Annihilation () Audio Introduction Script

Descriptions of the cast, locations and other elements for the film Annihilation for blind and vision impaired people.

A small, round photo of a smiling man with a mop of dark hair and a pointy nose.

by Brett Coulstock. .

This is an unofficial audio introduction for the 2018 science-fiction/horror film Annihilation.

This introduction contains information about the story, cast and costumes. It runs for approximately [calculate] minutes. Warning - it contains mild spoilers for the film.

In Australia, Annihilation is classified "MA 15+ Restricted". It contains:

Please check the rating in your country.

The running time for the film is approximately 115 minutes, or 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Annihilation was written and directed by Alex Garland, based on the novel of the same name by American author Jeff Vandermeer.

The film is about an expedition sent into a contaminated area sealed off by a mirage-like, insubstantial field called “The Shimmer”. Garland describes it as a journey from suburbia into psychedelia.

The Cast

There are five characters, all women, who form the expedition:

When entering The Shimmer, the women all wear hard-wearing military looking clothes: grey-brown pants and matching jackets with four large pockets on the front, heavy lace-up boots, and heavy backpacks that fasten across the chest with sleeping rolls slung underneath. They are all equipped with M4A1 carbines — a shorter compact and lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle.

Lena

Lena, the main character, is an army veteran who works as a biology professor at John Hopkins Medical School. She’s a white woman in her mid 30s with long brown hair. In flashbacks, she wears her hair long and loose, but has it tied back on the mission. She has brown eyes and an oval face with high cheekbones. She has a simple gold wedding ring on her finger, and a silver locket around her neck with a photo of her husband Kane.

Lena is played by Natalie Portman, an Israeli born American actor.

Dr Ventress

Dr Ventress is a psychologist, the director of the Southern Reach Facility and the leader of the expedition. She’s a white woman in her mid 50s with blonde centre-parted shoulder length hair. She’s pale, with high-cheekbones and severe features. She generally speaks with a very flat affect. At Southern Reach she wears smart business suits. On the mission she wears darker brown clothes than the other members, and keeps her hair tied back.

Dr Ventress is played by American actor Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Anya Thorensen

Anya Thorenson, known as Thorenson, is a muscular Latin American woman in her mid 30s. The hair on the sides of her head is closely shaved, with longer dark hair on top that she wears tied back. She’s a paramedic, and she’s confident and outgoing. She wears a white tank-top, and a silver pendant of a feather around her neck on a dark leather strap. She has a number of wooden beaded bracelets intertwined on her right wrist.

Anya Thorensen is played by Gina Rodriguez an American actor with Puerto Rican ancestry.

Cass Sheppard

Cass Sheppard, known as Sheppard, is a white woman in her late 30s. She has blue eyes, quite long brown hair tied back in a pony-tail and high cheekbones and a pointy noise. She almost always wears a grey scarf knotted around her neck. She is the expeditions geomorphologist — geomorphology is the study of land-forms and land-form evolution.

Cass Sheppard is played by Swedish actor Tuva Novotny.

Josie Radek

Josie Radek, known as Radek, is a post-doctoral physicist. She’s a slender black woman in her mid 30s with black-framed glasses. She has long curled black hair. She wears loose bracelets around her left wrist; a chunky analogue watch on the right wrist; and a crescent moon pendant on a brown leather strap around her neck. She has a quiet, vulnerable air; she sits slightly hunched, and pulls the sleeves of her top up to her fingers.

Josie Radek is played by Tessa Thompson, and American actress with Afro-Panamanian and Mexican ancestry.

The other significant characters are:

Lomax

Lomax is the man conducting Lena’s debriefing. He’s late 40s, and wears an unflattering white medical isolation suit that reveals a bit of a paunch. Through the clear visor of his full-face respirator we see he’s ethnically Asian, with a round, serious face and a broad nose.

Lomax is played by British actor Benedict Wong, the son of immigrants from Hong Kong.

Kane

Kane is Lena’s husband. He’s Latin American man, late 30s, handsome, with dark eyes and a square jaw. He’s in the Special Forces. In flashbacks, he has dark, curly hair; in the present day scenes, his dark hair is slicked back and his expression neutral. He has athletic physique, with a large, dark tattoo over his left shoulder and bicep. He wears a simple gold wedding ring.

Kane is played by Oscar Isaac, a Guatemalan-born American actor with Latin American ancestry.

Daniel

Daniel is Lena’s colleague at the John Hopkins Medical School. He’s a tall black man in his late 30s. He’s bald, with a closely shaved short beard. He dresses immaculately, with discrete rimless glasses, dark grey suit-jacket over a dark, desaturated carnation-red v-neck jumper, and a crisply knotted tie. He carries a satchel slung over one shoulder.

Daniel is played by British actor David Gyasi; his family is from Ghana, a country in West Africa.

Disclaimer

This is an independent Audio Introduction and not commissioned by the copyright owners. I believe in cultural competancy, inclusion and equality, and have attempted to describe the characters and situations fairly, without prejudice and without intent to offend. All information in this introduction is believed to be correct at the time of writing, but the accuracy or correctness of this content cannot be guaranteed.

If you have any concerns about the content in this audio introduction, please contact me.

Annihilation is © Copyright Paramount Pictures Corporation 2017.

This audio introduction script copyright © Brett Coulstock.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Production Note

This audio introduction could feature background sound effects of a rain-forest. Perhaps a subtle heartbeat, or low, menacing synthesiser hum. Something that subtly reinforces the wilderness or uncanny atmosphere of the film. The film stars women with strong, substantial and interesting roles, which suggests a female narrator would make the piece feel more integrated with the production.

Supplemental Information

Filed under: Accessibility