Review Movie Drama - Monolith

The movie begins with an advertisement for a futuristic car brand named Monolith. The presenter from the advertisement states that the car is awarded as the safest car in the world and has a number of unique safety features. He claims that the car is extremely modern and has several features like unbreakable glass, strong tires, rigid body, and many more to keep its riders safe from every possible theft and damage.

An AI-connected smartphone app is used to control all the features while being inside the car. A virtual assistant called Lilith helps to interact with the user interface of the car. In the next scene, we can see a mother carrying her kid inside the same AI car to his granny’s home. While talking to the AI assistant, Lilith, we get to know that the mother’s name is Sandra and her 2-year-old son is David.

Her husband, Carl, is a pilot who could not join them due to his busy schedule. The car is so advanced that it can even detect the weight of the passengers inside the vehicle. Later, Carl calls them and informs that he is at the central airport after his duty and misses them a lot. Just then, someone knocks on the door and Carl says his goodbye and leaves.

Meanwhile,David starts becoming fussy so Sandra hands him her smartphone to keep him occupied. After some time, Sandra takes a halt at a gas station on the side of the road. She then takes David inside the washroom and changes his diapers while some girls are seen giggling. The gas station also has a supermarket where Sandra buys her son his favorite snacks.

While paying at the counter, Sandra notices someone trying to break into her car outside. Instead of being worried, she just takes out her smartphone and locks the vehicle using the smart app. As Sandra is busy inspecting the situation, she doesn’t even notice that David has been separated from her.

After she realizes that David is lost, she screams and searches for him around the supermarket. She rushes outside and even calls a stranger assuming that David is with him. She seems to be totally freaked out until she finds David with the same three ladies whom she met earlier at the washroom. Sandra immediately puts David into her car and activates the vault mode feature.

This disengages her from what's happening outside and she finally breathes a sigh of relief. After leaving the gas station, Sandra still has a long distance to drive until they reach her mother-in-law’s house. Due to the long ride, Sandra feels bored and decides to call her childhood friend, Jessa to check on her.

Jessa receives the call and informs her that she is near the central airport at a hotel. She even tells Jessa that she has been staying at the hotel with Carl. Sandra is devastated at the revelation of her friend having an affair with her husband.

She becomes so frustrated that she does not even bother to enter her mother-in-law’s house after reaching the entrance. She continues calling Carl but he doesn’t pick up and pretends to be busy. Fed up with the lies, Sandra decides to take matters into her own hands and hence sets her journey to find Carl at the central airport in Los Angeles.

On her way, a board shows that the distance to Los Angeles is about 320 miles. After a while, Lilith, the smart AI, mentions that a serious accident has taken place on the main highway, which will slow them down. She then suggests Sandra take the bypass road, which will save them a lot of time.

However, the AI also mentions that the route is deserted and barely has any passengers. Sandra, who is adamant on confronting her husband, does not think twice and takes the alternative route. Later, it gets dark and Sandra starts to feel difficulty in driving the car. The fog on the way also intensifies, which affects her vision of the road in front.

On her way, she finds no human settlements or any other vehicles. However, she finds an electrical substation located in the middle of nowhere. She glances over the place but soon drives away. The place is so deserted that the only beings present there are wild animals. Suddenly, a nervous Sandra loses her focus and crashes into a deer which was trying to cross the road.

Because of the collision, David starts crying and like always, Sandra gives her smartphone to calm him down. She then immediately gets out to check on the animal but it appears to be almost dead.The deer is stuck below the front part of the car and because of it, Sandra is unable to move her car ahead.

As Sandra is trying to figure out the situation, she forgets that she has left David alone in the car. Meanwhile, as David is playing with the cellphone, he accidentally opens the AI car app. He moves his finger around the opened app and without Sandra’s notice, activates the Vault feature of the car.

This feature protects the passengers inside from all kinds of disturbances and danger. Sandra realizes the gravity of the situation and tries her best to open the door but it's already too late. As Sandra is locked outside the car, she tries her best to make the 2 year old David switch off the vault mode but he doesn’t understand a word and simply keeps on playing with the phone.

Later, Sandra panics and starts shouting at the little kid, which startles him, and he drops the smartphone under his seat. Here, Sandra gets to know that the Monolith car’s
features are not just an advertisement but it also performs in reality. Even when Sandra tries to break the glass with a rock, not a single scratch can be seen on the window glass. 

Seeing all her efforts go in vain, Sandra decides to seek other options. She begins walking back to the electrical substation which she noticed before. After some walking, she reaches the station, jumps over the fence and cries out for help. However, she gets no response and the station seems to be empty with no workers present at the moment. After this, Sandra enters one of the rooms and finds some necessary items inside. 

