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In the two recent films that gave him an international name, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve brought an acutely concentrated vision to bear on stories of violent conflict beyond his native land. The Oscar-nominated " Incendies " concerned the horrors of war in a nameless but vividly evoked Middle Eastern country, while last year's " Prisoners " was a lacerating tale of kidnapping, terror and torture in a no less carefully described Pennsylvania town.

"Enemy," Villeneuve's latest (it was filmed between the two above-mentioned films, though it is being released after the latter), differs from the earlier works not only in being set in Canada, but also in offering a story that's ostensibly less concerned with painful real-life struggles than with dream-like subjective perplexities. Adapted by screenwriter Javier Gullon from Portuguese author Jose Saramago's novel " The Double ," the brooding, crepuscular drama features Jake Gyllenhaal (who also starred in "Prisoners") in the roles of a man and his double.

Since stories of doubles, with their long pedigree in literature and cinema, inherently belong to the realm of the fantastical, "Enemy" obviously stands apart from the traumatic real-world political and criminal traumas of its two predecessors. Less ambitious (and, at 90 minutes, far shorter) than those films, it's inevitably less impressive, more like a semi-whimsical short story by a master whose real forte is challenging realistic novels of epic scope.

Yet that's not to suggest the three films are entirely different. Also tinged with the quality of nightmares, the violence in "Incendies" and "Prisoners" was, or had the feeling of being, fratricidal or internecine. In "Enemy" there's also a sense of the antagonists being closely related, whether as long separated twins, as two aspects of the same personality, or as guys who fall into a violent competition due to the accidental "kinship" of their identical looks. Which of these possibilities, if any, comprises the "real" explanation is a question the film keeps thrusting back to the viewer.

The movie's look has the color of nicotine stains, or a smoggy freeway at dusk. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) has brown hair, a brown beard and inveterately wears rumpled brown or tan clothes. He lives in a vast brown city called Toronto and teaches history in an institutionally light-brownish classroom that's only half-full of students. In one of the few lecture snippets we hear from him, he tells his class that the rulers of Rome gave its citizens bread and circuses for purposes of distraction. With the blank affect of a man who's bored with every aspect of his life, Adam himself seems in need of distraction. Which is perhaps why, one day in the faculty room, he takes another teacher's advice to seek out a certain movie on DVD, one that promises to lift his spirits.

Watching the film later, Adam notices something strange in the background of one scene: an actor playing a bellhop has his own face. Startled, he does some research and discovers that the actor, Anthony Claire, has only three films to his credit. After finding out where the man lives, Adam begins calling his home, and initially gets only hostile, suspicious reactions from Anthony and his pregnant wife, Helen ( Sarah Gadon ).

Before they ever meet, we see that Adam and Anthony are leading roughly parallel lives. Neither seems professionally fulfilled. They are underachievers facing the approach of middle age with a glum dissatisfaction that perhaps masks an underlying anger, a desire to lash at the world—or someone else. Both men are also involved with blonde women who resemble each other both physically and in their difficulties with their partners. While the angry sex and icy silences shared by Adam and his girlfriend Mary ( Melanie Laurent ) signal a relationship about to implode, Helen evidently agonizes over bearing the child of a man she suspects of infidelity.

Once the two men encounter each other and, via the magic of special effects, inhabit the same visual space, the movie's most salient virtue comes into focus: Gyllenhaal, a very talented actor in most circumstances, here does exceptional work playing two men who are almost—but not quite—identical. The differences are small, and more emotional than physical. Anthony is meaner and more imperious, Adam more resentful and recessive. Observing these subtle contrasts offers no end of fascinations, yet we're simultaneously aware of the inevitabilities implied by the characters' competitiveness and hostility: each will try to bed the other's woman, and only one will be left alive at the end.

As noted, Villeneuve and Gullon leave the meaning of all this an open question—or perhaps several questions at once. Is the French Canadian director's tale of Anglo Canada an allegory of his culturally divided homeland? Is the cryptic story a symbolic meditation on something central to cinema, the fraught relationship between an actor and the "double" he fashions in creating a character who bears his likeness? Does it contain a whiff of Villeneuve's feelings about Canada's greatest art-film auteur prior to his arrival, David Cronenberg , whose " Dead Ringers " is one of cinema's finest tales of doubles.

Take your pick, or better yet, supply your own reading. What seems certain is that Villeneuve is a very self-conscious artist whose estimable work descends from the European high-modernist tradition of decades past. Thus, in "Enemy," we don't find a clear debt to any particular doubles-themed work of literature or cinema, but rather echoes of the concerns and stylistic penchants of directors such as Bergman, Bunuel, Polanski, Kieslowki and Antonioni (especially in the contemplation of Toronto's sprawling architectural jumble). All of those filmmakers came from an indigenous national cinema, then went on to become transnational cosmopolitan artists. The same is now happening to Villeneuve. Perhaps questions of identity and "doubleness" go with making that kind of leap.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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Film credits.

Enemy (2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam Bell/ Anthony St. Claire

Mélanie Laurent as Mary

Sarah Gadon as Helen

Isabella Rossellini as Adam's Mother

Denis Villeneuve
José Saramago
Javier Gullón

Cinematography

Nicolas Bolduc

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Enemy Reviews

Enemy is brimming with non-commercial bravado that borders on being confessional. Just as Hitchcock made manifest his voyeuristic and controlling proclivities, Villeneuve exposes his own conflicted feelings towards women and monogamy.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

It will haunt the shit out of you

Full Review | Jan 14, 2022

It's a thought-provoking film that plays on the mind for days afterwards.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 27, 2021

A stylish and sinister (with a big tasty dollop of mystery on the side) that will keep audiences guessing long after they've left the theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Perhaps more important than the conundrum at the heart of the film is the skillfully crafted feeling of perplexity.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Jake Gyllenhaal meets his doppelgänger - or maybe it's also him - and mostly they argue...

Full Review | Oct 10, 2020

It's a beautiful, nightmarishly warped universe ripe for multiple readings and psychological explanations concerning hidden desires and oppositions.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 29, 2019

Enemy is the type of film you just can't shake.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2019

Whilst the mysterious premise and sensory illusions make for a relatively mesmeric experience, Villeneuve struggles to repress the same heavy-handedness that's been present throughout his oeuvre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2019

Enemy wants so much to be profound and provocative that it fails to ground itself in any way.

Full Review | Jan 16, 2019

This movie took a lot out of me last night.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 10, 2018

I'm a huge fan of Villeneuve and Gyllenhall, but this is just not a good movie.

I liked Enemy a lot. I see so many movies each year, many of which are near-clones of previous movies, that it's a treat to see a movie with an unconventional take on things, even if it's disturbing.

Full Review | Aug 26, 2018

If "Enemy" is the weakest of the three Villeneuve films I've seen, the problem is its reliance on gratuitous weirdness to do its heavy lifting.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2018

While the film is finely crafted and boasts excellent performances from female leads Laurent and Sarah Gadon, everything is too restrained and tasteful and, in particular, too reliant on the suspense trope of the chase.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 8, 2017

It's all style - and what wonderful, skillful style it is - with little substance.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2017

Featuring a tremendous performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and bold direction from Denis Villeneuve, Enemy is a masterfully crafted film with a tricky but very fulfilling premise.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2016

Gyllenhaal embodies both men with care, building distinct characters that no amount of physical similarity can prevent discerning who is who.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 9, 2016

For those who enjoy a different kind of cinema, this is not to be missed.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2016

As with many Gyllenhaal flicks, a huge amount goes unsaid - such as what is going on.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2015

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Toronto Film Review: ‘Enemy’

The two Jakes go head-to-head as Gyllenhaal plays a mild-mannered history prof shocked to discover his doppelganger

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Denis Villeneuve convinces Jake Gyllenhaal to undertake a journey into the subconscious with “Enemy,” a simultaneously unsettling and exasperating work of speculative fiction different enough in subject, pacing and tone from everything else out there that it should succeed in finding an audience by virtue of sheer oddity alone. Gyllenhaal plays a mild-mannered history prof shocked to discover his doppelganger — that’s about the only thing that can be said with certainty about this loose adaptation of Jose Saramago’s “The Double,” which A24 scooped up in Toronto. To its advantage, “Enemy” is mysterious enough that many viewers will insist on seeing it twice.

For its double-duty leading man (who subsequently reteamed with Villeneuve on “Prisoners”), this murky mind-bender is the closest Gyllenhaal has come to tackling another “Donnie Darko,” only this time, not even the director seems to know what it all means. Where others make cutty, hyper- kinetic features, Villeneuve ratchets up the tension at roughly the speed ice caps melt, using that extra time to force audiences’ attention into uneasy corners of the psyche.

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One night, when he probably ought to be making love to his gorgeous and conspicuously un-pregnant g.f. ( Melanie Laurent ), Adam instead chooses to rent a video, spotting a bit player in the background who looks uncannily similar to himself (minus the beard). After a bit of snooping, he identifies the actor as Daniel Saint Claire (real name Anthony), a nobody with three tiny roles to his credit. With seemingly little else in his life to occupy him, Adam starts to investigate Anthony, using the fact that the two men look and sound exactly alike (right down to a distinguishing chest scar) to infiltrate the stranger’s private affairs.

But the power shifts when Daniel — as sexually aggressive as Adam is detached — demands a romantic weekend with his double’s mistress. Curiosity can be a dangerous thing, as Adam begins to uncover what appears to be another side of himself, or so a disconcerting visit to his mother ( Isabella Rossellini ) would suggest. Though impressively choreographed and undoubtedly the most dramatic moments in this low-key mood study, the interactions between the two Jakes distract from what could be real in the stale, strangely antiseptic world of the film, as if Adam’s subconscious had assumed an identity of its own — or vice versa. If Adam is literal and logical, then his double is just the opposite: artistic, impulsive and, quite possibly, incorrigible.

The way Villeneuve has constructed this puzzle, audiences are drawn in by the rich, sinister vibe and led to expect a thriller. Though the director demonstrates an impressive mastery of tone as it pertains to both the sound design and visuals, the pace defies contempo comfort levels, unfolding like a slow-motion, spied-through-amber episode of “The Twilight Zone,” the shock ending all the more startling given the gradual build-up it receives. In a daring move, Villeneuve radically departs from both the source material (which contains no trace of spiders, for example) and Javier Gullon’s script, complicating the issue of whose subconscious the film is exploring exactly by incorporating improvisatory breakthroughs with Gyllenhaal into the fabric of the film.

Ultimately, the enigmatic surface conflict — in which a man must contend with his own carbon copy as rival — proves to be the film’s own worst enemy, for its dark, David Lynchian allure proves almost too compelling, obscuring the material’s deeper themes. Delve further, and a fresh set of existential questions arises: How does a man reconcile two lovers in his own head? Can he really maintain two separate lives without losing track of reality? What happens when his pregnant wife begins to suspect? And what fresh crimes must he commit in order to come home?

