Life

A soil sample from Mars has been recovered and brought back to the International Space Station (ISS) where a noted biologist, Dr. Hugh Derry, will investigate.  A dormant cell is found which Derry awakens with some warmth and a glucose bath.  This new life form, named Calvin, grows quickly and has impressive qualities.  The cell walls are unusually thick and each cell possesses attributes of nerve cells and muscle cells.

The astronauts, all highly educated and trained, prove to be incredibly dense.  Worse, most of them have no idea of the protocols should the experiment go badly.  When Calvin escaped the incubator, the lab was sealed but some fool opened the door to try to save Dr. Derry, which leads to Calvin escaping the lab.  Wonderful.  Somehow in the fire suppressant system, Calvin worms its way into the communications array and disables it.  "Houston, we cannot tell you what is happening because we have no backup communications system."  Really?  When a Russian ship arrives to shove the infected space station into deep space, only one crewman actually knows that was the protocol.  Because he doesn't know, another crew disrupts and effectively sabotages the effort.  Maybe Commander Golovkina could have told everyone about the protocols after Calvin escaped.  Apparently, the only people who knew were Golovkina and Dr. North, who likewise failed to inform anyone until the Russians showed up.  Stupid beyond belief.  It turns out there are two escape pods on the space station, each capable of transporting 1 astronaut.  Really?  Crew of 6 and lifeboats for 2?  Is this the Titanic in space?  And why don't the lifeboats have communications?  All capsules have communications and should have served as one possible backup for the failed communications array.

 

The makers really needed to decide on the abilities of Calvin.  At one point, Calvin wanders around the exterior of ISS, generally unconcerned by the vacuum of space.  However, the crew later depressurize much of the space station with the expectation that it will force Calvin into dormancy.  Calvin feeds on the organic life forms on the ship and yet is somehow composed of something far tougher.  How does Calvin survive unscathed from a flame thrower or being in the nozzle of a rocket when it fires.  Even if it survives the 5,000+ degrees of heat from the rocket, how does it not get fired like a cannonball into space from a thrust that is changing the orbit of 500 ton space station?  How is it that the rocket nozzle somehow leads into the interior of the station?  That makes no sense.  Calvin seems to be all-knowing and all-seeing with an intuitive sense for modern technology.  Of note, in the weeks that Dr. Derry spent studying the growing Calvin, he apparently learned nothing.  No biopsies to test what chemicals might harm or help, no deeper analysis of cell structure or maybe genetic code.  Nope, he just played patty cake with it until it attacked him.  Genius!  You know, when the alien germ starts crawling out of the Petri dish, it's time to stop feeding it.

 

Dr. Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) proves to be the biggest fool on the space station, a man who played with fire until it burned him then sabotaged efforts to put the fire out.  "It doesn't hate us, it just wants to live."  Who picked this guy to study the alien?

 

Commander Ekaterina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya) is fully aware of the protocols should Calvin get out of the lab.  Calvin is out of the lab.  Her first order of business should be to inform the rest of the crew that they are all already dead.  No, I think I'll go on a spacewalk to see why the communications array is down.

 

Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) is the mechanic, the guy who maintains and fixes all the parts of the ISS.  He has the right attitude in most things except keeping the quarantine.  The moment Calvin gets hostile, Rory wants to kill it.  All his efforts to do so inexplicably fail because Calvin is fireproof.

 

Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a technician like Rory but forgot to pack his Samurai sword.  His job is to let everyone know what system Calvin has broken and the state of the ISS orbit, usually decaying.

 

Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the medical officer.  He is something of a misanthrope, having spent more than a year in space because he hates what people do to each other on earth.  Okay, yet another crewman with psychological issues.  Like most of the crew, he is more concerned with saving his crewmates than containing the doom of humanity virus.

 

Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson) is from the CDC and was involved in determining the protocols for containing the Mars specimens.  She knew what would happen if they lost containment but never bothered to tell anyone.  "Hey, Rory, if you open that door we will all be shoved into deep space.  You really want to open that door?"  Nah, she didn't need to say anything.  I'm sure it will be fine.

 

Not considered by the last of the astronauts was that Calvin started as a single cell and, since escaping, has traversed the ISS multiple times.  How many single cells may have been scattered in Calvin's wake and stuck to astronauts, waiting for a glucose bath?  No one can leave, which is something Dr. North should have known.

 

The movie is light on science and heavy on the fiction.  The look of the movie is great but the story is atrocious.  Skip this one.