Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Daley Pearson and Jeffrey Walker, ‘Allen’ follows the endearing friendship between a man and an alien, spanning from his childhood to adulthood. When Allen, the extraterrestrial being in question, first touched down on Earth in the 90s, a little boy named Petey became his sole friend, until their sudden, inexplicable goodbye. Many years later, Allen makes a surprise comeback in his human confidante’s life, except this time, more than a few things are different. Petey, for instance, is 20 years older and much different, but that pales in comparison to the secret Allen seems to be holding, one with the potential to change the world. By the end of this sci-fi adventure film, both Petey and Allen evolve in their own ways, and so does their unique relationship. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Allen Plot Synopsis
‘Allen’ begins with a dive back into the 1990s, where a little boy named Petey Burns sees a mysterious spacecraft whizz past his house. Chasing its trajectory ultimately leads him to the beach, where he encounters a small, adorable-looking alien, whom he brings home. While the alien doesn’t quite understand human ways of living at first, he learns and adapts at a surprisingly quick pace, and is soon capable of speech, playing games, and making merry in general. Petey eventually names him Allen, and over a short span of time the two of them become inseparable best friends, with Petey’s brother, Jaden, and friend, Carly, eventually joining the duo. However, something changes one night, when Petey gets Allen to do a spit handshake, following which a circular mark gets seared into both of their palms, and Allen gets pulled into a vortex, never to be seen again.
Two decades on, everyone in the world seems to have moved on, except for Petey, who is still hell-bent on locating Allen and reuniting with him. His brother and Carly are now married and expecting a baby, but know very little about Petey’s experiments, which involve beaming radio signals to space for Allen to respond to. One day, when Petey gets a response signal, the power surge ends up burning the entire house down, prompting Jaden to kick his brother out. Frustrated and without a roof, Petey seems to be on the verge of giving up, till Allen suddenly arrives in his spaceship, looking exactly as he did 20 years ago. As the two best friends evade the police and have the time of their lives, something begins to stir inside Petey’s stomach, causing an ominous discomfort.
By the time Petey brings Allen to meet Jaden and Carly, the pain seems to have gotten out of hand, and an ultrasound reveals that there are several parasites in his belly, planted by none other than Allen. Upon being confronted, Allen innocently explains that these parasites will soon explode out of Petey’s stomach to trigger an invasion, seemingly not understanding the threat to human life at all. Just as the group begins to explain to Allen why this is wrong, the police arrives at the house to arrest Petey, making things messier. One of the cops is Petey’s friend and secret crush, Sarah, who eventually helps him escape, only for Allen to reveal that the only way to remove the parasites is for his human friend to leave Earth and live with Allen in the ship, leaving Petey with a difficult choice to make.
Allen Ending: Will Allen Come Back?
‘Allen’ ends with a touch of hopeful ambiguity as though Allen leaves Earth behind, the baby monitor at Petey’s house buzzing up at the end suggests that something extraterrestrial is likely headed their way. There is no indication of this being Allen himself, as it just as well can be any other alien. For that matter, they needn’t have that cute-looking, bipedal form either, and all we know is that they produce a sound much like Allen. That said, since the movie concludes with this tease itself suggests how we aren’t supposed to take the sequence too literally. On the contrary, it can be interpreted as a symbolic way of saying that Allen will never leave Petey alone ever again, and will be by his side, one way or another.
While Allen can typically walk in and out of his capsule ship just fine, both the times he bids Earth goodbye are depicted much differently. In the 90s, he is sucked into a beam of sorts, but here, he essentially disintegrates, leaving many curious as to whether this is the end for the little alien. That, however, isn’t likely to be the case, since we see Allen’s ship spring into life the moment his dust form is brought back, which, coupled with the final cliffhanger, implies that he reassembles inside the capsule. This also lines up with what Allen says about the ship being capable of sustaining life forever, and saving Petey from the parasites, in what might be a similarly risky-looking way of disassembly and reassembly.
With Allen seemingly not aging one bit in two decades, it’s entirely possible that he perceives time on a scale unimaginable to us. In that case, Allen can very easily keep appearing on Earth to watch over and interact with the future generations of Petey’s family. It’s no surprise that the sounds we hear of him come from the baby monitor, which might be a reference to Allen returning to become the friend of a new generation of children, given that coming of age is such a major theme of the story. Regardless of whether the voice on the baby monitor is Allen’s, though, if there’s one thing for certain, it’s that something extraterrestrial is headed towards Petey once again, bringing in yet another fun mystery with it.
Why Does Petey Not Go With Allen? What Happens to the Parasites?
Despite being offered a chance to step into the capsule ship with Allen and never look back, Petey ultimately chooses to stay back and enjoy his life as a human, for reasons that might be unusual for some. To begin with, there is hardly a moment in the first half of the film where Petey fits in with the rest of the people around him. On the contrary, being with Allen and resuscitating their friendship appears to have been a lifelong goal of his. Even after taking all of these factors into consideration, Petey still chooses to stay on Earth and continue his regular, messy existence, because that is what he believes growing up means. Having dedicated 20 years to waiting for Allen’s return, Petey realizes that it wasn’t as much the case that the world wasn’t nice to him, but that he simply never made an effort.
Retracing the steps back to Allen’s first appearance, it makes sense why Petey would adopt such a close-knit lifestyle, as keeping Allen’s identity secret meant not involving too many people in his life. However, when Allen, his closest friend, disappeared after the spit pact, Petey couldn’t help but believe that it was his fault, which only added to his hesitation in making new friends. However, it is only after Allen’s return, and the ensuing chaos, that Petey realizes that he must learn to simultaneously cherish the olden days and live in the present, bonding with the people he cares about the most.
Petey comes to this conclusion in no small part due to the parasites squirming in his body, as they induce a sense of mortality, forcing him to think of every interaction as potentially his last. In that process, he ends up having a heart-to-heart with his brother and friends, all in one day, before coming to realize what all of this means in the grand scheme of things. Fortunately, the way to remove the parasites from his body turns out to involve an undoing of the spit pact, with Allen severing his biological connection to Petey, and thus, being forced to return to the capsule. Far from being a sad ending, however, this more so feels like a bittersweet one, from which Petey comes to learn a lot.
Do Petey and Sarah End Up Together?
The final sequence of the film also implies that Petey and Sarah might have begun dating at last, though it doesn’t leave us with a concrete answer either. At the very least, one can expect that Sarah and Rory have broken up, considering that the door quite literally closes on his face in his final appearance. Right before that, Sarah makes a leap of faith and chooses to be by Petey’s side over her fiancé’s, and that in and of itself is a powerful statement. At the same time, though, the ending doesn’t make a strong case for the two of them dating either, and all we have to rely on is the duo’s sheer chemistry and the fact that they are more comfortable with each other than ever.
Curiously, the one time their romantic tension does get called out is by none other than Allen, who nonchalantly asks Petey if Sarah is his girlfriend. While Sarah does say no as a reply, it’s still clear that she has mixed feelings about Petey, particularly stemming from how he has always been her closest friend, but not someone she can fully rely on as an adult. That said, the culmination of his arc sets him on a very different path, which means that there’s now a solid foundation for their relationship to take off, with Petey committing to living this new chapter of his life to the fullest.
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