Boy Swallows Universe

Twelve-year-old Eli Bell lives in the Brisbane suburb of Darra in 1985 with his mother, Frances Bell, her boyfriend, Lyle Orlik, and his older brother, August. August has been selectively mute since age six and communicates by writing prophetic phrases in the air with his finger. Their babysitter and mentor is Arthur “Slim” Halliday, a notorious convicted killer and prison escapee. While Slim teaches Eli to drive, August writes messages like “Your end is a dead blue wren” and “Caitlyn spies.” He also writes “Boy swallows universe,” a phrase reflecting his belief that he possesses knowledge from multiple timelines. Eli suspects Lyle and Frances are dealing heroin, a fear confirmed when he discovers a large brick of the drug hidden in their lawnmower catcher.

August leads Eli into the forbidden bedroom of Lyle’s deceased mother, Lena, and reveals a secret room hidden behind the wardrobe. Inside is a red telephone that suddenly rings. A mysterious man speaks to Eli, leaving him to question if the call was real. When Lyle discovers the boys, August opens a hidden flap to a tunnel, and they escape into an old outhouse. Confronted by Eli, Lyle denies the phone can receive calls. A flashback reveals that after returning from rehab, Lyle forced Frances through heroin withdrawal by locking her in Lena’s room for seven days.

Late one night, Eli sees a purple firework, a signal for Lyle, and follows him to the home of his schoolmate, Darren Dang. Darren, whose mother “Back Off” Bich Dang is a formidable local businesswoman, catches Eli spying. He reveals that his family are major heroin importers and that Lyle is a mid-level dealer for a powerful figure named Tytus Broz, the owner of a prosthetics company called Human Touch. Darren invites Eli inside, where Bich questions Lyle about his business. As they leave, Bich tells Eli that everything Lyle does is “all for you.”

At Slim’s suggestion, Eli begins writing to prison inmates and becomes pen pals with Alex Bermudez, an imprisoned former bikie boss. Eli reads a newspaper article about Slim’s life and controversial murder conviction, noting the author is Caitlyn Spies. The family later attends Tytus Broz’s 80th birthday party, where Eli meets Tytus’s daughter, Hanna, who was born with arms ending at her elbows, and his menacing enforcer, Iwan Krol. Darren tells Eli that Iwan is rumored to dismember his victims and deliver the parts to Tytus.

Eli and August begin accompanying Lyle and his best friend, Teddy Kallas, on their Saturday heroin runs. During these trips, Eli notices Teddy’s romantic interest in Frances. One evening, Tytus, Iwan, and two thugs ambush the family at dinner. Tytus confronts Lyle, demanding to know what secret message Lyle just wrote in the air for August. Lyle is brutally beaten and abducted, and Frances is knocked unconscious. To force August to reveal the message, Iwan holds a knife to Eli’s finger. August breaks his years-long silence, saying, “Your end is a dead blue wren.” In response, Iwan chops off Eli’s right forefinger.

Eli wakes in the hospital, where Slim informs him that Frances has been imprisoned, Lyle has vanished, and the boys will now live with their estranged father, Robert Bell. Slim later reveals that Tytus discovered Lyle was making side deals with Bich Dang. He instructs Eli to maintain Frances’s cover story that August accidentally severed his finger with an axe, though the attending doctor is skeptical. Mimicking Slim’s prison-break tactics, Eli escapes the hospital and returns to the Darra house to find Lyle’s hidden heroin stash, hoping to trade it for Lyle’s life, but discovers the hiding spot is empty. The red phone in the secret room rings, and a voice, later revealed to be a future version of August, warns that Frances is on suicide watch and will not survive Christmas Day.

Eli goes to live with his father, Robert, a reclusive and alcoholic intellectual, in the suburb of Bracken Ridge. The school guidance counsellor, Poppy Birkbeck, grows concerned about the brothers’ trauma, especially a past incident where Robert, possibly during a panic attack, drove them into a dam, an event Eli calls “the moon pool.” Determined to save his mother, Eli seeks help from a terminally ill Slim, who arranges for a smuggler to get him inside the Boggo Road Women’s Prison. During their last meeting, Slim collapses; he dies months later. On Christmas Day, Eli is smuggled into the prison and finds Frances in a catatonic state. He sings her favorite song, “Ruby Tuesday,” until she opens her cell door for an emotional reunion. Eli is discovered and attempts to escape by scaling the prison wall with a homemade grappling hook, but he falls and is caught. The guards cover up the breach and drive him home.

Several years pass, and Eli is now a young adult. Robert has become a more stable presence, and Frances has been released from prison, though she enters an abusive relationship with Teddy Kallas, whom Eli believes betrayed Lyle. After Teddy becomes violent, Frances leaves him, and Alex Bermudez warns Teddy to stay away permanently. August gives away the $49,500 from Lyle’s heroin stash to a family in need. Eli gets a junior job at The Courier-Mail, where Caitlyn Spies is now a star crime reporter. A clue in another reporter’s notebook, “Llama hair?,” prompts Caitlyn to investigate Iwan Krol’s llama farm in connection with a missing family, the Penns. Eli is assigned to interview Tytus Broz, who is being honored as a “Queensland Champion.”

Caitlyn accompanies Eli to Tytus’s mansion, posing as his photographer. During the interview, a blue wren repeatedly flies into a glass wall. The bird appears to die, but it revives after Eli picks it up and flies to a concrete bunker on the property. As this happens, Tytus notices Eli’s missing finger. After Tytus leaves for the awards ceremony, Eli and Caitlyn break into the bunker and discover a secret laboratory containing preserved human body parts, the dismembered bodies of the Penn parents, and a head Eli recognizes as Lyle’s. In the final room, they find the missing boy, Bevan Penn, alive and holding the red telephone. A voice on the phone, identifying as Gus, warns that Iwan Krol is coming. Iwan arrives and corners them, but Eli attacks him with an axe, and they escape with Bevan.

Caitlyn drives to Brisbane City Hall, where the awards ceremony is underway, and alerts the police. While Tytus is on stage accepting his award, August orchestrates a backstage swap, replacing Tytus’s prosthetic limb display with Lyle’s severed head. The horrific discovery is made public, and Tytus is arrested. In the ensuing chaos, Iwan ambushes Eli, stabbing him in the abdomen. Iwan pursues the wounded Eli into the City Hall clock tower, where Eli fights back just as the police arrive and shoot Iwan. August reaches Eli as he collapses. After recovering, Eli and Caitlyn begin working on the story together. They return to the secret room in the Darra house, where the red phone rings one last time. Caitlyn gently stops Eli from answering, the phone goes silent, and she kisses him, signifying a new beginning.