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentation), Sept. 8, 2013. Running time: 90 MIN.

Production: (Canada-Spain) An A24 release of a Pathe, Entertainment One presentation of a Rhombus Media, Roxbury Films production with micro_scope, Mecanismo Films with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Instituto de la Cinematografia y de las Artes Audiovisuales, Corus Entertainment, Television Espanola, Ontario Media Development Corp., Societe de developpement des entreprises culturelles - Quebec. Produced by Niv Fichman, Miguel A. Faura. Executive producers, Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Mark Slone, Victor Loewy. Co-producers, Sari Friedland, Luc Dery, Kim McGraw.
Crew: Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Screenplay, Javier Gullon, based on the novel "The Double" by Jose Saramago. Camera (color, widescreen), Nicolas Bolduc; editor, Matthew Hannam; music, Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans; production designer, Patrice Vermette; art director, Sean Breaugh; costume designer, Renee April; sound, Herwig Gayer; sound designer, Oriol Tarrago; re-recording mixer, Marc Orts; special effects coordinator, Mark Ahee; visual effects supervisor, Vincent Poitras; visual effects producer, Marie-Cecile Dahan; visual effects, Rodeo FX; stunt coordinator, Alison Reid; spider wrangler, Jim Lovisek; associate producers, Kevin Krikst, Fraser Ash, Juan Romero, Isaac Torras; assistant director, Reid Dunlop; casting, Deirdre Bowen.
With: Jake Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini.

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Movie Review

When Your Twin Is Far More Interesting

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By A.O. Scott

March 13, 2014

The double is an ancient and irresistible literary theme, especially beloved by philosophically minded scaremongers like Edgar Allan Poe, whose tale “William Wilson” is a concise classic on the matter. The idea of a second self — who might be the manifestation of madness, an allegory come to life or the result of a supernatural glitch in the order of things — is both frightening and fascinating. Movies make the conceit literal with the simple trick of using the same actor in two roles. Who can forget the two Kim Novaks driving James Stewart around the bend in “Vertigo” ?

In “Enemy,” Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of a novella by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist José Saramago , Jake Gyllenhaal plays two uncannily identical residents of an unnamed Canadian city. They are physically identical, in any case, but temperamentally distinct in ways that begin to suggest Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to name another famous literary pair. And the question that haunts the film is whether they are really different people at all, or just sides of a single disordered personality.

Mr. Villeneuve is for the most part less interested in solving that puzzle than exploring its implications, especially for Adam, the first guy we meet. He is a history professor who seems to lead a solitary, disciplined and less than entirely happy life. He lectures his students on Hegel and returns to the spare, high-rise apartment where he is sometimes visited by his girlfriend, Mary (Mélanie Laurent). One night, while watching a DVD, Adam spots an extra who looks exactly like him. After a bit of Internet stalking — and some of the more traditional kind — he finds his way to Anthony, who lives in a better-furnished high-rise apartment with his pregnant wife, Helen (Sarah Gadon).

The resemblance between the two men is so precise that when Adam telephones Anthony’s house, Helen mistakes him for her husband. Anthony wears a beard, drives a motorcycle and favors leather jackets and sunglasses, whereas Adam is strictly a corduroy-jacket and Volvo kind of guy. He also seems a little nicer than his double, though perhaps not as much fun to be around. In any case, much of the fun in “Enemy,” which is tightly constructed and expertly shot, lies in Mr. Gyllenhaal’s playful and subtle performances. He was the best, most enigmatic part of “Prisoners,” Mr. Villeneuve’s somber thriller from last fall, and he continues to refine his quiet, watchful presence into a powerful and idiosyncratic acting style.

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Enemy Review

Double trouble..

Jake Gyllenhaal shines as a teacher and his double in this engrossing and eerie thriller from director Denis Villeneuve. Now on Direct TV On Demand and in theaters March 21.

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Enemy Review

02 Jan 2015

"Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered,” runs a title card at the start of Enemy. Based on José Saramago’s Nobel prize-winning novella The Double, you might never get to the bottom of Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal’s second collaboration following Prisoners (it actually shot first), but figuring it out is a riveting, thoughtful, thoroughly disturbing experience. This is brilliant, daring filmmaking that calls to mind the heyday of David Lynch and, post-Incendies and Prisoners, confirms Villeneuve as one of cinema’s most compelling new voices.

In outline, Enemy sounds like an extended Twilight Zone episode but the premise — lecturer Adam (Gyllenhaal) becomes obsessed with his dead spit, actor Anthony (also Gyllenhaal) — is played for more than spooky sci-fi weirdness. Instead it’s a slow inward interrogation into a split psyche, detailing mental turmoil, unconscious desires, predatory sexuality (Mélanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon play partners who get swapped) and the inability to feel intimacy with a dark, unflinching eye. It’s not all downbeat, though. The apartments are to die for.

If on paper the pair seem miles apart (Adam – Volvo and cords; Anthony — motorbikes and leathers), Gyllenhaal negotiates the differences in increments. These are two terrific performances, shifting between emotionally comatose and playful, that make you forget the special effects process but, more importantly, provide a grounding to anchor (but never explain) all the strangeness surrounding it. The Canadian milieu might call to mind early Cronenberg and you could lob any number of other touchstones at it (Kafka, Kubrick), but Enemy is its own thing. Villeneuve has incredible control of his palette, both visually (all cigarette-stain yellows and bruise browns) and aurally (LOUD scary music by Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi), subtly building an undertow of fear and dread. On top, we get the more overtly bizarre — diversions into underground sex clubs, unsettling images of giant spiders. Some films are about characters dealing with uncomfortable headspaces. Enemy puts you inside one.

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Enemy Review

Jake Gyllenhaal plays two conflicted and conflicting men in Enemy, director Denis Villeneuve’s atmospheric and enigmatic new feature.

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Shortly before shooting his excellent major studio debut, Prisoners , director Denis Villeneuve made Enemy , a strange and inscrutable psychological thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal (who also worked with the director in Prisoners ) in a dual role as two men who look exactly alike and are drawn into a dangerous psychological battle with each other. The film’s refusal to deliver a conventional narrative may frustrate some viewers, but should also be embraced by moviegoers who like stories that take place just a step or two removed from reality.

Based on the novel The Double by the late, brilliant Brazilian writer Jose Saramago, Enemy opens with a strange scene that sets the tone for the rest of this unsettling piece. Inside an underground sex club is where we first encounter a bearded Gyllenhaal watching a live exhibition along with several other men. A silver platter is brought out and its lid lifted to reveal a swollen, grotesque tarantula underneath – which is immediately crushed by a woman’s spiked heel.

We then switch to Gyllenhall as history professor Adam Bell, whose detachment and disinterest in his own life is matched only by his remote relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent). Even sex is yet another mechanical function in Bell’s dreary, disconnected daily routine. But one day, while watching a movie on a recommendation from a colleague, Bell spies an actor in the background of one scene who disconcertingly looks like him. Doing some research, Bell eventually learns Anthony St. Clair’s phone number and calls him – only to be mistaken for Anthony himself by the actor’s pregnant girlfriend Helen (Sarah Gadon).

When the two men finally meet, it is clear that they don’t just resemble each other but are completely identical – right down to matching scars. This has a shattering effect on both their psyches and soon leads to a struggle in which both men wish to prevail – although the upper hand at first seems to go to the much more arrogant and cocksure Anthony (who, we assume, was also the man in the sex club) than the neurotic and at first timid Adam, who is plagued with increasingly horrific nightmares. As the conflict escalates, the women in their lives are inevitably drawn into it as well, with potentially tragic consequences.

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That description of the plot makes it seem a lot more straightforward than it actually is, because Enemy functions primarily as a mood piece, with the story drifting forward in a series of surreal, tense set pieces rather than a fast-moving chain of events. Villeneuve, as he did in Incendies and Prisoners , excels at sustaining the mood he wishes to convey; with its bleak, gray view of a tomb-like Toronto, the dark, stifling interiors of both men’s apartments, and the score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans doing a lot of heavy lifting, a miasma of dread settles over the film from the beginning and never lets up, almost to the point of self-parody.

But the movie never quite crosses that line, thanks especially to the committed performance(s) from Gyllenhall as Adam and Anthony. The two look the same but are different in subtle ways, leaving the viewer to wonder whether Anthony does actually exist or is some unattainable different version of himself that the disheveled, despondent Adam has dreamed up. The idea that we are looking at two versions of the same man gains strength when the inevitable happens and one of them seduces the other’s woman without her realizing the switch.

Gyllenhaal is excellent in the dual role, and gets solid supporting work from Laurent and Gadon, the latter a recent favorite of David Cronenberg. And she’s not the only Cronenberg connection in the film; Villeneuve’s thematic concerns, somnolent tone and eerie imagery call to mind a lot of the great Canadian director’s early work, along with the cold depiction of Toronto. And then there’s that ending: Villeneuve’s very last shot is horrifying, pretentious and just plain nuts all at the same time, jamming Cronenberg, David Lynch and Kafka into a startling unexpected final image that also brings the film full circle.

Is Enemy easily explained? Not a chance. Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal (and screenwriter Javier Gullon) are not interested in logical arguments or conclusive statements: if you think True Detective was a tough sit, then stay far away from this. But there’s no question that they’ve fashioned an unsettling philosophical/existential horror film that grapples with core questions about identity, fidelity and what it means to be a man – then casts you adrift to find the answers for yourself.

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3.5 out of 5

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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Revisiting the Ending of Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy , Spiders and All

Ever watched the end of a movie and thought, “I have no idea what I just watched?” Vulture is here for you! We’ll be going back and taking a look at some notable endings in film, trying to explain what happened, why, and what it all really means. Previously in this series, we covered the ending of Donnie Darko .

When Enemy came out in 2014, Denis Villeneuve was in between phases. He’d just done Prisoners , the project that marked his transition from the critically revered Canadian films Polytechnique and Incendies into Hollywood proper, but he had yet to make Sicario and Arrival , the two movies that would solidify him as one of the best directors currently working.

In a certain sense, Enemy , a loose adaptation of José Saramago’s The Double , is an excellent harbinger of what Villeneuve had on deck. Like Sicario and Arrival , Enemy is a saturated film, every moment practically dripping with suggestion; in the case of Enemy , that suggestion is of menace, danger, and calamity inching ever closer, frame by frame. Villeneuve is a master of mise-en-scène, and in Enemy , just as much as the two later movies he’d be lauded for, there’s an incredible consistency and intensity to his vision. From the brutalist architecture of the University of Toronto Scarsborough campus to the crisscrossing wires of the streetcars to the sepia-heavy color schemes to the camera, which dollies beautifully through the entire film, every element in front of Villeneuve’s lens helps build a sense of dread and foreboding.

