High Life

## More information

**High Life** is a 2019 science fiction horror film directed by Claire Denis. The film stars Robert Pattinson, and Juliette Binoche.

## Synopsis

It focuses on a group of criminals sent on a space mission toward a black hole while taking part in scientific experiments.

### Plot

A group of criminals serving death sentences are sent on a mission in space to extract alternative energy from a black hole. Each prisoner is treated as a guinea pig by Dr. Dibs for her experiments. She is fixated on trying to create a child in space through artificial insemination, but has yet to succeed. Sexual activity between prisoners is prohibited. The ship is equipped with "The Box," a device in a small room that is obsessively used by the crew to masturbate. Dr Dibs administers sedatives to the passengers. Dibs is on the ship because she murdered her own children and husband before attempting suicide. Monte, the only celibate prisoner, rejects Dibs' sexual advances. Monte is serving a life sentence for murdering a friend for killing his dog as a child. Monte's only friend on the ship is Tcherny, who is drawn to the onboard garden because it reminds him of Earth.

Pregnant prisoner Elektra delivers a baby, who dies later before she does as well. The captain, Chandra, develops leukemia from radiation and has a stroke before being euthanized by Dibs. One night, male prisoner Ettore attempts to rape Boyse. Nansen, the pilot, intervenes, but Ettore attacks and overpowers her. Monte arrives, throws Ettore off Boyse, and beats him. When Monte leads Boyse away to be treated, Mink stabs Ettore to death in the hallway. Dibs begins doubling the amount of sedatives each prisoner receives, later sneaking into Monte's cell and raping him while he is sedated. She then injects his semen into Boyse, who produces a healthy child that Dibs dotes on, but Monte is unaware that he is the baby's father.

As the ship approaches the black hole, Nansen prepares to pilot a shuttle around it. 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 explodes due to spaghettification, the stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field. Mink later attacks Dibs and injures her, but is then killed by Monte. Dibs informs Monte that the child is his before ejecting herself into space. Tcherny commits suicide and Monte buries him in the garden according to his wishes. Now the only surviving prisoner, Monte removes the bodies from the ship's morgue, dresses them in spacesuits, and releases them into space.

Monte struggles to raise the baby, whom he has named Willow. He attempts to make repairs to the ship, but her frantic cries through his helmet speakers causes him to drop a tool and lose it in space. Much later, when Willow has grown into a teenager, they encounter another ship similar to their own. 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, implying contamination could potentially sicken or 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 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

## Cast

* Robert Pattinson as Monte
* Mikołaj Gruss as young Monte
* Juliette Binoche as Dibs
* André Benjamin as Tcherny
* Mia Goth as Boyse
* Agata Buzek as Nansen
* Lars Eidinger as Chandra
* Claire Tran as Mink
* Ewan Mitchell as Ettore
* Gloria Obianyo as Elektra
* Victor Banerjee as Indian Professor
* Jessie Ross as Willow