Story Overview

High Life is a haunting and philosophically charged science fiction drama directed by Claire Denis. Set in what appears to be a near-future dystopia, the film follows a group of death-row inmates offered a final alternative to execution: participation in a deep-space scientific mission. Their objective is to serve as human subjects in a radical reproductive experiment conducted beyond the boundaries of Earth.

Among the convicts is Monte, portrayed by Robert Pattinson, a withdrawn and introspective man who gradually becomes the emotional core of the story. The mission, led by the enigmatic and morally ambiguous Dr. Dibs, played by Juliette Binoche, seeks to explore human reproduction in the most extreme and isolated conditions imaginable. As the spacecraft drifts toward a black hole, the crew faces not only the vast indifference of the cosmos but also the psychological unraveling triggered by confinement, desire, and despair.

When a violent cosmic radiation storm strikes the vessel, the fragile balance aboard collapses. What remains is an intimate and unsettling portrait of survival, centered on the evolving bond between a father and his daughter. Through its stark visuals and meditative pacing, High Life transforms a space survival narrative into a profound reflection on mortality, isolation, and the human instinct to create life even at the edge of extinction.