Life VFX Breakdown
Life is a 2017 American science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds. The film follows a six-member crew of the International Space Station that uncovers the first evidence of life on Mars.
The first co-production between Skydance Media and Sony Pictures, the film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 18, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on March 24, 2017. It received mixed reviews from critics, receiving praise for its acting, visuals, and writing, though several criticized its lack of originality. It ended its box office run at $100.5 million.
In the near future, the unmanned Pilgrim 7 space probe returns from Mars to Earth orbit with soil samples potentially containing evidence of extraterrestrial life. The probe is captured and its samples retrieved by the International Space Station and its six-member crew. Exobiologist Hugh Derry, who is paralyzed from the waist down, revives a dormant cell from the sample, which quickly grows into a multi-celled organism that American school children name "Calvin". Hugh realizes that Calvin's cells can change their specialisation, acting as muscle, sensor, and neuron cells all at once.
An accident in the lab causes Calvin to become dormant; Hugh attempts to revive Calvin with electric shocks, but Calvin immediately becomes hostile and attacks Hugh, crushing his hand. While Hugh lies unconscious from Calvin's attack, Calvin uses Hugh's electric shock tool to escape its enclosure; now free in the laboratory, Calvin devours a lab rat by absorbing it, growing in size. Engineer Rory Adams enters the lab to rescue Hugh; he is locked in by fellow crew member and physician David Jordan, however, to keep Calvin contained. Calvin latches onto Rory's leg; after Rory unsuccessfully attacks Calvin with a portable rocket thruster, Calvin enters his mouth, devouring his organs from the inside and killing him. Emerging from Rory's mouth even larger, Calvin escapes through a fire-control vent.
Finding their communication with Earth cut off due to overheating of the communication systems, ISS commander Ekaterina Golovkina performs a space walk to find and fix the problem. She discovers that Calvin has breached the ISS's cooling system; soon after, Calvin attacks her, rupturing her spacesuit's water coolant system in the process and causing the water in the system to fill her suit. She blindly makes her way back to the airlock; however, she and the crew realize that if she re-enters, Calvin will also be able to re-enter the ISS. Hence, she refuses to open the hatch and stops David from helping her do so; this keeps Calvin out of the station for the time being but also causes her to drown and die in her spacesuit.
Calvin then attempts to re-enter the station through its maneuvering thrusters. The crew try to fire the thrusters to blast Calvin away from the spacecraft, but their attempts fail, using up too much fuel and causing the ISS to enter a decaying orbit where it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Pilot Sho Murakami informs the crew that they need to use the station's remaining fuel to get back into a safe orbit, although this allows Calvin to re-enter the station. The crew plan to make Calvin dormant by sealing themselves into one module and venting the atmosphere from the rest of the station.
After the remaining crew finalize preparations to do so, Hugh enters cardiac arrest. The crew then discover that Calvin has been feeding off of Hugh's paralyzed leg. Calvin attacks the remainder of the crew; Sho seals himself in a sleeping pod. As Calvin attempts to break its glass, David and the quarantine officer Miranda North use Hugh's corpse as bait to lure Calvin away from Sho and trap it in another module to deprive it of oxygen. Having received a distress call prior to the damage to the ISS's communication system, Earth sends a Soyuz spacecraft to the station as a fail-safe plan to push the station into deep space. Believing the Soyuz to be on a rescue mission for the ISS crew, Sho leaves his pod and moves to board it, forcing open its hatch; Calvin then attacks him and the Soyuz crew, causing the craft's docking mechanism to fail and resulting in the capsule crashing into the ISS, killing Sho and the Soyuz crew and causing the ISS to once again enter a decaying orbit.
The only two remaining survivors, David and Miranda, aware that Calvin could survive re-entry, plan for David to lure Calvin into one of the two remaining escape pods attached to the ISS for David to manually pilot the pod into deep space, isolating Calvin and allowing Miranda to return to Earth in the second pod. David manages to lure Calvin into his pod while Miranda enters her pod; as they simultaneously undock their pods from the ISS, one of the pods hits debris and is damaged, veering off course. In David's pod, Calvin attacks him as he struggles to manually pilot the pod; in Miranda's pod, she records a black box message in case of her death during re-entry informing the world of her colleagues' deaths and not to trust Calvin nor any extraterrestrial life from Mars as well as to destroy Calvin at any cost should he make his way to Earth.
