The following contains spoilers for The Wild Robot, now playing in theatersROZZUM “Roz” 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) is already on the island when The Wild Robot begins, but how did she get there, and where was she supposed to be? The Wild Robot follows Roz’s journey as she adapts to the life of the wilderness, all while being tasked with raising the gosling named Brightbill (Kit Connor), with the help of a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). This ends up becoming much more than just a task for Roz, as she truly comes to care for Brightbill as her son – but this was never supposed to be the case for Roz.
The Wild Robot starts with flashing lightning in the clouds before it cuts to Roz’s open container being washed up on the rocks on the island. This is the most context that’s provided in the actual movie about how Roz ended up there, as she’s then powered on by an otter and quickly moves on to trying to find who on the island had ordered her. What exactly caused Roz to end up on the island, and where was she meant to go if not there?
Roz Was Part Of A Lost Containment Unit Of Robots
Their Transport Ship Crashed
While The Wild Robot doesn’t outright show what happens to Roz and how she gets to the island, it’s mentioned that she and six other robots were lost during a storm on their way to their destination, and these robots are seen later on in the movie. Most of them are dissembled parts, with Roz being the only true survivor of the group, but one of them has a head that functions well enough to run Roz’s diagnostics and even offer her their own transmitter before powering down again. The opening sequence depicts this storm.
In the original book by Peter Brown, it’s specifically a hurricane that sees Roz and the other robots stranded on the island. That could very well be the case here, but The Wild Robot opts to leave the actual storm up to interpretation, which is a reasonable call in this case. It allows them to open the movie with a stark contrast between the flashing lightning and the immediate calm of the waves washing over Roz’s open container. Nature causing this event is especially effective given the state of the earth in The Wild Robot.
Who Was The Customer Who Ordered Roz & Where Was She Meant To Go?
Is There An Answer For Roz’s Origins?
Regarding who actually ordered Roz and what her true destination was supposed to be, the movie leaves this question unanswered – as does the original source material. Again, however, there’s no urgent need in the story for specifications regarding Roz’s origins. What was likely the case was that Roz and the other robots were headed to a human settlement, and the storm over the island took down the Universal Dynamics ship carrying them, ultimately leading to Roz being stranded there – though more could be revealed in a potential The Wild Robot 2.
What matters most is that Roz ended up exactly where she needed to be, as proven by The Wild Robot‘s ending. Because of her unrelenting kindness, the animals were able to come together as a collective, rather than individualistically fighting one another in survival mode. Most importantly, however, Brightbill’s survival in The Wild Robot is only made possible by Roz, as – in the words of Longneck (Bill Nighy) – the accident that killed his family ended up saving his life.