Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland, is one of those films that manages to keep everyone on the edge of their seats, despite the fact that the viewer has a good notion of the movie’s outcome from the start. The 2018 science fiction horror film starring Natalie Portman and running for 115 minutes is extremely engrossing.
Despite the fact that it gives away important elements about the finale in the first scene, it never lets up on the intensity. Director and screenwriter Garland committed to his solitary purpose of keeping the audience patient while the movie progressively unraveled its mysteries, based on the first novel of the Southern Reach Trilogy by American author, editor, and literary critic Jeff VanderMeer.
Add to it the proportionately elusive emotional reactions of a group of people who are all visibly repressing their fears and frustrations to the point when they can no longer control them and burst! Isn’t it a bit intense? It definitely gives its audience a lot to think about for a film that has received 16 awards and 62 nominations!
So get ready for today’s video, in which we will go over the movie, the Shimmer, the strange quarantine zone, the mutant bear, and a lot more in depth. Are you all set?
Annihilation (2018)
The movie begins with a cellular biologist and ex-military Lena, held in a containment cell, being questioned by men wearing hazmat suits. They enquire about her recent expedition to the anomalous zone that is termed as the Shimmer. Lena happens to be the solitary survivor of the mission and also seems a bit disoriented. While she confirms the deaths of two of her teammates, she isn’t quite sure what happened to the other two.
The scene next moves to something in space, making its way into the surface of the Earth and hitting a lighthouse. From here it begins emitting a strange glow. It has been three years since this event; Lena is seen working as a professor at Johns Hopkins Hospital and her research area happens to be the genetically programmed life cycle of a cell. Lena’s husband, Sergeant Kane had gone on a covert mission and it has been over a year that he hasn’t returned.
It is quite clear that Lena has still not digested the fact that her husband isn’t coming back. But one day, when he does come back, he hardly has any memory of where he was or how he even came back home. His health condition rapidly worsens and while Lena takes him to the hospital, their ambulance gets stopped by a bunch of security forces on the way, who sedate them.
Lena wakes up to find herself in one of the compounds of the Southern Reach. She meets the psychologist, Dr. Ventress, who tells her about the Shimmer and how its boundaries keep expanding. She further elucidates to her how many teams have been sent there but the only person to have made it back is Kane.
And now Kane lay critically ill, dying due to multiple organ failure and massive internal bleeding. Lena, having served in the military for seven years herself, makes up her mind to know the real reason why her husband went inside.
She assists Dr. Ventress in an all-girls team expedition into The Shimmer to find its source of energy; enter the lighthouse, acquire the data and come back. The group also comprised paramedic Anya Thorensen, geomorphologist Cassie Sheppard and physicist Josie Radek.
The group heads inside the Shimmer and Lena begins having flashbacks of a past affair that she had indulged in with a colleague. It has been four days inside and the team wakes up a little unsettled, having no memory of setting up camps or anything for that matter post reaching the tree line. Any equipment that sends a signal out of the Shimmer does not seem to be working.
The group continues further into the Shimmer documenting their findings and research. Josie is lucky enough to survive an attack by a mutated albino alligator, one who possessed shark-like teeth, hinting at the possibility of cross-breeding happening inside the Shimmer.
The group discovers several mutated plants and animals on the way. During one of their halts at Fort Amaya, which previously used to be the headquarters of the Southern Reach, they come across names of a few soldiers from the last expedition. They also chance upon video footage that has Kane making an incision on the stomach of a fellow soldier and showing the insides moving on their own.
The mutated corpse of the very same soldier is also discovered by the team later, something that makes them way too disturbed. That very night, a mutant bear rips open the fence of the base and drag away Sheppard. Her mangled body is discovered by Lena the next day.
The remaining team continues with their journey and soon comes across an abandoned house that has a number of plants that almost look like human forms. Josie comes to a conclusion that the Shimmer is a prism that refracts everything – be it light waves, radio waves, animal DNA, plant DNA, to the extent of even human DNA. Anya becomes all the more paranoid knowing this and watching her fingerprints moving. She goes to the extent of completely losing her mind when she discovers that Kane is Lena’s husband. Anya ties up the rest of her teammates call Lena a liar and even accuses her of killing Sheppard. Just then, the mutated bear beguiles Anya away with a voice that sounds like Sheppard crying for help.
Anya runs outside only to be attacked by the animal and the latter comes inside the house, mimicking Sheppard’s voice right in front of the incapacitated girls. Anya, wounded, still manages to come back inside the house and shoot at the bear. However, she meets her dreadful end at the hands of the bear, who rips apart her throat and jaw.
