There's some interesting ideas here, even if I say so myself.
The Alien
The first thing to understand is that the alien entity, if it even is an entity, is entirely unknowable. It's wrong to assume it has any kind of agenda or goal. This is what the lengthy interrogation scene frequently visited throughout the movie, and specifically the part at the end of the movie, which btw was already present in the trailers, is meant to convey: "I don't know." and can not know.
And remember the recent trend of how studios decide to put too much revealing information in a movie's trailer to further entice the audience that just wants to leave the theater with their movie already comfortably digested.
Annihilation's trailer is definitely one of those. All the information about the alien is already in there: a spoken statement delivered at the movie's end already revealed in the trailers: there is no information about what the audience will be most lost and confused about.
There is no answer for why it does what it does. Simply take it that it exists, and that it mutates everything around it. There's a reason why the first time we see Portman she is talking about a cell. Because the alien intrusion acts like a cell, and its programming is to self-replicate, but as it is delivered into this completely new environment, it subsumes and then multiplies. With the way that the dialogue works in this movie: Lena states that it exists, so it exists like it is: 'I don't think it wanted anything'. It just happens to superimpose itself on anything around it, alteration without design. Conflict that isn't conflict, but one-sided inclusion that is inimical to the consciousness of the other side, thus taken as agression.
In other words take it as a given that mankind is still unique in its awareness of itself, and that it takes any outside intrusion as an act of aggression, even when what is happening is without intention.
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Ventress elaboration, or; a classic case of overthinking things:
However, initially I tried a more straightforward approach where I just focused on the Forge-construct; that's what I call the floating, ceaselessly mutating object in the heart of the chamber beneath the lighthouse.
The chamber I've heard referred to as a spaceship in other explanations, but I genuinely don't have my own interpretation here. It is relevant that the final act of self-destruction happens in the heart of that room, as if it is the static center at the heart of all the mutations; when the Lena-replicant collapses on the raised dais at the heart of the chamber.
But the hole through which the object crashed through the lighthouse into the bedrock beneath is significantly smaller than the room with the moving walls. This alone flat-out contradicts any and all theories that suppose it is a spaceship or anything of the kind.
Any explanation stalled from the moment I realized that when Ventress dissolves into a spectacular light show, and which then reforms into the Forge-construct, all of Ventress has been used to make it.
What I'm getting at is that there's no excess matter... which in my book means that there's something wrong.
And the same thing happens with the duplicate created from the blood drop of Lena: The second the drop, with all the DNA present required to re-create Lena, hits the heart of the Forge it replicates itself until it can form the frame that would mutate into the perfect copy of Lena.
I'm wrong but more on that below.
There's no real reason for the delay in perfect re-creation other than that Garland wanted to include that 'Dance' scene, but let us assume: within the confines of the plausibility, that the copying halts because the creation needs to be an exact replication of the Lena as she is at that moment; Ie a Lena with a tattoo on her arm and gash on her head. Likely also a different Lena than how she had been born: genetics doesn't mean one's body isn't altered by accidents, surgery, body modification or whatever: beauty mods, progressive surgery...
When the shimmering rduplicate of Lena stands at the center of the room beneath the lighthouse, there's no sign of the Forge-construct.
Presumably, the opposite of Ventress' dissolution has happened here: Complete incorporation of the Forge-construct) to create an initial copy of Lena that'll still adapt itself via imprint and proximity to the original Lena, into a perfect copy of that Lena as she is at that moment.
The problem here is that if one indeed assumes that the copy is an alien life form, then these aren't perfect copies, and they are just forgeries running around, puppets controlled by an alien purpose. But we know, because the movie's dialogue directly contradicts this,
and the hackneyed dialogue here is law,
that this isn't the case: that these are in fact duplicates: perfect duplicates.
There is no room for an alien entity, or consciousness inside of that human shell.
But where does the Forge-construct come from?
Ventress says, without much elaboration "It's inside me now, It's unlike us...".
So, before Ventress entered that room, was there something else there, waiting? Something that then went inside Ventress and started to rewrite her completely? But then... assuming the alien entity is inside here at the moment of dissolution, and then when the Forge-construct is created... why does it use all of Ventress? There doesn't seem to be any waste at all, same for the bullets shot into the Lena-duplicate by Lena: also incorporated into the yet being-created-duplicate-Lena.
Matter to create matter, sure. But, where was the matter that was there before?
And I'm assuming duplicate-Lena doesn't have bones made of metal;
Although she does traipse through the lighthouse on fire long enough to suggest that there's something very much different from the human form in its physical make-up.
I'm saying stuff logically doesn't add up. Where did that metal go?
Where's the matter that wasn't the matter that originated of Lena and should have been expelled? Is there an expelling process, why do we not see it?
Actually, maybe the bullets were used to strengthen certain parts of the duplicate-lena's body; it would allow her to stay alive longer while on fire, maybe?
Even if the alien entity does not operate on the template of carbon-based lifeforms, humans do. There is a limit to how much it can achieve with the clay it's working with. This is not magic.
It's something that I got stuck on, but ultimately just discarded because, even if I can find the answer, it doesn't really matter anyway. There's no point on dwelling on the Alien, because it is just the point of origin, it is the catalyst for change and drama, and the movie does not provide an answer.
