Annihilation Explained
What actually happens in Annihilation? How does the Shimmer work? Is Lena replaced by an alien double? How is the movie different to the book?
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Response from the author! twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/976481936049831937
Alt Shift X well, that’s pretty cool!
Annihilation sounds like a remake and blending of the Russian films called "The Stalker" and "Solaris" . . . .
Radiyas 13 Ah, yes, Solaris. Something *did* ring familiar.
Does Alt Shift X have something to do with Area X? I'm only asking because they share the same surname.
“Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dimlit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been. In the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth. The shadows of the abyss are like the petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear, but whether it decays under the earth or above on green fields, or out to sea or in the very air, all shall come to revelation, and to revel, in the knowledge of the strangling fruit-and the hand of the sinner shall rejoice, for there is no sin in shadow or in light that the seeds of the dead cannot forgive. And there shall be in the planting in the shadows a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom dark flowers, and their teeth shall devour and sustain and herald the passing of an age. That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated it shall walk the world in the bliss of not-knowing. And then there shall be a fire that knows the naming of you, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you that remains.” ― Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation
That bear scene was disturbing as fuck. Pure nightmare material.
Robin yeah, I loved that creepy bear, screaming in human voice.
Uhm, excuse me? It's clearly called a "Yao Guai Lookin Mofo," as seen in the video.
Legitimately fucked my up for the rest of the evening after I left the theater.
Been a long time since I seen something that creepy in a movie
It was playing on my mind for days.
It’s a crime that so few people will have the opportunity to see this in theaters. The final act is fucking beautiful
Video game looking almost
You need to watch more movies then.
Nice Try Why would you watch a video for a movie that you think is trash. Makes you look like a fool lol
same.
DirtyDinner24 I watched it on my Sony 65 inch 4K OLED which is better than the cinema
The reasons for each person entering the shimmer changed their outcomes. josie- someone who engaged in self-harm to feel alive. when she arrived at the flower fields she was able to see beauty which gave her the feeling she was seeking; she then became the flowers that gave her that feeling. ventress- a woman with cancer who was resigned to her fate. She was determined to finish the mission as she knew her time was limited. when she finished the mission of getting to the lighthouse she was able to let go and die. she took fate into her own hands instead of shrivling up due to cancer. katie- a person with addiction and drug issues. her mind was her downfall. she was the first to lose her sanity which is indicative of her mental state as an ex drug addict. lena was able to leave the shimmer because she needed to live for kane. kane was unable to leave because he was in the shimmer too long and lost his mind, so he sent a duplicate of himself to re-unite with lena. sheppard's fate was the most tragic. she entered the shimmer because her child died from leukemia; something she had no control of which left her feeling empty. she died from a wild animal which reflects that lack of control of her own life.
great comment, one little thing: i think Katie was an alcoholic, not a drug addict. at their first meeting you can see that everybody's having a beer, except Katie
@@narwaranel not to be a nerd but i just have to correct you both and say that her name is not Katie, its actually Anya. Katie is a med student at the school Lena was teaching at.
Spoilers. Geez.
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 You're reading comments to a video clip titled " -movie- Explained" and expect spoiler-free?
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 then why are you here bruuhh
Man I'm so envious of people like you who have such great interpretation skills, just the ability to constantly find a reoccurring theme within a film is just something intrinsically awesome.
is this sarcastic?
@@cheers9430 fr lol this is quite simple
@@cheers9430 i dont think it is, some people aren't good at interpreting texts, hence the subscriptions to this channel
@@helix5779 We're all wise and ignorant in our own ways.
I see explanations, I press like button.
One plausible reason for why lena is an alien clone at the end is that the whole story is a narrative told by the lena at the end. And if everything is copied/mixed together, then the alien could also have gotten parts of her memories as well, which is why there are so many gaps in the story which probably is changed and remembered differently in a way that makes the alien think it is lena.
The house she lived in is exactly the same as the house where the bear killed the medic. How is this even possible? Is the ambulance inside the shimmer? The plants got contaminated with the human hux gene & took on a human shape. In the same way, Lena's memory has been contaminated with the town people's memories? (maybe) including memory of their home? She got the soldiers tattoo I think maybe Lena's "7 years combat experience" was due to mixing as well. When Ventress asks her about it she doesn't say yes - she says "I'm a professor"
Excellent point. I tend to agree with you. I think that the whole movie is Lena's story, or better yet, the way she remembers it. The fact that she mixes memories from her previous life with memories frim the Shimmer could mean she is a clone. She could have just invented the ending part and maybe the organism didn't die but simply adapted and went underground. There is another possibility that she was a clone at least from the moment she woke up in the tent and then she really did kill the creature with the phosphorous grenade, but she never realized that she was a clone until Kane asks her. Then she pauses to think about it like any normal person would. If she knew she was a close she would not have paused, she would have just said a lie or just a "i don;t know".
