"Space Between Stars" is an animated science fiction short film by Guru Studios, which follows a group of whimsical, ethereal, jellyfish-like creatures exploring a derelict space station while being hunted down by a vicious, persistent, and menacing robot. It was published on November 11, 2025.
It can be watched on YouTube here
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You are entering a fictional zone: reality has been suspended:
- Abandoned Area: The setting takes place on an abandoned space station that the aliens have come across.
- Adorable Abomination: The jellyfish-like creatures are eventually revealed to be an eldritch parasitic infection that managed to corrupt the space station's core into a new hive.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, the robot ultimately fails to stop one of the jellyfish-like creatures from breaking into the space station's core, absorbing its energy and spreading itself as an Eldritch Abomination with several jellyfish creatures spawned in the aftermath. It's promptly swarmed by the jelly-creatures who drain it of all its energy and inhabit its lifeless husk.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The robot is a vicious, persistent, Red and Black and Evil All Over machine that makes sinister sounds as it hunts down and kills the cute aliens in rather horrifying ways. Turns out, it was trying to protect the space station's core from these parasites, which would cause a massive infestation should one manage to absorb its energy.
- The Ending Changes Everything:
- One is initially set to believe that the jellyfish aliens are the good guys and the robot hunting them down is the bad guy. It's only at the end where one of the jellyfish creatures breaks into the space station's core and absorbs its energy to create a new infestation of its kind that the viewer learns that the jellyfish are a parasitic species that the robot was trying to stop — and failed. Furthermore, it explains why the displays appear to flicker whenever the jellyfish touch them.
- In the robot's last moments, it lets out the same sound as the one the space station's core produced. This reveals that the sound the space station core was making earlier was a distress signal, not a signal for the aliens to find it.
- Energy Absorption: The jellyfish aliens have the ability to absorb energy from the ship's systems they touch. One of them manages to reach the energy core of the space station, draining it of all its energy to form a new hive and several more of its kind.
- Foreshadowing: There are a few hints showing that the little jellyfish creatures aren't the cute creatures that they seem, and are in fact Villain Protagonists:
- All of them have a tendency to drain the energy out of the space station's machines that they touch. This is because they require lots of energy to reproduce.
- The purple-eyed jellyfish alien appears to abandon the one that was previously injured by the robot, showing that they're willing to sacrifice their injured and leave them to die.
- When the last three of the jellyfish aliens are cornered by the Killer Robot, the larger one brutally drains the two smaller ones in order to get its own energy to break the door down, showing that they do not act like friends/family and will turn on each other if it means survival.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: Deliberately invoked. The jellyfish aliens are a calming shade of blue, while the robot hunting them is Red and Black and Evil All Over. This helps to conceal the twist that the jelly aliens are actually the villains, while the robot is trying to stop them from infesting the space station's core.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Throughout most of the animation, the robot persistently hunts down the blue jellyfish creatures and kills them. After the last one manages to infect the space station's core and spawn several more of its kind, they rush down the badly damaged robot and drain it dry.
- Light Is Not Good: The jellyfish aliens are blue, fairylike creatures that make adorable sounds and are hunted down by and killed by the robot in rather horrifying ways. In reality, they are eldritch parasites who not only mercilessly assimilate their own kind for extra energy, but also seek to absorb the energy from the space station's core to create a massive infestation of their kind.
- Oh, Crap!: As soon as the remaining blue jellyfish breaks through to the space station's reactor core, the robot's normally sinister Cyber Cyclops eye has its eye turn into a Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises look. And when it finally realizes that all hope is lost, its Cyber Cyclops eye deactivates and reveals two small white dots behind them.
- Open the Iris: The robot's expression can be seen via the "iris" of its Cyber Cyclops eye, and its normally cold and vicious expression turns to one of worry and dread once one of the jellyfish aliens breaches the space station's core.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Invoked with the Killer Robot. It's black with red lights and Cyber Cyclops eye and it viciously attempts to kill the cute jellyfish aliens. However, it's revealed at the end that it's actually the Hero Antagonist.
- The Reveal: It turns out that the cute blue jellyfish aliens are Villain Protagonists that are seeking to drain energy from the space station's central core, and that the menacing Killer Robot hunting them down was the Hero Antagonist trying to prevent their infestation.
- Spoiler Cover: The thumbnail for the video shows us the infested space station core, revealing that the blue jellyfish aliens are really spores of an Eldritch Abomination species.
- Symbolic Blood:
- When one of the aliens is hurt but not killed by the robot, it begins to leave behind glowing energy orbs as it flies.
- After the robot gets heavily damaged from the aliens infesting the energy core, it leaves behind a red fuel-like substance from its damaged legs.
- Villain Protagonist: The cute jellyfish are actually an eldritch parasitic creature that absorbs energy to reproduce, and the Killer Robot was trying to stop them from doing so. It ultimately fails and the jellyfish are successful at converting the space station's core into a new hive for their kind.
- Would Hurt a Child: When the three remaining jellyfish aliens get cornered by the robot, the large one doesn't hesitate to brutally absorb the two small ones in order to gain enough power to break the door to the space station core. It's however left ambiguous if the two small jellyfish creatures were "children" at all, however.