History Film / Annihilation2018

** In the book, the psychologist has ulterior motives as a member of the Southern Reach. In the movie, Ventress is simply a scientist who wants to see what is at the lighthouse [[spoiler:before she dies of cancer.]]

* TheDyingWalk: After having noticed human shaped vegetation within the Shimmer earlier and having theorized that they are in fact people who've been transformed into vegetation, [[spoiler:Josie tells Lena about how the Shimmer is inside all of them and she doesn't want to fight it. She notices vines and vegetation starting to grow out of her body and simply walks away from Lena. Lena tries to catch up to Josie and calls out to her, but Josie ignores her calls and keeps walking away. Lena then comes to a clearing and Josie is nowhere to be seen, instead there's only a group of the human shaped bushes standing in a field, with no way to even tell which one was Josie.]]

* IdiotBall: Upon arriving at the FOB that was abandoned by Kane's team, Lena's team takes the wise choice of sleeping up in the abandoned guard tower, high above the ground where no threats can get to them and they have an excellent vantage point of the entire base -- but instead of doing the sensible thing of having someone stand on the balcony outside the tower cabin, the person who's put on guard duty takes a shift on the ''ground'' for no apparent reason, right next to the perimeter fence where visibility is either non-existent or so close that by the time any threats are spotted, it's too late, with only a small book light and a single pair of night vision binoculars to see. [[spoiler: Ironically, it's neither Lena nor Ventress who gets taken and killed by the bear, but ''Shepherd'', when she goes down to check on the other two.]]

** The scientist interrogating Lena in quarantine after she returns suggests that she might have hallucinated some of the more bizarre mutations and events inside the Shimmer, due to some energy or psychic influence it has on human brains. Lena admits she considered that too, but points out that all five team members saw the same exact things and interacted with them, e.g. the mutated crocodile. As the mind-screw events get more drastic the closer they get to the center of the Shimmer, however, it's never 100% certain that it is physically real (particularly the scenes when Lena is alone).
** Ventress directly points out as they get close to the center of the Shimmer that their bodies and minds are "disintegrating" -- possibly just due to the physical changes it's influencing on their brains -- and compares their current mental state to the early stages of dementia.

** Since both Kane and Lena are ex-military, it's possible that's how they met (this seems to be supported by a photograph of the two of them outside somewhere with both wearing their uniforms.) If they first met in a military surrounding they probably got so used to referring to and hearing each other called by their last names that it may have just stuck. Some real life military couples do indeed refer to each other by last name only as it's what they're used to calling each other from their time spent in the forces.

* 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 ground-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.''

* BeautyInAssimilation: [[spoiler:Josie]] embraces the surreal Shimmer: flowers erupt from her body and she [[spoiler:turns into one of the people-topiaries]].

** Except for Ventress, all the other members of the team and Lena's boss are also original. The unnamed interviewer is also likely original, though he may in fact be Control, the protagonist of the second book.

* CoolGuns
** Every single member of Dr. Ventress' group is equipped with [=M4A1=] carbines.
** The [=M240=] machine gun that Anya finds at the abandoned U.S. Army compound also qualifies.

** The soldier on Kane's team in the first ApocalypticLog appears almost ''sleepy'' while Kane is (apparently with his consent) vivisecting the man to reveal that [[BodyHorror his organs are moving on their own.]] The complete lack of screaming or apparent pain from the poor guy arguably makes it all the worse.

* LEGOGenetics: The Shimmer plays fast and loose with everything we and the characters know about genetics by hybridizing pretty much anything with anything else, including combinations believed impossible (like splicing plants and animals together). Even the Hox genes mentioned in the page description make a brief appearance in an effort to try to explain what's going on. Though, it is also treated as largely unhealthy. While many of the creatures seen are fantastic and seem to be healthy, it seems very likely that the soldier whose innards turned into eels would have died even if they hadn't cut him open and [[spoiler:Josie is seemingly "killed" when she turns into one of the humanoid trees. Ventress even notes that eventually life would become an impossibility with everything constantly being reflected on everything endlessly. Everything would eventually become nothing and life would experience [[TitleDrop annihilation.]]

* LEGOGenetics: The Shimmer plays fast and loose with everything we and the characters know about genetics by hybridizing pretty much anything with anything else, including combinations believed impossible (like splicing plants and animals together). Even the Hox genes mentioned in the page description make a brief appearance in an effort to try to explain what's going on.

* NiceDayDeadlyNight: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. The trip through the Shimmer [[DaylightHorror has its fair share of daylight scares (including, yeah, a monster attack)]], but the majority of the flat-out fatal encounters occur at night.

* DaylightHorror: Most of the time in the Shimmer has unnaturally vivid colors and rainbow-esque sunlight, which would make it [[SceneryPorn incredibly gorgeous]] under other circumstances. The movie does have its fair share of nighttime horror, too.

* YearOutsideHourInside
** The opening scene has the quarantine scientist interrogating Lena, explaining that her team only brought about two weeks' worth of rations into the Shimmer, but she was inside for ''four months''. She thought it was only days, ''maybe'' a week or two -- but not months.
** After they enter the Shimmer, in what initially seems to be a JumpCut, Lena crawls out of her tent and tells the others the last thing she remembers is entering the Shimmer and she has no memory of setting up the camp. They all say the same thing; based on their food rations, they calculate they may have as much as ''two or three days'' missing.

* 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.

''Annihilation'' is a 2018 [[SciFiHorror sci-fi horror]] mystery film written and directed by 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.

Not to be confused with Creator/MarvelComics's ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}'', or the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' novel ''Literature/{{Annihilation|2004}}''.

* DeathByAdaptation: In the movie, no previous expedition returned alive. However in the book, Area X has been in existence much earlier and there have been successful expeditions from the outer regions of the zone which helped establish the rules for later expeditions.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Dr. Ventress is extremely blunt (often tactlessly so) in social situations, [[CreepyMonotone speaks in a monotone]] and has an odd, jerky vocal cadence, seldom makes eye contact, [[EmotionlessGirl rarely emotes]], and frequently responds in a manner that is either overly literal or misses the intentions of the other speaker, and several characters make note that she is completely friendless and has no real identity outside of her work.

* 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.

* KillEmAll: None of the party but Lena returns and [[spoiler: the entire Shimmer is destroyed. Kane's doppelganger appears to have pulled a KillAndReplace on the original... and it's possible that Lena's did too.]]

* UncannyValley: InvokedTrope. Subtle cinematography tricks employ this to make scenes unconsciously unnerving, by breaking rules of visual continuity. Case in point, even ''before'' Lena enters the Shimmer, scenes with her returned husband or her first meeting with Ventress are filmed in such a way that the actors' eye-lines ''deliberately'' don't exactly match 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.]]

* WhamLine: One that's shocking not so much for the words themselves as it is for ''who'' says it.
-->'''[[spoiler:Kane]]''': If you get out of here, take care of Lena for me, will you?
-->'''Hidden Person:''' ''([[spoiler:[[{{Doppelganger}} in Kane's voice]]]])'' I will.

The film was released on February 23rd, 2018 in theaters, with Creator/{{Paramount}} handling distribution in the United States and China, while Creator/{{Netflix}} handled international distribution, streaming the film 17 days after it was released in theaters.

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->''[[{{Tagline}} Fear what's inside.]]''

--->Ventress wants to face it. You want to fight it. But I don't think I want either of those things.