Yall think too much. She is the real one obv as the clone burns in the lighthouse. Plus when she drank water at the interrogation she was ok, while the alien Kane got organ failures. Sure she had an existential crisis when alien Kane asks her if she is Lena I mean look at what she was trough. And the rainbow in her eyes at the end well either alien Kane reflected something into her as they hug cuz he should be the only part of the alien that didnt die/burn or a part of the alien lived in her from the moment she left the lighthouse but I doubt it since everything alien related there burned.
@@xaraoh_ you sir are incorrect. The ending battle was the clone and herself. The clones memory was altered to see the original as the shimmer so she wanted to go home and hense why she isn't the original one
@@xaraoh_ a good observation was the people that went in knew they were going to die so they did. Reason she lived because she wanted to go back and thus was able to live and continue to push to the lighthouse. Why would she all of a sudden get that figure 8 snake tattoo? It's clear she was a clone since the beginning which when they all took a nap. They were replaced with clones of themselves.
But is Lena Azhor Ahai?
She definitely was reborn...
Clone Lena was Lightbringer, created with blood, I guess that makes Lena Nissa Nissa and Oscar Isaac’s character (the original) Azor Ahai and his clone Azor Ahai reborn
she was reborn from smoke and salt...
So was the clone Kane, salt from the sea and smoke from the incendiary grenade. This really exposes how easy it is to make the Azor Ahai prophecy fit with any number of unrelated characters
Alien Lena is Nissa nissa.
They explained that the main character lies constantly and even hiding an affair from her husband. The movie made it a point that we're seeing this from her perspective after cutting to the people in hazmat suits asking the main character questions
"She taughts the alien how to self-destruct" wow i´ve never tought about that! Thats rly smart
You've missed the entire point mate
@@scottmeager5919 wdym?
To be honest that's a pretty obvious take away
Something else I noticed that no one else seems to point out is that when the real cane is committing suicide, he speaks with a southern accent. That is the only time he does this, making me think that some trates from his fellow soldiers ended up merged into him. This happens again in the movie when Lena ends up with Radek's tattoo.
My name is Forrest Gump 😂
4:50 I always viewed the ending scene as a reflection of the beginning. Lena is happy to see Kane and runs to hug him, but Kane is so distant and looks lost and confused. In the end Lena returns to Kane-clone and she has that same lost confused look on her face and Kane-clone walks up to hug her. In both instances the one person is looking for a person who no longer is there. Kane seeing his wife who has cheated on him as a different person is also a reflection of this. She LOOKS like his wife, but she is not the woman he remembered. Just my 2c at least.
I love that interpretation
This interpretation is how I took it. Love it.
@@Cpt.CoffinNails The song that plays when Kane first comes home is more or less the thesis of this interpretation of it. “They are one person, they are two alone, they are three together” I read it this same way, it’s about how relationships change your identity and how you change each other becoming something new
Two lines that I think are worth noting (not quoted verbatim): "When she died part of her mind joined the bear. Can you imagine that terror being all that's left of you?" "So what do we know about Lena? Lena lies." Previous clones, Kane, died (or nearly did); he was imperfectly built, his pieces were broken, his organs were failing. Perhaps Kane killing himself with the grenade prevented the shimmer from acquiring all the data it needed for a full reproduction.... but by the end of the movie Ventris had been fully dis/integrated by the shimmer, right at the heart of it too. This could explain not only the successful cloning of Lena, but why the Kane clone recovered as well: It had a full template to build and repair from. Lena lies. The shimmer got what it wanted. Why keep around all the unnecessary and failed attempts? Flipping awesome movie.
The clone got what it wanted why keep around the failed attempts. Omg. That's amazing and makes EVERYTHING make sense!!!!! Thank you!!!!
So what exactly did the shimmer want?
Kane's last words (before the granade) kind of suggest to me that it was not the real Kane. I think the real Kane got to spend some time with his clone, they got to talking and he managed to convince the clone that He was just a copy and that he should let Kane leave. The clone then commited suicide. another indicator would be kane detonating the granade and being completly silent, no screams no nothing. A human would not endure burning alive this calmly. And we know from what happend with Lena's clone that they burn in silence. So in the end they are both the real Kane and real Lenna. But they are changed. We know this because Lena tested her blood before and she knew that she was changing. That's why her eyes glow at the end. But There is the matter of them loosing four days at the very begining of the journey. So they may as well all be clones from the very start. So there is that.
