The Darkest Minds follows a familiar story. It’s been explored in Marvel’s X-Men, Stephen King’s Firestarter, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, even M83’s music video for “Midnight City,” and the list goes on.
Speculative fiction about humanity’s fear of superhuman children is a common trope because emotionally the experience is pretty universal. Emotionally, it’s real. The teenage years are all about feeling imprisoned, becoming aware of segregation by class, and experiencing harassment from intimidated adults. Teenagers are powerful. After all, they’re just a skip and a jump away from adulthood. So laser light melodramas like The Darkest Minds touch on what that experience feels like. Another trope of The Darkest Minds: It would take the complete upending of society to find someone decent to date. Yeah, that also feels real.