A Complete List of All the Biblical References in 'mother!'

Darren Aronofsky did something very few directors do when he released his latest film, mother!, earlier this month. He straight up told audiences what the allegories were supposed to represent. Most filmmakers take the approach of letting audiences come up with their own interpretations, but Aronofsky wanted everyone to know that there were very specific themes at play in his latest work. Essentially, the film is about God and man's treatment of the earth. The film plays out as a contained story, but it adapts several major events from the Bible to convey its message. We've compiled a list of every biblical reference in the film in case you missed any. Major spoilers for mother! ahead.


The film opens with Javier Bardem's Poet (the God of this piece) sculpting a crystal from ash, in turn rebuilding his fire damaged home and awakening/creating Jennifer Lawrence's Mother (Earth). This is the creation scene.

The Poet and Mother live a peaceful life, but it's clear the Poetic is suffering from a lack of inspiration and neglecting his attention toward Mother. Their lives are then upended when a Stranger (Ed Harris) arrives at their home. This Stranger represents Adam, the first man on Earth. The Poet tells the Stranger he is welcome in his house without first consulting Mother. This will start a trend of uninvited guests being allowed to stay in the house without care or consideration for Mother's feelings on the matter. God created a living, breathing Earth, but he also created the means to destroy it.

Since his arrival, the Stranger has suffered a serious cough. A sign of man's immortality. At night, Mother catches the Poet comforting the Stranger as he is sick. During this scene a large cut on the Stranger's ribs can be seen. In the Bible, God crafted Eve from the rib of Adam. Sure enough, the next day the Stranger's previously unmentioned Wife arrives at the house.

There is an immediate, underlying tension between the Mother, the Poet and the uninvited guests. The Poet welcomes the strangers' presence. Mother is a bit more trepidatious. Things really take a turn when, despite repeated warnings against it, the Stranger and his Wife enter the Poet's study and examine the ash crystal. When the Wife accidentally drops the crystal, completely shattering it, the Poet and Mother banish the strangers. This is Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit.

After being banished from the study and asked to leave the house, Mother instead catches the Strangers in the middle of a sexual act. This is a sign of man's disobedience of God and their fall into sin. Not soon after, the strangers' sons arrive, here to resolve a tense family quarrel. The Older Brother feels the Younger Brother is favored by the family when it comes to their father's will and has come to confront everyone. This leads to a fight between the brothers where the Older bludgeons the Younger's head in with a doorknob. The Poet breaks up the fight, causing the Older Brother to smash his head on some glass, which leaves a nasty gash now on his forehead. The Older Brother is banished from the house, left to wander, while the family grieves their murdered son.

In the Bible, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve. Jealous of Abel seemingly being more favored by God, Cain bludgeons his brother to death. God punished Cain to a life of wandering, but gave him a distinguishing mark so that no man would kill him, thus prolonging his suffering.

While the Poet is away with the Strangers, Mother cleans the house. While doing the dishes she notices a dead fly. When investigating the basement, a lightbulb filled with blood bursts, raining down blood. After discovering and opening a secret door, a frog hops out. These are representative of several of the plagues that God inflicted upon Egypt.

A wake is held for the dead brother and an over abundance of guests arrive. None of them pay much respect toward Mother or her rules. They wander around where they want, speak to her rudely, and even directly disobey her requests to not sit on an unbraced sink. This causes the sink to break, which in turn causes a broken pipe to flood the kitchen. After flooding the kitchen, everyone is asked to leave. In the Bible, God created a huge flood to wipe out Earth's population that was filled with disobedient sinners.

After the flood, mother! begins to take a looser approach to Biblical adaptation and turns its focus to more overt modern environmental issues. The Poet keeps inviting more and more people into his home and these strangers quickly begin to take advantage of it. War, famine and a huge gamut of man-made disasters play out within the confines of the house's walls. God created the earth. God created man. God will do nothing to intervene as man destroys the earth.

The baby born to Mother and the Poet is given by the Poet to his fans, who sacrifice it, eat its flesh and drink its blood. This is clearly the literal act of communion. After being stripped down and beaten by man, Mother finally begins to fight back, literally cracking the foundations of the house. This is indicative of the earth fighting back via natural disasters.

Finally, Mother heads down to the basement where she ignites a barrel of oil, incinerating the entire house and everyone inside it. The Poet is the lone survivor, who forms a new crystal from the ashes of Mother, places it on his mantle, and starts creating again.

Ultimately, what Aronofsky is saying with mother! is that whether or not there is a God who can solve all of our earthly problems, he ain't stepping in to intervene. He uses a truly brutal and incendiary finale to open our eyes to the way we treat our home. And if we can't change our ways? Our home might change them for us.

mother! is a true conversation and debate starter of a film. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Pick up on any biblical references we missed? Feel free to join the conversation and let us know!