#masterfiles.tag

His first interactions with the map are very careful and wary. He squints at the markings, trying to make out the nuances and details on it. When he first jots down his initial placement, he's got a soft touch with the charcoal stick. Probably worried about breaking it. His lines are steady and precise.

Our first glimpse of his journey track shows he's taken things very slowly. He's gotten maybe three strides on the map by the time his first O2 light goes off. He's not in a rush, he's taking his time and being thorough, but the O2 light sinks in that he doesn't have the luxury of time.

Next time we see the map, Simon has considerably sped up with the whole expedition. But also from the short lines, we can see he's still hesitant with navigating in the ocean.

Lots of feeling out for walls and obstacles, and even a bit of going back and forth. If I had to guess, he probably got the turn and angles wrong and messed up his directions. Still, lots of progress way faster!

We go quite a bit before the map becomes relevant again, massive time skip to post-stranding in the caves and out of range from the map. As he succintly puts it, he's fucked. How does he keep track of his path without the map? Make more map!

The first addition to the map is carefully trimmed and measured, he even double checks the grid. He goes a bit past the landing coordinates but it's still a small addition. He either doesn't think he'll need to use that much paper to get back into the mapped range, or he won't waste paper just yet.

He's more comfortable with the process as well. Mark progress, take picture, double check the angles, visualize it, jot it down, repeat. We then get a time skip while he fumes over the tape Xs, and there's already an update to the map.

He's added considerably more to the extension, but it's in squares. He's done the extensions in increments as they became needed instead of all at once. He even tapes over a piece of pipe?? Yeah whatever works dude, at least you didn't end up headed that direction.

Also in comparison to the original map and the new expedition line, you can see he's moving in longer lines. No longer tippytoeing through the geography, though in his defense, the tunnels are slightly wider than the ones he was dropped into originally.

There's also a neat little bit during the driving scene, where the proximity radar beeps and he gets the turn wrong before adjusting. Really sells the startle!

Also during the driving scene, we see him improvise ways to do more than one thing at once. His caution and calm from before is out the window, he can't just ditch parts of the driving system he has down, but he can add to it to make it more malleable. Like trying to stick the camera button down so he doesn't need to go back and forth, or putting the folio on the throttle to keep pushing forward while away from the console.

His lines are way messier as well. In part from having to draw vertically instead of horizontally, but also he doesn't have time to care about the map looking pretty and clear. This is just for him to see and work with, after all. He also doesn't check everything with the camera anymore, if the proximity says there's something he just assumes a wall and puts it on the map.

Also notable is his methods. He still sticks close to walls to map out an area, but at the center of that larger pocket, you can see that once he noticed he might be boxed in, he moved closer to the center of the open area and then turned to the unmapped portion. He's triangulating.

This barely-second-long scene is so important to me. Sloppy as he is with the map now, his lines are still straight. Wonky, but straight. But as time passes and his mind starts to go from exhaustion, pain and isolation, we get this curved line. His navigation is going as tilted as his mind.

Then we reach the SM-8 and my god, the aftermath. You can see how heavier his hand has gotten (and how blunt the charcoal tip has worn down to) by the change in line thickness. You can also see his triangulation got severely wonky at the end there. Loops and turns and spins, and back to the short spurts of movements once he neared the beginning of the circle.

I've also mentioned before, but this is the time where the camera pictures stop being snapshots to him, and he begins to visualize them as full, tridimensional perception. The camera have become his eyes.

Once he agrees to meet up with Ellie, he's completely ditched the map grid. He's eyeballing the coordinates, and by now he can do it fairly confidently.

He also draws a very straight line with a confidence that he shouldn't have about the terrain. He's triangulating between where he is, the Light POI marker, and what he's guessing is open range for him to navigate thanks to the charted map. I must assume he intends to eyeball and feel his way around that line at the very least.

Not only that, during the trip to the Light, he drives without checking the map once. He memorized the middle point coordinates, drives to it, and then adjusts to the intended destination, all while talking shit at Ellie. That is fucking impressive!

Or, is it?

We're back from Eyeball land and bargainign with Ava for freedom now. The section of the map with the neat straight line is, not? We see now instead shorter, measured though slightly curved lines. It's a similar path overall, but very much different strokes, angles and lines.