She takes a flashlight to use at night and a big wrench to help her break the glass of the locked car. Just as she leaves the substation, she notices a wild animal following her. As Sandra rushes back, a coyote attacks her so she climbs onto the roof of the car. Despite her best efforts to scare off the animal, it remains unphased. In a last ditch attempt, Sandra starts banging the car with the wrench and an alarm starts blaring, which finally makes the coyote retreat.

Just then, Sandra notices David having difficulties in breathing. Despite the situation, she manages to calm David and he finally starts breathing and soon falls asleep. After a bit of thinking, Sandra too becomes tired and falls asleep on the bonnet of the car.

The next day, Sandra wakes up when the sun is already bright. She then immediately rushes to check David’s condition inside the car. She finds David weak and feeble because of his hungry stomach and dehydration. One of the features of the car also displays the temperature of the surroundings which appears to be increasing slowly.

The condition is a curse to Sandra as the place is completely isolated with no humans around. Sandra then decides to seek help and follows the road. Despite being severely dehydrated, she proceeds to walk the long journey. She also knows the risks of leaving David alone in the overheated car but she has no choice but to seek help. Fortunately, she comes across a river where she drinks and cleans herself.

After gaining some respite, she continues her journey and encounters steep hills along the path. After walking several miles, Sandra finally comes across an old airfield, where she discovers a jet. Meanwhile, the temperature inside the Monolith car rises up, causing it to instantly start the emergency cooling fan.

After reaching the abandoned jet, Sandra enters inside and discovers some alcoholic drinks, a gallon of gasoline, a lighter and a pair of spare airplane tires. She consumes some alcohol and immediately gathers the necessary items. After that, Sandra uses the gasoline to burn the two tires, in hopes of attracting help.

She then takes the gallon and fills it with the river water. Slowly, Sandra walks back to the place where she left David. In the next scene, Sandra hurries to the car and finds David all weak and turning red. She tries calling him out, but David does not answer or move. The temperature inside the car has increased significantly and the emergency cooling fans have become ineffective.

Seeing the state of her son, Sandra immediately climbs the roof and pours the water she brought from the river, but all her efforts go into vain. Thinking that her child will have to die inside the high-tech vehicle, she again starts to hit the car window with the wrench but it just wastes her energy.

Later, Sandra tries to light a fire outside the car in hopes that the censors will detect the smoke and open the windows, but none of this happens. Instead, the emergency cooling fans stop running to prevent the smoke from entering inside. Fatigued, Sandra falls to the ground and gets a vision of her and Carl visiting the same accident place after a year.

There, she realizes her mistakes and still blames Carl for David’s death. After some time, she wakes up to some noise and finds it all to be her dream. To make the situation worse, the coyote from last night again appears in front of her. Sandra decides to hide from it and tries to climb on the roof of the car.

But as the car’s temperature is extremely high, she can’t stay there and instead slides below the car. There, the coyote bites her leg and this is when Sandra realizes that it is the deer that the coyote is after. As soon as the coyote drags the deer out, the car starts rolling backwards. The deer was the reason which had held the car in the position. Sandra immediately gets out from under the car and tries to stop it from sliding backwards.

Despite her best efforts, the car still continues to roll backwards, edging closer to a fall. However, a small chunk of rock obstructs the car and it finally stops. As Sandra stares from the cliff, she remembers the cartoon she saw earlier at the gas station, where the diamond was obtained after the safe was broken.

She then thinks of pushing the car down to unlock the doors. Sandra is well aware of the fact that her plans might have consequences but she is left with no other choice and decides to go with it. She grabs the wrench and starts breaking the rock which was obstructing the tire.

After successfully removing the rock, Sandra purposely pushes the car down the cliff with David still inside the car. As the car is thrown in the air, its inbuilt AI starts to function and immediately realizes that the car is falling from a height. The features of the car get to work and shift its balance, studying the gravitational pressure to fall upright, without causing any harm to David.

Since the car was designed to deactivate the vault mode at the time of an accident to let the rescuers come in, the doors finally open. As soon as the car strikes the ground, Sandra climbs down the cliff and approaches the car. Despite the devastating fall, the car appears as if someone just placed it there.

Finding the locked door open, Sandra hurriedly takes David out of the car and opens his clothes to help him cool down. Seeing David's weak health condition, Sandra resolves to get out of the place as soon as possible. Before Sandra gets in the car to drive, the whole system gets restarted. With the help of Lilith, Sandra sets the car into extreme offroad mode and starts climbing the cliff in front of her.

The car appears to be made for very extreme conditions and easily gets past the steep cliff. Miraculously, Sandra reaches the offroad she chose and heads towards the hospital.

In the last scene of the movie, we see Sandra and David arriving at the hospital. David is kept on the hospital bed beside Sandra and is connected with multiple tubes. Sandra seems worried about David until he opens his eyes and calls her “Mommy” for the first time. The movie ends as Sandra gets

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