Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Steve Railsback | ... | Col. Tom Carlsen | |
Peter Firth | ... | Col. Colin Caine | |
Frank Finlay | ... | Dr. Hans Fallada | |
Mathilda May | ... | Space Girl | |
Patrick Stewart | ... | Dr. Armstrong | |
Michael Gothard | ... | Dr. Bukovsky | |
Nicholas Ball | ... | Roger Derebridge | |
Aubrey Morris | ... | Sir Percy Heseltine | |
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Nancy Paul | ... | Ellen Donaldson |
John Hallam | ... | Lamson | |
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John Keegan | ... | Guard |
Chris Jagger | ... | First Vampire (as Christopher Jagger) | |
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Bill Malin | ... | Second Vampire |
Jerome Willis | ... | Pathologist | |
Derek Benfield | ... | Physician |
The space shuttle Churchill is assigned to observe Halley's Comet under the command of Colonel Tom Carlsen. They see a strange form attached to the comet and Carlsen goes with a team to investigate. They find three humanoid life forms in caskets and they bring them to the Churchill. However, Earth loses contact with the shuttle and the Space Research Center sends another spacecraft to search the Churchill. They find the crew dead and the shuttle burnt and one rescue pod missing. They bring the humanoids to Earth and soon Dr. Hans Fallada and his team discover that the Space Girl is a sort of vampire and drains the life force from people, transforming them into zombies. When the authorities find that Colonel Tom Carlsen has survived, they summon him to explain what happened in the Churchill. Carlsen tells an incredible story about the three aliens and he teams up with Colonel Colin Caine trying to save mankind from the evil vampires from space. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Did director Tobe Hooper, writers Dan O'Bannon ("Alien", "Return of the Living Dead") and Don Jakoby ("Blue Thunder"), in addition to some uncredited writers who presumably did rewrites of the original script, or any of the cast actually think they were making a good movie during the production of "Lifeforce"? The movie gets progressively wackier, more disturbingly bizarre, hilarious, over-the-top, and greater by the minute. When you think that the movie couldn't possibly become more demented, that it was already as nutty as anything could possibly be it outdoes itself. I really don't know if this was at any point supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, if anybody involved thought it was genuinely creepy or effective, or if they were just too distracted by Mathilda May's exquisite breasts and rear end to care, but the end result is quite simply one of the greatest films ever made.
Here are some reasons why "Lifeforce" is perhaps humankind's greatest achievement to date (and probably impossible to surpass):
"She looks perfect. I've been in space six months and she looks perfect to me."
""Don't worry, a naked woman is not going to get out of this complex."
"Despite appearances this woman is a masochist, an extreme masochist."
"He too needs feeding."
"She's totally alien to this planet and our life form... and totally dangerous."
"I'm Colonel Cane." "From the SAS?"
"It was two hours ago that the guard was attacked. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we're seeing a pattern here."
"Colonel, take it from the beginning. Assume we know nothing... which is understating the matter."
Colonel Cane looks at a shriveled corpse, then asks: "and this was murder, you say? "
"Lifeforce" is not merely another 'so bad it's good' movie. It is not an example of a film made by individuals with ambition far beyond their reach. No, it is quite simply THE most audacious, spectacular, hilarious, absurd, insane, riotous, crazy, deliriously demented science fiction film of all time. I cannot fully articulate why it is deserving of being one spot ahead of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" on my list of favorite films, but I do know that it is. "Lifeforce" elevates craziness to an art form. Quite possibly the most entertaining film known to man, and perhaps our greatest achievement as a species.