The Birds (film) - Plot

Plot

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), a young socialite, meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco bird shop. Brenner wants to purchase a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, but the shop has none. He pretends to mistake Daniels for a salesperson, which infuriates her; she requests an explanation. He says they met previously, but she doesn't remember him. Intrigued, she tracks down his address in Bodega Bay, California and purchases a pair of lovebirds herself. After driving several hours, she sneaks across the bay in a motor boat and secretly deposits the birds inside Mitch's house with a note. He spots her on the water during her escape, and he intercepts her as she is attacked and injured by a seagull. Mitch requests she stay for dinner, and Melanie reluctantly agrees.

Melanie develops a relationship with Mitch, meets his clinging mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) and his younger sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and befriends Mitch's ex-lover Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). When Melanie stays for the night at Annie's house, a gull kills itself by diving into the front door. At Cathy's birthday party the next day, the children are set upon by seagulls. The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home. Lydia discovers a neighbor who has been killed by birds that invaded his house, and she flees the scene in terror. After being comforted by Melanie and Mitch, Lydia becomes concerned about Cathy's safety at school. Melanie goes to the school and waits for class to end, initially unaware that a huge number of crows are massing nearby. Horrified when she sees the playground engulfed by them, she warns Annie and they evacuate the children. The birds attack, injuring several children.

Melanie meets Mitch at a local restaurant. Several patrons describe their own encounters with strange bird behaviour. A drunk believes the attacks are a sign of the Apocalypse, and a traveling salesman condemns all birds and suggests that they be destroyed. An amateur ornithologist insists that different species do not flock together, therefore the reports of the attacks must be in error. Melanie rebuts this argument. A young mother becomes increasingly distressed by the conversation and shames them all for frightening her children. Outside the restaurant, a motorist is attacked while filling his car with gasoline; he is knocked unconscious and the gasoline continues to pump out onto the street. The salesman, having left the restaurant, is unaware he is standing in a puddle of the gasoline. He misunderstands the hysterical warnings of the restaurant patrons, lights a cigar and drops the lit match. The gasoline ignites, killing him. The birds attack in greater numbers as people pour from the diner to survey the damage, and Melanie is forced to take refuge in a phone booth. Mitch rescues her and they return to the restaurant, where the hysterical mother accuses Melanie of being the cause of the attacks. Melanie and Mitch return to Annie's house and find that Annie has been killed by birds while pushing Cathy indoors to safety.

Melanie and the Brenners barricade themselves inside the Brenner home. The house is attacked in waves by the birds, and several times they nearly break in through the sealed doors and windows. During a nighttime lull between attacks, Melanie hears noises from the upper floor. Not wanting to disturb the others' sleep, Melanie enters Cathy's abandoned bedroom and finds that the birds have broken through the roof. They violently attack her, trapping her in the room until Mitch comes to her rescue. She is badly injured and nearly catatonic, and Mitch insists they must get her to a hospital. A sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenner farm as Mitch prepares Melanie's car for their escape. The radio reports the spread of bird attacks to nearby communities, and suggests that the National Guard may be required because civil authorities are unable to combat the inexplicable attacks. The film concludes ambiguously, as the car carrying Melanie and the Brenners slowly makes its way through a landscape inundated by thousands of birds of different species perched together.