Love And Monsters is a 2020 post-apocalyptic film that depicts human struggle for survival in a dangerous new landscape populated by giant critters and insects. The movie is set in North America and the landscape is wholly unfamiliar, but not new, as the movie tries to capture what earth would look like without human influence and control, as it did perhaps before humans. 

The Plot

The transformation of the landscape takes place after explosives humans sent out to space to destroy an asteroid released chemicals that caused cold-blooded animals and insects to mutate into monstrous creatures that make quick work of most of the human population. The survivors stick together in 'colonies', which are often sheltered but rickety refuges away from the monsters. The plot centers around Joel Dawson, a young man from a 'colony' who struggles being the weakest member in his group. Joel suffers from a traumatic fear of these giant creatures that paralyzes him, often leading to failure of the whole group to prevent something. The very first conflict in the movie is with ants. The movie portrays the usually tiny insect as a terrifying monster that simply tears humans apart to get what they want.

What Would Happen If Humans Are No Longer The Dominant Species

The reversal of roles between man and insect in the movie could not be more poignant. The change in the ecosystem is due to human actions, and ultimately, while nature recovers under the new dominant species, man is left far behind to recuperate with his losses. The movie is an excellent reflection of what the environment would look like if humans lost their top position in the chain of control. Conditioned by life in cities, humans have lost their connection to nature and in the movie, without the comforts of an industrialized civilization, they are forced to return to nature and struggle in a manner reminiscent of the earliest humans on earth. All sorts of human imposed activities on nature like agriculture or regulated forestry are stopped and nature quietly reclaims the world.

A human less world, as imagined by scientists and writers, is vastly different from the world as seen today. A Live Science article discusses what scientists believe the earth would look like in the absence of humans. The earth would be a lusher, wilder place. There may be a resurgence of giant mammals, and these may spread out through most of the world. Megafauna like mammoths used to be responsible for over ninety percent transportation of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Due to a greater distribution of large mammals, nutrient and seed dispersal would increase and hence, there would be an abundance of wildlife. Cityscapes would be transformed to forests and ultimately, the earth would turn into "one big wilderness" (Live Science). 

Gaia Hypothesis

One can notice from these observations that nature seems to be capable of bouncing back from calamitous events as long as extra-terrestrial conditions remain favourable. Chemist James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis postulated the idea that the earth is a super organism, or an entity that is composed of various biomes. Discussing the Gaia Hypothesis in the Encyclopedia Of Ecology, PJ Boston says, "this entity has closely controlled self-regulatory negative feedback loops that keep the conditions on the planet within boundaries that are favorable to life". Gaia Hypothesis argues that the organisms in an ecosystem influence it, and get influenced by the environment through evolutionary mechanisms. It points to earth's capability to heal itself through various processes in the aftermath of an environment altering catastrophe. 

Environmental Degradation And Human Survival

Humans concern for the ecosystem is, at its core, concern for the survival of Homo sapiens as a species. The earth's recovery process is slow and possibly might take several millions of years to restore itself from the damage humans have wrought. However, nature is a resilient 'entity', if it can be called that, and time affects nature on a scale different to humans. Humans are on top of the list of species that are going to be affected by the consequences of their environment changing actions. While nature may bounce back in a period of time inconcievable to humans, it is impossible for humans to survive the catastrophic effects of pollution and climate change.

Love And Monsters: A World That Humans Lost

An example of how hard it would be for humans to survive the effects of their actions can be seen in Love And Monsters. The monsters are consequences of man's thoughtless actions. In accordance with the environmental model of the Gaia Hypothesis, these organisms then influence the ecosystem in their own unique ways, leading to a changed landscape that has all but deleted human beings. The transformation of insects to monsters in the movie has caused a shift in ecosystem processes, leading to the creation of a new regulatory system and feedback loop favourable to the new dominant species, the insects. Humans are forgotten by the environment, and forced to put their lives together within burrows while being constantly terrorized by monsters all around them. Again, the role reversal of humans and insects brings forth this question, in real life how mindful are humans of the needs of all organisms in the environment? If the giant insects that simply destroy humans at first sight are 'monsters', aren't humans monsters too, for what they do to insects in real life? Unlike insects, humans certainly have the cognitive ability to identify needs above their own and act on it, and it is high time that such things are thought about on a larger scale to bring about a change in the way all organisms including insects are perceived.

It is plain fact that humans regard insects as an inferior species, or as pests that ravage crops and spread diseases. Insects play a bigger role in the ecosystem than most people know, hence, the disdain humanity has towards insects must be amended. In fact, it is due to such selfish disdain that key species like bees are rapidly disappearing. Movies like Love And Monsters break down the supposed greatness of man, and question his harmful dominion over other creatures on earth. The humility that the movie seeks to instill in viewers would enable one to regard all creatures with some amount of respect for what they do in the shared habitat. 

A Word Of Caution

The insect apocalypse is simply one among the several literary takes on what could finally dwarf human ego and consequently human exploitation. It could easily be replaced by a massive tsunami, as in the movie 2012 and Day After Tomorrow, or by a huge natural disaster like in San Andreas and The Core, or by degradation brought about by human exploitation like Avatar, Interstellar and Wall-E. The common theme that runs through all this is the fact that humanity at large is insignificant in the face of massive natural processes. In the absence of tools, and machinery to make tools, humans are simply like all other animals. Humanity is currently on the verge of facing the disastrous consequences of global warming and over-exploitation, and thus it is high time that all human actions become sensitive to ecology. Love And Monsters may be treated as a cautionary tale on what might happen if humanity proceeds without whetting their actions.

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Works Cited:

• Bryce, Emma. “What Would Happen to Earth if Humans Went Extinct?” Livescience.com, 16 Aug. 2020, www.livescience.com.
• Fath, Brian, and S. Jorgensen. Encyclopedia of Ecology. 1st ed., Elsevier Science, 2008.
• Love and Monsters. Directed by Michael Matthews, Theatrical Print, Paramount Pictures, www.netflix.com.
• Pester, Patrick. “How Would Earth Be Different if Modern Humans Never Existed?” Livescience.com, 9 Nov. 2021, livescience.com.