Pessimistic films

Philosophical or cosmic pessimism revolves around the conclusion that the phenomenon of life is not special to the universe, that suffering is intrinsic to sentient existence, and therefore, our ethical response should be to reject existence. The films I will present here show a universe that doesn't care about our suffering, our struggles, or our desires for improvement. These films can be interpreted from this perspective from beginning to end, or at least have striking passages that touch on this idea. While I will provide a synopsis of each film, I will not go into detail or analyze each character or scene. What I will provide is merely a general overview. This list is not exhaustive, and I plan to add new films in the future. “”

Warning: this list contains spoilers.

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The Sunset Limited, 2011, directed by Tommy Lee Jones

The film is based on a play by Cormac McCarthy, the same author of the book (which spawned the film) No Country for Old Men. The structure of The Sunset Limited is minimalist. The entire story takes place in a small apartment in a poor area of ​​the richest city in the world, New York. There are only two characters talking. During the conversation, we discover that the characters met that morning, and one of them, a religious man, prevented the other from committing suicide by throwing himself in front of a subway train. From there, questions arise about the religious faith of one and the extremely dark nihilism of the other. There is an excellent exposition of pessimistic thought in which the nihilist explains to the religious man that evolution inevitably produces animals capable of understanding the futility of the entire process of life and that the logical conclusion of this process is suicide. At one point, the religious man asks: “If I understand correctly, you mean that everyone who is not an imbecile should commit suicide?”, to which the nihilist responds affirmatively.

Chinatown, 1974, directed by Roman Polanski

A neo-noir classic, the film is set in the 1950s and follows Jake Gittes, a private detective who uncovers a plot by powerful individuals to acquire valuable land in California at a price far below its market value. During the investigation, Jake becomes involved with the daughter of one of these powerful individuals, Evelyn Cross, who was raped by her father, Noah Cross, when she was just 15. The rape resulted in a daughter. Jake tries to help the two women escape to Mexico, but the plan backfires. Noah and his henchmen discover the hiding place of his daughter and granddaughter in Los Angeles' Chinatown. There, the police are already waiting for them, ready to serve the powerful Noah. Evelyn refuses to return with her father and tries to flee by car with her daughter-sister. The police shoot at the vehicle, killing Evelyn with a shot to the head. Noah takes his granddaughter away and the police release Jake, as Noah's main goal was just to get his daughters back, especially his granddaughter, who he will probably rape for the rest of his life.

Network, 1976, directed by Sidney Lumet

The film, set in the 1970s, revolves around Howard Beale, a widowed, alcoholic news anchor who decides to air his frustrations when he receives the news that he will be fired due to low ratings. His speech generates strong commotion and a surge in viewers. The network executives then begin to use Beale as a sensationalist presenter. Despite seeing himself as an idealist, we discover that he is simply being used by those in power. When he goes off script one night, he ends up damaging the flow of money among the powerful. For this, Beale is reprimanded by the owner of the television conglomerate, Mr. Jensen. Jensen explains to Beale that there are no democracies, no dictatorships, no capitalism, no communism, no socialism, but rather a flow of money and power that controls all human will, regardless of creed, culture, religion, ideology, and that this flow has no purpose, it has simply occurred since human beings emerged from the slime.

The Road, 2009, directed by John Hillcoat

Based on a book by Cormac McCarthy, the film takes place after an unspecified global apocalypse. We follow a father and his young son on a journey on foot to the coast of the United States. They seek hope in a completely grey world, devoid of food, where the soil no longer yields anything. There is total famine, to the point where there are almost no other animals to eat, which causes many men to roam in groups, capturing weaker people with the goal of slowly cannibalizing them. We see flashbacks that show the father's attempt to convince the mother to stay with him in the house, caring for their son. However, the mother loses hope. She tries to convince the father to kill their son and then commit suicide with her, something many neighbors have already done. The reason she gives for this extreme act is that the world has ended, there is no longer any order, and there is no food and no hope of a return to normal. She mentions the gangs of men who are taking advantage of this situation to rape women and children and then eat them to survive. In one of the flashbacks, we see that the mother abandoned them both. The only thing keeping the man's hope alive is saving the boy, to whom he says we must always keep the “flame” of humanity burning.

