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Species (film)
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Species is a 1995 science fiction thriller directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Natasha Henstridge, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina and Marg Helgenberger. It was given an R rating for sci-fi violence, nudity, and language.
This film produced one theatrical sequel in 1998, Species II, which had Henstridge, Madsen, and Helgenberger reprise their roles. It was followed by the direct-to-video Species III in 2004 and Species: The Awakening in 2007, which stands as a separate film, not as an official follow-up to the previous three.
movie is about a group of scientists who try to track down and trap a killer alien before she successfully mates with a human male.
The alien is the result of the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) program.
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Encyclopedia
Species is a 1995 science fiction thriller directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Natasha Henstridge, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina and Marg Helgenberger. It was given an R rating for sci-fi violence, nudity, and language.
This film produced one theatrical sequel in 1998, Species II, which had Henstridge, Madsen, and Helgenberger reprise their roles. It was followed by the direct-to-video Species III in 2004 and Species: The Awakening in 2007, which stands as a separate film, not as an official follow-up to the previous three.
Plot summary
The movie is about a group of scientists who try to track down and trap a killer alien before she successfully mates with a human male.
The alien is the result of the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) program. Scientists receive transmissions from an alien source on how to create endless fuel effortlessly. The scientists assume that this is a friendly alien species. But from a second alien transmission, the scientists receive information about an alien DNA along with instructions on how to splice it with human DNA. A government team led by Xavier Fitch (Kingsley) goes forward with the genetic experiment hoping to induce a female with "docile" traits. One of the hundred experimental ova produces a girl named Sil, who looks like a normal human but develops into a 12-year old (played by Michelle Williams) in 3 months.
Sil's rapid development makes the scientists consider her a threat. They try to destroy her but she breaks out of her containment cell and escapes out into the world. The government assembles a team composed of anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden (Molina), molecular biologist Dr. Laura Baker (Helgenberger), empath Dan Smithson (Whitaker) and assassin/tracker Press Lennox (Madsen) to track and destroy Sil.
Sil matures rapidly into an adult (Henstridge) in her early twenties with supermodel good looks. This makes tracking her extremely difficult. She is incredibly strong and intelligent with amazing regenerative powers. For instance, after an accident, she is knocked unconscious and breaks her scapula, but to a doctor's amazement, it heals before his eyes.
The scientists fear she may mate with human males and produce offspring that could eliminate the human race. Sil doesn't have any inhibitions when it comes to killing people who get in her way and wants to produce offspring as soon as possible. She frequently morphs into her alien form--a bipedal creature with tentacles on her shoulders and back.
Sil tries first to mate with a man she meets at a night club, but rejects and kills him after sensing that he is diabetic. She then tries to mate with a man she meets after a car accident; this is interrupted by Lennox and Baker. She kills the man and flees into a forest without being seen by the team.
She then takes an attraction to Lennox and attempts to seduce him (no one able to recognise her because she cut her hair and dyed it brown) but sees that he's in love with Baker. She eventually copulates with Dr. Arden who deson't recognise her as well; then kills him when he realises who she is. The tracking team then follow her into the sewers where Fitch is killed and a cave where she and her offspring are destroyed. The last scene shows a rat chewing on one of Sil's severed tentacles; it starts to mutate into a vicious beast and attacks another rat.
The creature was created and designed by Swiss artist H. R. Giger, who also created the creatures in the Alien films.
Cast
Differences in comic adaptation
The comic adaptation, from Titan Books, included many scenes that were not in the film. These included:
- The film originally began with scientists discovering the alien signal in space and Fitch having a meeting with the government to begin this experiment of combining alien DNA to a human host. A shot of the scientists discovering the signal was in the theatrical trailer. The scene with Fitch's introduction was cut out as the sequence was explained to the team consisting of Press, Laura, Dan and Steve later in the final film. There were also publicity stills of Fitch with the 2-week old Sil in some press kits for the film that did not make the cut.
- Sil's dreams were more intense and organic involving mutant worms and acid. Due to budgetary reasons, this was never filmed.
- As in the novel, the interpretation of Sil's rejection of a man is a green mist surrounding the host that was not apparent in the film.
- Sil's fantasy dream of her making love to Press was hinted in the film but not shown in its entirety. The two make love in her dream and Press mutates into a creature with spikes penetrating Sil's chest, causing her to die. She wakes up from her nightmare.
- In the adaptation, Sil's death is not as dramatic as in the film which involved fire and tension. In the comics, she gets blown to bits from Press's cannon blaster and is splattered all over the cavern. In the film she supposedly dies from multiple gun shots and falls into a pit of ignited oil but returns to kill Dan only to have her head blown off by Press's cannon blaster and fall into the flaming pit.
- In the alternative ending, Press sits with Laura on an embankment and mentions how he respected her with human qualities. They then kiss and hug each other with relief that they survived. Laura poses the question whether Sil's aggression was part of her alien biology, or if it came from the human part of her DNA? Laura reminds Press that humans are a predatory species (as indicated by their binocular vision, a point raised earlier in the film). This was featured on the Special Edition DVD and was shot at a pier near an ice cream shop. The ending was re-shot by Boss films under the direction of Roger Donaldson involving the mutated rat puppet.
Novelization
Written by Yvonne Navarro from the original screenplay, the book gives several in depth details about the characters not seen in the film, such as Sil's ability to visualize odors and determine harmful substances from edible items by the color. Gas appears black, food appears pink, an unhealthy potential mate appears to give off green fumes. Other character details include Press's background in tracking down AWOL soldiers as well as the process of decoding the alien signal. Although no clues are given as to its origin, it is mentioned that the message was somehow routed through several black holes to mask its point of origin. Even though it is not mentioned or even speculated on in the Book or Movie, the act of masking the signal with the Black Holes shows that the "Creator" race knows what will happen once the message is received or even that it was deliberately aimed at Earth. Given what we know about black holes it should be impossible to achieve this. It could be argued that the "Creators" have the technology or power to manipulate black holes in some way, the fact that they use black holes in their broadcast lends to the comment in Species II about the Alien Species being Extra-Galactic; they may have risen to a profound level of technological advancement. Parts of these extra scenes and details are shown in the comic book adaptation by Titan Books. There is also a novelization by Yvonne Navarro for Species II which follows the film's original screenplay with added scenes.
Stylistic Similarities
The story is in many respects a pastiche of the two UK Television Science Fiction serials of the 1950s and 1960s namely the Nigel Kneale “Quatermass” stories and Fred Hoyle’s “A for Andromeda”. In the latter Julie Christie played a beautiful woman who had been created in a test tube from data derived from an extra terrestrial radio signal. Like the Natasha Henstridge character in Species she grows to full size in a few weeks. Her metamorphoses into a monster bear a striking similarity to that of the astronaut in the first Quatermass story, as does the Ben Kingsley character to Professor Quatermass himself. .
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