This could be a continuation error, or this could be Simon misremembering his trip to the Light. Your pick!

CORRECTION!! We do see him adding lines during the trip to the Light, I simply missed them. My bad!

Then we get the trip back to the SM-8 and what a ride it is. Simon isn't really all there for it, but he still keeps track of his movements. Messy, longer lines, heavy pressure on the stick.

On the way back, we see he jotted down the sub location, aaaand the Light path lines are wonky again. Simon, please can we get a definitive look on those please?

Now I think this is important because we have been fed shots of the pendant for a while now. Earlier it came whenever Simon was regretting something or trying to make amends, sometimes he reached for it for comfort or when considering his past.

We most recently seen it during the trip to the Light and how it reacted during the Blood Dimension field trip. There is a relevant line from Ellie, "It thinks, therefore we are", when the pendant is shown, while Simon is skeptical about the worth of the Light as a solution to everything.

Then a callback scene where Simon notices it has cracked, mirroring him finding it for the first time.

And then again, a close up of it bloodied during the trip to the SM-8. It's framed while the Father preaches that "when the last Son of Eden joins the Grove, there will be a thousand trees".

This is the last time we see the pendant prior to that mystery shot. It's just as he lost the arm and before the pendant explodes. The root-vein-things hasn't reached it yet.

Then we get the mystery shot at 1:59:23. It happens right after Simon shouts at Ellie, "Fine! You want the Butcher? Come on! Fuck you! Die!" and he starts fghting back. Immediately after, Simon shouts again, "Die!" and breaks one of the fangs impaling the sub.

After that all that the sub floods. Only after the pendant is submerged that it grows out roots (like Simon saw in the Blood Dimension) and becomes the Blood Tree.

So I'm wondering if that mystery shot is when the line between Simon and pendant on a metaphysical (dare I say, divine?) level is established. I might be wearing my tinfoil cap a bit too hard right now, but what if the seed finally having contact with the mutated sub and blood, is why Simon manages to break that tooth? He wanted Ellie to die, or rather to fuck right off, so it might have given him the strenght for it. Likewise on his very final moments, it was able to take that final spark of will to survive and boom, Blood Tree.

"Let's not get into that."

So I love this framing, but I forgot to mention it on my previous post, so this is slgihtly out of chronological order.

We've had shots where Simon has his back to the camera but his face is slightly visible on the porthole before, most notably when he was talking with Ava and apologizing for the radiation incident, and in the same conversation when he's talking about how it's all over.

Both of those are moments of rawness and vulnerability for him. But when he's shutting down the topic of God with Ellie, the camera is slightly farther from him, and his reflection is separated from himself in the frame by the crack in the porthole.

Love this random ass belt loop sown into the cowl for no apparent reason.

You can tell this is the moment he's going "well fuck me". She asks after Filament Station, and he made a mistake drawing attention to himself and why he's down there at all. Ellie assumes it's because he has the skills necessary to conduct research, or navigate the ocean, but no he's just an expendable convict with no training.

Simon thought she was like him, Ellie thought he was like her, and he realizes he messed up by revealing he was blamed for the station being gone. What he thought was just prisonyard conversation was a major slip of the tongue instead. He just gave her ammunition for turning him away and maybe abandoning him by cutting off contact.

This extreme close up while he snaps at Ellie for being judged for Filament Station, sandwiched by several close-ups of the console and radio, really sell just how tense and cornered he feels talking about this, but also how much he's posturing at Ellie.

Last time the topic was addressed, his reaction was more explosive and emotional, but the framing gave him more breathing room. His face was cast harshly in the lamp light, almost overexposed (second image), while his aggressive snap of "what does it matter, why do you care?" in the current scene has us way too close and shrouding him in harsh shadows, his eyes are barely discernable.

He does care, and it does matter, he's shown that to us way earlier in the movie. This reaction isn't him changing his mind, it's him protecting himself from judgement by someone he doesn't know and doesn't entirely trust.

"You think this is fair?"

And sure enough when the judgement comes, the music tenses and SImon prickles up. He's back in the light, but they are casting hard shadows on him. He's feeling vulnerable but he won't let Ellie see it, so he shouts back at her. Uses his own betrayal against her, they aren't that different and she was abandoned too, so who is she to cast judgement?

