{"id":380122,"date":"2021-12-12T08:47:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T05:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-ending-of-encounter-explained\/"},"modified":"2021-12-12T08:47:23","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T05:47:23","slug":"the-ending-of-encounter-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-ending-of-encounter-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"#The Ending of ‘Encounter’ Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The Ending of ‘Encounter’ Explained<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

     <span class=\"mx-1\">More like the ending of \u2018Encounter\u2019 complained. <\/span>\n<\/p><div id=\"\">\n\n\n\n                <figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-media<\/a> \">\n            <img width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Encounter\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/>                                    <p>\n                    <span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\">Amazon Studios<\/span>\n\n                        <\/figure>\n\n    <!-- START BYLINE -->\n    <div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\">\n        By\u00a0Christopher Campbell\u00a0\u00b7 Published on December 11th, 2021 \n        <\/div>\n    <!-- END BYLINE -->\n\n    <i>Ending Explained<\/i><i> is a recurring column in which we explore the finales, secrets, and theme<\/a>s of interesting movies<\/a> and shows, both new and old. This time, we consider the ending of the Amazon movie Encounter. Yes, prepare for spoilers.<\/i>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
I don\u2019t know the last time an ending to a movie frustrated me as much as the ending of Encounter<\/strong><\/em> did. The kicker is that its story shouldn\u2019t have ended any other way. But it still dissatisfies the movie\u2019s setup and supposed genre. And it could have played out in some way more creatively given that it\u2019s otherwise a compelling and well-acted drama.<\/p>\n
The Amazon original<\/a> stars Riz Ahmed<\/strong> as Malik, a former US Marine who has been away from his kids for the last two years. He says he\u2019s been on a secret mission, but we soon learn he was in prison and dishonorably discharged for assaulting a superior. He does, however, seem to legitimately believe Earth is being invaded by microscopic organisms who control their human hosts.<\/p>\n
Encounter\u00a0<\/em>actually opens as if that were the case, within the world of the movie. We see an unidentified object plummet to Earth and its cargo infect insects, which then transmit the viral extraterrestrial worms to other insects, animals, people. It\u2019s a very cool sequence with fantastic cinematography and visual effects. Unfortunately, it ultimately has nothing to do with the truth of the rest of the movie.<\/p>\n
Even before the reveal that Malik is a parolee who has in fact kidnapped his own children, it\u2019s easy to predict the guy has psychological problems and is probably delusional. Ahmed\u2019s performance and the direction of the story by filmmaker Michael Pearce<\/strong> (who also co-wrote the script with Joe Barton<\/strong>) clash too much with the notion that this is science<\/a> fiction.<\/p>\n
For a while, though,\u00a0Encounter\u00a0<\/em>at least sticks to a creepy sense of bugs being bad. Occasionally it cuts away to, say, cockroaches crawling out of a diner overhead light and onto the ceiling above patrons, or the sound design emphasizes buzzing or flies or other pests swirling about. Even if not alien life forms, bugs can be carrying harmful germs. In our pandemic times, that\u2019s very relevant.<\/p>\n
And, well, maybe a meteor has, in this story, delivered a terrible microorganism that isn\u2019t intelligent life or anything intent on invading the planet so much as simply naturally making its way into the world. It\u2019s still a bait-and-switch to offer no evidence that anybody, let alone those people Malik claims to be, or attacks as such, is infected or possessed.<\/p>\n
Forget the fact that the movie starts off showing a kind of alien infiltration, though, or that Amazon is committing genre fraud by classifying Encounter<\/em> as science fiction. It still plays well as a character-driven psychological drama for at least 90 minutes. And it\u2019s still interesting to watch a paranoid guy acting as if he thinks other people are controlled by extraterrestrials.<\/p>\n
But even that comes up short because Malik comes to the realization that he\u2019s wrong about the aliens and is having mental problems too early and too much on his own. Suddenly, he\u2019s seemingly simply cured of the disorder, and the ending of Encounter <\/em>is just a dull, drawn-out standoff between the authorities and this sad, confused man. At least he gets some emotional closure with one of his sons.<\/p>\n
Would the movie have been better if it stuck to the science fiction elements? Perhaps another ending for\u00a0Encounter\u00a0<\/em>could have delivered a twist that all of the police officers were indeed possessed by alien organisms after all. But that would have been offensive to anyone who actually suffers from this sort of mental problem. And it wouldn\u2019t have served the character as he\u2019s been portrayed.<\/p>\n
I guess you could also argue that maybe Malik was the one infected all along. That the microorganism exploded alien worms all over his<\/em> brain, and that\u2019s what caused him to snap and start believing everyone else is infected. Again, that seems a disservice to the science and reality of psychological disorders. Besides, there\u2019s nothing in the ending of Encounter\u00a0<\/em>to back that theory up either.<\/p>\n
Another filmmaker might have made this story work with a satisfying science-fiction conclusion.\u00a0Encounter\u00a0<\/em>reminds me of two Jeff Nichols movies that end the way I half expected this to end. Take Shelter<\/strong><\/em> is similarly about a man who seems to be going crazy, only he\u2019s ranting about the apocalypse, and (apologies for the spoiler) its ending is a little ambiguous regarding whether or not he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Midnight Special<\/strong><\/em>, which like Encounter<\/em> follows a father who has abducted his own son, prompting an AMBER Alert. The boy has special powers, and that\u2019s without question, but the MacGuffin of an otherworldly location is not so certain. I won\u2019t spoil that one for you readers, but suffice to say that it does stick the landing within the context of the story it\u2019s telling.<\/p>\n
If you watched\u00a0Encounter\u00a0<\/em>expecting one thing and were disappointed by the ending, I recommend checking out those two Nichols movies. I also recommend them if you actually did enjoy\u00a0Encounter\u00a0<\/em>to the end. It\u2019s not a bad movie and narratively speaking its ending isn\u2019t terrible either. It\u2019s just frustratingly underwhelming with regards to the science fiction setup and the dramatic follow-through.<\/p>\n
    Related Topics: Ending Explained\n    <!-- AUTHOR BOX -->\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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\n            \n        <\/div>\n
\n            Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read<\/em>, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He’s now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics<\/a>. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association’s Documentary Branch.        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“#The Ending of ‘Encounter’ Explained” <span class=”mx-1″>More like the ending of \u2018Encounter\u2019 complained. <\/span> <\/p><div id=””> <figure class=”sf-entry-featured-media “> <img width=”800″ height=”450″ src=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter.jpg” class=”articlethumb wp-post-image” alt=”Encounter” loading=”lazy” srcset=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter-768×432.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”\/> <p> <span class=”sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline”>Amazon Studios<\/span> <\/figure> <!– START BYLINE –> <div class=”row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray”> By\u00a0Christopher Campbell\u00a0\u00b7…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":380123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/encounter.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}