you may have watched the movie but that
doesn’t mean you can now ace a book
report on the source material welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
biggest differences between annihilation
the book and the movie you have a
journey through a landscape and it gets
progressively stranger before we begin
we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list we’re taking a
look at how Jeff van der Meers novels
differs from Alex Garland’s 2018 film
adaptation since we’ll be delving into
key plot points a spoiler alert is an
order I need to know it’s inside
bank receipt number ten the southern
reach annihilation is actually book one
in Vandermeer southern reach trilogy
southern reach is the name of the secret
organization trying to unlock the
mysteries that lie with an area X in the
source material we’re given more
information on southern reach which
helps to distinguish it from all other
governmental agencies in popular culture
the book most notably explores how the
team tasked with investigating area X
has been programmed by the agency
garland screenplay puts less emphasis on
what goes on behind the scenes in
southern region instead focusing more on
the inner workings of area X southern
reach is really nothing more than a
footnote in the movie this used to be
the headquarters of the southern reach
before the shimmer swallowed it number
nine area X aka the shimmer the shimmer
is a sort of phenomenon they don’t know
what’s happened to all of the people who
have gone in and haven’t come back in
the book the public is well aware of
area X’s existence deviating from the
movie where this quarantine zone is
top-secret Natalie Portman’s character
doesn’t even learn about area X until
her husband returns from a highly
classified mission the film only briefly
references this mysterious setting as
area X via title card instead the
characters call it the shimmer a term
that never appears in the source
material the movie takes several other
liberties with area X or the shimmer
not only does Garland play around with
the time but he also throws in mutated
animals like a massive alligator and a
bear like beast both absent from the
book
number eight the biologists husband and
your husband contact you at any point
while he was away now in both the
annihilation book and movie the
biologist husband returns home from a
mission although it’s later revealed
that this is actually his doppelganger
the book suggests that the biologist and
her husband had a very strained
relationship in the movie however many
of the flashbacks are dedicated to Lena
and Kaine embracing their love although
in her husband’s absence it’s revealed
that Lena turned to a colleague named
Daniel for comfort this affair wasn’t
present in the book and the biologist
doppelganger is called ghost bird in the
books but not in the film might have my
husband volunteer for a suicide mission
number seven mutations as we go in we
start discovering that things are just
mutating area x is a fairly vague
setting at van der Meers novel requiring
readers to use their imagination to fill
in the blanks
since film is a visual medium though
Durland offers more details while still
keeping the setting clouded in mystery
as mentioned before the film depicts the
shimmer as an otherworldly zone crawling
with mutated creatures we actually get
to see these brutal beasts kill certain
characters in the film whereas the book
kept their deaths it’s had more
ambiguous oh and those creepy bushes
that manifest to look like humans they
were nowhere to be found in the book but
were a haunting highlight of the film
check this out mutations everywhere
I’ve really seen anything like it before
something here is making giant waves in
the gene pool
number six the team in this I think you
get to see five very different women
have varying degrees of fearlessness
adding to the novel’s vagueness the team
member sent in to area X are never
referred to by name they’re merely known
as the anthropologist the biologist the
psychologist and the surveyor there’s
also a linguist who quickly withdraws
from the expedition meanwhile the film
gives each character a name and also
switches up some of their professions
Natalie Portman’s Lena is a biologist
and Jennifer Jason Leigh Leigh’s
Ventress is a psychologist but Gina
Rodriguez’s onion is a paramedic
Tessa Thompson’s Josie is a physicist
and tuba Nevadas Kass is a surveyor and
a geologist what’s more the film gives
everyone slightly more background and in
some cases entirely new character arcs
and to see women to taking control of
their destiny I think that’s gonna be
very empowering for women and it’s
pretty kick-ass for me number five
writing on the walls Jeff’s book has
this very very powerful strange
atmosphere it’s beautiful while
exploring area X in the book our
protagonists come across strange writing
on the walls equally cryptic and
religious where lies the strangling
fruit that came from the hand of the
sinner while reading these words the
biologists inhale spores that instigate
her change the being that wrote these
mysterious messages is dubbed the
crawler and is eventually confronted in
a tower
both the crawler and the text it leaves
behind are further explored throughout
the southern reach trilogy in the movie
however to the words on the walls and
their significance are essentially left
on the cutting-room floor I wasn’t
really looking for someone to do an
ironclad faithful adaptation I was
looking for something that was
interesting that would surprise me
number four the mission can you describe
it for now as we noted previously the