I know this is 5 years old, but i just watched the movie and I have another thought on why Kane ist dying. If it is a copy of kane (I think so since the kane on camera burned and the copy of lena did not burn), it is of alien make. And we learned that the alien does not know how to self destruct. It created a human body without self destruction. Self destruction of cells is apoptosis (Mentioned right at the beginning of the movie during the lecture). If you create a human body without apoptosis you will get all kinds of issues and be fatally sick
Don’t forget how the bear came into the house and how Kane has a bear tattoo on his chest which symbolizes how when both returned home they returned with a more malicious intent
Yoooooo
@@AC-hj9tv hey yo dawg nice spot there
So I'm reasonably certain that when they "woke up" after first entering the Shimmer they were already duplicated, their original selves having reached the Lighthouse and died already. Remember they were in the Shimmer for longer than they thought and when they initially woke up they had several days food consumed. Similarly Kane is actually a third gen clone, with the second gen clone having realised that he had already died (the video from the barracks is second gen Kane, neither first Gen group encounters the barracks as they took a different route). The video filmed at the lighthouse was the second gen Kane realising that he was a clone, remembering Lena's betrayal, decided to kill himself in the hopes that the third gen would not remember Lena's betrayal and then be able to go back to her. EDIT: The clone Lena we get to see is very simplistic, initially having difficulty reproducing form etc. and its possible that over time as the clones become more complex the consciousness of the original surfaces, then eventually the original consciousness fully reasserts itself (when they're close to leaving) and they then "wake up". Crazy theory, but I enjoyed gaming it out.
No sure. The problem with your theory is the transportation of the gear. The shimmer only affects DNA. So it can not recreate the gear. So it would then have to move it. How would it move the gear.
That's an excellent theory +Gabriel Grey! When they woke up confused I took it as the Shimmer's effect starting to work on them, changing their thoughts or memories. I'm gonna rewatch the movie tonight so I will definitely be thinking about this.
CloudIncus In book terms yes. But in the movie the shimmer clearly refracts Lenas clothes so there's that.
In the book, the psychologist intentionally hypnotize the crew and force them to forget that they enter the shimmer, but in the movie the "hypnosis" is never mentioned or implied, so this could be very plausible.
Does this help explain the skeletons that are lined up on the beach at the end?
3:26 - 3:41 if you pay close attention you’ll see that the clone and the original version of Lena are making an ouroboros with their arms. The way there arms and hand are intertwined from an view looking above would make an infinity sign, think of the grenade as the snake head...would that change anything about the end of the movie ?
Good spot
+Riley Stu The world may never know...
I thought that too. They all grow tats when they start to become a part of the infinite mutation.
Wow! Makes sense somehow... 🤷🏼♀️
Great spot
I thought the glass of water proved Lena was Human-Lena, unlike Clone-Cane, who immediately started haemorrhaging having drank it (whether it was the water itself or time/distance from The Shimmer idk). Her experience in The Shimmer and subsequent change on her dna taught her to grow in the philosophical sense, too ie. to salvage some sort of relationship with Clone-Cane instead of repeating her previous intinct of self-destructing.
Signs, signs, everywhere is signs.
I’m really into sci-fi, and I love most of Garland’s stuff, so I was really excited to see _Annihilation._ after I left the theatre I was impressed, but I just kinda didn’t know what I had just watched... but the more times I see it, and the more I just think about it, the more I’ve come to absolutely love it! the ending scene in the lighthouse is one of the coolest/creepiest scenes in a sci-fi movie ever. damn, Garland is on fire! I hope he can continue to get the budgets he deserves...
same it's fantastic.
Don’t watch “men” I like garlands movies but that one was too out there not grounded in reality
The tattoo is a combination of two symbols, infinity and the circle of Ouroboros, a Greek symbol for the continuous cycle of life and death.
it is not a combination. ouroboros is the origin of the infinity symbol.
that's the thing you daft punk
I saw the movie and I watched over 10 reviews on KZhead and this is by far the best review of annihilation nice job I have subscribed
Oh ASX is very popular among GoT fans, especially on Reddit. Everybody eagerly waits for his video after each episode, along with Ozzy Man Reviews. I'm glad ASX is covering more films/series now a days apart from GoT!
Thanks. I watched many videos searching for comments and all said they are trash. This is actaully an explanaition
Same
I think the alien purposefully gets to those who’re going to get out of the shimmer. If u think about it, the only two ppl who needed to get out, stayed alive, and the alien did what it wanted to do, it spread. Even Lena said that she survived because she needed to get back. Also, cancer is repeatedly mentioned trough out the movie, cancer cells need to replicate and that’s all they wanna do. They make more of themselves. I think that alien was exactly that, a tumour, neoplasm that just needed to spread and for that it needed particular circumstances Edit: I just think the whole thing was an elaborate scheme
This is a great and also correct observation
If that is the og lena at the end of the movie. I think the alien made lena's dna immortal because remember when she talked about that while in bed talking to kane.
@@reesetwist2290 Yup. Looks like the ether-like structures helped overcome the Hayflick limit, and are also what cause her eyes to appear like that in the end of the film.
@@reesetwist2290 What is the name of the movie ?
Really love your transitions. Seems like they would be a bitch to edit but the results are definitely worth it. Well done.
Why didn't they just approach the lighthouse from sea?
Could be, but on a ship it's still more safe than nothing to protect you at all. Also they never even considered it in the movie or explained, why it's more safe to approach it overland.
Because that would be suicide for sure, they nearly got taken out by a crocodile in a tiny lake, imagine what's in the sea!
