What Happens to the Alien?

Jonathan Glazers return to filmmaking was highly anticipated. His first two films Sexy Beast and Birth were widely acclaimed, but it took nearly a decade for Glazer to complete another project. He developed Under the Skin for almost a decade before debuting it at the Telluride Film Festival in 2013. Under the Skin was widely

The Big Picture

  • Under the Skin is a challenging film that may require multiple viewings to fully understand its metaphorical implications.
  • The film explores themes of xenophobia, toxic masculinity, and cultural resistance through the perspective of an alien.
  • The ending of the film suggests that the alien protagonist escapes destruction, potentially to inhabit a new body and have a different experience.

Jonathan Glazer’s return to filmmaking was highly anticipated. His first two films Sexy Beast and Birth were widely acclaimed, but it took nearly a decade for Glazer to complete another project. He developed Under the Skin for almost a decade before debuting it at the Telluride Film Festival in 2013. Under the Skin was widely celebrated by film critics and ardent science fiction fans, but general audiences seemed to be baffled by the surrealist body horror story. It’s hardly the first time that a brilliant, challenging arthouse film was met with contempt from general audiences, with films like Killing Them Softly, Solaris, The Box, and mother! having earned F Cinemascores. With all that being said, Under the Skin can be a difficult text to decipher after only one viewing. It may take subsequent rewatches to fully comprehend the metaphorical, psychological, and literal implications of Under the Skin's alien encounter story. As the title suggests, there’s something beneath the surface that isn’t initially evident.

Under the Skin
R

Disguising itself as a human female, an extraterrestrial drives around Scotland attempting to lure unsuspecting men into her van. Once there, she seduces and sends them into another dimension where they are nothing more than meat.

Release Date March 14, 2014 Director Jonathan Glazer Cast Jeremy McWilliams , Lynsey Taylor Mackay , Dougie McConnell , Kevin McAlinden , D. Meade , Andrew Gorman , Scarlett Johansson Runtime 108 Main Genre Sci-Fi

What Is ‘Under the Skin’ About?

Under the Skin follows a nameless alien creature that takes on the appearance of a human woman (Scarlett Johansson). Starting with its iconic opening horror scene, the extraterrestrial visitor travels the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, and seduces young men. Johansson's charaacter takes each man and lures them into a black liquid void until they are submerged and killed. In order to maximize the realism of the story, Glazer had Johansson interact with non-actors, whose unscripted performances were captured using hidden cameras.

The film’s conclusion may come as a surprise, but the clues to what Johansson’s character represents were sprinkled throughout the film. Under the Skin shows how this mysterious alien slowly begins to understand human psychology through her experiences and interactions. Her specific perspective is that of a foreigner and a woman; it's one of Johansson's best performances. Her character faces xenophobia, toxic masculinity, and cultural resistance, and begins to understand the darker side of humanity. This underlying darkness is best exemplified in the shocking final moments.

The Alien Begins To Identify With Her Victims

After luring many men into the dark abyss, Johansson’s character begins to develop an identity. She’s aware of her body, and begins to take ownership of her choices. Rather than planning the stages of an alien invasion, the character becomes fascinated by humanity's virtues. Unfortunately, it doesn't take her long to witness the dark side of mankind. After seducing a logger (Dave Acton), Johansson resists his sexual advances. She doesn’t fully understand his frustration. When she wakes up in his cabin, the logger begins assaulting her. The frightened alien is terrified by his capacity for cruelty, and runs into the woods. The logger chases after her.

It’s clear that Johansson's character has started to identify with her human body. The alien has seen the positive things that humanity is capable of after she rescues an abandoned baby on the beach, and has a pleasant experience at the cinema. Her empathy makes the exploration of rape even more shocking. Glazer makes both characters’ violent behavior completely distinct; Johansson is luring men to their deaths because she’s confused and trying to learn, but the logger is attacking her out of selfishness and hatred. Similar to Glazer's gripping Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest, Under the Skin explores mankind's capacity for evil. Despite the film's sci-fi slant, this scene is treated with dramatic intensity.

The logger chases her through the woods and tackles Johansson’s character. As he tries to rip at her skin, he peels away the alien’s human skin. Her body underneath is the same dark, liquid void that was seen during the seduction sequences. This is her true alien body, and the logger is terrified by what he can’t understand. He pours fuel on top of her body and burns her alive, creating one of the scariest sci-fi movies of all-time.

What Happens to Johansson’s Character?

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While the film ends on an ambigious note, it’s implied that in the context of the story, the alien creature is not completely destroyed. In all likelihood, the alien will take a new form as it inhabits a different body, and has a completely different experience. During the opening sequence, the space-bound entity is seen coming to Earth. It’s unclear whether its intent was to travel to other planets or stay on Earth. It’s also unclear if there are any other extraterrestrial creatures that may be exploring other parts of the world.

Glazer hasn’t discussed the ending in detail, but he did tell RogerEbert.com that Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris were among his primary inspirations. Although Glazer doesn’t consider Under the Skin to be a traditional science fiction film, the alien storyline was used as “a starting point for this rather than working within the borders of the genre.” Glazer also revealed that he hadn’t read the original novel of the same name by Michel Faber, so the source material is unlikely to clear anything up. Similarly, Johansson described the entire film as “surreal” in an interview with The Guardian. I didn't know how to react to it,” she said. “I wouldn't say disturbed, but I was sort of shocked.” She compared the film’s divisive reactions to her experience watching Eyes Wide Shut. Johansson said that she saw Kubrick’s final film three times, and the audience reacted in very different ways at each screening. She said that the premiere of Under the Skin was met with “boos and cheers.”

Under the Skin is streaming on Max.

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