biologist husband plays an important
role throughout her character arc in the
book and film however her motivations
for venturing into area X differ quite a
bit in Garland’s movie Lina’s husband is
put on life support after returning from
the shimmer Lina believes she can find a
cure for her dying husband by studying
this danger zone this strays from the
novel where the biologist believes her
husband is already dead thus her reasons
for embarking on this danger
mission are harder to get a grasp on in
either case though she’s a woman
desperately seeking answers you need to
know what’s inside
number three hypnosis what does it mean
to be human and what does it mean to
encounter the unknown that are very much
in the book in Van der Meers novel the
psychologist uses hypnosis to take
control of her group unbeknownst to them
with the exception of the biologist
everyone can be sent into a hypnotic
state with a trigger words and
consolidation of authority the
psychologists can then force her team to
do certain things they normally wouldn’t
most notably annihilation is the trigger
word to make a team member commit
suicide despite playing a huge part in
the book hypnosis is never even brought
up in the movie in due course the entire
meaning behind the title is changed to
instead imply that what rests within
area X will lead to an act of
annihilation that makes a beauty and
terror that his ending book is also in
the movie attack
and I think it’s very effective
number two the tower you know those
words on the walls be brought up earlier
well in the book the team first
discovers them after travelling down a
spiral staircase that descends into the
ground where other team members refer to
this as a tunnel the biologist for some
reason labels it as the Tower this tower
doesn’t exactly appear in the movie
although the climax does bring Lena to a
lighthouse with a big hole in the floor
while Garland does work a lot of ideas
from the novel into the sequence he
still cuts out one of the source
materials most substantial plot points
number one the ending if you were hoping
to see the whole southern reach ecology
adapted to the big screen you might be
in store for a little disappointment
rather than acting as the first chapter
of a new film franchise it’s clear that
garland set out to make a standalone
picture with his take on annihilation
where van der Meers novel left room open
for two sequels Garland’s film wraps the
story up as the shimmer vanishes at the
same time though garland still leaves us
on a note that’s ambiguous and
unsettling so while there are many
differences the endings still very much
captures the spirit of its source
material we begin in the world we know
and we end in a world we don’t know
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
doesn’t mean you can now ace a book
report on the source material welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
biggest differences between annihilation
the book and the movie you have a
journey through a landscape and it gets
progressively stranger before we begin
we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list we’re taking a
look at how Jeff van der Meers novels
differs from Alex Garland’s 2018 film
adaptation since we’ll be delving into
key plot points a spoiler alert is an
order I need to know it’s inside
bank receipt number ten the southern
reach annihilation is actually book one
in Vandermeer southern reach trilogy
southern reach is the name of the secret
organization trying to unlock the
mysteries that lie with an area X in the
source material we’re given more
information on southern reach which
helps to distinguish it from all other
governmental agencies in popular culture
the book most notably explores how the
team tasked with investigating area X
has been programmed by the agency
garland screenplay puts less emphasis on
what goes on behind the scenes in
southern region instead focusing more on
the inner workings of area X southern
reach is really nothing more than a
footnote in the movie this used to be
the headquarters of the southern reach
before the shimmer swallowed it number
nine area X aka the shimmer the shimmer
is a sort of phenomenon they don’t know
what’s happened to all of the people who
have gone in and haven’t come back in
the book the public is well aware of
area X’s existence deviating from the
movie where this quarantine zone is
top-secret Natalie Portman’s character
doesn’t even learn about area X until
her husband returns from a highly
classified mission the film only briefly
references this mysterious setting as
area X via title card instead the
characters call it the shimmer a term
that never appears in the source
material the movie takes several other
liberties with area X or the shimmer
not only does Garland play around with
the time but he also throws in mutated
animals like a massive alligator and a
bear like beast both absent from the
book
number eight the biologists husband and
your husband contact you at any point
while he was away now in both the
annihilation book and movie the
biologist husband returns home from a
mission although it’s later revealed
that this is actually his doppelganger
the book suggests that the biologist and
her husband had a very strained
relationship in the movie however many
of the flashbacks are dedicated to Lena
and Kaine embracing their love although
in her husband’s absence it’s revealed
that Lena turned to a colleague named
Daniel for comfort this affair wasn’t
present in the book and the biologist
doppelganger is called ghost bird in the
books but not in the film might have my
