In a hole in the ground, there lived a nerd

There is a heavy rumbling that only appears in the movie, and it appears to be diegetic (aka, that Simon can hear it as well as us). This rumbling is present ever since the scene begins, when Ava is demanding David to pull Jack from medical and weld the SM-14. It almost sounds like metal ripping in slow motion, or perhaps a very low growl.

Furthermore, we either see Simon from a bird’s eye view, reflected on a surface such as the compass, or in the camera’s periphery.

The scene was preparing us for his dissociation. We can assume this from how we stop seeing his face and see him from behind, as if Simon’s own perception of himself becomes a watcher from above (a similar concept as the Eye watching him). Also in the way the film panned from Simon piloting to the picture lighting up “on its own” (something that had been foreshadowed since the Asleep at the Wheel scene). And finally, in the dilation or distortion of diegetic sounds such as the camera whirring. It sounds slowed and eerie the second time, and from the periphery of the frame we see his head snap towards the picture. The picture looks blurred—it casts a halo light on its borders, almost like astigmatism.

Now this is where the transcript comes in. Not only did it catch the whirring of the camera, but also gave the rumbling a name, and identified a screech. We do not know if the rumbling is non-diegetic ambience meant to symbolize his building dissociation and mental chaos, or if it is a diegetic, dilated, endless auditory flashback that led to the rest of the memories spilling from his mind. A flashback of the explosion of Filament Station. Similarly, there’s a screech—and i’m not sure if it’s the shriek of a person, or the screech of tearing, burning metal. It is meant to be ambiguous, but the terror it inspires is the same. Somehow, someway, the stimuli around him that seemed neutral before is making Simon flinch, and perceive something else. Something from the past.

He’d spent most of the film running away from the memories of Filament Station. But now, his mind is splintering from the weight of the trauma he’s endured in the SM-13. Now, the memories have come back to haunt him.

Immediately after, we see Simon from above for the third time, struggling to keep his balance, holding onto the wall as he adjusts his stance, and looking down where he steps. Almost as if dazed, or as if he’d forgotten the puddle of blood where the Eye once reflected back.

This may be the final trigger, because the instant after this frame, we finally see Simon’s face for the first time since his journey to the SM-8 began.

And it is blurred.

And when the camera whirs again, the frame cuts. Time skips. We see him lose time in a way we cannot miss, unlike the camera’s activation without seeing him. The camera has officially become a trigger, cueing his dissociation to a higher degree.

Now, right as we see his face and realize he’s dissociating, we hear one last factor that triggered this scene.

What was the last voice, the last connection to humanity before his new mission, where the rumbling and rattling and screeching intensifies in his isolation? Ava.

What was the first voice he heard in his flashback?

Ava.

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