The premise of Annihilation is simple. A meteor crashes into a quiet coastal area of the United States – at a lighthouse – and begins to spread a strange, mutating effect through the local environment, threatening to envelop more and more land. The end result is anything but simple, however, with the finished movie being a complex exploration of a multitude of themes, amid a story that is beautiful and horrifying in equal parts.

It opens with Lena (Natalie Portman) being interrogated by Lomax (Benedict Wong), in what is clearly some kind of government facility. Lena is wearing white ‘scrubs,’ and seems dazed, while Lomax and his colleagues are wearing Haz-Mat suits and using breathing apparatus. Lomax is asking Lena to account for the fates of four other individuals, and is also asking abou...

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