Includes SPOILERS for Elevation (2024).
The world is in peril due to the Reapers in the new dystopian thriller Elevation, and there's much to understand about the monsters. Anthony Mackie and Morena Baccarin lead the Elevation cast as Will and Nina, a pair who leave the safety of their community to gather equipment that can save the life of Will's son. At the start of the film, it's been three years since the initial apocalypse occurred, and Nina has spent her days formulating a plan to defeat the Reapers, who have forced humanity to leave in small communities at high altitudes in the Rocky Mountains.
In their journey, Nina convinces Will to travel with her to her lab in Boulder, Colorado, where she plans to complete a chemical mixture that could hypothetically kill a Reaper. She tests the mixture out multiple times with failure but eventually manages to destroy a Reaper that attacks her in her lab. By Elevation's ending, Nina shows the human communities living on mountain peaks how Reapers can be killed, creating hope for a new future.
The Reapers Are Machines Programmed To Kill Humans
The Reapers Aren't Natural Creatures, They're Engineered
It's not until Nina kills the first Reaper that she confirms her long-standing theory: the Reapers aren't natural lifeforms. She's observed for years that, while the Reapers have swept across the world, mass-murdering the human population, other species like horses have begun to overpopulate. The Reapers aren't killing animals, and they aren't eating the humans they kill, so she determines that they aren't natural predators but something else instead. The end of the film confirms that the Reapers are machines explicitly programmed to kill humans.
This idea raises numerous questions for Elevation to potentially answer in a sequel. If the Reapers are mechanical, that means they could be human-engineered. But the technology shown in the world doesn't seem to be futuristic, so it'd be bizarre if there were human-made murder machines that were nearly impossible to kill. The other possibility is that they've been built and programmed by aliens on another planet, but that would drastically alter the scope of Elevation's story in a way that would reduce the human component of it.
Elevation Doesn't Explain Where The Reapers Come From
Elevation Leaves Its Monsters' Origins Ambiguous
Custom image by Yeider Chacon Elevation's ending leaves ambiguous mysteries as to where the Reapers came from. The first wave supposedly came from underground, but Elevation's post-credits scene hints that there might be another new wave coming from the sky now that the first batch has been dealt with. The mystery of where these monsters are coming from seems rather important for the storyElevation is trying to tell. The first film was a relatively grounded post-apocalyptic story centered around its characters and the human reaction to such a dire situation, but Reapers being engineered changes the framing.
Maybe they were an invention that went wrong and that human engineers lost control of.
When talking about the movie's themes (via Nerd Reactor), director George Nolfi said, "Our greatest gift as humans is our rationality, and yet that rationality, particularly collectively, when we use it together, creates nuclear weapons and climate change and AI and all sorts of things that can threaten us." While Nolfi seems to purposefully leave the idea ambiguous, the quote may suggest that the Reapers are a force of human-made, incidental self-destruction. Maybe they were an invention that went wrong and that human engineers lost control of.
Reapers Can Be Killed By Triggering An Electric Pulse
Cobalt-Tipped Bullets Cause The Reapers To Implode
Custom image by Ana Nieves Bullets and grenade launchers don't seem to even bother the Reapers, and the only blast that really seems to do some damage is Will detonating O2 tanks in the hospital in Boulder. Realizing that killing the monsters will require a different strategy, Nina hypothesizes that combining chemicals and coating her bullets will trigger an electric pulse upon contact with the Reapers, but she struggles to nail the formula.
Nina reveals her backstory while in her lab with Will, explaining that, on the day the Reapers arrived, she was there testing the effects of cobalt to enhance battery power. After multiple rounds of failed tests, Nina realizes that cobalt is the key, and she coats her final test bullet in it, allowing her to kill the next Reaper that attacks her. As she predicted, the chemically-coated bullets cause the Reapers to implode. Humans begin to replicate the formula with cobalt, finally allowing them to fight back against the monsters.
The Reapers Came From Underground
The Reapers Initially Appeared From Beneath The Surface
Custom image by Yailin Chacon The first wave of Reapers allegedly came from underground, though it's not clear how they got there in the first place. That adds an element of fear to the scenes in the mines, as the Reapers are designed with superior underground senses. Importantly, it also contrasts the meteors that arrive in the post-credits scene if it's to be assumed that a new threat is coming from the sky. The underground Reapers forced human communities to migrate to higher elevations, so if new Reapers are coming from the sky, it could imply that they'll push human communities below ground.
Related
New Anthony Mackie Monster Movie Debuts On Rotten Tomatoes With Star's Fourth Splat In Just 3 Years
Thew new monster movie starring Captain America: Brave New World's Anthony Mackie earns the actor his fourth Rotten Tomatoes splat since 2021.
Given that the movie's title is Elevation, altitude is obviously part of the gimmick. The peaks of the Rockies that the human communities are forced onto are compared to prisons in the film. It creates an interesting duality, as typically, a mountain peak is a location that humanity would find rather freeing due to the open air and sprawling views. If Elevation has a sequel, these ideas would be fascinating to expand upon.
The Reapers Can't Go Above 8,000 Feet In Altitude
The Reapers Have A Maximum Altitude Coded In Them
Custom Image by Yailin Chacon The 8,000-foot number seems rather arbitrary to both the characters in the film and the audience, and it's left ambiguous as to why that number matters so specifically. Given that the Reapers are engineered, it seems like 8,000 feet is part of their programming, and that adds some context to why they would have such a specific cut-off point. However, it still doesn't explain why that number was chosen or what exactly it means for the broader story at work.
8,000 feet could just be an arbitrary number chosen for the movie's gimmick, or it could be a value assigned as a test for humanity. Elevation, at its core, seems to be a tale about humankind's ability to react and adapt in the face of an existential threat. Will and Nina only manage to overcome the Reapers when they've undergone moments of self-realization, and once the first Reapers are defeated, a new threat arrives from the sky. The film could be posing a series of tests for its humans, but it's all speculation for now.
Sources: Nerd Reactor
In the post-apocalyptic Rockies, a father and two women risk their lives by facing monstrous creatures to save a young boy.
Director George Nolfi
Release Date November 8, 2024
Runtime 90 Minutes
English (US) ·