The Fallout’s Impactful Messaging, Healing From Trauma, and Relying on Loved Ones

Image courtesy of Woman and Hollywood

By Noelia Veras

Disclaimer: this article and film may be triggering for some as it covers gun violence and mass shootings; audience discretion is advised before reading further.

“I thought I only had time to text one person, so I texted you.”

Megan Park’s feature directorial debut, The Fallout, has had a successful run in the film festival circuit, winning the Grand Jury and Feature Competition Audience awards at South By Southwest last March. Now the film is reaching a wider audience as it was picked up by HBO Max and premiered on January 27. 

The Fallout stars Jenna Ortega as Vada, a young girl coping with the trauma of a school shooting. She befriends fellow student Mia, played by Maddie Ziegler, as they navigate their shared trauma together.

The opening scene establishes the world of the film, set in a quotidian suburban area with everyday people. There is a touch of teenage apathy but it is mainly infused with imagery that celebrates youth. In this scene, Vada and her friend Nick, played by Will Ropp, sing along to a song on their way to school, commenting on how late they are and still deciding to get coffee on their way. 

The average nature of this opening scene gives audiences a moment to feel connected to the film. We see Vada get an emergency text from her younger sister Amelia, played by Lumi Pollack, priming audiences for an inciting incident. When Vada calls her, Amelia reveals that she has gotten her period, providing viewers with a misdirect as this indeed is not an inciting incident. What happens after this call is a catastrophic collision of realism and tragedy. As Vada enters the girl’s restroom and sees Mia getting ready for “photo day,” gunshots fire.

While the film does not show the shooting as it takes place, audio is heard of gunshots, screams, and eventually police intervention. This choice to not show the shooter is an interesting one as it strays from potentially romanticizing the scene and also focuses primarily on the victims, not the shooter. In other words, the audience notices that by not showing the shooter there is no space for validating their actions.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the film capitalizes on silence. In fact, silence is its driving force, its chief narrative tool, and it is the film’s greatest strength in telling these stories of trauma. Every word spoken in this film is intentional and important, even the awkward teenage jargon that, though not always accurate to how teenagers speak now, is not flippant or irrelevant either. 

Perhaps the most moving element of the film is the relationships it explores. It seems as though the thesis of The Fallout is that in order to be able to live after experiencing tragedy, you must lean on those you love. 

The relationship Vada cultivates with Mia is nuanced and complicated, but it is the one that gives her the space to feel understood. Vada and Mia manage to remain normal teenagers because of each other. They level each other. The two explore teenage rebellion together but they also binge television shows, gossip, and FaceTime every day. As they build on their relationship, we see how they navigate their trauma and how they eventually try to return to their “normal lives.”

It is Vada’s relationship with her sister Amelia, though, that is challenged the most and evolves the most. The dynamic between the sisters is special and it shapes itself around the difficulties that they both confront. The lack of communication between them throughout the film causes them to eventually have a moment of vulnerability with each other in which Vada reveals that Amelia is the only person she thought to text during the shooting. This moment is overlaid with emotional resonance, but it is simple and beautifully executed as the two are simply laying in bed at night unable to sleep. The simplistic cinematography in this scene is also embedded in the entire film and helps to ground it in reality by not overindulging the audience with visual distractions.

While this may not be a film I opt to rewatch because of its heavy subject matter, it is masterfully done. Realism the way Park has done it is often overlooked when creating stories about tragedy as well as stories about teenagers, but it is so important because it avoids sensationalism and simply tells a story. And perhaps the most realistic part of the film is its ending. The film’s ending puts an emphasis on how common school shootings are and how easily forgotten they are by the masses, regardless of how many people are irrevocably shaped, traumatized, and harmed by them. The Fallout is available on HBO Max and, once again, viewer discretion is advised.