Melancholia, 2011, directed by Lars von Trier

The film begins at Justine's disastrous wedding reception at the mansion of her sister and brother-in-law, Claire and John. Various dramas ensue, and Justine's marriage ends right there. However, before all the commotion, John, who enjoys astronomy, notices that a star is missing in the sky, but no one pays attention. In the second part of the film, Justine, who is deeply depressed, is brought to the mansion. We then discover the reason why the star was obscured that night, months ago: a rogue planet, drifting aimlessly through space, was blocking its light, heading toward Earth. Claire fears a collision, but John tries to reassure her, stating that the scientific consensus is that there is no danger, as the planet, named Melancholia, will pass Earth without hitting us. Melancholia is several times larger than Earth, and if it were to collide with us, it would annihilate all life. In an iconic passage, Justine tells Claire that there is no life outside of Earth, that she can sense that we are alone in the universe. She also says that all life is evil and deserves to end, something she claims Melancholia will do when it collides with our planet. Finally, the day Melancholia collides with Earth arrives. John, who believed in the scientific consensus, realizes that Melancholia will actually collide with Earth and commits suicide. Claire, desperate, clings to Justine in her final moments. Justine, however, is at peace with total annihilation.

The Mist, 2007, directed by Frank Darabont

Adapted from a Stephen King short story, the story takes place in a small town in the American countryside that is covered by a mysterious mist, harboring within it abominable and bloodthirsty monsters. Dozens of people take refuge in the town market. Desperate and divided by religious fanaticism, some humans begin to want to kill each other. A group of sensible people, including a father, David, and his young son, manage to escape the chaos by getting into one of the cars in the parking lot. Led by David, they drive for hours searching for the end of the mist, but find only death and destruction. The mist and the monsters seem to have taken over the planet. Armed with a single revolver and a few bullets, the adults decide to commit suicide, while David's son, the only child, sleeps. David shoots everyone, including his son, but runs out of bullets. Desperate, he gets out of the car, expecting to be devoured by the monsters, but nothing happens. That's when we see a large battalion of heavily armed armored vehicles and tanks, killing and setting fire to the creatures. Seeing that they were about to be saved, David begins to scream.

Seven, 1995, directed by David Fincher

Detective William Somerset, who is about to retire, takes on one last case with newcomer detective David Mills. The case involves a serial killer who murders his victims according to the seven deadly sins. The first victims represent gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, and pride. Over the course of the investigation, Somerset and Mills become close. Somerset is invited to dinner by Mills and his wife. Days later, she reveals to Somerset that she is pregnant with Mills's child, something Mills doesn't yet know. Before the detectives can get any closer to the mysterious killer, he turns himself in to the police and, through his lawyer, reveals that there are two more victims buried in the desert outside the city. However, the killer will only reveal the location if Somerset and Mills go alone with him to the location. Arriving there, a delivery truck appears on the dirt road. Somerset intercepts it, leaving Mills with the killer, who is handcuffed and on his knees. Somerset opens the box handed to him by the truck driver, who had nothing to do with the story, and inside sees the head of Mills's wife. Somerset rushes to try to disarm Mills, but the killer reveals what he did, adding that Mills's wife was pregnant and that he killed her out of envy (one of the deadly sins) of Mills's life. Somerset tries to convince Mills not to shoot the killer, but Mills breaks down and empties the clip into the lunatic's head, becoming wrath, the seventh deadly sin.

The Thing, 1982, directed by John Carpenter

The Thing is based on the science fiction story Who Goes There? by writer John W. Campbell, Jr. In addition to Campbell's source material, John Carpenter was also influenced by the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft. The film is set on an isolated American base in Antarctica. The story begins with a helicopter from the Norwegian base chasing a dog, which runs toward the American base. From the helicopter, two Norwegians attempt to kill the dog and attack the Americans, who retaliate and kill the Norwegians. After bizarre events at the base, the Americans discover that the Norwegians had unearthed an alien ship that had been buried under the ice for 100,000 years. They also discover that there was an occupant and that this being has the ability to consume other life forms, absorbing and imitating them. Paranoia grips everyone at the base. The film conveys the message that the universe is extremely hostile and indifferent to our individuality and also to the collective desires of our species, since the creature consumes, absorbs and imitates all other forms of animal life that it can dominate, acquiring their memories and intelligence.

