‘Monolith’ Film Explained: Theories, Themes, and Meaning

I love movies that ride the line between horror and science fiction. Monolith (2022) is a great example of that.

I really enjoyed this movie. And more than that, I enjoyed dissecting it with my wife after the credits rolled.

Here’s some of what we discussed:

Screenshot from “Monolith” trailer.

Theories About the Meaning and Themes of ‘Monolith’ (2022)

1. The Black Brick as a Projection of Guilt or Shame

Theory: The strange black bricks that appear in people’s lives might represent repressed guilt, personal secrets, or internalized anxieties—a physical manifestation of something the characters cannot confront.

• Why It Fits:
  • The Interviewer’s own mental unraveling mirrors the growing importance of the brick in her own backstory—suggesting that she, too, has unresolved guilt or trauma that takes on a tangible shape.
  • Interviewees describe the bricks appearing when they’re least prepared, hinting at suppressed truths forcing themselves into awareness.
• Key Moments:
  • Floramae’s discovery, Klaus’s art collection, and the various stories told on the podcast all revolve around people encountering this object in moments of vulnerability or crisis.
  • The Interviewer’s realization that one of the bricks is tied directly to her personal past cements the notion that the artifact emerges from the subconscious.

2. A Commentary on Isolation and the Search for Validation

Theory: The Interviewer’s shift to podcasting during a period of personal and professional disgrace—while locked away in her parents’ empty home—heightens her feelings of loneliness. The black brick phenomenon may reflect how people seek external proof or “mysteries” when they feel unheard or unseen.

• Why It Fits:
  • The Interviewer is desperate to restore her career and identity; broadcasting unsolved mysteries is her last-ditch grab for relevance.
  • Listeners phone in with stories that might (or might not) be true, seeking validation—mirroring the Interviewer’s own need for outside acknowledgment.
• Key Moments:
  • The Interviewer’s ongoing monologue and phone calls with anonymous sources evoke the idea of connection in isolation—she can’t see her audience, but she craves their response.
  • Klaus’s involvement as an art collector dealing with these bricks from around the world also implies a global longing for significance—people mail him these artifacts in search of an answer.

3. Alien Conspiracy or Internal Delusion?

Theory:
The presence of “alien conspiracies” and talk of advanced artifacts might be deliberately ambiguous. The film suggests two possibilities: either the black bricks truly are extraterrestrial objects, or they’re illusions/deceptions conjured by those who need an otherworldly explanation for their personal crises.

• Why It Fits:
  • The interviewees’ stories are surreal, but there’s no definitive “alien” proof on-screen; it’s all secondhand accounts.
  • The Interviewer’s deteriorating mental health raises the question of whether she’s constructing a grand conspiracy to avoid facing her own failures.
• Key Moments:
  • Klaus’s scans and analyses of the bricks remain inconclusive—he has bizarre data, but nothing definitively extraterrestrial.
  • The final open-ended scenes leave us wondering if the bricks exist physically or if they symbolize personal illusions that each character invests with cosmic significance.

4. The Single Setting as a Metaphor for Self-Imprisonment

Theory: By confining the story to one large house and one character on-screen, the film underscores how the Interviewer is trapped by her past mistakes. The mysterious bricks and the “podcast investigating the unknown” could be read as her attempt to escape a personal prison she’s built.

• Why It Fits:
  • She’s alone in her parents’ spacious home, ironically lacking freedom despite the physical space.
  • Her conversations are all remote—phone calls, recordings, the intangible realm of the internet—emphasizing she’s cut off from real human interaction.
• Key Moments:
  • Scenes in which she paces around, trying to piece together the puzzle of the bricks, mirror her attempts to parse her own guilt and professional downfall.
  • The final moment, in which she recognizes her own involvement in the backstory, might symbolize coming to terms with her self-constructed barriers.

5. Disgraced Journalist as a Critique of Clickbait Culture

Theory: The film may be subtly critiquing modern journalism’s pivot to sensational stories and conspiracies to attract an audience. The Interviewer, hungry for a scoop, leaps at the black brick phenomenon without properly verifying sources, risking further disgrace or delusion.

• Why It Fits:
  • The Interviewer’s desperation to resurrect her career parallels the modern press environment, where “big exclusives” and viral mysteries can overshadow journalistic rigor.
  • The motif of alien conspiracies and random calls from strangers suggests how easily content can spiral into rumor-fueled hyperbole without concrete evidence.
• Key Moments:
  • She entices callers by promising to spotlight their mysteries, blurring the line between legitimate reporting and sensational crowd-sourced storytelling.
  • Klaus’s involvement demonstrates how quickly anecdotal “data” can be misinterpreted or exploited in a digital age hungry for outré narratives.

6. The Brick as a Time Capsule of Traumatic Memories

Theory:
Another angle views the bricks as literal “containers” for painful memories—each brick belongs to someone whose trauma has been locked away. As people encounter these bricks, they’re forced to confront or relive the past.

• Why It Fits:
  • The Interviewer’s shock upon realizing she’s part of one brick’s history suggests repressed trauma triggered by the artifact’s resurfacing.
  • The bricks popping up randomly in individuals’ lives might symbolize how unresolved traumas can resurface unpredictably.
• Key Moments:
  • Floramae and others describing how the brick’s sudden presence disrupts daily life—like a memory that refuses to be ignored.
  • The final ambiguity around the Interviewer’s involvement suggests that once trauma is uncovered, it resists neat resolution.

7. The Power of Storytelling and Collective Myth

Theory: Monolith might highlight how stories—especially supernatural or conspiratorial ones—can build unstoppable momentum when shared via modern media. The bricks’ meaning grows from random objects into a narrative phenomenon because the podcast listeners co-create the myth.

