Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Outside’ follows the story of a family that is trying to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Francis takes his wife, Iris, and their sons, Josh and Lucas, to his family’s farm in the countryside to escape the zombie attacks. The idea is to keep everyone safe, but the true intentions of Francis come to surface as the months pass and Francis seems more obsessed with the idea of staying at the farm rather than the safety and survival of his family. Over the course of the film, small acts of the man exhibit the mental spiral that he seems to be caught up in. While there are several things that make Francis unlikable, there is one thing in particular that makes the audience despise him even more. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Dog Attacks Francis to Save Himself
When Francis and his family arrive at the farm, they come with the belief that the farm would not only provide them with safety but also with the means to sustain themselves. Sure enough, there is food to last them for months, and there is even a chicken coop, which means that they can even have eggs. One morning, when Francis goes to the coop to get eggs to make breakfast for his family, he finds a dog inside it. From the collar around the dog’s neck, it is clear that he belongs to someone and is a pet. However, with him inside the coop, it also means that the dog’s owners are dead, and the pet is forced to fend for himself. He is just as desperate for food as Francis and his family, so he digs his way inside the fence and kills a chicken in the coop.
It is right around the time that the dog kills the chicken that Francis shows up, which makes the dog feel threatened. As with any other animal, the dog becomes insecure about his food and, in trying to protect it, barks at Francis, who also needs to protect the coop to ensure the continual supply of eggs for his family. He tries to shoo away the dog, who ends up biting his hand. This leads Francis to back down and the dog runs away with the chicken he had killed.
Having found food there once, the dog stays near Francis’ farm in the hopes of finding it again. Sure enough, he comes looking for food, but the poor dog doesn’t know how worse things have gotten for Francis and his family. By far, they have completely run out of food and have been eating only sugarcane for a long time. Moreover, Francis has completely lost his marbles, especially after discovering that Josh has run away. By the time the dog comes back, Francis has locked away Iris and Lucas in the basement. When he sees the dog sniffing around the farm, he gets an idea.
Francis Gets His Revenge on the Dog
There are several reasons behind Iris and the boys wanting to leave the farm, but Francis convinces himself that they are concerned about not getting enough food. When he sees the dog around the farm, he thinks about the time the dog bit him and prevented him from getting the eggs for his family. He wants revenge on the dog, but that’s not the only purpose he has in mind. Francis thinks that bringing food for Iris and Lucas might make them feel grateful and make them understand that Francis can provide for them. So, he kills the dog and uses the meat to make a meal for the family. When he takes the cooked meat to Iris and Lucas, he expects them to jump at the food and eat it with relish. To assuage their doubts, he even takes a bite himself. However, by now, his wife and son have seen quite a different side of him. Iris, particularly, is very suspicious of him and she worries that Francis might do something bad to her and Lucas.
With no proper food for weeks, when he suddenly comes forward with a plate full of meat, she is naturally suspicious and refrains from touching the food, let alone eating it. Her first concern is that Francis may have mixed something in the food, and another concern is the origin of it. Francis doesn’t tell them how he got the meat, which makes Iris wonder where it could have come from. There were no chickens left in the coop. She wasn’t aware of the dog either, so her mind may have gone to the dead soldier. What if her husband cut him up? Considering how bad Francis had gotten, Iris couldn’t put it past him to resort to cannibalism. However, Francis didn’t have to fall that far as it was not the soldier but the dog, which doesn’t make it much better either.
Read More: Netflix’s Outside Ending Explained: Do Francis and His Family Survive?