Wish I hadnt read that now, lol fuck kinda ruined the movie xD
Kevin Wilson You mean self-destruct. ^^
They did send previous expeditions by sea. They didn't come back either. Ventress mentions it at her desk but her voice is so monotone throughout the movie it is easy to miss. I think her voice is echoing the hypnosis of the book but I think it just comes off as disengaged in the film. Maybe that was what they were going for anyway.
I think you were starting to get at what they meant at the end if she was Lena, but what I think it meant, besides the mental growth was more of the philosophical of whether after all of this physical change that we know she has gone through, is she still even the same person? Like the " ship of Theseus" problem
ship of theseus is exactly what i was thinking of too
Zakki Orichalcum i agree. She's undergone a lot of assimilation in all that time, no longer fully human I'd even say, after her DNA's been altered so much
this is right. the lena we see at the end isn't a copy, but she was changed by her time exposed to the shimmer. She touched her clone and probably exchanged some DNA with it, meaning the alien DNA is now likely part of her as well. it seems that psychological motivations had a lot to do with how the shimmer affected people, so it may not have "hurt" her as much as the others because she was actively fighting the effects of it with her subconscious. The physicist chose to accept her fate and became a plant person. The psychologist was already living on borrowed time and had hoped to be transformed and cured by area x (which she was, although not as she had hoped).
When a plank on the ship of Theseus became old they'd replace it with a new plank. This repeated until every part of the ship had been replaced. It was still called the ship of Theseus but was it the same ship? Hobbes took it further & said if someone took all the orijinal planks & made a 2nd ship exactly like the 1st ship, is this 2nd ship also the ship of Theseus? IMO the 2nd ship is more like the ship of Theseus than the first because it uses the orijinal planks. The 1st ship is a doppelganger. So too Lena is a doppelganger. It is a medical fact that every cell in the human body is replaced after 8 years. Therefore, we are all doppelgangers.
UK man loves goddesses i love everything you said, however i disagree with the doppleganger part where it concerns humans. There's no 'original' version of a human being because they and other lifeforms are in a constant state of change. Our thought processes and personality traits stay the same usually but even that is subject to change depending on a number of external forces. In Lena's case, the external force is so drastic that she becomes set apart from her own race than she would ever be though. The whole concept of this ship though is making me question so many things though haha
Probably the best explanation so far. You captured it perfectly, the alien represents growth and survival while humans represent destruction. So many people have interpreted the alien cancer comparison wrong, cancer cells try to survive while the host body tries to destroy it.
I have to say, I was disappointing they did not show the 'staircase' tunnel in the movie, that was the most intriguing, creepy, unsettling part of the book. Her climactic encounter with the 'light house keeper' being that patrols the staircase, and the mystery of what lies in its depths was insanely interesting. Not to mention, the journals she found! When she finds out here husband might be alive and that the 'husband' who returned and subsequently died was a copy. When she reads in her husbands journal about witnessing the clones coming out of the staircase and the scene at the lighthouse of coming across the corpses of a firefight and the psychologist after she jumped or fell off the top and listened to what she would reveal, only to then have her attempt to speak a 'kill command' keyword that was programmed into her, but didnt work for some reason. The way the psychologist hypnotized them to enter the shimmer, manipulated them and controlled the geologist(?) into going further into the staircase and being found later killed by the being with her jaw broken. SOOOO Much good lovecraftian horror that didn't make it into the movie. That being said, the movie was very interesting in it's own right, and I understand it's hard to tell a longer more complex narrative without taking big risks and bigger budgets in the film. Given the constraints I imagine the filmmakers had, they had a lot of creativity in the changes they made and what they put in its place.
Well i hope one day they remake this movie into a more faithful adaptation with sequel
In the film, they really captured the ineffably uncanny atmosphere of the book albeit with a different plot. I too had hoped they would incorporate the tunnel - I agree it was the most unsettling and intriguing place in the book. Though I have to admit that even the book I was disappointed that more was not reveleaed about he tunnel
@@fipah5817wasn’t it implied that the light at the very bottom of the tunnel was the portal out of area x? Or maybe that was just the biologists theory when she saw it, idk it’s been a while.
@@reesetwist2290 I just finished the books and, while they are great, I'm think the vaguely-inspired-by-book-themes movie was the best outcome. Although it would have been interesting to go into why all the expedition members were a bit screwed up, which was covered sort of cleverly in the books.
This is the best analysis of the film I've seen yet. To many people are interpreting the ending as a sign of the entity spreading and taking over, while I just saw it as a sign that Lena and Kane have become different people, ones who will not repeat the self-destructive mistakes of the past. I found it to be uplifting.
Good for you
The bear screaming scene was the best part of that movie.
That house might've actually been her house, they say that the shimmer expands every day and they lose track of how long they've been in there. I'm probably wrong but it's kinda terrifying if true
woahhh didn't think about that
Hears someone yell, "Help me! " Runs the otherway
Very good movie. Damn shame the studio and mainstream audience couldn’t handle it. Glad someone is giving it some attention.