Ventress leaves for the lighthouse all by herself. It does not take the remaining duo much time to comprehend that the refractions are already inside their bodies by then. With Josie wandering off and presumably altering into a human-plant form, Lena makes her way to the lighthouse.
That’s where she finds a charred skeleton and a camera pointed at it. Post watching the video, Lena realizes that what lies in front of her are the remains of Kane, and the person shooting the video was a clone of Kane. Or in other words, the Kane who made it back home. Lena goes farther inside a hole and finds Ventress there, who becomes a glowing form of light. Upon absorbing a drop of blood from Lena’s face, she becomes a humanoid figure.
The entity mirrors Lena; her every action and does not let her escape. Having no other options left, Lena gives her a phosphorus grenade and the entity changes into her doppelgänger. She activates the bomb and escapes from the lighthouse. Consumed by the fire, it crawls back into the hole, igniting the entire lighthouse in the process.
The Shimmer fades away. The audience is taken back to the scene that has Lena being questioned and also recounting her experience at the Shimmer. In the meantime, Kane has also regained his consciousness and is doing a lot better. Lena finally gets to see him; they embrace each other and while they do that, both their irises shimmer.
Annihilation isn’t one of those linear science fiction movies that will answer all your questions. But mind you, it will make you re-think a lot of things, especially about life, about death, about what is it that holds us together and yes it will give you quite a few scares, some of which will be everlasting and also make you experience things that you have probably never felt before!
What Is The Shimmer?
“A religious event. An extraterrestrial event. A higher dimension. We have many theories, few facts.” Please include Dr. Ventress’s dialogue here.
Right at the start of the movie, we are taken to a scene that shows something in space, making its way into the surface of the earth and crashing into a lighthouse, one from where it begins emitting a mysterious glow. So, it would not be entirely wrong to say that the Shimmer is more like a dome that is continually growing and the center of it happens to be the lighthouse.
Well, on the basis of this, it can be taken into consideration that the source of this unknown phenomenon is alien, but then that is it. We don’t know if it is carbon-based, we cannot really assume anything further than this. But what we do know is that it spreads and when it does, it alters the flora and fauna within it.
The character of Josie Radek was absolutely right in theorizing that the Shimmer is a prism that refracts not only light waves but also the DNA of plants, animals, and even humans. Now, for those of you who don’t know what refraction means, it is a situation where the direction of a wave gets changed when it travels from one form to the other. The mutations inside the Shimmer were subtle at first but they started getting more extreme, the closer the group made it to the lighthouse.
There were corruptions of form, duplicates of form, and echoes that were shared amongst all the members of the group. So, the albino alligator that attacked Radek only had mutated teeth, even the human-shaped plants had mild mutations as opposed to the bear that mutilated and killed both Sheppard and Thorenson. The creature was altered to a lot more extreme level, so much so that it was almost unidentifiable.
While the real form of the Shimmer has not been on display in the movie, there is a possibility that it is more like a whirling cloud of matter, one that radiates this glowing light. On a bigger scale, we know it expands, and whilst doing so, it mutates everything within its perimeter on a genetic level.
It is a presence without an apparent will and its mission is to spread itself across the whole world and adapt everything into it. Yes, the Shimmer is capable of shapeshifting or should we say generating clones that will take over the DNA, personality as well as memories of the original. By now we all know that the Kane who made it back to Lena was not the real Kane.
The same can be said for Lena’s doppelgänger who was initially a humanoid figure without any features, mirroring Lena’s every action. It eventually did turn into a replica of her. What is scarier is the fact that these duplicates actually believe that they are who they are copying. Be it in terms of their looks or behavior, they will mirror everything!
Now comes the part of what really happened inside the lighthouse. Primarily, there are three things to be explored here. The first is, what is it that really happened to Kane? Well, there’s no denying that he went absolutely crazy at the thought of how the Shimmer altered him.
That basically led to his death, or in other words, he committed suicide and it was his doppelgänger who came back home to Lena. Although it is not entirely clear if Kane coming to grips with his clone is a fraction of him losing his mind, but we cannot deny the fact that he did view himself and his clone as two separate beings. The second thing to be explored is what exactly happened to Dr. Ventress?
Coming back to the scene where Lena encounters Ventress inside the lighthouse, the latter is initially seen without her eyes, especially when she is seen talking to herself. This points to Ventress’ mirror version or clone to be more specific, one who enlightens that the Shimmer will grow until it encompasses everything. The third thing to be explored is Lena’s battle against her clone.
The Shimmer, post absorbing a drop of blood from Lena’s face, becomes a humanoid figure, one which mirrors every action of Lena; the way she walks, looks, moves, lies down, sits, literally everything. It is also capable of teleporting and goes to the extent of trapping her against the Lighthouse door until she passes out.
