Extinction (2018 film)

Extinction
File:Extinction.png Film release poster
Directed by	Ben Young
Produced by	David Hoberman Nathan Kahane Todd Lieberman
Screenplay by	Spenser Cohen Eric Heisserer Brad Kane
Starring	Michael Peña Lizzy Caplan Mike Colter Erica Tremblay Emma Booth Israel Broussard
Music by	The Newton Brothers
Cinematography	Pedro Luque
Edited by	Matthew Ramsey
Production company	Universal Pictures Good Universe Mandeville Films
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	July 27, 2018 (2018-07-27)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Extinction is a 2018 American science fiction thriller film directed by Ben Young and written by Spenser Cohen, Eric Heisserer and Brad Kane. The film is about a father who has a recurring dream about the loss of his family while witnessing a force bent on destruction. The film stars Lizzy Caplan, Michael Peña, Mike Colter, Lilly Aspell, Emma Booth, Israel Broussard, and Lex Shrapnel. It was released on Netflix on July 27, 2018.

Plot

Peter, an engineer, has recurring nightmares in which he and his family suffer through violent, alien invasion-like confrontations with an unknown enemy. As the nightmares become more stressful, they take a toll on his family, too. His wife, Alice, urges him to see a professional. At work, Peter suffers further episodes, causing him to damage some of the equipment. Concerned, his boss, David, refers him to a clinic. When another vision causes him to black out for several hours and miss scheduled family time, he agrees to go to the clinic. There he meets Chris, an agitated man who seems to be having the same visions. Chris tells Peter that Peter is not crazy and should believe his visions; however, the emotional toll of his own visions has driven Chris to seek help at the clinic involving erasing his dreams. Encouraged by Chris' advice, Peter leaves without seeking help.

Later that day at their apartment complex, Alice holds a party to celebrate her promotion at an architectural firm. Peter becomes obsessed with his visions and ignores the guests to watch the skies through the telescope he had earlier bought for the girls, hoping to find proof of an impending alien invasion. Ray and Samantha, friends and next-door neighbors, console Alice. As Ray attempts to reason with Peter after the party, Peter spots lights in the sky. Invading spaceships immediately open fire on the city, causing significant damage to their building. Amid the chaos, Peter and Alice realize their daughter Hanna is missing. When Ray and Samantha also realize their daughter Megan is missing, they surmise the children left together. Ray and Peter leave to find them. Before rescuing the girls from an elevator, they discover evidence that ground troops are in their building and systematically killing people. The two families split up.

Peter and Alice barricade their apartment amid the sounds of slaughter, while their daughters hide in a closet. A soldier attempts to break down the door but Peter and Alice are able to hold it back. Lucy realizes that she left her stuffed monkey, Herman, in the other room and leaves the closet to go find it and hides under a table. When the soldier gives up breaking in through the door, he begins to break through the wall. Peter and Alice retreat to the closet where Hanna waits and tells them Lucy went looking for Herman. The soldier, dressed in insectoid-looking armor, successfully breaks in through the wall. When it finds Lucy and pauses to examine her, Peter ambushes it. Although Peter wrestles the soldier's rifle from it, he finds it uses biometric authentication and Peter cannot fire it. As the soldier regains the advantage, Alice bashes the soldier repeatedly with the telescope, incapacitating it. They leave the apartment, barely avoiding the death squads and make their way to the roof, where they reunite with Ray, Samantha, and Megan. In the smoking ruins of the city, they see another group of survivors attempting to flag down help; a spaceship spots them and kills everyone in that group. Peter's group decides that they cannot stay in the building or they will be killed, and attempt to get down via a window washing lift. Halfway down the building, the lift begins to break and they are forced back into the building shortly before the lift breaks completely and smashes into the ground.

Inside, Peter attempts to bypass the rifle’s security but is unsuccessful. He recalls from his visions that his factory was a safe spot and built like a fortress. Alice and Samantha suggest using the city's tunnel system to get there. Moments later, the apartment is attacked by a spaceship and Ray, Samantha and Megan are killed. Peter’s family begin to descend the building but run into a pair of soldiers and are pinned down in an alcove. Peter manages to bypass the rifle's security in time, and they are able to fight their way to the tunnels. Alice is injured in a bomb blast right as the family makes it into the tunnel.

The soldier from their apartment regains consciousness and tracks them to the tunnels using a tracking device on the rifle. Peter and the soldier fight but Peter wins and subdues the soldier, but Alice collapses from her wounds. The soldier removes his helmet and Peter is stunned to find that the soldier looks human and understands English. He forces the soldier to carry Alice to the factory. David, who commands a paramilitary resistance force, explains that the invasion had been expected for many years. A medic examines Alice but informs Peter that he cannot save her. As David's men drag the invading soldier off to execute him, he yells to Peter that he can save Alice. Peter asks David to evacuate his children to a subway station where a transport train awaits to take them to an underground base, while he stays with the alien soldier to save Alice.

