In the movie Life (2017), Calvin is outside the space station. Calvin is shown to be an organic life-form that is Carbon based. They mention that it needs food, oxygen, and a suitable temperature to survive. Outerspace has none of these. Yet, Calvin is shown to comfortably move around outside the ship and survive. The same Calvin goes into a dormant state earlier in the film when there is an atmospheric accident. What's the deal here? How is it able to breathe outside the space station?
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Hugh mentions that Calvin may be able to "store" oxygen (presumably within his own cells) for an unknown amount of time.– MöozCommented Jun 4, 2017 at 22:05
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1Nothing precludes him simply being able to hold his breaht longer than a human. The other environmental problems people face in free space didn't seem to really bother him.– Napoleon WilsonCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 22:23
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@NapoleonWilson .. fair point.– JohnCommented Aug 11, 2020 at 17:35
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1 Answer
We don't know whether Calvin is actually "comfortable" outside, or desperately fighting for its life on quickly depleting oxygen reserves - the latter could be an in-universe explanation.
But realistically, you're right, it does not make much sense. If Calvin can survive for several minutes without any atmosphere at all, then a slight drop in pressure or oxygen content (which still allows humans to survive) should be no problem, as opposed to making Calvin stupidly follow a trail of "oxygen torches" (whatever that's supposed to be).
As a review I read put it quit aptly: "Life" is a pretty good horror movie, but a pretty weak science fiction story.
