We start the story in a very busy, unnamed city, where a Japanese man driving his car is sitting at a red light, six lanes wide, like hundreds of others. The light goes green and everyone else drives forward except him. Everyone behind him is blaring their horns, as he is clearly holding everyone up. Eventually, passers-by go to investigate and he tells them that he suddenly can't see anything. The crowd get him into the passenger seat and one of them offers to drive him home. On the journey, he explains to this man that it's not a 'black' blindness, but white. Everything's white, and he describes the experience as being like swimming in milk. The man takes him home, drops him off, and then steals his car! He'll get his comeuppance later for that, mind you, as one by one the whole human population is struck down with the same condition. The authorities eventually dub it The White Sickness.
The Japanese man's wife arrives home and he explains what has happened, so she takes him in a taxi to a local ophthalmologist, played by Mark Ruffalo. The doctor can find nothing wrong with him, but there are a few people in his waiting room who look like they might have similar symptoms, anxious to be seen. He sends our Japanese friend to the hospital.
By the next morning, the ophthalmologist himself wakes up beside his wife, played by Julianne Moore, blind. Realising that the condition is highly contagious and rapidly spreading, they call an ambulance. The crew turn up in hazmat suits, ushering him into the vehicle. Although his wife can still see, she scams her way into the ambulance with him, not wanting to leave his side. So far, then, we have seen the chain of contagion pass from the Japanese man to the car thief (who we eventually see abandoning the Japanese man's car as he, too, goes blind), the doctor, and the other patients at the clinic.
Our core group of half a dozen or so are shuffled into a militarised quarantine building - a decaying, abandoned mental asylum - as the authorities round up more of the infected and throw them inside too. Don't forget that everyone inside this place is blind except for the doctor's wife - and she, for now, is not letting on to the others that she can see. It would seem that by now, she is immune. However, inside this building, conditions quickly deteriorate as hundreds of newly blind people are crammed in, with no instructions and minimal food supplies dropped in. They are left to fend for themselves, Lord of the Flies style, creating their own rules and order, resulting in utter chaos.
Filth, faeces and garbage pile up as people cannot find the toilets. The armed guards outside grow increasingly paranoid, shooting dead anyone who steps too close to the perimeter. Things go from bad to worse as a hierarchy establishes itself. The 'rules' heavily favour the most aggressive and male inmates, resulting in tragic and catastrophic abuses of power, starvation and terror. To make matters worse, the person running the show is the only one with a gun, even though he can't see to shoot straight!
This situation goes on for a large portion of the film's two-hour runtime, until the doctor's wife suddenly discovers that the gates are unlocked and the guards are gone. We then get a view of the wasteland outside; the world is in utter chaos as it seems everyone but her has gone blind. The rest of the film follows her out in the world, leading a handful of survivors from their little group to try and find some sort of safe situation with at least shelter, food and water.
It's a neat little thriller which makes us think about sight, how fragile society is and what the world would look like if we suddenly lost our vision overnight. Interestingly, none of the characters have names - they are only referred to by titles: The Doctor, The Doctor's Wife, The King of Ward Three, The Girl with Dark Glasses, etc. There is definitely something being said here about stripping away meaningless names and shallow social status. The doctor's wife is the only one to witness the absolute worst of humanity with her own eyes. As the only person who can see, she becomes the responsible guardian of the others, carrying the weight of everyone else's survival until she is left mentally and physically exhausted.
Julianne Moore is terrific as always, as is Mark Ruffalo. Danny Glover is in the mix as a wise, pragmatic old chap and Don McKellar is annoyingly excellent as the ruthless thief. It's nicely shot, claustrophobic, intelligent and thoughtful. The sets are beautifully done, highlighting the filth inside the asylum and, latterly, the cityscape of chaos and lost people wandering around fighting for survival. It's often dark (in more ways than one), sad, moving and certainly eye-opening. It's nicely pulled together at the end, which I won't spoil for you. Recommended.
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