Not once. Not a single time in my academic career did I ever participate in an ”active shooter drill.” That would have been unthinkable. And every time I hear a member of my generation or the Boomers or Greatest Generation or such mock the lives of Gen Z or Millennials, I want to remind them of this: while one might have the perception that generations below ours are doughy whiney masses of participation trophy illiterate hedonists, that perception often fails to account the ways in which the kids of today actually have it much worse than we ever did. And one of the ways is the legacy of gun violence in the United States.
Vada (Jenna Ortega) was in the bathroom when she first heard the shots. So was Mia (Maddie Ziegler). They hid together in a stall. Within minutes, they were discovered by an ally, Quinton (Niles Fitch). Quinton is covered in his brother’s blood. Welcome to an average school day in the United States. According to Statista, there were 249 school shootings in the United States in 2021. Nine were active shooter. I had to look these things up; I had no idea. That’s how awful our current gun problem is; these unforgivable moments aren’t etched-in-your-brain-forever because there are simply too many of them. The Fallout isn’t about guns, bullets, or bodies. Not really, anyway. Not a single gun, bullet, or body is shown in the film. The Fallout is about The Fallout; how does Vada cope with surviving a shooting? How about Mia? How about Quinton surviving his younger brother.
The general problem with making a film about the effects of gun violence is the assumption that Vada’s reactions will be typical. And if they aren’t, will they resonate? Vada chooses something resembling avoidance. At first willing to talk about the awful, she then retreats, often choosing the company of Mia –someone she’s never talked to before- because she and Mia shared the must-not-be-named experience and almost certainly because Mia is alone; her fathers are off in Europe. [Neither came home when this happened?! Wha..?!?!] Slowly Vada distances herself from sister, parents, and pre-existing friends. Slowly, but surely, she finds comfort in controlled substances and personal explorations … anything to avoid thinking about pain.
I keep wondering how I would handle being the parent of a teen survivor. I think I’d become the most lenient parent ever – go, take drugs, have sex, defy death, live, experience something because while life is too precious to waste, it’d be even worse to be summoned with an empty scorecard. Vada’s 
parents do not take that route, which is also understandable. This film is “the world according to Vada” in the wake of –likely- the worst thing that’s ever going to happen to her. How would you react to your worst experience? How do you wish you had reacted to your worst experience?
We call it “the price of freedom.” But that’s bullshit. There are literally dozens of countries with citizens as “free” as ours and not a single one has school shootings on a regular basis. This isn’t a “price of freedom,” it’s the price of stupidity. Heck, you can call it whatever you want—our collective paranoia, our history of violence, our national identification with vigilantism—but it always comes down to our collective stupidity; we are a culture that would sooner die than educate ourselves properly. We are a culture who would rather spout and holler from our fount of myopia than do the hard work of learning something genuine; something that might just go against what we already believe – what we WANT to believe. And we sit back and pretend “that’s ok; it’s not me.” But it is. It is all of us. Gun violence will continue to be a significant problem in the United States as long as we remain Americans. The best we can hope for is that it doesn’t happen here, now.
The Fallout of The Fallout is an adult look at adult problems being handled by people who are not yet adults. Is it a good film? Yes. Does it lose its way from time to time? Also yes – but I think that was a deliberate choice – show me a teen who handles a school shooting with sangfroid and aplomb and I’ll show you a sociopath. Much as we frown on Vada’s choices and where the film goes as a result, they make more sense than if she constantly had it all together. I can’t say I loved The Fallout, but I do recommend it for anybody who wants to have a discussion about gun violence, or how they think kids ought to react when they’re forced into the warzone of life.
Let me give you a picture, complete
Of US shootings: lather, rinse, repeat
The children of slay
We say “that’s ok”
But don’t you dare take that gun off the street
Rated R, 92 Minutes
Director: Megan Park
Writer: Megan Park
Genre: The end of childhood
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who want to have a serious discussion about gun issues in America
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The NRA
