What really happened

I also wonder what happened, the guys in black at the end seemed to know what has happened, but if they did, why even go in there? But yeah i guess some government stuff or aliens. Anyway I really thought it was creepy!

We really have nothing to go by, but at least we know (1) it's a local event, at least in and around the cabin, (2) it started within a day or two of the protagonists' arrival, (3) and the US government probably knows something is happening.

It probably isn't aliens since they usually are concerned with animal life (except to supposedly dissect cattle). It probably isn't the Rapture since it would be happening everywhere and all at once, so I would guess it's some sort of energy vortex/time-space phenomenon.

Now, only animals were affected -- the house, the earth, the trees, etc., weren't -- so it would have to be something specific to certain carbon-based lifeforms.

It's possible that the filmmakers themselves really didn't know what was behind the happenings in the film, which means they can just leave it up to our imaginations.

This movie wasnt bad...kind of reminded me of a Stephan King Book or his movie the Langoliers...

someone lost a plot.

http://trakt.tv/user/Pedro

I really thought this was going to be a good movie... I thought maybe the characters were dropping into a different time. You know kind of like a Bermuda Triangle type thing. That would explain why there were no birds, insects, animals etc.... I wasn't really thrilled w/the ending because there really was no explanation for anything. Oh well at least it was entertaining...

Clearly this is a metaphor for rapidly disappearing society due to peak oil.

It all started when nobody had any gas left, and they couldn't get any gas. A significant amount of discussion went into getting more gas.

"My grandfather owned a gas station" was a metaphor for previous generations being rich with fossil fuels. Now, not so much.

The rest was pretty much life, just encapsulated in one weekend. People "disappear" one by one, just like people die, one by one.

The cops and the feds show up, ostensibly to "maintain order" but they too can't escape the long reach of the reaper.

The statement by the cop, "We've got to hurry up, we don't have much time" works on FOUR levels:

1) Ordinary cop at a crime scene
2) Cop at a crime scene where people are vanishing and they know they are about to vanish
3) People on Earth have to "hurry" up as our time here is limited
4) Only about ten minutes left in the movie when he said that.

What's the meaning? Who knows.

What's the meaning of life? Who knows.

We're here and then POOF.

No idea. The most likely answer is people were being transported into another 'dimension' but why or where I have no idea. I doubt it was aliens. Probably some kind of time warp, but I have no idea why you had to not see someone for them to disappear, why sometimes they came back like Noah, or why sometimes they didn't disappear even when you weren't looking at them.

I like movies with loose ends like this. If people want a movie where everything is explained in the end there are already tons of movies like that.

What I don't get is why do all the paramedics disappear in the end just because the female character closes her eyes? The cops and firefighters could still see each other. I'm guessing what really happened was she was the one who disappeared, while all the emergency workers were still there.

To me its kind of like Sphere, only with even less of an explanation.
The purpose is not to tell a complete story, but to mess with your head.