"What we see is not what's out there. It's what they want us to think is out there."
— Allison Becker
Silo is an American science fiction series by Graham Yost, adapted from the novellas of the same name by Hugh Howey for Apple TV+. The first two episodes were released on May 5, 2023; the eight subsequent episodes of the first season were released weekly thereafter.
The titular silo is a giant underground structure where 10,000 people live without knowing their history or why they live there, beyond the fact that the outside world is dangerous and toxic. All information about pre-silo history was destroyed in a rebellion over a hundred years prior. This status quo is kept in place by Judicial, who maintains order and stamps out any subversiveness that questions the nature of their society.
Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) is an engineer claiming her lover George (Ferdinand Kingsley), a computer repairman who had previously found forbidden information about the silo, was murdered. Her investigation into the real nature of his death brings more suspicious deaths as uncomfortable truths about the silo come to light.
The show also co-stars David Oyelowo and Rashida Jones as Holston Becker, the stalwart sheriff and his subversive wife Allison; Common as Robert Sims, the Judicial department's head of security; Harriet Walter as Martha, Juliette's mentor and maternal figure; and Tim Robbins as Bernard, the silo's IT head.
A second season commenced production in June 2023 before being halted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Judge Meadows, the almost-omnipotent head of Judicial and unofficial head of the Silo, disappears almost immediately after being revealed as a depressed, powerless puppet for IT sick with a mysterious illness.
- Action Dad: Billings and Sims are seasoned peacekeepers in the thick of the first season's intrigue who also get several scenes of being loving fathers in their off-time.
- Adaptation Name Change: Juliette's deputy sheriff Peter Billings in the novellas is renamed Paul in the TV adaptation.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Judicial stamps out anybody who questions the structure of their community. Gloria turns on the faucet while asking Allison some subversive questions, claiming they have "listeners"; Billings later confirms this and says that the "listeners" aren't even recorded citizens.
- Canon Foreigner: Judge Meadows, the head of Judicial, is not in the original novels.
- Chekhov's Gun: The heat tape Juliette stole from IT, which initially put her on Bernard's radar, and she doesn't get why they were so mad about it. Turns out that that tape was intentionally of poor quality, to ensure that people who went out to clean didn't come back, and Juliette could have unintentionally blown the whole ruse if she had thought to ask a few more questions.
- Convection, Schmonvection: In reality, Juliette would probably have ended up cooked in the steam chamber.
- Cruel Mercy: The Silo's regular method of capital punishment is to send offenders outside into the world, where some of them wanted to go in the first place. The problem is, no one's ever lasted three minutes outside.
- December–December Romance: Deputy Marnes and Mayor Jahn are both getting on in years. Their interactions together have definite romantic overtones, but this is tragically cut short when Jahns is poisoned shortly after.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Martha says that she called her surrogate daughter Juliette's boyfriend George in for help with a computer problem. There was no problem — Martha built the computer — but she used it as an excuse to threaten him not to hurt Juliette.
- Enforced Technology Levels:
- The Pact specifically prohibits the Silo residents from building an elevator or any other mechanized means of transportation up and down, meaning a giant spiral staircase is the only way for residents to travel. The Silo is way too big to constantly travel on foot, so residents generally stick to the same few stories, leading to a natural class divide between the three zones.
- The Pact also prohibits magnification beyond a certain power. Juliette's mother runs afoul of this restriction when she builds a magnifying machine to assist with surgery.
- Fictional Holiday: Freedom Day, the annual celebration of the rebellion's defeat. It is celebrated with most being off work as they listen to the mayor give a speech of commemoration.
- Foreshadowing: The big twist at the end of the season can be anticipated by a few scenes.
- Allison investigates the old drive and sees the footage of a lush exterior with birds flying by in formation, leading her to believe the image of the outside has been faked. When Sheriff Holston is sent out to clean, he sees the lush exterior and the birds flying by in formation. The same formation. At the same time.
- Allison is sent out to clean and quickly dies still wearing her suit, and if the outside is safe as she assumes, then this would suggest the suit's air supply is either rather small or poisoned in some fashion. Holston pops off his helmet, but dies just as quickly.
- Juliette stole some heat tape from IT when Mechanical ran out, and they seemed really pissed off about, by her estimation, sub-standard tape they could have easily replaced. This tape is used to seal the suits when people are sent out to clean. As Juliette learns when she goes out, had she been given the crappy tape and not the good stuff Mechanical is supplied with, she would have been poisoned by the toxic air.
- Great Offscreen War: The Rebellion, a long-ago insurrection against the leadership of the Silo, is constantly mentioned as an event that helped shape many of the current rules of the Silo.
- Never Suicide:
- George died by falling off a rail with no witnesses. Juliette maintains that it was murder, not suicide, because he was intent on telling her something important the day before, and spends the show trying to verify her suspicion. It's eventually revealed that he killed himself after all — but only to avoid interrogation and torture by Judicial agents.
