If the future is anything like our popular culture, the universe outside of Planet earth is filled with creepy, and highly dangerous lifeforms that apparently want nothing more than to meet human beings, kill them, and either eat them or replace them. Case in point, Life, a new sci-fi thriller from Columbia Pictures and Skydance whose first trailer premiered tonight during The Walking Dead. Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese, the film follows the crew of the International Space Station as they discover the first, single-celled evidence of extraterrestrial life. Unfortunately, they discover too late that the organism is smarter than they expected. See the trailer above.
Life certainly joins the ranks of recent movies with highly effective, realistic VFX depictions of life in space. I particularly like the depiction of weightlessness in the space station. That said, it isn’t – by a large number – the first time we’ve seen a movie about newly discovered intelligent that exists only to kill us. Fortunately, The Thing but in space is a pretty great pitch and that seems at least to be the vibe they’re going for in the trailer. Either way, Life boasts a great cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya.
It hits theaters May 24 over Memorial Day weekend.