This is what causes her body to change and adapt to the environment, unlike in the film where all of the characters are affected inside the contaminated area. When the biologist gets too close to the plants they shoot out spores which infect her and in turn give her heightened senses. The tower goes deep into the earth and on its walls are written words made from a plant like substance that appear to be alive. The Biologist is drawn to this place and returns to it to discover its true purpose. In the book, upon exploring Area X, the Biologist discovers a tunnel which she calls a tower. One of the central plotlines - and mysteries - of Annihilation is left out of the film.

Her actions are driven more by him and their relationship than her own desires. In the film, Portman's character is driven by her guilt and feeling that she owes her husband because she had an affair while he was gone. In the book her husband and the rest of the members of his team die from cancer shortly after returning home from Area X. She volunteers for the mission into Area X after her husband returns because she wants to know what happened to him from a scientific perspective. The Biologist is driven by her overwhelming curiosity. She prefers tide pools to people and has a tense relationship with her husband who she has trouble letting in. In the book, she is much more clinical and introverted. In the book it is every character for themselves, rather than the group dynamic that persists at least initially in the film.Īnother major character difference is the personality of the Biologist. It is a tense building of animosity that eventually grows to such an extent that the Biologist kills the Surveyor. They do not know the motivations for why the others would want to venture inside Area X, which in the book is veiled in secrecy and mystery. While the film shows them in lighter moments trying to build camaraderie and opening up to each other, the book shows hostility from the very beginning. In the novel, the relationships between the female scientists are much more antagonistic.

Annihilation book