Too Scary; Didn't Watch - ANNIHILATION (Vault Release)

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

This week's episode is a release from our Patreon vault! We are recapping Annihilation because nothing gets us in the holiday spirit more than deep existential dread.Recorded in December 2020. Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everybody. We are taking this week off for Thanksgiving, so this week's episode is a release from our Patreon vault. You will hear us talking about life as if it is December 2020, and that is because at the time that we recorded it, it was. So, don't be confused. This is the correct episode. We hope you enjoy it. We hope you enjoy it. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch December Bonus Episode. Baby. I'm Emily and that's

you know it. You know it. I'm Henley. Hello. It's good to see you again. Great to see you and that is what we are doing in this podcast. We're all seeing you. You're seeing us. Everyone is seeing everyone with their eyes now did i say i'm sammy i did right i don't know but you guys know you guys know you know um they're seeing you so

they know that's true it is our third bonus third bonus episode fourth third third bonus episode why don't i know when things happen anymore? It's hard. I mean, I guess I know why. Oh, my God. I don't know anything. I feel nervous about my brain constantly. Nervous about my brain?

So we, this is our last bonus episode of 2020. My God. Thank God. Thank God. We will be switching the Patreon up just a little bit moving into 2021. We've been at this for a little while now. We're figuring out what works for us, what works for you guys. So in 2021, there is going to be a little bit more regular bonus content.

We're talking Tony Collette is going to get two bonus episode situation instead of one. Two whole episodes? It's crazy, Emily. It might be a whole second episode. It could maybe be an option to watch the video of our Zoom recording.

But we're going to be throwing some more stuff at you listeners in the Patreon coming in 2021 so last chance for 2020 right here and then if you want to join it patreon.com slash TSUW

podcast we will have more for you in the new freaking year per usual we want to know your feedback we want to know what you guys are interested in hearing about as we said we're nervous about our brains let us use yours yeah help us out um with our sad sad covid brains um something that we've heard from a few different listeners is they'd love to hear us recap some series, which we've never done before. So if that's something you would be interested in, let us know.

Just any ideas are welcome. We're excited. We're excited to do some bonus content. And speaking of Toni Collette's Inner Circle's ideas, this week's freaking movie was chosen by you guys. Yes, you chose the movie. We asked for suggestions. You gave so many.

Thank you for those suggestions. I think plenty of those will end up being episodes at some point. We got a lot of good horror movie suggestions. Then we put it to a poll. I'm honestly very surprised by the movie you guys picked. And I'm thrilled that you did pick this one. Not only because it meant you did not pick The Green Inferno, which I never want to hear about, but probably will someday. did not pick the green inferno which i never want to hear about but probably will someday um but also because the movie picked as annihilation which i have been meaning to

see for a very long time but i've been too scared you get it that's the deal um but was thought i'd use this as an opportunity to watch the freaky movie and i am so glad that i did i also wanted to die. I did literally text Sammy, I want to die. But I also really loved it. What a good movie. Wow. What a good movie. We all watched it. We all watched it. I loved it as well. Henley skipped the middle. I skipped the middle. So watching it, this is a wild movie to skip any of by the way i was running out of time i was planning on watching it in the car today which was a bad idea because then i was car sick and not wanting to watch a movie in the car um and so then i was like rushing trying to watch it

um before this and i did have to skip the middle but you guys you know what i actually had seen it before i saw it when it first came out. Wow. Okay. Yes, yes. Look at you so brave. So I have seen it. It's not that... Well, I read the book initially and hadn't been too scared reading the book. And so I felt like I could handle watching

the movie. You know, what's interesting is it is scary. And there were moments that were scary on a level. Some of it. Emily is really not okay with. Some of it was so scary in a way of like not wanting to exist. It is existential.

Yes. Which is similar to. So I had. So this is. Okay. Let's give you the facts. Let's give you the facts let's give you the facts give us the facts it came out in 2018 it was written and directed by alex garland this was based on the novel of the same name by jeff vandermeer um it stars natalie portman jennifer

jason lee who we just had in our um freaking possessor um gina rodriguez who i think is canceled now i feel like she did something shitty, yeah. Oh, she is? I didn't hear about that. Tessa Thompson, who rules. Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac. Great fucking cast. Great cast. Great movie.

Alex Garland's first film was Ex Machina, which I did see, and also filled me with deep existential dread. That was a spooky ending. Oh, my God. The ending to that movie is like the most upset I've been. It's really spooky. We're just going to spoil it.

So, cover your eyes. I mean, your eyes, because you're watching. If you don't want to hear the ending of Ex Machina. I thought about being left alone in a room to slowly die for so long. Like, it's so cruel. It would be a very bad way to go. It is so cruel. Bad way to go.

Hoo-wee. I really hated it. Just had a little moment of silence. So, I was nervous about this one. I just had a little moment of silence. So I was nervous about this one. It looked visually scarier, which it sort of is. But also, you know, the real scary thing about it is the deep existential dread that it provokes. Yeah, man. Hoof. It did it provokes. Yeah, man.

Hoof. It did it for me. I love this movie. I saw it in theaters in 2018. As some of you may know, I do a top 10 every year. This came in at number five for me in 2018. Okay. Made the cut for the top ten.

And I also just wanted to say a very sweet thank you to you guys wanted The Matrix also came in the running. Yeah. And I think that's very sweet that you guys wanted me to get to talk about my favorite movie. And we'll probably do it eventually. I would love

to do it eventually. Oh my god. Keanu. Maybe Sammy's birthday bonus episode we'll do. Maybe everybody can do. We could do Hocus Pocus for Henley. The Matrix for Sammy and I'll do Paddington 2 and those will be our bonus episodes for birthdays maybe.

But I really was thrilled to be able to watch this movie and I refused to rewatch any of it today to take notes because there was one part which we'll get to which I don't know if you've fast forwarded through or not Henley but it I don't ever want to see

it again I want to watch this movie again and I think I will skip that part I think I never ever ever ever I think I know what part you're talking about and I agree wholeheartedly but we'll get there when we get there. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out together.

When we get there, we'll figure it out. I'm maybe teasing it too much. I don't know if it affected everyone the way that it affected me, but it certainly affected me. Am I making that clear? I hear you. I think that I am.

I see you and I hear you. Thank you. Thank you. Do we want to get into some trivia? Let's hear some trivia. Let's do trivia. Apparently at the test screening one of the producers

a financier, David Ellison at Paramount. You know David? Do you know David? I knew all the financiers at Paramount. He thought the film was too intellectual and too complicated and tried to make them change. He sounds dumb. Yeah, he sounds like an idiot.

He's rich and dumb. They tried to make him change this movie to appeal to a wider audience and make Natalie Portman's character more sympathetic, which is like she's not. What? Right. Anyway, it's kind of a kind of a gross note. She's too smart to be sympathetic. You know, we don't like we don't like to sympathize with smart women. Like what? I don't know what the deal is with that.

But another producer, maybe, you know, I'm Henley. Scott Rudin. Well, everyone knows who Scott Rudin is. Sided with Alex Garland and got the final cut. So it didn't change it, which it is weird and complicated, but not like. But like, yeah, and that's what makes it good. It's a very unique original movie, and I feel like those are somewhat rare. So good for them for sticking to their guns and giving

us this movie because I don't want the version that appeals to wider audiences. No, definitely not. It wouldn't be good. And I will say on that note, the budget of this movie was anywhere from $40 to $55 million.

