Annihilation ENDING EXPLAINED - Details You Missed! 

Friend: You like liked this movie? Me: i don't know Friend: did you understand this movie? Me: i don't know

the shimmer is when gasoline was mix with rain on the road.

This movie feels just like you’re waking up from a dream that you can’t describe and you try to recall everything you still know

The metaphorical ending to the movie is the literal ending. We are not the same people we were yesterday. We adapt, mutate, and absorb our surroundings. We are the shimmer, we are the alien and we are all one person, but billions of individuals.

My only question is how the hell the battery on the camera lasted that long?

The deer is with its doppleganer

Right after they kill the mutated aligator they immediately get on boats to cross the river.. I mean there can't be any more of them right..? It was probably the safest option.. X-D

The water in the glass wasn't mutating, cause water doesn't have DNA. That's just what happens to water on glass

*ENDING EXPLAINED* doesn't explain the ending

I don’t know if I was the only one, but the Bear absolutely terrified me. I don’t scare easily, but wow, this movie became a horror film at that point.

the comments are more informative than the video 😅

Why does no one mention than the tattoo on Portman's arm is actually from the right arm of Rodriguez's character? Portman's character does not have a tat in the beginning.

They were clones from the moment they “awoke and couldn’t remember how long they had been there” but their camp site seemed to have been used for a long while. Basically the shimmer keeps cloning them over and over and each clone, like a photo copy, is less and less like the original adding influences from the environment inside the shimmer. So the Lena we meet inside the shimmer is say Lena clone 1.... then we see the creation of Lena clone 2, each clone is more susceptible to changing/transforming. The original humans probably died pretty early after entering the shimmer.

What baffles me the most is that they had a perfect watch tower, yet decide to place the look-out on ground level. Imagine instead standing just outside the room where the others were sleeping and looking down with the night vision Googles. They would have all the time in the world to arm up and shoot the bear if it decided to escalate the watch Tower’s narrow passages.

In the flash grenade video at the lighthouse, the Kane that killed himself all the sudden had a Southern twang in his dialect. That was the oddest thing about everything lol.

My own interpretation is the alien life wanted to have both a male mutant and a female one on earth in order to reproduce and insist their civilisation, that’s why when Lina’s clone got out of the light house the shimmer started the self distruction because their mission is accomplished

Natalie Portmans true doppelganger is Keira Knightley.

Why didn't they just skydived to the light house?

One of them turned into a plant....

Movie rating : I DON'T KNOW

My theory on why every burns at the end is that the core of the shimmer was always changing it's form, which is why it was mimicking Lena and assumed her appearance. When the WP grenade ignites, it takes the form of the chemical reaction, which it doesn't understand so it just kept burning without knowing it was killing itself.

My question is why didn't these expert 'scientists' wear (or advise that others wear) hazmat suits, when they entered the shimmer? Other scientists are seen wearing hazmat suits just to examine them outside of the shimmer, but NOT when they enter this unknown alien bubble, where people are mysteriously disappearing? WTF? Also, I understand that they couldn't just send in drones because of static interference, but couldn't they have just passed through the first layer of the shimmer, and then sent drones up to investigate what lay ahead? The lack of proper preparing is the most frustrating part for me. Movie logic, I suppose.

Couldnt they go just like 1 meter into the shimmer and take some tests of the ground and plants and then go back?

one question everyone keeps forgetting. how did kanes clone end up in lenas house??

Dr. Ventress doesn't have any eyes at first when she's in the heart of the shimmer, in the clone incubator thing, right? I didn't imagine that? So is it a Ventress clone that hasn't quite completed itself?

The human plant in the swimming pool was eerie as hell.

Then I thought Arrival was confusing.

Friend: so what happened in the lighthouse? Me: yes

Florida. Ofcourse it has to be Florida.

I felt like the movie was f-ing my brain

The entire time I was watching the movie I kept thinking: Everything in the shimmer is cancer.

Another detail missed - in a flashback, lena is reading "the immortal life of henrietta lacks" which is a book about the HeLa cells originally extracted from henrietta lacks cancerous cervix. the HeLa cells are still around today, the first human cells to ever live completely on its own outside of a human. There was a connection to this in the beginning when lena and kane are talking in bed about how god fucked up by having cells age and die and shit. just the dopest connection

I thought the shimmer is a metaphor for a negative state of mind. The team that got sent in had their own battles to fight and were entering a negative state of emotion (i.e. entering the shimmer). They chose their own way of giving up to these negative emotions: for example Anya gave in to fear (consumed by the bear), Josie gave up on herself (turning into a plant herself) and the doctor succumbing to her illness (the cancerous tumour consuming her) etc. Kane was searching for self-destruction, but couldn't let his wife go, so he decided to end his life and send a different version of himself to her. Lena (Natalie Portman) couldn't accept the person that she had become after cheating on her husband, so instead of succumbing to it, she battled herself and destroyed the shimmer, i.e. walked out of the state of mind that she is in. Bearing in mind that she had started mutating while in the shimmer, she had emerged from this experience a changed person, signifying that all those who win against psychological traumas emerge as a different person, though with traces of such experiences present in them, as did Lena and Kane. Not very sure, but what I thought about after watching the movie.

