And ending with a glimpse of a coming alien invasion cheapens the intimacy of the creepy, self-contained story Garland created.
As it is now, it’s a lot more of a meditation on the nature of ourselves and how humans respond to inevitable change.
As the script reads: “There is no clear indication as to which LENA lived, and which LENA died.”
Apparently, the original ending of the movie was far less ambiguous than the ending Garland ultimately went with, the original draft of the script revealing a conclusion that answers a few more questions than the final version does.