I have recently come across two separate movies in which Olivia Wilde has played a character whose life is inherently linked to the concept of life.  These two movies are “Tron Legacy” and “Cowboys and Aliens” and I should mention first of all that there will be spoilers within for anyone who has not seen them yet (both were good and worth seeing, Tron was better though.)   Cowboys and Aliens was the lesser of the two, more action and less substance (though still entertaining) and not surprisingly the character here is a lot less developed.   She plays a mysterious stranger (Ella) who is after some truth from the main character (Jake).   It is eventually revealed that she is an alien who has journeyed to Earth to put an end to the murderous ways of the evil aliens after her own species has been wiped out (of which she is the last).  Her actions are not explained so much in terms of revenge, rather she acts as a saviour for an alien and unknown species.  This is an interesting and often contradictory viewpoint than what a lot of humans have.  Humans habitually come up against other intelligent species and seek to tame them, whether this be through the butchering of a gorilla and mounting its head on a plaque, or through the training of a dolphin or other cetacean to perform tricks at a water based theme park.   The usual line is that humans are capable of so much good and should therefore be allowed to thrive, but this is never spoken here.   Rather she is simply the last of her kind and the only thing which can give her life meaning is to sacrifice it for another species.   While this sacrifice was heroic it was given little meaning other than that of a benevolent act, something which is often missing among us as humans.  

The other character Olivia played (Quorra or Q) in Tron Legacy looked at life less in the aspect of morality but rather in the form of genesis.  Quorra is an isomorph, a group of self aware computer programs that simply manifested in the Grid (the inside-the-computer world of Tron).  Much is made about the whether evolution is a valid theory but this is debated in a mostly non-scientific field, whereas scientists have a fairly firm grasp of its accuracy.  For anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution because it is only a theory, they should probably also not believe in microwave ovens because they are also only based on a theory (quantum theory).  Not to mention that evolution is used in modern pharmaceuticals to save lives, so while people may decry its applicability, they still reap its rewards.  The interesting aspect here though is the abstract concept of life, that a life form will develop simply if the conditions are right, and will fill the void by its non-existence.  This is what happens here and the character learns the value of life despite not really knowing what it is.  This is not necessarily a very accurate portrayal of evolution but in terms of being a fictional account of life trying to be somewhat poetic in nature, it accomplishes its goal and shows once again that life is more than what humans perceive it from our anthropocentric viewpoint.