What is a “triffid” in ‘The Day of the Triffids’?
John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids has spawned numerous British-produced on-screen adaptations, from the 1963 B-movie to the 1981 and 2009 BBC TV series. Its blend of extraterrestrial phenomena, biohazards, horror and social satire typifies the innovative examples of dystopian science fiction published in the 1950s.
In fact, Wyndham is one of Stephen King’s favourite sci-fi authors, with the best-selling novelist heaping particular praise on the movie adaptation of Wyndham’s book The Midwich Cuckoos. It’s safe to say that King probably wouldn’t speak as positively about the original Day of the Triffids film, which doesn’t bother following the plot of the novel beyond its basic premise.
Most fans of Wyndham’s novel prefer its most recent adaptation for the small screen by the BBC, starring Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson and Brian Cox. This version makes use of two feature-length episodes and a sizeable budget for visual effects to see the novel’s plot to its conclusion, including its ending involving the founding of a triffid-free colony of remaining humans on the Isle of Wight, with the additional angle informed by more contemporary science that triffids are used as a source of alternative carbon-neutral fuel, in order to tackle climate change.
By contrast, the novel bases itself on the backdrop of the Cold War for its explanation as to how and why triffids came to be bred by humans. In Wyndham’s story, they’re the result of bioengineering by the Soviet Union. In all cases, however, the attack on humanity by the triffids is catalysed by an unexpected astronomical event, whether a meteor shower or a solar flare.
What exactly are the triffids, then?
Triffids are locomotive, meat-eating plants with venomous stingers which have a taste for human flesh. Their stingers stun potential prey, allowing them to feed on what they’ve caught. Wyndham modelled the plant on the Venus flytrap, with the added bonus that they’re big, strong and venomous enough to kill and eat humans.
The plant is entirely fictional, of course, but carries within it the kernel of various metaphors, depending on the version of the story. In the original Wyndham and BBC versions, the triffids strike when humans are blinded by the outside astronomical event, making them vulnerable both to the triffids, which are quickly multiplying and to other humans seeking to exploit them.
The triffids seem to represent the unintended consequences of humans playing god in the context of either conflict between global superpowers or the struggle to prevent climate change. In the 1963 film, triffids begin their time on Earth as plant spores brought over by a meteor shower.
The fact that they don’t resemble humans or even animals arguably makes them all the more terrifying since we, as the audience, can’t identify with or relate to them, even in vague, physical terms. Nor can their human adversaries stop them on their own terms. As such, Wyndham’s creation serves as an ingenious allegory for the forces of nature we’re able to unleash unintentionally, which can quickly grow beyond our control with deadly results.
