Annihilation: the film has a secret that you may not have realized

The film Anihilation, by director Alex Garland, was released in 2018 and features a science fiction story so intriguing that it leaves many questions open to this day. These questions, in fact, are not doubts, but rather different forms of interpretation.

Annihilation It’s good proof that a film doesn’t need to answer all the questions explicitly at the end. Therefore, it is possible to create debates and leave those watching reflecting on what they just saw.

Among the most profound theories that emerge about Garland’s film, one of the strongest is the one that makes the most sense: Planet Earth suffers from a disease that for us humans would be like cancer.

Annihilation’s big secret: Earth with cancer

Natalie Portman in AnnihilationSource: Disclosure/Skydance Media

You may already be wondering how it is possible for the planet to have cancer. In fact, the meaning of this is just a metaphor for what happens to Earth in the film.

In Annihilationa biologist named Lena (Natalie Portman) tries to unravel a mystery alongside other scientists: Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez), Cass Sheppard (Tuva Novotny) and Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson).

The first metaphor about cancer is presented at the beginning of the film through Lena’s lecture at Johns Hopkins University. It addresses cell division, focusing on mutations. So, we go back to the past and the phenomenon of the plot begins to take shape.

In the Southern Reach region, something mysterious hit a lighthouse and began to expand, and this phenomenon is called The Shimmer, or “The Shine” in the literal translation. The expansion begins to lose control and soon Lena and the scientists begin to investigate what is happening.

Tessa Thompson as Josie Radek in Annihilation.Source: Disclosure/Skydance Media

Once inside The Shimmer, the team of scientists begins to notice that mutations are happening, affecting other cells. Here, the comparison with cancer becomes increasingly clear. The phenomenon spreads across the planet, affecting everything around it in the same way as cancer cells.

Alex Garland shows in the science fiction film that mutations can even be something visually beautiful, confusing the viewer about their severity. However, even the most beautiful thing can be dangerous, not just something grotesque.

More theories about Annihilation and cancer

Another question that drives the film Annihilation reinforcing the metaphor about cancer is the fact that the team of scientists is all female. This is because breast cancer is the most common form of the disease, affecting mainly women.

There are also those who say that the fact that people who enter The Shimmer do not return also contributes to the theory. After all, cancer is a wicked disease that often becomes incurable.

Alex Garland, in an interview given to the press at the time of the film’s release, says that Annihilation It’s a film about self-destruction. At no point is the plot defined as being about cancer, but it delivers the metaphor of biological self-destruction, with the tumor destroying the very body it lives in.

Not to say that Annihilation does not mention cancer at any point in the film, one of the characters who is part of the group has the disease, while the other lost her daughter to leukemia. However, the focus ends up being the protagonist, Natalie Portman’s character, and her “self-destruction” with her marriage problems, shown in flashbacks. Still, the production does not focus on the emotions of a romance, but rather on the problem that everyone is facing on Earth.

There are different ways to interpret a science fiction film that explores humanity, of course, but the metaphor of Annihilation for cancer becomes increasingly explicit when we begin to unravel the events.

You can watch Annihilation on Netflix.