Species (film)

During the SETI program, Earth's scientists send out transmissions, such as the Arecibo message, with information about Earth and its inhabitants in the hopes of finding life beyond Earth. After receiving transmissions from an alien source on how to create limitless fuel and an alien DNA sample with instructions on how to splice it with that of humans, the scientists assume the aliens are friendly. Inspired by the second transmission, a government team led by Xavier Fitch commissions a genetic experiment meant to create a female alien/human hybrid organism under the belief that she would have "more docile and controllable" traits. They eventually produce a girl codenamed "Sil", who initially resembles a normal human and develops into a 12-year-old in three months. Due to Sil's violent outbursts while she is sleeping, the scientists deem her dangerous and prepare to kill her using cyanide gas, but she breaks out of her containment cell and escapes. Fearing she will mate with human males and produce offspring that will eventually exterminate the human race, the government assembles a team consisting of anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden, molecular biologist Dr. Laura Baker, "empath" Dan Smithson and black ops mercenary Preston "Press" Lennox to track and kill Sil. Using her superhuman strength, intelligence and regenerative capability to evade capture, Sil matures rapidly into her early twenties and travels to Los Angeles, where she kills several people to prevent them from alerting authorities and disguises herself. Press and Baker find Sil after she fails to mate with and kills Robbie Llywelyn, a diabetic young man, and John Carey, a man she met following a car crash. She assumes her alien form and flees into a nearby forest, where she kidnaps Marlo Keegan to assume her identity. Secretly returning to Carey's home to spy on Fitch, Sil reads his lips and determines he and his team plan to stake out a nightclub to find her. After being spotted by Smithson, Sil lures her pursuers into a car chase wherein she leaves Marlo to die while crashing the car into a high-voltage transformer and jumping out at the last minute. She later cuts and dyes her hair before developing an attraction towards Press, whom she dreamed of the previous night. Meanwhile, the government team celebrate Sil's apparent death at a hotel, where Sil stealthily stalks them; killing a maid to take the room keys. Arden, upset about being alone, goes to his room to find Sil waiting for him. They soon have sex, resulting in her instantly becoming pregnant before she kills him once he realizes who she is. Sensing her presence, Smithson alerts the remaining team members. Sil transforms once more and escapes into the sewers. The team pursue, but Sil kills Fitch before giving birth. Her offspring subsequently attacks Smithson, who incinerates it with a flamethrower while Press kills Sil with a grenade launcher. As the survivors leave, they fail to notice a rat gnawing on one of Sil's severed tentacles before mutating and killing another rat. ==Cast==

Since Sil (Natasha Henstridge) grows rapidly and kills humans with ease, at a certain point film character Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) speculates that Sil is a biological weapon sent by a species who regard humans as an intergalactic weed. Writer Dennis Feldman declared that he wanted to explore this theme further in the script, as it questions mankind's place in the universe and how other civilizations might perceive and relate to humanity: "maybe [humans are] not a potential threat, maybe a competitor, maybe a resource". George further states that a recurring theme in science fiction films is a response to "this kind of powerful female sexuality and 'alien-ness in that "the feminine monster must die as Sil does at the end of Species". According to Virginia Fugarino of Memorial University of Newfoundland writing for the Journal of Folklore Research, Radford found a link between the original eyewitness report and the design of Sil in her alien form, and hypothesized that "[Species], which [Tolentino] did see before her sighting, influenced what she believes she saw of the chupacabra". ==Production==

made her theatrical debut playing Sil. Development and writing Dennis Feldman had the idea for Species in 1987, as he worked on another film about an alien invasion, Real Men. Thus in turn he considered that the possibility of extraterrestrial contact was through information. Then he detailed that a message would contain instructions from across the void to build something that would talk to men. Instead of a mechanical device, Feldman imagined wetware. The visitor would adapt to Earth's environment through DNA belonging to Earth's organisms. Therefrom emerged a film treatment called The Message. In 1993, Feldman reworked his ideas into a spec script. The lesser emphasis on actors included a newcomer, former model Natasha Henstridge, as the human version of the creature Sil. Design with a Sil sculpture. Sil was designed by Swiss artist H. R. Giger, who also created the creatures in the Alien films. Donaldson thought Giger was the best man for the film after reading his compendium Necronomicon, and eventually he and Mancuso flew to Switzerland to meet the artist. What attracted Giger was the opportunity to design "a monster in another way—an aesthetic warrior, also sensual and deadly, like the women look in [his] paintings". with XFX doing the translucent skin based on what they had done for the aliens of The Abyss. Sil's alien form had both full-body animatronics with replaceable arms, heads and torsos, and a body suit. ==Release==