It made $43 million and was a huge box office flop. So, look. They also, but they I feel like they buried it. I feel like because they didn't some of the people in charge didn't like it. I don't think that they gave it the push that it

deserved. Which I'm very personally upset about because this is based on Annihilation is the first book in a trilogy, the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer and the second book is my favorite and it will now probably never get made. Oh,

and a fucking stellar cast and I feel like Alex Garland hot off the Tales of Ex Machina. And it's fucking good. It really is disappointing and Garland hot off the tails of Ex Machina. And it's fucking good. Yeah, it really is disappointing. And it's really fucking good. It is very upsetting. Speaking of the adaptation from the book, so Alex Garland decided not to reread the novel

and instead adapt the script like a dream of the book is what he said. Which is funny to being like, no, this is intentional. I just don't want to read it i will say that it is every every part of it is different there's two movies that i've seen that have done this and the other one was ready player one where it's like all the beats are the same but literally everything that happens is different oh that's interesting that makes me want to read the book yeah everything in the book is is different but it's like they are progressing down this same path and like ultimately the same things happen but every every set and every scene is different and so that's kind of cool as a way to adapt something yeah maybe jeff vandermeer's mad i don't know well

to be fair his book is fucking crazy they i think it was called was called like it could never be done as is so fair they wouldn't have been able to just take the book reading his books is like being on drugs it's written from I guess maybe I should bring this up

later but it's written from her point of view the Natalie Portman character as she's kind of losing losing it and so it gets kind of progressively harder to henley's a better reader than i am so maybe she was having an easy old breezy time with it but i was really i was really struggling it's not an easy book, but I do like Jeff Vandermeer. There's more in the book also about her becoming one with nature, basically. Right. Which doesn't really happen in the movie in the same way.

Not as much, yeah. And so that's also super trippy. That's a lot to tackle, though, in a movie. Even what they did try to tackle here is a lot to tackle in a movie. Apparently, the film drew some criticism in the casting of Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh because in the books they're described as being

Asian and half Native American, but apparently those descriptions do not come in the first book. I remember this backlash. Only in the sequels. And he, Alex Garland, had not read those and was not, he was casting based on. It does seem crazy that nobody ever told him they should have told him yeah I mean

I think it's like I it's one of those situations where it's like okay I hear you but also well you don't get to say like I didn't know so it doesn't exist that being said they're both incredible in this movie yeah nobody says they're not good actors they're great actors

but yeah maybe, maybe not. Maybe not the best casting choices. Although the other casting is pretty diverse and it is all women. I think they did try to be diverse and just kind of ignorantly didn't know that part of it.

Yeah. Someone definitely should have told. Someone should have fucking told them. But there are some casting what ifs all of whom are are also white um but uh francis mcdormand was considered as the as dr ventress which is jennifer jason lee's character yeah um jennifer jason lee is this character i mean she's i can't picture anyone else but jennifer jason lee in this part no yeah it's like this is exact jennifer j in this part. No. Yeah, it's like a one-to-one.

It's the exact Jennifer Jason Leigh's character in Possessor 2. It's the exact same character. Yes, the same character. I was thinking about that. I think she's always this woman, but it works so well. She's so good at it. And then other conversations for, I'm assuming, Natalie Portman's role were Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Very interesting. Interesting. And then one little fun fact that's sort of trippy about this, sort of not, is that Oscar Isaac, we just love Oscar Isaac. I love Oscar Isaac. We stan Oscar Isaac. We stan Oscar Isaac. He filmed this movie and Star Wars The Last Jedi on adjacent studio lots.

He had the same trailer for both films and would often film scenes for both movies on the same day. Wow. What? That's insane. That is really hard. It seems like a gruel, grueling day. Also, I will say he's, he's very good in this movie, but he's not in it a ton.

So I can see how that would be possible in this movie but he's not In it a ton so I can See how that would be possible For this movie I don't think he's Well I guess in one moment he is in the Shimmer zone that we see but like For the most part all of his scenes would be Yeah like very studio lot

I mean that's still insane to do But I mean dude was Earning money for two huge movies At the same time. I think he's doing fine. That is all the trivia I have got for this movie. I'm excited to watch this trailer because

I don't think I've seen it since the movie came out but I remember it being a trailer that both made me want to watch this movie and too scared to watch this movie. So I'm excited to see what that means. This trailer. Now having seen it. Rules.

Can you describe its form? No. Start from the beginning. What do you think I do when you're away? You think I'm out in the garden pining, looking up at the sky? Brad! Why aren't you here? I gotta leave a day early.

Your husband's here. Let me see him. He's extremely ill. You have to tell me where he was, what he was doing. It was his decision to go in. It's something they termed the shimmer. We've sent in drones and teams of people, but nothing comes back. But something has.

You're a biologist. You served in the military. If I knew what happened, I could save his life. The boundary's getting bigger, it's expanding. We're talking cities, states. You need to know what's inside. So do I. It's beautiful. Check this out.

It's like they're stuck in a continuous mutation. Anything interesting in there? No. Sharks have teeth like that. It's not possible. You can't crossbreed different species. What is it? The soldiers on the last expedition.

They went crazy. Or something in here killed them. Something's come through the fence. Through the fence? We have to go back. I can't go back. We can camp here tonight. It's destroying everything.

It's not destroying. It's making something new that song gives me such body chills i have chills on my scalp right now i have fucking chills right now i can't i like sort of can't breathe oh my god little yeah the little sound motif that goes throughout it. That's so good. It's used so well. Oh my God. It's used so, so, so well. This fucking movie. And we'll get into it, but there's a few song choices that are really good.

Should we just start? And some that are really bad. Yeah, let's do it. Let's start. Okay. In the past few years, I have hit a point where I only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable. It happened. It happened to me.

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Don't forget, that's Hellobello.com slash too scary. And also, I sort of did this from memory. I watched it last night, but a lot of my notes were just – I think that's okay. I might not be 100% about the order that they happen in. But I think it starts – we see like a fireball shoot through the sky and go through a lighthouse and it's like very colorful it's like a fireball but then it's like color um then we see uh natalie portman's character her name is lena she is a biologist a biology professor oh wait first i do want to say that in the very

opening shot it's natalie portman in a room and all white being questioned that happens at the top okay great yeah that's the very first scene and there are people like outside looking at her through glass there's a guy in hazmat suit benedict wong yeah bened's a guy in a hazmat suit. Benedict Wong. Yeah. Benedict Wong in a hazmat suit questioning her. And he says, what did you eat? You had rations for two weeks and you were inside for almost four months. And she says, I don't remember eating. And he says, how long did you think you were inside? And she said, days, maybe weeks. And then he asked what happened to everyone. And she's like, I don't know, like dead. I don't know.

And then he goes, what do you know? And then there's the shot of the comet hitting the lighthouse. Thank you. Okay, great. Great. I'm off to a great start. No, that's how it starts. Great.

So yeah, we see. So we know at the top natalie portman went in natalie portman came out but so that we flash back essentially to uh she's a professor she's teaching a lecture about cells and how cells divide and it's about cancerous cells she says over the course of semester we're gonna be looking at um cancer cells and how they they work she's leaving the building and another professor stops her uh to talk to her and invites her to his barbecue he's like sarah and i are having barbecue and she's sort of standoffish with him and um it's like oh

no i i um i have plans i'm painting our i'm painting the bedroom And he puts a hand on her arm and says, you know, it's okay for you to have fun. It's been a year. Why don't you come? And she says, I have plans. Leaves. I believe at this point or around this point, we have a flashback of her in bed with her husband. It's Oscar Isaac. They're flirty.

They're cute. He's like, they're just, they seem very in love. We see pictures of them on the wall they we see pictures that show them both in army fatigues so um uh we know that that is a part of their past she sit on sits on the couch and is sobbing holding a locket open that has a picture of him on one this part really made me sad it's like really sad it's very effective what they do here it really is man oh shit

uh poof um this movie uh so then she starts painting their bedroom and as she is painting we see Oscar Isaac at the foot of the stairs very like severe very like no facial expression.

He walks in. It was unclear to me, is this a memory? But then he is all of a sudden in the doorway to the bedroom. She turns around, freaks out, runs to him, hugs him, is kissing him, and he is not really responding. He's there, but he's not really kissing her back he's not holding her he just seems like very shell-shocked so they're then they're down at the the kitchen table and she's asking him where were you like you were gone for a year where were you she has no idea what his mission was uh no one in the army should she said she had asked for information nobody told

her anything he keeps saying i i don't know i don't know where i was she's like well was it the desert was it cold what like trying to get any information he he doesn't seem to know he can't really give her that information he has a cup oh is there something you're saying yeah there's one thing that so after that um she says well how did you get here like who dropped you off and he said i was just here and i saw you i recognized your face it's just a very like that really stuck out to me too very weird thing to say he says he says i was just outside the room. So we see that his, his own, his memory extends to basically 10 minutes. And that's it.

