Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a creature chase across Los Angeles with jump scares and some tentacles.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
It fades before you get home, though you may look at strangers a little harder.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Fine to watch with the lights on, since the monster is the government's own mistake.
Species runs one hour and forty-eight minutes. A government team gets instructions from space for splicing alien DNA with human DNA, follows them, and expects the result to be docile.
The premise, briefly
Scientists follow an alien message to grow a half-human hybrid named Sil, who escapes the lab, and a hired team has to find her before she mates.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Sil kills Arden and Fitch, then gives birth in the sewers. Smithson burns her offspring with a flamethrower, and Press blows up Sil with a grenade launcher. A rat chews on one of her severed tentacles.
The scene you're dreading
The hotel room scene, near the end: Sil is waiting in Arden's room, they have sex, she becomes pregnant right away, and she kills him once he figures out who she is. Smithson senses her afterward and warns the rest of the team.
The dog
No dog dies in Species. A mutated rat kills another rat in the last scene.
Species is a chase movie with a monster who does most of the planning, and knowing the plot takes the surprise out of the jump scares.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Instructions from space, followed to the letter
The movie starts with scientists sending messages out into space, including the Arecibo message, in case anyone is listening. Someone answers with two transmissions. One explains how to make limitless fuel, and the other holds an alien DNA sample with directions for splicing it into human DNA. The scientists decide the senders must be friendly. A government team led by Xavier Fitch uses the directions to create a female hybrid, on the theory that she will be docile and controllable. The result is a girl codenamed Sil, who looks human and grows to the age of twelve in three months. Sil has violent outbursts in her sleep, so the scientists decide she is too dangerous and prepare to kill her with cyanide gas. She gets out of her cell and escapes before they can.
The government fears that Sil will mate with human men and produce children who would eventually wipe out humanity. The government puts together a team to track her down and kill her: anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden, molecular biologist Dr. Laura Baker, an empath named Dan Smithson, and a black ops mercenary named Preston Lennox, who goes by Press. Sil has superhuman strength and intelligence and heals quickly, so catching her is harder than it sounds. She also keeps aging, and reaches her early twenties on the way. She heads to Los Angeles, kills several people who could have told the authorities about her, and starts disguising herself.
A car chase that ends at a transformer
Press and Baker catch up with Sil after she fails to mate with a diabetic young man named Robbie Llywelyn and kills him, and after she kills John Carey, whom she met after a car crash. She takes on her alien form, runs into a forest, and kidnaps a woman named Marlo Keegan so she can take over her identity. Sil goes back to Carey's house, reads Fitch's lips as he talks, and learns that the team plans to stake out a nightclub. Smithson spots her, and she leads the team on a car chase, leaving Marlo in the car to die. She sends the car into a transformer and leaps out just before it hits. Afterward she cuts and dyes her hair and finds herself attracted to Press, whom she dreamed about the night before. Meanwhile, the team celebrates her apparent death at a hotel.
A hotel room with the wrong guest in it
This is the stretch people dread, and it comes near the end. The team is celebrating at the hotel while Sil stalks them, and she kills a maid for the keys to the rooms. Arden, feeling lonely, goes to his room and finds Sil waiting. They have sex, and she becomes pregnant right away. Once Arden figures out who she is, she kills him. The scene is the hinge of the story, because the thing the team was sent to prevent has already happened. Smithson senses her nearby and warns the remaining team members. Sil transforms again and escapes into the sewers. Sil leaves the hotel for the sewers once Smithson sounds the alarm.
The ending, explained
The team chases Sil into the sewers, where she kills Fitch and then gives birth. Her offspring attacks Smithson, who burns it to death with a flamethrower, and Press blows up Sil with a grenade launcher. The survivors walk out without noticing a rat chewing on a piece of Sil's tentacle. The rat mutates and kills another rat, and that is the last thing that happens. Arden and Fitch are dead, and so are Sil and her offspring.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Species scary?
Yes, Species is a 5 out of 10. It's a creature chase with jump scares, several killings and one monster birth, and the fear fades once the credits roll.
How does Species end?
Sil gives birth in the sewers, Smithson burns her offspring with a flamethrower, and Press blows up Sil with a grenade launcher. Fitch and Arden die before that, and a rat chews on one of Sil's severed tentacles as the survivors leave.
Does the dog die in Species?
No, no dog dies in Species. A rat chews on a piece of Sil's tentacle in the last scene, mutates and kills another rat.
Is there a post-credits scene in Species?
Nobody has confirmed whether Species has a scene after the credits.
Who is Sil in Species?
Sil is a half-human, half-alien hybrid that a government team grows from instructions in an alien transmission. In Species she grows up in a few months, looks human, and can take on an alien form.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Species is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't need to sit through one hour and forty-eight minutes of Species to know what Sil does. Install Scaredy Cat and it blurs horror before you see it.
