Eddie Arya’s science thriller film, Risen, follows a catastrophic event that changes the fate of humanity. Its narrative deals with extraterrestrial entities and their arrival on our planet Earth. Risen shares similarities with films like the War of the World Series, which portray equivalent alien invasion. Their motive, well, clear as crystal, is to destroy humanity and take their planet.
Many may try to find any uniqueness in Risen’s premise or treatment, but unfortunately, there aren’t many. In a broad analysis, it is a character-driven narrative. The majority of drama is centered around its protagonist. Though the hero himself is dull as ditchwater and thus only brings tediousness to the narrative. Despite all flaws, Risen is a massive endeavor made by Eddie Arya. Therefore she deserves a special mention and many more intriguing stories in the future.
‘Risen’ Plot Summary
Old footage of a US Air Force commander discusses their efforts to identify and analyze the flying saucers or UFOs. Major Keyhoe, author of the book “Flying saucers are real,” puts down an argument that these extraterrestrial beings should not be taken lightly.
An exobiologist, Dr. Lauren Stone, who works for NASA, finds out about a meteorite hit in Badger, Northern Pennsylvania. The meteorite has released some toxic gases into the air. The whole community drops dead in a single day. Nothing and none survive the explosion.
While news channels try to speculate around the incident, Lauren is called by Homeland security for her expertise. Colonel Roger Emmerich assigns astrobiologist David Santiago and Lauren the task to visit Badger and investigate the matter.
David and Lauren visit the Meteor Crater wearing their hazmat suits, as the gas released by the expulsion is still present in the radius. At the site, Lauren finds a red twig growing in the soil. The sapling is quite unusual, but Lauren doesn’t report it and returns home.
While continuing her investigation, Lauren finds out a similar event occurred in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The meteorite released toxic gases into the atmosphere that killed almost everyone in the vicinity. However, before they could spread out, the Russian government suppressed the matter.
Dr. Maria and Dr. Keith perform an on a farmer, Robert Windsor, who died in Badger and finds a strange extraterritorial liquid coming out from his body. However, the fluid quickly flows back inside his body, and a dead Robert suddenly wakes up. The incident panics everyone, and soon 98 other victims who were pronounced dead are now once again alive. Lauren and other scientists use their expertise to unravel the mystery.
The Mystery of the Risen
Out of the total population of Badger, only 49 people resurrected from the dead, with no blood pressure and their bodies cold as ice. David theorized that these 49 victims lived near the meteor explosion. They might have inhaled fragments of the meteorite that spread from the blast. It resulted in transforming their internal organs and altered their DNA. It was a formation of a new life form with a human body.
These resurrected people faced north, at a fixed position that pointed to Baxter. At the meteor site, the red twig grew into an enormous tree with needle-like branches branching out.
Reaching the Earth
The tree intoxicated the soil as well as the air around it, creating its atmosphere. Roger, Lauren, and David took undead Robert to the tragic site to find answers smoking around the eerie extraterrestrial vegetation. But as soon as David entered the tree’s atmosphere, his eyes turned blue, and he started interacting with Lauren.
Robert told Lauren that they seeded the tree to create an environment suitable for the species survival. Robert’s or the being inside him narrated that his planet perished, and thus they were on a hunt for a new avenue. But their saplings didn’t grow anywhere else except Earth. To reach the Earth, they were given coordinates by one of humankind named “Supernova 94.”
The Truth of SuperNova 94
The humans tried to stop Robert and the extraterrestrial plant, but the adversaries turned hostile. The Airforce tried attacking the tree with missiles but only dealt failures.
In the meantime, Lauren’s father learned about “Supernova 94,” who invited the catastrophic aliens. It was revealed that the mysterious fellow was none other than Lauren herself.
While Lauren didn’t remember calling out the monsters, the film transferred into her childhood to reveal the answers. Lauren’s father was a US senator and had access to secret US labs in Area 51. During Lauren’s childhood, the air force seized a UFO near northern Alaska and brought it to Area 51 for further scrutiny.
In an emergency, Lauren’s father reached the premises with Lauren. At the facility, Lauren was possessed by a dying alien discreetly. The new life form in her body manipulated her abilities. It transformed her into a child prodigy with a brilliant curiosity for science and the universe. Lauren built a communication device to interact with aliens (or the one inside her made it to send a message to their breed). In October 1994, she sent them the coordinates and called herself SuperNova 94.
‘Risen’ Ending Explained
As Lauren’s task to send the coordinates was accomplished, the alien inside her body became dormant. Thus, she didn’t remember these incidents from her childhood but always felt a sense of something suffocating inside her.
After the cinematic reveal, much of the film’s conclusion labored to give closure to Lauren. Rather than giving hope to humanity. Thus, in simple words, the red sapling became the end of the human world.
The tree expanded its territory by spreading toxic gases worldwide and contaminating the Earth’s soil through its roots. As a result of such destruction, the crops, plants, and earthly trees rotted away, leading to an inevitable catastrophe. In the end, several pod-like objects appeared throughout the world and burst out black smoke that killed everyone around it. Earth no longer supported life for the human species, and there was nowhere to run. Soon, all earthly species and plants became extinct. The planet transformed, and evolution took over with no space for humans.
For Lauren, due to the alien life form inside her body, she was a half-human and half-alien. Thus, she was able to survive both environments without any hindrance or support. With the accomplishment of Alien Takeover, Lauren’s journey came to an end, and she was finally home.
Risen is a 2021 Science thriller film written and directed by Eddie Arya.
