Annihilation tells the story of a mysterious zone called the Shimmer that appears after a meteor crashes near a lighthouse. This zone refracts DNA, causing plants, animals, and people inside it to mutate in wild ways. Lena, played by Natalie Portman, is a biologist whose husband Kane returns from a mission into the Shimmer changed and near death. She joins an all-female team led by psychologist Ventress to enter the Shimmer and find answers at the lighthouse.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUWEduCB56o
The team faces bizarre changes along the way. Plants grow in impossible patterns, animals mimic human screams, and team members start mutating or dying. They discover past expeditions have been twisted by the Shimmer’s power to remix life forms. As they near the lighthouse, tensions rise. Ventress pushes on, believing they are all breaking down from the inside.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUWEduCB56o
Inside the lighthouse, they find videos of Kane and others self-destructing. A strange alien entity forms from their remains, mimicking human shapes. Ventress enters a glowing hole and vanishes. Lena finds a doppelganger of herself, a shimmering copy that mirrors her every move perfectly. In a tense fight, Lena tricks it by pulling the pin on a grenade. The copy grabs it, mimicking her, and the explosion destroys the lighthouse and seems to collapse the Shimmer.https://comicbook.com/movies/list/5-great-sci-fi-movies-with-seriously-dark-endings/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUWEduCB56o
Lena escapes and reunites with Kane at a base outside the Shimmer. Their eyes shimmer unnaturally, hinting they are not the originals. The real twist is that the Shimmer’s copies have replaced them. Both survivors carry the alien’s essence, allowing the Shimmer to spread beyond its borders and potentially remake all life on Earth.https://comicbook.com/movies/list/5-great-sci-fi-movies-with-seriously-dark-endings/
Director Alex Garland leaves the ending open to interpretation. Some see it as literal: the alien wins by imitating humans until humanity is gone, much like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Others view it as symbolic of self-destruction and change. Lena’s fight mirrors her own inner conflicts, like guilt over cheating while Kane was away. The Shimmer reflects how people destroy and rebuild themselves.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN7fn8prBqkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBIOPRzBiUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aNraCi3i0
The film’s themes tie it together. Transformation is everywhere, from mutated bears to hybrid plants. Annihilation means breaking down the self to create something new, often painfully. Lena does not kill her double outright; she lets it copy her suicide move, blending destruction with mimicry. This suggests true change comes from facing your flaws head-on.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBIOPRzBiUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aNraCi3i0
The dark undertone lingers. Even if Lena thinks she stopped the threat, the shimmering eyes show the alien lives on in her and Kane. Humanity faces a slow takeover, not by invasion but by eerie imitation. The ending sticks because it blends horror with deep questions about identity and what it means to be human.https://comicbook.com/movies/list/5-great-sci-fi-movies-with-seriously-dark-endings/https://www.avclub.com/annihilation-civil-war-alex-garland-avclub-roundtable-1851416308
Sources
https://comicbook.com/movies/list/5-great-sci-fi-movies-with-seriously-dark-endings/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUWEduCB56o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN7fn8prBqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBIOPRzBiU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aNraCi3i0
