"In space, no one can hear you scream"
Horror and Sci-Fi are often grouped together as if it was a
natural thing. It’s interesting that there are so few space/ horror films. It’s
just something that doesn’t happen very often and in 1979 it was all but
nonexistent, and then came ALIEN.
ALIEN opens up as a very quiet film. A seven person mining
crew awakens from suspended animation after two years under. They assume that
they are home but in actuality they are nearing an alien planet. “MOTHER”, the
artificial intelligence onboard the ship has detoured to this world after
picking up a distress signal. As a commercial starship, the crew argues that
basically, this is not their job. It doesn’t make any difference.
Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) takes his Executive Officer,
Kane (John Hurt) and his Chief Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) and
heads out to the downed derelict spacecraft. While there, they discover a large
humanoid alien sitting at a consol of some sort, his chest having exploded
from the inside out.
As King looks deep into a chamber, he discovers a large nest
of eggs. Upon closer inspection, he is attacked by the most disgusting creature
ever seen. It leaps from the egg, burning through his face mask and attaching
itself to him. Dallas and Lambert return him to the ship desperate to get him inside;
however Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the ship Warrant Officer, will not let them
in, citing that they need to be quarantined for 24 hours. Against her wishes,
the ship Science Officer, Ash (Ian Holm), let's them in, and with the alien on
board, it only gets worse.
While trying to remove the alien species from Kane’s face,
they discover that the blood coursing through its body is some sort of
molecular acid that nearly burns a hole through the hull of the ship. At this
point tension is building between the crewmembers, who are angry with each
other over decisions made in the heat of the moment, then things turn. The alien creature
has detached itself from Kane, and after finding the creature dead, they assume
that life is back to normal.
We all know what happens next, one of the most horrifying
scenes ever put on film, and absolutely mind blowing if you were lucky enough
to see in the theater back in 1979. The alien face hugger had laid an embryo
within Kane's throat, and the newborn baby bursts through his chest. There is
an alien loose on the ship.
Alien is basically a Gothic horror film set in space, Its
long dark corridors and movement in the shadows. It's the fear of things that
go bump in the night. Like its namesake, the ALIEN film is perfection. You get
a real sense of who these characters are without spending much time with them.
The alien threat grows bigger and bigger with every incarnation. It's hunting
the crew down one by one in glorious Agatha Christie fashion.
ALIEN was the second film from director Ridley Scott. It
is a masterpiece unparalleled in the science fiction and horror genres. I know
that sounds pretentious but the proof's in the pudding. There is nothing that
comes close to this film not even James Cameron's sequel. Every detail has a
lived in pseudo-cyberpunk look to it. The world is believable and tangible.
Tom Skerritt as Capt. Dallas is the essence of future
cool, by way of the 79. His mannerisms suggest someone who does his job,
doesn't want to deal with a lot of headache, and at the end of the day just
wants to go home and relax.
I always felt the Veronica Cartwright was rather spastic
as Lambert. I always felt that she had some sort of a crush on Dallas only to
have Ridley confirm that they were in fact sleeping with each other. This
explains her emotional deterioration after his death.
Harry Dean Stanton as Brett was the picture of
blue-collar worker in Middle America. He is the kind of man on earth that would
drive a Ford pickup with a rifle on the back window and an open container in
his hands.
Yaphet Koto as Parker, the other engineer in the group,
is more the disgruntled worker, the kind of guy that stirs up trouble when he
is discontent. Parker is a hard worker, no doubt, but the biggest thorn in your
side when he's unhappy.
Kane, as played by John Hurt, with all the cool is that comes with
being a first officer. He's the kind of guy you wouldn't mind working for;
smart, authoritative, but pleasant to work with. He is a man who gets his hands
dirty and unfortunately it cost him.
Ian Holm is Ash, a man with more secrets than pleasantries.
There is a certain arrogance that would come with being the ship's science Officer, but Ash
definitely takes it to the next level. The less said about him the better.
That brings us to Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. Ripley does
not become the main character until halfway through the film, but, when she
does step up she holds the screen better than any man on the crew. There is
calmness and a strength that comes through in her eyes that leads to little
doubt on who was running that ship.
But what about the alien you say? H.R. Giger designing the
alien based on his painting Necronom IV. It was the first time anything as original
as this had been seen on screen and many would argue the last. Everything about
the alien is phallic and threatening. Its structure is essentially black boned
with a giant phallus for a head. Its sole purpose, it would seem is to
reproduce. Since it stops at nothing to do so, the alien can be seen as misogynistic,
since it will take what it wants when it wants it (and leave a bun in the oven
to boot).
Much has been made of the film being very sexual and that
isn't without merit. The whole film is the act of sex and reproduction. The
ALIEN comes from an egg and grows up; the alien head is phallic shaped. Its
tongue protrudes and penetrates. It Implants seed and its alien babies are
birthed. In simple terms ladies and gentlemen, if the Alien meets you, you are
fucked!
The cycle of life is repeated over and over in the film. The
crewmembers are all birthed from their egg shaped sleep chambers. The first
sexual act is against Kane, impregnating him with an unwanted child. When the
child is born King dies, and from that point forward the cycle of life and
death repeats again and again. However, just as the film opens with an isolated
set of births (the sleep chamber emergence), the film concludes with an
isolated death. The alien, who has latched on to this family, is attacking its
mother, Ripley. She shoots the alien with a grappling hook, its cord creating a
link between her and the unwanted child. The alien is pushed out the door and
the cord is cut, leaving the child to fend for itself just as we all must.
Ripley is left with one child, Jones the cat, the unofficial mascot of the
crew. The film ends with one child and one mother asleep in the egg shaped
chamber, waiting to be born again and for life to start anew.
Others have tried to elevate their film by having H.R. Giger
draw a poster for them. It’s more than that, it’s not just the man who paints
the painting, it's what the image represents, and that will never happen again.
Another great thing about the film is more subtle, the world
rings true. Now we never see Earth or is it talked about, but we see the
average working Joe, and we can relate to him. I can go on all day about the
perfection that is alien, but I won't. If you have never given ALIEN a shot,
please do. It is a film unmatched by its contemporaries as well as its
namesakes. You could do worse but you'll seldom do better.
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