Space is terrifying. Honestly, we’ve known this since Alien told us nobody could hear us scream, but the 2017 sci-fi thriller Life tried to take that dread and package it with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. When people talk about the cast of the movie life, they usually start and end with the big three: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson. It’s a heavy-hitting lineup. You've got an indie darling turned blockbuster star, the world's favorite wisecracking mercenary, and a Mission Impossible standout.
On paper, this movie should have been a massive, decade-defining hit. It had the pedigree. It had the budget. Yet, it sits in this weird cinematic limbo where it’s constantly being rediscovered on streaming platforms like Netflix or Hulu. Why? Because the chemistry between these specific actors makes the inevitable, gruesome deaths of their characters hit way harder than your average slasher-in-space flick.
Who exactly was on the International Space Station?
The movie doesn't waste much time. We are thrust onto the International Space Station (ISS) with a crew of six.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dr. David Jordan. He’s a medical officer who has spent way too much time in space—over 400 days, actually. Gyllenhaal plays him with this weary, almost detached vibe that makes you wonder if he even wants to go back to Earth. He feels more at home in the vacuum of space than in the chaos of humanity. Then you have Rebecca Ferguson as Miranda North, a British quarantine officer from the CDC. She’s the one who has to make the "tough calls," which, as you can imagine, goes south pretty quickly when a Martian cell starts eating people.
And then there's Ryan Reynolds.
Look, in 2017, Reynolds was riding the massive high of Deadpool. Everyone expected him to be the lead. He plays Rory Adams, the systems engineer. He’s the guy who operates the "Canadaarm" to catch the returning Mars probe. He brings that signature Reynolds energy—fast-talking, brave, slightly cocky. But the movie pulls a massive bait-and-switch with his character that left audiences stunned in theaters.
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The Supporting Crew You Probably Forgot
While the marketing leaned heavily on the "Big Three," the rest of the cast of the movie life provided the actual emotional stakes.
- Hiroyuki Sanada plays Sho Murakami. He’s the flight engineer. Sanada is a legend in Japanese cinema and has become a staple in Hollywood (think Shogun or John Wick 4). In Life, he’s the heart of the crew, specifically because his character is watching his wife give birth back on Earth via a video feed. It’s gut-wrenching.
- Ariyon Bakare portrays Hugh Derry, the exobiologist. He’s the one who actually "wakes up" the organism, which they name Calvin. Bakare does a fantastic job showing the transition from scientific wonder to absolute, paralyzing guilt.
- Olga Dihovichnaya plays Ekaterina Golovkina, the mission commander. She’s the stoic leader who goes out in one of the most terrifying "drowning" scenes in sci-fi history.
Why the Ryan Reynolds Twist Defined the Film
Usually, you don't kill off your biggest star in the first forty minutes. It’s a bold move. It’s very Psycho.
By putting Ryan Reynolds in the cast of the movie life and then using him as the first major sacrifice, director Daniel Espinosa signaled to the audience that no one was safe. Rory Adams dies trying to save Hugh. He gets trapped inside the lab with Calvin. The way Reynolds plays those final moments—the realization that he’s about to be consumed from the inside out—is genuinely disturbing. It stripped away the "action hero" armor people expected him to have.
It changed the dynamic. Suddenly, the witty banter was gone. The remaining crew members were left in a grim, silent struggle for survival.
Working with "Calvin"
It’s worth noting that the "seventh" member of the cast wasn't a person at all. Calvin, the alien life form, was designed to be "all muscle, all brain, all eye."
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The actors had to do a lot of heavy lifting here. Since Calvin was mostly CGI added in post-production, Gyllenhaal and Ferguson were often reacting to tennis balls or puppeteers in green suits. Gyllenhaal has mentioned in interviews that the physicality of the role was the hardest part. Moving in "zero-G" (which was actually just wires and harnesses) while pretending to be hunted by a translucent octopus-starfish is a workout.
The chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Ferguson is subtle. They aren't playing a romantic couple. They are playing two professionals who are tired, scared, and trying to stick to a protocol that is failing them. That nuance is what separates Life from a movie like Venom (which, fun fact, many people falsely theorized was a secret prequel to Life due to some reused B-roll footage in the trailers).
The Legacy of the Performances
Why do we still care about the cast of the movie life years later?
It’s the ending. If you haven't seen it, stop reading. Seriously.
The final sequence involves two escape pods. One is supposed to go to Earth; the other is supposed to head into deep space. David (Gyllenhaal) sacrifices himself to lure Calvin into the deep-space pod, while Miranda (Ferguson) heads home. But gravity is a fickle thing. The pods get knocked off course.
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The look on Jake Gyllenhaal’s face in the final scene—wrapped in a web of alien biomass, landing in the ocean as unsuspecting fishermen open the door—is haunting. It’s a masterclass in silent horror acting. He can't speak; he can only scream with his eyes as he realizes he’s just brought the end of the world to Earth's doorstep.
What You Should Do Next
If you're looking to dive deeper into the work of this specific cast, or if you want to see how Life stacks up against the genre, here are a few ways to spend your weekend:
- Watch the "Spiritual Prequel": Check out the 2014 film Nightcrawler to see Jake Gyllenhaal at his absolute peak of "unsettling." It helps you appreciate the range he brings to the much more heroic (but doomed) David Jordan.
- Compare the Quarantine Tropes: Watch Contagion. Rebecca Ferguson’s character in Life is essentially a space-bound version of the CDC doctors in Soderbergh's thriller. It’s fascinating to see how "The Protocol" is used as a narrative device in both films to create tension.
- The "Deadpool" Contrast: Re-watch the first Deadpool (2016) immediately followed by Life. Seeing Ryan Reynolds go from invincible to incredibly vulnerable in such a short production window is a trip.
- Check the Credits: Look for the work of screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. They also wrote Deadpool and Zombieland. Knowing that the "funny guys" wrote this bleak, depressing space horror makes the dialogue choices much more interesting.
The movie might not have started a franchise, but it remains a tight, mean, and incredibly well-acted piece of sci-fi. The cast of the movie life took a simple premise—what if we found life on Mars and it was a jerk?—and turned it into a claustrophobic nightmare that still holds up. Just don't expect a happy ending. You won't get one.
Actionable Insight: If you are a fan of "Hard Sci-Fi," pay close attention to the orbital mechanics mentioned in the film. While the alien is fantastical, the ISS's decay and the way they use thrusters to stay in orbit are surprisingly grounded in real physics. This attention to detail by the production team is why the actors' performances feel so visceral; they are grounded in a "real" environment.
Next Step for the Viewer: Search for the "Life Movie Alternate Ending" theories. There is a persistent (though debunked) fan theory that the film ends exactly where the 2018 Venom movie begins. Comparing the visual styles of the two "symbiotes" is a great way to spend twenty minutes on YouTube.