His face is only properly visible when he's turned away from the top light, when he curses out his brothers for abandoning him. A moment not of vulnerability but of honesty.

It's interesting that when he bows over from the sudden headache and meek admission he just "wants to go home", we pan over to the pendant for a moment.

Then, the Light. Before it pierces through the sub, we see some fun chromicatic aberration light effects. He backs away and we don't see his arm move towards the button, but the camera goes off anyway. At least I didn't notice a movement, it just seemed like him moving behind the console, but it's open to interpretation.

"This was meant for us."

See, the pluralism of the Eel fucks me up, cus this could mean so many things. It could mean Ellie and her research assistant, since we hear her use plural pronouns in the audio log later on. It could also mean humanity as a whole, or at least the humans that did get absorbed into the blood. As she says, "we are one", so whatever applies to her could easily be the entire hivemind speaking as a unit, and vice versa. This however runs counter to her behavior later on trying to hide the Light from the COI and other humans.

It really is up in the air and it drives me nuts (positive).

It's fun that this shot is blurry, when the exact same shot positioning earlier was crispy clear throughout (second image). Coupled with the light effects, other off-focus shots and the subtle dutch angles, it really sells we're not in Kansas anymore.

"I didn't tell you my name..."

Craaaaazy to hide his left eye just as he realizes who he's talking to, and then hide his right when he speaks it out loud.

Listen I know we've known the Eel was big, but to FINALLY have a direct size comparion between her and the sub was JAWDROPPING. Also, a shot of the exact coordinates of the Light (the last ones we can make out anyway).

The behavior of the Light is rather confusing, but also extremely interesting. By all rights, the Eel can see the Light same as Simon, she even comments on its beauty. But for whatever reason, it refuses to let her in, she can hear "them" but not see any answers. She's shut away from whatever is on the other side, only pressing the ear against the door but she can't open it. Maybe because she was already mutated by it, and thus is a part of it - a doorknob can't exactly cross the threshold, it's stuck as said threshold.

The Light however, bypasses the porthole shield entirely and shines through the glass crack. The crack is almost a vessel for the portal's manifestation. Almost like the Light needs a lense to travel through, which really fits with the 'camera, eyes and pinhole' themes we've been having so far.

Piercing through the gap in the crack, the Light then cuts a shaft through the sub - and into the Eel pushing the sub forward.

Note, not only did the Pinhole God take Simon back to a safe zone in the ocean, he also restored the lifesaver. How nice of him! (concerned)

While it gives off the illusion that his eye has gone blind-white, Simon is just looking away from the blood jettison. Kind of funt hat the moment he's fully looked away, one of the lights go off and cast him in darkness.

Likewise, I appreciate this tiny bit of lighting work, where the seed oh so slightly peeks away from the red cast and shows green and clear for the tiniest moment. Half in and half out, bit of a foreshadowing of it's future.

(source)

Let's dissect this baby up in parts because hoo boy is there a lot to this little guy.

First, the shape of the pendant. I don't feel like going through shape language 101 here, I trust you to do your own research there, but let's just point out a few things. Circles are one of the strongest shapes structurally, but also one of the hardest to build into. Circles are often representative of completion, sancity, eternity, heavenliness, and protection. In Christianity, halos are signifiers of divinity, and God as a whole is likened to a circle a few times.

Circles as a shape in this movie are very often tied to glass, both as windows and as mirrors. They are tied to eyes and eyeballs, because those are also round. Circles are viewports, something to be seen through or at.

Even the radio speaker which is also round but not made of glass, can be tied to vision. Its roundness is not as prevalent in framing and composition focus except when you see through it from radio POV shots. Likewise, the COI badges are circular, but with the grid pattern on it, I tie them along to the radio speaker grid visually.

In Iron Lung, circles are for seeing.

Next, the material. I've already pointed out glasses and circles are concurrent in the movie, but the pendant is framed in a golden band. I'm pretty sure we're looking at glass edging, most commonly used for stained glass, so that the solder can stick to the pieces. Those come in copper, zinc and brass, but given the hue of it, I'm guessing it's copper.

