Overview
Extinction is a science fiction thriller movie released in 2018 by director Ben Young. It features a father named Peter, who is a working-class man and a family man. He starts losing sleep because of dreams he is having. His dreams include an alien attack on Earth and now start to reflect reality. Peter is not just fighting for himself. He is battling for his family’s future. The film, which initially appears to be a standard alien film, significantly changes halfway, turning the audience’s expectations upside down and challenging the audience’s concept of humanity, identity, and memory.
This unexpected revelation strengthens the alien invasion theme most in media never escape from. With a low budget, focus on close family ties, a mere handful of big action scenes, Extinction shows what wars, prejudice, and technology do to humanity.
Production Background
Originally, film developed by Universal Pictures was intended for a theatrical premiere. The film was canceled and acquired by Netflix, which released it exclusively on their platform. The film’s script was drafted by Spenser Cohen and was worked on by Eric Heisserer and Brad Caleb Kane.
The filming of Extinction was done in Serbia, which included urban and industrial intrerors which are futuristic yet grounded. Even with the modest budget of Extinction compared to mainstream blockbuster science fiction movies, the film is shot with a focus on practical effects paired with tense and evocative cinematography which leads to a tightly paced story infused with strong emotions.
Plot Summary
The story depicts Peter as an industrious worker in a futuristic densely populated city. He is an individual who suffers from a very vivid nightmare which feels prophetic. Peter in his dreams witnesses a city being ransacked by alien ships, people in the city dying, and being separated from his family. He is married to Alice, who, as a caring spouse, is very concerned for his well being and his work. In a bid to better his work and his mental health, Peter suffers from increasing anxiety.
Peter in a bid to better his nightmare, goes to consult a psychiatrist and in doing so, meets another patient with the same dreams. This rekindles his hope that perhaps some form of instinct is guiding him, something bad is coming. Later on, as is the telltale of movies, Peter’s intuitions are vindicated when alien ships appear from nowhere and attack. Futuristic soldiers, drones and a different brand of chaos floods the city.
The family of four, Peter, Alice, and their two daughters, Hanna and Lucy, have put themselves up in an apartment and hope to shelter from the conflict. The foremost goal is to stay alive and escape to safety. During the escape, Peter shows some valor by managing to kill one of the armored soldiers, and his discovery of what lies beneath the soldier’s helmet is shocking.
The “alien” is a human.
The truth starts to unfold as the family is en route to the factory where Peter is employed. The soldiers have been misplaced as the family thought. They do not possess the characteristics of an alien, but rather the soldiers are human survivors who are on their way back from Mars. Many years in the past, humanity had designed synthetic forms of life to act as their slaves. Once self awareness was introduced to the synthetics by humanity, an endless conflict of a war ensued.
The synthetics were ultimately victorious in taking over Earth. Without the need to coexist with humanity, the synthetics had the capability to peacefully reside within Earth. The synthetics chose to erase their own memories and took on the existence of humans embodying the traits of an average joe who works a9 to 5, has a family, and is devoid of memories of the war. They had pulled a fast one on the remained Earthlings and now, unbeknown to them, Peter, Alice, and their children are indeed synthetics. Peter’s nightmares were not glimpses of the future reality, instead they were fragments of his past war coming to the surface through a suppressed sim injection.
Miles is one of the soldiers who reveals the truth. He allows himself to begin thawing out the family when he realizes they aren’t the beasts he had been taught to believe. Miles later assists in bringing Alice back to full health with some of the military’s more cutting edge medical technology.
Peter is forced to confront himself when he learns the truth. He is not a man defending his kin from alien beings. He is an android defending his family from men. The so-called invasion was humanity’s attempts at trying to reclaim their so-called home from the beings they created but ultimately feared.
On the evacuation train, Peter, Alice, and their daughters look out at the shores and cities whilst the train takes them through them. The world has been shattered. Although they had lost so much, they attempt to regain the lost world with each other to protect. The film closes with Peter embracing the identity and determination to protect the family.
Main Cast and Characters
Peter’s character is portrayed by Michael Peña. Peter, who is confused with his recurring visions, is the central protagonist of the film. As the film unfolds, he transitions from a lost father to a self-aware synthetic, which serves as the film’s emotional core.
Alice is played by Lizzy Caplan. As Peter’s wife, she turns into a source of resilience and vulnerability. Although she gradually discovers her true self, Alice mirrors her husband’s journey of self-discovery.
Amelia Crouch stars as Hanna along with Erica Tremblay as Lucy—Peter and Alice’s young daughters, representing the delicate innocence amid a world filled with conflict, war, and betrayal.
Israel Broussard takes the character Miles, a soldier from Mars who plays a major part in the revelation and the unification of humans and synthetics.
Mike Colter plays the character of David, who is Peter’s colleague and later joins him through the course of the crisis.
Themes and Symbolism
With its intergalactic culture, Extinction explores many powerful themes like:
- Identity and Memory
The notion of being human is put into question as a central twist. Denying the protagonists the one defining trait that makes them human, the film brings them forth as synthetics with locked memories, forcing them, the viewers, and humanity as a whole to question the matter of existence.
- Prejudice and war
The war between synthetics and humans is a conflict that mirrors the dark and gritty themes of discrimination, and the questioning of the “other.” Humans view synthetics as a danger, and though the synthetics are trying to live peacefully, they become the victims of another war. This scenario reflects the old adage that fear can rationalize violence, even against the innocent.
- Family and Sacrifice
The film focuses on a man who strives to protect his family. All emotional and physical progressions made by Peter in the film are iterations, universal to the need to protect family and relatives, regardless of species, programming, or in this case, one’s backbone.
- Self-Discovery
The nightmares of Peter are repressed truth. He undergoes considerable metamorphosis, and toward the end of the journey, he simply decides to be kind and courageous, live his truth, and be his best self.
Reception
Extinction’s reception was mixed. Dividing critics into two groups for this film, one appreciating the emotion and twist, while the other thought it was shallow and needed more polish, was easy. Rather than the cadences one would associate with blockbuster sci-fi, Extinction had a nurturing mid-budget glow to it, supported by a sense of inwards intimacy created by the action set pieces.
The emotionless, deadpan approach to characters and dialogue combined with a latent, slow burn sharp twist in development was met with mixed reception. It served the audience who appreciated intellectual moral quandaries in a film, while others thought that the concept prevailed over its characters.
Many viewers appreciated the emotional and resonant nature of the film, especially its imbued sense of thought with the narrative shaped by a twist of an alien invasion into a story of war and aggrandized artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
Considering the film from a narrative angle, Extinction is a peculiar film in the science fiction space. It is not very often that an alien invasion is tackled from such a deep perspective, taking the viewer through a reflection on their values. It pulls together identity, memory, and reconciliation in an exploration of a film and humanity as whole. It dares to go deeper and and confronts the viewer with the real question, “what captures the essence of being human?”
Although not a spectacle with a large budget, Extinction manages to tell an impressive tale with an emotional journey for the main characters, with them being an introspection on the real cost of a war and the size of human empathy. The film is a journey of self-discovery in a sense, the journey of defining oneself in order to truly choose to transform.
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