What did you think was so good about it, cinematically?
Mind expanding with psychedelic visuals that were somewhat grounded in science
Just another over rated 'all woman' cast movie we're supposed to think is the next A Clockwork Orange.
Omg all these movie hypsters... Mother! was a far better execution of a concept like this. This movie is try-hard and has very bad exposition, you don't get like 70% of the meanings before reading 100 explanations. It's not a good efford at all.
@@David-gp3fd The science was horrible in this film. It's filled with illogical nonsense. I haven't actually viewed a film with this many plot holes and terrible writing in quite some time. Good concept, very, very poor execution and rather sloppy.
Having smoked some DMT before- this movie is the closest I can describe that feeling. Very alien, very beyond me. The part where she was hypnotized by the odd fractal thingy, the look in her eyes of both despair and complete awe- this was what it felt like. Everything about this movie was synchronous for me and my personal experiences. I have always wanted the ouroboros tail eating snake tattooed onto my arm since I was 17 because of the meaning behind it, it is a strange-loop, a self-creating self-annihilating thing, just like everything in life. The meaning and beauty in this show is alluding to the psychedelic experience. It is peering into the nature of life and reality, and death. This movie was so perfect.
I did mushrooms for the first time couple months ago and during my trip I was asking questions about life and my hand started drawing in the air this symbol. I never saw the movie before yesterday or really thought about this symbol. What is the meaning of it ?
Literally same! especially the ending is the literal embodiment of the visuals and emotions of a shroom/acid/dmt trip I've experienced all of them multiple times and this movie had me tapped into that very intense distinct sensation you only get with hallucinogens. this is the only movie that's ever been able to depict and inflict that exact feeling for me and most definitely to anyone who watches it. I imagine a lot of people that haven't ever tripped or experimented would be insanely mind fucked by what they just saw and felt lol it's amazing tho
Damn you're all so special! Spoiler: Not really
@@pedroferreira1150 Chimpaleiro com inveja até em engrish.
It's been months since I saw Annihilation and I'm still thinking about it. I just bought the whole trilogy and started to read. Some people were disappointed in the movie but read the first book in the trilogy and you'll see that the movie is trying to convey the same sense of awe and terror of facing the unexplainable by a process of subtle, gradual revelation. The movie is trying to induce a state of mind in each viewer. Just ask yourself how would you feel if everything, everything you knew, understood and cared about was suddenly not right and you could no longer anchor your personal story to solid ground. "Life is but a dream".
That's how I've felt since 2020
@@eleanordemedici3070 Long before then...a feeling I've lived w my whole life.
This is not only insightful but beautifully put together
Annihilation is just the first book in a trilogy - Book 2 is set in the Southern Reach bureaucracy, and shit gets Kafkaesque yo Listen to Book 1 free here: www.audible.com/asx
I don't think the end suggested that Lena was a clone or anything. When she was in the shimmer, she looked at her cells under the microscope and she was mutating and changing.. Maybe, the shimmer fucked with her core structure and changed her so much she was no longer Lena. Like that Nietzsche goes "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you"
I dont think they are clones, its still them, but changed versions of themselves.
My take on the ending is that it becomes difficult to know what it means to be human. When we are kids we're fed ideas of what that is. Bodies that have responsibilities, survival skills, social skills, family structures etc. But as we get older things just get messier and refracted. Eventually you feel like an alien pretending to be human. Heck even typing out this comment I feel like I sound like a robot.
🤣👌💀
God damn Alt- Shift, it’s amazing to hear from you again. Haven’t been interested in anything from GoT and haven’t seen anything from you since Westworld. It’s not an exaggeration to say I’m really looking forward not just to Season 3 but to your vids on it. I love the presentation style, the zoom out to reveal the whole of the image. It’s all just so awesome. Thanks for the breakdown you gave me a few things I missed from the movie.
Dont know if it has been mentioned before, but here goes; Remember/rewatch the interogation of Lena, and also when she wa asking Kane after his return, there was a lot of i dont knows
I think the movie Annihilation also has a scene of confrontation with the shadow. It's very interesting when you see it from that perspective. The leader of the group disintegrates until she becomes only energy, returning to the origin and thus manifesting the appearance of God or a deity with the capacity for creation, inside the lighthouse in the shimmer. After manifesting and attracting Natalie's character, she extracts some blood or information, with which she creates the shadow. Natalie's character, not recognizing it, attacks it outside the cave but still inside the lighthouse. They begin to have a type of recognition and integration dance. The attempts of the character to attack the shadow only end up affecting her more, and it's when she learns that they have a direct link and recognizes it as her own (she gives it a stunning grenade that emanates light). Metaphorically, she brings light to the shadow, recognizing it as her own, and it disappears as an external agent. It is incorporated. We can confirm this in the final scene where the character has a dark flash in her eyes, just like Óscar Isaac's character who had returned from the shimmer, who had also died with a similar grenade, leaving his former self behind, and emerging as a complete person or being. I truly believe that the philosophy behind the movie is based on how phenomenology leads to the discovery and integration of the shadow. The phanesthai "to shine forth," "the shimmer," "the lighthouse" symbolize that which manifests as interesting to you and ends up leading you to your purpose, extracting from the depths the purest essence of being, the shadow. I think it also connects and works in conjunction with the plot of infidelity and guilt of the character.
