“Nothing Ever Ends”: ‘400 Boys’ & the Flexible Bodies of Oppression

The Plot

“400 Boys” takes place in the post-apocalyptic Fun City, inhabited by Teams  led by Slickers. All the residents of Fun City have a psychic connection to the earth and each other, manifested in electric-styled telekinetic powers. In this story we follow the Brothers, a team that has survived the violent arrival of the 400 Boys. Guided by the unwritten, psychically understood, code of ethics of Fun City the remaining Teams band together to run the 400 Boys off their turf and avenge the fallen Teams.

Video & Short Story

My analysis looks at both the 1983 original short story by Marc Laidlaw, published in the popular OMNI science fiction magazine and the 2025 “Love Death & Robots” adaptation, published by Netflix. It’ll incorporate quotes, depictions, and characterizations built from both renditions and I highly recommend reading/watching both. *It’s liked through the images.*

400 Boys (2025) – 15 minute watch

400 Boys (1983) – 20-ish minute read

Since I am going to be looking at both versions of the story, there are some key differences between the  1983 version and the 2025 version that should be acknowledged in order to better understand my analysis. The 1983 rendition gives us more insight into the history of the characters and their world, this is primarily because this version is told through the perspective of one of the Brothers, Croak. There are additional characters, teams, and locations present in the 1983 original short story. Another major difference is in the depiction of the actual 400 Boys. In the 1983 story there are actually four hundred giant boys about the ages of seven or eight, while in the 2025 adaptation there are three giant babies. The effects of the Fun City inhabitants’ psychic powers also impact the 400 Boys differently. They shrink the 400 Boys down to double average height in the 1983 story, but only temporarily deform the 400 Boys in the 2025 version.  Much of the lore of the world remains the same, but the exact phrasing of things and who says them changes slightly.

The 400 Boys

The 400 Boys. Let’s start by just breaking down their name. “400” can be interpreted as a reference to the Forbes 400 List of richest people in the world, creating a direct connection between the 400 Boys and capitalistic pursuits. “Boys” is in reference to their masculinity, which must be understood through a liberal (and neoliberal) perspective that “values individual agency as the ultimate goal of organized politics and recognizes the rights of individuals on the basis of their universal humanity” (Fawaz, pg.7). This is reflected in their descriptions in the 1983 short story as, having eyes with . . . “a vicious shine like boys that age get when they are pulling the legs off a bug — laughing wild but freaked and frightened by what they see their own hands doing” (Laidlaw).

Kids at the ages of seven and eight can still be very egocentric, functioning solely off of their own perception of the world around them. Oftentimes crafting it into their own imaginings as they see fit.

“Were the Four Hundred Boys building a new city? If so, it would be much worse than death”

Laidlaw, 1983

This kind of ego-centrism parallels the individualism that characterizes liberal philosophies. Additionally the reckless abandonment of the 400 Boys as they move through Fun City function similarly to that of capital owners, like the Forbes 400, in late capitalism. 

Another important aspect to the 400 Boys that connects them to ideas of neoliberalism is illustrated in their youth and regenerative abilities from the 2025 Netflix adaptation. These powers make the 400 Boys much stronger than the people of Fun City and act as a visual representation of their flexibility, the kind of flexibility that McRuer describes as necessary to the function of neoliberalism. It requires flexibility in order to capture niche and individualized audiences in both the labor and consumer markets, expand and contract. This flexibility acknowledges differences in order to reaffirm its own normalcy/supremacy. 

Finally, when the 400 Boys enter Fun City, they arrive violently. In the 2025 Netflix adaptation, Old Mother, matriarch of the Galrogs, proclaims that they are here to smash (i.e. battle, fight, war). Narratively the 400 Boys are acting as physically an oppressive force to the people of Fun City, similar to late capitalism and its other hierarchical manifestations of racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.

OLD Mother’s Speech – 2025 Netflix Adaptation

It was the end of the world.
There were wars in the south.
Bonfire made out of cities.
Bombs going off like fireworks.
The world was broken.
And beings from the outside
oozed through the cracks.
And now they want to smash.
---
Nothing ever ends.

Fun City

It is important to acknowledge the alternative depiction of masculinity provided by the inhabitants of Fun City. Similar to how Fawaz describes the new mutant generation of superheroes, the Teams of Fun City are like superhero teams and found families. They’re known by their Team names and have individual nicknames as well, often in reference to their abilities. 

When HiLo is first introduced he initially denounces the title of Slicker, because he understands that he can’t be a leader without a team. It is in this fallen state that Slash sets aside his aims of revenge to help HiLo fight off the 400 Boys and avenge the Soooooots. This is the first example of the “fluxability” Fawaz defines in “From American Marvels to the Mutant Generation”. There is the traditional masculine-aligned value of revenge—particularly for Slash—that is set aside due to empathy, which can be interpreted as vulnerability. The kind of “masculinity” developed in Fun City in order to survive is constantly being balanced with the vulnerability of the individuals and the Teams. Again they are all psychically connected at some level. For Fun City masculinity functions differently than it does for the 400 Boys, which is why they are able to come together in the end as  Fun City to smash against the 400 Boys.

The Grand Smash

HiLo’s rallying cry in this video gives you a better understanding of how the 400 Boys act as oppressive forces and why the Teams of Fun City felt it necessary to fight back.

There’s probably more I could say about symbolism of the Teams and the individual members and dynamics, and all with more nuanced references to Fawaz and McRuer, but I’ve decided that I’ve written enough.