Once again Earth is theatened. Annihilation itself is “shimmering” on the horizon. We are all at the mercy of a handful of professionals able to determine what this thing is; and then coming up with a way to either destroy it, to neutralize it or at the very least to minimize its destructive power. Only here these professionals are all women. All scientists.
The military it seems has already had its chance.
In other words, a new sci-fi flick in which the focus [more often than not] is either on an absorbing plot [one that, say, actually makes you think] or on fantastic special effects [and the “action”].
And only the truly great films in this genre – think Alien – are able to combine both elements in order make the movie “a true classic”.
So, is this one of them?
You tell me.
If nothing else with films like this, we can explore “reality” in a world where the laws of nature as we know them may or may not apply. Also, given the staggering vastness inherent in the cosmos itself [and the profound mystery embedded in the existence of anything at all] it is always fascinating to explore relationships of this sort on a whole other level.
On the other hand, some will watch a film like this and complain that it, “throws all logic out the window!” The events don’t comport with their own notion of what is rational, so it all becomes absurd. Still, imagine watching a sci-fi film in the 1950s in which the characters used smart phones and exchanged emails while navigating the internet. Would any of that have seemed feasible? Bottom line: Who the hell really knows what is “behind” reality…existence…the human condition?
It just comes down to how compelling any rendition of “science fiction” might be to any particular one of us. If nothing else it either entertains us or it doesn’t. And then the part where the story and the characters are able to intrigue us emotionally and intellectually.
The ending?
One take on it: youtu.be/vdAfah15V-Y
IMDb
[b]Due to a poorly received test screening, David Ellison, a financier at Paramount, became concerned that the film was “too intellectual” and “too complicated,” and demanded changes to make it appeal to a wider audience, including making Portman’s character more sympathetic and changing the ending. Producer Scott Rudin sided with Garland in his desire to not alter the film, defending the film and refusing to take notes. Rudin had final cut.
Prior to its release, the film drew some criticism for the casting of Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh as characters who are, in the books, described as Asian and half-Native American. Garland explained that none of the five female characters’ ethnicity is revealed in the first book, which is the only one of the trilogy he has read, and that the script was actually complete before the second book was published. He cast the characters based on his reaction only to the actors he met in the casting process, or actors he had worked with before. Because he wanted to take the story in his own direction, he did not read the other two books while making the film in order to not be influenced by them.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt2798920/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation_(film
trailer: youtu.be/89OP78l9oF0
Annihilation [2018]
Written and directed by Alex Garland
[b]Lomax [in the present]: What did you eat? You had rations for two weeks. You were inside for nearly four months.
Lena: I don’t remember eating.
Lomax: How long did you think you were inside?
Lena: Days. Maybe weeks.
Lomax: What happened to Josie Radek?
Lena: I don’t know.
Lomax: Thorensen?
Lena: Dead.
Lomax: Ventress?
Lean: I don’t know.
Lomax: Then what do you know?
…
Lena [teaching a class at medical school]: This is a cell. Like all cells, it is born from an existing cell. And by extension, all cells were ultimately born from one cell. A single organism alone on planet Earth, perhaps alone in the universe. About four billion years ago one became two, two became four. Then eight, 16, 32. The rhythm of the dividing pair which becomes the structure of every microbe, blade of grass, sea creature, land creature and human. The structure of everything that lives…and everything that dies. As students of medicine, as the doctors of tomorrow, this is where you come in. The cell we’re looking at is from a tumor. Female patient, early 30s, taken from the cervix. Over the course of the next term, we will be closely examining cancer cells in vitro and discussing autophagic activity.
…
Lena: Was it covert?
Kane: Mm… Maybe.
Lena: What does that mean, “maybe”?
Kane: Okay, yeah, it was covert. Yeah, I think so.
Lena: Pakistan again?
Kane: I-- I don’t know where it was, or…what it was.
Lena: How is that possible? Was it warm? Was there snow? Did the people there speak Portuguese, or Swahili, or Pashto? How long have you been back?
Kane: I don’t know.
Lena: How’d you get back? What base did you fly into?
Kane: I don’t know.
Lena: You must be able to tell me something. You vanished off the face of the earth for 12 months. I deserve a better explanation than no explanation.
Kane: Does it matter?
…
Lena: Where am I? Where’s my husband?
Dr Ventress: You served in the military for seven years.
Lena: I’m a professor from Johns Hopkins. I want to know what the fuck I’m doing here.
Dr Ventress: Your research area is the genetically programmed life cycle of a cell.
