Life spoilers: stars break down shocking death, bleak ending to space thriller
Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal, and script’s co-writer, talk about a couple of twists film-goers may not see coming
SPOILER ALERT: The following discusses plot points and the ending of the movie Life .
Well, you can’t always trust the trailers.
If you watched the cryptic two-minute spot for Life, you probably assumed that scientist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) would be the first one to die after sticking his hands in the tank housing newfound alien Calvin. But it’s actually maverick mission specialist Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) who is the first to succumb less than 40 minutes into the space thriller, after saving a wounded Hugh from the monstrous Martian.
The risky choice of killing Life’s biggest star so early on was partly out of necessity, says co-writer Rhett Reese. Reynolds initially signed on to play the movie’s lead, astronaut David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), but took a smaller role so he could spend more time with wife Blake Lively, then-pregnant with the couple’s second child.
“That early death allowed him to work on the movie for five or six weeks, as opposed to the entire shoot,” Reese says. “But that character (Rory) – the bravest and most social of the group – was always supposed to be the first to die. We were supposed to be like, ‘Oh, this is going to be the hero,’ and then ironically lose him first.”
Reynolds felt “mostly relief” reading Rory’s death scene, he jokes. In all seriousness, “I liked that [twist]. It’s healthy for movies to create scenarios that you don’t necessarily expect.”