History Film / Annihilation2018

* HumanArchitectureHorror: [[spoiler:When exploring the FOB after viewing the vivisection video, the protagonists discover the eventual fate of the man disemboweled by Kane: his corpse has been fused with fungal-like growth on the wall (the lower half of his body horizontally lying near the ground, while his torso and his skull (separated) are glued to higher areas of the wall]]. Said scene provides the trope's page image.

* {{Fanservice}}: [[spoiler:Lena cheats on her husband and has sex with Dan, the most of which we see being a single shot of her [[ToplessnessFromTheBack from the back]].

* {{Fanservice}} / FanDisservice: [[spoiler:Lena cheats on her husband and has sex with Dan, the most of which we see being a single shot of her [[ToplessnessFromTheBack from the back]]. Given that Lena looks a bit corpse-like, the viewer may or may not view it as titillating.]]

* {{Fanservice}} / FanDisservice: [[spoiler:Lena cheats on her husband and has sex with Dan. Given that Lena looks a bit corpse-like, the viewer may or may not view it as titillating.]]

* ToplessnessFromTheBack: We get to see Natalie Portman's naked back while she's [[spoiler:banging Dan]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Josie theorizes the people-shaped plants formed because their hox genes, genes that determine where parts of the body grow, were replaced with those of humans. However, unlike animals [[https://www.inverse.com/article/41706-annihilation-plant-people-hox-genes plants have no hox genes]] and it's doubtful they would develop a human shape even if they did receive any.

* {{Fanservice}} / FanDisservice: [[spoiler:Lena cheats on her husband and has sex with Dan. Given that Lena looks a bit corpse-like, the viewer may or may not view it as titilating]].

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Shimmer does this to any of the teams that enter it. Notable examples include the video recording of Kane and his fellow soldiers, [[spoiler:Anya tying up the rest of the team after feeling betrayed by Lena]] and [[spoiler:Ventress goes from being a nearly emotionless commander at the beginning to a [[Film/EventHorizon Dr. Weir-sque]] raving lunatic at the end with the Lighthouse]].

* JumpScare: Only two: [[spoiler: Josie getting yanked back into the flooded cabin by the alligator and Shepherd getting suddenly snatched by the bear.]]

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Especially if it's a mutated alligator with shark teeth that attacks Josie before being killed by Lena.
* NeverTrustATrailer: Similar to other films whose genre is difficult to pin down (i.e. ''Film/CrimsonPeak'', ''Film/ItComesAtNight'', ''[[Film/Mother2017 Mother!]]''), the trailer depicts the film as a typical sci-fi horror movie rather than the slow-burning think piece (in the vein of ''Film/{{Solaris}}'', ''Film/{{Stalker}}'', or the director's own previous work) it actually is.

* OnlyOneName: Lena and Kane (unless Kane ''is'' their last name, although it would be pretty weird for Lena to exclusively refer to her ''husband'' by his last name.). The roster for Kane's team is at one point listed as "Peyton, Mayer, Kane, Shelley, Taylor", which heavily implies Kane ''is'' his last name.

->''Fear what's inside.''

''Annihilation'' is a 2018 [[SciFiHorror SciFi]]/[[PsychologicalHorror Psychological]]/AlienInvasion {{Horror}} film written and directed by ''Film/ExMachina''-director and ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' writer Creator/AlexGarland. [[TheFilmOfTheBook It is loosely based on]] ''Annihilation'', the first book of the ''[[Literature/TheSouthernReachTrilogy Southern Reach Trilogy]]'' by Jeff [=VanderMeer=], and stars Creator/NataliePortman, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/TessaThompson, Creator/GinaRodriguez, Creator/OscarIsaac, Creator/BenedictWong, Tuva Novotny, Creator/SonoyaMizuno, and David Gyasi.

One day, a mysterious meteorite lands by a lighthouse somewhere in the southern area of the USA. Shortly thereafter, ground zero is surrounded by a strange iridescent shimmer, which is apparently some form of radiation emitted by the meteorite. Repeated attempts by the US government to examine the phenomenon all end in failure, as everyone sent in close -- be it people or machines -- immediately have their communication equipment go haywire once they cross the border of the affected area, and then they are never seen again. What is more worrying is that "The Shimmer" -- now given the official codename "Area X" -- is slowly but surely expanding outwards. And while the government can quarantine the area, they have no way of stopping the spread.

