Life (2017)
- Daniel Espinosa originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
- The original script for Life was written over a decade before production finally began in 2017.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Daniel Espinosa's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
Life is a 2017 American science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Espinosa. The six-member crew of the International Space Station β played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya β discover a rapidly evolving Martian organism in soil samples returned from Mars. Initially microscopic and seemingly benign, the creature they name Calvin grows with alarming speed and intelligence, eventually becoming a hostile, nearly indestructible predator that hunts the crew through the station's corridors.
Life was an effective contained horror film that drew unabashed inspiration from Alien's template β a small crew trapped in a confined space with a lethal organism β while updating the concept with modern zero-gravity visual effects that allowed Calvin to attack from any direction. The creature design evolved convincingly from a translucent cellular organism to a muscular, flower-like predator. Ryan Reynolds's early departure from the film was a deliberate subversion of star-power expectations.
The film's bleak ending was one of its most discussed elements. Life earned $100 million worldwide on a $58 million budget.
