‘SPOILER ALERT’

After a successful hunt for an animal, a boy named Bodevan is congratulated by his father, Ben, for finally being able to kill something, with his siblings also watching. As they’re all covered in mud, they wash up their bodies before returning to their house in the woods.

While two of the other kids, Kielyr and Vespyr, are preparing the meat, they notice that a knife is missing, so they ask their dad to get it from their little sister, Zaja.

When Ben gets to where Zaja is, he sees her using it to cut an animal she also killed. Ben has a look of confusion and is impressed at the same time, but he soon takes the knife from her.

Shortly after, Ben starts training his kids in combat, and after that, they attend their reading lessons, as he appears to also be their teacher. At night, they all sing together after a long day.

The next day, they all go out for training again, and after they’re done, Ben decides to go to the city to sell some of the things he made. As he’s headed for the bus, one of his kids, Nai, asks why their mother, Leslie, has been gone for so long.

Ben pauses and then answers that she has not been away for too long. However, Kielyr says it’s actually been over three months.

The kids start to ask questions about why Leslie has to be in the hospital for too long, even though it’s against their beliefs. Ben says even though they’re not supposed to believe in the country’s health system, Leslie needed urgent treatment for her mental illness.

Another kid named Rellian doesn’t look so happy with this, and he asks when Leslie will be back exactly. Ben says she’ll be back soon, and he gets on the bus with Bodevan as they leave for the city.

When they get there, Ben is able to sell some of his wooden sculptures, and Bodevan also goes into a library to find a secret locker, where he picks out some of the letters he has received. He goes outside and avoids being seen by Ben as he checks the letters, to see that all the top schools in the country have offered him admission to study in whichever one he chooses.

He looks happy about this but has to keep the letters, so that his dad doesn’t find out, because Ben doesn’t believe in schools and prefers to homeschool them.

A while later, Ben sits in a bar and calls his sister, Harper, to ask about Leslie’s health in the hospital. Harper breaks down in tears on the phone, as she tells him that his wife killed herself last night.

Ben is terrified to hear the news, and later that night, he also announces it to the kids. As they all start crying, Rellian suddenly stands up and picks up a knife in an attempt to hurt Ben. However, he’s unable to do it, and he ends up using the knife to stab the wall while yelling that he hates Ben.

A while later, Ben sees Leslie’s will, and reads that she wants to be cremated and eventually flushed down a toilet.

The next day, he makes a call to Leslie’s father, Jack, to express his condolences and also tell him of Leslie’s wishes to be cremated. Jack gets really angry and blames him for Leslie’s death, saying he introduced her to extreme beliefs that eventually led to her death. 

Ben doesn’t seem moved by this, and he insists that Leslie must not be buried. However, Jack sends a warning to him, saying if he shows up for her funeral, he will have him arrested.

Jack drops the phone angrily, and Leslie’s mother, Abigail, starts talking to Ben. She tells him where the ceremony is to be held, but pleads with him not to come, because Jack seemed really angry, and he’d have him arrested.

When he returns to tell the kids, they all sound unhappy. They also realize that if Ben gets arrested, he will lose custody of them.

However, they change their minds in the morning and pack up their bags, but when Ben sees them, he dismisses them and says it’s too risky. The kids try to convince him, but he says there’s no way he’s going there, and they have to prepare for training.

That day, while they’re climbing a rock, Rellian gets distracted and almost falls. He breaks his hand in the process, and instead of trying to help his son, Ben tells him he needs to be able to survive by himself.

After the rock-climbing exercise, Ben also leaves them in heavy rain, as part of their survival training.

After the day’s work, Ben gets the kids on the bus, and starts driving them home. As he’s driving, he sees how sad they look, and he stops the bus, after which he tells them he doesn’t care about what Jack says, and that he’ll take them to stop Leslie from being buried. 

The kids are all excited to hear this, and they start singing with joy as they begin their journey.

After a while, a cop stops the bus for having a broken taillight. As Ben tries to explain that he didn’t know about the taillight, the cop enters the bus and looks surprised to see all the kids. He asks Ben why they’re not in school, and he says they’re not yet ready. 

The cop doesn’t understand this and tries to check around, but Bodevan suddenly stands up and says they’re homeschooled. Together, all the kids start singing, and this feels so weird that the cop eventually gets down, and tells Ben to fix the taillight when he stops again.

Ben soon stops at a restaurant, so that the kids can have something to eat. However, he doesn’t like all the modern food on the menu, and tells them they need to find an animal.

Shortly after, they find some sheep on a farm, but Kielyr hesitates and is unable to kill any of them, saying they look very calm and are not even trying to run away.