I love this guy; he's funny in a subtle way and mad smart. His analysis on the movies he uploads is always on point too.
I love that you're doing reviews for other shows & movies.
Thank you for the insightful and clearly well researched breakdown. I watched 2 other videos before this one that didn't seem to know any more about this film and the book it's based on than I did. I'm glad I checked one more video before giving up. You got yourself a subscriber friend.
Yes! Thank you! The thing that not enough people are talking about is the fact that the shimmer not only refracts things (splits them apart and scrambles them) but also reflects them or rather.... it projects an impression of an object or living thing´s physical form onto something else, blending organic AND non organic things.Think of the ouroboros tattoos that several of them ended up with. And did you notice that the crystal structures on the beach were in fact the sand itself growing into TREES? If Lena hadn´t destroyed the source, what would have happened next? The water in the ocean becoming granular like the sand? Would the lighthouse have become a large concrete tree? Would the air itself have transformed? Anything that obeys a pattern or plan was being corrupted. Even their memories, tattoos, accents, voices... The shimmer is basically an randomness bomb. A chaos field. An entropy engine.
Soo, a Rubik's cube nuke?
Entropy engine sounds very sciency
Good thinking. Kinda what technology does to us, but to the whole world, refracting everything
The film is an exploration of trauma and our relationship with our trauma, all of the alien shit is metaphor.
THANK YOU! It's refreshing to find someone who acknowledges that movies can be interpreted thematically.
Great stuff, AltShiftX, as always. I love when you venture outside of ASoIaF/GoT.
You don't even understand how happy I was to see your notification about this movie. I left that place feeling confused or having mixed feelings, then I was like no one on YT would be able to really dive in and explain all the little nuances this movie brings. But you did it, my man!
Absolutely the best explaination I've seen of this movie so far! Short but very well explained, thank you!
Dude, you're literally the best at breaking this stuff down!
The first explanation that makes sense to me! You’ve changed my opinion about the movie :)
It's been days since I've seen "Annihilation" and I'm still pondering it! Love all the explanations coming out. In a way, Lena wasn't "Lena" because once she entered the shimmer she ceased being who she was before? Like how Kane spoke about how he was no longer the man he was previously in his recording?
i really appreciate how you've concisely packed together each piece of the jigsaw puzzle eg each time the tattoo apeared & proved it with clips & screenshots. Good editing - IMO you're showing us the best way to do an explanation video
the shot at 7:11 that has creepy kinda vision board vibes is super satisfying. an excellent video essay, thanks for the upload! keep up the good work! i want to read the book now of course
I really like this channel. Alt Shift X and GoT Academy have the best GoT content on KZhead, imo. And I love sci-fi, so I wish you would do more sci-fi videos; books like the Foundation series and Peter F Hamilton books as well as movies like 2001, Arrival and Interstellar, etc
This book and movie are absolutely amazing. Best horror/psychological thriller/science fiction movie/book of the last few years, hands down. Every time I reread the book I discover something new and even more mesmerizing. (In my opinion) this series explores so many themes that are crucial to understanding humanity and our place in nature. It explores human reactions to fear, to loss, confusion, curiosity, defeat, and growth. It touches on the death of Earth and its possible rebirth, and so many other themes that are so relevant to human life, politics, and relationships today. I could literally talk about this book and movie for hours. I wish more people could discover this book, it is an unparalleled eye opener. Props to you, Jeff VanderMeer!!! I look forward to whatever you're writing next!
I have just read the book, is it true that the movie is a bit of a different story?
@@viktorija.jankauskaite it takes a slightly different spin yes! Definitely worth the watch but it does not follow the book's plot exactly.
Fantastic review! Thanks for the in-depth analysis of the film-which I enjoyed greatly!
Thank you; yours is the most in-depth review and analysis of this film that I have seen
_"There's also a house in area x that looks just like Lena's place back home"_ The outside shots of the house are EXACTLY the same. Lena lives in the house. Then she gets in an ambulance driven by people. Then she wakes up in the base. Then she goes back in to the shimmer & by now her house is overgrown. WTF did the ambulance come from?
I loved this movie, I liked how alien, bizarre, and twisted it was. I'm looking forward to reading the whole book now
More of these Please. The format serves your explanations well!
Best breakdown of this movie I’ve seen so far. Great vid 👍👍👍
lol 4:07 "alien juju".. i love how literate the narrative is and how all of a sudden chooses "juju" as a description :))
Best explanation I've seen. It's a better, more thoughtful film than its box office reward.
You are probably the only channel on which I click Like at 0:00 and then proceed to watch the video! You have established yourself as a high quality content that would always satisfy and I would like to express my admiration for that :) Keep going strong!