Alien 3, 1992, directed by David Fincher

Alien 3 was considered disappointing by fans, who felt betrayed by seeing such a sad ending for the characters of the previous film. However, Alien 3 is consistent with the universe in which the first films are set. In them, a mega-corporation called Weyland-Yutani tries at all costs to acquire the xenomorphs for its own benefit. To this end, the corporation sacrificed a space freighter crew and a space colony full of civilians. Alien 3 is no different. The film begins where the second one ends: Ripley and the survivors of the second film are in suspended animation pods inside the spaceship Sulaco, which is heading for Earth. A fire breaks out on the Sulaco while they sleep, and the ship's computer ejects the suspended animation pod, which crashes onto a prison planet run by Weyland-Yutani. Everyone dies on impact except Ripley. However, xenomorph eggs were hidden in the pod. One of them breaks open and releases its parasite, which attaches itself to a dog. The dog conceives a new xenomorph, which begins murdering the prisoners. Amidst the chaos, Ripley discovers she is pregnant with a queen xenomorph, having herself been parasitized while in suspended animation. Ripley's goal becomes to thwart the corporation's plans. Her victory means the corporation's defeat, and for that to happen, all the creatures must be incinerated, which means she, too, will have to die. However, in the end, the corporation remains all-powerful. Little changes, except that Weyland-Yutani can no longer use that extremely dangerous life form.

Angel Heart, 1987, directed by Alan Parker

The film is set in the 1950s. We follow private detective Harold Angel, hired by the mysterious Louis Cyphre. His job is to track down a 1940s singer named Johnny Favorite. Favorite had disappeared while owing a large debt to Cyphre. Angel discovers that Favorite went to World War II, ended up with a head wound, and suffered amnesia. He spent many years in a hospital, paid for by wealthy friends, but disappeared at a certain point. The clues lead Angel from New York to New Orleans, where he discovers that Favorite was involved in satanic rituals and had participated in a human sacrifice to achieve fame as a singer. To perform the ritual, Favorite and his accomplices kidnapped a young American soldier celebrating New Year's Eve. The soldier's name was Harold Angel. Favorite ate not only Angel's heart but also took his soul, acquiring his memories. Favorite became a famous singer, but was drafted to serve in the war, where he was wounded and forgot everything. Believing himself to be Harold Angel, he became a private detective. At the end of the film, having discovered this, Angel realizes there is nothing he can do to escape his debt to Louis Cyphre, whom he discovers is Lucifer. Angel's soul will burn in hell forever. All he can do is cry.

Blade Runner, 1982, directed by Ridley Scott

Based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the film follows Rick Deckard, a blade runner, a detective whose job is to find and “retire” (i.e., destroy) biological robots known as replicants. The replicants, manufactured by Eldon Tyrell's corporation, are used in various jobs considered dangerous for humans in off-world colonies. The story begins when Deckard's bosses ask him to find four replicants who have illegally arrived on Earth. These replicants discover they have only a few years left to live, and that their time is running out. One of them, Batty, goes to Tyrell and asks for more time, something Tyrell says is impossible. Batty then kills Tyrell. In the end, Deckard manages to eliminate all the replicants, but is nearly killed by Batty, who is beginning to fail. In the final fight, Deckard ends up hanging from off a skyscraper, but is saved by Batty. Injured, Deckard listens to the replicant's death speech. Batty says all the fantastic memories he has of space and his adventures will be lost like tears in the rain. His last words are: time to die.

The Fly, 1986, directed by David Cronenberg

A brilliant scientist, Seth Brundle, invents teleportation between two pods. At first, he has difficulty teleporting living beings, who always emerge deformed and dead in the second pod. After Seth becomes involved with a reporter, Veronica, he finally solves the problem. Veronica witnesses Seth teleport a monkey, which emerges safely in the second pod. He then decides to test the teleportation himself, but doesn't realize that a fly also enters the first pod. His DNA is fused with the fly's, a process Seth is unable to reverse. As time passes, we see Seth slowly metamorphosing into a hybrid monster. To make matters worse, Veronica discovers she is pregnant. Unsure whether she conceived before or after Seth's genetic fusion with the fly, she decides to have an abortion. Crying, Seth begs her not to abort, as their child will be the only thing he will have left behind. When the metamorphosis is complete, the monster, now without human consciousness, tries to drag Veronica into the first pod, intending to fuse her and himself into a single organism. Veronica is saved by a friend. The monster, however, fails to escape the pod in time and is teleported away along with a piece of the door. Agonizing in pain after being fused with a piece of the door, the creature crawls towards Veronica, who now holds a shotgun brought by her friend. The monster uses one of its paws to point the shotgun at its own head. At first, Veronica cries and refuses to kill it, but the creature is in great pain. Veronica then blows out her lover's brains.

