Response from the author! twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/976481936049831937

That bear scene was disturbing as fuck. Pure nightmare material.

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.

It’s a crime that so few people will have the opportunity to see this in theaters. The final act is fucking beautiful

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.

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.

"She taughts the alien how to self-destruct" wow i´ve never tought about that! Thats rly smart

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.

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

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.

But is Lena Azhor Ahai?

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.

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 ?

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.

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

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...

I saw the movie and I watched over 10 reviews on KZfaq and this is by far the best review of annihilation nice job I have subscribed

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.

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.

Really love your transitions. Seems like they would be a bitch to edit but the results are definitely worth it. Well done.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Why didn't they just approach the lighthouse from sea?

The bear screaming scene was the best part of that movie.

Hears someone yell, "Help me! " Runs the otherway

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.

This is not only insightful but beautifully put together

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.

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".

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"

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

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.

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

Very good movie. Damn shame the studio and mainstream audience couldn’t handle it. Glad someone is giving it some attention.

I love that you're doing reviews for other shows & movies.

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

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.

Absolutely the best explaination I've seen of this movie so far! Short but very well explained, thank you!

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.

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 like this channel. Alt Shift X and GoT Academy have the best GoT content on KZfaq, 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

Great stuff, AltShiftX, as always. I love when you venture outside of ASoIaF/GoT.

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.

Dude, you're literally the best at breaking this stuff down!

I love that you guys are branching out and touching on other awesome movies and shows. Keep it up!

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 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.

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!

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!

lol 4:07 "alien juju".. i love how literate the narrative is and how all of a sudden chooses "juju" as a description :))

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!

Fantastic review! Thanks for the in-depth analysis of the film-which I enjoyed greatly!

_"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?

The first explanation that makes sense to me! You’ve changed my opinion about the movie :)

Thank you; yours is the most in-depth review and analysis of this film that I have seen

Best breakdown of this movie I’ve seen so far. Great vid 👍👍👍

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!

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.

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.

Just subscribed..... By far the best explanation, so clear and logical. Must be a very intelligent soul behind the voice.

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.

still thinking about this movie 2 weeks later. fuckin phenomenal

best explanation i have come across.. alt Shift X never disappoints

Brilliant as always. Love your analyses man.

Best explanation I've seen. It's a better, more thoughtful film than its box office reward.

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

The final scene in theaters had the loudest bass of any movie I've ever heard. It shook the whole room

Finally a good video about the movie/book. Great job man. Thx

BEFORE I WATCH IT. Should I watch the movie first?

Would love to see a sequel to this!!

This analysis is so complete, precise and understandable, incredible job!

The lighthouse is symbolic of beacon of hope. To find your way back out of the darkness

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!

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?

i think you broke it down well and explained the movie nicely. thank you. i like your explanation the most

this is one of the best, ok, the best explanations of the movie on KZfaq

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.

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!

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!

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.

After going through 3 idiotic explanations on youtube, I'm so glad I found this one. Thank you

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

I somehow missed this movie, thanks for the great analysis Alt!

Thank you for articulating an explanation, you are so dead on. The tattoo to me was a huge clue

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!

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.

This one is my favorite video explanation by far.

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’s Lena‘s inability to want to “self destruct” that drives the being to combust. When Kane kills himself with the grenade the being is unaffected, almost passionate to carry out the mission of finding Lena when told to by Kane. However, on the other hand when Lena passes the grenade to the being she is basically refusing to self destruct, something that differs from all the others that have entered the shimmer. This desire to persevere despite all of the challenges in her life and surroundings is what allows Lena to reach the lighthouse, something her team mates and those before her lack. This refusal of self destruction is what ultimately ends the being, destroying the shimmer, allowing Lena to persevere and defy basic human biology of the human cells self destructing over time. It’s almost like the being was sent to earth and created the shimmer to try to teach humans the lesson of refusing our basic biology of self destruction. All those that entered the shimmer, or the lighthouse allowed there basic human nature to take over and died over time, slowly giving in to there natural self destruction. Lena refused to die, handing the being the grenade and choosing to persevere. The being accepted this and destroyed the lighthouse, killing its self and the shimmer. The being almost appeared to be happy to watch Lena walk out of the lighthouse, almost like it’s mission of why it was sent to earth was complete. Finally being able to destroy the lighthouse and the shimmer. Teaching it’s lesson to Lena, she still encompasses those principles of perseverance, evidenced by the shimmer in her eyes in the last scenes of the movie. Lena and the mirror of Kane will continue to live there lives with the shimmer in their eyes, embodying the beings message of perseverance and the refusal of self destruction. Possibly being immortal for the rest of time.

Thank you. Best explanation I have seen on KZfaq.

The best analysis I've seen. I really need to read the book now.

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!!!

The movie was bad-ass.Thanks for the explanation, it makes more sense now.

This was simply perfection, thank you

Thank you so much for this video! I loved the movie and appreciated your explanation.