Thus far, my favorite movie of 2025 follows the journey of a young boy who lives in an isolated but safe community in a post-apocalyptic England where a virus outbreak turns people into mindless aggressive predators (a type of zombies, so to speak).
Spike is his name and he lives with a sick mother and a father who brings him on a coming of age tour of the infected land, which goes well, in spite of several setbacks. The father-son incursion begins with a frantic inserts of war related footage that add to the tension of the coming journey. They face infected and return well to their island community where he decides to find a way to cure his mother of her disease after discovering there is a doctor living in the infected continent close by. And thus the journey truly begins.
The aggressive, or rather frantic, style of showing the encounters with the many types of infected and the resulting conflicts with them are impressive and immersive to the viewer. As for the relationships between Spike with both his father and mother, they are very emotional and intense, especially as the son leaves the father (and safety of his home) behind and strengthens the bound with his mother (while advancing further into dangerous territory).
Jodie Comer (the mother), Alfie Williams (Spike) and Ralph Fiennes (the doctor they seek), all shine in different ways in this movie that ends up being more about bounds that people make with each and strengthen throughout the ordeals they face (be it infected or disease).
In conclusion, I find this movie to be an amazing journey that touches on different aspects of what it means to be human.
