Lifeforce (film)
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- For the arcade game, see Life Force (arcade game).
| Lifeforce | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tobe Hooper |
| Produced by | Yoram Globus Menahem Golan |
| Written by | Novel: Colin Wilson Screenplay: Dan O'Bannon Don Jakoby |
| Starring | Steve Railsback Peter Firth Frank Finlay Patrick Stewart |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Distributed by | Tri-Star Pictures (U.S.); Cannon Film Distributors (non-U.S.) |
| Release date(s) | June 21, 1985 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 116 min. / USA:101 min. (edited version) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Lifeforce is a 1985 science fiction film directed by Tobe Hooper from a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, from the novel Space Vampires by Colin Wilson. The film starred Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart, Aubrey Morris, Michael Gothard, and Nicholas Ball.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
While investigating Halley's Comet, a space mission aboard the space shuttle Churchill finds a large spaceship hidden in the comet's nucleus. Upon entering the spacecraft, the shuttle crew finds three human bodies, two male and one female (played by Mathilda May), in suspended animation in the spacecraft. The shuttle starts the return trip to Earth with the three beings. On Earth, Mission Control loses communication with the shuttle. As it nears Earth, a rescue mission is conducted. The rescuers find the Churchill gutted by fire, except for the three suspended animation cases bearing the aliens. The three are taken to earth where they eventually unleash havoc. They are actually members of a race of space vampires that consume the lifeforce from living beings and send it to their ship.
The three vampires escape from confinement and proportionally transform most of London's population into zombies. Once transformed, the victims cycle into living-dead every two hours and seek out the the living, absorbing all the moisture from their bodies. These people then also become vampires and the transformation process releases their life force which the male vampires direct to the female vampire who transfers it to the waiting spaceship in Earth's orbit.
The shuttle mission's only survivor, a British colonel and a scientist attempt to destroy the space vampires before they subjugate the planet.
[edit] Box office
Lifeforce was released on June 21, 1985 to disappointing box office. The film opened in fourth place, losing the head-to-head release battle against the Ron Howard sci-fi film Cocoon. In total, Lifeforce earned $11,603,545[1] at the US box office, a poor return on the estimated $25 million dollar budget.
[edit] Production notes
- The first film of Tobe Hooper's three-picture deal with Cannon. The other two films are the remake of Invaders from Mars and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
- The film was edited for U.S. release by Tri-Star Pictures to a 101-minute version that was partially re-scored by Michael Kamen (a majority of Henry Mancini's original music did remain). The original 116-minute international version (with all the footage and the entirety of Mancini's music) is available on DVD.
- Colin Wilson has a very low opinion of this screen adaption of his novel, The Space Vampires. He writes in his autobiography (Dreaming To Some Purpose, 2004, p.332): "John Fowles had once told me that the film of The Magus was the worst movie ever made. After seeing Lifeforce I sent him a postcard telling him that I had gone one better."
- The film features special effects by Academy Award winner John Dykstra.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lifeforce at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] References
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