Lifeforce (1985)

A race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, beginning an apocalyptic descent into chaos.

Director:

Tobe Hooper

Writers:

Colin Wilson (novel), Dan O'Bannon (screenplay)

Stars:

Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

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
Nancy Paul	...	Ellen Donaldson
John Hallam	...	Lamson
John Keegan	...	Guard
Chris Jagger	...	First Vampire (as Christopher Jagger)
Bill Malin	...	Second Vampire
Jerome Willis	...	Pathologist
Derek Benfield	...	Physician

Storyline

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.

---

Plot Keywords:

alien | zombie | space vampire | vampire | alien invasion | 

---

Taglines:

The Cinematic Sci-Fi event of the Eighties

---

Genres:

Action | Horror | Mystery | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

Frank Finlay was made a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) while working on this movie.

---

Goofs

The Churchill had temporary gravity because of its nuclear rocket motor creating acceleration, but the angle of its mounting would have had the crew leaning opposite to the direction of force, not standing perpendicular to the cabin's deck.

---

Quotes

Colonel Colin Caine: Supposing you're right about all of this. What about that ship up there. What's it doing?
Dr. Hans Fallada: We can't know that. But we've got to assume the worst.

---

Alternate Versions

Tobe Hooper's director's cut was 128 mins when the film was cut to 116 mins mostly scenes on the spaceship Churchill were cut

---

Connections

Featured in The Making of... 'Lifeforce' (1985)

---

Soundtracks

The Lifeforce Theme
Written by Michael Kamen and Henry Mancini
Performed by Henry Mancini

User Reviews

The parts are greater than the sum...

...because the screenplay, taken in total, is incomprehensible. This is supposed to be an adaptation of Collin Wilson's novel "The Space Vampires". A crew on a mission to track Haley's comet encounters a huge abandoned spaceship. The ship contains the remains of huge bat like creatures and three nude beautiful humanoids. But then mission control loses contact with "The Churchill". The rescue mission finds The Churchill damaged, but the bodies of the nude humanoids remain intact and are returned to earth - bad idea. Meanwhile an escape pod with surviving astronaut Col. Tom Carlsen is found in Texas. He is flown to London (why?), where he tells first one tale of what happened on the ship, then another, then still another. The bottom line is that the three naked humanoids from space are the original vampires, they threaten earth with all of their "soul sucking", and Carlsen has a psychic link to the beautiful female with whom he seems to be in love.

The story is hard to piece together because it shape-shifts more than the vampires themselves. The first half is investigative in nature - why are these vampires here?, what do they want? , where have they gone?, how can they be defeated?. That morphs into the space vampires running rampant in London, harvesting human souls and turning their victims into zombies - why?. Other than producing great special effects, that is never clear.

It seemed like a wasted opportunity overall, but scene by scene it is beautiful to look at, and like the female space vampire herself, creepy yet attractive. As the end credits rolled I wondered what happened here. You have well known director Tobe Hooper and a good supporting cast including Patrick Stewart and Peter Firth. But then I saw that it was produced by the Cannon Group at a time when they had received an infusion of cash by Michael Milken. This caused them to go on a spending spree for special effects and big names and neglect screenplay, ultimately imploding about five years after this film was made.

I'd say that it would be easy for this to become a guilty pleasure of mine and I would recommend it just on the weirdness factor alone.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 1985 (UK)

Also Known As:

Lifeforce

Filming Locations:

Christchurch, Hampshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,209,136, 23 June 1985

Gross USA:

$11,603,545

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,603,545

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golan-Globus Productions, Easedram Limited, London-Cannon Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min 116 min (international)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1