Directed by Ben Goodger, Year 10 is a survival horror drama that unfolds sometime in the future when humans run out of resources, giving birth to cannibalistic instincts. The film revolves around a family; a father, a son, and a girl, and the desperate measures they take to survive. While it is not stated clearly in the film, it seems a disease might have been the reason behind the apocalypse. The family lived in a small hidden hut; the father and son, Jake, routinely stepped out to fend for themselves. The girl was wounded, and the infection continued to spread. She took pills; likely the medication was from the pre-apocalypse time. The girl was possibly Jake’s sister or his partner or perhaps a random stranger they decided to help; their relationship was not explained in the film. Things got complicated when a tribe found their hiding spot. They were out to kill, and the father sacrificed his life to protect Jake and the girl. Will Jake and the girl survive without the guidance of the father?
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Jake lock the girl in the hut?
Jake watched the gang of savages drag his father’s body off to consume it. At that moment, he lost all hope. He assumed they would not survive, and he attempted to suffocate the girl. Perhaps he wanted to relieve her of her pain, and he thought in death she would find peace. But he could not make himself do it. All his clothes and belongings were stolen, and he could not imagine starting over again. Hopeless, Jake left the hut and barred the door with a thick branch. Maybe it was a security measure—he secured the hut so that no one could enter, or it was simply suicidal; he thought he would freeze and die and the girl would succumb to death without food and water.
Jake saw a ray of hope when he noticed a little boy walk past him. He followed the boy to a warehouse. The boy lived with his grandfather, and they assumed Jake was about to feed on them. But Jake had no such intentions; he stole their clothes and left. With warm clothes on, he felt a little hopeful. While walking through the forest, he came across his father’s remains. He buried the skull and paid his respects. Jake had no choice but to spend that night in the forest. While he presumably spent most of his life in his father’s shadow, his solo expedition helped him realize that he had the courage to live in the wild and protect himself from danger. The next morning, Jake watched a member of the savage gang collect water from the stream. He followed her to their camp, and he held a stone close to him. Upon reaching their base, Jake started to steal their belongings. When the woman discovered Jake in the trailer, she attempted to attack him, but Jake responded quickly, he managed to tackle the woman, and hit her with the stone, resulting in her immediate death. Jake dragged her body out of the camp. He waited for the right moment to escape, but soon he noticed a wounded savage gulp down one of his sister’s pills. They had stolen the medication, and Jake was determined to bring it back with him.
Could Jake retrieve the medicine?
Jake had noticed the leader storing the medicine in a trunk, but accessing it was not easy. When the leader figured that a woman from his gang was missing, they headed out searching for her. They had kidnapped the little boy Jake had previously met, and they intended to feast on him. After the gang left, Jake untied the boy, and he ran for his life. Jake tried to open the trunk, but he was disappointed to find that it was locked. The gang found the woman’s body, and they knew that the one who had killed her was responsible for freeing the boy they had captured. Jake stayed hidden beneath the trailer, observing the leader, who had a key dangling from a string around his neck. He fell asleep there, and by the time he woke up, it was dawn.
Jake gathered his courage and entered the trailer. He lighted a matchstick to spot the leader, and even though it seemed like an impossible task, he managed to get his hands on the key. Upon opening the trunk, he was relieved to find the medicine. He packed it in his bag and was about to leave, but he decided to lock the door of the trailer before leaving. The leader woke up to the sound of Jake escaping. He gathered his gang, and they were ready to hunt him. After a long chase, they grabbed hold of Jake.
Jake was in a state of shock after seeing the disemboweled body of the old man who lived with the little boy. For a second he had forgotten about the savages, and perhaps he was reminded of the possible threat his sister might have also faced. The savages tied him up and prepared to kill him. Jake found a whistle lying on the ground, and he used it to alarm the wild dogs. A pack of dogs came running to the spot, and the savages had no option but to run for their lives. Jake managed to free himself and escape.
What happened to the leader?
Even after all the hurdles he faced, Jake proved to be extremely strong and brave. He had come to realize that as long as the savages were around, he would not be allowed to live peacefully. So, he waited for the right moment to take down the men. Out of the three, he had managed to take down two, but the leader was both lucky and fearless. Jake tried to shoot him down with the bow he had stolen. While the first arrow pierced the leader’s leg, by the time Jake drew the bow back for a second shot, it snapped. Once again, wild dogs interrupted the duel, and Jake escaped from the scene. He had assumed that the leader was mauled by the hungry animals.
While walking through the forest, Jake came across a wooden house. The owner had passed away on the porch, and she had a loaded pistol in her hand. Jake kept the pistol with him as he entered the house. To his surprise, the house was well-equipped—from clean water to canned food, the owner seemed to have been prepared for the apocalypse. But what led to the owner’s death? Perhaps disease, or maybe they had killed themselves out of loneliness and frustration. Jake felt hopeful when he entered the house; he thought it was the perfect place for him and the girl to stay. They would not have to think about fetching food for themselves for some time. But Jake felt threatened when the leader entered the house. Only one of them could live in the house, and Jake was desperate to ensure that he survived. The two got into a physical fight, and at the end of Year 10, Jake managed to push the leader away, and he grabbed hold of the pistol lying by his side and shot the leader, resulting in his death. Jake was elated; he could finally return home and bring the girl to the new house he had just discovered. On his way to the hut, Jake left a few cans of food outside the warehouse for the little boy.
Did the girl survive?
While Jake faced adversities outside his house, the girl had to overcome the challenges of being locked inside. She had run out of drinkable water, the infection had started to spread, she could barely walk, and the wild dogs made it impossible for her to live in peace. The wild dogs had gathered one morning outside her house in large numbers, and one of them was about to enter the hut through a crack.
During Year 10’s ending, when Jake returned home, he was devastated to find that the girl was gone. He thought the worst—maybe she was taken by a savage, or the wild animals had dismembered her body. The time he had spent in the wild trying to find food and clothing for him and the girl seemed to have gone to waste. Jake was in tears, when all of a sudden a hand touched his shoulder. We do not get to see who it was, but from the clothes, we can determine that it was the girl.
Year 10’s ending leaves room for the audience to guess what might have happened to the girl. Maybe just like Jake had learned a few lessons on surviving the wild, she too had figured out ways to keep herself alive. Perhaps when the wild dogs attacked, she had managed to escape, and she survived. The girl could barely walk when Jake left her in the hut, but in the end, she did not seem to be struggling as much as she did before. The other possibility is that Jake was imagining the scenario. He had discovered the perfect place to stay; he had brought her medicine; he had gathered clothes and food to last quite some time; he had killed their threat, yet it was all for nothing. Jake hoped to be reunited with the girl, and maybe he imagined the scenario to comfort himself.
