"Has anyone ever made it up? Did you know their names?"
You can actually pinpoint the exact frame where Simon puts his grief and melancholy for his own situation aside, slides the mask back on, and locks in on confronting Eva's and the COI's actions for however long he has left in the sub.
Iron Lung Details: The Map Lines and Simon's Navigation
I think this is one of my favorite bits of characterization in the movie, and such a good way to track Simon's progress throughout.
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His first interactions with the map are very careful and wary. He squints at the markings, trying to make out the nuances and details on it. When he first jots down his initial placement, he's got a soft touch with the charcoal stick. Probably worried about breaking it. His lines are steady and precise.
Our first glimpse of his journey track shows he's taken things very slowly. He's gotten maybe three strides on the map by the time his first O2 light goes off. He's not in a rush, he's taking his time and being thorough, but the O2 light sinks in that he doesn't have the luxury of time.
Next time we see the map, Simon has considerably sped up with the whole expedition. But also from the short lines, we can see he's still hesitant with navigating in the ocean.
Lots of feeling out for walls and obstacles, and even a bit of going back and forth. If I had to guess, he probably got the turn and angles wrong and messed up his directions. Still, lots of progress way faster!
We go quite a bit before the map becomes relevant again, massive time skip to post-stranding in the caves and out of range from the map. As he succintly puts it, he's fucked. How does he keep track of his path without the map? Make more map!
The first addition to the map is carefully trimmed and measured, he even double checks the grid. He goes a bit past the landing coordinates but it's still a small addition. He either doesn't think he'll need to use that much paper to get back into the mapped range, or he won't waste paper just yet.
He's more comfortable with the process as well. Mark progress, take picture, double check the angles, visualize it, jot it down, repeat. We then get a time skip while he fumes over the tape Xs, and there's already an update to the map.
He's added considerably more to the extension, but it's in squares. He's done the extensions in increments as they became needed instead of all at once. He even tapes over a piece of pipe?? Yeah whatever works dude, at least you didn't end up headed that direction.
Also in comparison to the original map and the new expedition line, you can see he's moving in longer lines. No longer tippytoeing through the geography, though in his defense, the tunnels are slightly wider than the ones he was dropped into originally.
There's also a neat little bit during the driving scene, where the proximity radar beeps and he gets the turn wrong before adjusting. Really sells the startle!
Also during the driving scene, we see him improvise ways to do more than one thing at once. His caution and calm from before is out the window, he can't just ditch parts of the driving system he has down, but he can add to it to make it more malleable. Like trying to stick the camera button down so he doesn't need to go back and forth, or putting the folio on the throttle to keep pushing forward while away from the console.
His lines are way messier as well. In part from having to draw vertically instead of horizontally, but also he doesn't have time to care about the map looking pretty and clear. This is just for him to see and work with, after all. He also doesn't check everything with the camera anymore, if the proximity says there's something he just assumes a wall and puts it on the map.
Also notable is his methods. He still sticks close to walls to map out an area, but at the center of that larger pocket, you can see that once he noticed he might be boxed in, he moved closer to the center of the open area and then turned to the unmapped portion. He's triangulating.
This barely-second-long scene is so important to me. Sloppy as he is with the map now, his lines are still straight. Wonky, but straight. But as time passes and his mind starts to go from exhaustion, pain and isolation, we get this curved line. His navigation is going as tilted as his mind.
Then we reach the SM-8 and my god, the aftermath. You can see how heavier his hand has gotten (and how blunt the charcoal tip has worn down to) by the change in line thickness. You can also see his triangulation got severely wonky at the end there. Loops and turns and spins, and back to the short spurts of movements once he neared the beginning of the circle.
I've also mentioned before, but this is the time where the camera pictures stop being snapshots to him, and he begins to visualize them as full, tridimensional perception. The camera have become his eyes.
Once he agrees to meet up with Ellie, he's completely ditched the map grid. He's eyeballing the coordinates, and by now he can do it fairly confidently.
He also draws a very straight line with a confidence that he shouldn't have about the terrain. He's triangulating between where he is, the Light POI marker, and what he's guessing is open range for him to navigate thanks to the charted map. I must assume he intends to eyeball and feel his way around that line at the very least.
