Life (2017)
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A crew on the International Space Station must confront a rapidly evolving and deadly extraterrestrial life-form discovered on Mars.
The story
In the near future, an uncrewed space probe returns from Mars to Earth's orbit with soil samples potentially containing evidence of extraterrestrial life. The probe is collected by the International Space Station, where exobiologist Hugh Derry revives a dormant cell that quickly grows into a multi-celled organism; a group of schoolchildren vote to name the organism "Calvin". When members of the crew conduct their research, the rapidly evolving life-form proves to be far more intelligent and dangerous than expected. The crew must deal with the escalating threat as the organism begins to cause chaos within the station's confines.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a dormant cell named 'Calvin' is revived on the International Space Station, it becomes hostile and begins to kill crew members, including Rory Adams and Kat Golovkina. The organism's intelligence allows it to manipulate its environment and escape containment. As the station's communication with Earth fails, the crew struggles to contain the threat. They eventually attempt to isolate the organism, but it manages to escape into other sections of the station. During a desperate attempt to contain it, Sho Murakami is killed. The crew eventually attempts to launch the organism into space using a Soyuz spacecraft, but the plan fails, and the station enters a decaying orbit. In a final desperate move, David and Miranda attempt to trap Calvin in an escape pod. David launches into space with the organism while Miranda returns to Earth. One pod lands in the South Pacific, where fishermen find David being consumed by the organism, while the other pod drifts away into deep space.
- First release year
- 2017
- Runtime (minutes)
- 104
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Daniel Espinosa
- Writers
- Rhett Reese · writer; Paul Wernick · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jake Gyllenhaal · Dr. David Jordan; Rebecca Ferguson · Dr. Miranda North; Ryan Reynolds · Rory Adams; Hiroyuki Sanada · Sho Murakami; Ariyon Bakare · Dr. Hugh Derry; Olga Dihovichnaya · Ekaterina "Kat" Golovkina
- Genres
- science fiction; horror
- Themes
- survival; extraterrestrial life; isolation
- Tone and mood
- tense; claustrophobic
- Setting
- The International Space Station in the near future.
- Premise and plot tags
- space; monster; survival
- Production trivia
- The film used a recycled shot from the 2007 movie, Spider-Man 3, in its trailer.; The opening eight-minute long take was created by Industrial Light & Magic.; The film's release date was moved up to avoid competition with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Alien: Covenant.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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