It is a different thing that she is able to fool her mirror version by handing her a phosphorus grenade, activating it, and then escaping the lighthouse. The final scene has the doppelgänger consumed by fire, crawling back into the hole and igniting the source of the Shimmer, thus resulting in the destruction of the Shimmer.
Here’s a bunch of interesting trivia about the Shimmer that we think is bound to catch your attention. Many of you will be quite surprised to know that Alex Garland’s Annihilation is in reality, very heavily based on H. P. Lovecraft’s 1927 sci-fi horror short story called The Colour Out of Space.
As far as the storyline is concerned, it centers on a small farming village that happens to be the crashing point of a meteorite carrying an alien known as ‘The Colour’; one who can not only distort but also mutate all kinds of living things around it. Sounds freakishly similar, right? We thought you should know about it! Also, remember John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror flick, The Thing?
Well, guess it would not be wrong to state that the Shimmer does resemble the entity in terms of copying and impersonating the DNA of literally any being that it comes in contact with. It is also quite fascinating to know that the Shimmer also bears resemblance to ‘the Flood’ from the Halo franchise. Wondering how? Both are into integrating every living being into themselves.
Mutant Bear Creature from Annihilation Explored
If there’s an award for a movie that showcased one of the most terrifying animal attacks in 2018, it must go to Annihilation and full credits to the petrifying mutant bear on display. Most definitely an American black bear, and also comparatively larger than its usual size, Lena and her team get ambushed by this mutant creature. The bear makes its first appearance during the group’s halt at Fort Amaya.
It is quite understandable that the bear had been stalking them. The first thing that it does is rip the fence of the military base open and drag away Sheppard. It isn’t a pretty sight when the mutilated remains of Sheppard are discovered the very next morning by Lena. Next, the creature lures an already paranoid Anya by making sounds similar to Sheppard crying out for help. Of course, Anya runs outside, only to be attacked by the animal.
But that isn’t even the worse part. Things turn out to be freakishly unsettling when the animal comes inside the house, starts circling around the tied-up Josie, Lena, and Ventress, and mimics Sheppard’s dying cries for help to provoke some kind of a reaction from the incapacitated trio. By now, the mutated bear’s skull is clearly visible, even its nasal cavity for that matter.
It also has a strange mix of teeth that’s embedded along with a set of human teeth. Overall, it features a very sickly look! The mutated bear actually goes to the extent of further tormenting Josie by roaring and crying out ‘Help Me’ just the way Sheppard did, before a wounded Anya manages to shoot at it.
The mutant bear ended up ripping her throat and jaw apart. As for the other members, they would have met the same fate had Josie not shot the bear, blowing its skull off.
The Humanoid/ Doppelgänger Explored
Lena, in due course, finds herself a mirrored version that initially happens to be some shiny, green metallic humanoid form, copying every action of hers. From the way she walks, moves, looks, etc. – it imitates every move of hers. Of course, it is scary to view something like that taking place.
Imagine, it going to the extent of not letting her escape and literally making her pass out and then lying next to her in the same posture till she regains consciousness. The same thing repeats over and over again. Anyway, Lena does manage to trick the alien by handing her a phosphorous grenade, activating it, and making a run for her life at the end of the day.
But having said that, a solitary question that often comes to our mind is, did Lena really manage to escape the Shimmer? What if it was not the doppelgänger that died in the end? What if it turned out like Kane’s mirrored version who came back instead of the original Kane?
There is a high possibility that it was the humanoid version of Lena who was being interrogated all this while and what she told was a tale, one that was suitable for her kind as well as the humans. After all, the final scene of the movie does have on display here and Kane’s shimmering irises. We can’t ignore that, can we?
We have said this before and we are saying this again. Garland’s Annihilation will not answer all your questions but it does make you re-think a lot of things. Even the ending for that matter. We would honestly love to know what your interpretation of the movie is. Please share them with us in the comments section!
Will There Be A Part 2?
Given the fact that the movie is based on the first novel in a series of books called the Southern Reach Trilogy by the American author, editor, and literary critic Jeff VanderMeer, there is a high chance for a part II. After all, there are still two more books in the trilogy that are available for adaptation.
The second book that is titled Authority revolves more on the organization that has been investigating the Shimmer–Southern Reach to be precise. The main character here happens to be the replacement of Dr. Ventress and apparently, the Shimmer is still very much present there. The story also features the concept of time travel in it.
But sadly, there hasn’t been any news of a sequel in the making, especially after Alex Garland and Paramount officially said no to a part II. One can only hope a new director, as well as a production company, takes over the charge and ropes in maybe fresh faces along with the old ones, to take this franchise ahead.