Yeah. And he doesn't even know it's their bedroom. He says it's the room with the bed. Yeah. The room with the bed. And yeah. And I recognized your face. Yeah.

Also. Yeah. Like he doesn't know. It was you. Right. He doesn't know who she is. Yeah. Oh, creepy.

Oh, it's. And she's definitely. the sense that something is wrong with her husband. He's drinking a cup of water. He takes a sip of the water, puts the cup back on the table. We close up on the cup and there is blood from his mouth in the cup of water. Very freaky. And he says, I don't feel very good. And then he starts throwing up blood.

Starts throwing up blood. Ambulance comes. She's in the ambulance with him. They're rushing to the hospital. He's like, you know, dying. Like they're losing him

in the ambulance. And then, oh, this is a thing. I said this as I watch. I hate shit like this in a movie where then all this is a thing i said this as a as i watch i hate shit like this in a movie where then all of a sudden like black police vehicles just start like swarming and surround and like cut off the ambulance i don't know what it is about that moment but i was just like oh god oh no like you just know it's gonna be so bad yeah um so they they you know the ambulance

can't keep going the SWAT team they come out with guns are like get out get out they like drag Natalie Portman out she's like my husband he's dying what's happening and they sedate her they like stab her in the neck sedate her and then we see titles across the screen area x to go to area x Nataliealie portman wakes up she wakes up in basically a cell and she's essentially wearing like prisoner yeah she's like an orange jumpsuit yeah and she wakes up in fetal position and she's locked in and there's that believe it one way aka two-way mirror and we see Jennifer Jason Lee watching her yeah she pukes in her little like incel bathroom

incel bathroom Jennifer Jason Lee comes in and starts questioning her and is like what did your husband tell you when did he get there how did he get there and Natalie Portman's like you tell me

like where am I where is he what's happening to him like time for you to answer the fucking questions and Jennifer Jason is like very unfeeling very oh my gosh she's so Jennifer Jason she's very Jennifer Jason Lee she's very unfeeling very oh my god she's so Jennifer Jason she's very Jennifer Jason Lee she's like over

it at this point too she's just like yeah Natalie Portman demands a lawyer at one point and she's like no which shows us that this is like they don't care about the law yeah she's like no that's not no you don't get a fucking lawyer

she also introduced herself as a psychologist and natalie portman is like why am i talking to a psychologist like why are you am i in a psychiatric hospital and she says no i believe then she asked she's like let me see my husband and they go and look at him he's like in a medical he's like all tented up essentially like quarantined quarantined he's on a ventilator Dr. Ventress is Jennifer Jason Leigh's character's name I don't know if we said that

she tells Lena Lena's husband's name is Kane also I don't know that's just his name but she tells Lena he's multiple organ failure massive internal bleeding. And then Natalie Portman asks, where was he? How did this happen?

And Jennifer Gently, I was surprised. She just goes like, all right, here's the deal. She just shows her. She shows her. Takes her outside. Shows her. The shimmer. The shimmer. She goes, this is, you know, and you can see, I mean, you see in the trailer the, like, it looks like a force field at, like, the end of, you know, this field begins.

And it's like, you know what it looks like? It looks like, like, soap bubbles. Like, when you blow big bubbles. It does. That's a good point. That look, the, like, colorful and distorted. And she says that, you know, this is the line of the shimmer. distorted and she says that you know this is the line of the shimmer it came from space presumably crashed into this lighthouse a few years ago and the border has just been expanding ever since

devouring everything in in its path we've been sending crews in no no one ever comes back nothing comes back we get no messages from within it. Your husband was part of the last mission. He is the only one to have come back. And it's not going to stop eventually. The shimmer is just it's going to take over towns, cities, the whole planet. Like we have to figure out what's in there that night. Essentially, it's sort of like an army base type Feeling place Lena is standing by herself

And gets called over to sit at a table With this group of women Who we are introduced to the rest of our main Characters They are Cass who's also called Shepard She's the one who like she's very nice Just a nice woman

Really friendly and she's the one who she calls You know who she calls. You know who she reminded me of? Who? Sarah Levy. And what's her character name in Schitt's Creek? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Schitt's Creek. Oh, yeah.

I could see that. She reminded me of her. But yeah, so she calls her over. It's at the table. It's Cass or Shepard. She is a geomorphologist. Wow. Josie, who is Tessa Thompson's character. She is a geomorphologist. Mm-hmm. Wow. Josie, who is

Tessa Thompson's character, she is a physicist. And then Anya, which is Gina Rodriguez's character, she is a paramedic. They reveal to Lena that they are in a week's time, six days or something, going into the Shimmer. They're the next group of people. And Lena's like, why would any like, why would you volunteer to go

do that? And they're like, everyone they've sent in before, it's all men and it's all like army military dudes. So they're trying something new. They're going to send in basically women scientists. What's the opposite of a military man? A woman scientist.

And that Ventress, who is a psychologist, she's leading the team. They do not know. Lena just tells them, they ask, why are you here? She says, I'm a biologist. So they think another lady scientist, just like us. Perfect. Lena goes to Ventress and says, I want to go with you because I need to figure out what happened to him so that maybe I can save him

and I don't know if we learned exactly at this moment but she doesn't tell any of the other women on her crew that her husband is the guy who came back because they're aware that a guy came back they talk about him at the table that night and they're like one person came back but he's like you see the shape he's in like basically saying

you know he's fucked he's going to die not knowing that it's Lena's husband right so next thing we see is them going to enter the shimmer and they are wearing their like you know army clothes they look fucking badass they look cool

as fuck they have big backpacks and army clothes they kind of look like ghostbusters they kind of do. You're right. But cooler. But it is way cooler. Way cooler. It's fascinating the way that this is approached. We get more of details as we go on about why anyone would do

this and their state of mind. They're all in doing this. I mean, they certainly think they'll learn something and hope that they'll figure it out. But also, they're definitely going to die, right? Almost certainly, they'll learn something and hope that they'll figure it out but also like they're definitely gonna die right like almost certainly they're going to die um but they all they walk through the shimmer and this is supposed to be they say the southern united states this is supposed to be like florida marshland essentially i think yes um they walk through the shimmer and it is just stunning in there it is like green and lush and

the light, there's like rainbow light coming. I mean, it's absolutely stunning. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. It's gorgeous. The first thing we see, they walk through and then we see Lena wake up one morning in a tent.

Does she have a dream or flashback of her husband? She dreams that they're having sex and then she wakes up. Oh, yes. And a lot of this goes back and forth between her in that room with Benedict Wong also in his hazmat

suit. Yes, we're getting... This whole thing is a retelling that she is telling to Benedict Wong. So she... Yeah, we every now and again cut back to get information in the questioning from Benedict Wong and then every now and again she gets flashes of memory of life

before she went into the shimmer. Also, we should note that Benedict Wong asks her, he says, why did you go in? And she says, I owed him, so I went in. Great. So we don't know what that means. We don't know what that means we don't know what that means yeah um so they she wakes up comes out of her tent looks like sort of confused she sees um anya and cass and josie i believe sort of like like lining up like rations of food out on the grass

and they ask her how she slept and she's like hold on I'm like getting my bearings still and they go join the club yeah join the club they're like you don't know you don't remember setting up camp do you and she says I don't remember anything from the past few days she's like I don't remember anything past walking in

yeah and they yeah they're like we don't either but looking at our rations we've been here a few days already and she's like that's not this is so i feel like immediately scary the best way to introduce this world i was like obsessing over it last night with joel just like what a way to immediately be like here's the deal shit is wild. And like, it's just you are out of your element. It is the fastest possible way to reveal so much information. It's like, yeah, brilliant screenwriting. I am obsessed with it.

