Meanwhile Rhoda’s parents find out the hard way, from the news, that she’ll be going away to Earth-2. And it looked so cheesy that I was like, 'Okay, let's just trust our audience to suture these things together.

In one sense, nothing in our lives was necessary. There’s a sensuality to that, yeah. I’ve heard that one, too! It takes 3-4 days to get to the moon from Earth - this is for a manned mission. Kind of feel like the screenwriter actually intended it to be unknown, and while they may have favored a particular story, the idea that there could be multiple endings is pretty much the theme of the entire movie. There is a live broadcast of the director of SETI, Dr. Jones, trying to reach out to Earth 2 (as it’s being called now). The mirror Rhoda (or mirror everybody) on the planet above us represents the heavenly self, our higher consciousness. It’s not completely true that version has had everything. Drunk, driving and with her eyes in the sky, she rams into into a car which is otherwise stopped at a signal at full speed. That would explain the curious lack of physical effects on two planets so close together.

What's the scientific explanation of this other Earth?

It’s difficult to really talk about Another Earth fully without going into spoiler territory, so the conversation I had with Cahill was a revealing one. What if those two versions of you confronted each other? The meaning of the ending I try to avoid, because I feel that steals a part of the experience for the audience.

Rhoda of Earth 2 arrives much after John of Earth 1 reaches Earth 2. There is no explanation to what this other random look-alike planet is and why it’s showed up suddenly. There’s so many different interpretations. Is a lightfoot halfling obscured for the purposes of hiding while in the space of another creature? Meanwhile, she befriends the husband of the woman she killed, by pretending to be there to clean his house. Rhoda's desire to become an astronaut and explore this other Earth is a metaphor for exploring your own inner self. "Another Earth" is a film animated by one stunning image: A new planet four times the size of the moon appears in the sky of Earth.

The film asks, "What if you could look at yourself objectively, and what emotions would occur because of that?" As an actor, "it's important not to judge your character," says Marling. John notices Rhoda has washed one of his wife’s sweater, which he was preserving, and loses it. I think there would be the greatest amount of empathy. Another Earth "was never going to be a movie about an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-style" confrontation, she adds.

In pop culture, when you meet your doppelganger, "you see each other, and then one of them has to die, and so it turns into an action adventure movie in which one of them has to kill the other," says Marling. The mirror Rhoda (or mirror everybody) on the planet above us represents the heavenly self, our higher consciousness.

Spoilers, obviously. The synchronicity did indeed end when the two planets first made contact. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. Rated PG-13 Advantages, if any, of deadly military training? While this idea may disappoint some of you, the sci-fi backdrop for the film is purely there for symbolism. The only problem is that in the movie the professor says that it is a stupid idea. sees that her "other" self (from Earth Two) is there at her house on Earth One. She wouldn’t have had the experience of being a convict and going to jail for killing someone. Or how it’s not interfering with the gravity fields of the other planets in the solar system, even Earth for that matter. Let’s double that and make it 15 days. And the casting of William Mapother was crucial to the film's intensity — as anyone who's watched Lost knows, Mapother can be a scary man. While an individual's actions may change, their natures are still pretty much the same. Rhoda (from Earth-2) didn’t leave at the same time John leaves from Earth-1. With Another Earth, I established parameters that the film is going to take place in poetic realism; realism with poetry involved. He feels the two of them have a shot at a relationship (because this looks like a one way trip, or at least a very very long trip).

Because Rhoda is a juvenile, John is never told who his “hitter” was (as per law).

Had Rhoda (from Earth-2) also won, she would have arrived on Earth-1 months before.