Annihilation Explained & 10 Major Questions Answered

Summary

• The movie
  Annihilation
  focuses on the effects of The Shimmer, though it leaves viewers with an incredibly amount of questions about what The Shimmer is and how it works.
• Many aspects of
  Annihilation
  seem quite mysterious on the surface, but can be explained once the plot is explored in a little more depth.
• Characters like Josie are permanently altered by The Shimmer, leading to questions about their fates.

This article includes discussion of suicide and self-harm.

The critically acclaimed movie Annihilation explained some of its complex themes, but still elicited many questions among viewers by the time the credits rolled. Alex Garland’s 2018 sci-fi Annihilation follows an investigative group as they enter a mysterious quarantined area referred to as The Shimmer. Inside The Shimmer, biologist and former soldier Lena (Natalie Portman) attempts to uncover secrets that could help save her husband, Kane (Oscar Isacc). The basic concept of Annihilation comes from The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Despite the connection, Annihilation is vastly different from the book it’s based upon.

Annihilation received a positive response, holding a respectable 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many reviewers, including Brian Tallerico at Roger Ebert, praised the movie for its gorgeous cinematography and sound design. Additionally, critics appreciated the movie’s use of confusion and tension to push the plot forward. While this helped director Alex Garland develop a solid sci-fi movie, it created questions that need to be answered. Annihilation explained a few details of The Shimmer, though the ending was far from straightforward, with many of the subtler details requiring further exploration.

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10 What The Shimmer Does & Its Purpose

The Shimmer Is A Force Of Renewal And Creation

Annihilation is a movie that leaves viewers with more questions than answers, and understanding The Shimmer is integral to more-or-less all of them. The Shimmer in Annihilation is incredibly unique, with it being partly a sentient alien being, but also a mysterious force of nature. It has motivations of sorts, but not in the way that human beings understand — which is what makes it both incredibly intriguing, and, at times, frustratingly vague.

The Shimmer stands as the central mystery that Lena and her team seek to investigate. Prior to the events of Annihilation, The Shimmer arrives on a meteorite that crashes into Earth, and the only thing the team truly knows about it is that, if it isn’t stopped, it will keep expanding its sphere of influence until it envelopes the whole planet. It turns out that The Shimmer is an alien force that mutates, refracts, and combines DNA from cells, creating entirely new entities. Though they initially believe it to be a force of destruction, Lena discovers that it actually creates something new by breaking down something old.

9 What Was The Being Lena Encountered At The End Of Annihilation

Lena Didn’t Meet The Entity That Controlled The Shimmer

At the end of Annihilation, Lena heads into the cavern beneath the lighthouse where she discovers the meteorite that brought The Shimmer to Earth. However, she also encounters a shimmering humanoid being that copies her movements. What exactly this creature is remains one of the biggest questions in Annihilation, and one that it doesn’t fully answer.

Many viewers leave the movie presuming that the entity Lena encounters is The Shimmer itself, and that it has been an alien the entire time. Or, alternatively, that it’s some kind of being that controls The Shimmer and is behind everything it’s done. While this would make the story of Annihilation somewhat simpler to digest — that everything was caused by a conscious being with relatable motivations and goals — this isn’t probably the case. The “being” is actually a refraction of Lena’s DNA, and what she’s witnessing is the start of the process that occurs before The Shimmer successfully creates a new duplicate of an existing being.

8 Why The Soldier’s Intestines Were Moving

The Speed Of The Shimmer’s Transformation Created No Shortage Of Confusion

There is no shortage of incredibly harrowing and disturbing scenes in Annihilation. However, one of the most shocking is the footage left behind by Kane’s team. When Lena and the other scientists view it, they’re treated to a horrific sequence of events — Kane slicing open the stomach of one of his men while other members of the military team hold him down. Lena and the others are shocked to observe that the unfortunate soldier’s intestines are moving and writhing like snakes or tentacles. However, while this scene is impossible for many viewers to forget, it also creates several questions as the movie progresses.

Later in the movie, Lena and her squad find the soldier’s remains, and are shocked to see his body has changed into a mass of lichen-like growths. This has led several viewers to wonder why his organs were moving when his stomach were cut open, since it doesn’t resemble what The Shimmer eventually changed him into. The reason the soldier’s intestines were moving in Annihilation is likely due to how rapid the transformations caused by the shimmer are.

While there was definitely a snake-like quality to his moving organs, this was simply down to how fast his body was converting them into the lichen-like plant matter that comprised most of his corpse. This would correlate with the speed of some of the other transformations shown in the movie, such as when Josie goes from picking a few plant-like growths out of her arm to becoming a human-shaped bush in the space of a matter of minutes.

7 How The Shimmer Distorts Memories And Radio Signals

The Shimmer Doesn’t Just Distort DNA

The primary (and, thanks to the harrowing visuals in Annihilation, most noticeable) effect of The Shimmer is that it reshapes and distorts DNA. The movie explains that it does this through refraction, though doesn’t fully elaborate exactly how this works — likely because Lena and her science team don’t fully understand it themselves. However, messing with DNA and creating new life isn’t the only impact of The Shimmer on those who venture inside it.

It was stated early on that radio signals cannot get in or out of The Shimmer. Additionally, The Shimmer in Annihilation causes temporary amnesia while inside it, shown when the team forgets their first six days inside the force field. While this may seem like one of Annhilation’s many mysteries, the movie does actually explain what’s happening. The Shimmer doesn’t just refract DNA — it refracts everything. This includes electronic signals such as radio waves and those that travel along the pathways of the human nervous system.