Martyrs, 2008, directed by Pascal Laugier

Lucie escapes from captivity where she was subjected to torture. She is rescued and ends up in an orphanage. There, she befriends Anna, who realizes that Lucie believes she is being attacked by an apparition. Fifteen years later, Lucie breaks into a family's home and kills everyone. Anna goes to the house and is horrified by what her friend has done. Lucie believes the family was responsible for the torture she endured as a child. She believed she would free herself from the apparition after killing them, but she was wrong. The apparition attacks her again, and Lucie commits suicide. Anna, shocked, discovers a secret passage to a complex in the house basement. There, Anna finds a young woman imprisoned with signs of torture and realizes Lucie was right. At that moment, however, a group appears, kills the young woman, and imprisons Anna. A woman named Mademoiselle comes to Anna and explains everything: the group is an ancient philosophical organization that seeks to discover what exists after death. To achieve this, they torture young women to the brink of death, believing that this way these martyrs can see the other side. Anna is then tortured for months. In the end, she is skinned alive and, dying, enters a spiritual trance. Mademoiselle is called to listen to her final whispers. The organization holds an event to finally reveal the secret of the afterlife. While everyone is gathering in the living room of a mansion, Mademoiselle speaks to one of her lackeys through the bathroom door. She asks him if he can imagine what happens after death. He replies no, to which she replies, “Keep doubting.” She then shoots herself in the mouth with a revolver.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978, directed by Philip Kaufman

Elizabeth is a scientist working for the San Francisco Health Department. She discovers unusual flowers in the woods and brings one home. What she doesn't know is that the flowers were produced by an alien pod that bonded with the local flora after arriving from space, fleeing its planet, which was about to die. She returns to the apartment she shares with her boyfriend, places the flower in a vase, and they go to sleep. The next day, she notices that her boyfriend is acting strangely, distant and emotionless. She goes to Matthew, her coworker, and he slowly realizes that something terrible is happening: people are being killed and replicated by the alien plants. The replicas have the appearance and memories of the original humans, but are devoid of emotion. Elizabeth, Matthew, and a couple of friends, Jack and Nancy, try to escape the city but are pursued. Jack is duplicated, then Elizabeth, much to Matthew's dismay. Days later, we see Matthew walking through the city. He observes children being taken away in trucks to be duplicated. Virtually all adults have been duplicated and are, in fact, aliens. Nancy, disguising her emotions to avoid being caught, sees Matthew in the middle of a square and tries to whisper that she is still human. He turns to her and lets out an alien scream, alerting everyone around to capture Nancy.

The Empty Man, 2020, directed by David Prior

In 1995, four friends — Greg, Fiona, Ruthie, and Paul — are hiking in the mountains of Bhutan. Paul fells into a crevasse and enters a trance, possessed by an entity, something the others don't notice. Days later, influenced by the entity within Paul, Ruthie kills Greg and Fiona and then herself. In 2018, we follow former police officer James Lasombra. Nora, his friend and lover, asks him to find Amanda, her missing daughter. During the investigation, he discovers that Amanda is part of a cult called the Pontifex Institute. The cult has existed for decades and aims to conjure an empty person through the power of group meditation, a manifestation they call a tulpa. He follows cult members to a hospital and there discovers a man who has been in a coma for a long time being worshipped. The man in a coma is Paul, who was possessed at the beginning of the film by the macabre entity in the mountains of Bhutan. The entity uses bodies to convey its message of nihilistic madness to the cult members. James also discovers Amanda in the hospital, and she reveals that he is a tulpa, a physical manifestation created by the group just three days ago to serve as a new vessel for the entity. Since the vessels eventually fall into a deep coma after a period of possession by the entity, and since it takes a long time between one vessel and another, the Pontifex Institute decided to create a tulpa, an empty man, to serve as a vessel and accelerate the entity's incarnation. James, discovering his life is a lie, succumbs to the entity, and the entity, possessing his body, shoots Paul in the head. Outside the hospital room, several cultists kneel before him.

Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna), 1962, directed by Ingmar Bergman

The film begins with Lutheran pastor Tomas finishing a midday service in a Swedish village. Among those present are Marta, who dated Tomas after his wife's death, Jonas, a fisherman, and Karin, his wife, who is pregnant with another child. Also present are the organist, Fredrik, and the sacristan, Algot. After the service, Karin takes Jonas to talk with Tomas. She reveals that Jonas is depressed and frightened by the state of things in the world, especially the threat of nuclear war. They talk briefly, but Jonas promises to return in half an hour so that he and the pastor can talk alone. After the couple leaves, Marta enters the office to comfort Tomas. He says he doesn't know if he can help Jonas, since he is just as depressed and faithless. Half an hour later, Jonas returns. Tomas initially tries to counsel him, but eventually confesses that he also has no faith and feels abandoned by God. He recounts that, as a young man, he witnessed the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and was unable to reconcile the image of a benevolent God with the atrocities he witnessed — so he decided to ignore them. He asserts that the world becomes intelligible when we deny God's existence, because then the cruelty of existence and of humankind doesn't need to be explained: it just happens, without a reason. Jonas leaves and commits suicide by blowing his brains out with his rifle. Later, Algot speaks alone with Tomas and asserts that much is said about Jesus' physical suffering and little about his mental suffering. Algot recalls that, while hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out to God and received silence in return. He asks Tomas if God's silence is worse than physical pain, to which Tomas answers yes. Meanwhile, Fredrik tells Marta that it's best for her to leave that place, lest her dreams be destroyed like all the inhabitants there.

Under the Skin, 2013, directed by Jonathan Glazer

The film follows an alien protagonist who disguises herself as a human to seduce men who are slowly killed and consumed by being submerged in a bizarre liquid. Alongside her, there's another alien, disguised as a man, who monitors her activities on a motorcycle. In one scene, the alien is on a deserted beach, talking to a surfer, trying to attract him. There's also a couple with a baby. The parents enter the water, leaving the baby on the sand, but are swept away by the rough seas. The surfer tries unsuccessfully to save them, and then lies exhausted on the sand. The alien picks up a rock and hits him hard on the head, knocking him out. She drags his body to the van, ignoring the baby crying alone on the beach, near the raging sea. However, she eventually develops a certain empathy toward humanity and her own human disguise. She abandons her mission and begins traveling through Scotland, experiencing different things. While walking alone on a trail, she passes a truck driver. When the weather worsens, she goes to a public shelter and sleeps. She wakes up to the truck driver trying to molest her and runs away. The trucker catches up with her and tries to rape her, but ends up ripping off her human skin. Terrified, he douses the alien with kerosene and sets it on fire, burning her alive.

The Last Exorcism, 2010, dirigido por Daniel Stamm

Charismatic pastor Cotton Marcus has served in his father's church in Louisiana since he was a boy. However, after the birth of his disabled son, he lost his faith in God. Furthermore, after reading about children who died during exorcisms, he decided to prove that exorcisms are fake. To do so, he is accompanied by two documentary filmmakers, Daniel and Iris. Cotton agrees to perform an exorcism on a teenage girl named Nell, the daughter of Louis, a fundamentalist Christian farmer who has lived in isolation after becoming a widower. Cotton's goal is to show that it's all just psychological suggestion. He manages to get Nell to admit that she's suffering not because she's possessed, but because she secretly lost her virginity and is pregnant. She reveals that the father is a boy her age named Logan. Louis is then persuaded to abandon his isolation and allow Nell to attend the church of Manley, the local pastor. Cotton, Daniel, and Iris leave, satisfied that the problems were religious fanaticism and isolation. When they stop for lunch at a nearby dinner, they talk to Logan, the boy who allegedly impregnated Nell. Logan says he's gay and only saw her once at a party at pastor Manley's house. Suspicious, Cotton and the documentary filmmakers return to the farm and find the house vandalized with satanic symbols. Deep in the woods, they discover a group performing a ritual, led by Manley. Cotton, Daniel, and Iris are killed. God is nowhere to be found — and if he is, he's abandoned them all.

