Species (film)

Infobox Film
name = Species


image_size =
caption =
director = Roger Donaldson
producer = Dennis Feldman,
Frank Mancuso Jr.
writer = Dennis Feldman
starring = Natasha Henstridge
Ben Kingsley
Michael Madsen
Alfred Molina
Forest Whitaker
Marg Helgenberger
music = Christopher Young
cinematography = Andrzej Bartkowiak
editing = Conrad Buff
distributor = MGM
released = flagicon|United States July 7, 1995
flagicon|Australia August 3, 1995
flagicon|United Kingdom September 29, 1995
flagicon|Spain October 16, 1995
flagicon|Greece November 3, 1995
flagicon|Germany November 9, 1995
flagicon|Portugal November 10, 1995
flagicon|France November 27, 1995
flagicon|Italy February 2, 1996
runtime = 108 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by = "Species II"
website =
amg_id = 1:134918
imdb_id = 0114508

"Species" is a 1995 science fiction thriller by Roger Donaldson. It stars Natasha Henstridge, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina and Marg Helgenberger.

This film produced one theatrical sequel in 1998, "Species II". Natasha Henstridge, Michael Madsen, and Marg Helgenberger all returned. It was followed by the direct-to-video "Species III" in 2004 and "" 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) [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931329/ Michelle Williams (I) ] ] 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 eventually copulates with Dr. Arden who does not recognise who she is because she has dyed her hair brown; she then kills him when he realises the truth. 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.

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.

tylistic 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 is bears a striking similarity to that of the astronaut in the first Quatermass story, as does the Ben Kingsley character to Professor Quatermass himself. That said, it must be admitted that a large part of most Science Fiction bears a great deal of similarity to those two series, which were in their way, ground breaking.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0114508|title=Species
*rotten-tomatoes|id=species|title=Species