Yeah. So basically it's established. We have no sense of time in here. We already don't have memories. So, my God, are we fucked? Yeah. But Jennifer Jason Leigh, pretty unfazedazed she's sort of like well we have to keep going get your stuff we're like we're moving on so as they walk they they come upon

this abandoned boathouse and it is the like pathway leading up the railings are covered in gorgeous flowers, like a one vine of flowers everywhere. But it's all different kinds of flowers. Natalie Portman pulls off some leaves and is saying, this is so weird. This doesn't make any sense. These are not the same species of flower, but it is all coming from the same plant. same species of flower but it is all coming from the same plant so that she's already very alarmed by that um as a as a scientist things are not normal here things are not normal here she takes some some samples to to look at them later under her microscope i guess at this point jennifer jason lee well nally portman says it's like they're constantly mutating and jennifer jason

lee says like a pathology and n Natalie Portman says you sure as hell call it a pathology if you saw it in a human so great good little hint of what's a little hint of what's to come well these are my notes these are great Josie goes and wanders into

the boathouse to see what she finds and you know you gotta love a moment like this in a horror movie where you're like, something's gonna happen but I'm still gonna be scared when it does. And she goes in, they say anything in there, she pokes her head out and says, nope!

And then gets dragged back into the boathouse. They run in after her, she's like pulled under the water, we see like thrashing and Natalie Portman's trying to pull her out and grabbing her and they eventually get her out and they're like shooting it whatever this thing is in the water they

see it come out it is a huge fucking alligator it's so big huge and it keeps coming at them like they're shooting at it it's very aggressive very aggressive keeps walking at them they're all shooting at it very aggressive very aggressive keeps walking at them they're all shooting at it finally eventually they they kill it and josie is unharmed i i think it like got her

backpack so um she's okay but so they they shoot it they kill it they open its mouth we get this natalie portman killing it by the way yeah that shot is so fucking good i mean like that shot of her like slow-mo her cheeks are like shaking in a way of slow-mo she looks so badass i've never seen anyone look more badass in my entire life i was just like i want to be yeah she's fucking so cool i don't think about her often enough but damn i wrote that down as like natalie portman shooting a gun is really doing something for me i feel watching this me too yeah man it's great um so yeah but they open its mouth and see rows of teeth like shark teeth and nata portman's like this is so strange it's it's the same thing this is like multiple species in this same animal.

And they're like a crossbreed or whatever. And she says you can't crossbreed between species. You literally can't. Yeah. She takes samples from its mouth to analyze later. But things are not looking great. So they get in little canoes, which I think is fun. And they're canoeing across this swamp land. Lena, Natalie Portman, is in a canoe with Shepard.

And Shepard says like, oh, you could really shoot for a biologist. And she says, I used to be in the army. And Shepard says, okay, so what's your deal? Like what's wrong with you that you're here? Says they're basically all damaged goods. Anyone who would volunteer to do this? Because, yeah, they have volunteered. They have not been forced to do this.

And just a reminder, everyone else that has done this has not come back. And the one person who has, all of his organs are failing. Yeah, it's not a tempting proposition. And these are all, like, young women. Mm-hmm. So she asks, you know, she says, she asks, like, what has she lost? And then she says, we're all damaged goods. And so Shepard says, me, it was my daughter.

She sees her little necklace and she says, who's, I think, right? Right, yeah. She's like, who's in your necklace? Lock it. But, yeah, she yeah she says uh my husband i met him in the army and shepherd asks about like what happened to him and she says um killed in action shepherd tells her anya is an addict or she's a she's sober which means she's an addict josie um wears long sleeves so oh so you don't see her arms.

So Josie has had many suicide attempts. She said I for me was my daughter. She had leukemia. And she says a very poignant thing, which is I had two losses. My my little girl and the person that I was. And then she asked about Ventress and Shepard says Ventress no kids, no husband no hobbies, no interests

no friends, like she's just I don't know they don't know what her deal is but they're sort of like I mean does she need a reason? Look at who she is so they arrive at an abandoned army base

they walk in and see that this is where the last crew was, had set up camp. They see like on a chalkboard the names of everybody in different times listed. They realize those are like rotation times to watch the perimeter. Some of the names are crossed out. One of them asks, what does that mean? It's like fucking duh. Those are crossed out. One of them asks, what does that mean? It's like, fucking duh. No. Those are already dead.

So as they're sort of, they're in like the mess hall is where they have walked into. They see like abandoned beds. And on one of the tables is a Ziploc bag labeled, what does it say? Like for those that follow, I think is what it says. And it is a memory card. By the way, they have a camera to record things, and they have radios and satellite equipment, and none of the signals are getting anywhere. But so they take out the memory card, they put it in their camera and play back to see the footage.

Someone else might need to take this because I watched it through fingers. I know what happens, but I didn't see it. It's not good. We see kind of a group of men and one of them is shirtless, kind of crying. And then Oscar Isaac leans into frame and uh at this moment ventress looks at lena and they have kind of a moment of knowing that is um intense and then uh kane is his name right kane what does he say to camera like watch this or something like he's they're they're documenting something that they know something is about to happen kane has a knife and he goes to cut open this man's stomach

he just does it he just cuts open he just cuts it open fully on camera while this man is very much alive and the man seems seems game for it he is he is like cut my stomach open and he does and basically cuts this flap of stomach off folds it over oh my god it's crazy and inside it's as if his intestines are snakes snakes. They're moving. It's just almost like eels swimming around each other. And Oscar Isaac reaches his hand in and kind of tucks it under one of them and it keeps moving and they're just like basically

swimming around in his stomach. And Gina Rodriguez is like, oh, it's a trick of the light. It's a trick of the light. Yeah, she like slams the camera closed and like, we don't need to see this anymore. And she goes, oh, so the last crew went insane. That's what happened. They went insane. They killed each other. Because earlier

they had said, there's two possibilities of what happens in the shimmer. Either something in there kills you, or it makes you go insane and you kill yourself or each other. She goes, oh, great. So that's what it is. We know now. Shimmer makes you go insane. You kill each other. And goes, oh, great. So that's what it is. We know now. It makes you go insane. You kill each other. And the rest of them

are like, did you see his fucking stomach? It was moving like his stomach was moving. And she says, no, it's strictly like I'm a paramedic. His body was in shock, just like doing anything to not believe that that. Yeah. She was like, I've been a paramedic in Chicago for seven years. Like I've seen everything.

I don't know. I was like, no, shit than that. I don't know, man. I was like, no, you haven't. I don't think you've seen it. No. Yeah, so they basically start exploring the rest of this base. And they go to an empty pool, which is where it looked like this film was being shot. And they see the body of that man. How would you describe? and they see the body of that man how to describe there's a lot of things in this movie

that are going to be pretty tough to describe so we see him like his body his lower body from the stomach cut down sitting in the chair legs the bottom torso then from the waist up From the waist up.

From the waist up all the way to the top of the wall. Probably the ceiling of the place. His body has grown into fungus, flower, vine. Clinging to the wall like

what? An explosion of floraora it's like a really it's like a really fucked up like wedding trellis or something it's like kind of beautiful but it like is also his body and then right at the top uh is a a neck and then a skull. Yeah. As if his body split apart at where they cut it open and a whole big thing grew and then his head was still left at the top. And you know what, Emily? I think that is what happened. I think that is what happened. I think we have to believe that is what happened. So I'm sorry.

That takes me right out of fucking Anya's theory that it was a trick of the light. Not a trick of the light. Something fucked up has happened here. They say, I don't want to sleep here tonight. And Ventress says, no choice. Too bad.

It's late. We're not moving on. We're sleeping here. So... I think we get a little flashback Too bad it's late. We're not moving on. We're sleeping here. So. I think we get a little flashback maybe at this point of Natalie Portman having sex. The same. Yeah, the same memory we see like from her behind. A very, very sensual, strong back movement. The way she moves is almost a little alien-y.

Yeah. She's on top. We just see her from behind and then we see she's having sex with that uh co-worker the professor we saw from earlier the barbecue inviter the old barbecue invite the old barbecue you're fucking the barbecue inviter so that's all we get i think that's all we get that's all we get she wakes up she's either having that memory as a dream or thinking about it she's lena's awake and they're up in the watch tower at the army base this is where this happens shepherd also wakes up and sees that Lena's awake and she's like, oh, you're not sleeping. And Lena says, yeah, I'm, uh, I mean, how could I possibly sleep? I don't know what she says, but that's

the gist. She, Lena goes down the watchtower to back on the ground. There's like a little booth. I don't know, like, you know, a watch booth where Ventress is keeping, is like up, keeping watch while they sleep. And at this point I'm thinking, if I'm there, two people, keeping watch while they sleep. At this point, I'm thinking, if I'm there,

two people keep watch, three people sleep. Two people keep watch, three people sleep. This one and four, no, no. If not three and two. If not three and two, to be completely honest. But she goes out and Ventress says, oh, you're not supposed to relieve me until three. And Laina says, I'm done sleeping. I think this is where Ventress says like oh you're not supposed to relieve me until three and Lena says I'm done sleeping

um I think this is where Ventress says you know I had questioned when you decided not to tell them that Kane was your husband I questioned that but then we saw that video and I thought yep it's a good thing they don't know I was like hey Ventress

that ain't helpful at all I think I think this is where they have a conversation where Lena's like, why would my husband volunteer to do this? Because Ventress does the psychological evaluations of everyone that goes inside the show. Right, because that's her job there as a psychologist. And so she's like, why did my husband do this? Like, this is clearly not a thing. This is a suicide mission. That people do if they're feeling good and great.