The two pods separate, one earthbound, the other spiraling away from Earth. The earthbound pod lands in the ocean; two nearby Vietnamese fishermen approach it. As they look into the pod, it is revealed to be David's, the astronaut now encased in a web-like substance. Meanwhile, Miranda's pod's navigation system fails due to damage sustained from the debris, sending her flying away from Earth out of control, much to her horror. On Earth, despite David attempting to warn the fishermen, the fishermen open the pod's hatch. Meanwhile, more boats arrive.
Life is a 2017 American science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds. The film follows a six-member crew of the International Space Station that uncovers the first evidence of life on Mars.
The first co-production between Skydance Media and Sony Pictures, the film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 18, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on March 24, 2017. It received mixed reviews from critics, receiving praise for its acting, visuals, and writing, though several criticized its lack of originality. It ended its box office run at $100.5 million.
In the near future, the unmanned Pilgrim 7 space probe returns from Mars to Earth orbit with soil samples potentially containing evidence of extraterrestrial life. The probe is captured and its samples retrieved by the International Space Station and its six-member crew. Exobiologist Hugh Derry, who is paralyzed from the waist down, revives a dormant cell from the sample, which quickly grows into a multi-celled organism that American school children name "Calvin". Hugh realizes that Calvin's cells can change their specialisation, acting as muscle, sensor, and neuron cells all at once.
Finding their communication with Earth cut off due to overheating of the communication systems, ISS commander Ekaterina Golovkina performs a space walk to find and fix the problem. She discovers that Calvin has breached the ISS's cooling system; soon after, Calvin attacks her, rupturing her spacesuit's water coolant system in the process and causing the water in the system to fill her suit. She blindly makes her way back to the airlock; however, she and the crew realize that if she re-enters, Calvin will also be able to re-enter the ISS. Hence, she refuses to open the hatch and stops David from helping her do so; this keeps Calvin out of the station for the time being but also causes her to drown and die in her spacesuit.
Calvin then attempts to re-enter the station through its maneuvering thrusters. The crew try to fire the thrusters to blast Calvin away from the spacecraft, but their attempts fail, using up too much fuel and causing the ISS to enter a decaying orbit where it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Pilot Sho Murakami informs the crew that they need to use the station's remaining fuel to get back into a safe orbit, although this allows Calvin to re-enter the station. The crew plan to make Calvin dormant by sealing themselves into one module and venting the atmosphere from the rest of the station.
After the remaining crew finalize preparations to do so, Hugh enters cardiac arrest. The crew then discover that Calvin has been feeding off of Hugh's paralyzed leg. Calvin attacks the remainder of the crew; Sho seals himself in a sleeping pod. As Calvin attempts to break its glass, David and the quarantine officer Miranda North use Hugh's corpse as bait to lure Calvin away from Sho and trap it in another module to deprive it of oxygen. Having received a distress call prior to the damage to the ISS's communication system, Earth sends a Soyuz spacecraft to the station as a fail-safe plan to push the station into deep space. Believing the Soyuz to be on a rescue mission for the ISS crew, Sho leaves his pod and moves to board it, forcing open its hatch; Calvin then attacks him and the Soyuz crew, causing the craft's docking mechanism to fail and resulting in the capsule crashing into the ISS, killing Sho and the Soyuz crew and causing the ISS to once again enter a decaying orbit.
The only two remaining survivors, David and Miranda, aware that Calvin could survive re-entry, plan for David to lure Calvin into one of the two remaining escape pods attached to the ISS for David to manually pilot the pod into deep space, isolating Calvin and allowing Miranda to return to Earth in the second pod. David manages to lure Calvin into his pod while Miranda enters her pod; as they simultaneously undock their pods from the ISS, one of the pods hits debris and is damaged, veering off course. In David's pod, Calvin attacks him as he struggles to manually pilot the pod; in Miranda's pod, she records a black box message in case of her death during re-entry informing the world of her colleagues' deaths and not to trust Calvin nor any extraterrestrial life from Mars as well as to destroy Calvin at any cost should he make his way to Earth.
The two pods separate, one earthbound, the other spiraling away from Earth. The earthbound pod lands in the ocean; two nearby Vietnamese fishermen approach it. As they look into the pod, it is revealed to be David's, the astronaut now encased in a web-like substance. Meanwhile, Miranda's pod's navigation system fails due to damage sustained from the debris, sending her flying away from Earth out of control, much to her horror. On Earth, despite David attempting to warn the fishermen, the fishermen open the pod's hatch. Meanwhile, more boats arrive.