Lifeforce (1985)
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A crew of astronauts discovers three humanoid aliens in suspended animation within a spaceship hidden in the coma of Halley's Comet.
The story
The crew of the joint British and American Space Shuttle Churchill, under the command of Colonel Tom Carlsen, finds a spaceship hidden in the coma of Halley's Comet. Inside, they discover hundreds of desiccated bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies in suspended animation within glass containers. The crew recovers a bat-alien and the three bodies and begins the return trip to Earth. During the return journey, mission control loses contact with Churchill. A rescue mission later discovers that the shuttle has been gutted by fire, leaving the crew dead and the escape pod missing, while the three containers bearing the bodies remain intact.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After the Churchill shuttle is found gutted by fire, the three humanoid bodies are taken to a research center in London. The female alien awakens, drains the life force from a guard, and escapes to drain others. The two male vampires also awaken and attempt to escape. The guard drained by the female alien revives with the ability to drain others. Colonel Tom Carlsen, found in an escape pod, reveals he shared his life force with the female vampire, leading to the draining of the shuttle crew. He set fire to the shuttle to save Earth and escaped. Carlsen and SAS Colonel Colin Caine trace the female vampire to a psychiatric hospital in Yorkshire, where she is hidden in the body of Dr. Armstrong. Meanwhile, the male vampires shapeshift into soldiers and infect London's population. Martial law is declared as they multiply. The life forces are channeled to the female vampire, who transmits the energy to her spaceship in geosynchronous orbit. Hans Fallada impales a male vampire with an ancient weapon of 'leaded iron.' Caine finds Fallada possessed and shoots him. Carlsen tracks the female vampire to St Paul's Cathedral, where she is transferring energy to her spaceship. She reveals she and Carlsen are now part of each other. Caine kills the second male vampire and throws the weapon to Carlsen, who impales himself and the female alien simultaneously. A burst of energy blows open the dome of St Paul's as they ascend to the spaceship, which returns to the comet.
- First release year
- 1985
- Runtime (minutes)
- 101
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Tobe Hooper
- Writers
- Dan O'Bannon · screenplay; Don Jakoby · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Steve Railsback · Col. Tom Carlsen; Peter Firth · Col. Colin Caine; Frank Finlay · Hans Fallada; Mathilda May · Space Girl; Patrick Stewart · Dr. Armstrong; Michael Gothard · Leonard Bukovsky; Nicholas Ball · Roger Derebridge; Aubrey Morris · Percy Heseltine
- Genres
- science fiction; horror
- Themes
- parasitism; vampirism; alien invasion; sacrifice
- Tone and mood
- strange; apocalyptic; horror
- Premise and plot tags
- sci-fi; horror; vampires; aliens; shapeshifting; space exploration
- Source material / true-story basis
- Colin Wilson's 1976 novel The Space Vampires
- Content notes
- nudity
- Reception
- Lifeforce received mixed reviews and was a box office failure, but has since become a cult film.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 58% · review count: 33; Metacritic · score: 50 · scale: 100 · review count: 12
- Production trivia
- The model London destroyed in the film was the remains of Tucktonia, a model village near Christchurch, United Kingdom.; The film was the first of Tobe Hooper's three-picture deal with Cannon Films.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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