- Becomes a case of Dies Differently In The Adaptation for Deputy Marnes, who is killed by Douglas Trumbull in the series, but died by suicide (maybe) in the novel after Jahns's death.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: A lot of commentators observed Rebecca Ferguson's problems in maintaining an American accent, frequently slipping back into her Swedish one. Other actors also struggle.
- Population Control: Living in a giant underground silo means that romantic relationships have to be sanctioned. Sex for procreation is heavily regulated, and everyone has mandatory birth control. The first scene of the Beckers' married life is them delighted that they have been approved to try for a baby. They have one year afterwards to get pregnant. There's even more control behind the scenes, as it's revealed that doctors are sometimes instructed not to actually remove certain women's birth control implants to prevent "the wrong people" (either because of undesirable genetic traits or because they ask too many questions) from having children. It's implied that Pete Nichols was told not to remove Hanna's birth control implant when they won their lottery, but he took it out anyway—twice.
- Power Outage Plot: The show is set in an underground structure with over a hundred floors, all powered by a large main generator. The generator hasn't been shut down for major fixes in the silo's centuries-long history, but it is teetering on the verge of collapse, threatening the thousands of people who live in the silo with perpetual darkness. Juliette manages to get the mayor to agree to an eight-hour silo-wide blackout as the engineers risk their lives to fix it. This also leads to discomfort among the residents, who are gathered in shelters.
- Public Execution: Because the outside world is thought to be toxic and dangerous, condemnation to go outside and 'clean' the silo's sensors is understood as a death sentence. When Allison says she wants to go outside, Mayor Jahn immediately muses that people will be raring to watch this one because there hasn't been a cleaning in some time. However, it's clear that rather than some part of the viewers watching actually want the cleaners to survive the experience, because that would show that the outside world is habitable.
- Right Through the Wall: Allison and Holston have sex in his sherriff's office despite his protests that his coworkers can hear. In the other room, their coworkers' knowing smiles and chuckles inform the audience that they definitely can, though given the population controlled setting are indulgent and accommodating instead of embarrassed.
- Rising Water, Rising Tension: In the third episode, Juliette — who has a preestablished fear of water — enters the chamber with the steam valve with a hose to try and cool it down. This buys them some time to fix the generator's rotor blades before the valve blows, but the water slowly rises as Jules screams in fear and pain. Her head eventually goes under, but Cooper manages to get the last rotor blade in in the nick of time, and Jules is rescued by her coworkers.
- Self-Surgery: In the first episode, Allison Becker cuts out her own contraceptive implant when she realizes that the Silo doctors are deliberately not removing implants from some people as a way of controlling who has children.
- Spotting the Thread: Both Holston and Allison died thinking they were seeing the true outside world clean and filled with life. Juliette later sees that same video and thus thinking the views of a ruined outside were an illusion so the Silo bosses could maintain control. When, in the finale, Juliette is sent outside, she once more sees the clear, healthy world of trees, sun and birds...and then it hits her the birds are flying in the exact same formation they were in the "earlier" video. Juliette thus realizes the feed in the helmets is the faked video and the outside really is poisonous (as proven by the bodies of Allison and Holston nearby.)
- Technologically Advanced Foe: Played with. The residents of the Silo have never heard of videos, and the only camera that they know about is the one outside. But turns out there are cameras all over the Silo, allowing IT to freely spy on everyone.
- Together in Death: After being sent to clean, Holston crawls over to his wife Allison's abandoned body and dies next to her. Lampshaded by Juliette who immediately recognizes this to be his intent.
- Tragic Keepsake:
- Keeping keepsakes is a character beat for Juliette, who keeps wearing her boyfriend George's watch past his death, even though it's nearly old enough to be an illegal relic and their relationship was unsanctioned. A flashback in the fourth episode reveals that she also kept one of her younger brother's stuffed animals as a memento.
- The Georgia kids' travel book that Gloria and her family have kept hidden away for years also counts. Gloria risks everything to get one last look at a picture of the ocean in it.
- Wham Shot: In the final episode, the reveal of the outside of the Silo—a barren, desolate wasteland just like the cameras have shown this whole time—and the dozens of other identical Silos all right next to one another.
- Wrench Wench: Engineer Juliette Nichols is introduced sweaty and grime-covered in a tank top as she uses a wrench to put something in the silo's generator back in place. She's generally great at anything mechanical and will tinker with gadgetry to calm down.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Silo residents who are up to something take precautions to avoid being overheard, to the point that Regina Jackson has coated her entire apartment in metal plates in an attempt to block the microphones. But they've never heard of videos and have very little knowledge of cameras, let alone hidden cameras. IT can freely spy on every corner of the Silo, without even making much effort to hide it, because regular residents have no idea that IT can see them.
- You Have Failed Me: The fate of Trumbull after botching two frame-ups and trying to kill Juliette in front of a massive crowd. Sims gets fed up and chucks him off the stairs, and uses the forged suicide note meant for one of the frame-ees on him.