Until one day, a soldier by the name of Kane (Isaac) emerges from Area X as the SoleSurvivor of his expedition after having been missing in action for twelve months. The clearly disturbed Kane, however, is unable to offer any insight, as he speaks in riddles and soon thereafter collapses into a coma from massive internal bleeding. Lena (Portman), a biologist and Kane's wife, decides to put her name forward on another expedition into the zone in an attempt to figure out what happened to her husband. What she and her team -- consisting of psychologist Ventress (Leigh), physicist Josie Radek (Thompson), paramedic Anya (Rodriguez), and geologist Cassie Shepherd (Novotny) -- finds is not what any of them expect...

* AdaptationalWimp: Zig-zagged with Lena. Her book counterpart is a brawny, assertive and unsentimental woman. The film version of Lena is more sensitive, emotional and waifish, though she is also given a military background and is shown to be the best shot out of the crew (see RealityEnsues for more details).

** The current expedition team consists of five scientists who are armed with [=M4A1=] carbines -- but only ''one'' of them has had any military training (Lena, the biologist with a background in the U.S. Army). When the mutated crocodile attacks, the other four spray bullets in its general direction but fail to make meaningful hits, until Lena focuses well-aimed kill shots at its head. (Of course, the earlier expeditions of trained soldiers didn't last very long inside Area X either - it isn't the mutated wildlife that killed most of them...)

** Similar to the Lena example above, the book counterpart of Dr. Ventress is half-white and half-Native American. In the film, she is simply depicted as white since she's played by Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh.

* RaceLift: In the book, Lena is explicitly described as half-Asian, thus making her biracial. By contrast, the film version is clearly white since she is played by Natalie Portman, an Israeli-American actress of Ashkenazic Jewish descent.

* {{Gorn}}: There's not much violence in the movie overall, but what violence is there is exceedingly brutal. The worst instances are [[spoiler: the videotape of Kane vivisecting one of his team members to show that his intestines are moving, and Anya getting her jaw torn off by the bear]].

* PossessionImpliesMastery: Subverted. Despite the expedition all having carbines, only Lena is actually a good shot with them because of her Army background. [[spoiler:During the mutated bear's second attack, Josie apparently learned from her prior failure to hit the crocodile, so she just ran right up to the bear and let loose in full-auto from point-blank range. She ''still had to empty the magazine'' to finally take it down.]]

* RaceLift: In the book, Lena is explicitly half-Asian, thus she is biracial. By contrast, the film version is clearly white since she is played by Caucasian American-Israli actress Natalie Portman.
* RealityEnsues:
** The current expedition team consists of five scientists who are armed with [=M4A1=] carbines -- but only ''one'' of them has had any military training (Lena, the biologist with a background in the U.S. Army). When the mutated crocodile attacks, the other four spray bullets in its general direction but fail to make meaningful hits, until Lena focuses well-aimed kill shots at its head. (Of course, the earlier expeditions of trained soldiers didn't last very long inside Area X either - it isn't the mutated wildlife that killed most of them...)
** During the mutated bear's first attack, at the old military base, they similarly fail to hit it -- a fast-moving target ''at night'' in the middle of a pitch-dark wilderness.
** Yes, that machine gun is ''really heavy''. Just ask Anya.[[note]]Before you start thinking Anya just didn't have the power to haul it, the [=M240B=] is 27 pounds (12 kg) ''not including ammo.'' Just hauling one around for a long period of time is taxing, never mind being on a long march and having to fight.[[/note]]

* RaceLift: In the book, Lena is explicitly half-Asian, thus she is biracial. By contrast, the film version is clearly white since she is played by Jewish actress Natalie Portman.

* AmazonBrigade: The expedition team is all women. In the book, it is mentioned this was done deliberately as another variable to test.

* BehindTheBlack: Lena doesn't notice [[spoiler: the camera tripod Kane left behind]] in the Lighthouse until the camera pans to show it, despite it being completely un-hidden in the middle of a bare white room.