Home media MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in March 1997, which contains a booklet with trivia and production notes, and on VHS in August 1999. In July 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released it on Blu-ray, whose supplements includes several featurettes as well as two audio commentary tracks: one by director Roger Donaldson, Natasha Henstridge and Michael Madsen, and another from Donaldson, cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, make-up effects creator Steve Johnson, visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund and producer Frank Mancuso Jr. In July 2017, Scream Factory released a collector's edition Blu-ray, issued with a concoction of new and archival bonus contents which have been ported over from original DVD and Blu-ray versions. ==Reception==

Box office Species received a wide theatrical release on July 7, 1995. Its opening weekend was $17.1 million, MGM's biggest opening at the time and ranked second in the box office ranking behind Apollo 13. Budgeted at $35 million, the film earned a total of $113 million worldwide ($ million adjusted for inflation), including $60 million in the United States. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 42% based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10 and a critical consensus which reads: "Species shows flashes of the potential to blend exploitation and sci-fi horror in ingenious ways, but is ultimately mainly interested in flashing star Natasha Henstridge's skin". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4 stars, criticizing the film's plot and overall lack of intelligence. Cristine James from Boxoffice magazine gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, describing it as "Alien meets V meets Splash meets ''Playboy's Erotic Fantasies: Forbidden Liaisons'', diluted into a diffuse, misdirected bore". James Berardinelli gave the film 2½ out of 4 stars, stating that "as long as you don't stop to think about what's going on, Species is capable of offering its share of cheap thrills, with a laugh or two thrown in as well". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly found the film lacking in imagination and special effects, also commenting that Alfred Molina "sport[s] a haircut that's scarier than the creature". Variety's review of the film described it as a "gripping if not overly original account of an extraterrestrial species attempting to overwhelm our own" and that Ben Kingsley and other lead actors "have only two-dimensional roles to engage them". The review notes the similarity between H.R. Giger's design of Sil and his work on Alien. Scott Weinberg of DVD Talk praised the acting, Feldman's screenplay and Donaldson's direction. He concluded by saying that Species makes for "a very good time for the genre fans". Mick LaSalle, writing for San Francisco Chronicle, was notedly less enthusiastic, quipping that if "Species were a little bit worse, it would have a shot at becoming a camp classic". Los Angeles Times critic Peter Rainer described Species as "a pretty good Boo! movie", finding it an entertaining thriller while unoriginal and with ineffective tonal shifts. ==Sequels==

The first sequel to Species, Species II was released theatrically on April 10, 1998. The film depicts astronauts on a mission to Mars being attacked by the aliens from Species, and the events that ensue upon their return to Earth. There, Dr. Baker has been working on Eve, a more docile clone of Sil. Madsen and Helgenberger reprised their roles, while Henstridge played Eve. Species II received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, garnering a 9% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and Madsen denounced it as a terrible film. The film's director, Peter Medak, attributed the failure of the film to not picking up the infected rat ending of the original film. Yvonne Navarro later authored the novelization for Species II which followed the film's original screenplay with added scenes. The second sequel, Species III, followed in 2004. It premiered on Sci-Fi Channel on November 27, with a DVD release on December 7. The film's plot starts where Species II ends, revolving around Sunny Mabrey's character Sara, the daughter of Eve, reared by Dr. Bruce Abbot played by Robert Knepper. Sara, an alien-human hybrid, seeks other hybrids to mate with. Henstridge appears in a cameo at the beginning of the film. Two out of six critics mentioned on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a positive rating, with DVD Talk's reviewer noting that it is "a more cohesive and sensible flick than [Species II] is, but ultimately, it's just a lot of the same old schtick", while Film Freak Central called it "amateurish" and "vapid". A fourth film, Species – The Awakening came out in 2007, following the schedule of Species III of Sci-Fi Channel premiere and subsequent DVD release. None of the actors from the original film returned in this sequel, which instead starred Helena Mattsson as the alien-hybrid seductress Miranda Hollander. ==Other media==

Novelization Yvonne Navarro co-wrote a novelization based on the original screenplay with Dennis Feldman. The book gives several in-depth details about the characters not seen in the film, such as Sil's ability to visualize odors and determine harmful substances from edible items by the color. Gas appears black, food appears pink, and an unhealthy potential mate appears to give off green fumes. Other character details include Preston's background in tracking down AWOL soldiers as well as the process of decoding the alien signal. Although no clues are given as to its origin, it is mentioned that the message was somehow routed through several black holes to mask its point of origin. An audiobook version narrated by Alfred Molina won the Audie Award for Solo Performance. Comics Dark Horse Comics published a four-issue comic book adapting the film, written by Feldman and penciled by Jon Foster. Dark Horse would also publish a mini-series with an all-new storyline, West End Games released a World of Species sourcebook for its Masterbook role-playing game system. MGM had partnered with Cyberdreams to make a computer game based on the film, and while the company managed to release an H.R. Giger screensaver featuring Species images, the game never came to be due to Cyberdreams' closure. ==References==