Starring Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan, Extinction is one of the most anticipated additions to Netflix for Summer 2018, and although we will discuss whether the film was good or not in the upcoming review, we can disclose in advance that the film has a quite unexpected twist. So, if this wist, or any other part of the 95 minutes of the film left you wondering what was really happening, do not worry, in this post we will try to solve all your questions. Just keep reading.
1 ^ Are there any post-credits scenes in Extinction?
No. There are no post-credits scene in Extinction, so feel free to ignore the hundreds of people who made the movie possible, after you see the name of director Ben Young on screen.
2 ^ Who is Peter? What is the meaning of his nightmares? He can see the future?
At the beginning of the movie, Director Ben Young makes us believe that Peter (Michael Peña) is simply a machine technician in an anonymous factory. Per suffers from violent nightmares that involve the destruction of his city. Alice (Lizzy Caplan), Peter’s wife, and David (Mike Colter), his boss, insists that Peter should go to a sleep disorders center, however Peter refuses, checking that there are other people seeing the same things in their nightmares.
Actually, Peter’s visions and nightmares are memories, not premonitions. Peter is a synthetic organism, a robot, designed for general cleaning services, arrangements, and so on. But 50 years before the events of the film, human beings were increasingly concerned about the obvious sophistication of synthetics, now able to have emotions. This led to a bitter controversy in which some were in favor of giving the synthetic the same rights as humans, thus ensuring a peaceful coexistence. And others, the vast majority, that opted for the idea of extinguishing them all and throwing them away.
3 ^ Why did the synths revolt?
Faced with the idea that human beings wanted to destroy them, the synths organized themselves into a joint force whose primary objective was to defend themselves, but humans did not give them too many choices. So, the synths had to go for everything. The mere suspicion caused the synthetics to kill not only soldiers, but civilians as well, clearing the earth of any trace of human beings.
4 ^ Who invaded the city where Peter and his family lived? Were they extraterrestrials?
Technically, yes, they were extraterrestrials, coming from Mars. The issue is that they were also the last human beings in the universe, in exile from Earth.
When the synthetics took over the Earth, the last human beings that survived took a series of ships and set out to install a human colony on Mars; under scarcity and shortage, they managed to survive and start a plan to reconquer the planet. The plan was in the best style of Hernán Cortés, taking everything they have and go to Earth to recover the planet at any cost. There was no way back.
5 ^ Why the invaders were wearing such a weird suit?
The green suit worn by the invaders, emitting a very disturbing sound, is a special combat suit that allowed the wearer, in addition to serving as protective armor 1) to ensure a good quality of breathable air, not knowing if the air of the planet was clean enough for humans 2) to increase the strength, the senses and the agility and 3) to serve as a source of power for the armament.
When Peter confronted Miles, and broke his helmet, Miles realized that the air was breathable.
6 ^ Why did Miles decide to help Peter and his family?
Because Miles understood that part of the essence of a human being is linked to his ability to love and sacrifice for others, and that was exactly what he saw when he confronted Peter’s family.
The speech of the invaders said that synthetics were simply killer machines that had seized the planet, in the style of Terminator, but once on the planet Miles understood that the speech was not quite true, and he decided to help Peter’s family.
7 ^ How could Peter and Alice have two daughters if they were robots? Can robots have children?
In Peter’s memories it is clear that at the time of the war, the sale of synthetic children, in the style of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, had become popular. Hannah and Lucy had been bought / adopted by a couple of humans, who died during the last confrontations for the planet.
Peter and Alice decided to take care of them and when the synthetics began to change their memories, they agreed that Lucy and Hannah would be their daughters from now on. No, robots can not have children, unless they are a kind of messiah robots, in the style of Blade Runner.
8 ^ Why did the synthetics decide to use technology to erase and / or change their memories?
First to forget the horror of war, especially in regard to the extermination of human beings. It would have been very dangerous to have a group of robots walking around knowing that in the moment they did not like something, they would simply go for the easy method of taking a gun and killing everybody.
And second, because that way the new families could live without fear of an enemy that could return at any time. Thus a peaceful, fearless and civilized society was built.
9 ^ In which city do the Extinction events take place?
Although the city in the movie resembles a North American city, taking into account racial diversity, language, etc., the truth is that the movie exterior shots were filmed in Belgrade, Serbia.
It turns out that Belgrade downtown has the ideal look for a futuristic residential area, which was where the character of Michael Peña walked daily to get to his house. But in the context of the film it does not seem logical that human beings wanted to recover the planet starting with Belgrade, Serbia. Unless Belgrade, Serbia has been one of the few cities that synthetics managed to rebuild. That way, it would make sense.
10 ^ How could Miles save Alice’s life?
Miles knew everything about the physical constitution of the synthetics, just like every invader soldier. When Alice was wounded, one of her power sources was destroyed, and it was necessary to charge her with another one.
He used Peter’s power source to charge Alice, as a temporary solution, while they could get a new power source for her. It is implied that this procedure reverts all the blockings on a synthetic memory base.
11 ^ What is the meaning of the final scene of Extinction?
In the end, after Miles saves Alice from a certain death, Peter and his family embark on a train bound for an underground facility where the Synthetics hope to regroup and counterattack.
In the first place, it is well known that this end has a sequel as its purpose, and Netflix is probably more than willing to give it to them. Miles is the only human being who has seen synthetics beyond their history as genocides of humanity and his contact with Peter and his family could finally be the link that allows human and synthetic to finally share the Earth.
In second place we see how Peter and his family have also understood that despite the extermination of their neighbors and friends, human beings have a facet of solidarity, empathy and affection. The fact that David has allowed Miles to help Alice and Peter is also significant, because it implies that synthetics do not want to exterminate humans at all cost.
The refolding of synthetics means that they must first confront their memories where they are literally murderous and genocidal, and having to overcome that fact has only two possible ways 1) to cling onto memories and follow the path of death, and 2) repentance that would inevitably lead to peace.
12 ^ What is the message behind Extinction?
The main message of this film is that we have to know very well both our loved ones and those we consider rivals, opponents or even enemies.
If Alice had believed Peter, they would have known in advance what was about to happen and could have partly prevented the disaster that came over them. Miles had to look closely at the synthetics to realize that this impassable enemy that had destroyed his species was capable of love.
And Peter and his family understood that behind the green suits, there was someone capable of feeling empathy towards them. Maybe in the exact moment we can get away from so many screens, and so many distractions, and start really getting closer to people, we can really know them and really see what they are capable of. Maybe, it might surprise us what we find.
Questions? Annotations? Doubts? Insults? Any grammatical mistake? The comments section is open just below this post. See you in another post of Ending Explained, here on El Sabanero X.
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