Why is the movie annihilation rated r
Annihilation ENDING EXPLAINED - Details You Missed!
hi guys I'm Eric Voss and the movie
annihilation presented some of the most
perplexing science fiction concepts
we've seen in recent years directed by
Alex garland who made the amazing film
ex machina in 2014
annihilation stars Natalie Portman as a
biologist joining a female exhibition
that's totally not the new Ghostbusters
exploring a mysterious meteor crash zone
filled with trippy psychedelic mutations
now you may have walked out of smoothie
a little confused and that's okay it
happens to all of us it doesn't mean
we're dumb dumbs even though the studio
worried we might be it just means this
film did its job do challenge our minds
and keep the conversation over what the
f we just saw going on and on the ride
home all the way to YouTube for answers
where hey welcome I'm here to help I got
those answers so I'm gonna explain
annihilations ending what it all means
all the big questions so spoilers ahead
ok let's start with the first question
what is the shimmer exactly so the
shimmer is the name given to the
expanding region affected by this meteor
which crashed into a lighthouse on
Florida's panhandle mutating everything
in the swamp to look like an acid trip
which is funny because as someone who
grew up in Florida that's exactly how it
looks normally the shimmer is most
likely some kind of extraterrestrial
organism a whole new kind of alien
attack that's driven more by its
biological life cycle than any
interplanetary conquest which is really
more of a cliche sci-fi agenda that just
comes from our own assumptions about
alien species in this movie Tessa
Thompson's physicist character erratic
describes the shimmer as a prism that
refracts light and radio waves but also
reflects the DNA of plants and animals
within it that refraction is what causes
everything to mutate the way it does the
Gators have second rows of teeth like
sharks this bear monster that absorbs
the final emotions of its prey plants
that grow in the shape of human beings
intestines that slither around like
snakes and if you watched closely this
film sneakily foreshadowed this
refraction idea early on when Lena and
Kane's hands are seen refracted through
a drinking glass but there's a basic
biological function that serves as
really an extended metaphor for the
shimmer that the film gives us as a sort
of road map which brings us to our next
question what does the shimmer represent
there are several ways to interpret this
film but one analogy that the film will
give
is cancer in the opening scenes Lina
introduces us to the idea of cellular
biology and a lecture tour students on
cervical cancer the cancer motif comes
back repeatedly Lina compares a
crossbred flower plant to cell mutations
of cancer in the human body and later
dr. Ventress reveals her cancer
diagnosis which is really her personal
motivation for entering the Shimer
looking at the shimmer as a growing
tumor on the Earth's surface makes this
film a lot easier to digest the various
doppelgangers operate like cancer cells
which duplicate and eventually
annihilate the original cell and the
repeated expeditions of soldiers and
scientists being thrown into the shimmer
could represent the various failed
treatment methods the medical community
has attempted to control different forms
of cancer over the years there are even
some emotional parallels Radek reflects
on how horrible it was for Shepherd to
die screaming perhaps a nod to the
debate among some cancer patients over
the value of trying to fight prolonged
battles against it I mean really if you
think about this you could argue some
extraterrestrial race concluded that the
most destructive weapon against earth
both biologically and psychologically is
a form of ecological cancer but to say
this film is just about cancer is really
two surface levels so what is
annihilations deeper meaning well as
Ventris tells us midway through the
movie it's really all about
self-destruction
yes biologically speaking cancer is a
form of self-destruction Lina explains
how cancer cells annihilate other
healthy cells but just as the coding for
their own self-destruction is embedded
in cells stemming back to the original
one celled organism on earth this movie
extrapolates that idea to people as well
suggesting our own behavioral
self-destruction is inevitable Radek
cuts herself Lorenson is an addict
Shepherd is broken over losing her
daughter and Lina destroyed her own
happy marriage by cheating on Cain the
shimmer triggers each of these woman's
self-destructive tendencies
notice how the moment they cross into
the shimmer Lina flashes back to the
night she cheated on her husband and
later the house they encounter is a
version of Lina and Cain's house the
shimmer is reflecting Lina's own guilt
and memories back to her now Lina's
mistake grows as a metaphoric cancer
until it consumes her marriage reflected
in her physical struggles which leads us
to the next big question what the hell
happened in the lighthouse so after Lina
learns that the cane she saw earlier was
her husband's mutant doppelganger
there's this crazy scene in the cavern
below with Ventress allowing the
refraction to transform her body then a
drop of Lena's blood mixes in resulting
in this metallic looking form that
mirrors Lena's movements this is a
metaphor for Lena's battle with the
version of herself that she is
transformed into after her failed
marriage her only Escape is to destroy
one version of herself by burning it up
with another phosphorus grenade which
seems to sear all of the mutant out
gross to the shimmer to return to that
cancer metaphor this could be compared
to surgical removal of a tumor a drastic
destructive option that doesn't always
remove all the traces of the cancer
which leads us to the mystery of the
movies ending is Lena a clone was the
version of Lena that escaped the
lighthouse and the shimmer getting
interrogated by Benedict Wong throughout
the movie Lena's original self or her
doppelganger now it looked as though it
was the doppelganger that got burned up
but the film's final image leaves the
question open-ended with a close-up of
her eyes glowing hey kind of like the
end of Michael Jackson Thriller actually
if you go back and scrutinize his film
frame by frame there are other clues
snuck in there that hint Lena's post
shimmer self is the mutation remember
she suffered a concussion when the
doppelganger attacked her in a
lighthouse and the switcheroo definitely
could have happened during that blackout
also during the interrogation you can
see the water on Lena's glass mutating
but ultimately this ambiguity is the
point
Alex Garland's original ending was
planned to be even more ambiguous an
earlier script draft didn't even show
which Lena made it out of the lighthouse
by the way that alternate end being
closed with a meteor shower showing even
more of these shimmer radiations making
their way to Earth's surface in that
final version Lena's blood was infected
by the shimmer the moment she walked
into it either way interrogation Lena
could have been lying about the events
as we saw them from her perspective and
either way the versions of Lena and
Kaine at the end of the movie are
completely different people from the
ones we saw at the beginning for a movie
about self-destruction in all its forms
it's fitting to end on a marriage that
has been annihilated by its own toxic
mutant form but what if thrown over to
you guys do you guys think the shimmer
meteor was meant as a weapon by
other alien race maybe to mutate earth
to terraform it so that they can move in
or do you see the shimmer as the alien
species itself and it just like hops
from planet to planet like some kind of
viral infection comment with your
thoughts down below and tweet me
directly I da boss and probably new
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