10 Sci-Fi Movie Mysteries That Can Never Be Solved

1. Annihilation

Blade Runner Deckard.jpg
Paramount

The whole of this film is one giant enigma, but it was the ending of Alex Garland's Annihilation that really had us puzzled.

Following up his equally elaborate Ex Machina (2014), Garland's film tells the story of a group of scientists and experts, lead by biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) who embark on a dangerous expedition into a mysterious zone where they encounter a phenomenon known as "the shimmer".

The film is packed with terrifying hallucinatory images, and its ambiguous end had us stumped. Lena encounters her doppelganger whilst in the shimmer, and during a climactic scene in a lighthouse, it appears that the doppelganger has met their fiery end.

However, we later see Lena, seemingly out of the shimmer, but there is a mysterious glint to the eyes that suggests perhaps it was the real one who died and the doppelganger survived. This isn't something the film chooses to offer any resolution to however so we'll be left pondering this one for a while!

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Contributor

I have been writing about film for almost 5 years, contributing to sites including WhatCulture, JumpCut Online, Cineworld, and Zavvi. I also host a couple of podcasts, JumpCast and Let's Jaws for a Minute. You can often find me on the internet evangelising about Disney or why Jaws is the greatest film ever made...