Deconstructing <em>Annihilation</em>'s Ending

This article contains spoilers for the plot of the film and novel Annihilation.

Just days after its release, Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Annihilation already has all the hallmarks of a polarizing cult classic. Its $11 million opening weekend means the film will likely struggle to make its budget back unless the word-of-mouth is exceptional; its C grade from audiences (awarded by the theater-polling company Cinemascore) suggests it will not be. Reviews from critics were largely strong, with some praising it for simply being a studio film that dares to be weird; others, including The Atlantic’s own Christopher Orr, found it visually stimulating but “mundane, largely opaque, and intermittently comical.” And crucially, Annihilation has a surreal, open-ended climax that’s left to the viewer to puzzle out and discuss.