By this point, if you know anything about Enemy , you’re like, “Cool, we get it, Villeneuve’s good — but what about the spiders?” We’ll get there. But it’s important to establish the context for this incredibly bizarre movie, a movie that would be strange had it been made by the most Lynchian of independent filmmakers, but is even stranger coming from a guy who’s since been entrusted with the reins of a franchise .

Enemy is about a man, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. His name is Adam Bell, and he teaches history, and he looks really bummed out. Something isn’t sitting right with this guy. He moves through the world like it’s about to eat him, shoulders hunched and face hangdog, and even the fact that he has a beautiful sorta-girlfriend, Mary, played by Melanie Laurent, seems more like a burden than a source of joy. Maybe it’s what he’s teaching — dense theory, Hegel and Marx, the patterns of history and the relationship of dictators to control; maybe it’s the weird spider-party we see him at in the first scene, filled with a bunch of guys who look like they’re enjoying the entertainment way too much. What are they watching? Well, it appears to be a woman masturbating, and then another woman stepping on a tarantula with a high heel. You could see how that would take a toll on even the most cheerful of men, and something about Adam’s vibe gives the sense that he’s never been Mr. Sunshine.

But wait: Is it Adam at the spider party? Because soon after we meet him, a colleague suggests he watch a film called Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way . (Adam’s first response is, “I don’t really like movies.” Fun guy!) When Adam checks it out, he discovers that there’s an actor in it who looks exactly like him. And by exactly like him, I don’t mean they look exactly alike like your mom thinks you look exactly like Tom Cruise: I mean they both have the good fortune to be played by Jake Gyllenhaal. A little sleuthing by Adam reveals that this guy is an actor who goes by the alias Daniel Saint-Clare but is in fact named Anthony Clare, and he has a very pregnant wife, Helen, played by the superb Sarah Gadon.

The rest of the film unfolds as follows: Adam introduces himself to Anthony; Anthony tells him to fuck off, then decides that, actually, they should meet; Anthony blackmails Adam into letting him take Mary on a romantic getaway, where he has sex with her in a motel; Adam goes to Anthony’s apartment, where he pretends to be Anthony and has sex with his wife, only, in this case, it’s Helen who initiates it, knowing that he isn’t her husband; Mary then realizes that Anthony isn’t Adam, demands that they leave, and on the way home, they get in a car crash and die; and then Adam walks into Anthony’s bedroom to find that Helen has transformed into a giant spider. Fin .

So! This terrific, elliptical film, one of the best and most underrated of the last few years, leaves us with two fundamental mysteries: Who are Adam and Anthony? And what’s the deal with all the spiders?

Who are Adam and Anthony?

Let’s start with what we do know: Adam and Anthony are two different people, at least to some extent. At multiple points, the film just avoids confirming this for us. When Helen calls Anthony after encountering Adam at the his work, he picks up just as Adam disappears into a building. Adam and Anthony appear together twice, but only by themselves, with no witnesses. When Anthony talks to Helen on the phone, Adam isn’t home. (Adam talks to Anthony again when Helen is around, but that time, she doesn’t speak to him — and moreover, she accuses Anthony of lying about whom he was talking to.) Because of all this, there’s the slightest possibility that somehow, one man could be living a bifurcated life. We don’t really know how Anthony spends his days while Adam’s at school, and Adam’s relationship with Mary seems to be somehow irregular or inconsistent, dovetailing with the general sense that Anthony’s had an affair before.

But the major sign that the two men exist separately comes when Mary notices a mark on Anthony’s finger from his wedding ring, which he’d taken off before going to see her. That mark is significant: It’s what leads to the fight with Mary that culminates in their deaths, an event that also appears to be confirmed as real based on a report on the radio the next morning. (Although apart from the ring thing, you could make a strong argument that Adam could’ve projected his own vision onto that event, turning it into the death of Anthony, a creation of his psyche.) If Anthony’s finger bears that mark, and she’s just noticing it for the first time, that means Anthony and Adam are different people. However, it’s hard to tell just when they became separate people. Both share the same scar on their chest; short of the two of them having been identically maimed early in their lives, that scar indicates some kind of shared life.

Here’s where things get weird. Adam’s name is noteworthy; you might remember that, in the Book of Genesis, Adam, the first man, was created in the likeness of God. God then took a rib from Adam and using it made Eve. Adam and Anthony’s scars are on their rib cage.

Following this train of thought, we might hypothesize that at some point, Anthony was made from Adam, fully formed but subtly different, and the two then went about separate lives: one meek and self-conscious, the other cocky and volatile. While this is, obviously, not a scientific or verifiable explanation, art doesn’t have to be scientific or verifiable, thank God. This interpretation gains some added credibility from the sense that they seem to share a mother. When Adam goes to see his mother, she believes he likes blueberries, which he denies; meanwhile, Anthony gives Helen an entire lecture on blueberries, particularly organic ones, and the importance of having them around for his smoothies. (That also gives a pretty good sense of what Anthony’s like as a dude.) His mother references his “nice apartment,” a term that could not in good conscience be applied to the place where Adam lives — Anthony confirms as much when he visits, calling it, if I remember correctly, “a shithole” — but would accurately describe Anthony’s place. She also mentions that he can’t commit to one woman, even though both Adam and Anthony appear to be in relationships, and references his acting career, which she wouldn’t know about unless she was just really into local Canadian cinema — or he, Anthony, told her.

In conclusion: Adam and Anthony are different, but seem to have sprung from the same being. Based on the names and the movie’s point of view, Adam would be the best guess for who came first, but hey: Only Isabella Rossellini knows for sure.

What’s the deal with all the spiders?

Oh, man. This nut’s a little harder to crack, but let’s give it a try. Spiders, namely tarantulas, appear in a few different scenes. In the opening, either Adam or Anthony (more on that in a sec) visits the aforementioned sex dungeon/zoological society, where a woman in a high heel is poised to crush a tarantula while Adam/Anthony looks on through his fingers. Two more dreamlike images follow. In one, a naked woman walks down a hallway past Adam/Anthony, her head replaced by an arachnoid head; and in the other, enormous spiders straddle Toronto, looking like a Canadian War of the Worlds . Both of these could be explained away as dreams, but then in the final shot, Adam walks into the room Helen just entered to find an enormous tarantula huddled in the corner.

The spiders, then, feel less like a literal function of the plot and more like an overarching metaphor. In an interview with Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve that plays after the credits on Amazon Prime, the director said this about the spiders:

“To be honest with you, it’s not in the book, it’s not in the novel, and I’m not sure if Saramago would’ve been happy with the idea of having something that is so surrealistic in his naturalistic environment that he created in the novel. It’s an image that I found that was a pretty hypnotic and profound [way] to express something about femininity that I was looking to express in one image. Because in the book you can use chapters to express something, but in cinema you have one shot, and the spider was exactly the perfect image. There’s movies that I saw in my life that propose images that were not explained, but were provocative, that were opening doors from a subconscious point of view — images that are frightening and oppressive, but at the same time, you feel the image. It prints itself in your brain, but you feel uncomfortable with it. But there’s a strong meaning in it, and I think that if you think just a little bit you will find it quite quickly.”

If you found it quickly, then good for you: You are Jake Gyllenhaal. If not, don’t feel too bad. My instinct is to approach it surrealistically, as Villeneuve suggests. In Enemy , the spiders mostly appear in dreams, or in dreamlike scenarios, suggesting a Jungian approach to their interpretation. On the one hand, spiders are frightening and dangerous; on the other, they have a direct connection to femininity. In the Arachne myth, which Ovid recounts in Metamorphoses , Arachne beats Athena in a weaving contest, but doesn’t acknowledge that she was able to win thanks to the gift of weaving that Athena gave her in the first place. (One of the many lessons of Greek mythology: Be grateful to the gods, or they will mess you up.) Athena strikes Arachne with intense guilt, which causes her to hang herself. When Athena sees her dead body, she feels a little bad about causing the girl’s suicide just because she lost a weaving contest, so she turns Arachne into a spider, allowing her to weave for all eternity — just not as a human.

Helen’s transformation into a spider, then, has precedent. But Enemy doesn’t contain any weaving contests, unless the DVD’s got some deleted scenes. Instead, the spider connection seems to stem from a different system of thought: the Freudian Madonna-whore complex, in which men see women as either saintly mothers or worthless sex objects. The spiders are implicated early on in the film in some sort of sexual rite, and when Helen, a pregnant woman, turns into the spider after having sex with Adam — shortly after Anthony cheats on his pregnant wife with Mary — it could be seen as a literalization of Adam’s disturbed psyche, which can’t handle intimate relationships. Enemy appears to say that even though Adam has done away with Anthony — and Mary, an innocent bystander who represents some sort of purely sexual relationship, in the process — he still has a ways to go before he can reconcile these two facets of womanhood. And note the names: Mary, the mother of Christ; and Helen, the catalyst for the Trojan War. There’s also a motif around high heels, an obvious feminine symbol: Adam and Anthony each notice Helen and Mary’s heels at separate points in the film, and the platform heels used to crush the spider at the beginning are, uh, hard to miss.

A film that handles ambiguity and symbolism so deftly, while still providing the more concrete thrills of watching a great actor and great director do adventurous, striking work, is a rare and special thing, and that’s why Enemy ’s so brilliant: It can support these readings while still not giving itself away. Although arachnophobes might want to sit this one out.

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Review: Jake Gyllenhaal plays doubles in satisfyingly weird ‘Enemy’

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Tightly wound and agreeably strange, Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy” reconnects the French-Canadian director with his “Prisoners” star Jake Gyllenhaal for a bite-sized doppelgänger thriller based on Portuguese fantasist José Saramago’s novel “The Double.”

A bearded Gyllenhaal plays Adam, a closed-off history professor with an almost checked-out girlfriend (Mélanie Laurent), who discovers in the margins of a movie he rents one night a bit player who looks just like him. Intrigued, then obsessed, he tracks down, then reaches out to Anthony (also Gyllenhaal), living with his pregnant wife (Sarah Gadon), and — not unlike an actor working without a script — initiates a symbiotic identity crisis laced with subterfuge, jealousy, vengeance and surreal spider imagery.

Operating with a yellow-and-gray palette and a fondness for oppressive, barren urban spaces that suggest a story both old and grimly futuristic, Villeneuve does a workmanlike job maintaining a Hitchcockian tension built on sympathy for Adam’s curiosity, before segueing into Polanski-ish psychosexual territory.

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Gyllenhaal, the grandness of his eyes having in recent years graduated from puppy dog to wary animal, effectively limns his subtly turned mirror-image performances, and he’s ably aided by Laurent and especially Gadon.

