Skyline (2010 film)

Skyline is a 2010 American science fiction disaster film produced and directed by Brothers Strause, directors of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. The film was released on November 12, 2010. It stars Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, Crystal Reed, David Zayas and Donald Faison. Skyline was a box office success, grossing $68 million worldwide against its $10–20 million budget, despite being panned by critics. The brothers stated before the film's release that they were already working on a sequel, which was released in December 2017 as Beyond Skyline, with the pair acting as producers.

Plot
Jarrod and his girlfriend Elaine have flown to Los Angeles for Jarrod's best friend Terry's birthday party. They celebrate with Terry's wife, Candice, and his assistant, Denise. During a private argument about whether or not they should move, Elaine reveals she is pregnant.

The next morning, blue lights descend from the sky, hypnotizing anyone who looks at them. The light affects them physically, causing them to become zombie-like, immobilized and collected by the light machines. Their friend Ray is taken, but Jarrod is saved when Terry tackles him. He and Terry go to the apartment roof to investigate the lights but are attacked by one of hundreds of flying alien drones. As they attempt to open the rooftop door, Elaine quickly opens it from the other side, accidentally looks directly into the aliens' light and is hypnotized, but Jarrod and Terry are able to save her and close the door.

Back in the apartment, Jarrod believes the open water would be a safer place, since there are no machines over the sea. They encounter a bickering couple, Colin and Jen, also preparing to flee the building. As Terry's car exits the garage it is flattened by a massive four-legged alien, killing Denise. Terry escapes but is abducted as he flees. The others retreat into the garage, where they encounter another alien lifeform in the shape of a large multi-tentacled squid that takes Colin. It corners the rest of the group before the building's concierge, Oliver, slams into it with an SUV and finds Colin alive. When they try to free him, the squid creature comes back to life, sucking out Colin's brain and regaining its energy. As they run back into the building, Jen is abducted.

The next day, the United States Air Force launches an attack against the alien spaceships and flying alien drones using stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicles and conventional drone aircraft armed with air-to-air missiles (a "jet engine" powered MQ-9 Reaper). Only one stealth plane (an X-47B) pierces the carnage and fires a nuclear missile, hitting the mothership, before it is destroyed. The detonation blows the ship apart, but it slowly begins to repair itself. After Jarrod tells Elaine that the alien light made him feel powerful, he is adamant that safety must be found outside. Oliver wants to stay inside and tries restraining him. Jarrod physically starts changing as he lifts Oliver off the floor and vows that he will protect his family.

Helicopters arrive with soldiers as Jarrod and Elaine go to the roof hoping to catch a ride to safety. Oliver and Candice stay in the penthouse, but are found. Candice is hypnotized and abducted; Oliver attempts to kill a tanker alien by turning on a gas stove and igniting a lighter, causing the room to explode. The soldiers are thrown off the roof by the aliens and a squid alien attacks Jarrod and Elaine. They kill it, but Jarrod is badly hurt. Surrounded by the aliens, they accept their fate, look into the blue light, and are sucked into the mother ship.

Inside the alien spacecraft, Elaine wakes on a pile of human corpses. Tubes are sucking human brains into machines; probes go through the pile looking for what they can find. Elaine sees Jarrod in the pile but has to watch helplessly as his brain is removed. She is probed, but left alone since she is pregnant. Elaine is transported to another chamber where other pregnant women have been sent. Meanwhile, Jarrod's brain, glowing red instead of the usual aliens' blue, is inserted into a new alien body.

Animating the alien body, Jarrod seems to retain control, and comes to the aid of Elaine and their unborn child. Elaine recognizes him when he caresses her belly and her head. He then turns around to confront advancing aliens, and in between the credits, a series of still images depict "Jarrod" protecting Elaine and their child from the other aliens.

Cast

 * Eric Balfour as Jarrod
 * Scottie Thompson as Elaine
 * Brittany Daniel as Candice
 * Crystal Reed as Denise
 * Neil Hopkins as Ray
 * David Zayas as Oliver
 * Donald Faison as Terry
 * Tanya Newbould as Jen
 * J. Paul Boehmer as Colin

Production
The project began filming in Marina Del Rey in February 2010 through March 31. Most of the action was shot in the high-rise condo in which Greg Strause lives.

The physical production only cost $500,000. With all the visual effects the total budget was around $10–20 million.