** [[spoiler: After the horrific deaths of Cass and Anya, as well as not being motivated to continue as Lena and Ventress are, Josie gives in to the Shimmer, most likely becoming one of the people-shaped plants]].

* BrokenBird: Cassie says all of them are this. Ventress has to live with all the teams she sent to their deaths, Josie cuts herself, Anya is an addict, and Cassie never got over the death of her daughter; implicitly, it's because they're a bit mentally unhinged that the team members volunteer for the expedition in the first place.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler: When Lena runs for the door of the lighthouse, the way that the humanoid presses itself against her body from behind]] is very reminiscent of sexual assault.
* {{Doppelganger}}: [[spoiler: The climax heavily implies that Kane was replaced by a clone of himself created by the Shimmer. It definitely ''tries'' to do the same to Lena, but we [[UnreliableNarrator can't say for certain]] that it failed.]]
* DramaticGunCock: Lena pulls the slide of her carbine and departs alone [[spoiler: only to find Shepherd's dead body]].

** [[spoiler:Josie]] is completely content with her fate to become one with The Shimmer's environment.
---> "Ventress wants to face it. You want to fight it. But I don't think I want either of those things."
** [[spoiler: The [[MindScrew real(?)]] Kane]] is [[DissonantSerenity eerily calm]] as he records his last video log and sets himself on fire with a phosphorus grenade.
* FacialHorror: The bear, which seemingly has an exposed skull as part of its face, as well as [[spoiler: Anya after it tears her jaw off]].
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath mauled to death by the bear]] is bad enough for poor Shepherd, but the fact that ''all'' of its vocalizations sound like her dying screams might imply that some of her consciousness is ''[[AndIMustScream still inside the damned thing.]]'']]

** [[spoiler: Josie, after discovering plants growing on her body, walks away from Lena and is consumed by The Shimmer.]] Lena chases after her, but finds nothing, not even one of the human-shaped trees.
** [[spoiler: Ventress dissolves into a ball of glowing, shapeshifting fractals]] at the end.

** Played straight, in that after Lena [[spoiler: tricks the Humanoid clone into killing itself, the crystal trees outside the lighthouse fall apart and the Shimmer itself vanishes]].
** Subverted, however, in that [[spoiler: the rest of the squad who lost their lives remain dead.]]
** Also played with regarding [[spoiler: Kane, who immediately heals from his life-threatening injuries after the Shimmer. What's not answered for sure is whether he's a clone of the real Kane, or if he is a clone, why he ''didn't'' die with the rest of the Shimmer.]]
* OhAndXDies: In the very first scene, Lena tells the interrogator that [[spoiler:Shepherd]] and [[spoiler:Thorensen]] did not survive the mission into the Shimmer, and that the other two's fate was...[[MindScrew unclear.]]

* PracticalEffects: Used extensively throughout. The bear and the alligator were both built on-set before being painted over in post-production, and [[spoiler: Kane vivisecting his (willing?) comrade]] was done entirely in-camera using an actor with a prosthetic chest.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Subverted when [[spoiler: Josie shoots the bear. She fires multiple times into its skull at near point blank range and blows a massive hole in the side of its head. It still takes a little while for the creature to ''die after that'']].

* ReclaimedByNature: Has happened behind The Shimmer.

* RetiredBadass: Lena spent ''7 years in the military'' before the raid through The Shimmer.

* SecretlyDying: [[spoiler: Ventress decided to enter Area X]] on account of having terminal cancer.
* SerkisFolk: [[spoiler: The Humanoid]] is portrayed through motion-capture CGI by Sonoya Mizuno.

* SkullForAHead: [[spoiler: The bear]] lacks skin on its skull.
* SoleSurvivor: Kane is the only survivor of his expedition, and he's barely hanging on by the time Lena enters Area X. [[spoiler: And Lena is the only survivor of her own journey into The Shimmer, although the ending casts serious doubt on whether ''either'' of them is the [[AmbiguousCloneEnding same person that came in.]]]]

* SuperPersistentPredator: The [[spoiler: mutated bear]] serves as the primary physical threat faced by the group, although it's not the focus of the film and is dealt with well before the final act. It even tracks the group over a full day's hiking to attack them at night. [[spoiler:There exists a horrifying possibility that the bear's persistence is the result of it having absorbed part of Cass' consciousness, specifically the part of her that was in pain and fear as it killed her.]]

