Space survival movies involving creature horror have hit an all-time low in terms of popularity among viewers, as well as in qualitative terms, ever since the Aliens franchise saw consecutive failures in the last decade. Light, directed by Matt Woollard, contributes to the genre’s further downfall on the silver screen through sheer laziness in crafting a compelling storyline. Despite having an interesting premise and a few fleeting moments of brilliance shining through thanks to it tight, atmospheric treatment of the narrative, the movie lacks the intent and direction to land a proper ending, turning the entire thing into a hot mess.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Samira and Tallie Get to Know Each Other?
Light is set in an unspecified distant future when the human populace has become a spacefaring, colonizing species. As the movie begins, a citizen of Allied Earth, Samira Grey, crash-lands her capsule on a foggy, treacherous planet known as Krake. Passengers of the colony-traversing ship Utopia II, Samira and her son Luccas apparently got separated when the ship got destroyed due to unknown circumstances and, like a number of survivors, escaped using individual capsules. Due to the rough landing, Samira’s capsule appears to have taken critical damage, prompting her to wear her spacesuit and get oxygen supplies using canisters.
Using the suit’s scanning and communication device, Samira tries to reach Luccas, but to no avail. The dense atmosphere of Krake renders visibility practically nonexistent, making the ordeal of locating even the closest things almost impossible. On a shoestring budget, the makers have done a really good job of limiting the surroundings in such a way that it looks haunting and surreal at the same time, as the environment changes shade in different phases of the day. Samira uses the open communication channel to reach Luccas and observes a number of bioluminescent organisms hovering nearby. As the creatures disperse hurriedly, Samira gets alarmed by the apparent presence of a predatory alien entity, which gets attracted by the lights. Sensing its presence nearby, Samira tries to hide herself hurriedly and loses consciousness.
On the other hand, Tallie Zima, another survivor (not of Utopia II) stranded on Krake, communicates with her father, Avel, who has landed in a distant position, and using a locator Northstar beam, Tallie tries to help him reach her location. Over their communication device, Tallie realizes that Avel has located a boy inside an escape capsule as well and is trying to inquire about his background. This conversation gets overheard by Samira, who believes the boy to be her son, Luccas. Samira warns Tallie about the dangers involving the lights just in time for Tallie to escape to safety and pleads with her to warn Avel about them. However, as Samira warns Avel, something attacks him on the other side, and his comm goes silent. Samira asks Tallie about her son, but neither of them are aware of the situation on the other side.
Was Samira able to find her son?
In the movie, the majority of interaction between Samira and Tallie takes place over the communicators, and Samira introduces herself as Niu to Tallie. With the fate of Luccas remaining unknown, Samira decides to continue searching for him and refuses Tallie’s request to seek out her location, as she is unwilling to waste the limited amount of oxygen she has in canisters. She instead advises Tallie to search for her, as staying in a singular location on this treacherous planet will surely court danger.
While moving through the misty, dark terrain, Samira and Tallie get a bit acquainted with each other. Tallie reveals that she has been brought up in spaceships and stations, never venturing to alien terrain, and Krake is the first world she has visited, that too by accidental crash landing. However, she remains suspicious about landing on a planet where numerous past exploration expeditions have ended in death and tragedy. Curiously searching through the excrement of some native creature, Tallie finds out about Perla, an extremely valuable substance inside of it, which explains the continuous expedition attempts of the EDF (Earth Defense Force) on the planet despite the dangers. Samira shares that her wife, Luccas’ mother, Laura, had passed away in a deep space mining operation, which seems to be the reason why she was settling elsewhere from earth. As the duo get trapped in a severe storm, Tallie expresses her concern about being stranded and alone, and Samira tries to comfort her by assuring her she’ll stay by her side. It is hinted that Tallie had a rough childhood, and she and her father later opted for a life of crime, as mention of EDF and the authorities causes her to occasionally act in a suspicious way. Occasionally, the duo gets followed by strange people dressed in all black attire, but any attempt to apprehend them turns futile as they disappear in the shadows.
