After years running from the entities, Malorie, the children, and their pet birds embark on a trip while blindfolded down the river to reach a community that managed to keep the monsters away. In 2018 Bullock said she was hesitant about being part of the story. “I thought it was intriguing, but there was something about it that didn’t click,” she said during the Netflix film’s panel at Deadline’s The Contenders award-season event. “I don’t relate to someone who doesn’t want to be a mother; I don’t relate to someone who isn’t warm and can’t love freely. Then I read it a few years ago, and it hit me in a way that I can’t explain.”