Your explanation of the movie is absolutely the best! I liked the movie anyway but with how you broke it down, I like it even more.
This one is a lot like "Solaris", one of my all time favorites. If you have not seen it, you positively must, and should you love it as I do read the book. It is incredible, that novel, and it provides what key values are necessary to solve the riddle of the film. Stanislaw Lem, "Solaris". Don't forget.
One of my favorite book series, I even got a version of the snake tattoo on my arm but the serpent is an Aztec god of life, so it adds an extra layer to the birth and rebirth or self destruction that is depicted in the novel, loved the science aspect and the pseudo religious aspect of the story
Finally a good video about the movie/book. Great job man. Thx
Brilliant as always. Love your analyses man.
Would love to see a sequel to this!!
Absolutely not. The movie begins and ends. It's finished. Not every piece of sci-fi has to turn into a theme park. Look what they've done to Alien for god's sakes. I respectfully disagree.
This is book one of three...
@@frankangelo1983 it’s literally 3 book series 😂 they could if they wanted to
@@Ella-queen97 yeah but I think they'd have to diverge very heavily from the books since the first one already only has rough ismliarities to the book imo... could still work but it's just as good as a standalone movie imo
BEFORE I WATCH IT. Should I watch the movie first?
Nati Whatever zyeah of course it's great
Okay! I don't want to spoil myself with this video and I can't know if the movie is worth my time. Thank you guys
Try it twice.
Yes ! i fucked up tho xd
Yes. Fair warning, it's a horror movie in the vein of the Alien movies. Plenty of jumpscares. Other than that, it has an amazing soundtrack and it has many different meanings so I highly recommend everyone to watch it.
best explanation i have come across.. alt Shift X never disappoints
Just subscribed..... By far the best explanation, so clear and logical. Must be a very intelligent soul behind the voice.
still thinking about this movie 2 weeks later. fuckin phenomenal
I've watched it two times, and read all three books in between.
Nope, it is not explained at all. And that's exactly the point. When dealing with non-human characters or ideas -- be it aliens, or monsters, or supernatural occurrences-- giving them human motives and logic can drain their power. The unknowable will always feel more interesting/unsettling. Because we're programmed to want to know. I understand the concept of uncertainty makes people uncomfortable - but not everything will be, or can be, explained . This movie was an depiction of alien contact very different from your idea of what an alien is. It's different from ANY other depiction of an alien. That's the point. If contact with an alien/higher-dimensional being is ever experienced by humans; it's presence, form, motives, and actions will very likely be incomprehensible to us; this movie gives an example what that would actually FEEL like. All that confusion, fear, fascination, etc. that you feel and have towards the alien in this movie - that's exactly how the makers of this want you to feel! I think a good parallel to draw would be to picture yourself trying to communicate with an ant. We are so far advanced from an ant that it is simply impossible for an ant to meaningfully understand / interact with us, and vice versa. That is how i picture the alien's actions in this movie. It's motives and nature are incomprehensible to us, and i think ours are incomprehensible to them as well. So by creating a humanoid to mimic Lena, I took it as just trying to do SOMETHING to broker an interaction. I don't know if any of that made sense, it's hard for me to articulate how I feel about it.
very fair point, I totally understand that. I think that's why I give this movie a 9 and not a 10. But I cant complain about them not giving a backstory because, as u said, its wayyyyy easier to ruin the movie than to elevate it to another level. Another good example of a sci-fi movie giving just enough exposition about the aliens is Arrival. I give that movie a hard 10/10.
hahaha to each their own. You should read the short story it's based on - he at least has a significantly more developed explanation for how time behaves to the aliens. If i remember correctly, he uses the concept of light refraction in water to explain the difference in how we experience time compared to them. We have grown to understand our world using causality, so he juxtaposes this to calculating the angle of light refraction using algebra. When it comes to the aliens in arrival, they perceive time all at once. So going back to the light refraction, this parallels the other way of calculating it, which is Fermat's principle that light *always* takes the path that takes the shortest amount of time. Both ways of calculating it are correct, but one is based causal equations and one is based on max or min, yes or no, etc. (the term for that is evading me). Again, I am butchering this explanation but I implore to check out the short story. It had me reconsidering if free will is just an illusion as a function of the way our brains have learned to perceive time. It also explains why they say in the movie that the aliens clearly understand insane calculus, but couldn't grasp basic algebra.
Yeah I agree. It's a shame that our brains aren't capable of truly actualizing that. At least right now.
I hear the question of whether Lena is a double all the time, yet I never hear if Kane is actually the original Kane. That seems far more plausible than Lena being a double. Although, to me, the movie intends for the surviving Lena to be an original and surviving Kane to be a double.
This analysis is so complete, precise and understandable, incredible job!
No it isn't.
i think you broke it down well and explained the movie nicely. thank you. i like your explanation the most
I can't say the movie left much of an impression on me but I'm glad it lead me to the books which I really enjoyed (the first one mostly). The talking bear really got me though, it's haunting. Nice breakdown of the movie!