As the storm eventually passes, Samira begins searching for Luccas, and despite her oxygen reserve getting low, she doesn’t adhere to Tallie’s request to abandon her futile search and locate her instead. Finally, Samura comes across a capsule, but gets disheartened to see it empty and finds it to be from a different ship as well. Tallie suggests she use the communication device of the capsule, as the range will be wider and stronger compared to the ones built inside their suits. Even though Samira still isn’t able to communicate with Luccas, she intercepts a transmission by an EDF patrolling ship orbiting near the planet in search of the survivors of Utopia II. Setting up a location for the EDF ship to arrive, Samira pleads with the authorities to learn about the nearby capsules in the faint hopes of seeing her son alive, and she gets an hour to find him before the rescue arrives. With the possibility of escaping this godforsaken place seeming real, Tallie requests Samira to reveal her location by signaling through the capsule lights, and as Samira agrees to do so, Tallie spots her rushes to reach the location. However, the people wearing black attire launches an assault on her, and Tallie’s fate remains unknown for a while.
While hurtling through the darkness, Samira receives a transmission from Tallie, who has seemingly survived the attack, and Tallie also informs her that she has found Luccas. Seeing the flashing light signal used by her, Samira finally comes face-to-face with Tallie, but finds the capsule to be empty. It turns out that Tallie was planning to betray Samira all along, as she believes that they have been deliberately brought to the planet by the EDF to be slaughtered, and the only chance she has of survival is by using whatever resources Samira has. To Samira’s disbelief, Tallie remarks that EDF destroyed Utopia II to use the passengers for their own monetary profit, but this statement doesn’t get clarified until the end of the movie. As Tallie holds Samira at gunpoint and demands her remaining oxygen canister, Samira manages to trick her and flee from the scene. However, exhaustion soon catches up to her, and as Samira falls unconscious, she gets captured by the strange persons in black attire, who affix lights around her to lure the predator.
Upon waking up, Samira manages to break free of her restraints and runs to safety, and eventually she comes across a kid wearing a space suit who she mistakes to be Lucas. The kid reveals his name to be Isaac, whom Avel had found before his death—but a case of mistaken identity led Samira to a futile search. A dejected Samira finally comes to terms with the fact that Luccas might not have survived at all, and she has been chasing ghosts all the while.
Did Tallie manage to save Isaac?
Like Samira, Isaac too was being used as bait by the people in black attire, and she quickly freed him from his restraints. However, Samira’s worst fears come true as the predatory alien creature gradually nears their location, revealing its full, giant serpent-like form in the process. All of a sudden, Tallie appears, saves the duo by distracting the creature, and once again holds Samira at gunpoint, demanding her oxygen for herself. As the creature returns once again, Samirs makes the inexplicable decision to sacrifice her life to save the rest of them, entrusting Isaac to Tallie, and in her final moments, she puts her faith in Tallie’s inherent goodness. The creature devours Samira, and a distraught, confused Tallie rushes away from the spot, taking Isaac along with her.
Out of options, Tallie communicates with the EDF rescue ship and discusses a location for extraction. On her way, she shows kindness to Isaac by letting him use the oxygen canister. Before they can be rescued, however, the strange people in black attire attack them, and despite her best efforts, Tallie fails to fend them off. Before they too meet the same fate as Samira, the EDF ship finally arrives, and a security operative drives the predator away using a high-pitched noise-emitting device. Shockingly, the operative signals the attackers to let Tallie go but allows them to capture Isaac. As Tallie gets taken inside the rescue ship, she desperately tries to save Isaac, but to no avail. With the EDF ship departing, the attackers round Isaac up with the light entrapment to use him as bait for the predator, and an aggrieved Tallie weeps while pondering about the kid’s fate. In the final moments, the Perla ore Tallie left on the planet cracks open, and a human skull is revealed from inside, which clarifies much of the confusion regarding the movie.
The predator alien was supposedly used by the attackers as a Perla harvesting creature, as it devoured humans stranded in Krake and excreted the valuable substance, creating a fairly profitable business for the EDF in the process. Tallie was right in her assumption when she opined that they were deliberately marooned on the planet by the EDF—to be used as baits by the alien ‘golden goose’, and even if Samira had survived, the EDF probably wouldn’t have rescued all three of them. As for the reason why Tallie was saved by the EDF but Isaac was left to meet a horrible fate, it probably concerns Tallie being a criminal or fugitive, as hinted throughout the movie, who is more valuable to the EDF alive than dead. Samira’s search for Luccas was a tragic failure in the end, as her son might have perished without her knowing. Or did he ever get stranded in Krake like her mother? As throughout the movie, viewers don’t get to learn about his presence for once, and only through Samira’s statements is the possibility of him arriving in Krake notified.
