Respond to these rapid questions in our Alien quiz and we will tell you which Alien character you are. Play it now.
At its most basic level, “Alien” is a film about deadly creatures that can suddenly appear out of nowhere. It shares a kinship with the shark in “Jaws,” Michael Myers in “Halloween,” and various spiders, snakes, tarantulas and stalkers. The film’s most overt inspiration is Howard Hawks’ “The Thing” (1951), which also centers on a group of people in a remote outpost who find a long-dormant alien and transport it inside before being killed one by one as it prowls the hallways. You can see “Alien” developing in that video.
Ridley Scott’s 1979 film is a fantastic original in another sense. In order to tell a story in the tradition of traditional “hard” science fiction, it builds on the iconic opening shot of “Star Wars” (1977), which features a large ship in lone interstellar space. With its tough-talking crew members and their mercenary motives, the story would have fit in well with John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction during its nuts-and-bolts period in the 1940s. Campbell favored tales in which rational approaches to space exploration were used by engineers and scientists rather than space jockeys and ray-gun blasters.
The Golden Age of Science Fiction would undoubtedly have drawn readers to the role of Ripley, portrayed by Sigourney Weaver. She is not particularly interested in the romance of discovering the alien, and she is even less interested in her employer’s directives to have it returned home as a possible weapon. She responds directly to “Special Order 24” (“Return alien lifeform, all other priorities rescinded”) after seeing what it is capable of: “How do we kill it?” The common theme in all three “Alien” sequels is her unwavering loathing of the alien, which has persisted despite the films’ steadily declining quality.
Pacing is one of “Alien’s” greatest assets. It requires patience. It watches. It permits pauses. (the majestic opening shots are underscored by Jerry Goldsmith with scarcely audible, far-off metallic chatterings). It hints at the magnitude of the crew’s finding by gradually leading up to it: intercepting a signal—is it an SOS or a warning? the ascent to the top of another planet. Brett and Parker’s whining, who only care about getting their portion of the pie. The crew members’ ability to travel through the surface muck with their helmet lights hardly penetrating the soup is the surface murk’s genius. the mysterious shape of the alien spacecraft. the alien aviator in his command chair, frozen in place. The size of the ship’s find (“It’s full of… leathery eggs…”).
In a more modern version of this tale, the action would have quickly moved to the crew members being jumped on by the alien. Sci-fi and other slasher films of today have no setup and only pay off. Take the terrible adaptation of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which robs the viewer of a justification, an introduction to the chain-saw family, and even a satisfying conclusion. We don’t particularly like the cutting. It is the anticipation of the stabbing.
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With his iconic example of a bomb under a table, Hitchcock demonstrated this. (It fires; that is movement. Suspense is created when it doesn’t go off.) Knowing this, M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” gave its invaders very little attention. The empty hallways of the Antarctic station, where the Thing might be hiding, are where Hawks’ “The Thing” has its best sequences.
To keep the extraterrestrial fresh throughout the entire film, “Alien” employs a tricky device: We are never quite sure of the creature’s exact makeup or appearance because it is constantly evolving. The petrified pilot from the long-lost alien ship resembles a humanoid, so we initially presume the eggs will hatch a humanoid. Of course, we don’t even know if the aviator belongs to the same race as the leathery eggs in his hold. Perhaps he sees them as weapons as well. When the alien explodes from poor Kane’s chest, that is the first time we get a decent look at it. (John Hurt). Its shape is undeniably phallic, and reviewer Tim Dirks calls attention to its “open, dripping vaginal mouth.”
