In a world recently overtaken by a virus that turns people rabid within 48 hours, Andy Rose, his wife Kay, and their baby Rosie are traveling down a river on a houseboat in rural Australia. Short on food, Kay suggests going ashore and scavenging, but Andy rejects this, arguing it would be safer to remain on the river until they reach their destination, a supposed refuge. The next day, Andy searches an abandoned sailboat and retrieves some supplies, but when Kay ventures out to collect more, she is bitten by a rabid human.
Andy finds Kay trying to bandage the bite wound and insists on taking her to a hospital since she would bleed out long before succumbing to the virus. The Rose family disembarks, restarts an abandoned car, and sets out toward what their map indicates is a large town, but they swerve to avoid an Aboriginal man standing in the road and crash. Kay is impaled and Andy faints. By the time he wakes, Kay has already turned and bites him. Andy removes Rosie from the car and prepares to defend himself against the man, who is also turned, but a girl named Thoomi appears and reveals that the man is her father, Willie Bell. Thoomi has been hiding Willie from her mother, Josie, and the rest of her community because the Aboriginals are systematically burning the infected. She believes her father can be cured by having a shaman restore his soul.
Andy reaches the town, but it is much smaller than expected and deserted apart from Etta, a schoolteacher who takes care of him and Rosie for the night. Etta explains that all of her students and their families, most of them Aboriginals, have discarded modern trappings and gone back to the old ways; she warns Andy to hide his bite mark. Andy wakes later than planned the next morning after experiencing his first seizure from the virus. When Andy and Rosie leave, Etta shows them a picture of Thoomi and her parents and tells Andy to find them and leave Rosie in their care.
Andy assists a man named Vic, owner of a fortified shelter, and meets Vic's apparent wife, Lorraine. Andy learns that Vic uses healthy humans in cages as bait, one of whom is Thoomi, to lure out the infected so he can shoot them. That night, Andy attempts suicide, believing Rosie will be cared for by Vic and Lorraine, but Lorraine stops him and reveals that she is not Vic's wife, but his captive, and Vic murdered her real husband. Vic discovers them and knocks Andy out, and he awakens in the same cage as Thoomi. They help each other escape by using the combined strength of many infected to pull open their cage. As they escape the shelter with Lorraine and Rosie in tow, an enraged Vic shoots at them, inadvertently killing Lorraine.
The following morning, Andy upsets Thoomi when he tells her that he and her father will not get better. She runs to where she had been hiding her father, but finds her people had already discovered Willie and put him down. Initially distraught and blaming Andy for delaying her, Thoomi relents and rejoins him when she hears Rosie crying. They travel by motorboat to a campsite where Andy previously saw another family, but learn that the father has been bitten and plans to kill his family and himself with a revolver. The father tells Andy to use the gun's last two bullets on himself and Rosie. When the family is dead, Andy takes up the gun and considers suicide, but is stopped by Thoomi. They then notice smoke nearby and move to investigate.
As the trio passes through a railway tunnel, they re-encounter Vic. Thoomi hides with Rosie while Andy and Vic fight. Vic manages to grab the revolver during the struggle and shoots Andy, then goes after Thoomi and Rosie. When Andy recovers, he finds Vic cradling Rosie and weeping over the loss of Lorraine. Vic peacefully returns Rosie to Andy and allows them and Thoomi to leave.
Later, Andy enters the final throes of infection. With his time almost gone, Andy asks Thoomi to look after Rosie. He and Thoomi prepare for his turning by binding his hands and preparing a piece of meat on a stick, which Thoomi uses to bait him once he has turned. In this manner, Thoomi uses Andy to carry her and Rosie safely on his back. They eventually catch up to a party of Aboriginal warriors and Thoomi is reunited with Josie. Thoomi uses Kay's perfume to bring Andy back to his senses just long enough to see that Rosie is safe, and a warrior puts Andy out of his misery. The group then returns to a large community of survivors deep in the wilderness. The survivors are overjoyed at Thoomi's safe return and delighted with the new addition. As Thoomi and Josie check Rosie for injuries, they find Andy had painted the words "Thank You" on her stomach. As sadden Thoomi and Josie look up in silent thanks to Andy. It is implied that Josie will raise Rosie as her own. A tree in the community is decorated with items that belonged to Thoomi and Andy.
Cargo received positive reviews from critics, praising its emotional depth and Freeman's performance. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87%, based on 77 reviews, and an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cargo takes a refreshingly character-driven approach to the zombie genre that's further distinguished by its Australian setting and Martin Freeman's terrific lead performance."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12]
The film has been described as a tribute to the 2009 film The Road.[7][8] In a positive review, Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com stated he believed George A. Romero would have enjoyed the film.[13] Clark Collins of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a 'B', saying: "The Australian setting brings a fresh, and epic, quality to this now done-to-death genre".[14] However, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film for being "unlikely to satisfy either viewers looking for serious-minded fare or horror fans looking for genuine frights", but praised Freeman's "quietly intense" performance.[15]
^Quinn, Karl (3 May 2018). "When is a zombie film not a zombie film? When it's Martin Freeman's Cargo". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 16 May 2018. Cargo was written by Yolanda Ramke and co-directed by her and Ben Howling (they're mates, but not a couple). It's their first feature, an extended reworking of the seven-minute film they made for Tropfest in 2013, which became a YouTube sensation (it's been watched more than 14 million times).
^ abWise, Josh (23 April 2018). "Cargo". Slant. Retrieved 16 May 2018. In the post-apocalyptic world of Cargo, the undead shuffle about with eyes that seem to weep marmalade, a symptom of a mysterious disease that's swept across Australia.