I don't think it was her doppelganger at the end. The actual Lena was being changed throughout the movie, showing shimmering cells in her own blood.

The Ouroboros tattoo is important and was not covered here. Also, the Shimmer appearing on earth via a meteorite might not be an "attack", but a random occurrence. Maybe that is how life on earth evolved in the first place?

Who feels like a whole different person after watching the film? 😳🤯

I’m grown and that “bear” scene has scarred me for life lol

Definitely not a weapon or alien invasion in the traditional sense. The "alien" was simply doing what it was born/progranmed to do. It happened to land here and was growing and reproducing. The goal of any living organism is to thrive. It wasn't malicious, it simply was.

Starts the video with "I'm gonna explaine all the questions", explains nothing and asks at the end what the spectators think about it instead. Well done sir..

I am a DIEHARD horror fan. NOTHING Truly frightens me in a horror film, (I am more interested in the evocation of one of the most pure and primordial emotions , fear, and its effect on human psyche) , BUT.... this bear scene I had to back up and watch three times I was so fascinated and disturbed. So very original and deeply unsettling. Honestly it invokes a sort of primal panic and terror, as I imagine a deer would feel being stalked by something. Predators mimicking distress calls to lure prey is a true occurrence in nature, so to hear a predatory version of this adapted for human prey was so utterly compelling and sickly deeply entrancing/terrifying to watch. Gave me a great horrifying twisting punch in the gut...Good call screen writers....I'm impressed.

I think the real thing here is that it doesn't matter if the person is a doppelganger or not, they are basically the same thing. The people that went into the shimmer became the shimmer, and the shimmer became the people. Doesn't matter if it's a clone or not, it's literally the same. Same composition, etc. It's nice to see our own life like that. All our cells pretty much die and get replaced over a few years (5 or something), so we are essencially copies of our past selves, continuing on... and that doesn't make us less real or less "original". We are what we are... constantly mutating bunch of cells, with our little self-destructions. I'm not a biologist, but the macro idea of evolution and natural selection is that destruction is what makes us better. We are programmed to die so we can give room to a newer generation with different aspects and probably better chances of surviving the environment, with specific mutations. That also fits in our own lives. We are slowly destroyed and rebuilt so we can adapt to circumstances.

The bear was brilliantly creepy and unique 👍👍

According to the author of the source material, the shimmer is a metaphors for “conserving the earth”. Essentially, the others original vision was something along the lines of that even if humans try to destroy earth, earth will annihilate humans in the end to save itself. And that’s directly from the mouth of the author Jeff Vandermeer.

When I drink from a glass, that same thing happens with my water or drink after I put my glass down . So I guess I'm a clone from the shimmer. Come on people! Be smarter than that!

Why didn't they just use a speedboat and enter from the sea... seeing as the lighthouse was on the beach...

This answered no damn questions

I switched to "Inception" because it was easier to understand than this!

Anyone else notice that the infinity tattoo ends up on the soldier in the pool, Anya, and then Lena?

Did anyone else notice the 'bruise' scene in the boat just after the gator attack? Lena complains about a bruise on her left arm - the arm which we'd just seen in one of the interrogation scenes as having an infinity snake tattoo. We see her inspect the bruise and there seems to be no sign of the tattoo. She says something like 'must have got it when the gator attacked' the camera cuts to a close-up of Shepherd (sat behind her) saying 'Yeah...' but her expression suggests she knows something...

Lena can’t be the clone because she has memories while the Kane clone did not but Lena is already infected anyway so it didn’t matter if she was th clone or not

So we aren't gonna talk about the tattoo? The fact Anya had one, Kane did, and so did Lena after the lighthouse. so many unanswered questions

Dormamu, I've come to bargain

Yeah I think when she drank the water, it was just the water settling that had splashed on the side of the glass when she took a drink. The scene where she drank the water was meant to make the audience believe she was not a copy because when her copy husband took a drink of water out of the glass at the beginning blood ran down the sides of the glass. The audience itself wasn't visually hinted until the hint that she may not be herself any longer when her eyes glowed at the end.

