Cargo – A Zombie Film of a Different Kind

The Future is Fragile

I have the impression that this movie is receiving far less attention than it should be receiving. This has to change! 😀
Cargo is a zombie film. It features a virus, that turns people into zombies. There are some zombies in it. But that’s it with the zombies. What remains is an outstanding family drama, stuffed with emotions, humanity and a very interesting “political dimension”. So, if you don’t like zombie movies, or if you hated The Walking Dead (totally relatable btw), don’t hesitate to watch this one! I promise, this is different from any other movie or series you might know with those horrible creatures in it!

Australian Aborigines have been living on the continent for approximately 40.000 to 60.000 years. Still, when the British claimed the land (Captain James Cook mapped the Australian East Coast in 1770, the first British settlers established colonies in Sydney in 1788) they called it a “Terra Nullius”. An untouched land, that belonged to nobody. A blank sheet, yet to be painted on – by them. They completely ignored the presence of the Aborigines and in the years to come, they enslaved them, took their children from them and basically committed genocide. Australia became a nation in 1901 and became fully independent from Great Britain in 1986. It was only in 1992, more than 200 years after they arrived on the continent and just 26 years ago (that’s as old – I mean, as young – as me!) that the so-called Mabo Decision admitted the inhabitation of the land by Aborigines before the colonisation.
Goddamnit Sarah, are we in a history lesson right now? Why are you telling us this? Well, I’m sorry. But in case you didn’t know all this already, you have to know it in order to understand Cargo’s “political dimension” that I was talking about earlier.
(If you want to read more on Australia’s history, click here. If you want to read more on Aboriginal history, click here.)

In the movie, the Aboriginal side is clearly represented by Thoomi (and her tribe of course, but I’m going to focus on protagonists here), while the “White” or settler side is represented by – nope, not Andy – Vic. He’s one of those allegorical characters that depict whole conflicts of a kind. In his case, it’s the conflict of the settlers’ greed, or, applied to today (as the movie isn’t historical but post-apocalyptic), the conflict of the Western World’s greed. Vic uses the Aborigines as bait for the zombies and treats them like scum. He embodies the way white people used to treat Aborigines back in the days that I described above. Keep in mind, that Australia’s history isn’t an exception. We’ve always been like this, not only with Australia’s Aborigines but with basically every country and every people we’ve invaded. So, this is a story about Australia, but really it’s a story about the whole world’s “two races” (black and white, rich and poor, superior and inferior…).
Back then, when the British claimed the land, the Aborigines were virtually powerless. Now, the tide has turned. Because in a post-apocalyptic world, in which you’re deprived of all your wealthy-ass luxuries, the “western world white guy” is lost. In this kind of world, you’ll only survive under two conditions:
1) You have to stick together.
2) You have to know the territory you’re living on. You have to know nature like it’s your child. Like it’s a part of you.
It is exactly those two conditions that western people can’t fulfill, that they simply never understood. In a case like this, in a world turned upside down, all that we do is turn on each other in order to survive on our own. What this movie shows perfectly, is that Aborigines understand the key of surviving – supporting each other and using their goddamn brains, which we frequently fail to do. On the other hand, Aborigines have always treated nature with respect and have always felt it, been one with it and this is why they are the superior race after all. They know how to handle the situation, just like Thoomi, her mother and her whole tribe show us in the movie. They don’t seem to even struggle a lot.

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There’s also another component in the movie, that represents Vic’s and the Western World’s greed and ignorance when it comes to the environment: Fracking. Obvious hints throughout the movie, set in Australia’s outback, are various “No Fracking” signs in the landscape. I’m not going to explore this any further, as it should be apparent why fracking stands for white peoples’ needs and their destruction of the planet they live on. Also, I’m not a fracking expert and not nearly sophisticated enough to start a discussion on that matter! 😀
(If you’re interested in fracking as a controversial subject, check out this article by The Guardian. If you want to know more about fracking specifically in Australia, check out this article.)

Stepping away from the political aspects of Cargo, let’s turn to the emotional depth of the movie. What makes this zombie film unique is the fact, that the zombies really are only a minor matter. Just imagine you lose your wife and have only 48 hours left in a fucked- up world full of undead people to find some goddamn person to take care of your baby daughter when you’re gone. And of course you wouldn’t want just any person, but someone you can trust, someone you know that’ll treat your daughter well and raise her with love and kindness. ALL THIS IN 48 HOURS IN A WORLD FULL OF DEAD PEOPLE!!! Have I made myself clear? Have I? I think so. This conflict seems so easily constructed, but at the same time it’s most likely one of the most complex and dramatic conflicts I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s responsible for me crying my eyes out in a freaking zombie film, which has never ever happened before and probably will never happen again.

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On the whole I can say, that this movie is a real insider tip, especially in its genre. Unlike other movies like it, it doesn’t need a lot of action (though there are some action scenes in it of course), it doesn’t need a lot of blood or brutality. Cargo is pitiless in its very own and very different way and this makes it an outstanding piece of art.
I’d have loved to talk about the ending here as well, but I didn’t want to spoil the experience for you and I didn’t want to work with a simple “Spoiler Alert”, as I was afraid some of you might ignore it. 😉
So I’ll leave it at that, but this post is long enough anyway! I really really hope you’ll watch the movie. Trust me, you won’t regret it! Let me know what you think about the post, and more importantly, about Cargo.

All pictures used in this post are copyrighted by Umbrella Entertainment and Netflix