Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Lifeforce’

Written by Scott Edwards

There are so many questions about what is surrounding us outside of our planet. While we know that the moon is not made of cheese, we still have little understanding about what else is out there. Being able to locate planets like Earth in other solar systems, we still have not been able to prove one way or another that life exists somewhere else in the universe. While I am anxious to know if there are other civilizations out there, I am concerned that if there are, what will they want to do with our little old planet when they come to visit.
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On its way back to Earth, the space shuttle Churchill is privy to a sight that few have ever seen, the tail of Halley’s Comet. Taking readings for their reports, the crew sees something strange hidden in the tail, another spaceship. The mere size of the ship makes the crew curious, and they decide to take a spacewalk to find out what the origin of the ship is. Getting onboard and seeing massive bat like creatures, Colonel Carlsen makes his way in further and locates three humanoid beings in what appears to be suspended animation. Taking these back to the Churchill, along with one of the bat creatures, the ship turns back towards its home planet.

Hearing that the Churchill is making its way back home but is radio silent and has made no course corrections, Doctor Fallada and Doctor Bukovsky decide it is time to send a recovery team to the ship and look for survivors. As the team arrives on the dead ship, they find a massive fire had broken out and it appears that everyone on the crew were burned beyond recognition. But there is something strange that survived the fire, the three pods which are holding the humanoids appear to be untouched. Bringing the pods back to Earth for research, the recovery team is not able to pinpoint what happened to the crew of the Churchill as all of their tapes have been destroyed.  

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With more questions than answers about the failed mission, Doctor Bukovsky has been keeping an eye on the pods and the inhabitants inside. With one pod opening on its own, the group is ready to perform an autopsy on the woman who has been freed from the prison, but they have little idea what she can do. Waking up and sucking the life out of one of the guards, she sees Bukovsky, yet does not do the exact same thing, since she wants a mate. Feeling drained from the encounter, Bukovsky is not able to recall why he was pulled to the woman but knows that he had no way to stop it. Taking the drained-of-life guard in for an autopsy, everyone sees that he is not dead, but a carrier of something that they have never seen before. Being able to regenerate his life with the life of another, a time frame has been mapped out and every two hours, the host will need to feed.
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Trying to find the space woman that has escaped, the doctors get news that Colonel Carlsen is alive and well and decide to pick his brain. Not able to get the answers that they are looking for, Carlsen undergoes hypnosis and tells the story about how his ship became a ghost ship. Being able to feel the space woman at all times, Carlsen finds out that he can see through her eyes and watch as she continues to hunt in London. Being able to take on different bodies, she becomes harder to locate, but Carlsen and his new-found power will not quit as the hunt for the space woman must conclude quickly before she is able to infect all of the country. Using his mind and a touch, Carlsen is able to locate the woman, but she has a plan for the planet as her ship is moving into orbit and it not only involves the country, but Earth as a whole. 

I am not sure why, but every time I used to put Lifeforce on a list of my favorite movies, people would make fun of me and tell me how bad it was. I fail to see this, as it is one of the movies I can sit down and watch whenever it is on, which is saying a lot for me. The story may be strange, or as I have been reading in tweets, crazy, but it gets the point across and that is all that matters. I really liked the character development that was shown on screen for Carlsen and his new counterpart in the hunt for the space woman, Colonel Caine. The race against time is not only for London, but for the world when nobody seems to understand what is happening. The special effects take me back to the eighties, when lightning was all the rage and should be again, because it is epic. With a space woman, a mystery, the truth behind our legends confirmed, a virus and a love story that you never saw coming, it us just a good movie overall that deserves a little bit more recognition, because now you see this story being told every other week in space movies. Stay Scared.

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