“Enemy” may be built more on questions than answers, but in the probing it generates a satisfyingly arch hum of weirdness.

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MPAA rating: R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: At Sundance Sunset Cinema, West Hollywood; Laemmle’s Monica 4, Santa Monica; Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood; Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino; Laemmle’s Claremont 5.

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Movie Reviews

Twins or 'enemy' — and what could it all mean.

Trey Graham

Jake Gyllenhaal acts with stunning control and specificity in his double role as two lookalikes. Courtesy of A24 hide caption

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Genre: Mystery, thriller
Running time: 90 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language

With Jake Gyllenhaal , Sarah Gadon , Mélanie Laurent , Isabella Rossellini

(Recommended)

Strange and stylish and surpassingly dark, Denis Villeneuve's Enemy — especially paired with the same director's recent cop thriller Prisoners — makes a strong case for star Jake Gyllenhaal as maybe our most enigmatic young leading man.

He was twitchily fascinating in Prisoners , playing a character who'd prove a hero but who still seemed to be hiding some darkness, some damage, right up until the credits rolled. In Enemy , he's not one but two characters dwelling deep in shadow — one man more menacing, one more moody, each one ultimately a conundrum steadfastly refusing to show all of himself to the audience.

Adam Bell is a Toronto history professor and a bit of a sad sack, delivering desultory lectures and having even more desultory sex with his girlfriend when he can be bothered to look up from his grading stack. He lives in an underlit apartment with a perpetually unmade bed, and Gyllenhaal, who's acting with every inch of his body in this film, makes him look like he smells of gin and regret.

Then, watching a DVD one grim evening, Adam spies a man, an actor playing a bellhop in a broad comedy, an actor who looks exactly like him. Startled, he looks up the guy's credits — they're pretty scanty — and tracks down the two other movies. Soon enough, he's obsessed, paying surreptitious visits to the actor's talent agency and eventually working up the nerve to call the guy's house. A woman answers, and mistakes Adam's voice for that of the actor, who's her husband. Things only get weirder from there.

Gyllenhaal plays the husband too, of course, creating a character who's subtly, unshowily recognizably not the same as Adam, even in the long wordless sequences Villeneuve likes to let the movie wallow in. It's in the set of his shoulders, the sharpness of his glance, the way his body fills space differently; Anthony, the actor, is hungrier for life, greedier, crueler.

Mind games will shortly be played, lives will be upended, and throughout, Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón, working from a novel by José Saramago, do their level best to murk things up and make you wonder: Are these men long-lost twins? (No, says Adam's mother, played tartly by Isabella Rossellini.) Has Adam gone mad and imagined Anthony? (No, suggests the amiable reaction of an attendant at that talent agency, who recognizes Adam as the actor.) Are they one man, somehow leading a double life? (No, suggests the reaction of Anthony's heavily pregnant wife (an outstanding Sarah Gadon), whose curiosity leads her to seek Adam out at his campus workplace, where she's stunned by his physical familiarity and he recognizes her not at all.)

As the questions mount and the plot's twists get more and more improbable, the director's fierce control and fine-grained technique grow all the more impressive. His Toronto, as shot by cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc, is a hell of grime and nicotine-yellow light. And he's recruited the team of Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans to score the picture with what might as well be a single long groan of low strings and metal-on-metal shrieks; the effect is a creeping, inexorably escalating tension of the most delicious kind.

A few of the film's stylistic and thematic gambits are so arty and surreal that some audiences will be frustrated. (Is that ... a spider? Why are they in that sex club? Is this all about control, about men and their fear of women, about hunger and the terror of fulfilling it?)

But anyone with an appetite for the hypnotically odd — for a story that seems firmly rooted in a grim quotidian reality, but that's unmistakably off at its very core — will want to watch Enemy two or three times, looking for the tiny clues that may or may not just be there. (Recommended)

The Deeper Meaning Of Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, Explained

This post contains spoilers for "Enemy."

"It was Hegel that said that all the greatest world events happen twice, and then Karl Marx added: the first time it was a tragedy, the second time it was a farce," says history professor Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) during a lecture session when he's first introduced in "Enemy." While these words seem innocuous with respect to untangling the complex web of themes in Denis Villeneuve's 2014 film , they're actually the key to the central mystery that grips the dual protagonists. Viewing "Enemy" through a singular lens might not give us all the answers — or satisfactory ones, for that matter — so let us tackle some of the biggest questions that seem to confound viewers once the credits roll.

To offer a brief, yet superficial recap: Adam, who seems discontent with his life's numbing monotony, stumbles upon a film featuring someone who looks exactly like him . This actor, Anthony (also Gyllenhaal) , is less a lookalike and more a true double, with whom Adam becomes increasingly obsessed. The severity of this doppelgänger situation is intensified after the two meet and realize that their personalities could not be more different. While Adam engages with others politely and seems weighed down by the burden of existence, Anthony carries himself with an arrogant self-assurance that verges on impudence. Disturbing spider imagery weaves their disparate lives together with urgency, until one of the doubles dies in an accident, leaving the other with the rare opportunity of starting afresh. Unfortunately, this opportunity is a missed one, as history is bound to repeat itself.

While discussing the film's dense themes, Villeneuve told the Hollywood Reporter that "Enemy" is deliberately structured like a "spiral." Let's take a closer look at these dizzying narrative shapes.

Adam and Anthony are two halves of a whole in Enemy

"Enemy" is loosely based on José Saramago's 2002 novel "The Double," which dives into the unutterable horror of becoming aware of a mirrored self that is identical yet distinctly different, leading to a crisis strong enough to uproot the laws of reality. Doubles rarely find a way to peacefully co-exist; the laws of self-preservation dictate that only one can remain, lest the chaos descends into something unfathomably Kafkaesque. "Enemy" sets up this tension by emphasizing the vast differences between Adam and Anthony. One is mired in existential malaise even before he meets his identical twin, and the other maintains his confident, caustic toxicity even after discovering the truth. Anthony's wife, Helen (Sarah Gadon) is distressed after learning about Adam, amidst tensions over Anthony's repeated infidelities even while she is pregnant. When Adam pretends to be his double and approaches Helen, she can see right through him and seems to prefer the gentler, kinder version of her husband.

However, "Enemy" is not about identical twins, but a schism in the subconscious, where two warring selves fail to remain in control of their innate impulses. Every visual and subtextual clue points to the fact that Adam and Anthony are the same person, fighting for dominance over a singular existence that gets divided into two. Let's keep the words of his mother (played by Isabella Rossellini) in mind: at first, she points out Adam's lack of control over his life, underlining his unkempt appearance and general dissatisfaction, but later, she alludes to the same dissatisfaction in a different light. She talks about him giving up on his dreams of becoming an actor, and how he's discontent despite having a respectable job as a history professor. But what does this mean?

Enemy is about the deep fear of commitment

For a subconscious double to exist, it has to be born from the primary self. In this case, failed actor turned history professor Adam is the primary self, who is married to Helen and feels shackled by traditional monogamy and the mundane nature of his profession. As Helen makes clear at several points, Adam has been unfaithful, and this concentrated desire for freedom and lack of commitment compounds into a double: Anthony, the idealized version, the confident, successful actor who commits adultery at underground clubs without restraint or remorse. Although Adam's profession could be a fulfilling one, it is not his passion. After all, being an educator comes with responsibilities, moral restraint, and a sense of commitment to the cause. As he's not committed to this way of life, even such a respectable job leaves him feeling hollow, the thrills of a would-be-acting career haunting him forever.

Anthony is a culmination of the most egotistical suppressed desires that Adam harbors. It's his mind's attempt to distance itself from the subconscious. Adam is not introduced as a married individual, as he spends most of his time with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent), but their relationship is defined only by sexual intimacy. Adam does not cheat on Mary or covet other women, but the married Anthony does so rather freely. This implies that Adam wants both: to be married to a doting wife who is pregnant with his child, while also being free to pursue other women without being vilified for it. He views marriage as a trap, like a spider web luring in prey, but cannot resist the lull of stability as a safety net.

The spiders denote fear, but also Adam's view of women

Arachnids crawl all over the story of "Enemy," towering over giant buildings or cowering in fear. A blink-and-you-miss-it reference to a poster for "The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" links the spider imagery to Adam's fear of women. Well, not women per se, but rather what a committed relationship entails — which also explains why we see a huge tarantula about to be crushed under a heel in the opening sex club scene. The fresh set of club keys handed over to Adam signifies this latent desire to crush the chains of monogamy and commitment in favor of unchecked adultery. Yet we never see the spider being crushed, as Adam is unable to squash his contrarian impulses or stick to one ethical code. He's doomed to flit between the two until one of these warring selves is killed.

The death of the double, Anthony, should have marked the death of those adulterous impulses that were rooted in fear. After all, Mary dies with Anthony in the crash, their double death signifying Adam's subconscious attempt to end these relationships and return to his wife. This almost happens when Adam and Helen engage in tender intercourse. However, the club keys, which are a symbol of a hedonistic life shrouded in duplicitous anonymity, snap Adam out of this hard-earned salvation. He falls back into the old patterns even after his double is destroyed, embracing his fears and desires as himself ... which feels even bleaker than the concept of a subconscious doppelgänger indulging in excesses to absolve the primary self of guilt.

The ending, where Adam views Helen as a cowering spider instead of a macabre threat, spells doom. He has accepted his worst impulses, and what terrified him before, only fills him with resigned indifference now.

Details you might have missed in Enemy

When Adam goes to the video store to rent the film, the song playing in the background is "The Cheater" by Bob Kuban & The In Men, which talks about the ugliness of adultery and the tragic rejection of love in favor of something hollow and fleeting. This is one of the clues that tie Adam to Anthony and reveal his true heart.

The guard at the talent agency meets Adam (mistaking him for Anthony), and says he hasn't visited for six months. Helen is exactly six months pregnant when the events occur, hinting that Adam had to leave his dreams of being an actor behind in favor of a more stable job (like that of a college professor) to support his wife and child.

Personality differentiators between the two are parsed through the lens of lifestyle choices. Anthony always looks coolly confident and put together, while Adam looks disheveled and insecure. Anthony is also partial to organic blueberries, and when Adam tells his mother that he doesn't like blueberries, she quips, "Of course you do." This is yet another sign of their warring selves: the primary self is in denial of the double's preferences, despite them being the same. This psychological distancing is a coping mechanism to evade guilt, but discontentment haunts Adam and leads him straight to his double.

Circling back to the Hegel and Marx quote, it is clear that Adam is doomed to repeat history. His transgressions were deeply tragic the first time, as this was a man running away from his fears/anxieties surrounding commitment while chasing an idealized, egotistic self. The second time, however, is farcical, as growth and change are rejected without thought at the first sign of temptation.