That in itself doesn't say much, but copper (and brass, as a copper alloy) is an old material for medical supplies since it has natural antibacterial and antiviral properties. In the movie is sometimes gets a yellower shine similar to gold, a metal often associated with holiness and purity since it doesn't rust. Copper also has religious significance in the Bible (often interchangeable with brass), symbolizing divine presence, harsh justice, strength, but also stubbornness.

Then the centerpiece of it, the seed. It's worth noting that it's not just a seed but a seedling. They have similar symbolism but not entirely.

A seed is infinite potential. Like an egg (which is also round), it symbolizes a new cycle, the foundations for something new. It's promise, hope, rebirth. It's also one of our oldest ties to human civilization, when our ancestors began to develop agriculture. Beyond that, it's also connection to Earth itself, which after the Great Rapture, would mean a whole lot to everyone.

A seedling however, is the next logical step of that infinite potential. It's the very tentative steps into making those endless possibilities into reality, but it's fragile, weak. Most seedlings never make it to maturity, dead before they reach a meter high. It's a fleeting hope, ready to be extinguished at any second, but that hope is now encased in glass.

A new beginning put on pause until further notice, maybe forever, never to be realized.

Considering that Eden is a death cult utterly dedicated and devoted to their Tree as a divine being, and that their belief is that when one dies, their body becomes soil for the Tree, one could extrapolate a bit. The fact that Eden brothers carry a seed with them means that they are meant to feed that seed if they died away from the Tree. No matter what, they are fated to be soil.

Let's go a bit broader now, and talk about maple symbolism. Beyond the fact that they produce sugar, and so are associated with generosity and sustenance, maples are also connected to gentleness and practicality. It's a very useful tree, having medicinal properties, wood good for turning and furniture, and again, gives sugar. Depending on the source, maples are also said to help guide you into a decision by revealing truths, and to offer a helping hand when asked.

A quick note on maple samaras, which is the term for the helicopter-wing type of seed pods. They are shaped this way so that the wind may blow them further away from the parent tree, and spread the offspring on the wind.

Wind are a classic symbol for movement, change, and swiftness, which is a bit ironic given that the entire movie happens in a sealed container constantly running out of air. Simon is metaphorically suffocating. But it kind of fits that the tree produces a samara, but the "wind" carrying those seeds is the Eden brothers. They are vessels both for transport and for sustenance.

Wind can also be associated with divine presence, or even divine speech delivering messages to humanity, so the Eden brothers being tied to wind in a spiritual sense is quite juicy!

I do wanna point out another visual language that is tied to the pendant and other glass circles, and that is the cracks.

Visually they aren't that different from roots, or a trunk with branches, and almost all of them have the point of impact on the bottom of the glass. Almost because we don't see the crack pattern form on the actual pendant so we can only speculate.

Narratively, cracks always occur when the blood is involved in some way. The porthole is cracked by the ocean pressure, the seedling roots when in contact with the blood, the pressure gauge cracks at the same time Simon's temper rises and his mutations consume his left eye, the pendant cracks after the vision of the blood dimension.

Cracks can symbolize a weakness or instability, but when coupled with the symbolism of circles I've mentioned above, it can mean a break with a previously accepted perception of reality, or the spark of change breaking a barrier. But also, given that cracks on mirrors can mean bad luck, all those breaks in reflective glass is quite ominous.

It's also worth acknowledging that the growth pattern of the seedling is on a zigzag shape. It's already a crack in a metaphorical sense.

The cord the pendant is tied to also feels worth exploring. When the pendant is revealed, the cord is about long enough to be worn as a necklace, and it probably was by the original owner.

Simon however, wears his on his wrists. We see he has a woven cord still tied on his right wrist, and he then ties the pendant to his left wrist. So let's look at that.

Wearing a necklace with a religious symbol is pretty standard human practice, there's not a religion out there without some version of their own. Necklaces could be likened to a collar, standing for ownership or allegiance, you belong to it more than it belongs to you. But also carrying something close to your throat or chest signals a deep closeness with said symbol. You literally carry it close to your heart.

Simon wearing it on his wrists can means a number of things. It shows a distance to what is a symbol of loyalty to Eden, and that he doesn't hold the same values as them. Having it close to his hand also allows him to have it in sight and reach much easier than if worn as a necklace. Carrying something close to his hands could also stand for a much more actionable and practical approach, hands are tied to labor and deeds far more than the heart is.