Can not know, will not know: dismiss if you ever want to accept the movie. Enjoy the lightshow, enjoy the sound, but don't look too close.
Replicant-Kane Mysteries
There's also the mystery of how duplicate-Kane arrived at Lena and Kane's home, but as we don't know how far away their domicile actually is from the Shimmer, all one can submit here is guesswork.
Duplicate-Kane just seems to appear inside of the home and when he is asked how he got there he only responds in vague generalities. Dismiss.
More pertinent and just as uncertain is the reason why duplicate-Kane shortly after his arrival at the Lena-domicile starts to show signs of catastrophic organ failure. Easy conclusions to draw are that he needs to be in the Shimmer's vicinity in order to function.
But, oddly, It isn't until the Shimmer's collapse that he shows any signs of improvement. Within 2 hours of the final collapse of the Crystal Trees on the beach, his recovery is complete.
Dismiss also that Lena had been inside of the Shimmer for ten months at this point, which is a long time for duplicate-Kane to cling on to life with a whole host of failing organs.
Worryingly, for everything I've written down, it contradicts my alien-lifeform-has-no-intentions idea as it points to a continuous link between a replica outside of the Shimmer and either the Shimmer itself or something inside of the Shimmer. A link that actively seems to deteriorate any organism that travels from inside the Shimmer to outside of it.
A link that, when it falls away, only seems to improve the rogue organism's faculties.
If I had to make a guess, Id say that this part is here as plot contrivance. But I might be wrong, I don't really want to look at it too closely. But feel free to make suggestions.
Bottomline, again, in my opinion, Can not know, because looking too closely will show glaring contradictions.
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Funnily, or not so, enough. This is pretty much the same problem I had with American Gods: The movie's failure to give enough rules, is the only thing that'll allow its mythology to work.
Only by leaving the Alien a complete mystery lets its capabilities remain within the confines of enough possibilities that will allow for the movie's scenario.
Except I have the sneaking suspicion that it really doesn't.
Yet another Revisitation: collating of evidence
I said previously that whatever happens to the forge construct, all of it is used to make Lena. Except, that isn't true, is it?
Looking closely, you can see the air directly around the first stage of the Lena-duplicate shimmer and pulse, as if excess matter is dissipating.
But the only thing you could possibly deduce from this is that the chamber, or something inside of the chamber, houses the primary means of 'steering' the working of the Shimmer and the process of human replication.
Similarly, when the chamber's air finally immolates entirely when the Lena-duplicate collapses on the dais at the heart of the chamber, some sort of chain reaction sets the crystal trees on the beach on fire and causes them to collapse, and soon after, the Shimmer dissipates entirely.
With the disappearance of the Shimmer, the Kane-duplicate for some reason or other, starts to heal himself. Implying that there was some link present when the chamber was still safe. But that it was a link that actively harmed him when the Kane-duplicate was outside of the Shimmer, but that withdrew its influence when the Shimmer dissipated.
Implying intent.
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Look, you want me to say it again?
It is a plot contrivance. We all know it. It doesn't have to make a damn lick of sense.
It's just that there might also be a way that this all adds up to one perfect explanation.
But I'm just not seeing it.
Final
Okay okay, The Alien is unknowable.
But we could feasibly pin-point its working parameters.
It is present in the chamber beneath the lighthouse. It can either make itself manifest as the forge-construct, or make the forge-construct manifest to duplicate complex organisms at an elevated rate.
Its influence is present outside of this room, likely everywhere in the shimmer.
However. the Kane-duplicate begins to crash as he has left the shimmer; and though we can argue that this an after-effect from the forging process and that the Shimmer itself kept him healthy so far, this does not explain why he then heals the second the Shimmer goes down.
It's even seems completely contrarily impossible.
Unless. The Shimmer, the bubble, existed to contain the mutating field, and that when it dissipates, these mutating agents are released into the direct surroundings, where Duplicate-Kane is, and that with that contact he is healed, temporarily or not.
In that case there are two scenarios post movie-ending:
One is where duplicate-Kane's healing process is temporary and begins to fail as the mutating agent dissipates into the environment enough, having no alien origin source to sustain it, which would lead to his death. This would likely also kill Lena.
The other is that the mutating was not wholly dependent on the alien and that once introduced to the environment it would self-replicate ad infinitum, meaning that when the bubble has dissipated, the mutating process would become uncontrolled and uncontrollable, leading eventually to a completely mutated earth. Or something.
Ah fuck: It could also just be that there is actually a link to the alien (consciousness then?) present in the duplicates. Which would explain why duplicate Kane falls ill (by intent then) outside of the shimmer, but heals as the alien dies, as he then becomes an autonomous organism.
God damnit...
Did I just shoot the legs out from under everything I wrote previously?
No wait, because this then contradicts the possibility of duplicate-Lena killing herself as she does, because a link to an alien consciousness would have necessitated a certain level of self-preservation.
It denies the theme of self-destruction and as this is the movie's most important element that would be unlikely as all hell.
Fuck it. I've stumbled on a few good ideas here at least.
I'm just going to go and read a book.
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