Bird Box recap: The story so far ahead of Barcelona spin-off

Netflix's megahit Bird Box wowed audiences when it was first released in 2018, becoming one of the streamers biggest hits which has been viewed over 282 million hours.

Given its success, Netflix has decided to follow up the film with Bird Box: Barcelona, a film that seems to be set around the same time as the original but in a new location with a brand new cast.

Read more: Everything you need to know about Bird Box: Barcelona

Since there has been some time between the two films, fans of the franchise may need a recap to remember exactly what happened. Here is everything you need to know.

Bird Box recap: The story so far

Set in a dystopian future, Bird Box follows Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) a woman who is desperately trying to get herself and two children, known as Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair), to safety by traversing a river whilst blindfolded.

Told over multiple periods, the film jumps between Malorie and the children's present day journey and five years earlier, when a mysterious event occurred that led to humans becoming infected and killing themselves if they just look at the entities that have come to Earth.

In the past, Malorie is pregnant and visits the hospital with her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson), when she is leaving the facility Malorie notices a woman who is repeatedly hitting her head against a window to harm herself, leading her and the other patients to panic.

Pandemonium is taking place outside, and Malorie tries to escape with Jessica but as they are driving away her sibling becomes infected and tries to deliberately crash the car. After colliding with another vehicle the car flips over, killing Jessica.

Read more: Trent Reznor shares disappointment with Bird Box

Malorie manages to get away and with the help of a man named Tom (Trevante Rhodes) they arrive at a hideout with other survivors: Douglas (John Malkovich), Greg (BD Wong), Cheryl (Jacki Weaver), Felix (Machine Gun Kelly), Charlie (Lil Rel Howery), and Lucy (Rosa Salazar). Soon they are joined by pregnant woman Olympia (Danielle Macdonald).

Greg dies by suicide after testing if they would be safe to look at the entities with a surveillance camera, and later Olympia lets in another man named Gary (Tom Hollander) into the house.

This is an issue for Douglas, whose fears about the stranger are proven to be correct when he starts making everyone in the house look outside at the entities, thus killing them.

As this is happening Olympia and Malorie give birth to a girl and boy respectively, Gary comes and rips open the blinds and while Malorie looks away Olympia doesn't do so in time and jumps out of the window, leaving Malorie to look after her newborn daughter. Douglas attacks Gary and manages to kill him, but loses his life in the process.

Malorie, Tom and the two children are the only survivors. Five years later, and days before Malorie and the children end up on the river, the quartet are shown to be living together. They avoid going outside except for supply runs until even that seems too dangerous because of radicals like Gary.

Tom tries to find out if there are any other survivors via radio transmission, and when a person answers and tells them of a refuge down a river he thinks it's right for them to go, but Malorie isn't sure.

Read more: Bird Box hit with footage backlash

When radicals find them, Tom decides to face them blindfolded as Malorie escapes with Boy and Girl. They wait to see if Tom will join them but Malorie soon realises that he died during the altercation and so head down river themselves.

In the present day, Malorie urges Boy and Girl never to take their blindfolds off even as they wonder if it is safe to remove them, they carry birds in a box to warn them of any entities nearby.

They are attacked by an unknown man who Malorie is able to fend off with a machete and the trio are similarly tempted multiple times by the entities to remove their blindfolds.

After a few close calls, the trio manage to make it to the compound and are eventually let in after Malorie pleads for the children to at least enter.

Their eyes are checked to make sure they are not infected and then they are allowed to enter the facility, which is made up of mainly blind survivors.

Bird Box: Barcelona premieres on Friday, 14 July on Netflix. Bird Box is available to watch now.

Watch the trailer for Bird Box Barcelona.