According to Garland himself, this is a film about self-destruction. And in the book about it nothing happened, Alex put his idea on top of someone else's story. Alex expresses an extremely interesting idea, and the direct text in the film itself: all people are striving for self-destruction. Suicide, drugs, alcohol are only the most obvious manifestations of this trait, but this does not mean that all the others do not follow the same path. Someone destroys their happy marriage, someone sabotages an excellent career, but we all go to some extent to self-destruction.
A parallel with living cells, which are programmed for suicide, connects this thought. Cells that refuse to die are called cancer cells. The splitting of the dividing cell, which lies at the base of all living things, is also reflected in the film - both directly and in the form of a metaphor.
The general mystery of what is happening and the lack of explanations greatly increase the requirements for the ending - what will the heroes find on this lighthouse after all. Many films failed on it - they let in fog, they made riddles, but the finale was so banal and pale, and the riddles were so boring and delusional that the whole previous path depreciated. I think everyone will remember many examples of such disappointments in the finals. Even the "Sunshine" of Garland itself for me is partly in this category. "Event Horizon", however, is a more unambiguous and vivid example.
Nevertheless, this time, Garland manages. The final is wild, unusual and memorable. He answers far from all questions and the very ending even the actors in the film understand each in their own way, but to say that this is a piled up "prestige" of focus cannot be.
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