The science-fiction horror movie Life gets criticized by astronaut Chris Hadfield, who Ryan Reynolds consulted with during production. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, the film follows members of the International Space Station, who unknowingly bring a dangerous and rapidly-evolving alien life form on board their ship. Released in 2017, Life went on to have an underwhelming box office, but earned praise for its performances and unique creature. Along with Reynolds, who portrayed Rory Adams, the movie’s cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya, and Ariyon Bakare.
In a recent video for Vanity Fair, Hadfield discussed Life and revealed that Reynolds had actually communicated with him. However, looking at one particular scene, he criticized the crew’s methods for killing the alien, which involved using an oxygen candle and flamethrower. Read Hadfield’s comments regarding Life below:
An oxygen candle. That’s not a bad idea. An oxygen candle is this canister, looks like a small beer keg, and it’s got a certain chemical in it that if you heat up one end the chemical reaction releases great amounts of oxygen. It’s kind of like an emergency oxygen supply. He smashes it against a handrail and you hear glass tinkling. Imagine what shards of glass would be like without gravity. You don’t have glass on board a spaceship. It’s not an oxygen candle. It’s like, touch ’em with the hundred watt light bulb.
That’s a flamethrower inside a spaceship. One of the worst things that can happen on a space station is fire. It’s one of the three big emergencies on a spaceship. A puncture where you’re depressurizing, a contaminated atmosphere that you can’t breathe anymore, and a fire. You want to have no chance at all of an open flame happening on board a spaceship. The space station is festooned with smoke alarms but here we have Rory filling the entire spaceship with flame. Not one alarm goes off.
How Accurate Is Life’s Depiction Of Space?
It’s interesting to think about the safety measures implemented for space travel, especially since the horror began from testing an unknown species the crew picked up. In that sequence from Life, Rory gets separated from the rest of his team when the alien, referred to as Calvin, attaches itself to his leg. Having already seen its accelerated growth and ability to maneuver their ship, he’s advised to use both things against Calvin, but neither work. Rory eventually ignites the room, burning walls and likely damaging equipment with the flamethrower, but as Hadfield mentioned, it’s inaccurate that no alarms are triggered.
In terms of what the film might have gotten right, a lot of Life‘s zero-gravity effects were met with relative praise, considering the actors were reportedly on wires. Hadfield also noted that Reynolds paid attention to the “weightlessness,” and that overall, that aspect was believable. When it came to Calvin’s design, and what the extraterrestrial looked like at different points throughout the movie, audiences seemed to enjoy it, but there’s no way to determine if it was realistic.
Whether or not it was accurate in other areas, the horror elements of the film were well-received. However, it would be interesting to learn what Reynolds and Hadfield talked about during production, and to see what else the astronaut may think about Life, beyond those aforementioned elements.