And Ventress won't tell her. Ventress won't tell her. No. As they're standing out there, Lena sees a big hole torn through the fence that surrounds them. And like torn through. And so she gets her gun out, her scope. She's looking. It's dark. And so she gets her gun out, her scope. She's looking. It's dark.

It's very dark. Yeah. And it has, like, tall grass surrounding them. Swampy. Shepard comes out. I think hears them being, like, concerned about the fence. Shepard comes out. She's standing outside of the booth that they're in and gets scrapped by a big old animal.

She's screaming. They're calling her name. They're trying to shoot at whatever took her. The other two come down. They, they are all shooting and trying to get this fucking thing. No success. Takes Shepard away into the night screaming.

Yeah. You don't really want to go chasing. Yeah. You don't really want to go. They go to like basically just outside the fence Where the hole is and that's it Also, yeah, so when The shepherd gets taken

They're shooting at whatever Took her and then Anya and Josie come down so they don't even See this, they just know shepherd's gone We're shooting at something, they don't know what happened They heard the commotion The next day, they continue on to explore. They're

trying to get to the lighthouse, right? That's where this all started. Their goal is to get to the lighthouse to try to understand what this thing is. So they have to continue on. Ventress, the next morning, is like, I'm going to the lighthouse. Because Anya and Josie are like, we need to get out. Let's go back.

Let's go back. This is obviously fucked. We're going to die. Let to get out let's go back let's go back this is obviously fucked we're going to die let's get out of here and Ventress is like I came here to figure out what happened I am not leaving without figuring it out you guys do whatever the fuck you want I'm going to the lighthouse then Anya sort of berates

Lena for like being like why didn't you fucking voice your opinion like we needed you on our side and she says I am on your side I just think and she's fully lying but she's like the best way to get out she's like it took us six days to get here

they think who knows we're two days away from the lighthouse and if we get to the lighthouse we can just follow the coast to get out which honestly is I think more desirable than going back through marshland. But she's like, that's the best way to get out is we go to the lighthouse. We can get to the coast and then get out. She's like, I am on your side.

I just think this is the best way to do it. But we also get the impression, even though that, you know, sure, maybe true. It cuts, I think, back to her in the interrogation room with benedict wong and he's like so you lied to them she's like i believed that was the best way to go but we get the impression that she wants to go to that lighthouse too yeah she wants to figure out what the deal is um she's clearly having more feelings about her husband why is she wants to know why he came here she's starting to be drawn into figuring out what this is also in one of those flashbacks i think it was earlier um uh she's saying like the mutations were subtle at first but they get more intense as we get closer

to the lighthouse and benedict wong is like do you think that you're just hallucinating and she's like i thought that it could be the case, but then it was all shared. We were all having the same hallucinations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This might be too. I don't know exactly when this happens, but she has another flashback to the day her husband left.

She's like wakes up in the morning and he comes in and sits on the edge of the bed. And she's like, why aren't you in bed? And he says, I have to leave a day early. She says, we had the whole day planned out. And she's like, well, at least come back in bed for a minute. And he's like, not very unemotional, unmoving. It's just like, no, I have to go. Because he's pissed.

He must have found out she cheated on him. This is the point where I was like, in my earlier flashbacks, I was like, oh, did she start cheating on him when he was gone, when she thought he was dead? At this point, it becomes clear she had been cheating on him. He seems to know. So I think as we're figuring that out, too, we're like Lena has a lot of guilt about why her husband would have come in here and if it had to do with her cheating. And she's trying to figure this out. Yeah. And also, you know, slowly losing it.

to figure this out. Yeah. And also, you know, slowly losing it. As they're moving forward, Ventress is very much like fucking going, just like, doesn't want to stop.

And everyone else is like, well, we need to make sure that Cass is actually dead. They find her boot. Right. Just a shoe. And then they're like, we have to make sure she's dead.

So they want to follow through the brush behind where they found her boot and lena says i'm i'm going in alone i'm gonna go see and walks in and sees a little deer thing right is this think so. And it's like a white deer with pink antlers. It's beautiful. It's very beautiful. And then another almost identical deer pops up behind it and they move in, synchronized with one another. And they're very, yeah, they're cute and beautiful.

And she's mesmerized for a moment. And then she continues on and she's mesmerized for a moment and then she continues on and she finds shepherd's body and shepherd is in fact dead definitely dead definitely been mauled by this creature and it's kind of similar to the army guy where she has like growths coming out of her she's like at the base of a tree and her hair is kind of wrapped around the roots of the tree in a way that i couldn't tell if it was actually anything was happening or if it was just it's yeah it's certainly positioned in that way and her arms are a little deformed but it's like are they broken or yeah are they like growing in weird ways but

it's you know you don't want to look too closely at it. At least I didn't. No. Very unpleasant. So she, Lena walks back out to the group and they say, did you find her? And she says,

yeah, she's dead. And they continue on. So then they find this little village and we see all of these, they look like sort of topiaries, like very broken down topiaries of like human figures

but they are so they go up to them and they and Josie looks at them and says they grew this way. They're trees that grew in the exact shape of human bodies. Pretty unusual. It. Pretty unusual.

It's pretty unusual. This is where we learn Josie's theory about what is happening. Josie, again, is a physicist. Yes. That's correct. So I'm going to need some help with this explanation because I was like, huh. I mean, I'm sure I will not do well either. But she says basically that she thought that their compass isn't working, their radios are not working, anything that sends a signal out. She said, I thought it was blocking it, but I think it's refracting it.

And the shimmer is behaving like a prism where it's not blocking signals. It's like scrambling them. It's everything that goes out is refracted back in. And it's not just signals. It's also everything. So that includes animal DNA, plant DNA. So that includes animal DNA, plant DNA, human DNA. So that's how we're seeing multiple species in one thing because it is all, anything that enters the shimmer becomes a part of the shimmer and becomes a part of everything in the shimmer. the point at which I clocked in one of the

interviews with Lena after she's made it out of the shimmer that she has this tattoo. This big infinity tattoo on her forearm. It is a snake eating itself. Okay. In the shape of an infinity.

In the shape of an infinity. Big tattoo on her forearm. We cut back into the shimmer where we're at. And it is actually Anya who has this tattoo. So

at this point I'm like okay. It's cool man. She is getting, the shimmer is giving her that tattoo by taking the dna from anya it's wild yeah they find up they find a house at an abandoned house and they decide to sort of take camp for the night in that house as they're sort of setting up and discussing this theory As they're sort of setting up and discussing this theory.

But also, this is Lena's house. This is the same house from the opening shot of the movie. When she goes home to paint her room, this is Lena's house. What? Oh, that's so spooky. And you can see when she walks in, she looks, there is a picture hanging on the wall. And she looks unsettled, but she doesn't say anything to anyone. She recognizes that it is her house. How did the shimmer

already take over her house? Because her husband was there. It's, I think, recreating from him. Refracting his memories? Yeah. Good lord, this movie is wild. Oh, that's so creepy. Hoo-wee! Okay. But yeah, she looks at her blood

and... She looks at her blood under the microscope at some point and basically sees her DNA being weird. It's different. Altered. It's different. It's different. It's different. So as they're sort of setting up camp in the house, we see Anya. Anya's like starting to

sort of lose it more than anyone else. She's looking at her hands a lot. We've seen flashes. Yeah, and she's looking at her hands a lot. She's like very jittery. She is unwell. So they go to sleep that night and all of a sudden Lena is woken up by Anya standing over her with the barrel of her gun and holding

her locket necklace in her hand opened with a picture of Kane. And Lena's like, what the fuck? What are you doing? And she goes, no, it's your turn to answer the fucking questions. Smashes her in the head with the barrel of her gun. She comes to. Lena, Josie, and Ventress are all tied up and gagged in chairs.