husband volunteer for a suicide mission
number seven mutations as we go in we
start discovering that things are just
mutating area x is a fairly vague
setting at van der Meers novel requiring
readers to use their imagination to fill
in the blanks
since film is a visual medium though
Durland offers more details while still
keeping the setting clouded in mystery
as mentioned before the film depicts the
shimmer as an otherworldly zone crawling
with mutated creatures we actually get
to see these brutal beasts kill certain
characters in the film whereas the book
kept their deaths it’s had more
ambiguous oh and those creepy bushes
that manifest to look like humans they
were nowhere to be found in the book but
were a haunting highlight of the film
check this out mutations everywhere
I’ve really seen anything like it before
something here is making giant waves in
the gene pool
number six the team in this I think you
get to see five very different women
have varying degrees of fearlessness
adding to the novel’s vagueness the team
member sent in to area X are never
referred to by name they’re merely known
as the anthropologist the biologist the
psychologist and the surveyor there’s
also a linguist who quickly withdraws
from the expedition meanwhile the film
gives each character a name and also
switches up some of their professions
Natalie Portman’s Lena is a biologist
and Jennifer Jason Leigh Leigh’s
Ventress is a psychologist but Gina
Rodriguez’s onion is a paramedic
Tessa Thompson’s Josie is a physicist
and tuba Nevadas Kass is a surveyor and
a geologist what’s more the film gives
everyone slightly more background and in
some cases entirely new character arcs
and to see women to taking control of
their destiny I think that’s gonna be
very empowering for women and it’s
pretty kick-ass for me number five
writing on the walls Jeff’s book has
this very very powerful strange
atmosphere it’s beautiful while
exploring area X in the book our
protagonists come across strange writing
on the walls equally cryptic and
religious where lies the strangling
fruit that came from the hand of the
sinner while reading these words the
biologists inhale spores that instigate
her change the being that wrote these
mysterious messages is dubbed the
crawler and is eventually confronted in
a tower
both the crawler and the text it leaves
behind are further explored throughout
the southern reach trilogy in the movie
however to the words on the walls and
their significance are essentially left
on the cutting-room floor I wasn’t
really looking for someone to do an
ironclad faithful adaptation I was
looking for something that was
interesting that would surprise me
number four the mission can you describe
it for now as we noted previously the
biologist husband plays an important
role throughout her character arc in the
book and film however her motivations
for venturing into area X differ quite a
bit in Garland’s movie Lina’s husband is
put on life support after returning from
the shimmer Lina believes she can find a
cure for her dying husband by studying
this danger zone this strays from the
novel where the biologist believes her
husband is already dead thus her reasons
for embarking on this danger
mission are harder to get a grasp on in
either case though she’s a woman
desperately seeking answers you need to
know what’s inside
number three hypnosis what does it mean
to be human and what does it mean to
encounter the unknown that are very much
in the book in Van der Meers novel the
psychologist uses hypnosis to take
control of her group unbeknownst to them
with the exception of the biologist
everyone can be sent into a hypnotic
state with a trigger words and
consolidation of authority the
psychologists can then force her team to
do certain things they normally wouldn’t
most notably annihilation is the trigger
word to make a team member commit
suicide despite playing a huge part in
the book hypnosis is never even brought
up in the movie in due course the entire
meaning behind the title is changed to
instead imply that what rests within
area X will lead to an act of
annihilation that makes a beauty and
terror that his ending book is also in
the movie attack
and I think it’s very effective
number two the tower you know those
words on the walls be brought up earlier
well in the book the team first
discovers them after travelling down a
spiral staircase that descends into the
ground where other team members refer to
this as a tunnel the biologist for some
reason labels it as the Tower this tower
doesn’t exactly appear in the movie
although the climax does bring Lena to a
lighthouse with a big hole in the floor
while Garland does work a lot of ideas
from the novel into the sequence he
still cuts out one of the source
materials most substantial plot points
number one the ending if you were hoping
to see the whole southern reach ecology
adapted to the big screen you might be
in store for a little disappointment
rather than acting as the first chapter
of a new film franchise it’s clear that
garland set out to make a standalone
picture with his take on annihilation
where van der Meers novel left room open
for two sequels Garland’s film wraps the
story up as the shimmer vanishes at the
same time though garland still leaves us
on a note that’s ambiguous and
unsettling so while there are many
differences the endings still very much
captures the spirit of its source
material we begin in the world we know
and we end in a world we don’t know
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
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