The Darkest Minds is a 2018 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, written by Chad Hodge and produced by Shawn Levy and Dan Levine.

Based on Alexandra Bracken's 2012 young adult novel of the same name, it follows a group of children who are on the run from the government after obtaining superpowers due to a mysterious infection.

On September 15, 2014, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had bought the rights to the novel and that Levy would produce the film through his 21 Laps Entertainment.

[2] In a dystopian future, a plague (called Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration) kills nearly 90 percent of the children in the United States.

Ruby Daly is an Orange, but she touches the doctor who is classifying her and puts the thought in his head that she is a Green and she is placed in a camp.

The three agree to let Ruby join them as they try to make their way to "East River," a purported safe haven led by an Orange named the "Slip Kid."

Chubs eventually deduces that this is a radio frequency, which reveals a transmission that East River is in Lake Prince, Virginia.

[3] On July 12, 2016, it was reported that animation director Jennifer Yuh Nelson had been hired to direct the film, and it would be her first live-action project.

[1] In the United States and Canada, The Darkest Minds was released on August 3, 2018, alongside Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me and Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?, and was originally projected to gross around $10 million from 3,127 theaters in its opening weekend.

It went on to debut $5.8 million, finishing eighth at the box office and marking the 12th worst opening for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters.

The website's critical consensus reads, "The Darkest Minds does little to differentiate itself in a crowded field of YA adaptations, leaving all but the least demanding viewers feeling dystopian déjà vu.

Club called the film "a formulaic hodgepodge of secondhand plot points" and "an insult to its target demographic" of teen moviegoers.

[22] William Bibbiani of TheWrap praised the film and the cast, but concedes "it's not quite thrilling enough [...] so it plays a bit more like a manifesto than a sci-fi thriller.

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson has stated that she would be happy to return for a second film in the series, although no definitive plans have been announced.