I think the point was that once inside everythings dna starts to mutate/combine with each other, hence the other persons tattoo that grew on 3 peoples arm; like the inverse of shooting light into a prism (or a kaleidoscope), everythings dna began to reflect on everything else. So the end it was the real Lena, except her body was already mutated with what ever was inside, so what came out of the shimmer was neither lena or the alien, but both (and probably some of the other crew).

I think the most profound idea in this movie is that the shimmer doesn`t has to be a weapon or tool. It could be just a phenomenon, mechanically acting without intention. As everything else in biology, if you think about it for a moment. Another intriguing idea that was tackled in the movie but not developed further is that the shimmer could be a a prism of information, not matter or energy, reorganizing things under slightly different physical rules than of what we know.

Forget the movie. This comment section is damn funny!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Here's how the shimmer was destroyed at the end. Lena's clone absorbed not only her physicality but also her psychology. Thus, the clone became intelligent and self-destructive--like Lena herself. That's why when the clone's arms were on fire, it did not chase her out of the tower...instead it walked to the wall of the tower, touching it with intent, then walking into the hole, causing the destruction of tower and the shimmer. It was the real Lena who came back out of the shimmer. Her eyes glowed at the end because she was still infected.

The Lighthouse scene is horrifying. The idea that this metallic form isn’t really on the offence (except for hitting her back once) yet is inescapable because of Lena’s own nature. Freaky. This whole movie is half nightmare, half beautiful dream. I love it

I think it's more like a thrilling psychological movie wrapped in sci-fi plot

That alien at the lighthouse thing was crazy it gave me chills!

Take note Hollywood. Movie was pretty good with an all female cast. No agenda was being pushed. There were character arcs, the character themselves were flawed, a story was being told, and the movie was compelling and thought provoking.

The alien was a higher tiered presence that skewed energy patterns within its range. It wasn't alive in the traditional sense and had no agenda beyond the influence of the biological beings it encountered. Its response to each of the humans it encountered directly manifested itself in the being subsequently created. The husband's love for his wife was why the clone sought her out, with no agenda. The protagonist was able to convey to her doppelganger a desire to destroy herself, which it did. Survival instincts are unique to social creatures, because this utility contributes to success. Projecting this "humanity" onto other beings who's survival wasn't predicated on this need (Such as Super AI) yields an inability to draw accurate conclusions about behavior.

The film was absolutely stunning. It left me thinking about so much.

In all honesty I want to see a film (short or full length) that delves more into the universe of Annihilation. The concept of it and the lore that could be made for the film could deepen our understanding of what the alien race is and whether or not Lena is still herself or has merged with the shimmer to create a different kind of world destroyer.

The shot of her reading a book about Henrietta Lacks is a pretty clear association to cancer and immortal cells. Perhaps her tattoo in the shape of the infinity symbol also alludes to this. Constant mutation but immortal. Not dying but changing constantly.

Life on Earth came from a meteor. That "alien meteor" brings just another form of evolution. In the end, Lena is not a clone. She's a different person. She's like a soldier that returned from war. Not herself anymore. It's happened​ to all of us.

So much to think about in regards to this film. Great job presenting your interpretations of this movie. Your videos are ALWAYS entertaining and fun to watch!

For me it seemed like the shimmer/alien was just a metaphor for nature. It always mutates und changes. It has no specific goal, it just wants to learn the best way to stay alive. It didn‘t attack Lena, Lena herself attacked it even though it didn‘t do anything bad. ( a lil reference to humans destroying the world) For me personaly I felt bad for the alien/form of live because it just wanted to learn, live and be.

I walked out of this movie with a lack of trust. For everything

It seems that it is still the "original" Lena, but its made clear every real human that entered the shimmer was affected by the shimmer in one way or another. Original Lena made it out, but she has been changed, and the changes may be continuing. Nobody leaves the shimmer intact.

Here's how book and movie are similar: Characters, place called area x... The end

Thanks for the extra work on the review. I like the way you explore the metaphorical dimension of this film, which is clearly one of the main dimensions of it. Like Tarkovsky's Stalker, in that regard. It seems like the poetical ambitions of Annihilation do indeed owe a lot to Stalker. Haven't come across much writing about that, yet. But the two films do form a zone. An expanding zone.

he was a double, she was the real one, just infected, that's why their eyes simmered slightly differently... the only thing I don't get is that tattoo... getting a tattoo doesn't change your dna...

