WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Love and Monsters, now available on digital and premium video on demand.
Love and Monsters, as the name implies, is a romantic story set in a post-apocalyptic era where Earth has been overrun by giant beasts. Humanity blew up an asteroid to prevent it from destroying the planet, but the pieces fell and mutated everyday animals into behemoths that have placed mankind at the bottom of the food chain. The disaster took Joel's (Dylan O'Brien) parents from him and separated the lovestruck teen from Aimee (Jessica Henwick), but seven years later, he leaves his colony and finds her again. However, their reunion isn't everything he hoped for, which is made even worse by the planet's most vicious beast rearing its nasty head.
Aimee Has Moved On
Joel's 85-mile journey has been treacherous as he's had to fend off some dangerous monsters along the way. Aimee is glad to see him; however, as the leader of her colony, she has way too much going on to deal with her emotions. She even admits she found someone else who seemingly died a year ago, so that trauma's still weighing on her.
She's also distracted by Cap and his crew, a group of survivors with their own yacht, and they promise to take everyone to a new haven. Later on, as Joel radios his old colony to let them know he misses them, he finds some poisonous fruit, which suggests Cap's not who he says he is. He tries to warn a drunk Aimee and her people, but most of them pass out while Joel's knocked unconscious.
Mankind is The Devil in Disguise
When they awaken, Cap admits his crew are mercenaries, and they go from colony to colony, stealing food and other resources. It's ironic because Joel's often accused of being a food thief, and he now comes face to face with actual crooks and cons. That said, Cap's plan involves feeding his prisoners to a giant crab that he has electrical charges wired to, making him worse than a usual thief.
Cap feeds humans to the crab to give it energy so it can drag the yacht around since there is no longer fuel. The electric shocks are the equivalent of a horse-whip, and while Joel hates seeing such animal cruelty, he has to find a way to stop everyone from becoming its food. He and Aimee eventually break free and a melee ensues, with Aimee facing Cap's crew while Joel takes the creature on with a trident.
Joel Becomes a Leader
As the fracas plays out, Joel's dog helps Aimee out, and she tosses Joel a blaster to destroy the crab. However, he sees the pain in its eyes, so he blows the electrified chain up to free it. The leviathan acknowledges his kindness and makes a beeline for the yacht, attacking it and devouring Cap and his people.
With the war done, Joel decides to leave, but before he does, he kisses Aimee in case he never sees her again. Joel returns to his colony and begins guiding them to the mountains, where Clyde and Minnow told him to come. He sends one last message out for everyone, which contains all he knows about monsters, and in response, many colonies pack up to join him.
As everyone treks out, Aimee takes her colony too, as she wants to be by Joel's side again. Ironically, Clyde and Minnow are in the snowy plains, making fun of Joel's message, but they're impressed that he's finally become a warrior and leader, one who understands that humans can be the real monsters of Earth.
Directed by Michael Matthews and written by Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson, Love and Monsters stars Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt.The movie is currently available on digital and premium video on demand.