Enemy Mine

Enemy Mine is a 1985 SF film dir. by Wolfgang Petersen and based on a story by Barry B. Longyear.

The film tells the story of human pilot Willis E. Davidge (played by Dennis Quaid) and "Drac" pilot Jeriba "Jerry" Shigan (played by Louis Gossett, Jr.). The two pilots end up alone on a planet together, and although their people are enemies, they have to cooperate with each other in the face of hostile third parties.

Notably, the Drac species is hermaphroditic, and apparently reproduces by parthenogenesis. Shigan, the Drac pilot, is played by a male actor (Gossett), and becomes pregnant during the film. Naturally, once pregnant, "nothing else matters" beside the child; a variation on the "save the baby" lines that female characters who die in childbirth often utter. Since nothing else matters, Shigan dies during childbirth. Davidge cares for the child (also played by a male actor, Bumper Robinson) and eventually sees it safely back to Drac society.

Also naturally, the human pilot -- in this far future Earth -- had family patterns strangely reminiscent of 1950s America: When asked to talk about his family, he describes his father's occupation (computer programmer); his mother was a waitress "before she got married". His grandfather "had a place out in the country" -- his grandmother apparently wasn't entitled to call it her place in the country. The grandfather was a farmer, and the grandmother apparently was "just a good cook" and not a farmer. Probably because it wasn't "her place" or even "their place".

Transcript excerpts

Some transcript excerpts relevant to gender, from script-o-rama.com:

Davidge, narrating: I could see where the Drac fighter went down. Its ejection capsule couldn't be far from the wreck. I just hoped it wasn't dead... yet. It's funny, but I'd never actually seen a Drac. I knew they were completely inhuman. Not even male or female,... but both, bundled together in a scaly, reptilian body.

Later:

Davidge: Hey, Jerry, what's wrong?

Shigan: I could not go with you. It is no longer my life that matters. I am not fat. I am not lazy. Davidge. I await... a new... life.

D: A new life? From where? Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Are you telling me you're pregnant? What, you're gonna have a baby? What, a little Drac?! What? But how'd... Well, don't look at me! Jerry, Jerry, you can't do this to me!

S: With you humans,... birth is a matter of choice. With us Dracs,... it happens. When the time comes,... it just happens. That is why I could not go with you. My child... is all I have now.

Later:

Davidge: What's wrong?

Shigan: Zammis... is coming.

D: Oh, God. God... - What do I do?

S: I don't know. Something... is wrong.

D: Oh, no. No, no. No, no, no. No. You're gonna be all right. Women always get nervous before labour.

S: I am not a woman!

D: But pregnant people... things... get nervous. Everybody gets nervous before labour! Besides, if anything happened to you, I'd be left here all alone. Huh? Just because business has been slow lately, you expect me to run the whole place alone?

S: You... are alone. Within yourself,... you are alone. That is why you humans... have separated your sexes into two separate halves. For the joy of that... brief union.

In the film, Davidge refers to members of the Drac species -- including the child -- by male pronouns, although Shigan (and the narrator) use "it" to describe Zammis (the child).

Further reading

• IMDB
• Wikipedia
• Transcript at script-o-rama.com