The switch from right to left hand is also interesting. Simon's handedness is a bit up in the air for me right now, but let's assume right-handedness for a moment. Right hands are tied to blessings, dominance and fairness, while left hands symbolize oddness, sneakiness and intuition. By that measure, him wearing the pendant-less string could underline his loss of faith and trust, a mark of something that was and no longer is. A reminder his past life is gone and he's changed from it.

The move from right to left further shows his inner connection to the Tree are more personal, and a bit off the beaten path. Satanism calls their philosophy "the left-handed path", and giving blessings or salutes with a left hand are considered rude at best, a sign of ill-will at worst. It strikes Simon's switch as rather heretical, maybe even a small "fuck you" gesture to Eden's traditions and goals. Eden might have embraced death and despair, but he will fight to keep living.

Now if we assume Simon is ambidextrous, then the more negative connotations can be struck out, and we can assume a more intuitive and spiritual connection than a rational or formal one. The Tree and what it stands for is up for him to decide. The left arm also has the symbolism of the left ring finger, which runs a vein right to the heart by the folk belief.

There is also something to be said of religious symbols being protective, especially as necklaces or bracelets since they form a circle (ha!) of protection around the wearer.

Now that we've gone through all these, let's see what we can spin from these meanings in context to the movie.

We've established circles are for seeing, so what does it say to have a pendant about the size of a monocle or camera lens? Plenty.

The tree is one of the lenses from which Simon perceives the world - and himself - through. It's literally in his sight. The potential for a new life, a second chance, is right there always before him, but never in reach. It's stuck like he is. As a lens, it exists in a liminal space of coming and going, a threshold of perception.

The only way it can actualize its potential is if it's freed from the glass, no longer a window or a mirror, but an active agent of its own.

I also find it poignant that, even though the sub claimed one of his arms, the seed only seemed to take root properly when submerged in the blood. It didn't consume of Simon like Eden claimed or wished it to, but rather it consumed of what the Pinhole God created. Not saying that it was trying to spare Simon or anything, but I am saying it seemed to meet him halfway in regards to him retaining his individuality in some small way.

I bring up the seed as a being with its own will because Simon kind of affords that interpretation. We see his anthropomorphising behavior towards the sub and saying a prayer to his mother, it wouldn't be too out of order to assume he might have given the seed or even the Tree a specific personality based on his interactions with it. On a similar vein, if he projects onto the seed as another, purer version of himself that deserves protection and care (which he never got), that's also quite likely.

Throughout the movie, the pendant is given focus on very particular moments:

When Simon attempts to apologize to Ava for the radiation incident, just before he decides to bring it up, and when he's confronted about Filament Station;

When Simon realizes he'll run out of oxygen soon, and he tries to connect with Ellie for comfort, asking her to keep talking to him;

When Ellie asks if he'd give everything to survive, and Simon answers he never had anything to begin with;

When Ellie speaks about the Pinhole God, and Simon argues how much worth it has as a miracle, and how it won't save him from being sent back down into the ocean;

When Simon lashes out at Ellie that meeting up is useless, and he just wants to go home;

When Simon triggers the portal of the Light, and Simon and the Pinhole God exchange words, "I see you";

When the Father recites his preaching about how when the last Son of Eden joins the Grove, there will be a thousand trees;

When the blood veins begin to consume Simon's torn arm;

and moments before the Blood Tree erupts.

Most of these moments are either tied to Simon's vulnerable moments, seeking connection with someone for comfort and reassurance, or when pondering his truest feelings out loud. Either way, they have a running theme of connection to others, with the present and a possible future.

The pendant is an outward symbol, which comparatively the knife holster is an introspective symbol. Simon retreats into himself when reaching for the holster, while with the pendant, he reaches outwards.

It makes the pendant holding a seedling rather than a seed even more relevant. Seeds are introspective symbols, because they must be buried in the dirt and eventually breach the soi. Seedlings are seeds who have breached and now must reach both downwards and upwards at the same time. Conscious and subconscious, intuition and perspective.

Mmm reaching at two directions at once... sounds familiar.

The Eden brothers having symbolic ties to the wind also fits with Simon as "the one who listens". Senses like hearing and seeing may seem only receptive, and to some extent they are, but reception is nothing without interpretation.