A Millennial's Thoughts On Gen Z, Trauma, and The Film "The Fallout"

“The Fallout” stars Jenna Ortega as Vada, a teenager coping with the trauma of surviving a school shooting.

The film painfully explores adolescent grief and the effects of trauma within the context of Gen Z.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ortega said she views the film as “an apology letter to this generation, and all that our youth has to fear.”

As a Millennial, I find myself thinking about Gen Z a lot.

They’re a generation marked by school shootings, social media, and the internet. And they're struggling.

They’ve often been considered the most depressed generation. And that was prior to the pandemic.

Having worked with the youngest of them with online learning during the first year of the pandemic and supporting many through volunteering as a crisis counselor, I’ve gotten a glimpse of some of the fear they’re feeling.

I've talked to so many kids who are struggling with depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. Crumbling from the heaviness of life and the state of the world. Feeling like they have no one to turn to.

It’s terrifying.

Afraid, Vada stops going to school. In one scene, she's in the foreground, texting a classmate and asking how he's holding up after losing his brother in the shooting. In the background, Vada’s younger sister, Amelia, is fully immersed in recording a TikTok dance.

While on the surface she seems fine, we later learn that Amelia is also impacted by the traumatic event.

The film effectively portrays the complex emotional landscape of navigating grief and trauma.

It’s easy for generations before them to poke fun, misunderstand, and criticize Gen Z. Whether it’s for the way many have embraced more progressive views or even their use of TikTok.

But they’re a generation let down by older generations and forced to navigate the implications of this on their own.

In the film, Vada grows distant, unable to open up with her family, and even her best friend. Unable to cope, she dabbles with drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile, classmates, including her best friend try to lean into activism.

In a conversation with her therapist she says:

"They've been able to take what happened and are literally using it to change the world. Like, they're doing so much amazing stuff and for some reason, I feel like I'm unable to do that."

We're all familiar with a sense of this feeling, like we can't do enough or anything at all to improve or stop what's wrong from happening. And with so much to carry and to grieve, I worry for the generations after me.

And as the film shows us in the end, trauma doesn't just go away.