Annihilation Earth

Annihilation Earth is a 2009 science fiction television film for Syfy, directed by Nick Lyon, written by Rafael Jordan, and starring Luke Goss, Marina Sirtis, and Colin Salmon. It follows the attempts by an energy scientist to determine the causes of a deadly explosion at a particle collider and mitigate its aftereffects. It premiered on December 12, 2009.

Plot

The film opens as a team of scientists in the year 2020 wander through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with the team leader calling for help on a radio, until they come upon the ruins of a city.

Forty-eight hours earlier, David Wyndham (Luke Goss), the same team leader, is informed by his UN superior, Paxton (Marina Sirtis) of a security breach involving another scientist on their project, David's friend and colleague Raja. Unauthorized access of the project's mainframe the night before was made using Raja's access codes. As a precaution he has been removed from the project; but David suspects a more sinister motive.

Paxton holds a press conference about their project, codenamed "EVE" (for Electromagnetic Vacuum Energy), which has provided most of Europe's energy for the past ten years beginning in 2010. The project utilizes three high-power particle colliders, located in Geneva, Barcelona, Spain, and Orleans, France. With the project's continuing success, Paxton is enthusiastic that the technology can be utilized worldwide. David, unhappily agreeing with Paxton's claims, confronts her afterward that she has no intention of sharing the technology with the Middle East, which she verifies.

Outside the meeting hall David receives a mysterious phone call, then is approached by a reporter, whom he dismisses with a handshake. The reporter furtively copies David's fingerprint from his hand using a piece of tape and stores it in a case.

At home, David receives a visit from Raja (Colin Salmon), who has already surmised that Paxton's plans for the technology. Raja believes he is a scapegoat for the security breach because he is the only Arab with level 5 project clearance. When David rejects his claims, Raja angrily leaves.

That night, the "reporter" that accosted David dons a lab coat and fake ID to sneak into the Orleans facility. After using a recording of David saying his name and the copied fingerprint to gain access to the lab, he enters a series of codes into the computer. When he is confronted by another employee he uses a silenced dart gun to kill the man. A short time later, after the mysterious man has escaped, the plant explodes, destroying Orleans and a quarter of France including Paris, killing millions of people.

As he tries to sort out what happened the next day, David meets with Raja again. Raja has been named the top suspect and is running from the police. He is also being watched by Paxton's men, which David learns from Paxton herself. She shows him photos of Raja apparently meeting with the mystery man, a known terrorist named Aziz Khaled. Though stunned by this revelation, David insists he be allowed to go to ground zero to investigate the explosion before judgments are made.

Later that night, Raja, pursued by both Paxton's men and the French police, attempts to board a train before being cornered in an underground station. A sudden earthquake allows him to escape. The worst hit area by the earthquake is the Middle East, specifically Bahrain, where thousands have perished due to the quake. The next day, Raja calls David near the French-Spanish border, revealing that because the earthquake happened one day after the blast and hit where the EVE grid was absent, he has deduced that someone has discovered the Doomsday Equation, a set of codes for each collider that could destroy the planet if used.

David and his team travel to Orleans via helicopter but they crash, killing the pilot. They find evidence that a Higgs field has formed, confirming Raja's suspicions. Meanwhile, Raja's electric car runs out of power at the border, and he is soon abducted by Khaled. David's team, meanwhile, attempts to escape France in a Humvee sent to rescue them only to be caught in a meteor shower. To his horror the "meteors" are actually falling satellites, and his team barely escapes.

Khaled takes Raja to the Barcelona facility. After murdering all the workers, he tries to force Raja into giving him the site's Doomsday Equation, believing the meltdown will not cause the end of the world, but Raja steadfastly refuses. After returning to Geneva, David is taken to the facility, where his family is already sheltered. He concludes that the surviving colliders are feeding the magnetic field, and asks Paxton to order a full system shutdown.

After becoming tired of Raja's stubborn defiance, Khaled shoots him in the knee, but doesn't see him grabbing a pen. Raja stabs Khaled in the leg, stunning him. He then shoves the terrorist into the reactor's shaft and Khaled falls to his death. Raja returns to the computer and opens an instant message to Geneva, telling David his suspicions about the Doomsday Equation were right - and the only way to save the world is to increase the system's output and choke the field out of existence, or else it will expand into a black hole. Still believing Raja is a terrorist, Paxton cuts the connection and a tearful and distraught David has no choice but to carry out the system shutdown, knowing that this action will only seal the doom of the entire planet.

As soon as the system shutdown is complete, the Geneva facility melts down in an explosion exponentially larger than the Orleans disaster. Everything and everyone within hundreds of miles of Geneva, including David, his family, the facility's staff, and Paxton, are incinerated in an instant. A view from outer space shows shock waves from the blast radiating throughout the Earth's surface, a large fissure forming in Europe and cracks forming around the globe. Finally, the Earth's core is breached, and the planet explodes violently.

The film concludes with a shot of pieces of what was once Earth floating through space, followed by a blank screen reading simply, Extinction.

Setting

Annihilation Earth takes place in Europe in the year 2020. It explores themes of terrorism and racism in an era where global communication and trust are paramount. The consequences of racist actions are reflected in the ending, where Paxton's racist distrust of the Arab Raja results in his suggestions being ignored, therefore causing the end of the world.

Cast

• Luke Goss ... David Wyndham
• Marina Sirtis ... Paxton
• Colin Salmon ... Raja Bashir
• Xenia Seeberg ... Muireann
• Louise Cliffe ... Nya
• Velislav Pavlov ... Aziz Khaled

External links

• Annihilation Earth at the Internet Movie Database