And Anya has lost it and is like Lena's a fucking liar like who was this was your husband full paranoid like and not in this reality anymore and she like she says to them she's like my fingerprints are moving

my hands are fucking moving she says if you cut me open will my insides be moving too she takes out a knife and goes to stab Lena cause she's like let's figure out what's inside of you oh no this is the

part that Emily really doesn't like oh my god okay okay okay I fast forwarded through this part I don't remember what happens oh my god. Okay. Okay. Okay. I fast forwarded through this part. I don't remember what happens. Oh my god, Henley. It's really bad. And I will say, I saw this movie in theaters

and I remembered that this was the scariest part. And it is worse and scarier than I remembered. Which never happens. You always go back and rewatch things and it's like not as scary the second time. This for me was scarier the second time. It's so fucking scary. Okay, I'm going to try to do it.

I'm going to try to do it. This is about growth. This is about growth. Okay. So just as she's about to stab Lena, we hear Cass screaming. And Lena goes

oh my god like shepherd and runs out of the room towards the screams Anya does sorry sorry Anya does towards the screams meanwhile the other three are tied up and trying desperately to get out of their ties

because they're hearing screaming they can't shoot they can't defend themselves. Does Anya get attacked first? Well, we don't really hear. She just runs out and then we don't know what happens. We don't know what happens, but we keep hearing Cass screaming.

Getting closer. Let me see the shadow up the stairs. Of. A big, nasty. Skull bear. A bear. With an open. Side of its head

like a skull with like prehistoric bear teeth. Yeah. Huge. It's very big. It's very big. It has no skin on its head at all. Bear scary. It seems to not be able to see them.

Yeah. No skin, no eyes. Smelling. it seems to not be able to see them yeah no skin no eyes smelling and opening its mouth and every time every time it opens its mouth it makes

the sound of Cass screaming ugh yeah I feel like sounds cheesy when you say it like if you like were to say an animal that opens its mouth and a woman's scream comes out the fucking sound design on this it's it's it's bone chilling by screams it's like the sounds of her dying it's like um it i it's really bad it's so horrifying i it yeah there's no way to fully describe how bad this is without experiencing it it is it made me want to die it made me want to be dead i couldn't believe rather than here i

couldn't believe i mean having had seen it once before i couldn't believe upon a second watch how i was like oh my god it's it's it's worse than i remember i blocked it out i think it's i completely blocked this out i don't remember this at all we're really harping on this i it's so disturbing i can't believe how upsetting it is. And even why. Because it's also like it's like quiet even when it opens its mouth a little bit. Like the sound that normally would just be like a exhale of this bear is like a quiet scream. And it's like, you know, it's her dying.

It is so bad. It is so bad. It's the scariest thing I've ever fucking seen. It's also like stalking them so it's it's coming closer to them it comes like a little head between them we get a little profile shot of all three of them with the bear head in between their skull skinned bear head skin bear woman skin bear head sniffing around them natalie portman i feel like yeah at one point manages to say to um josie like don't react josie's like about to lose it and and yeah she's just like don't react

don't scream don't scream the bear bites josie on the shoulder and Josie is struggling to not react so Josie is like like she can't scream while she is being eaten by a bear and the bear gets shot at and then Anya walks in from outside her leg is all fucked up so it's clearly already

attacked her and she starts shooting it and yes we're understanding that it's only really responding super negatively to other aggression and so that is why lena said don't react and it was doing like a test bite to josie it wasn't attacking her it just bites her and kind of holds to be like what's happening yeah and then the second anya starts shooting at it lunges at anya lunges for anya drags her down the stairs and the other three are like screaming and trying to untie themselves like they can't even necessarily get to her aid immediately because

they are tied up yeah she tries to run upstairs it grabs her pulls her back down. She like breaks the banister on this. She's like holding on for like so hard that she's like breaking these wood. Oh, my God. This is a horrible, horrible death. Horrible. And it does eventually basically bite her face in half. Whole face. Whole face.

Oh, my God. It rips her whole face off. Pulls her whole jaw down off of her body. She dies. They manage to shoot it. Josie does. Josie shoots it. It goes for Lena.

It's about to attack Lena. And Josie shoots it like 1,000 times in the head. And it dies. And it dies. And I curled up into a ball and paused the movie for a few minutes. It's a tough scene. And texted Sammy that I wanted to die. movie for a few minutes. It's a tough scene. It was and texted Sammy that I wanted to die

and Sammy told me that I'd made it past the worst of it and listeners she's right. It is the hardest scene I think. It's the hardest part. We've made it. Is it all that's hard? No. But it is the hardest part.

Okay. the next day Ventress is like well I'm going to the lighthouse yeah so yeah oh she does have a I don't know if this is when this happens but she does eventually have a conversation with Lena I think this is when Lena like calls it a

suicide mission or like why would my husband want to commit suicide? And she says it's not suicide. It is humans have a natural propensity for self-destruction. And it's like we do it all the time. Why does anyone have self-destructive tendencies? Why do we ruin a happy marriage? So she clearly knows that lena was cheating on him

that he knew and that's why he left right yeah so ventress is basically like bye i'm going to lighthouse i don't care what you guys do uh this i'm i'm out and leaves them josie and and lena josie is talking to anya and basically saying, what does she say? She's like sitting outside in the garden with all these plants that like look like humans. And she's just a little more like kind of talking like she's like dazed, floaty. Yeah. She's sort of like, she's like dazed, floaty. Yeah.

What she says that now I remember that really was upsetting. And she said that bear. The only it absorbed Shepard's DNA as she was dying. What it got from her was her screams and her fear as she died. Imagine if that's the only thing that is left of you. Right. Is that part. The only part that lives on. Is your fear and scream and pain.

And she says, I don't want that to be me. And. She says, Ventress is trying to face it. You're trying to fight it. I don't want either of those things. And she walks off into the valley behind a tree or something and yeah lena goes to chase her where'd she go as she's walking away little plants are like growing out of her oh yes there's

she's like already becoming the one of these flower people. And yeah, Lena goes to get her. She's already, who even knows? Is she already one of the plants? I don't know. She's just gone. And we learn then in an interview again with Lena that Ventress had cancer. Yeah.

And was, that like she knew she wasn't coming back. Mm-hmm. So I think next we get to the lighthouse. Oh, we do get to the lighthouse. We, we do though. First get,

um, I don't know if it's first, but a really sick burn by, uh, Natalie Portman, which is we go to a flashback of her again, having sex with that. The professor, I think his name is Dan,

right? Dan. I don't know. Yeah. Dan. they, they finished and she's like that. We we can't do that anymore that was that was the last time and she's being like rude and cold to him he's oh she says like get your clothes and leave she's just like you need to get out of here and he says um oh it's so fucking stupid where he's like, we have such a connection, clearly like physical and intellectual.

Your husband's like not even here most of the time. And she says, what about your wife? And he goes, my wife is wonderful. She's blameless in this. Don't she's totally blameless. It's like, OK, but what about your wife, though? It doesn't answer the question. Anyway, I'm sorry.

It's one thing to like fall in love with somebody else. It's another thing to be like, shut up. I'm doing it all. But she, he says, she's like, that was the last time we're not doing this again. And he says something to the

effect of, it's not me you hate. It's yourself. And she says, no, it's also you. Get out of my house. No, it's not it's not me you hate it's yourself and she says no it's also you get out of my house no it's also you Dan it's also you Dan I can hate two people at once it's like yeah I hate myself

but that's why I don't hate you get the fuck out of my house so yeah we get to the lighthouse she's approaching on the beach there's crystal trees it's very beautiful very beautiful I mean again the shimmer stunning

gorgeous it's a gorgeous place to be it's spooky but it is pretty spooky pretty and she approaches this lighthouse and there's a row of skeletons outside laid out ceremoniously. Probably not in the way that they died.

