Andrew and Eric can’t understand why their family is chosen to end the apocalypse in Knock at the Cabin, but flashbacks reveal the true reason.
Even though Andrew’s pretty sure he knows why four strangers target his family during their remote vacation, Knock At The Cabin’s flashbacks prove why they were really chosen. Beginning with Leonard (Dave Bautista), and continuing with Redmond (Rupert Grint), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Sabrina (Nikki AMuka-Bird), these “Four Horsemen” trap Andrew (Ben Aldridge), his husband Eric (Jonathan Groff), and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) in their cabin with a very specific dilemma; either one of them kills a member of their trio and saves the world from the impending apocalypse, or they refuse, and doom each other to wander a dystopian wasteland as the sole survivors.
With no means to escape, and a visitor sacrificing themselves every time Andrew or Eric fails to make a decision, none of the characters in Knock at the Cabin have easy choices. Even after the four visitors reveal their intentions, Andrew is convinced that he and Eric are targets of a hate crime, and doesn’t comprehend that there could be another reason that the four have come to force his family to make an impossible choice. While Andrew clings to reason and logic to explain the terrifying situation, Eric begins to see a spiritual significance in everything that has led up to their point of no return.
Knock At The Cabin’s Sacrifice Is Meaningful Due To Eric & Andrew’s Past Suffering
At one point, Leonard tries to console Andrew and Eric about the hopelessness of their situation by explaining that the “pure” nature of their love earmarked them for sacrifice, and through carefully placed flashbacks, their selection becomes meaningful because of everything they overcame to have it, including having to lie about their relationship to adopt Wen. In one of M. Night Shyamalan’s signature little twists, one of Andrew’s captors is the very man who committed a hate crime against him years before, implying that if Andrew sacrifices his husband or his daughter, he’ll be saving the very person who doesn’t believe his love has a right to exist.
One nearly silent scene, in which Andrew’s parents glower disapprovingly at the pair over lunch, shows that even the people closest to them have shunned them, prompting the development of their oft-repeated phrase about being “Together forever,” and only relying on each other. The world has been a harsh and cruel place for Andrew and Eric, and yet its survival depends on their charity. Andrew prefers to let the world go up in flames as long as he can keep his husband and daughter with him, while Eric takes a more selfless approach, shaken by the realization that this would doom the ones he loves to a grim future.
Why Eric Had To Sacrifice Himself Instead Of Andrew
Knock at the Cabin’s ends with Eric making the decision to sacrifice himself so that Andrew and Wen can lead a happy life. Like the Four Horsemen, he’s also seen a vision, but it’s not of the destruction of the Earth and all its inhabitants, it’s of Andrew seeing Wen grow up to be a beautiful woman with her own veterinarian practice, and the pair of them sharing a life full of contentment and love. If Andrew doesn’t accept Eric’s decision to be the sacrifice, he faces the real possibility of taking away the chance for Wen and himself to have an ideal life.
Andrew believes the world only to be a dark and evil place, so he’s fiercely protective of the little island of love he and Eric have created and would sacrifice the former if it meant the latter could flourish. Eric, on the other hand, highlights the virtue of being the bigger person in a cruel world that has only offered hardship instead of a helping hand. In the end of Knock at the Cabin, there are no good choices, just the lesser of two evils, but Andrew and Wen can live with the knowledge that their family was chosen because it represented the purest presentation of love, and take comfort in Eric’s selfless act of heroism.