Lena: Where is my husband?
Dr Ventress: Yeah, I’d like to talk about Sergeant Kane.
…
Dr Ventress [to Lena, looking into the distance at a strange shimmering phenomenon]: A religious event? An extraterrestrial event? A higher dimension? We have many theories, few facts. It started around three years ago. Blackwater National Park reported that a lighthouse was surrounded by something they termed “a shimmer.” One of the wardens went in to investigate. Never returned. The event was classified. Since then, we’ve approached by land, by sea, sent in drones, animals, and teams of people. But nothing comes back.
…
Dr Ventress: It’s expanding. So far, it’s eating into barely populated swampland, which, you know, we evacuated under the pretext of a chemical spill, but that won’t last much longer. In a few months, the area will have grown to where we are right now. And then we’re talking cities… states… and so on.
Lena: You said nothing comes back. But something has.
Dr Ventress: Yes.
…
Lena [to Kane in the past]: You take a cell, circumvent the Hayflick limit, you can prevent senescence. I was about to make the exact same point. It means the cell doesn’t grow old, it becomes immortal. Keeps dividing, doesn’t die. They say aging is a natural process, but it’s actually a fault in our genes.
…
Lena: You didn’t tell me where you’re heading this time. I know there’s something strange about this mission.
Kane: Why?
Lena: The silence around it is louder than usual.
…
Anya [to Lena and the team]: The previous teams have been largely military.
Lena: What do you think happened to them?
Anya: Well, there are two theories of what went wrong in the Shimmer. One, something kills them. Two, they go crazy and kill each other.
…
Lena: Why are you going into the Shimmer?
Dr Ventress: The mission statement is to reach the supposed source of the Shimmer, the lighthouse, enter and acquire data, and return.
Lena: But I don’t think that that’s your mission statement.
Dr Ventress: No. I’ve been watching the phenomenon for a while now. I profile the volunteers. I pick the teams. They enter, I watch. I watch it grow closer. There’s only so long one can do that.
Lena: But you need to know what’s inside?
Dr Ventress: Yes, I do.
Lena: So do I.
…
Lena [examining a bizarre plant]: These are very strange.
Dr Ventress: Why?
Lena: Well, they’re all so different. To look at them, you wouldn’t say that they’re the same species. But they’re growing from the same branch structure so it has to be the same species. It’s the same plant. It’s like they’re stuck in a continuous mutation.
Dr Ventress: A pathology?
Lena: Yeah, well…you’d sure as hell call it a pathology if you saw this in a human.
…
Lena [in the present]: The mutations were subtle at first. More extreme as we grew closer to the lighthouse. Corruptions of form. Duplicates of form.
Lomax: Duplicates?
Lena: Echoes.
Lomax: Is it possible these were hallucinations?
Lena: I wondered that myself. But they were shared among all of us. It was dreamlike.
Lomax: Nightmarish?
Lena: Not always. Sometimes it was beautiful.
…
Lena: More mutations. They’re everywhere. Malignant. Like tumors.
…
Dr Ventress [holding up a plastic bag]: This might be able to tell us something. “For those that follow.” I believe that means us.
Josie: A memory card.
…
Josie [after watching the memory card vodeo]: That was a trick of the light.
Anya: His insides were moving.
Josie: No, it was shock. That was a shock response.
Anya: Watch it again.
Josie: No, I’m not gonna watch it again!
Anya: That was not intestines. It was a worm…
…
Cass [watching Lena at the microscope]: The mystery unraveling?
Lena: Something’s unraveling.
…
Lena: Why did my husband volunteer for a suicide mission?
Dr Ventress: Is that what you think we’re doing…committing suicide?
…
Dr Ventress [to Lena]: I’d say you’re confusing suicide with self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide…and almost all of us self-destruct. In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke. We destabilize the good job. Or the happy marriage. These aren’t decisions, they’re…they’re impulses. In fact, you’re probably better equipped to explain this than I am. You’re a biologist. Isn’t self-destruction programmed into us, programmed into each cell?
…
Dr Ventress [after Cass is killed and some want to go back]: We haven’t reached the lighthouse. We still don’t understand the cause or the nature of the Shimmer.
Josie: We have data, observations, photographs.
Dr Ventress: All of which makes the phenomenon less explicable, not more. I’m gonna get to the lighthouse, and I’m fine going on my own. You just need to decide whether you’re coming with me or not.
…
Lomax [in the present]: You lied to them.
Lena: I didn’t know what going back meant. Why it would be safer than going forward.