* StarfishAliens: The entity that created the Shimmer is a bizarre being indeed... Seemingly arriving to Earth in a meteor at the start of the film, it first "appears" at the climax [[spoiler:possessing Dr. Ventress, then explodes out of her body]] as an amorphous cloud of swirling colors, before [[spoiler:assimilating a drop of Lena's blood to build itself a humanoid body with featureless, iridescent skin that mimics her every move]].
* TapOnTheHead: [[spoiler: Anya knocks out Lena with one of these before tying her up]].
* TraitorShot: Subtly done. [[spoiler: After Shepherd's death, the camera holds meaningfully on Anya for suspiciously long several times before before she goes crazy and ties the others to chairs.]]
* TitleDrop: Like in the book, the movie's title gets dropped near the end. The context is completely different though. Ventress says that Annihilation is [[spoiler:the ultimate result of the Shimmer, as the genetic code of everything inside the Shimmer gets reflected upon each other endlessly, eventually nothing will retain form, everything will become nothing.]] This necessitates its destruction by Lena.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: InUniverse. Since no one but Lena actually saw [[spoiler: the bear that took Cassie, Anya accuses Lena of killing Cass herself and either outright lying or hallucinating the bear. Of course, Anya finds out that the bear is very real soon enough, the hard way.]]
* TooDumbToLive: While most suicidally stupid moves can be blamed on people suffering from severe psychological distress ([[spoiler:and potential brain scrambling]]), there is at least one absolutely qualifying event: the bivouac at the old Southern Reach HQ. Getting out of a groud-floor room and making camp in a guard tower at least 50 feet off the ground with a single point of access, unimpeded visibility, and a working door - perfect! The same team setting an observation post on the ground in an open kiosk with no doors that provides only partial cover and with a light guaranteed to wreck night vision and impair NV optics, stationing only one person at a time to ensure there's nobody to provide 360 observation and buddy support - terminally stupid. Made worse by the fact that they've already been through encounters with dangerous creatures at this point. Oh, and one of the team is ''ex-Special Forces.''
* ToplessnessFromTheBack: We get to see Natalie Portman's naked back while she's [[spoiler:banging Dan.]]
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: After Cass's death, Anya takes her stuffed animal keychain]].

* UnreliableNarrator: The bulk of the story comes from Lena recalling what happened to the best of her ability, as all sense of time and reason were jumbled while in The Shimmer. This contributes a lot to the AmbiguousEnding, [[spoiler: the Kane who returned from The Shimmer is likely not the original, but when he and Lena embrace ''both'' eyes have a fractal glow, implying that this Lena was not the original either]].
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: As Lena crosses the beach to reach the lighthouse, she pays no attention to the impossible trees made of crystal or a seemingly deliberate arrangement of human bones. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because by this point, she's too traumatized and exhausted to acknowledge anything but her immediate goals.

** The narrative plays around with the framing device of film editing, as simply being in the Shimmer results in having incidents of Lost Time. Immediately after the scene of the team first crossing the perimeter into the Shimmer, the scene cuts to them waking up at their set-up campsite -- but then the team members explain to each other that crossing the perimeter is ''literally'' the last thing they remember, as if they experienced a jump cut in real life. It's not just that their tents are already set up: a hand count of their rations reveals that they've gone through about ''four days'' worth of cooked meals but don't remember any of it. Other jump cuts between sections of the movie are tacitly implied to just be gaps in her memory about what happened.

* IRejectYourReality: On seeing the video of a soldier whose internal organs have come alive, Thorensen insists that it's just a trick of the light and point-blank refuses to look at the video again.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Thorensen breaks down, becomes paranoid and ties up and holds the remaining party members bound and gagged at gunpoint. Considering that she discovered that Lena and Ventress had been lying about Kane all along, one cannot easily blame her.

* CasanovaWannabe: When the team first meets Lena, Shepherd makes fun of Anya for apparently hitting on every woman in the base -- Lena included.

** To be fair, [[spoiler:that 'live' version of Kane had probably been mimicking the 'dead' version of Kane still inside the Shimmer until the connection was cut.]]