The Ending Of Enemy Explained

Since making "Enemy", director Denis Villeneuve's career has skyrocketed. He's got "Dune" coming later in 2021, and he's already made films like "Sicario", "Arrival", and "Blade Runner 2049." When "Enemy" was released, though, Villeneuve was more of an unknown quantity, and audiences were less sure of what to expect from his unique genre aesthetic.

Even in "Enemy", though, it's clear that Villeneuve has a specific vision for the look and feel of his films. The movie was loosely adapted from José Saramago's story "The Double," and it contains an ending that would leave even those who watched it carefully scratching their heads. In a career filled with sometimes complicated movies, "Enemy" stands out for its use of metaphor, and for the abrupt and somewhat shocking nature of its ending. With a handful of confusing shots and some ambiguous details, it's no wonder fans are still debating the nature of this movie's last act to this day. Fortunately, we've got your back.

Here's the ending of "Enemy" explained.

Enemy follows two Jake Gyllenhaals

At the beginning of "Enemy", we meet Adam Bell ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), a history teacher who lives in Toronto and just seems very sad. He has a girlfriend, Mary, played by Melanie Laurent, and he seems to be sleepwalking through his life. Eventually, though, Adam discovers that he has a doppelganger, a man named Anthony Clare who is also played by Gyllenhaal.

Anthony has a pregnant wife named Helen (Sarah Gadon), and seems to be living a much nicer life than Adam, at least on the surface. Adam reaches out to Anthony, believing that they should meet, and Adam initially declines. Eventually, though, he changes his mind, and the two of them meet.

Then, Anthony convinces Adam to let him take Mary on a romantic getaway, and the two of them have sex. Adam then goes to Anthony's apartment and sleeps with Helen, but Helen is aware that Adam is not her husband. Mary then discovers that Anthony is not Adam, and the two get in an enormous fight. They end their romantic getaway, but on the way home, they get in a car crash and die. Adam then returns to Anthony's apartment, only to discover that Helen has transformed into a giant spider. So, yeah.

What's up with all the spiders?

Helen's transformation is certainly surprising, but it isn't the first time in the movie that a spider has pops up. There's a scene early in the movie where we see either Adam or Anthony at some sort of sex dungeon, and there are spiders around. We also get a couple of dream sequences that feature spiders, including one where a giant spider is hovering over the city of Toronto. You could call the arachnids a prominent visual motif.

Although the premise of "Enemy" dives into science fiction, the spider imagery is the film's most surreal touch, and also one that seems to connect the film to age-old ideas about femininity. Spiders are both dangerous and frightening and distinctly feminine, thanks in part to the Greek myth that explains their origins. Helen's transformation into a spider after cheating on her husband (and after her husband has cheated on her), suggests that Adam is still incapable of seeing women as full people. His relationship with Mary was purely sexual, and he's incapable of seeing Helen as anything more than a saintly mother figure or a worthless sex object.

This reading is echoed by the names of the film's female characters, Mary, the mother of Christ, and Helen, the adulterous owner of the face that launched a thousand ships. For Adam, neither of these women is full people, and Helen's transformation into a spider suggests that she has become just another sex object for him.

Where did Adam and Anthony come from?

Jake Gyllenhaal and Sarah Gadon in Enemy

Although the spiders may be the most obvious mystery at the end of "Enemy," the movie also doesn't provide any definitive answers as to where Adam and Anthony came from. Thanks to a key scene where Mary notices a mark left by Anthony's wedding ring, we know that they are actually two separate people. Adam doesn't have the mark, because he doesn't wear a wedding ring.

Now buckle up, because this part gets weird: They may be separate people in the movie's present, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the two were always separate entities. They have the exact same scar on their chests, suggesting that they may have had the same injury when they were younger. Now, we've got to get biblical. In the Bible, God creates Eve by taking one of Adam's ribs . Given the location of Adam and Anthony's scars, it's possible that Anthony was made from Adam, who shares his name with the first man.

After Anthony was created, the two lived separate lives, developing different personalities. The two may also share a mother. When Adam goes to see his mother (Isabella Rosellini), she believes he likes blueberries, when that's really Anthony. She also references his nice apartment (Adam's apartment isn't nice, but Anthony's is), and his acting career (Anthony's an actor, but Adam isn't). Adam's mother seems to have confused the two, suggesting that she is the mother of both Anthony and Adam.

We don't get a clear explanation for the duplicates — and it may just be a case of uncanny doubling, a classic literary trope — but the biblical explanation is as compelling as any other if you're looking for some closure.

Enemy review: Jake Gyllenhaal leads sullen thriller

Director: Denis Villeneuve; Screenwriters: Javier GullÃ³n; Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, MÃ©lanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini; Running time: 90 mins; Certificate: 15

Disinterested in his work and even more so in his long-suffering girlfriend (MÃ©lanie Laurent), Gyllenhaal's Adam pursues his lookalike and discovers he's an actor called Daniel Saint Claire (now known as Anthony). This outgoing, charismatic alter ego lies in sharp contrast to the meek, internal Adam. The two lives eventually intertwine amid tarantulas, matching scars and swapped identities.

It all feels like a dark, surreal twist on a Twilight Zone segment - a sort of Fight Club for the arthouse crowd and a companion to this year's similarly-themed The Double . Viewed side-by-side it's Villeneuve's film that's the less satisfying experience of the two. Where Richard Ayoade crafted a film with humour and entertainment value to back up its smarts, Enemy is a stodgy, sullen affair that quickly turns into a snoozefest. It's a moody thriller without any substantial thrills.

Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal should be applauded for making a film that's challenging and experimental, but even at a lean 90 minutes it drags out, the core idea feeling more like fodder for a short film than feature material. Enemy asks questions of its viewer, but by the time it's all over - closing with one of the most infuriating final scenes in recent memory - the will to answer them may not be present. There's a long history of dual identity films - this doesn't offer up enough of an original slant to rank among the best of them.

Enemy asks questions of its viewer, but by the time it's all over - closing with one of the most infuriating final scenes in recent memory - the will to answer them may not be present.

Still, the film does work as a showcase for its leading man, offering Gyllenhaal the chance to slide between two diverse roles. A decade ago he was window dressing in Roland Emmerich's CGI-fest The Day After Tomorrow , now he's one of Hollywood's most exciting actors thanks to a string of home run roles culminating with Nightcrawler sociopath Lou Bloom.

Enemy is probably too much of an obscure curio to ever latch on with the cult movie crowd (it's already been and gone in the US), but it's further proof that Gyllenhaal is making adventurous career choices and showing results to match his ambition. If only Enemy had better material for him to play with.

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What Should We Make of Enemy ’s Shocking Ending?

The last shot of Enemy is terrifying and unexpected. But what does it mean?

The ending of Denis Villeneuve’s new movie Enemy has been called perhaps “ the scariest ending of any film ever made .” And much of its scariness derives from its initial inexplicability. The movie has described as “ head-scratching ,” “ mysterious ,” and “ gloriously enigmatic .” As one critic put it, “I kinda dug it but I have no idea if it’s any good or what happened or where I am anymore and what aiiiiiiiieeeeeeee that last sound/shot .”

This was my first reaction as well, but one thing critics haven’t done thus far—probably because they’re confined to the spoiler-free zone of the review—is offer a theory that tries to make sense of it all. This is a movie that begins with the epigraph, “Chaos is order yet undeciphered” (a line from José Saramago’s The Double , the novel on which the movie is based). Though the movie may appear inexplicable at first, this epigraph suggests that we can make some sense of it, some order, if we just know how it can be deciphered. And Villeneuve has backed this up. In an interview with the Huffington Post , he said, “ If you look at Enemy again, you can see that everything has an answer and a meaning .” Major spoilers ahead, obviously. I’ll offer a theory. While Enemy has been billed as an erotic thriller and a doppelganger movie—and it is both those things—I think ultimately it’s a parable about what it’s like to live under a totalitarian state without knowing it. It’s an Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie in which you don’t even realize it’s an Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie until the end—until it’s too late for our hero. In this case, the body snatchers just happen to be giant spiders.

When we meet our hero, Adam Bell, he is lecturing about the ways that totalitarian states keep the people down. The Romans used entertainment, he reminds us, “ bread and circuses .” This recalls the opening scene of the movie, which takes place at a sex show. There we see our first spider. Anthony, Adam’s twin, goes to these shows (we can distinguish the two because Anthony wears a wedding ring), and we later learn from his doorman that men will do anything to see them. Anthony’s profession also allies him with the entertainment industry—he’s an actor.

Adam, on the other hand, doesn’t much like entertainment. He, a professor, represents education, which, as his lectures remind us, totalitarian governments try to keep down. “You don’t go to the movies, do you?” his coworker asks him, out of nowhere, and he answers, “I don’t really like movies.” Indeed, as we’ve seen in a series of recurring shots, his interests don’t seem to involve anything more than lecturing about totalitarian regimes, drinking wine, and having sex with his girlfriend.

But the coworker is leading him somewhere. Adam figures he must have asked because he must be thinking of a specific movie. “You brought it up, and I thought maybe you had a recommendation.” The movie the coworker recommends ultimately leads Adam to discover what’s actually going on around him. There are subtle clues about what’s going on in the city from the very beginning. We see low-angle shots lingering on the streetcar wires that make them look like spider webs:

Bell passes a graffitied image of a businessman giving a fascist Roman salute:

Anthony gets into a fight in the car with Adam’s girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent)—“You don’t think I’m a man?” he says—which leads to a terrible crash, and the camera slowly zooms in on a crack in the windshield that resembles a spider web:

Less subtle, of course, is the shot of the giant spider hovering over the city.  A version of this shot also appears on the poster, where, perhaps notably, the spider is superimposed over an image of Anthony . (We can tell it’s him from the leather jacket, something Adam never wears.) Between his appearance at the spiders-and-sex show at the beginning, Mary’s accusations that he’s not a man, and the spider web Villeneuve shows us on his car window—not to mention that his wife turns out to be either a giant spider or perhaps a woman pregnant with one—Anthony clearly isn’t what he seems.

The central irony in all this is that even the main character, though he is an expert on the ways of totalitarian governments, doesn’t see the web that’s overtaken the city until he’s already stuck in it. As he says in the lecture, totalitarian states succeed because “they censor any means of individual expression” (my emphasis). When he finds out he has a double, that’s of course exactly what happens: He can never again be an individual. While it’s surprising that Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón decided to turn an adaptation of The Double into a spider-infested parable about totalitarianism—at least according to my interpretation—it’s not completely random. Though the novel The Double doesn’t have any of this spider conspiracy, these themes were important to Saramago. When Saramago was 3 years old, a military coup overthrew the Portuguese government, and for the next 48 years, he lived under a fascist regime. His work frequently explores totalitarianism and his experiences under a fascist regime through metaphor and allegory. In 2007, he told the New York Times :  

We live in a dark age, when freedoms are diminishing, when there is no space for criticism, when totalitarianism—the totalitarianism of multinational corporations, of the marketplace—no longer even needs an ideology, and religious intolerance is on the rise. Orwell’s ‘1984’ is already here.

