Warning: Spoilers

 What Happened to Monday is definitely an interesting movie. The story’s about a dystopian country/region that aims to address the concern of over-population (And supposedly, dwindling resources) by enforcing rules regarding family sizes and ‘cryo-freezing’ any individual who is an extra addition to the prescribed family size. Usually, this would by every child in a family, except the oldest one. The movie followed a septuplet and their fight against the government/Child Allocation Bureau. The movie had lots of different elements and themes, but the one that stood out to me was that of self-preservation.

To a certain extent, all of the seven sisters were guided by a notion of self-preservation. There are multiple examples. The most obvious was Thursday, who complained about the lack of independence and voiced her displeasure about their lives. If I had to guess, I would have definitely assumed that Thursday was the character that was most likely to sell-out her sisters, or cause some other problem.

Another example was Monday, the antagonist. While on the surface, she appeared to be the one most dedicated, she was very untrustworthy and rather malicious. Visually, she embodied Karen Settman, the identity that the sisters adopted to survive. However, she was probably the most opposed to Karen Settman/the shared identity. Due to certain circumstances, Monday hatched a plan to get rid of her sisters, so that she could live her life without any compromises (Another instance of self-preservation).

Apart from these two examples, there are many other instances of self-preservation, ranging from trivial (Like Thursday’s complaints and arguments) to more significant events (Like Monday’s betrayal). Overall, I think the reason that these instances of self-preservation were evident was due to the context of a movie. In a society such as the one portrayed, utilitarianism is a valued principle. This context made the actions that portrayed self-preservation (And agency) striking.