Seeing as they still need food, Ben takes the kids to shop at a store. After they pick all that they need, Ben fakes a heart attack, and as everyone in the store gets distracted, the kids take all the things they picked to the bus without paying for it. 

Ben then gets up and tells the workers at the store that he’s fine. He gets back into the bus, and praises the kids for the smooth execution of a mission, he calls Operation Free the Food.

To also get to keep the kids happy, he makes up a holiday, and hands them knives as presents. Rellian doesn’t seem to be interested as he says the holiday makes no sense, when they don’t even celebrate real holidays like Christmas.

Ben tells him to make a case for why he thinks Christmas is more important, but Rellian fails to say anything and just walks away. 

After the presents are shared, Ben takes them back to the bus, and they soon arrive at Harper’s house. They are well received there, and Harper arranges the dining table with the help of her husband, Dave, with their children, Justin and Jackson, also sitting at the table.

Things seem to be going well until Ben pours himself a glass of alcohol, and Nai asks to also get some. As Ben is about to give Nai the drink, Harper stops him, saying this drink is not for kids.

Ben doesn’t see a problem with it, and even makes a point to justify his actions. Everywhere soon becomes quiet, but Dave breaks the silence by expressing his condolences for Leslie’s death. Ben says he doesn’t have to say nice things about her, pointing out that he insulted her the last time they came to visit. 

Dave says he didn’t mean what he said, and it was only a situation that got out of hand. Ben, however, says it doesn’t change the fact that Dave insulted her.

Harper doesn’t like how Ben keeps repeating the insult in front of the kids, and Dave says sorry for bringing it up. Shortly after, Justin asks about how Leslie died, and Dave answers by telling him she had complications that killed her. Ben and his kids look shocked to hear this, because they know it’s a lie.

Ben interrupts and says Leslie killed herself, and this gets Harper so angry that she leaves the table. Dave also follows, and as they leave, Ben gives the drink to the kids, after which they make a toast to Leslie, with Justin and Jackson looking shocked. 

Later that night, while the kids are watching Justin and Jackson play a video game in their room, Harper complains about how Ben tends to be straightforward, instead of protecting the kids from learning about certain things at their age. Ben says he only tells his kids the truth, but when he sees how serious Harper is, he apologizes for how he behaved.

Just then, the kids show up and prepare to sleep on the grass outside the house. Harper and Dave are shocked to see this, and they try to convince them to go in, because there’s a room already prepared for them.

However, the kids say they prefer to sleep outside, and Ben also approves.

The next morning, Dave brings up a conversation about the health of the kids. Ben says they’re fine and they’re enjoying life in the woods.

Dave doesn’t think it’s the best way for them, because they know nothing about the real world. Harper also interrupts and says he will get them killed with his way of living. Ben says he’s doing the exact opposite, and training them to be able to survive in the real world. 

He says even though they’re homeschooled, they’re all very brilliant. To prove this, he calls Jackson and Justin to ask them about a concept related to human rights in the Constitution.

Both of them have no idea about it, and Ben then calls on his youngest child, Nai. He asks the same question, and Nai answers it brilliantly. He also tries to get Nai to answer more questions, but Harper says she already gets his point.

The next day, Ben leaves with his kids, and they make another stop on the road for a few days, beside a trailer owned by a woman named Ellen and her daughter, Claire. 

Days later, while Bodevan is training, Claire comes over to meet him and introduces herself. When he says his name, Claire is shocked, and Bodevan says his parents made up the name.

Claire finds it weird, but later that night, while they’re hanging out, she finds out he’s a lot weirder than she could imagine. 

She asks him about his favorite type of music, and also some other things about movies, but Bodevan doesn’t have any idea of anything modern, with his music taste also so weird.

Claire still seems to like him regardless of his weird nature, and as they’re both still hanging out, Ellen sees them.

She says she hopes they’ve not been doing anything bad together, and instead of just responding normally, Bodevan kneels before Claire and asks her to marry him. Claire and Ellen find this funny, and Ellen just tells him to go back to meet his father and siblings.

Unfortunately, Ben and the kids have to leave, and Bodevan is unhappy as he watches Ellen and Claire wave him goodbye.

Days later, Leslie’s funeral service is being held at a church. Everything seems to be going well, until Ben and the kids enter the church. Everyone looks shocked to see them, and not long after they have their seats, Ben stands up to interrupt the session. 

