

Life, a new sci-fi thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, requires no launch countdown. An International Space Station crew of six is in the midst of retrieving a Mars soil sample as the centerpiece of an eight-month mission. And naturally, the camera starts rolling right when the probe that's supposed to bring that sample on board has taken some rock damage. The situation now requires a high-tension spacewalk in order to operate a mechanical arm and snag the capsule. But don't worry—our heroes have snarky, American mission specialist Rory Adams (Reynolds) around.

"I used to play catch when I was in tee-ball," he tells his colleagues while they all sweat out the do-or-die moment. The impact is fierce and rocks our point of view for a second... but this crew has it under control. "Cue Instagram, point and shoot mother*cker," Adams says. (Did we mention the Deadpool tandem of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote this script?)

The crew has no time to celebrate, however, because this sample needs to be thoroughly examined within the space lab under the guidance of Britain's Dr. Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare). By day two of this initiative diary, Derry encounters what appears to be at least one viable cell of life—cell wall, a nucleus, some silica, etc. Derry soon fidgets with the atmospheric settings in the controlled space, mimicking something resembling the Earth's Proterozoic era. And after stimulating the specimen with some glucose, it moves.

Derry calls it the first "incontrovertible proof of life beyond Earth," and he's keen to continue putting the life form through its paces. Back on Earth, a round of triumphant press follows along with an elementary school contest that names this thing Calvin. But that's quickly not the organism's only identifying characteristic, as Derry discovers it's developing a growing neural network with trillions of cells capable of working together or functioning individually—these are muscle, nerve, and photoreceptive cells all in one. "So this thing is all brain, all muscle, and all eyes," says Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson), the CDC representative on board.

Things seem to be going smoothly until day 25, when the ISS lab experiences an unexpected error that drops the air pressure of Calvin's contained space. The life form is no longer responsive. Derry is dejected, fearing a mistake of his could deprive Earth of its greatest discovery. Others on staff assure him it's good to move on and that preventing any possible contamination is more important, but Derry persists in the name of science. He wants to give Calvin a mild electrical jolt just in case it's hibernating rather than deceased. What's the worst that could happen? The staff has cracked jokes about Re-Animator at this point, and surely they've also seen Alien...

2016 CTMG, Inc./ SXSW

Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures

Well-made, well-intentioned, but...

Set in the present-day, Life boasts a foundation in reality. The production involved former European Space Agency project managers and Johnson Space Center medical experts as advisers. The story takes place aboard a slightly embellished version of the ISS, and there are spacewalks and various technical challenges to work through. It all feels believable enough, though IANAL-EB (I am not Ars legend, Eric Berger).

Adding to Life's attention to detail, the film is largely visually stunning. The exterior space shots combine with Jon Ekstrand's score to give everything a momentous feeling that seems appropriate for the first discovery of extraterrestrial life. And while the interior of the ISS takes some liberties—from Derry's souped-up lab to the holographic interfaces scattered throughout—it never looks fake. The VFX always makes the setting feel authentic, largely through the wiring and movement rigs that smoothly simulated zero-g throughout the film (these are ultimately edited out in post-production, of course). "It is weirdly kind of challenging. Having the zero-g thing look believable involves a lot more high-tech stunt work than you think," Reynolds told Ars about all the pulleys and rigs he experienced. "Well, it's hard for the stunt team. For us, it's just like we're doing a plank all day."

The "humans versus alien in a confined space" formula has been tried before, but Life contains very few moments of gore or jump scares like others in this niche. Instead, this film relies on its inherently claustrophobic setting and varying degrees of tension to induce terror. Beyond an initial flub when responding to the first sign of danger, the humans in Life don't even make any obviously stupid horror-movie type decisions. Unfortunately for them, neither does this new life form. The two sides essentially play a high-stakes game of chess throughout, countering each others' actions until one faction is simply out of pieces. The best parts of Life come from the reaction moments in this cat and mouse, particularly when the ISS crew somehow takes a moment to breathe and consider logical decisions in the face of an imminent (and increasingly clever) threat.

As for that threat, it seems to have a distinct nature-inspiration for its look and movement, combining octopus-like tentacles with a snake-ish face and slithering habit. Though it starts out microscopic, this translucent being grows as it gets its essentials (Derry deduces it's a carbon-based life form at one point, so it needs the oxygen, food, and water available in various forms throughout the ISS). Ferguson told Ars that when shooting, the cast didn't work with any kind of stand-in, "we only have our imagination, and our fears could look different." When any of the humans are in close quarters with Calvin, that uneasy uncertainty is palpable.

All of this makes for a fairly strong skeleton—premise, production value, panic—but Life doesn't always deliver the meat. Take the characters. Whatever subplots supposedly inform us about these individuals feel like half-measures; Life relies on our prior relationship with the actors or on quick, half-baked moments of background. Reynolds' Adams is a fast-talking smart ass who's good with his hands and just gets stuff done. Gyllenhaal's David Jordan is an enigmatic doctor of few words who's capable of great intensity or action. But all we really know about Sho Kendo (Hiroyuki Sanada) is that he's got a family to think about based on his watching the delivery room via iPad. And Dr. Derry's lower-body paralysis seems to only come into play when he explicitly talks about it before bed one evening. The story's overall focus is so small—ISS crew encounters extraterrestrial life and must navigate that carefully—that it might have been better to forego dedicated backstory moments altogether rather than allowing them to feel underdeveloped.

After viewing the film during South by Southwest, I tried explaining the plot to a friend later that day. The conversation involved a lot of "wait, what?!" and "oh, c'mon!" responses. In the moment, nothing came across as strained (perhaps a testament to the performances of folks like Bakare, Ferguson, and Gyllenhaal in particular), but describing the back and forth between the humans and Calvin blow by blow came off as convoluted after a while. (It's a nearly two-hour film, so there are many twists and turns to note.) The final act in particular does not go as expected, and it's something I'll seek to watch closer when this film resurfaces on streaming or cable in a year or so. However you interpret the takeaway, it will certainly be debate fodder for many a comment or Reddit thread, though perhaps Life wears its intention on its sleeve. At one point mid-film, Derry explains that just surviving, our very existence, requires destruction. In that way, Calvin is no different. "It doesn't hate us," he says. "It may kill us to survive."

Space-based sci-fi releases have been experiencing something of a renaissance recently. It's not just new Star Trek and Star Wars. Many have unexpectedly made best picture runs—The Martian (2015), Arrival (2016), Gravity (2013)—and others have simply carved out beloved status even if they have obvious flaws (we'll ride for 2014's Interstellar, for instance). Life arrives at a time when appetite alone for this stuff should guarantee some level of success, but this film sits decidedly below those other modern classics. There are some enjoyably tense action sequences, beautiful visual sequences, and likable personalities, but there aren't any remarkable new additions to the genre.

After debuting at SXSW, Life opens in theaters this weekend.

Listing image by 2016 CTMG, Inc./ SXSW