Then a row of rib cages. Then a row of legs. Right. It's like they're all separated. Right. That's like not how they died. Well, something moved them. Something moved them.

Yeah. She goes to the lighthouse and in the bottom of the lighthouse. It's Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. And they're screaming about beans. They're both farting nonstop. Talk about a crossover. It is the beginning of the film, The Lighthouse. And then we get two hours of The Lighthouse.

She walks in and she sees we have another hole in the ground with roots growing out of it, similar to the sort of thing we saw at the pool with that body. We see a charred corpse sitting. I'd call him charred out for sure. Pretty charred out. Honestly, extremely charred out. A corpse sitting on the ground and a video camera on a tripod pointed at that corpse. She opens it up to play the footage back.

The footage is her husband sitting in the exact very same spot where that chart out corpse is saying to camera i think he says something also like i don't know what's happening i think he like gives the impression that he is kind of losing a sense of himself and actually ventress said something earlier before she kind of had headed off to the lighthouse alone she said can't you feel that we're disintegrating like inside and out like there and we've seen that lena has been looking at her dna they're changing and yeah we're seeing the kind of becoming part of this thing and less of themselves and more of the shimmer. And so we're seeing in Kane, he's super confused and kind of scared and doesn't know what to do. And so he's sitting cross-legged and yeah kind of says have you ever seen a phosphorus

bomb go off before and he pulls the pin out he holds it and he says if you get out of here find lena and we hear the voice on the other side say i will The bomb goes off. It just chars him all up. It doesn't like boom. It just burns him. And we see from behind the camera, the person who was behind the camera walk in front of the camera,

look to camera, and it is also Kane. But it looks a lot more like the Kane we saw at the beginning. He's got his hair slicked back in a different style. Slicked back hair, motionless. And she realizes this too. Shuts the camera, is freaking out.

Realizing she just watched her husband actually die. And that whoever she saw earlier is watched her husband actually die and that whoever she saw earlier is not her husband. She climbs into that hole in the floor. I wrote him in notes. This hole is an alien basement. So you can... Yeah, it's an alien basement.

Mark your bingos. It counts. It counts. This is for sure a basement. It is an an alien basement. Mark your bingos. It counts. It counts. This is for sure a basement. It is an alien manufactured basement. Climbs in and it is like, it's like a cave. It is like a living cave at the center of which is Ventress. And what's happening with her?

She, well, I want to ask you guys. I believe she's facing away from Lena. And we see her. And she has no eyes at this point. I thought that she had like a wolf face. You see like shadow and her face looks weird. She is shadowed. We can't totally tell,

but I am almost certain that she has no eyes. At least something is not human about her face. She's talking to Lena and saying, explaining the shimmer and being like, we are,

it's happening. It can't be avoided. Like, it's nothing we can do. It's going to destroy, encompass everything we've ever had. I think she truly says annihilation. Oh, well, once she, but also once she whips her, like, once she turns to face Lena, her face is normal again. Normal again.

Which I, too, was like, oh, I was wrong. But I guess that's maybe also part of it. I think it's part of it. But it's pretty genius because it's extra unsettling she says it's inside me now taking over everything annihilation annihilation and then she opens her mouth to the sky and goes as if like to scream. And what comes out is a huge beam of light. Mm-hmm. Oh, you know what she says? She says we will be broken down into the smallest particles of ourselves so that we won't exist anymore.

And that is what we see happen. This shoots out of her mouth and we see her kind of start to disintegrate into light her whole body becomes light yeah and then like fades away and then becomes a kaleidoscope in this middle of the air in this cave one thing that i wanted to say i forgot to say this earlier but the music in this movie is i think really unexpected for the whole like most of the movie it's like a very sparse strumming guitar like almost feels like a kind of drama western type music and i remember the first time i saw it being like, what the fuck is this music? Like, this is sci-fi movie.

I want cool sci-fi music. And that said, I now love I love the score in its entirety. And I think it's a really genius choice. But this is the first scene that we get the kind of typical sci-fi, like feel it in your bones, vibration droney cool fucking music and i think the choice to not have this type of music anywhere else before makes this moment hit a lot harder and this is the part emily that i had said in the theater i had basically an out-of-body. I feel like I was. Taken away to a different world in a way that only this and Mandy have done.

Those are the only two movies that I left the theater feeling like I didn't know what was up and what was down. Like it just it just took me away to another world. I love this fucking scene. I love this music. You tell this scene because I feel like I'm not going to do it justice. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, yeah. The asterisk is that this is we will not explain it and it is just going to happen and you will let it happen to you and that is also very cool that that feels like exactly the point it is to make you go like because that's what's happening to lena too it's very yeah exactly that's what it is is i felt i felt hypnotized i think it is it is hypnotizing the way the light moves on a big screen like that would truly be theater oh my god it's completely hypnotizing the way the light moves. I bet seeing it on a big screen like that would truly be hypnotizing.

In a big screen in a movie theater. Oh, my God. It's completely hypnotizing. And it's basically like a light show, like the Apple Music when you used to watch the fucking music animation on Apple's sleep screen or whatever. It's like that kind of. That's a good description. But prettier. And she is completely hypnotized by it and staring and getting close to it.

It's playing that song from the trailer. Oh, it's so cool. And her eyes are glowing like the same color as it. And she's getting a little too close to it. Like there's clearly an alien life form, but she's so drawn in. And it is the exploded body of this woman you came in here yeah yeah and we see as she gets closer and closer a cut on her face um a drop of blood comes out of a cut on her face and gets kind of sucked into the kind of vortex of this creature thing, light form.

And I immediately am like, oh, fuck. This is not good. It's already taking your DNA. You don't want it to get a big fat clump of it right at once. A DNA snack. And that droplet of blood splits into two, and we see the cell duplicating which also

that song that keeps playing over and over plays when she's sobbing about her husband and then plays at the end the words are we are one person we are two together we are oh it's cool I like read

that interview and was like, oh, fuck! Because that's just a song, like a folk song I've known my whole life and I had not thought about the words, but yeah. Anyway. Cool. Pretty cool. But yeah, and so this thing slowly forms into the shape

of a person and it's metallic looking. Doesn't of a person. And it's metallic looking. Doesn't have a face. It's like that nail polish that I feel like was really popular for a while when we were growing up that was like purple or green,

like depending on where, how you move your fingernails, you know? And this is actually Sonoya Mizuno. I was looking at the IMDb and saw that she was in it. I was like, i don't remember her being in it this is her and she's just the metallic person she is in all of alex garland's um movies and she was also in devs she's the star of devs um and she has a background in dance which

is why she is this creature because this being moves in a very cool way. There's choreography involved, I guess. There's choreography involved. Yeah, so we see this, the light become this human form, a woman's body form. Natalie Portman sees it and sort of gets, snaps out of her- Trance, yeah. of her trance yeah

trance and fucking runs out of the hole she shoots it a bunch first she unloads and it nothing happens oh it's so cool god she looks so cool I'm just remembering it now yeah and then runs

out of the hole at this point I'm like yeah okay cool she's like she's back with it she's gonna get out and then she's back in the main the entryway we'll say of the lighthouse the ground floor and so is the creature

it's just right where she is it's right there and then they get into a bit of a dance they are it's right there and then they get into I'd call it a ballet yeah they are this thing is exactly mirroring

her movements she takes a step it takes the same step she moves closer it moves closer she tries to escape she like runs to the door it gets right behind it's so cool man she's against the door and it is against her against the door, pushing against her the same way she's pushing against the door. They both sort of fall back.

Well, we see that it's like it's pushing so hard and I imagine it to be metal because it's silver and shiny. So I'm thinking that this is a very heavy thing and because it's pushing as hard. It's hurting her. She's pushing as hard as she can to get out and it's pushing as hard as it can against her. And we see close-ups of her eyes bulging and her breathing. And she passes out.

And it passes out. They back away from the door and both sort of wobble and fall. They pass out in exactly the same form. On the ground, side by side. And the screen goes to black. They both come to. They come to. She goes to get up.

