Life is a 2017 American science fiction horror film[5][6][7] directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and starring an ensemble cast consisting of Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya.
The development of Life began in November 2015, when it was announced that Espinosa would direct a film set in space, with Wernick and Reese writing the screenplay.
In the near future, an uncrewed space probe returns from Mars to Earth's orbit with soil samples potentially containing evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Engineer Rory Adams rescues Hugh, but Calvin grabs onto his leg, prompting Dr. Miranda North to seal the lab.
The crew fire the thrusters to blast it away, but the loss of fuel causes the station to enter a decaying orbit, where it will burn up when it reenters Earth's atmosphere.
Systems tech Sho Murakami suggests using the remaining fuel to get back into a stable orbit, even though it will allow Calvin to re-enter.
The Soyuz disconnects due to the air lock breach and crashes into the space station, knocking it back into a decaying orbit.
On November 18, 2015, Deadline Hollywood reported that Daniel Espinosa would direct a film set in space and titled Life, from a script from Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, which Skydance Media financing and producing, with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bonnie Curtis, and Julie Lynn.
[26] Espinosa specifically told Ekstrand to seek a sound reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann, with some influence from Khachaturian to reference the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Gayaneh’s Adagio, used for long shots of the Discovery heading towards Jupiter).
[37] It ended up debuting to $12.6 million, finishing 4th at the box office, behind Beauty and the Beast, Power Rangers, and Kong: Skull Island.
The site's critical consensus reads, "Life is just thrilling, well-acted, and capably filmed enough to overcome an overall inability to add new wrinkles to the trapped-in-space genre.
[38] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said of the film, "For all its flashy trappings, weighty ruminations and zero-gravity floatings aboard the International Space Station, Life turns out to be another variant of Alien, though without the grungy horror and grim fun.
"[42] Describing the theme of outer space, Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times said "As the astronauts contend with airlocks, busted equipment and escape pods, it becomes increasingly difficult to pretend that this isn't territory where more inventive screenwriters and stronger visual stylists have gone before.
"[43] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone faulted not the scenes but the performances, saying there was "not a single actor in Life who manages to fill in and humanize the blank space where a character should be.
"[44] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post approved of these character flaws, saying the "conflicting dynamics of their individual temperaments lead occasionally to poor decision-making.
"[45] Richard Brody of The New Yorker complimented this balance of character and plot from the director, saying "Espinosa's sense of drama is efficient, familiar, and narrow; if there's a moral sentiment to his direction, it's precisely in the limits that he imposes on the movie's dose of pain and gore.
"[46] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times opined that Life, with a mise-en-scène of the International Space Station, was "a wonderful setting for a meal we've tasted before," adding that it is "undeniably satisfying to be in the hands of a persuasive director who knows how to slowly ratchet up the tension to a properly unnerving level.
"[48] The survivors' reading of Margaret Wise Brown's children's bedtime story Goodnight Moon drew criticism from Peter Bradshaw, who stated "the crew’s memories of the kids’ bedtime book are supposed to lend a little gentleness and humanity to the film, and a bit of a narrative breather, but this third-act conceit only succeeds in replacing a creeping sense of tiredness with sentimentality.