Not only that, during the trip to the Light, he drives without checking the map once. He memorized the middle point coordinates, drives to it, and then adjusts to the intended destination, all while talking shit at Ellie. That is fucking impressive!
Or, is it?
We're back from Eyeball land and bargainign with Ava for freedom now. The section of the map with the neat straight line is, not? We see now instead shorter, measured though slightly curved lines. It's a similar path overall, but very much different strokes, angles and lines.
This could be a continuation error, or this could be Simon misremembering his trip to the Light. Your pick!
CORRECTION!! We do see him adding lines during the trip to the Light, I simply missed them. My bad!
Then we get the trip back to the SM-8 and what a ride it is. Simon isn't really all there for it, but he still keeps track of his movements. Messy, longer lines, heavy pressure on the stick.
On the way back, we see he jotted down the sub location, aaaand the Light path lines are wonky again. Simon, please can we get a definitive look on those please?
Now we have the Ellie face-off so all maps and coordinates are out the window. What is worth noting is that however long the trip back out of the tunnels took, he didn't bother with the maps at all. Ava agreed to meet him at the exit of the tunnels based on his guesstimate coordinates, so it wasn't that far to go, but this is not new territory for him, he definitely navigated on proximity radar only.
The framing choice to obscure her right eye, in favor of her left blinded eye is amazing. She's turning a blind eye to Simon's situation, she's blind to him as a person and to his concerns about his safety. When her right eye visible, it gets hidden by shadows, or her focus is somewhere else. By hiding her uninjured side, she also protects herself from showing her vulnerabilities and doubts, her own humanity. Eyes are the window to the soul, so her remaining one is guarded. We only see her as someone touched by strife and hardship, marked by it and made worse for it.
Okay so, time for you guys to help me out cus, what the fuck is this shot?? Raw and edited gif for your study.
I'm positive we're seeing the torn arm still stuck to the pipe, following it down ona close up to show the veins and mutations reach the pendant and the seedling within. But what are those dancing glowy things? At first I thought they might be budding leaves, but then they looked a bit similar to the flesh bits glowing effects, but they are round and almost have a volume and direction of movement.... so i'm truly puzzled.
Read more for more pictures and a theory.
Now I think this is important because we have been fed shots of the pendant for a while now. Earlier it came whenever Simon was regretting something or trying to make amends, sometimes he reached for it for comfort or when considering his past.
We most recently seen it during the trip to the Light and how it reacted during the Blood Dimension field trip. There is a relevant line from Ellie, "It thinks, therefore we are", when the pendant is shown, while Simon is skeptical about the worth of the Light as a solution to everything.
Then a callback scene where Simon notices it has cracked, mirroring him finding it for the first time.
And then again, a close up of it bloodied during the trip to the SM-8. It's framed while the Father preaches that "when the last Son of Eden joins the Grove, there will be a thousand trees".
This is the last time we see the pendant prior to that mystery shot. It's just as he lost the arm and before the pendant explodes. The root-vein-things hasn't reached it yet.
Then we get the mystery shot at 1:59:23. It happens right after Simon shouts at Ellie, "Fine! You want the Butcher? Come on! Fuck you! Die!" and he starts fghting back. Immediately after, Simon shouts again, "Die!" and breaks one of the fangs impaling the sub.
After that all that the sub floods. Only after the pendant is submerged that it grows out roots (like Simon saw in the Blood Dimension) and becomes the Blood Tree.
So I'm wondering if that mystery shot is when the line between Simon and pendant on a metaphysical (dare I say, divine?) level is established. I might be wearing my tinfoil cap a bit too hard right now, but what if the seed finally having contact with the mutated sub and blood, is why Simon manages to break that tooth? He wanted Ellie to die, or rather to fuck right off, so it might have given him the strenght for it. Likewise on his very final moments, it was able to take that final spark of will to survive and boom, Blood Tree.
But theorycrafting aside, what do those glowy dots look to you guys? I'm genuine baffled by the visuals of it.