He starts by thanking everyone for coming before saying in Leslie’s will, she wanted to be cremated, with her ashes flushed down a toilet. Everyone in the church can’t believe what Ben says, and as he seems to be interrupting what was a peaceful funeral before he arrived, Jack stands up and asks Ben to be kicked out. 

He is dragged out by some security officials, and the kids also follow him. They all wait outside the church until everyone comes out. Jack sees him again and says he’s the worst thing to ever happen to his family.

After he greets the kids, Jack also tells Ben that if he sees him anywhere near the cemetery, he will have him arrested. Jack offers to take the kids to the funeral, but Ben rejects it, while also saying he won’t allow Leslie to be buried in the ground. 

As Jack leaves with Abigail, Ben tells the kids to come with him, as he plans to honor Leslie’s wishes and stop her burial.

The kids warn him about Jack’s threats, but he says he won’t just sit back and do nothing. As he continues to be stubborn, Bodevan says they’re only trying to stop him, because they don’t want to lose him too. This touches Ben, and he drives past the cemetery.

That night, Ben looks sad as he sits alone and plays his guitar. Elsewhere, Rellian and Bodevan talk about their mom. Rellian says he remembers how their mom used to be.

He also says he heard how she always talked about her mental problems with Ben. He then says Ben made their mom sick, and he’s dangerous to them. 

As he walks away, Bodevan suddenly has a rethink of how much he worships his father. He heads over to the bus, brings out all the letters he received, and shows them to Ben. He is confused between feeling betrayed and impressed, because he thinks Bodevan did everything behind his back, and deceived him to always take him to the library.

As Ben wonders how Bodevan could even apply since he never went to a real school, Bodevan says Leslie helped him. 

He says Ben turned them into freaks, and Leslie knew, so she decided to help her kids secretly, because she knew he would disagree. Ben is disappointed to hear this, and Bodevan tells him he just wants to go to college.

As he tries to process everything Bodevan says, Nai brings him a note written by Rellian, saying he has gone to meet his grandparents. 

Ben immediately drives the bus to Jack’s house, and as he gets there, he asks the kids to wait on the bus while he goes in. After entering the house, Ben sees Rellian and asks him to get his things and come with him.

Rellian says he doesn’t want to leave, and Jack also agrees. The boy suddenly gets angry and says Leslie’s death was Ben’s fault. He says he always heard Leslie argue about leaving the woods, but Ben never agreed.

Ben says he and Leslie agreed to stay there, but Rellian just says he hates Ben as he walks away. Before he can follow the boy, Jack calls on Ben and says he wants the kids to start living with him. He says Rellian already told him about the injury he sustained while rock climbing, and also what they did for Operation Free the food, which Jack calls stealing.

Jack says the kids are too young to be doing all that he exposes them to, and because of that, he’s filing for custody. 

Ben leaves the house but doesn’t give up. He asks Vespyr to sneak into the house and drag Rellian out. The girl starts the mission and climbs on the roof, but in the process, she falls badly and is rushed to the hospital.

There, the doctor tells Ben she’s okay, but it could’ve been worse. Ben realizes the dangers he’s exposing the kids to, and when Vespyr recovers, he takes all of them to start staying with their grandparents. 

On the day he’s about to leave to head back to the woods, the kids want to follow him, but he tells them staying with him is dangerous, and they should stay with their grandparents. They all look sad, but Ben really decides to leave, and Jack thanks him for agreeing to leave the kids with him.

Shortly after, he enters his bus and drives away while crying. He soon stops at a supermarket where he shaves his beard.

That night, when he’s alone and thinking about all his decisions, the kids come out of the bus, and it appears that they’ve been hiding inside since he left Jack’s place. 

Rellian says sorry for how he has been acting, saying he doesn’t hate Ben, but he only wishes he helped Leslie when she wanted to leave.

Ben hugs him and says he wishes the same thing too. Just then, the kids tell Ben they still need to honor Leslie’s last wishes and have her cremated.

Even though he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, they manage to convince him, and together, they break into the cemetery and pick up her coffin after digging the grave.

Bodevan also shaves his hair, and not long after, they complete the cremation process and also sing together in celebration of her life.

The next day, they all go together to flush it down the toilet. After they’re through, Bodevan says he’s going to Namibia. When Nai asks him why, he says he just pointed to a point on the map and decided to go there.

Before he leaves, Ben also advises him to find love and avoid dying.

Days later, Ben and the kids are now living on a farm, and that morning, as they’re having breakfast, he prepares their lunch and puts it in a paper bag.

He then tells them to hurry up, because the school bus will be there in a few minutes. 

The kids all look happy at the table, as they enjoy their new lives.

Captain Fantastic.