6 What Was That Mutant Bear Monster?!

Annihilation’s Most Terrifying Creature Was Pure Nightmare Fuel

The investigative group encounters two main monsters inside The Shimmer — a crocodile with shark teeth and Annihilation’s terrifying mutant bear. The bear is more horrifying and memorable due to the number of people it kills. Because of its mutations, the bear loses patches of skin on its face, showing its skull. The bear also has a human skull layered on the inside of its skull. From the front, the bear monster shows its normal sharp teeth with a layer of human teeth as well.

In addition to its disturbing appearance — as Annihilation explained through dialogue between Lena and her team — the bear possesses the ability to mimic human screams, a trick used to lure in its prey. This may be due to human vocal cords fused with the bear’s body. This explanation is supported in Annihilation by the fact that the bear ripped out the throat of its victims.

5 Did Jose Turn Into A Plant? What Happened To Her

Tess Thompson’s Character Embrace The Effect Of The Shimmer

Josie (Tess Thompson) in Annihilation is a soft-spoken astrophysicist who goes on the excursion into The Shimmer after struggling with suicidal ideation and severe self-harm. She slowly realizes that The Shimmer will change her just like the creatures they’ve encountered. Unlike the others, Josie finds peace in her fate in The Shimmer, telling Lena:

“Ventress wants to face it. You want to fight it. But, I don’t think I want either of those things.”

This line of dialogue is also how Annihilation explained Josie’s fate. Before she walks away, vines begin sprouting from her skin. They grow with every step. By the time Lena follows her into the clearing, the only thing left of Josie is a human-shaped plant.

Towards the end of Annihilation, the lighthouse goes up in flames, refracting this to mutated objects within The Shimmer. Starting with the crystalline trees, the fire spreads until it overtakes most of The Shimmer. Due to Josie’s status as a mutant plant, it’s likely that she burns down in the same way that everything else did. The uncertainty is likely why Lena tells the interrogator that she didn’t know what happened to Josie in The Shimmer.

4 What Was The Cavern In The Lighthouse?

The Cavern Under The Lighthouse Is The Epicenter Of The Shimmer’s Effects

When The Shimmer crash-landed on Earth, it rammed through the wall of the lighthouse into the ground. Due to the speed at which it fell, the impact created a cavern under the floor of the structure. As such, the cavern in Annihilation is the center of The Shimmer’s effects — the place where it’s most potent. The Shimmer spread with its effects becoming less intense the further from the cavern they are.

Annihilation explained this element of the plot rather loosely, but the closer characters get to the cavern, the more they comment on feeling like they are physically falling apart. They don’t know it at the time, but they’re correct about degenerating. Within the cavern, The Shimmer dissolves beings and creates new refractions of the DNA of whatever is in its borders, including humans. Viewers see a duplicate of both Kane and Lena in the lighthouse. Lena’s refraction was created by the broken-down atoms of Ventress’ body and a drop of her blood. It’s unclear who dissolved to create Kane’s refraction.

3 What Happened To Annihilation’s Real Kane?

Kane Chose A Quick Death

One of the biggest mysteries in Annhilation is what happened to Kane. Oscar Isaac’s character was the only one of his team to escape The Shimmer, but he had no memories of what happened to him. At the end of Annihilation, Lena discovers a videotape in the lighthouse that reveals Kane’s fate. Inside the lighthouse, the real Kane set off a phosphorous grenade while his refraction watched.

His body burned up due to the grenade, ending his life. This presumably occurred because he realized that The Shimmer was killing him. Based on the way that Lena’s refraction occurred, it’s likely that he watched one of his fellow soldiers disintegrate before his refraction formed. With only a short time left, Oscar Isaac’s character in Annihilation took action to die in a quicker, less painful way. It’s also then implied that the being who returned from The Shimmer wasn’t Kane at all, but a duplicate.

2 Why Lena’s Eyes Shimmer At The End Of Annihilation (Is It Really Her?)

Lena Wasn’t Replaced, But She Was Permanently Altered

When Refraction Kane and real Lena hug at the end of Annihilation, his eyes shimmer since he’s a product of The Shimmer. He only existed because the real Kale went into the cavern. This raises the question of why Lena’s eyes shimmer as well. As seen in the movie, Refraction Lena burned up in The Shimmer while the real Lena ran away.

This question has a relatively simple answer. This was another element that Annihilation explained rather (and deliberately) ambiguously, but Lena’s eyes shimmer at the end because her time within The Shimmer permanently changed her DNA. Though Lena retained her consciousness and her human traits, she interacted with many people and creatures that fused with her during her investigative trip. It’s basically impossible that Lena got out of The Shimmer untouched by its DNA-altering effects.

1 The Real Meaning Of Annihilation’s Ouroboros Tattoo

The Symbol Represents Change

In Annihilation, the infinity ouroboros tattoo is first chronologically seen on the arm of Anya, the investigative team’s paramedic. After entering The Shimmer, it later appears on the dismembered arm at the empty military base. Then, what looks like a bruise starts forming on Lena’s arm. This eventually turns into the infinity ouroboros tattoo.

This tattoo represents change in Annihilation. It physically changes from one person’s arm to the next in The Shimmer. Just as the characters emotionally change inside The Shimmer, their DNA and minds also become different due to their experiences. Exactly why or how The Shimmer is able to make the tattoo appears on those it alters isn’t fully explained. However, the symbolic meaning of its presents is incredibly clear.