Why spiders, specifically? It’s hard to say. There aren’t any eight-legged creatures in The Double. But there is this passage from Saramago’s The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis , in which he weaves an elaborate metaphor comparing the fascist police and their allies to spiders:  

There is no lack of spiders’ webs in the world, from some you escape, in others you die. The fugitive will find shelter in a boardinghouse under an assumed name, thinking he is safe, he has no idea that his spider will be the daughter of the landlady … a dedicated nationalist who will regenerate his heart and mind.

And where did the spiders come from? Why do fascist regimes arise again and again throughout history, in “a pattern,” as Adam reminds us? Enemy suggests that this tendency to create totalitarian regimes is part of human nature, that it comes from within us. After all, even Adam, the ostensible good twin, is an extremely flawed character—he sells out his girlfriend, cheats on her with another woman, and earlier he tries to rape her. As the movie goes on, he becomes more and more like Anthony. Villeneuve, who has otherwise been tight-lipped about his film, has said this about Enemy :  “Sometimes you have compulsions that you can’t control coming from the subconscious … they are the dictator inside ourselves .”

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Mind-bending, surreal mystery with sex and language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie is so surreal and elusive that any messa

The movie more or less shows two sides of one pers

We see a realistic car crash, and a few nightmaris

A scene takes place at a strange, mysterious club

Language is not heard very often, but in the film'

Characters drink casually, at home, in a backgroun

Positive Messages

The movie is so surreal and elusive that any messages are buried deep within. Perhaps: "curiosity killed the cat"? Other themes will be up for discussion.

Positive Role Models

The movie more or less shows two sides of one person, one aggressive and confident, and the other meek and sad. Neither is particularly admirable, though the movie could spark discussion about the different sides of our own personalities.

Violence & Scariness

We see a realistic car crash, and a few nightmarishly scary images. Otherwise, there are a few moments of characters yelling or arguing with one another.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A scene takes place at a strange, mysterious club in which women perform on stage. We hear the sounds and see some suggestions of one woman masturbating, while many men watch. The main character has sex with his girlfriend more than once; her breasts and bottom are shown. A pregnant woman is shown undressing, and her breasts are on view. Characters have sex with more than one partner. In a nightmare sequence, a fully naked woman with a spider head walks toward the camera (upside-down, on the ceiling). A character follows a strange woman down a hallway, with a close-up on her behind (she's wearing a kind of sexy, fishnet outfit).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is not heard very often, but in the film's final third, "f--k" is used several times. "S--t" is also heard once or twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink casually, at home, in a background way. A woman says, "I think I'm drunk" in one scene, and goes to bed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Enemy is a sexy, surreal mystery from the director/actor team that made Prisoners . It features lots of female nudity, including one full-frontal shot, plus some creepy sexual imagery and the suggestion of women performing sex acts for men to watch. There are also several sex scenes between partners, and characters with more than one partner. Language is strong in the latter part of the movie, with several uses of "f--k," plus at least one use of "s--t." There's a realistic car crash, and characters shouting and arguing. Characters also drink in a casual, background way, at home. The movie is more about the mystery than the solution, and does not provide any real answers. It will be up to adventurous older teens and grown-ups to ponder the clues and reach their own conclusions. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (4)
Kids say (10)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Dark, smart mystery

Great movie, what's the story.

Adam Bell ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) is a sad, drab history professor who gives the same lecture about dictatorships (and their repeating patterns), and goes home to the same evening routine with his girlfriend Mary ( Melanie Laurent ). One night he rents a movie and spots an actor that looks exactly like himself. He discovers the actor's name, Anthony Clair (Gyllenhaal again), and contacts him. The confident, commanding Anthony is married to the beautiful, pregnant Helen ( Sarah Gadon ). The two men appear to be exact doubles, and neither knows precisely what to make of it, until Anthony callously decides to steal Mary away for a weekend. Yet for Adam, the puzzle, involving a mysterious package and dreams about spiders, grows ever more complex.

Is It Any Good?

Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve continues his collaboration with actor Jake Gyllenhaal , following Prisoners ; the result here is much tighter but far less realistic. Indeed, ENEMY could easily be described as surreal. It's a mystery story, with mystery elements, but the movie does not provide much in the way of answers. It's more like a David Lynch film, with clues, emotions, images, ideas, and sensations coming together for one unique experience, with a bizarre, unforgettable ending.

Enemy begins with shots of a mysterious club involving women in sexual situations and spiders, and these nightmarish images continue to permeate the film. The movie also dabbles in notions of repeating patterns and doubled images, though not overtly. It's smart enough not to leave blatant clues or red herrings, anywhere. Based on a 2002 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author Jose Saramago, it's a truly intriguing movie, sure to leave viewers pondering long after.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the sex in the movie. Does sex seem to be a healthy or loving outlet for these characters? What's the overall tone to the sexual activity in the movie?

Is the movie scary ? Creepy? How does a story that departs from reality affect you? What other movies have departed from reality, with different results?

The main character's personality traits seem to have been split, one confident and aggressive, and the other meek and sad. Do you feel all these things within yourself? At what different times, or in what situations?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 14, 2014
On DVD or streaming : June 24, 2014
Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal , Sarah Gadon , Melanie Laurent
Director : Denis Villeneuve
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : A24
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 90 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : some strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language
Last updated : June 19, 2024

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Movie Review: Enemy (2013)

Aaron Leggo
Movie Reviews
4 responses
--> March 31, 2014

Enemy (2013) by The Critical Movie Critics

Professor Gyllenhaal.

Denis Villeneuve knows the truth: Spiders are evil. And now he’s made an entire movie about this. It’s hard to say whether Villeneuve is a genuine arachnophobe or just not a fan of the definitive creepy-crawly creatures, but his deliciously bleak head-trip thriller Enemy is absolutely littered with them. The arachnids are up to no good here, though to be fair, they’re not the only ones with a sinister agenda in this deliriously dark picture.

Enter Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal, “ Prisoners “), a mild-mannered professor who shuffles through life in a sickly hued Toronto with an aimless malaise that follows him like a persistent personal cloud. He’s trapped in a dreary circle, unable to move forward. His apartment is depressingly empty, his mother (Isabella Rossellini, “Keyhole”) is worried about him, and his attractive girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent, “ Now You See Me “) can’t even drag him away from marking papers with an invitation to the bedroom. Adam isn’t just stuck in a rut; he is a rut.

But everything changes when he watches a movie (the result of asking for a “cheerful” recommendation, an ironic request in a Villeneuve pic) and soon discovers that a small role is played by none other than his very own doppelganger. The presence of this actor is so subtle that Adam doesn’t even notice it at first, only making the connection later in a dream. And then he can’t get it out of his head. So begins Adam’s journey to hunt down his double, setting off a series of devastating events that tear at his psyche.

When Adam finds the actor, whose real name is Anthony, Enemy develops a fork in the narrative path and we witness the dual storylines unfold from that point on. Anthony has a beautiful blonde partner, too, named Helen (Sarah Gadon, “ A Dangerous Method “), but she’s his wife and she’s pregnant, so it’s not like his relationship situation is a mere mirror of Adam’s. Physically, though, the two are nearly indistinguishable, since Gyllenhaal wears the same bearded look for both roles, only providing some visual division in their differing wardrobes.

In terms of personality, Anthony exudes a brusque confidence that Adam probably wishes he had. Neither guy seems to have any clue as to what’s happening or why, but it’s clear that this is a chilling situation for everyone involved, including us. The score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans causes a blanket of dread to cover almost every scene, so the screws of tension are turned tight at all times. That’s a difficult note of terror to maintain without it becoming monotonous, but Villeneuve embraces the challenge and keeps digging deeper under our skin by keeping the imagery fresh and the conflict cerebral.

So where do the spiders come into all of this? Well, just about everywhere. It’s the why that leaves us scratching our heads, but that’s the beauty of Enemy , that its mysteries are multi-faceted, that they live and breathe in the dark corners of the narrative, open to all sorts of fascinating interpretations. One of the first shots shows a woman’s shoe about to crush a tarantula, so perhaps what follows is actually a spider revenge tale. Whether or not that’s the particular interpretation one wishes to explore, it’s clear that the creatures manifest themselves as monsters here, invading Adam’s mind and closing in on his sanity.

Adam’s dreams are haunted by the arachnids, revealing such striking images as a gigantic spider towering over skyscrapers while it slinks through the city and a naked woman with a spider head walking upside down through a hallway. These shots offer the motif at its most blatant, but they make such an immediate impression because they’re instantly iconic and they hurl us into Adam’s experience, creating a visualization of the movie’s terrifying tone.

Trying to understand.

A more subtle employment of the spider motif starts to creep into the picture as the story progresses and the situation worsens, as if the arachnids have sunk deeper not only into Adam’s consciousness, but the movie’s as well. At one point, the camera glides across the ceiling, looking down at Adam from a menacingly unusual angle. At another, the splintered glass of a car window suggests a spider web in its cracked formation.

The robust ubiquity of the whole narrative pattern makes for an absolutely hypnotic experience, but what is most impressive is how Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón, adapting a novel by José Saramago, leave it all up to us to determine how much is real and how much is imagined. The degree to which the imagery could be interpreted as metaphorical is up for debate, meaning there’s as much room for a fantastical theory as there is for something more grounded, such as the possibility that this is all part of an elaborate plan to cover up an extramarital affair.

By providing such depth and dimension for both Gyllenhaal-performed characters, Villeneuve ensures that Enemy is more than an unnerving head-scratcher, but additionally a taut, engaging examination of lives unraveled and reformed. There’s dramatic weight to the intertwined existences of Adam and Anthony, because the emotional dangers have been boiled down to an inescapably cramped and personal space that threatens to consume the characters and the entire movie with them. Mysteries abound, but one thing is for certain: You can’t trust the spiders. As Enemy so elegantly and eerily declares, they don’t trust us, either.

Tagged: actor , college , novel adaptation , teacher

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

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'Movie Review: Enemy (2013)' have 4 comments

March 31, 2014 @ 10:06 am Andrew

I have honestly no idea what watched. So many questions, so few answers.

March 31, 2014 @ 1:08 pm Me Frank

Gyllenhaal reminds me a lot of Matthew McConaughey in that they are both better actors than their earlier work let on. If Jake continues taking roles like the one in Prisoner and this his Oscar should soon follow.

