A human spirit is capable of a great many things, and Netflix’s Spanish thriller Nowhere shows us why it is said so. The survival instinct, or self-preservation, is an eccentric feature of every organism, but it is so genetically hardwired in human beings that sometimes they end up doing things or going to an extent that is beyond anyone’s imagination. But there is one more thing that is more powerful than the survival instinct, and that is the power of motherhood. You combine these two characteristics of human beings, and what you get in return is a miracle. Nowhere is the story of a mother who decides to fight the odds and save her newborn daughter, even when there seems no hope.
It was difficult to understand what kept Mia going—how was she able to perform that miraculous feat, and how did she not give up till the very end? If we take into account the events of Nowhere film, then you might not find anything new here. It is the same as any survival film made before, where the protagonist finds themselves in a difficult situation and does everything in their power to come out of it. But what appealed to us were the emotions the film was able to capture and how it kept things subtle yet striking. Anna Castillo as Mia is fantastic, and her performance makes sure that there is never a dull moment in the film. Nowhere does not bring anything unique to the platter as far as its storyline is considered, but it is the execution that somewhat makes it an intriguing watch, and to say the least, you won’t be bored. So let’s find out how Mia ended up being stranded in the vast ocean and if she was able to save her daughter and make it out of there alive.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did Mia And Nico Decide To Leave Spain?
Nowhere reveals that a terrible crisis had plagued Europe and neighboring states, and people didn’t have access to basic necessities. Countries like Ireland had been able to bring the issue under control, but the Spanish government was having a hard time managing resources and providing for its people. The state had resorted to tyrannical ways when they realized that nothing could be done about the ongoing issues. Children and pregnant women were the first to be enlisted on the hit list, and that is when a huge chunk of the population started to leave the country. But it wasn’t easy to do so through legal channels, and so people started resorting to other illegal means to escape the country and save their lives.
Many aggrieved families joined the mass exodus, and amidst them was a couple, Mia and Nico, who had lost their firstborn and now were trying to save their unborn child. Nico knew that if he stayed in Spain, the government would take his wife away from him, like they had taken their daughter, Uma, back in the day. Mia blamed herself for what had happened with Uma, even when Nico kept telling her that it was not her fault. She had probably been killed by the military, and both the parents bore the burden of that guilt on their shoulders. For days, they kept Uma inside the house so that the military didn’t get to know about her existence. One day, the little girl requested her mother take her out, and the latter just couldn’t say no to her. As soon as Mia took Uma out, the military spotted them and took her into custody.
Was Mia Able To Reach The Cruise Liner?
Nico’s plan was that they would be taken in a truck to the port, from where they would get onto a cargo ship and reach the shores of Ireland. But Nico and Mia got separated at the beginning of Nowhere, and to make matters worse, before they arrived at the port, the military stopped their respective trucks for checking. The military personnel killed everybody on Mia’s truck, though somehow she managed to hide by climbing over a wooden box where the officers couldn’t see her. Mia tried to contact Nico so that she could tell him that even they would have to go through a security checkpoint where the officers were killing everybody, but unfortunately, she was not able to reach him.
It was by God’s grace that Mia’s cargo was finally put on the ship, and she embarked on her journey, not knowing when she would be reunited with her husband or if he would even be able to make it out of Spain alive. Mia could see through the hole in that shipping container, and she was hopeful that she would reach Ireland. But what she didn’t know was that her troubles had just begun, and she had a long road and some terrifying obstacles in front of her that she still had to overcome. The ship on which she was on met with a storm, and the big iron containers started falling into the ocean. It was a horrifying sight when Mia peeped out of the hole and saw the containers floating in the water. Probably no one from the crew was left alive, and Mia and her unborn daughter were stranded in the vast expanse of water, not knowing if or when help would arrive.
Is Nico Dead Or Alive?
Nowhere‘s Mia was a fighter, and she knew that she had to defy all odds and go beyond her limit because she wanted her child to live. Mia went into labor while she was inside that container, something she dreaded from the very beginning. Mia gave birth to her daughter, and for a moment, she thought that she had lost her. But Noa was alive, and Mia did whatever she could to make the child comfortable. Mia was constantly pumping water out of the container, and even amidst such chaos, she made sure that her baby girl was safe and warm. Mia ate whatever she could get in the container, and once that food was finished, she knew that she would have to improve and find ways to keep herself alive. She ate raw fish so that she had some sort of energy in her body and could feed Noa.
To make matters worse, Mia got cut when she was trying to climb on the top of the container, and blood started oozing out of her leg. She stitched herself and somehow managed to stay alive because she knew that her daughter needed her. There were times when Mia felt like things were under her control and she could sustain herself for a prolonged period of time, but she was just being delusional because the reality was that the container was sinking, and though she was trying to extend the time period she had on her hands, it was going to go down inevitably. The water level inside the container kept increasing, and there came a time when Mia had to climb on top and stay there with her daughter.
Finally, probably after she had been drifting in the ocean for 20 odd days, Nico called, and he told her that he had been shot by the military and, in all probability, he wouldn’t be able to make it out of there alive. Mia was heartbroken, as she could see her world-shattering in front of her eyes. She told Nico that she had given birth to a daughter, and the poor man talked to Noa over the phone, knowing that would be the last time he was doing so. Talking to her husband, knowing that it was the last time she would hear his voice, was probably the toughest thing that Mia had to do in her life, even tougher than surviving in the middle of the ocean. We believe that Nico succumbed to his injuries. That said, before taking his last breath, he made Mia promise that she would fight and that she would reach Ireland and give the kind of life to their daughter that they had always dreamt of.
Were Mia And Noa Rescued?
Mia made a small raft with the wood, Tupperware boxes, and whatever she could find in the container. There were whales present in the ocean, but they didn’t do anything to Mia or the little child, telling us that probably they were more empathetic than the human race. Mia kept hanging on to the raft, and she had no energy left in her body. She hoped for a miracle to happen, but she slowly started to lose consciousness. She was woken up in the morning by the sound of the seagulls, and we don’t know what went inside her mind at that moment, but she started taking out the fish that she had kept inside the Tupperware and throwing it in the water.
The seagulls started hovering above the raft, and a fisherman and his family, who were going about their business nearby, saw something floating on the water. They immediately went near the raft and found the little girl lying on it. There was no sign of Mia, and we believed that she had surrendered to her fate. There was a rope that was attached to the raft, and when the girl who was with the fisherman pulled it, they found a woman tied to it. They brought Mia on board, and the girl started pumping her chest and breathing into her mouth with the hope that she would come back to life. The unfathomable happened, and Mia coughed water out of her mouth. Mia was alive, and so was Noa, and they had reached the shores of Ireland.
During Nowhere‘s ending, Mia did as she had promised to her husband, and we hope that now she will be safe and spend the rest of her life happily with her daughter. We don’t know if Mia and Noa will ever be able to go back to their homeland or not, but what we do know is that Mia would make sure that her daughter has everything she needs and that she understands the sacrifices made by her parents to bring her into this world.
