In 2015, two science fiction novels took to the altar.
One is “Three Body” , One is “Lost Southern Border” .
They won the highest awards in science fiction, the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award (the same year, “Three-Body” was also shortlisted for the Nebula Award, but unfortunately they lost.
The film and television adaptation of “Three-Body”, after many twists and turns, was finally difficult to give birth, but this novel was released as scheduled, it is-“ Annihilation “.
“Annihilation” is adapted from the first “Annihilation” in the “Forsaken Southern Territory” trilogy by Jeff Van der Meer.
The film tells the story of an alien meteorite hitting the lighthouse on the earth, forming a magical area around the lighthouse—— flash , The biological DNA in the flash will produce mutations.
In order to investigate the truth about her husband Kane’s amnesia, the biologist Lina (Natalie Portman), a biologist who does not know the truth, volunteered to join the next batch of dispatched action teams. Physicists, geomorphologists and medical staff, the five women embarked on a journey of “destruction” together.
Interestingly, the producer reminded the audience before the show: “Students and pre-school children should be accompanied by their parents to watch.”
However, when the film was released in China, it only cut more than 1 minute.
However, this short period of more than one minute contains three fragments.
At the beginning of the film, because the scope of the flash was expanding, the government sent professional scientists and troops to investigate the flash.
However, the people who entered were without exception, all had gone, except for the husband of the heroine Lina, who suddenly returned home but was dying.
In desperation, in order to save her husband, Lina, a biologist, decided to enter the “Flash” with four other female scientists in various fields.
As soon as they entered the flash, they lost their previous memories, and the remaining food showed that they had entered the flash for at least three days.
Not only that, but also something that has never been seen before.
For example, it is obviously the body of a crocodile, but it has shark teeth; a vine, but there are several different kinds of flowers growing.
And the closer they get to the lighthouse, the more mutated species they find.
Even nuclear radiation cannot cause such a strong and rapid mutation. As a biologist, Lina is puzzled.
As they continued to move forward, they soon found the previous military base, which was also the place where Lina’s husband served.
Lina accidentally found an undamaged DV, and found a shocking scene in it.
Immediately afterwards, they discovered the comrade in front of her husband, who was hung on the wall after his death and became a mural.
The teammates who saw this scene were all frightened, and they wanted to leave the flash in horror, but all the physical equipment was out of control, and they couldn’t find the way back. They had to stay at the military base temporarily.
That night, Cass was abducted by a dark shadow, life and death are unknown; Anya was on the verge of collapse, tied the other three people and asked them to tell her the truth, because she thought it was the three of them who killed Cass;
At this moment, they heard Cass’ call for help. Anya went out to find out and found that the sound was actually coming from the mouth of a skeleton black bear…
The truth gradually became clear. In the flash, all human genes would mutate rapidly, and it would reflect the genetic fusion of other organisms, and eventually humanity would be annihilated.
Seeing the sacrifices of her teammates one by one, Lina decided to destroy the meteorite before she was conscious.
She came to the lighthouse step by step and found another DV, which recorded the desperate self-immolation of her husband.
It turned out that the husband who returned to his side was just a clone in the flash.
And after she entered the lighthouse, a clone like her began to imitate her behavior…
At the end of the film, Lina returns to the real world, but who is her true identity?
Is it the real Lina who escaped, or is it a clone?
Since the film was released, this issue has been controversial.
Some people think that the real Lina has been burned to death, and it was the clone who escaped. She and the clone’s husband happened to implement the plan of colonizing the earth.
It was also said that it was Lina who escaped, but her genes have been rewritten in the flash. She is no longer Lina in the true sense, and the special symbols in her hand are all hints.
In this regard, Brother Qi did not want to explain and prove too much, after all, this is the suspense left by the director.
While in the film Three cuts , Respectively:
- The hostess Lena and the team came to the abandoned canteen and found an undamaged DV, which recorded the video of her husband before his death.
Because the plot was too bloody, it was cut before it was released.
The heroine’s comrade-in-arms, geomorphologist Cass, was attacked by a skeletal black bear. When everyone found her, they found that she was dead.
The process of discovering her was deleted in the middle, leaving only the hostess to see Cass lying on the grass.
As a result, there was a gap in the connection between the front and back stories, and it was difficult for the audience to understand the plot without watching it several times.
An Ya, a medical worker, was torn beyond recognition when he was attacked by a skeleton black bear.
When it was released in China, only part of the footage of Anya being attacked by Anya was left. As a result, many viewers mistakenly believed that Anya’s entire head was bitten off by a skeleton black bear.
However, the impact here on the understanding of the plot is not big, it is just too bloody.
However, in terms of domestic popularity, “Annihilation” and “Three Body” are completely different from each other.
However, it was the first to be adapted into a movie, with a unique aesthetic style that perfectly blends horror and science fiction.
In addition to the profound and long theme and pattern, it has won the recognition of many audiences.
As a representative of hard science fiction movies, director Alex Garland still does not forget to build a solid scientific foundation for the movie when dealing with such an overhead science fiction story.
To this end, he invited Adam Rutherford, a geneticist who had collaborated in “Machines”.
Under his guidance, the core of the film’s narrative logic is realistic, rational and empirical.
At the beginning of the film, Natalie Portman’s meaningful “cell” lesson by the biology professor is actually a foreshadowing intentionally planted by the director.
She first introduced another possibility of “origin of species” to the audience, that is, all cells are divided from one cell, one becomes two, and two becomes four.
Then, she introduced a key scientific concept that exists in reality—— HeLa cell .
In 1951, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University Hospital (the school where the female lead worked) took a tissue sample from her tumor and cultured it in the laboratory.
Scientists are surprised to find that unlike ordinary human cells that die by themselves after a certain period of time, HeLa cells not only do not age, they can divide indefinitely, and they proliferate abnormally and are extremely infectious.
Through this arrangement, the director provided a certain scientific basis for the series of bizarre biological phenomena that the follow-up heroine discovered after entering “Flash”.
Gene refraction , Is another important concept in the film.
As the heroine’s team went deeper into “Flash”, their understanding of the place they were in gradually became clear.
This scientific concept is explained orally by physicist Josie.
It turned out that “little light” is a prism rather than a barrier. Like light, it refracts the DNA of all living creatures in it, and gradually forms the sight before us.
Of course, these concepts are just the tip of the iceberg of the whole movie.
The brilliance of “Annihilation” lies in its hidden mystery in every detail.
In my opinion, “flash” is undoubtedly a more advanced life form, projected on the earth’s laboratory.
In the early days, when humans did biological research, they would often choose to place a white mouse in a certain experiment, and by observing whether its behavior, genes, appearance, etc. changed, to draw conclusions about the impact on humans.
The “flash” is similar to this phenomenon. In the film, the human being who enters is undoubtedly the “little mouse”.
They don’t know anything about everything around them, until they undergo terrible mutations, they will gradually feel fear.
Unfortunately, despite its good reputation, the box office of “Annihilation” is not satisfactory.
In my opinion, the director’s methods are brilliant, but the film cannot achieve harmony in form and content.
It seems that “Annihilation” is just a short story, abruptly pulled into a feature film.
Therefore, it has always been very difficult to adapt science fiction into a movie.
As China’s most well-known science fiction novel, the dystocia of “Three-Body” is actually traceable.
You must log in to post a comment.