April 1, 2014 @ 12:41 am Sunnie

Sounds interesting.

June 27, 2014 @ 9:16 am jjames36

Great review of what is certainly an interesting movie. The spiders are rather consistently present, aren’t they? :)

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In the Grey

Revolves around two extraction specialists who have to designate a route of escape for a senior female negotiator. Revolves around two extraction specialists who have to designate a route of escape for a senior female negotiator. Revolves around two extraction specialists who have to designate a route of escape for a senior female negotiator.

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Despite critical acclaim, Source Code is overlooked and underrated in the time travel movie genre.

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However, not all time travel movies are created equally . For every brilliant classic like Back to the Future , there are a dozen or more that suffer from either over or under complications of the practice. But, a time travel movie is already starting outside the realms of reality, which means it's free to explore the dynamic and interesting ways this can impact a story. Source Code , a 2011 movie, did just that with shock, wonder, and amazement.

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What is Jake Gyllenhaal's best movie?

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most popular actors of his generation and has been since his early 20s thanks to movies like Donnie Darko. Though Gyllenhaal has tackled multiple genres to great success, it seems like thriller films are where he shines the brightest. This is especially true of 2014’s Nightcrawler, in which Gyllenhaal delivers his best performance. It’s incredibly intense and suspenseful and Gyllenhaal has proven he’s great at playing a psychopath.

Gyllenhaal’s Source Code Is A Time Loop Movie With High Stakes

Thrilling sci-fi action in source code.

Source Code pulled in a respectable $140 million at the box office (via The Numbers ), which far exceeded the initial $32 million budget. And, the movie managed to get rave reviews, which resulted in a 92% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a strong 82% from audiences. This is clearly a result of the movie's high-stakes plot , and thrilling action throughout. Following a confused agent who awakens on a speeding train only to find that he is in someone else's body, the movie quickly divulges what is going on when the man and the agent in his body die in a train crash.

Did You Know? Source Code 2 was announced as in development in 2014, with Anna Foerster signed on to direct.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays agent Colter Stevens, a man who appears to be involved in a new experimental program from the government to help avert terrorist attacks. With the aid of a machine that recreates eight minutes of time before such a tragedy, someone can be sent back to see through one of the deceased's points of view and try to gather new information. With Stevens repeatedly going back, and only having eight minutes to solve the mystery each time, the pressure is intense, and the movie is thrilling from start to finish.

Hermione Granger from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Terminator from the Terminator, and George Taylor from Planet of the Apes

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The rules of time travel.

Source Code is both the name of the movie, and the name given to the machine used to activate this time regression. Like a super slow motion camera, the machine is capable of storing the previous chunk of data that was input once the machine is activated. The machine then stores this mass of data, which consists of everything that happened in the previous eight minutes, and creates a virtual reproduction of those same events . Then, someone, like Stevens, can be sent back to live vicariously through the consciousness of someone in the event, and explore for eight minutes.

Rather than a traditional leap forward and back, those eight minutes exist, and everything since then exists, but they can be accessed and altered in the source code. This is a great twist on the traditional time travel story , and the movie continues to exhibit additional ways that this machine is able to impact and effect things, outside its original programming. All together, it makes for an exciting and extremely well laid out film. From the story, to the acting, and the twists along the way, Source Code is severely underappreciated for what it does.

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Source Code Is One Of The Most Underrated Time Travel Movies

While many time travel movies that receive praise have become iconic and classic examples of the sci-fi genre, Source Code appears to have slipped under the radar. While the initial theatrical release was decent, it failed to make the movie a household name. This may have been down to a lack of marketing budget, but whatever happened, it meant that an incredible time travel movie never got the attention that it deserved.

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The plot has action and suspense built in, while the new take on time-travel creates something that feels authentic and meaningful in a way that many other time travel movies don't. Source Code builds on the traditional concepts of time travel and sci-fi with advanced technology and simulation, in a way that works perfectly for the feature and deserves more respect. In addition, Jake Gyllenhaal plays his role to perfection, proving why he is a star that is ideal to appear in reality-bending films from Donnie Darko , to Spider-Man: Far From Home , and beyond.

Source Code

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Reel Rundown: Is Jake Gyllenhaal the king of remakes? ‘Presumed Innocent’ latest in actor’s slate of re-dos

Jake Gyllenhaal seems to be pointing his acting career in a new direction. Fresh off starring in Doug Liman’s recently released big-screen remake of “Road House,” he’s now the star of the Apple TV+ miniseries “Presumed Innocent.”

Yes, this is the same “Presumed Innocent” that author Scott Turow wrote as a best-selling novel in 1987 and that director Alan J. Pakula turned into a 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford.

So, is Gyllenhaal becoming the new king of remakes? If so, he might think about taking roles where the character he plays is just a bit more likeable. Because while the character he plays in “Road House” is troubled and prone to rage, he’s basically a decent guy.

In contrast, his character in Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent” is mostly a jerk.

Gyllenhaal plays Rusty Sabich, a hotshot Chicago prosecuting attorney who becomes the target of a murder investigation. And it’s only right that he should be considered a suspect seeing as he was having an affair with the victim – a colleague named Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve). Moreover, he was dangerously obsessed with Polhemus, and he was at her apartment on the night she was murdered, two important facts that he tries to cover up.

His boss, the Chicago district attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), believes in Sabich – or at least he believes in his right to a fair trial. But things get complicated when Horgan loses his elected position to another attorney, Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenie). Along with a colleague who has no love for Sabich, Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), the two decide to try Sabich for the crime.

Things are equally complicated in the biracial Sabich home. Wife Barbara (Ruth Negga) – who has already forgiven her husband once for straying with Polhemus – discovers during the investigation that he’d restarted the affair. She even considers having an affair of her own with a friendly bartender (Saunas J. Jackson), despite the effect the family troubles are having on the couple’s children, especially their daughter (Chase Infiniti).

Throughout it all, the supremely arrogant Sabich struts and stumbles his way, proclaiming his innocence and fighting his attorneys, Horgan and an added member of the team (Gabby Beans). And while in the end an explanation is provided for why he does some of the actions that at first glance seem irrational, it doesn’t make him any more of a character that audiences are likely to embrace.

If you’ve read Turow’s novel, or seen Pakula’s movie, you already know some of where the story leads. Yet Kelley and his co-screenwriters, Miki Johnson and Sharr White, have made some adjustments that fit more in a contemporary context – changing the race and/or gender of some characters, eliminating some of Turow’s complicated subplot elements and even, to some extent, altering the ending.

For the most part, the acting is good across the board, from Negga and Beans to Camp, Fagbenie and Sarsgaard. Gyllenhaal, too, has his moments. The question, though, is whether this new version needed to be spread out over eight full, 40-plus-minute episodes when maybe three would have sufficed.

It would be enough to dislike Gyllenhaal’s Sabich for three episodes. But by episode eight, some of us had given up caring what the final verdict might be.

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That Time Everyone Thought Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal's Sci-Fi Thriller Was a 'Venom' Prequel

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The Big Picture

Fans speculated Life was a Venom prequel due to shared a studio, the people involved, and a trailer connection.
Life , which stars Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rebecca Ferguson, is a bold alien horror movie.
Despite being criticized and especially bleak, the director of Life defends the film's ending.

Do you remember the science-fiction horror film, Life ? Hitting theaters in 2017, this picture starred Jake Gyllenhaal , Rebecca Ferguson , and Ryan Reynold s and ran with the tagline: We were better off alone . The premise that humanity would encounter real, alien life on Mars (even in the form of a small, multi-celled organism) is an exciting prospect, especially considering that some believe we may have encountered life out there already . But this tale has a wild history of strange marketing tactics and fan theories that made many believe Life wasn't just the next standalone sci-fi horror flick, but rather a prequel to the following year's Marvel/Sony collaboration, Venom . Just how are Life and Venom connected? Well, their symbiotic nature may surprise you.

Fans Immediately Thought 'Life' Was Venom's Origin Story

When Life was first announced in 2015, slowly amassing its impressive small cast, most didn't think anything of it. It sounded just like your average alien horror film that would evoke the same levels of terror as previous sci-fi thrills. It was only when the first "Restricted Trailer" was released 10 days before the film hit theaters on March 24, 2017, that some fans became convinced it was a stealth Venom prequel . After all, Sony was behind both Life and Venom (with the latter having been announced the year prior) and given the Marvel character's origins, it felt plausible. Of course, in the original Marvel Comics, the Venom symbiote first attaches itself to Spider-Man during the original Secret Wars event series, following him to Earth from Battleworld. In most other Spider-Man adaptations, however, such as Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the Sam Raimi film trilogy , Venom's origins were adjusted quite a bit.

In many iterations, the Venom symbiote arrives after a space mission accidentally brings the alien life form back with them (or, it plummets to Earth via meteor). Spider-Man then uses the black suit himself before forsaking it, and it later bonds with Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy in the Venom films). But the reason many considered Life to be a potential Venom prequel wasn't just because of the possible similarities in origin or the fact that both films were produced by the same studio, but because the trailer itself actually contained footage from Spider-Man 3 , the first live-action appearance of Venom (played then by Topher Grace ). In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot , a bunch of worried New Yorkers are seen looking up into the sky. This clip is reportedly from Raimi's third Spider-Man film (albeit from a different angle than what appeared in the actual film), and further connects Life and Venom together.

To make things even more confusing, Life screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (who had also written Deadpool ) had actually been hired by Sony years earlier to write a Venom spin-off feature based in the world of Raimi's trilogy . While that never happened, Venom was eventually made in a continuity separate from the flagship Spider-Man films as the launchpad of Sony's Spider-Man Universe . Though Wernick and Reese weren't involved with the final product, some believed that Life was still influenced and inspired by their initial Venom plans. Of course, this is all just speculation, but it is curious that Life director Daniel Espinosa went on to direct Morbius — set in the same world as Venom — only a few years later (Jake Gyllenhaal would also go on to play Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home ).

'Life' Is an Exciting Sci-Fi/Horror Thriller That Echoes 'Alien'

Though not at all associated with Venom , Life is a fun one to revisit. This sci-fi horror is a superb time, and a well-thought-out look at how we in modern day might interact with hostile alien life in a non-traditional invasion picture. Despite excellent performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson , Life has often been criticized for its similarities to Ridley Scott 's Alien , but that's not exactly a bad thing. While Alien takes place in a very dated take on the future, Life is a contemporary tale that feels like it could possibly happen in our time . Sure, there are certainly some similarities between the two ( Life also pulls from Gravity , 2001: A Space Odyssey , and even Psycho ), the 2017 picture is a bit more practical in how its alien operates — and different enough to avoid any serious plagiarization.

Mark Hamill Went Uncredited in Hollywood's First Space Video Game Adaptation

Sadly, the Force was not with Hamill for this one.

