Is 'Penguin Bloom' based on true story? Here's what happened to the injured magpie that gave Sam Bloom a new life
One of Netflix's offerings this January is quite special and may just be the perfect viewing as we get more settled in 2021, but still reeling from the gloomy effects of everything that went down in 2020 (and the early days of the year). 'Penguin Bloom' follows the story of Samantha Bloom, played by two-time Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts, her husband Cameron Bloom (played by Andrew Lincoln from 'The Walking Dead'), and their three sons as they nurse back an injured baby magpie back to health. Sam herself is paralyzed after an accident a few years earlier and as the Blooms help the magpie, named Penguin, the bird, in turn, helps Sam rebuild hope.
No doubt, even just reading the synopsis might cover you in goosebumps. The movie becomes even more special when we learn that 'Penguin Bloom' is based on the true story of an Australian family and the bird that became a social media star. Cameron released a book on their family's experiences with Penguin, titled 'Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family'. This is their story filled with beautiful images of their relationship with the bird. Let's take a look at the original story of Penguin Bloom, the magpie.
Who is Samantha Bloom?
Samantha Bloom is an Australian woman who worked as a nurse and traveled across Africa. She later fell in love with Cameron Bloom and had three sons with him — Rueben, Noah and Oliver — and settled in Sydney's Northern Beaches.
On one of their family trips to Thailand in 2013, when the family was on a rooftop terrace of a hotel, Sam leaned against the safety rail, unaware that the rail's supports was rotted. She fell to the concrete two floors below and shattered two vertebrae in her spine, leaving her paralyzed.
The accident left the family lost, with Cameron saying of the accident to New Zealand publication, Now to Love, that it was "immediate and forever life-changing". It would be seven months before Sam could return to Australia, and Cameron had a tense wait in the Thai hospital as Sam recovered. When the family returned to Sydney, Sam, 45 years old at the time, fell into depression.
Before the accident, Sam had an active life and the loss of her legs weighed heavily on her. She spoke to Mamamia about her depression, "We live at the beach and it just rubbed it in even more. I would be sitting here staring at people surf. It would make me so sad. I found it hard to get out of bed because I had nothing to do. It was like I was on house arrest." She also felt grief over how the injury affected her family, saying, "I felt like the worst mum in the world because I wasn't the same mum. I wasn't energetic and happy. I was angry and I felt so guilty that I wrecked their lives and their childhood."
Three months after Sam returned to Australia, her son Noah found a baby magpie chick that had fallen from a tree after a gust of wind blew it down. Her sons decided to call the bird Penguin because of her black and white plumage and because her walk was more of a waddle when they found her. “We didn’t realize she’d stay with us for quite so long,” Sam told Mamamia. “In a selfish way for me, she gave me something to look after."
Sam wrote her own side of the story in 'Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong' with her husband Cameron and close friend, New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive.
How Penguin and Sam helped each other
In the book, Cameron wrote that Penguin could not have arrived at a better time, writing, "By which I mean a more terrible time." He continued, "Penguin and Sam soon became inseparable; one was always looking after the other. When Penguin was weak and sickly, Sam would lovingly nurse her back to health. And when Sam found it hard to get moving, Penguin would sing her energy levels up. If Sam was inside, doing paperwork or writing in her private journal, Penguin would be there. If Sam was outside, painting and enjoying the sunshine, Penguin would be there."
As Sam and Penguin came to terms with their changed lives, they formed an unbreakable bond. Cameron wrote in his book, "She was fiercely loyal to Sam and would provide a melodic chirp of encouragement whenever anything proved more challenging than might have been expected." If Sam had a tough day with training and physical therapy or the pain got too much to bear, Sam and Penguin would lie outside under the sky and would have what Cameron wrote sounded like a "long, in-depth conversations about what they were going through".
Sam spoke to Mamamia on this, saying, “I spoke to her about how much I hated this, with what had happened. I felt bad for Cam because he had so much to deal with; obviously with me and looking after the kids and work too. So I didn't want to constantly complain to him. So I would just complain to Penguin instead.”
Penguin continued to recover and inspired Sam to get back to her active lifestyle. The Blooms had many nights when they felt Penguin might not make it, so when the bird took her first flight inside their lounge room, Cameron wrote that it was an "amazing moment" for the family. Penguin's flight inspired Sam too, and she took up kayaking. Though it was difficult at first, Sam decided to stay active and stick to it to take a break from her "stupid wheelchair".
“Penguin needed her,” Cameron told Now to Love. “Sam’s demeanor and outlook on everything suddenly changed for the better because she could help Penguin.” He continued, "They formed a unique bond and it just lifted Sam’s spirits. It made her realize she could still get on and be successful and do some of the things she loves. It just made her realize life was worth living.”
"I may never accept that Sam's accident was part of any divine plan; her suffering is too great for me to believe such things," wrote Cameron in 'Penguin Bloom'. "But that she lived when so many others might have died, and that Penguin fell from the heavens when we needed her most – my heart tells me that if these were not miracles, then the Bloom family is still blessed beyond reason."
Is Penguin still with the Blooms?
Penguin, no doubt, left a lasting impact on the Blooms and continues to be a shining light of hope for the family. In 2015, when Sam was working on her rehabilitation and became a part of the Australian para canoe team for the world champions in Milan, she left to compete. Cameron and her sons followed three weeks later.
Sam told Mamamia that Penguin flew away the night before the family left and that they never saw her again. Sam hopes that Penguin started her own little family saying, "I think she came at the perfect time and left at the perfect time because I was in a much better headspace."
As for Sam, she hopes to walk again. While there is no cure available currently for spinal cord injuries, there have been many advancements and Sam hopes that the film will raise awareness for the research. “You have no idea what a cure would mean,” Sam tells Mamamia. “It would be life-changing for millions of people. I have struggled with this injury ever since it happened and I was 41 when I had my accident. When I see young people with a spinal cord injury, it is just so devastating.”
However, Sam also emphasized that the movie did not show her ending to be one that is "great", telling the publication, "I still get envious of seeing people run on the beach and just living a normal life. I can't say I love it. I'll never really accept it, but I guess it gets a little bit easier as time goes on."
While Penguin may no longer be physically present with the Blooms, the family continues to take care of birds. In December 2020, the Blooms had taken in another baby bird they named Van, saying, "He's three months old and he can't fly at all. His wings are really brittle. So we're just feeding him up, hopefully making him strong so that he can eventually fly away.”
'Penguin Bloom' is available to stream on Netflix on Wednesday, January 27, at 12 am PST.