Midnight Special

I went to see Midnight Special because it was billed as being Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) for the modern age, and good science fiction films are - in my opinion - in short supply. I liked the X-Files vibe it had going. The film follows Roy Tomlin, who “kidnapped” his son Alton Meyer from a religious cult known only as The Ranch where Roy and Alton’s biological mother Sarah lived before being excommunicated (in their absence, Alton had been adopted by the cult leader). Roy is fleeing with Alton, accompanied by his childhood friend Lucas, when we first encounter them, their situation quickly fraught with difficulties after an Amber Alert put out by an anonymous person – possibly someone at the Ranch – sets the police hunting Roy. They join up with Alton’s mother Sarah on their headlong flight towards a destination that Alton has told them he needs to reach by Friday March 6th. The cult believes that that is the date of the coming apocalypse and they need Alton to be at the Ranch for them to be saved, so the cult leader secretly dispatches two men to retrieve the boy, by force if necessary.

The federal government becomes involved when the contents of the cult leader’s sermons leak out, as they are based on Alton “speaking in tongues”, but turn out to be encrypted information from government satellites – plus the cult is stockpiling weapons a la Waco. The FBI lead a task force to investigate and acquire Alton Meyer, led by Agent Miller and with Adam Driver’s nerdy, nervous NSA agent Paul Sevier along for the ride. Sevier is fascinated by Alton. Actually, everyone is, because the reason everyone wants to get hold of Alton is the otherworldly powers he displays: beams of blinding white light that emerge from his eyes, tremors, exploding lightbulbs in his vicinity, to the point that he sleeps in daylight and is awake at night when his powers don’t seem to be as active. The cult believes he’s some kind of messenger from God because they see visions when they look into the light emitted by Alton’s eyes. Sevier thinks that Alton is a weapon of some sort.

 Refreshingly, Alton’s parents and Lucas don’t give a shit about the cause of his abilities. They love him and want what is best for him, so they do whatever is necessary to fulfil Alton’s unknown mission to a remote glade in Florida, despite knowing that it might separate them from him forever.

The film touches lightly on explanations. Alton is only able to say that he’s figured out that he comes from another world, a parallel world that “sits above our own”, populated by otherworldly beings with the same powers that he possesses who have been watching over Earth, “watching us for a very long time.” He needs to make that rendezvous in Florida in order to go back where he came from. To that end, he manages to convince Sevier to assist him, and due to some distraction by Roy and Lucas in the climax, Alton and Sarah manage to reach the glade where the extraordinary convergence of worlds takes place in an explosive dome of light that encompasses a good chunk of the southern USA.

Alien buildings emerge into our world, giving us a glimpse of the incredible architecture of Alton’s birthplace – gleaming spires, glass walkways in the bright sky greened with trees, revolving towers and an obsidian staircase gate that dwarfs any earthly skyscraper. All along them cluster glinting lights as Alton’s people gather to watch the joining of the worlds and welcome him back among them, and Sarah watches, broken-hearted at losing her son and at the same time gladdened that she fulfilled his mission and sent him back to where he belonged – a place where he wouldn’t be sickened, or exploited, or kidnapped by cultists.

It was a great film, I really enjoyed it – maybe an 8 out of 10? I thought Eddie the Eagle was a 9 out of 10, Zootopia was also an 8, pretty close to perfect, and Midnight Special lived up to my expectations by keeping some of the mystery and at the same time not copping out by never explaining Alton’s abilities or origins or by having him miss his rendezvous or by having us not see the world that he came from.