Yes, but later on, when we catch a glimpse of it during a sequence of attacks, it completely changes shape and now resembles an octopod, a reptile, or an arachnoid. Then it reveals another secret: the liquid dripping from its body is a “universal solvent,” and there follows a scene that is both terrifying and enjoyable as it consumes each deck of the ship one at a time. The alien can be almost any monster the narrative calls for, as the sequels (“Aliens,” “Alien 3,” and “Alien Resurrection”) will all too amply demonstrate. It doesn’t follow any norms of appearance or behavior, so it transforms into an amorphous threat that stalks the ship in the form of a shape-shifting evil. The scientific officer, Ash (Ian Holm), refers to it as a “perfect organism. It admits: “I admire its purity, its sense of survival; unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.”
Alien Quiz
The only surviving member of the initial crew, aside from the… cat, is of course Sigourney Weaver, whose career would be forever associated with this peculiar creature. By killing everyone but a woman, the producers must have hoped for a sequel and decided to stick with a female protagonist for their show.
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It was a testament to Weaver’s versatility that she could play the tough, capable, and ruthless Ripley and then switch back for so many other types of roles. A few years later, Variety noted that Weaver remained the only actress who could “open” an action movie. She portrays intelligence, which is one of the reasons she excels in the role; the original “Alien” from 1979 is a much more cerebral film than its sequels, with the characters (and the audience) truly intrigued by this strangest of lifeforms.
None of the remaining actors were especially young, which is a peculiarity of the group. Tom Skerritt, the commander, was 46 years old, Hurt was 39 but appeared older, Holm was 48, Harry Dean Stanton was 53, Yaphet Kotto was 42, and the only actors in the typical thriller age range were Veronica Cartwright, 29, and Weaver, 30. In many recent action films, young actors are cast in unlikely key parts or as sidekicks, but “Alien” accomplishes a certain texture by leaning older without even making a point of it: These people were paid by a business to bring 20 million tons of ore back to Earth; they are not intrepid travelers. (the vast size of the ship is indicated in a deleted scene, included on the DVD, which takes nearly a minute just to show it passing).
These characters can talk in their own distinct voices thanks to the screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, which is based on a story he co-wrote with Ronald Shusett. Working in the engine room, Brett and Parker (Kotto and Stanton) lament the delays and fret about their share of the earnings. But hear Ash out: “I’m actually still compiling it, but I have verified that he has an outer layer of protein polysaccharides. He has a peculiar propensity to shed his cells and replace them with polarized silicon, which increases his resilience to harsh environmental conditions over time. Then there is Ripley’s approach to getting right to the point, which is straightforward.
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As a result, the movie immerses us in a mission before it takes us on an adventure, and it consistently engages the alien with reasoning and curiosity rather than just firing shots at it. Compare this film to a modern space opera like “Armageddon,” where the average shot lasts only a few seconds and the conversation is condensed into terse statements that reveal the story. Much of the credit for “Alien” must go to director Ridley Scott, who had only previously produced the intellectual, elegant “The Duelists,” his only other big motion picture. (1977). His subsequent movie, “Blade Runner,” is another wise, forward-thinking science fiction extravaganza. (1982).
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His work has featured some puzzling clunkers (“Someone To Watch Over Me”), but it has also featured films like “Thelma & Louise,” “G.I. Jane,” “Gladiator” (which I disliked, but audiences didn’t), “Black Hawk Down,” and “Matchstick Men.” These are equally intelligent and commercial projects, created by a director who doesn’t mind appealing to a broad audience.
Although “Halloween” also deserves on the list, “Alien” has been dubbed the most influential of contemporary action movies, and that is certainly the case. Unfortunately, the movies it inspired only looked at its thrills and ignored its ideas. We have now entered a bog of Gotcha! movies, in which horrifying creatures suddenly appear and attack a number of victims, typically young people. The remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which basically puts the audience to the same test as an old-time carnival geek show: Can you keep your eyes open while we disgust you? serves as an example of how the Geek Movie is the ultimate extension of the genre. Several sci-fi movies with greater ambition and seriousness have since followed in the tracks of “Alien,” most notably the competent “Aliens” (1986) and “Dark City.” (1998). The original, however, continues to pulse with a sinister ferocity.
