’t get shot on sight.

Once they find out Lita has the virus, Nico goes on a mission to get a bracelet for Sara so they can run away like they were planning. To get an immunity bracelet, Nico had to ask Lester first, but Lester said he did not have one but he had a lead on who did. Lester told Nico that the Griffin’s had a bracelet, so then Nico went to the Griffins looking for the bracelet and once Nico talked to Mr. Griffin, Mr. Griffin sent a guy to kill Nico because Nico knew too much but the person that was supposed to kill Nico failed after Nico killed him instead.

Later on in the movie, Mrs. Griffin found out that Mr. Griffin was having an affair with the online streamer May, after overhearing a conversation he had with the online streamer because she said she did not want to see him anymore. After she overheard the conversation she confronted him about it and told him at gunpoint to get out of the house and that’s when Mrs. Griffin called back May and told her that Mr. Griffin was coming to where she lives and that she should get out of there while she can. While May is getting her stuff ready to leave she is also on the phone with Michael Dozer the drone operator because she is scared and she asked if she could stay with him and he said of course.

On her way to Michael Dozers place, she got into her car, but that’s when Mr. Griffin pulled up to her house and broke her car windows to get to her but by the time he broke the window, Michael Dozer was already ahead of him with his drone. Once Michael saw Mr. Griffin attacking May he aimed the drone at him and shot him, therefore, stopping the attack. Later on, Nico goes back to the Griffins house trying to steal an immunity bracelet but Mrs. Griffin just gives it to him. By the time Nico gets the bracelet, the guards have already taken Sara and her Lita and were transporting them to one of the Q-Zones.

In order for Nico to find Sara, he had to ask for Lesters help one more time to find the truck that took them so Lester contacts Michael and they start searching the whole city and guiding Nico to her where eventually he found and retrieved Sara back peacefully and finding out that Sara is immune just like him.

Despite all the negative reviews this movie got, I really loved this movie and if I had to rate it from 1-10, I would give it an 8/10. I love the way that the people who created the movie brought all the stories together while also trying to keep the actors apart in an amazing way that actually made sense. Another thing that they did great was that they developed a lot of the characters exponentially in a short amount of time.

Of course, the movie has its downsides, but in my opinion, the amount of better things about it overshadow the number of bad things about it. I think people are judging this movie way too harshly.

Songbird can be streamed on Hulu, Google Play Movies & TV, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Apple TV+.