On November 11, 2010, producer Brett Ratner said on the Opie and Anthony Show that the film cost $10 million to make. The Brothers Strause insist that they will film a sequel with their own money and try to find a distributor to release it.

Legal action from Sony
In August 2010 it was reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment was contemplating legal action against Greg and Colin Strause, the directors of Skyline and the owners of Hydraulx Filmz. Sony paid Hydraulx to generate visual effects work for Battle: Los Angeles. But Hydraulx never informed Sony the siblings were directing a rival alien invasion feature, similarly driven by special effects, scheduled for release four months prior to Sony's feature. A rep for the Strauses issued a statement: "Any claims of impropriety are completely baseless. This is a blatant attempt by Sony to force these independent filmmakers to move a release date that has long been set by Universal and Relativity and is outside the filmmakers' control".

On March 17, 2011, Sony released a statement dismissing its arbitration against Hydraulx and the Strause Brothers citing that after the discovery phase they were satisfied that none of the Battle: Los Angeles visual effects were used in Skyline. The Strause Brothers stated, “We’re glad to put this behind us. We’ve been honored to work on several wonderful SPE projects in the past and look forward to future collaborations.”

Music
Composer Matthew Margeson is a colleague of Brian Tyler, who served as one of the film's executive producers.

Release
The film was released on November 12, 2010 in North America and November 11 in Australia, and is distributed by Universal Pictures. Following the theatrical release, the movie will run on Netflix. A trailer was released August 13 and attached to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and  Devil. The second trailer was released on September 29 and then attached to My Soul to Take on October 15. Another trailer was also attached to Paranormal Activity 2. The trailer has also been attached to Red and Jackass 3D in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Critical response
Skyline was not screened for critics prior to its release in the United States; when it was released, it was panned by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 16% based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A middling sci-fi entry, Skyline offers proof that solid special effects alone cannot overcome a flat storyline filled with uninspired dialogue." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 26 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D–" on an A+ to F scale.

Writing in Variety, Joe Leydon panned the film: "Imagine a Kmart mash-up of Transformers and Independence Day and you're appropriately primed for Skyline, an underwhelming and derivative sci-fi thriller that's only marginally more impressive than a run-of-the-mill SyFy Channel telepic." Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the "effects are pretty good, on a fairly limited budget. And that's about all you can say for Skyline." Screen Rant's Ben Kendrick wrote that the film "comes across as a big-screen B-movie with a convoluted plot and too limited of a scope to make the audience feel the worldwide alien-apocalypse that’s supposedly unfolding in the film". In the New York Times, Mike Hale concluded, "it turns out that all the running and hiding and chopping (there’s an axe) was beside the point, which is the sort of thing that can make you angry if you care about the characters, but in this case is kind of a relief."

However, there were positive reviews, including Matthew Sorrento's at Film Threat, who commented, "Skyline, if not always successful, refashions the modern alien invasion motif as the hopeless siege that it should be." Kim Newman from Empire Magazine also endorsed the film, writing, "... delivers all the Saturday night whiz-bang and Sunday morning brain-ripping you could want." The Sun's Alex Zane stated that "while it starts out as just a Cloverfield/Independence Day pastiche, this turns into something almost brilliant."

Box office
Skyline opened on November 12, 2010 and grossed $4,737,555 on its opening day from 2,880 theaters for a 1-day average of $1,645 per theater. It grossed a total of $11,692,415 over its opening weekend from 2,880 theaters for a 3-day average of $4,060 per theater, and ranking #4 for the weekend behind Megamind at #1, Unstoppable at #2, and Due Date at #3. , the film made $21,416,355 in the United States and $46,848,618 internationally for a worldwide total of $68,264,973.

Home media
Skyline was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 22, 2011.

Sequel
In May 2014 at the annual Cannes Film Festival, it was revealed that a sequel titled Beyond Skyline was planned to go into production, but without The Brothers Strause as the writers and directors. Instead, Skyline producer and co-writer Liam O'Donnell has been brought on board, marking his directorial debut. A sales poster which appeared at the Cannes Film Market has been shared on Facebook and other online sites.

On November 8, 2014, Variety announced that martial artist Iko Uwais will star in the film alongside Frank Grillo, and serve as action choreographer with fellow The Raid and The Raid 2 star Yayan Ruhian, who will also be in the film. The sequel will follow a band of resistance fighters formed after the aliens have invaded the planet, and according to Greg Strause will showcase "a new kind of alien combat." Filming for Beyond Skyline began in Batam, Indonesia in December 2014.