The soldier surprises Peter by revealing that Alice is an android, along with everyone he knows. To save Alice, she needs an alternate source of power: Peter himself. Peter prepares to cut open his own chest with a pocket knife and discovers he feels no pain when he stabs himself. With the soldier's help, Peter saves Alice's life.

After passing out, Peter has a vision of himself and Alice as custodians in a hospital while pundits on the news debate moral questions regarding synthetic androids, or “synths”. Synths are beginning to develop lifelike responses and emotions. Peter and Alice look on to anti-synth protests. Soon, humans attack the unarmed synths to “decommission” them; the synths fight back to defend themselves and drive humans off Earth. As the last of the humans flee Earth, Peter and Alice find Lucy and an injured Hanna mourning the loss of their human “parents”. Peter and Alice adopt the girls and become a family. Peter realizes his visions are actually memories of this war, and he and most other synths had their memories voluntarily suppressed to avoid the resulting guilt about what they had to do and the fear of the humans' eventual return.

While Alice recovers, Peter and the soldier, Miles, talk about the war. Miles explains that it was his grandparents' generation that was pushed off the planet 50 years ago. Humans have been living in colonies on Mars, learning everything about synths in preparation for their eventual return to Earth. They are taught that the synths are monsters and savages. Miles explains that he did not know the synths had built such an advanced society, even adopting synth children and forming marriages. He states that killing children and families is not what he signed up for.

The humans breach the roof of the factory and battle the synths. Peter and Alice part amicably with Miles and go to find their daughters. They fight their way through the factory and rejoin David and the girls, just as the train is leaving. As they move through the tunnel, David explains that he and select other synths kept their memories to stay prepared for the inevitable return of the humans. Buoyed by the knowledge that Miles could recognize them as equals, Peter suggests that some day there could be peace between humans and synths. Their train briefly passes through the open, giving them a distant view of their battered city, before carrying them underground, collapsing the rails and tunnel entrance behind them.

Cast

• Michael Peña as Peter
• Lizzy Caplan as Alice, Peter’s wife
• Mike Colter as David, Peter’s boss
• Amelia Crouch as Hanna, Alice and Peter’s daughter
• Erica Tremblay as Lucy, Alice and Peter’s daughter
• Israel Broussard as Miles, a soldier
• Lex Shrapnel as Ray, Samantha’s husband
• Emma Booth as Samantha, Ray’s wife
• Lilly Aspell as Megan, Ray and Samantha's daughter

Production

In December 2013, it was revealed that the screenplay for Extinction, written by Spenser Cohen, had been included in the 2013 Black List of the year’s best unproduced scripts in Hollywood, as voted on by more than 250 studio execs. In January 2014, Joe Johnston signed on to direct the film, and in September 2016, it was revealed that James McAvoy was "in talks" to star.

In October 2016, Ben Young signed on to direct the film, with Johnston having left the project a while back. In January 2017, it was announced that Michael Peña would star in the role McAvoy had been courted for. In February 2017, Universal Pictures won worldwide distribution rights to the film, with principal production set to begin in April 2017. In March 2017, Lizzy Caplan and Israel Broussard joined the cast, while Mike Colter and Lex Shrapnel joined in April, and Emma Booth in May.

Release

Extinction was released on July 27, 2018, on Netflix. The film had originally been scheduled for a theatrical release on January 26, 2018, by Universal Pictures, but was pulled from the release schedule. Later in February 2018, it was reported that Netflix had acquired the film from Universal.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 15 reviews, and an average rating of 3.7/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Jake Nevins of The Guardian gave it 2/5 stars and called the film "a competent, if formulaic film", writing that, by virtue of not being viewed theatrically, the film's flaws are magnified and its strengths were weakened. In his 1.5/4 star review for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen wrote "There's a tightness that I respect with Extinction. It's not so much a thrill-ride but a movie monorail, with one revelation at the end meant to reconsider the entire journey. That speaks to its efficiency as the latest in mindless, if not attention-less Netflix movies. Extinction doesn't seek to be much, but it's just not all that charming, either." Alex Hudson from Exclaim! gave the film a rating of 2/10, saying, "Close to the end, there's a surprisingly stellar twist, as we finally get some insight into these otherwise boring characters and their dull lives. Had the build-up been better, it could have been a Sixth Sense-worthy revelation; instead, it's too little too late to save this clumsy sci-fi stinker."

External links

• Extinction at IMDb