There's also the characters themselves, who are each dynamic on their own and make this sci-fi romp worthwhile. From Ryan Reynolds' fast-talking and charismatic Rory Adams (a nerd who makes a sly reference to Re-Animator ) to Ariyon Bakare 's introspective and curious scientist, Dr. Hugh Derry, who tempts fate as all movie scientists seem to , Life feels like a full, lived-in world not too unlike our own. Okay, it still takes place almost exclusively aboard the International Space Station, but the way the world responds to finding the first undeniable proof of life in the greater universe feels all too real . And unlike Alien , the creature in Life isn't initially hostile, nor does it give any reason for the ISS team to be afraid. That is, until it does.

Once things get rolling, Life turns from a compelling sci-fi story of exploration to an intense horror film , laced with potentially world-ending stakes that turn the ISS crew into the final defense against total annihilation. It isn't long before we surmise that the reason Mars is a "dead planet" is because of this organism and its penchant for feeding on any sort of living-breathing creature. Unlike the Xenomorphs of the Alien franchise , who can be killed like any ordinary flesh-and-acid-blood creature, Life 's Calvin is a terrifying parasite that grows and shifts the more it consumes. Frankly, it doesn't look much like a Venom symbiote at all, save for its parasitic behavior.

'Life's Ending Boldly Goes Where Few Alien Movies Have Gone Before

For all the comparisons folks made between Life and Alien , the strongest of them is the ending, though not because Life in any way copies the conclusion of Ridley Scott's space horror. When the poster for Alien first dropped in 1979, audiences were fascinated by the film's now-iconic tagline: In space, no one can hear you scream . Life takes that concept to a whole new level and honors the idea as Rebecca Ferguson's character is left adrift in space. It's a controversial ending that director Daniel Espinosa adamantly defended following the film's release. "It was shot to be realistic. It was a shot to make a science fiction movie that ties into this other great American genre, which is noir," Espinosa told The Hollywood Reporter . "I completely understand that this ending might not be the preferable choice, but for me it was a fundamental part of the reason I [wanted] to do the movie."

While a film like Gravity explores the vastness of outer space, Espinosa wanted to go a different direction with Life . While both films take place in space, Life is actively claustrophobic in its attempts to heighten the horror and terrify its audience . As Alien and other features of its kind end with a hopeful finish, Life subverts our expectations by emphasizing the potential dangers of alien life . There is no hope left when Life ends. The alien lifeform has reached Earth, and it shows no signs of slowing down. If you're looking for a thoughtful sci-fi horror flick (also described as a noir by its director), then Life might be one worth revisiting. No, it's not connected to Venom , but it does some interesting things with the alien parasite concept that the Marvel franchise could learn a thing or two from. Maybe Venom: The Last Dance will take a cue or two from this sci-fi picture.

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Zodiac [4K UHD + Blu-Ray + Digital Copy]

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Genre	Drama, Thriller, Crime
Format	4K, Digital_copy, Subtitled, Blu-ray
Contributor	Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brian Cox
Language	English
Runtime	2 hours and 37 minutes

Product Description

Based on the true story of the notorious serial killer and the intense manhunt he inspired, Zodiac is a superbly crafted thriller form the director of Se7en and Panic Room. Featuring an outstanding ensemble cast led by Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Chloë Sevigny, Zodiac is a searing and singularly haunting examination of twin obsessions: one man's desire to kill and another's quest for the truth.

Product details

MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.5 inches; 10.56 ounces
Media Format ‏ : ‎ 4K, Digital_copy, Subtitled, Blu-ray
Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 37 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ October 29, 2024
Actors ‏ : ‎ Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ French
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
Studio ‏ : ‎ PARAMOUNT
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DB77GWFH
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 3
#1 in Drama Blu-ray Discs
#2 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)

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IMAGES

Review: Enemy (2014)
REVIEW: In Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal Sees Double
Movie Review: 'Enemy' (2014)
Sección visual de Enemy
'Enemy' Review: Jake Gyllenhaal Faces Himself in Unsettling Thriller
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COMMENTS

Enemy movie review & film summary (2014)
The movie's look has the color of nicotine stains, or a smoggy freeway at dusk. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) has brown hair, a brown beard and inveterately wears rumpled brown or tan clothes. He lives in a vast brown city called Toronto and teaches history in an institutionally light-brownish classroom that's only half-full of students.
Enemy (2013)
A mild-mannered college professor (Jake Gyllenhaal) discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs. Director Denis Villeneuve Producer Niv Fichman, Miguel A. Faura ...
Enemy (2013 film)
Enemy is a 2013 surrealist psychological thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and produced by M. A. Faura and Niv Fichman.Written by Javier Gullón, it was loosely adapted from José Saramago's 2002 novel The Double.The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role as two men who are physically identical, but different in personality. Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini co ...
Enemy (2013)
Enemy: Directed by Denis Villeneuve. With Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini. A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.
Enemy
Featuring a tremendous performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and bold direction from Denis Villeneuve, Enemy is a masterfully crafted film with a tricky but very fulfilling premise. Full Review | Dec 7, 2016
'Enemy' Review: Jake Gyllenhaal Faces Himself in Unsettling Thriller
Toronto Film Review: 'Enemy'. The two Jakes go head-to-head as Gyllenhaal plays a mild-mannered history prof shocked to discover his doppelganger. By Peter Debruge. Denis Villeneuve convinces ...
'Enemy' Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Twice
Enemy. Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Mystery, Thriller. R. 1h 31m. By A.O. Scott. March 13, 2014. The double is an ancient and irresistible literary theme, especially beloved by philosophically ...
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Plunging Toronto into a mix of piss and pea soup, the psychological drama Enemy trudges through the murky environment to uncover the spark at the heart of the 21st century man. Jake Gyllenhaal ...
Enemy Review
Enemy Review. On the advice of a colleague, Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal), a disheveled Toronto lecturer, watches a movie and glimpses what appears to be his twin. An online search reveals him to be ...
Enemy Review
Reviews Enemy Review. Jake Gyllenhaal plays two conflicted and conflicting men in Enemy, director Denis Villeneuve's atmospheric and enigmatic new feature. ... But the movie never quite crosses ...
Enemy (2013)
Permalink. Enemy is a very good psychological thriller. Jake Gyllenhaal plays two great subtle characters. The muted colour palette and eerie score give a great atmosphere. Denis Villeneuve purposely leaves it vague and open ended. It's very strange had hard to decipher.
'Enemy' Movie Ending, Explained
Enemy is about a man, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. His name is Adam Bell, and he teaches history, and he looks really bummed out. His name is Adam Bell, and he teaches history, and he looks really ...
Review: Jake Gyllenhaal plays doubles in satisfyingly weird 'Enemy
March 20, 2014 11:45 AM PT. Tightly wound and agreeably strange, Denis Villeneuve's "Enemy" reconnects the French-Canadian director with his "Prisoners" star Jake Gyllenhaal for a bite ...
Enemy Ending Explained (In Detail)
Known for its abrupt, shocking, and somewhat ambiguous ending, Enemy is a layered and nuanced examination of deep and interesting themes. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Enemy is a taut psychological drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role.Starring as both Anthony Claire and Adam Bell, two men who appear identical but behave very differently, Gyllenhaal delivers two excellent performances ...
Movie Review
Director: Denis Villeneuve. Genre: Mystery, thriller. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language. With Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Gadon, Mélanie Laurent ...
Enemy Movie Explained
Denis Villeneuve's movie Enemy stars Jake Gyllenhaal in dual roles as a history professor and his doppelganger, but there's a deeper meaning to be explored.
Enemy
University lecturer Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is nearing the end of a relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). One night, while watching a film, Adam spots a minor actor who looks just like him. Consumed by the desire to meet his double, Adam tracks down Anthony, an actor living with his pregnant wife Helen (Sarah Gadon) and engages him in a complex and dangerous struggle.
The Ending Of Enemy Explained
At the beginning of "Enemy", we meet Adam Bell ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), a history teacher who lives in Toronto and just seems very sad. He has a girlfriend, Mary, played by Melanie Laurent, and he ...
Enemy review: Jake Gyllenhaal leads sullen thriller
Director: Denis Villeneuve; Screenwriters: Javier GullÃ³n; Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, MÃ©lanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini; Running time: 90 mins ...
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The psychological thriller Enemy by Denis Villeneuve, in which Jake Gyllenhaal plays two people who look exactly the same, is an incredible character piece that's been over-analyzed more than ...
Enemy movie ending explained? The meaning of the Jake Gyllenhaal and
The ending of Denis Villeneuve's new movie Enemy has been called perhaps "the scariest ending of any film ever made."And much of its scariness derives from its initial inexplicability. The ...
Enemy Movie Review
Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve continues his collaboration with actor Jake Gyllenhaal, following Prisoners; the result here is much tighter but far less realistic. Indeed, ENEMY could easily be described as surreal. It's a mystery story, with mystery elements, but the movie does not provide much in the way of answers.
Movie Review: Enemy (2013)
Mysteries abound, but one thing is for certain: You can't trust the spiders. As Enemy so elegantly and eerily declares, they don't trust us, either. Critical Movie Critic Rating: 4. Movie Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Movie Review: The Art of the Steal (2013) Tagged: actor, college, novel adaptation, teacher.
In the Grey (2025)
In the Grey: Directed by Guy Ritchie. With Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rosamund Pike. Revolves around two extraction specialists who have to designate a route of escape for a senior female negotiator.
Jake Gyllenhaal's Time Travel Movie With 92% On Rotten Tomatoes Added A
Source Code pulled in a respectable $140 million at the box office (via The Numbers), which far exceeded the initial $32 million budget.And, the movie managed to get rave reviews, which resulted in a 92% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a strong 82% from audiences. This is clearly a result of the movie's high-stakes plot, and thrilling action throughout.
Jake Gyllenhaal's Next Action Movie Is Something He's Done Only 4 Times
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The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Presumed Innocent) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom) as two bank robbers who hijack an ambulance in Los Angeles after a mission goes wrong ...
Reel Rundown: Is Jake Gyllenhaal the king of ...
A&E; Movies; Reel Rundown: Is Jake Gyllenhaal the king of remakes? 'Presumed Innocent' latest in actor's slate of re-dos Aug. 7, 2024 Updated Thu., Aug. 8, 2024 at 3:39 p.m. "Presumed ...
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Many people thought 2017's sci-fi horror movie Life, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rebecca Ferguson, was a prequel to Venom. The underrated 2017 alien movie has a complicated ...
Zodiac [4K UHD + Blu-Ray + Digital Copy]
#1 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV) Customer Reviews: 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,559 ratings. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. ... Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith, a San Francisco newspaper cartoonist who takes it upon himself to track down the killer. In ...

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