The Aerial 2007

Der Erfinder sits at a typewriter in a nameless city of year XX, a place where voices have vanished and people communicate only by mouthing words that float in mid-air. The only exception is La Voz La Voz, a singer still able to speak, who works for the city’s sole TV channel run by Mr. TV. Clad in a hood that hides her face, La Voz guards a power that could bend the crowd to his will, and she lives with her son, Tomás Tomás — an eyeless boy whose voice remains a secret even as others have lost theirs. Tomás shares a borderless life with Ana Ana, a girl whose parents are estranged: her father repairs televisions for the channel, while her mother works as a nurse at the hospital.

When Ana misplaces a “balloon man” owned by the channel, both her father and his father, the old El abuelo El abuelo, are fired from the studio. The ripple effect deepens when Ana’s father uncovers evidence that La Voz has been kidnapped, prompting a dangerous alliance with the channel’s vengeful son to uncover the truth and spy on Mr. TV. The plot intensifies as they infiltrate the hospital, where the chilling figure Dr. Y Dr. Y subjects La Voz to brutal experiments, hoping to weaponize her gift to bend the city to their design. Dr. Y even theorizes that a second voice could counterbalance La Voz’s influence, a plan that leaves the team racing against time.

As tensions mount, the narrative widens to include the family’s domestic struggle. Ana’s mother Madre becomes a crucial ally in the escape, while the father, with the help of his wife, manages to flee the hospital and regroup with the grandfather. The family’s resolve deepens as they reunite with the elder to mount a counterattack. Their mission leads them to The Aerial, an old, remote broadcast station nestled in the snowy mountains, where a final, desperate plan must be enacted to counter Mr. TV’s looming broadcast.

The three families — Ana and Tomás, their parents, and the grandfather — don inflatable suits identical to the balloon men, lifting them into the cold sky as they approach The Aerial. Just as the elder completes the setup, a dark figure, El hombre ratón El hombre ratón and his henchmen, bursts into the station, threatening to derail the counterstrike. A tense confrontation follows, the gunfire claiming the life of The Aerial’s director, who somehow turns into an old woman in death, and Ana knocks the Rat Man to the ground. Back in the lab, Tomás’ transmission sends Dr. Y into a choking fit before he is beaten by Mr. TV, ending the direct threat to the counter-broadcast.

In a climactic turn, the two transmissions collide: the crowd awakens, freed from the grip of the hypnotic broadcast, discovering a world where they can use their voices again—though speech itself remains imperfect. Voices return to the city, not as perfect speech but as a reclaimed power that must be spoken and shared. The family emerges from The Aerial with their new voices, ready to carve a future in a city that has learned to listen once more.