Has this realization, I think, that this thing is mirroring her. So she cannot ever escape it. It will follow her. But like this thing is it's mirroring her so she cannot ever escape it. Mm hmm. It will follow her like there's no can't get away from a thing that is you, which is, I think, part of the message. She sees a grenade on the ground. Another of those, I guess, phosphorus grenades walks over to it slowly. grenades. Walks over to it slowly. It follows her. Goes

down. Picks up the grenade. Holds her hand out. They're like holding it together between their hands. Lena pulls the pin out. As she touches, as their hands touch, the form, the metal like fades away

and becomes Lena. It looks just like Lena. At first, though, no eyes. Pretty spooky. Pretty spooky. But then it becomes her. Lena pulls the pin out. Leaves it in alien Lena's hands.

Other Lena's hands. Steps away slowly. It starts to, it goes off. It starts to burn her the other Lena with the bomb stays there starts burning up puts a burning hand on Oscar Isaac's corpse

a burning hand to the wall and it all like basically everything that is the shimmer then because it's all connected real Lena gets the fuck out of there real Lena gets out backs away down the beach watches those all, like basically everything that is the shimmer then. Riolina gets the fuck out of there. Riolina gets out, backs away down the beach, watches those crystal trees burn and fall.

The whole lighthouse burns and falls. And then it looks like from the outside the shimmer barrier goes away. So then we are back in the back where we all started elena being interviewed i remember there's a part where he says so how how do you explain you being the only one that

comes back came back and she says i think i was the only one that wanted to come back something like that and then he says it was trying to destroy you. And she says it wasn't destroying. It was making something new. And then he says, making what? And she says, I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. He's clearly trying to get at like, Oh, this, it was alien life. It was evil. It was trying to kill you. And she's like,

it wasn't, it just, it just was, it was doing what it did. And he says it attacked you though and she says no it mirrored me I attacked it I attacked so it attacked yeah

she asks if she can see her husband she goes to see him he is up he is awake in his little hospital bed she walks in he turns to her and she says You're not Kane, are you?

He looks at her and says I don't think so Are you Lena? She doesn't say anything They hug Really tightly this time And we see Both of their eyes

Their irises are Moving and shimmering really tightly this time. We see both of their eyes. Their irises are moving and shimmering. That's that in the movie. Spooky. Spooky, spooky. Oh, man. Oh, man. God, it's really good.

It's so good. Okay. What do you guys think? Do you think real lena made it out or not no dna copy lena but i feel like in the books it's clearer that she doesn't i think in the books it's like well in the sequels i feel like it's clear that it's she's a copy i I felt like she was definitely the copy. I was more like she is Lena, but she's just been altered. Because she still has. They're both the copy, right? Like the thing that makes me think that is that when he's interviewing her and he asks her, like, why did you go in? And she says, I owed it to him.

Like she still clearly has like emotions and feelings from the first relationship that's definitely true that's true um in a way that yeah if they interviewed kane he would not have those answers he'd be like i don't know i don't know i don't know yeah but i think she is clearly like something's fucked up in her though something's been altered yeah her dna has basically changed to be part of this she already is part of the shimmer yeah a thing that made me think potentially the it's the copy

Lena that makes it out is the way that that the Lena who burns up how that Lena burns up that like touches Kane's corpse touches the like I felt like that Lena was trying to bring down the shimmer while she brought herself down and that like yeah i just don't know and i know i love that you're

not really necessarily supposed to know or that you there's ways to find each one to be true and i do think that that is sort of the point is that they both are lena and they're both not lena like how could you ever that she is fundamentally changed from even stepping in there and that the like beauty of that it mirrors her like you're all she's always you can't escape fighting yourself right which is why they all went in to begin with and it gives us hope for the future of Kane and Lena version 2 V2. Honestly, I was saying to Joel after we finished that this was

far more hopeful. I know it's brutal. I mean, it's devastating no matter what. But a far more hopeful ending to me than the ending of Ex Machina. Like I was like, there's a path forward for I don't know what it is, but at least it's not dying slowly in a room alone knowing it was your own fucking fault. Because you wanted to fuck that robot.

You wanted to fuck that robot. You had to save the robot. You had to save the fucking robot. Oh, my God. You thought she loved you, you idiot. She's a robot. Now you will die as you think about it. This movie would have been so different if Tilda Swinton or Julianne Moore had been Natalie Portman's character.

Like, it would have felt very different. Wow. Amazing. It's an incredible movie. Such a good one. Thank you so much, patrons. Thank you, freaking Tony heads. It's really too bad they're not going to make a second or third one. Man, freaking Tony heads. It's really too bad. They're not going to make second

or third one. Man, it's good. And it really made me, you know, I feel like Natalie Portman is one of those actresses who's been around for so long and is so good that I almost don't ever think of her as being an actress that is good or who I care about because I'm like, right, well, it's Natalie Portman. I loved

her in this. She's a badass. She's really fucking good I never forget how much I love Oscar Isaac never have never will we stan I just truly love him he is wonderful

is devs good is devs worth watching you know actually I wanted to say I I don't mixed things i don't think it's good damn i tried watching it i think i watched like three episodes i watched all of it and i don't think it's good interesting i think there are good performances and i think it's a cool idea i think it thought it was way trippier and smarter than it was, which makes me think makes me sound like I think I'm smart and I don't. I think I'm very stupid. And so it's like I feel you're not. I feel bad saying that about a show, but I was just kind of like, hmm, it just didn't really make me reflect on things in the way that his other stuff has.

Right. His other stuff does accomplish that. So it's not like you're saying like, oh, he thinks he's smart. He's not. It's just like this doesn't do what these other projects did. It did not do it for me. Does he have something else coming up? I would be so curious and scared. I didn't see anything that he's directing coming up,

but he does have things that he has written that are coming up. He also wrote 28 Days Later. He wrote Sunshine, which is another great Cillian Murphy horror film. I like it. Okay. I know. He writes great movies

too, even if he's not great. Like I said, this movie is incredibly well written. Yeah. God, it's good. It's so good. I love to watch a movie this good. Wow. It's really, it's a really unique experience and it's just fun to watch

such an original movie. Except for one moment which is not fun for anyone at all ever. And I will say the closest movie I've seen to this is the movie we did last week, Color Out of Space. Which I never want to see. So, there we go patrons god

Tony heads we love you we love you and thank you for choosing this movie and thank you for almost choosing the Matrix and Green Inferno honestly I'm excited to one day tell you guys about Green Inferno it'll happen

I'm sure it one day tell you guys about Green Inferno. It'll happen. I'm sure it will. And yeah, just stay tuned for our freaking two bonus episodes next month. Oh, my God. Wow. Wow. Wow. Can't freaking wait. Can't freaking wait.

2021. Woohoo. Woohoo, baby. Okay. Well, bonus episode number three in the bag. In the bag. Well done. Emily, thank you so much for your, In the Bag. In the Bag. Well done. Emily, thank you so much for your amazing retelling.

It was so good. Thank you for the assists, the excellent quotes, and texting me through a really, really tough time. You made it. You made it to the other side. I made it. Well, that's it. That's it for us. And we will see you next month in 2021. Hopefully

2021. I'm not, I'm like not gonna I feel like be like, fuck 2020. 2021's our year. I feel like that, like we can't do that anymore. It's like that mentality died. You can't put too much pressure on 2021. Next year will also be bad. I will. Really bad. I think it will also be quite bad.

But I'm hoping that it will be a little bit better than this year. And it will be further down the line than this. It's always good to move forward. Time will pass, that is certain. Remember how we made fucking vision boards in 2020?

Oh my god, in 2020. Oh, sometimes I've gotten far enough in the year that now I can look at that and laugh. There was a time when I could not, but now I'm like, oh, oh, you had dreams. You had dreams. But 2021, let's just say it's a year and we're going to be there. I'm ready for it. I feel prepared.

Me in 2021, we need a perfect me going into 2021 me and henley please work on that work on that i'll be thinking about it and uh and that's that's it that's it for us holiday season everyone we love you we love you we love you we love you. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. This episode was a release from our Patreon vault. And if you would like access to more of our Patreon episodes, we have, I think, about 40 bonus episodes on our Patreon now. So a lot of great content over there. To hear it, join Tony fucking Collette's inner circle at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast. Or if not, we will be back next week with a brand new episode where we will be talking

about the autopsy of Jane Doe. Love you guys. We will talk to you soon. Bye.