Lomax: You didn’t know, but you made a decision to continue as if you did.
Lena: Ventress made the decision.
Lomax: Ventress had cancer. She was never coming back. You knew she was sick.
Lena: I had guessed.
Lomax: And you wanted to continue.
Lena: Yes. I did.
…
Josie: That leaf in your hand…know what you’d get if you sequenced it? Human Hox genes. Lena: Hox. They’re the genes that define the body plan, the physical structure.
Josie: And the plants have human body plan. Arms attached to shoulders. Legs to hips.
Lena: It’s literally not possible.
Josie: It’s literally what’s happening. The Shimmer is a prism, but it refracts everything. Not just light and radio waves. Animal DNA, plant DNA…all DNA.
Anya: What do you mean, “all DNA”?
Dr Ventress: She’s talking about our DNA. She’s talking about us.
…
Josie [to the other three gagged and tied to chairs}: There are two theories of what went wrong. One is that something in here killed them. Two is that they went crazy and they killed each other. Josie nearly got killed by an alligator, and Cass did get killed by a bear. So, yes, theory one, it fits. But I didn’t actually see a bear. And neither did Josie. The only people who saw were Lena and Ventress. So nothing’s confirmed. Everything’s on their word. Everything’s on Lena’s word. And what we know now is that Lena is a liar.
…
Lena: What are you doing?
Dr Ventress: I’m leaving.
Lena: Now? It’s not even light yet.
Dr Ventress: I don’t have time to wait. We are disintegrating. Our bodies as fast as our minds. Can’t you feel it? It’s like the onset of dementia. If I don’t reach the lighthouse soon the person that started this journey won’t be the person that ends it. I want to be the one that ends it.
…
Lena: We should go, Josie.
Josie: How long was your husband in the Shimmer?
Lena: It’s hard to say exactly. Theoretically, as long as a year.
Josie: That’s a long time to be inside and remain intact.
Lena: I’m not so sure he was intact.
Josie: I’m right about the refreaction, aren’t I?
Lena: Yeah. I checked my blood last night. It’s in me.
Josie: It will be in all of us.
…
Josie [to Lena]: Ventress wants to face it. You want to fight it. But I don’t think I want either of those things.
…
Lomax [in the present]: One by one, all gone, except you. How do you explain that?
Lena: Is it something I need to explain?
Lomax: Yes, you do.
Lena: I had to come back. I’m not sure any of them did.
…
Kane [on a video Lena is watching]: I thought I was a man. I had a life. People called me Kane. And now I’m not so sure. If I wasn’t Kane, what was I? Was I you? Were you me? My flesh moves like liquid. My mind is just cut loose. I can’t bear it. I can’t bear it. I can’t bear it. You ever seen a phosphorus grenade go off? They’re kind of bright. Shield your eyes. If you ever get out of here, you find Lena. I will. No. Five, four, three, two… [/b]
Down the rabbit hole…
[b]Dr Ventress [in a surreal underground caravan]: t’s the last phase. Vanished into havoc. Unfathomable mind. And now beacon. Now sea.
Lena: Dr Ventress?
Dr Ventress: Lena?..We spoke. What was it we said? That I needed to know what was inside the lighthouse. That moment’s passed. It’s inside me now.
Lena: What’s inside you?
Dr Ventress: It’s not like us. It’s unlike us. I don’t know what it wants. Or if it wants. But it will grow until it encompasses everything. Our bodies and our minds will be fragmented into their smallest parts until not one part remains. Annihilation.
…
Lomax [in the present]: So it was alien. Can you describe its form?
Lena: No.
Lomax: Was it carbon based?
Lena: I don’t know.
Lomax: What did it want?
Lena: I don’t think it wanted anything.
Lomax: But it…it attacked you.
Lena: It mirrored me. I attacked it. I’m not sure it even knew I was there.
Lomax: It came here for a reason. It was mutating our environment, it was destroying everything.
Lena: It wasn’t destroying. It was changing everything. It was making something new.
Lomax: Making what?
Lena [after a pause]: I don’t know.
Lomax: A team reached the lighthouse a few hours ago. Everything is ash. If what you encountered was once alive it seems it’s now dead.
…
Lena: Now will you tell me what happened to my husband?
Lomax: When the Shimmer disappeared, his blood pressure stabilized and his pulse rate started to rise. A few hours later, he was not only awake, he was lucid. He’s still in isolation, obviously.
Lena: So am I.
…
Lena: You aren’t Kane…are you?
Kane: I don’t think so…Are you Lena?[/b]