Netflix is thrilled to have millions of people watching a blindfolded Sandra Bullock navigate a dystopian and deadly future in its hit original movie "Bird Box."
The company is not so thrilled about people trying to be Bullock's character by filming themselves running, walking and going down stairs while blindfolded as part of the ill-advised #BirdBoxChallenge that has originated online.
The movie features Bullock as a mother protecting her children, known simply as Boy and Girl, from an unseen creature that, if they look at it, makes people kill themselves. She instructs her children not to remove their blindfolds or they will die, and the movie includes a scene where they are navigating a river in a rowboat with their eyes covered.
Netflix issued a plea on Wednesday for people to stop with the "Bird Box" challenge before they get hurt, as videos surfaced on social media of people hitting walls and other dangerous behavior while blindfolded.
"Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE,'' the company wrote on Twitter. "We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."
Netflix announced on Dec. 28 that "Bird Box" had been streamed by more than 45 million accounts in the first seven days after its release, a record for any Netflix movie.
The company's request came after the #BirdBoxChallenge began popping up online with videos of everything from a blindfolded toddler smacking into a wall to a man who appears to be driving and covering his eyes with his beanie hat.
The #BirdBoxChallenge is the latest harmful "challenge" craze that has bubbled up from the internet, following ones like ingesting heaps of cinnamon in the cinnamon challenge, eating laundry detergent in the Tide pod challenge, rubbing erasers on skin in the eraser challenge and spraying aerosol deodorant on the skin in the deodorant challenge.
Unless the apocalypse comes and we're stuck in a future where seeing means dying, let's leave the blindfolded maneuvers to Bullock.