That bear was inspired by a creature from the manga/anime Made in Abyss.
I would love a video or several about the Cosmere. So much lore for you to sink your teeth into if you wanted. And the author doesn't take 17 years to come out with new installments.
The best analysis I've seen. I really need to read the book now.
I somehow missed this movie, thanks for the great analysis Alt!
You make the movie sound better than I felt it was. I thought it had good moments, but was an unsatisfying whole. Also, the doubling of the house and the tattoo I did miss when I watched it, that was interesting to see now.
Same exactly with me.
Erik Rinard I thought it was the best movie of 2018 so far. Loved it.
If you could miss things as obvious as the doubling of the house and the tattoo, no wonder you found it unsatisfying. What else did you miss? I highly recommend a rewatch.
If you came to watch the movie just as an alien horror movie, then you'll most likely be disappointed. There are flaws that seem like lazy writing and the supporting cast had a few unbearable dialogue, but what I thought was done well was the ideas that was being conveyed. The actor who played Kane did an interview and mentioned he saw the movie as a portrayal of two people going through different stages of an affair and how they come out at the end. Check it out. What I also thought was done well was the representation of the movie's theme, self destruction. The other scientists were all broken people and they represent how each one caves into their life struggles. Each one chooses or accepts their path of self destruction.
Im just being apologetic because I really liked the movie. If you still dont like it after re watching then hey, to each his own.
I have been thinking about this movie alot and it can have diffrent endings depending on how you see it, thats what i liked the mosted about this film. Every person gives their diffrent ending what they thougt happend
this is one of the best, ok, the best explanations of the movie on KZhead
Outstanding video. Your work is in a league of its own, as usual. Please consider making these videos for the upcoming Netflix Witcher series and Amazon’s LOTR series.
i just started watching the movie 2 minutes ago and the notification appeared. that's some greenseer abilities there alt shift x. WAIT FOR ME!!!
Believing people on the internet. =))
naaah man. i was at the first dialogue where wong from dr strange asks portman what happened to the others at 1.25 mark. im watching it at netflix and is now at -33-47, where josie starts transform and shit. im still watching it!!
wish there was a heart next to your comment @can acar
After going through 3 idiotic explanations on youtube, I'm so glad I found this one. Thank you
Thank you so much for this video! I loved the movie and appreciated your explanation.
Thank you. Best explanation I have seen on KZhead.
I'm so glad you reviewed Annihilation. I read before I watched, and I recommend people do the same, if they can. The novel is short and reads fast btw. I enjoyed Alex Garland's re-interpretation of VanderMeer's weird book, but ultimately I think VanderMeer's ideas and the way he relates the story are deeper and more subtle, and ultimately (for me at least) far more interesting. Garland ends the film with a REALLY cheesy stereotypical scifi tropy 'the new Adam and Eve' scene which seems pretty dissonant with the world and voice of the book. Then again, I haven't read the 2nd and 3rd sequels yet... Great video!
I've read all three throughout past two weeks, and... O.O
0:12 what's the meaning of 9 skeletons at the coordinated position? did the team come at here for real on the original loop or something?
This one is my favorite video explanation by far.
Thank you for articulating an explanation, you are so dead on. The tattoo to me was a huge clue
Only about a year late with finally watching this but the tattoo thing really got to me. Anya doesn't have the tattoo when having a drink with Lena, Josie and Cass (I've checked the scene a few times and am pretty sure it isn't there) but she has it as they are about to walk into the shimmer. You see it more clearly after Cass dies but also on the guy that gets cut open. Then you see it on Lena during her interaction with the double and during her interrogation. I'm guessing one of these (either having or not having) must be an error because it makes the link to the shimmer a bit odd unless it was already spreading into the world outside.
Both book and movie are similar (I won't be surprised if even inspired by Roadside Picnic and Stalker). I think characters not having names and just being called by their occupation might be a nod to those. If you enjoyed Annihilation, you should definitely check both Roadside Picnic book and Stalker movie out!
Exactly, was watching the movie with stalker on my mind most of the time. Specifically how most of us who played the game fought hard just to discover what was inside the Chernobyl Sarcophagus
every video of you is pure gold. thank you so much, i really missed ur voice bc it reminds me of GoT :D it would be awesome to hear your thoughts on denis villeneuve's "Enemy" some time ;)
It is the most complete explanation about the movie in my point of view. Thank a lot.
I figured the whole movie was a commentary about cancer in how it changes people and alters memories of loved ones and the minds of those afflicted. How it spreads and breaks people apart. Maybe I’m looking too deep into it
The movie was bad-ass.Thanks for the explanation, it makes more sense now.
Really liked this movie and your analysis. - wish you could have extended the symbolism explanation and thematic explorations beyond the movie. Anyways, very much enjoyed it. Can you do Mother! (2017) with Jennifer Lawrence? Would love to hear that!
Thanks for the Info m8 this Helps Understand it a bit more