Alien sci-fi horror Life from Daniel Espinosa offers nothing new in terms of a plot, but its smart script offers a plethora of thought-provoking discussions on our very own existence, motivations and purpose.

The characters in the film offer something special for the audience. Each crew member has a different personal story that eventually makes all the cast even more relatable to us than just merely being fictional characters in a film.

First, there is David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), an American and one of the two medical doctors working on the station. Jordan carries within himself a trauma and a form of hatred toward the idea of living on Earth.

He has been in space for more than 400 days and has no plan to return home due to the fact that he had suffered too much horror of seeing what men could do to one another during war time when he was previously stationed as a medical doctor in the Syrian battle zone. For him, his family is the crew and he will ensure their safety.

Jordan has a fellow American on the station and his name is Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds). Ryan is the goofiest yet the most versatile member of the crew. He is often tasked with dangerous assignments, such as space walking in order to retrieve cargo from Mars carrying an alien life form sample or making sure biohazard materials do not leak from the laboratory.

Despite his unapologetic insensitive jokes, Adams has a strong loyalty toward everyone and he develops a special bond with Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare), a British scientist who is responsible for analyzing the alien life form sample. Derry also finds that living in zero gravity is a blessing because it allows him to fly around despite his physical handicap.

Then there is Sho (Hiroyuki Sanada), a Japanese and the chief machine operator of the station who is expecting to see his newborn baby girl back home.

Later on, Sho must choose between his sentiments toward his family and his professionalism in protecting the crew and the station from the rampaging alien.

The remaining two are Katerina “Kat” Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya), the station commander who is strict but puts all of her attention toward the safety of crew, and Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson), who is also a medical doctor but unlike Jordan, she longs to go home to Earth.

All of the six crew members are jubilant when they confirm that the sample they retrieved is alive. They celebrate their discovery and name the newly found Martian Calvin.

At first, Calvin is gentle and caring when Derry analyzes it in the lab. However, after a minor incident in the lab, Calvin changes.

It grows bigger and starts seeing the crew members as its source of food and energy. The crew members then do whatever they can to prevent Calvin from entering the Earth’s atmosphere and endangering the planet.

Espinosa does a great job in presenting the narrative and suspense in Life during its 103-minute playing time.

The camera work and screenplay are superbly executed as they use unconventional angles and rotations to engage members of the audience, making them feel as if they are floating in a zero-gravity environment.

The music score by Jon Ekstrand also does not disappoint, although at times it is a little bit over the top and takes the tone of suspense down a little bit.

What sets Life apart from other cliché scripts on a dangerous alien living in a space station filled with human beings is the fact that none of the crew members turns into a selfish prima donna when all hell breaks loose.

Despite of their personal differences and motivations, they are all bound with the commitment of making sure the alien does not reach Earth at whatever cost.

As the nightmare unfolds for the crew members, Life begins to present provocatively dangerous discussions that can be interpreted in contrasting conclusions depending on what your ideology leans toward.

In today’s world filled with paranoia about “foreigners,” the film narrative can be interpreted as a metaphor for anti-refugee sentiment by ultra-nationalists.

The crew members invite the alien into their home, saving it from Mars’ harsh origin environment.

They nurture the alien, treat it as their own child, but when it grows up, it suddenly tries to feed on the very beings that gave it a chance at life.

On the other hand, what happens to the alien can also be a metaphor to depict the reality that conquering another is sometimes required to survive.

Life is mainly about making sacrifices and loyalty, but more than this, the film represents life itself with its many doors and ways of interpretation.

_____________________________________

Life

103 minutes

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Scriptwriters: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Cast: Jake Gyllenhall, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds

Popular

Is Indonesia really ready to embrace dual citizenship?

Palm oil plantation-less mills lead to increase deforestation

Prabowo inaugurates construction of Majapahit palace replica