In recent years, star Rebecca Ferguson has established herself as an icon in the sci-fi genre, with memorable roles in Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune trilogy and the Apple TV series Silo. However, her reputation took a hit recently with the critical and commercial failure of the movie Mercy, in which she plays an AI judge. Mercy, also starring Chris Pratt, earned poor reviews and underperformed at the box office. But Ferguson’s fans can cleanse their palates by revisiting one of her underrated sci-fi movies, Life. Also featuring Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Shōgun star Hiroyuki Sanada, the movie underperformed at the box office and received criticism for being derivative of Ridley Scott’s Alien. However, it found an audience on home video, and will attempt to expand its cult when it lands on the Peacock streaming service in February.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Life followed a spaceship crew forced to contend with an alien presence. The movie grossed $100 million at the global box office against a reported budget of around $60 million. By one rule of thumb, a film of its kind would need to gross twice its reported budget in order to break even theatrically. Life probably fell short of the mark but has recouped this shortfall in its home video journey. The movie earned mixed reviews, and is now sitting at a 67% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Life is just thrilling, well-acted, and capably filmed enough to overcome an overall inability to add new wrinkles to the trapped-in-space genre.”
Rebecca Ferguson Has Two Major Projects Lined Up
Ferguson went on to play Lady Jessica in Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two. She will return in Dune: Part Three, and the third season of Silo later this year. Gyllenhaal is set to star in M. Night Shyamalan‘s supernatural romance film Remain, also slated for release this year. Sanada will return in the sophomore season of Shōgun. Reynolds, on the other hand, was coming off the blockbuster success of Deadpool when Life debuted in theaters. It marked a reunion between Reynolds and his Deadpool writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
You can watch the sci-fi thriller on Peacock in February. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
March 24, 2017
Runtime
104 Minutes