New ‘Annihilation’ Clip Goes Into The Shimmer
We’re less than a month away from the release ofAlex Garland’s mysterious new movieAnnihilation, and a new clip from the film takes you inside the nightmarish world of The Shimmer – a strange, dangerous area that’s slowly expanding and altering everything in its path. It’s all very weird and intangible, but one thing is for sure: entering The Shimmer isn’t going to be pleasant. Watch theAnnihilationclip below.
I’ve come to accept that Alex Garland’s film adaptation ofJeff VanderMeer’sAnnihilationisprobablygoing to be drastically different than the book. I’m not entirely okay with this, since I love the book and its two sequels,AuthorityandAcceptance; but I trust Garland as a filmmaker, and I’m blown-away by the cast he’s assembled here (Natalie Portman,Jennifer Jason Leigh,Gina Rodriguez,Tessa ThompsonandOscar Isaac). I’m hopeful things will work out in the end.
A newAnnihilationclip highlights the strange, otherworldliness of Garland’s film, while also selling it as a terrifying experience overall. To access the clip, go to the link from this tweet:
When yοｕ ｓee ｂｅaｕty іn ｄｅｓｏlａｔion ｉt⁰сhanｇｅｓ soｍeｔhіｎg ⅰnｓⅰｄｅ yｏｕ. Ｄeｓоｌaｔⅰоｎ tｒiｅｓ tｏ cоlｏｎiｚe ｙｏu.#WhatsInsidehttps://t.co/xHXXBsORrO
— Annihilation (@AnnihilationMov)August 08, 2025
When prompted to “Input Transmission,” enter this sentence: “When you see beauty in desolation, it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.” This will bring up the clip, which features Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh discussing the mysterious world of The Shimmer. Some of this is similar to the book, but based on the flashes of imagery here (and previoustrailersandclips), the end result is likely to be very different. Perhaps it’s best if those who have read the books divorce themselves from the source material and accept the film on its own terms.
For his part, author Jeff VanderMeer seems perfectly happy with the changes. After seeing an early cut of the film, VanderMeersaid:
“It’s actually more surreal than the novel. There are a couple places where I was like, “Imightneed an anchor here.” The ending is so mind-blowing and in some ways different from the book that it seems to be the kind of ending that, like2001or something like that, people will be talking about around the watercooler for years… Visually, it’s amazing. I must say that and that’s all I probably should say.”
Annihilation’s road to the big screen hasn’t exactly been smooth. Previousreportsindicate that Garland’s adaptation is so strange and unconventional that it’s caused a few producers to worry that the film might be “too intellectual” and “too complicated” for average moviegoing audiences. This lead to suggestions of drastic script changes to dumb things down, but thankfully Garland’s visionreportedlyremains intact. We’ll know for sure how it all turns out whenAnnihilationhits theaters onFebruary 23, 2018.
