Movie Substrate · Film

The Blackout (2019)

★ 6.5 · 569 ratings on TMDB

Who's going to save you when the world falls into darkness?

The Blackout poster★ 6.5

Contact between most towns on Earth has been severed. A small ring-like area in Eastern Europe still has electricity, and maybe even life is being reported from space. What military forces find outside the ring is shocking.

DirectorEgor Baranov
CastAleksey Chadov, Artyom Markaryan, Artyom Tkachenko, Konstantin Lavronenko, Kseniya Kutepova, Lukerya Ilyashenko
GenresAction, Science Fiction, Thriller
The emergence reading

In The Blackout, consciousness is carried by aliens — a plane of “alien invasion apocalypse”. The story fights on E8/E13 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing colonization, religion, control, survival, power.

↷ aliensRUcolonizationreligioncontrolsurvivalpower
⇄ Parameter shift — the dial this world turnsrigor: loose
E1lightambient photons are absent worldwide, leaving only a limited region around Moscow illuminated (physics · universal)
Also inFilms about controlConsciousness hiding in aliensFilms about survivalFilms that alter a rule of reality
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Same rung, same subject

Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.

Independence Day (1996)E13 · rare rung · power, survivalTitan A.E. (2000)E13 · rare rung · colonization, survivalGuardians of the Galaxy (2014)E8/E13 · rare rung · powerThor: Ragnarok (2017)E8/E13 · rare rung · powerAvengers: Infinity War (2018)E8/E13 · rare rung · powerZack Snyder's Justice League (2021)E8/E13 · rare rung · power

Same subject, different rung

The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.

Species (1995)E4/E11/E14 · rare rung · control, survivalGodzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)E7/E10 · rare rung · power, survivalPriest (2011)E6/E9/E10 · rare rung · religion, survivalDune (1984)E11/E12 · rare rung · power, religionImpossible Things (2021)E11/E12 · rare rung · control, powerAllegiant (2016)E9/E10/E11 · control, power

Also bends a rule of reality

Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.

The Darkest Hour (2011)alters at E1 · same rung · rigorousPulse (2006)alters at E1 · same rung · looseGalaxy of Terror (1981)alters at E1 · same rung · looseTerminator Genisys (2015)alters at E0 · looseAtlas (2024)alters at E8 · looseSongbird (2020)alters at E10 · loose

Also hides consciousness here

Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.

Stargate (1994)consciousness in aliens · ancient alien gate worldThe Chronicles of Riddick (2004)consciousness in aliens · interstellar crusadeStar Trek: First Contact (1996)consciousness in aliens · borg temporal invasionBattle for Terra (2007)consciousness in aliens · alien planet colonizationDragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku (1990)consciousness in aliens · saiyan warGodzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)consciousness in aliens · kaiju cosmos

Same subject, different mask

The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)consciousness in machines · control, powerMarch of the Penguins (2005)consciousness in animals · control, powerAlien: Covenant (2017)consciousness in machines · colonization, survivalUnderworld: Awakening (2012)consciousness in monsters · power, survivalThe Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light (2021)consciousness in monsters · power, religionTerra Formars (2016)consciousness in animals · colonization, survival

Same people

Shared director or cast.

Abigail (2019)Artyom TkachenkoSputnik (2020)Pyotr Fyodorov9th Company (2005)Aleksey ChadovForbidden Empire (2014)Aleksey ChadovChernobyl: Abyss (2021)Philipp AvdeevComa (2020)Konstantin Lavronenko