Vivarium, 2019, directed by Lorcan Finnegan

Tom and Gemma visit a real estate agency and meet a strange employee named Martin, who introduces them to the concept of Yonder, a neighborhood of standardized houses. Martin convinces the couple to check out Yonder, and after visiting a house, Tom and Gemma are abandoned there. The two try for hours to leave Yonder, but no matter which route they take, they end up back at the same house. One day, a box containing a baby is left in front of the house. Inside are instructions telling them to raise the baby. Other boxes mysteriously arrive with food. The baby grows faster than a human child. Tom tries to kill the boy, but Gemma won't let him; however, as the months pass, she regrets it. The boy grows into a strong adult who dresses like Martin, and looks just like him. Essentially, the couple's job was to raise the baby of this strange alien species. Tom dies, and Gemma sees other couples imprisoned in other compounds, but it's all in vain. Nearing death, she asks what the mother's role is. The new Martin responds that a mother raises the boy and dies. In the end, the new Martin arrives at the real state agency just in time to put the old Martin in a body bag.

Meal Ticket (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), 2018, directed by the Coen brothers

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a film composed of short stories set in the Old West. I'll discuss the third one, titled Meal Ticket. The story follows two men, one old, the other young and disabled, having been born without arms or legs, making him completely dependent on the old man. They are traveling entertainers, traveling from one small town to another in a wagon driven by the old man. In the town squares, the young man performs, reciting poems by Percy Shelley and speeches by former presidents. At first, they draw large audiences. Over time, the audiences dwindle. The old man begins drinking and becomes irritated by the burden of caring for the disabled young man. One night, the old man sees an excited audience watching a chicken that supposedly knows how to do math. After the performance, he buys the chicken, not realizing it was all a cheap trick. Then, on a deserted dirt road between the snow-covered mountains, the old man stops the cart next to a bridge that crosses a river and, after thinking for a moment, throws the poor disabled man into the icy waters.

The Autopsy (Cabinet of Curiosities), 2022, series directed by several directors and presented by Guillermo del Toro

The story takes place in the 1970s or 1980s. In it, we follow pathologist Carl, who travels to a small town at the request of his friend, Sheriff Nathan, to perform autopsies on miners who died trapped after an explosion. The explosion occurred after Joe Allen, suspected of gruesome murders, entered the mine with a mysterious sphere in his arms. During the autopsy, which is being recorded on audiotape, Allen's body comes back to life and ties Carl to one of the stretchers. The creature inside Allen explains that it is an alien species that, over the ages, has adapted to parasitize other life forms. These beings are small and hideous, lacking most sensory abilities. They possess only small tentacles, which they use to pilot their ship, the sphere, and to penetrate the bodies of their victims. They use their hosts' bodies for pleasure and nourishment. Now that Allen's body is dead, it needs a new host. However, upon performing the transfer, the creature becomes temporarily vulnerable. Carl manages to grab a scalpel, but because his hands are tied near his head, he can't stab the alien, which is slowly entering his body through a cut in his abdomen. Carl then stabs his own eyes, ears, vocal cords, and throat. He writes on his chest in blood: “Listen to the tape and burn me.” The creature communicates internally with Carl, who laughs, saying he has vandalized the body. Carl bleeds to death, and Nathan finds him the next morning.

Aniara, 2018, directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja

The film is based on Harry Martinson's epic poem. In the not-so-distant future, Earth's ecosystems are devastated, and people are moving to Mars. Aniara, a luxurious spaceship, takes thousands of passengers from Earth to Mars in three weeks. On what was supposed to be a routine trip, Aniara is struck by debris from another spaceship and, to avoid exploding, ejects its nuclear fuel. This incapacitates Aniara, which can no longer be guided and is now heading in a random direction, toward the constellation Lyra. The captain and crew try to hide this to avoid panic among the passengers, but gradually the truth is revealed. Some passengers fall into despair, others into hedonism. In the fourth year, the number of suicides increases, and fertility cults emerge. The protagonist and her girlfriend, Isagel, take part in an orgy, and Isagel becomes pregnant. The protagonist is happy, but Isagel begins to lose hope. In the fifth year, after failed attempts to repair Aniara, Isagel drowns her baby and then commits suicide. In the tenth year, the protagonist receives a medal from the captain and notices that his wrists have bandages over cuts. The algae tanks, which were used to produce oxygen and food over the years, become contaminated. In the twenty-fourth year, the protagonist and a few survivors are in darkness, blind, meditating over the memories of warm sunlight. In the year 5,981,407, Aniara, devoid of life for millions of years, passes in front of a greenish planet in the constellation Lyra.

>>> Updated September 18, 2025 <<<

by Fernando Olszewski