High Life(2019)

A24

R
Rated R for disturbing sexual and violent content including sexual assault, graphic nudity, and for language
1h 53m

Release Date: Apr 5, 2019 | Limited

A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Apr 5, 2019

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$99,341
Total US & Canada:
$1,225,852
Total International
$907,181
Total Worldwide:
$2,133,033

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Claire Denis
Director

Claire Denis

Gallery

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: France,United Kingdom,Germany,Poland,United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

A group of criminals serving death sentences are sent on an alternative energy finding mission in space to extract energy from a black hole. The ship is large, and has living quarters, gardens to grow their own good, a common living room, cockpit, water recycling facility, medical facilities and so on.At this point, the crew has been gone from Earth for 3 years. Constant acceleration of the spaceship creates a sense of gravity. Soon, they are travelling at 99% the speed of light. Due to the boredom of space, rituals were invented to keep the crew occupied. The crew was told that they would return to Earth, when no such plan was possible. Communication with Earth took several years one way. They were still 4 years away from their destination, the nearest black hole to Earth.Each prisoner is treated as a guinea pig by Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche), who is fixated on creating a child through artificial insemination but has yet to find success. Sexual activity between prisoners is prohibited. Dr Dibs will reward the male crew with a little treat every time they make a sperm "donation". Dibs administers sedatives to the passengers to control their rage and aggression. Dibs knows that the odds are against growing and extracting a healthy fetus, as it is likely to be irradiated first. The ship is equipped with "The Box", a device obsessively used by the crew to masturbate, including Dr Dibs.Dibs murdered her own children and husband and is proud that of all crew members she has the worst criminal record. Dibs has 2 violent scars on her abdomen, indicative of criminal past. The only celibate prisoner, Monte (Robert Pattinson), rejects Dibs's sexual advances. Dibs believes that Monte has the best genes on the ship, which makes him the most resilient to the effects of long-term radiation exposure. Monte is serving a life sentence for killing his friend over his dog as a child. Monte's only friend on the ship is Tcherny (André Benjamin), who is drawn to the garden because it reminds him of Earth.4 years away from their destination, the ship starts deceleration procedures. The mission was to capture the rotational energy of a black hole to provide boundless resources to humans. The captain Chandra (Lars Eidinger) develops leukemia due to radiation and has a stroke before being Euthanized by Dibs. Dibs uses Chandra's blood to transfer operational authority of the ship to herself and to file the daily check-in reports. In absence of a check-in, the ship's computer would conclude that there is no life on-board and shut off the life support system to conserve power. Pregnant prisoner, Elektra (Gloria Obianyo), dies along with her newborn infant when the ship is exposed to lethal doses of space radiation.One night, Ettore (Ewan Mitchell) attempts to sexually assault Boyse (Mia Goth), but the rest of the prisoners are alerted by her screams. Monte throws Ettore off Boyse and ruthlessly beats him but stops short of killing him. When Monte leads Boyse away to be treated, Mink stabs Ettore (Claire Tran) (Boyse's cellmate) to death in the hallway. Dibs begins doubling the number of sedatives each prisoner receives. Dibs later sneaks into Monte's cell and sexually assaults him while he is sedated. She injects his semen into Boyse, and she produces a healthy child; Monte is unaware that the child is his.As the ship approaches the black hole, the pilot, Nansen (Agata Buzek), prepares to take a shuttle into the black hole. Unbeknownst to the other prisoners, Boyse kills Nansen with a shovel and takes her place. The shuttle travels through a molecular cloud that alters its trajectory and causes it to dive into the black hole, where Boyse dies gruesomely due to Spaghettification. Mink later attacks Dibs and injures her but is then killed by Monte. A fatally injured Dibs informs Monte that the child is his before ejecting herself into space. Tcherny commits suicide by burying himself in the garden.Monte struggles to raise the baby whom he has named Willow. He attempts to make repairs on the ship, and leaves Willow in her play pen inside her room. He remains connected to her through an audio feed of her room, but her cries cause him to drop his tool into space. Monte takes a lot of joy in raising Willow and is really attached to the baby. Monte has to check in and make a report every 24 hours for the life support systems on the ship to be extended. Monte uses the vegetables from the garden to cook food for himself and for Willow.Monte still preserves the bodies of his fellow crew members in Cryogenic suspension. Monte, now the only surviving prisoner with Willow, disposes of the bodies from each Cryochamber into space to conserve energy. Monte is emotionally distraught, and it is only Willow who gives him a reason to live. Monte uses materials on the ship to sew a doll for Willow to play with. Communication with Earth takes 100 years, and so the ship functions autonomously. Monte knows that this is a one-way mission, even though they have not been told this officially.When Willow grows to be a teenager, another ship arrives. Willow is going through puberty, which Monte is not equipped to handle emotionally. Monte boards the ship but finds it carrying stray dogs who have survived by eating one another. Willow begs Monte to bring one back, but he refuses, citing potential contamination that could kill them.The ship moves closer to the black hole, and Willow convinces Monte to board a shuttle with her and execute the Penrose process (The Penrose process (also called Penrose mechanism) is theorized by Sir Roger Penrose as a means whereby energy can be extracted from a rotating black hole. Penrose mechanism exploits that by diving into the Ergosphere, dumping an object that was given negative energy, and returning with more energy than before. In this way, rotational energy is extracted from the black hole, resulting in the black hole being spun down to a lower rotational speed.) that, if successful, is supposed to slingshot them away from the black hole.No longer wearing space suits, Monte takes Willow's hand, and they walk together to a yellow light source that grows ever larger and envelops them.

Storyline

Takes place beyond the solar system in a future that seems like the present. About a group of criminals who accept a mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship. Deep space outside the solar system. Monte and his daughter Willow live together aboard a spacecraft, in complete isolation. A man whose strict self-discipline is a shield against desire, Monte fathered her against his will. His sperm was used to inseminate the young woman who gave birth to her. They were members of a crew of prisoners - death row inmates. Guinea pigs sent on a mission. Now only Monte and Willow remain. Through his daughter, he experiences the birth of an all-powerful love. Together, father and daughter approach their destination - the black hole in which time and space cease to exist. — Wildbunch International Sales