• Why It Fits:
  • The Interviewer’s show frames the brick as an unsolved mystery, attracting more calls, each adding new layers of rumor and speculation.
  • Klaus collecting the bricks further cements their status as “artifacts,” fueling the sense that everyone is shaping a collective myth around an otherwise unremarkable black block.
• Key Moments:
  • Listeners who phone in with experiences or secondhand tales, effectively “writing” new chapters of the phenomenon.
  • The Interviewer’s meltdown when she realizes she’s not just telling the story, she’s part of it—an ironic twist that demonstrates how storytellers can get consumed by their own narrative.

8. The Uncertain Ending: A Mirror for the Audience’s Own Unresolved Questions

Theory: By leaving the final scenes open to interpretation, the film invites viewers to decide whether the Interviewer’s revelations are real, imagined, or some blend of both. In doing so, Monolith underscores the ambiguity inherent in stories we hear secondhand—each viewer becomes a participant in defining the truth.

• Why It Fits:
  • No definitive proof emerges, and the Interviewer’s mental decline suggests we can’t fully trust her perspective.
  • The cryptic final image or sequence (depending on how the film frames it) suggests the bricks’ origin remains elusive, much like a newly minted urban legend that’s never fully explained.
• Key Moments:
  • The Interviewer’s shocked realization that she’s directly tied to one brick’s “backstory” confounds her role as an objective reporter.
  • The ending cuts away before explaining whether she overcame her illusions or fell deeper into them—leaving the audience to debate.

Key Themes in ‘Monolith

Isolation and Confinement

The film’s single-location setting underscores The Interviewer’s physical and emotional seclusion. Remaining alone in her parents’ empty house mirrors her estrangement from both career and community.

Obsessive Investigation

Driven by a need to restore her reputation, The Interviewer becomes fixated on the mysterious black brick reports. Her mounting obsession demonstrates how curiosity—especially under professional or personal pressure—can spiral into mania.

Podcasting and Modern Storytelling

By relying on phone-ins and remote connections, Monolith highlights the evolving nature of “truth” in the digital era. The Interviewer attempts to build a compelling narrative from disparate, possibly unverified sources.

Ambiguous Evidence and Doubt

Throughout the film, listeners’ and callers’ stories provide tantalizing clues that never fully coalesce into certainty. The repeated emphasis on elusive “proof” fosters a sense of lingering doubt about what is real or imagined.

Mental Vulnerability and Public Image

The Interviewer grapples with her recent fall from grace, revealing how public failures (and a fear of irrelevance) can warp a person’s self-perception. Her declining mental health suggests that such pressures magnify life’s unsolved mysteries into personal crises.

Open-Ended Resolution

By avoiding a definitive conclusion to the black brick phenomenon, Monolith invites viewers to reconcile the incomplete puzzle themselves. This unresolved finale encourages reflection on how easily personal and collective myths can become entwined.

Plot Summary

• Year Released: 2022
• Director: Matt Vesely
• Writer: Lucy Campbell

In Monolith (2022), a disgraced journalist—known only as The Interviewer—retreats to her parents’ empty home, hoping to resurrect her reputation by starting a mystery-focused podcast. When she encourages listeners to share unsolved stories, several callers describe the sudden appearance of a strange black brick in their lives. Intrigued, The Interviewer investigates further and connects with Klaus, a German art collector obsessed with these enigmatic artifacts.

As she pursues the story, The Interviewer’s mental state deteriorates. Her isolation and the cryptic clues—various sightings of the brick, unsettling recordings hinting at alien origins—fuel increasing paranoia. Eventually, she discovers her own unexpected link to one of the bricks, a revelation that implicates her deeper in the mystery. Monolith ends on an ambiguous note, leaving the black brick’s nature—and The Interviewer’s ultimate understanding of it—unclear.

Movies with Similar Themes to ‘Monolith’

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Pontypool (2008)

Set almost entirely in a radio station, it follows a DJ and staff uncovering a bizarre outbreak through frantic calls and broadcast updates. Similar to Monolith’s podcast-driven plot, the unseen threat and limited perspective intensify the sense of dread and possible psychological unraveling.

—> Watch Pontypool online.

The Vast of Night (2019)

A small-town radio host and a switchboard operator investigate strange transmissions that may be extraterrestrial. Though not a single-character piece, it uses audio clues and late-night phone calls to craft a slowly unfolding mystery reminiscent of Monolith’s “unknown phenomenon” approach.

—> Watch The Vast of Night online.

Coherence (2013)

Takes place mainly in one house during a strange cosmic event that upends reality. While it’s a group ensemble, the film similarly hinges on the characters’ uncertainty about what’s real, echoing Monolith’s eerie, mind-bending tension.

—> Watch Coherence online.

The Guilty (2018 / 2021 Remake)

A police officer works alone in a call center, piecing together a crisis solely through phone conversations. This intimate, single-location setup and the main character’s rising anxiety mirror Monolith’s reliance on the protagonist’s perspective and remote storytelling.

—> Watch The Guilty online.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Although more surreal and psychological than mystery-driven, this film also confines itself to a small cast and emphasizes the protagonist’s internal monologue and unraveling sense of reality—similar to Monolith’s exploration of a collapsing mindset.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

While stylistically different (found footage vs. podcasting), it parallels Monolith in how legends and intangible evidence (tapes, interviews, scattered hints) shape the narrative, leaving viewers uncertain if the threat is supernatural, psychological, or both.

—> Watch The Blair Witch Project online.

What Did You Think of ‘Monolith’?

There’s probably more to say about Monolith, but I’ll leave it there for now. I’d love to hear from you, though.

Any thoughts about this movie? Maybe questions? Put them in the comments.

😱