Significant Other(2022)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
Although Ruth escapes the forest, she is still pursued by the alien. Ruth resolves to fight against the aliens, as more of their ships arrive on Earth.

Long Ending:
A spaceship arrives on Earth and lands on a secluded beach bordering a large forest in Oregon. An alien creature emerges and attacks a deer – killing it by slicing its face in half and then taking the form of the deer.

Long-time couple Ruth (Maika Monroe) and Harry (Jake Lacy) are on a camping trip in the forest. Ruth suffers from crushing anxiety and needs prescription medications to prevent panic attacks. She notices they are being followed by the deer (which is really the alien). Harry proposes to Ruth on a scenic cliffside overlooking the ocean, causing her to have an episode of debilitating anxiety. Ruth’s parents had a very contentious divorce, and Ruth therefore doesn’t want to get married. Harry apologizes, but there is now palpable tension between them and they spend some time hiking alone. As she hikes, Ruth notices luminescent material within a cave. She enters and finds alien liquid on the ground, and then screams in horror.

When Ruth returns to the campsite, she asks Harry to propose to her again. They return to the cliffside and, this time, Ruth accepts. The couple embrace, and Ruth trips Harry and throws him off the cliff where his body is crushed on the rocks below. She then begins fleeing through the forest. Ruth trips and hits her head, only to wake up hours later at the campsite of a couple that found her unconscious. To Ruth’s horror, Harry shows up at the campsite with no injuries. A large blade emerges from Harry’s arms and he mercilessly slaughters the two campers that found Ruth.

Harry reveals he’s actually an alien and demands to know how Ruth knew his secret. She says that she found the real Harry’s corpse in the cave with the alien liquid and when she saw the alien-Harry at the campsite, assumed something supernatural had occurred. The alien says that he is a scout sent in advance of an invasion and then prepares to kill Ruth, only to find out he can’t do it. The alien has never encountered the emotion of love before and, having taken Harry’s form and memories, can’t bring himself to kill his true love. As the alien hesitates, Ruth wounds him. The alien heals itself in front of her (just as it healed from being pushed off the cliff).

The alien takes Ruth captive and has her come with it to its spaceship. It offers to fly Ruth off Earth to another planet where she can survive the impending invasion and live with him forever. Ruth pretends to agree only so that she can get close enough to the alien to stab it. Ruth then swims into the ocean with the alien close behind. The alien’s blood attracts a shark, which attacks and eats the alien. However, the alien regenerates from the shark attack and knocks out Ruth.

When she awakens, she finds herself in a cocoon. The alien explains that as it has ruminated on the nature of love and realized that love is two souls trying to become one. The alien notes that human physiology makes this impossible, but since the alien can take multiple forms, it can merge Harry and Ruth into itself. The alien then assumes Ruth’s form and prepares to kill the real Ruth. However, knowing the alien now also possesses her personality, Ruth manages to incapacitate the alien by triggering it to have an anxiety attack (which the alien has never experienced and doesn’t know how to deal with). Ruth escapes from the cocoon and crushes the alien’s head.

This time, Ruth manages to successfully flee to her car and drives off from the forest. Ruth’s relief at having escaped is soon undone when the alien begins speaking to her through the car radio. The alien reminds her that it has her memories and personalities and will use those to find her again. Ruth resolves to fight her nemesis as more spaceships begin landing on Earth.