Why does nobody bring up the tattoo?

I may be blind, but what does everybody mean by "The water in the end is mutating, after Lena drinks it"? I don't get it

The shiimmer is an alien that goes to planet to planet to survive by changing it

Did not like the ending the theory about the clone surving and changing the story is a good one but that doesn't explain how the shimmer got destroyed in the first place wouldn't it have still been there? And when she passed out the clone hadn't even morphed into her yet the only theory that can explain the ending was the original Lena survived like we saw but she's kept mutations from the shimmer because she was there for so long that's the only theory i feel like is the most valid

I thought the movie was about the nature of all bio-logical life - Always mutating and never content in a static stable environment. Similar to the French proverb, 'The fate of the glass is to break', the 'fate of all biologic life is to self-destruct'. All human characters in the film seem to fit that profile. I saw the Shimmer as a pinnacle state of a biological being that is capable of mutating life around it. But even it seemed to follow an illogical path that lead to a catastrophic change.

2:04 there is literally a face in the shimmer "wall"

The Shimmer seems like a nice nod to Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. In the novel, the colour itself (it's basically described as what we see inn the film, the light refraction, all of the visible colours to the human eye, etc) is the entity/alien. So it would make sense that the entirety of the Shimmer was the being itself. The epicenter of the meteor impact being the core of said being. Just my thoughts.

but in all honesty.. its been a while since a movie entertained me and people actually got a discussion going for once instead of just talking about DC vs Marvel.. I thought it was a fascinating film, i give it an A.. Very well directed film as well, from the first frame i feel everything is being told with intent, but i do get why some people wont like it.

I thought the movie was a metaphor for self-reflection. The characters all end up the way they view themselves. Lena feels like she owes Kane because of the affair. The reflection she fights is the guilt she feels at her own selfish actions. Ventress is consumed by her desire to face death, quite literally. Anya is destroyed by her paranoia. She questions everything she sees because of her past as an addict. Josie chooses not to fight & embrace the changes. She wipes away her scars & becomes one with nature.

When the teacher wants you to write a 3 page interpretation of some book:

In the books, there's no doubt (once you've read all three): It's a weapon. And that meteor-like strike isn't compatible with a pretty big theme - how it got here - in them: That's another tie in with the refraction-theme.

I found it weird how the crocodile dragged the girl from so high up

Regarding the ending, my friend thought the same of a possible switcheroo. I still think it's the real Lena. I told him I don't think the mutation just abruptly ends after being affected. Remember Kane (Isaac)? He told the doppelgänger he can see his fingertips and skin moving, then seconds later offed himself. I believe it's her and not the clone. The process had started, and will continue to change and affect her.

This is your best video. You tried decaf. Nice work.

Awesome video I thoroughly enjoyed your questions and thoughts. The movie is pretty ambiguous and i love it for that

the scene with the bear were he smells and looks around is not so simple, the bear wants them to scream to feed on the screams. he didn't eat sheppard only mutilated her.

Lena didn’t kill it with the grenade, it technically played its own part in its destruction - hence the overarching theme of self destruction. Lena ignited the grenade, but it doesn’t harm the alien and it returns back to its base form. Lena is able to escape the lighthouse, and the alien is looking for another form of life to duplicate. It touches Kane’s dead body, and by doing so absorbed the physical reaction of being burned to ash. Lomax (Benedict Wongs character) clarifies this when he says a team has reached the lighthouse and it is all ash.

Really enjoyed this! Perhaps the best analysis - the cancer metaphor - I’ve encountered regarding this fascinating film. Thank-you!

OOOOF I really needed this video

There's also a point where Lena is reading "the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks", a book about cancer cells that are immortal, able to divide outside the body and that are in constant mutation. These cells, called HeLa, are still used nowadays by biologists after the donor (Henrietta Lacks) died 60 years ago

I think the Lena that made it out was the original Lena. The reason her eyes changed to me was that she had some of the alien’s DNA shared in her. The reason Lena burned the dopple ganger was because she saw the video when Kane killed himself with the same type of grenade. In a way Lena mirrored what Kane did in the end. Just with opposite outcomes. Trippy...

You really are good at this!

Thankyou for actually analysing this film, I had a couple theories and this helped straighten them out. I watched a different "analysis" that did nothing but tell you what happened in the film for 20 minutes..

it was _the_ most beautiful sci-fi film I've. _ever!_ seen.

What's fascinating about Annihilation is how it manages to make people go out of their way to see things that are not there, and then make up explanations for them.

thank you very informative ❤

i couldnt stop pooping after the part when they cut open the stomach