Over the next few days my friend and expert on the horror genre Lizzy will be recapping the Alien quadrilogy, reminding us what happened in the previous films and giving us some analysis, trivia and background about this classic series, then she'll be taking on prometheus, including thoughts on the alternative start and endings. Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have! Beware though, ahead are a number of spoilers.
Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
Rotten Tomatoes rating 97%
In space no one can hear you scream
In 1979 Alien disturbed sci-fi audiences as much with its grimy realism as it did with set piece shocks. The opening sweep through the Nostromo reveals a working ship more akin to a North Sea trawler than the bridge of the enterprise. Aside from the stasis chambers, which adhere to convention being sleek white pods, the interior is made up of chains, iron grating, functional computers and discarded equipment.
In the following scenes the hierarchy of the crew is established. Over breakfast the engineers Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) complain about their share of bonuses. Later they are dismissive of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) who is able to share a joke with Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) and Kane (John Hurt) but is later not included in the search party. She is the civilian equivalent of an NCO, not in charge but not one of the workers either. The captain, Dallas (Tom Skerritt) is shown a little apart but interestingly enough defers to Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) when it comes to procedure. In these few scenes it is made clear that Ash will always toe the company line and that Ripley is a lone wolf.
The autopilot of the Nostromo responded to what is described as a distress signal. Ash points out that the company has a clause in the contract that requires all distress signals to be investigated. So the crew lands on a planetoid and Dallas, Kane and Lambert set off across the desolate wasteland to the wreck of a giant spaceship. In what is probably the second most famous scene in the film they discover the corpse of large and technologically advanced creature whose chest bones had been broken outwards.
Meanwhile back on the ship Ripley tells Ash that she has deciphered the message and it is not a distress call. It is a warning. Ash tells Ripley that it is too late to do anything and those on the surface will soon discover if there is any danger.
Of course it is not long before the danger appears. In a chamber full of leathery eggs Kane is attacked by the facehugger. Dallas and Lambert get him back to the airlock but Ripley refuses to let them in stating quarantine procedure. Ash overrides her and lets them in anyway. When Ripley confronts him, Ash tells her that he acted in Kane’s best interest which sound suspiciously false given Ash’s previous adherence to company policy.
It is soon established that the creature attached to Kane’s face is keeping him alive but will kill him to defend itself. This is also the scene where the crew find that it has acid for blood. After a while facehugger drops away and Kane appears to recover. He states he fills fine but hungry.
The legend behind the most famous scene is that only John Hurst knew what was going to happen. Some of the actors were reportedly told that they would have to hold John Hurt down. Others apparently knew nothing. The most startling reaction to the creature bursting from Kane’s chest comes from Lambert and according to the legend this was completely genuine.
After this the hunt begins. Firstly we are introduced to the eighth member of the Nostromo’s crew, Jones the cat. It is while Brett is trying to catch the cat that we get the first glimpse of the alien proper. Like all the most effective monsters it is revealed in stages. First the outline as it drops down from behind Brett’s back. As he turns the head and dripping jaws are shown glistening, beautiful and deadly. Then from Brett’s perspective the second mouth juts forward while the cat looks impassively on.
After the presumed death of Captain Dallas Ripley accesses the ships computer and discovers that they were lied to. The purpose of the mission was to bring back the alien and the crew were expendable. At this point Ash’s true nature is revealed. After he is thwarted in his attempt to kill Ripley it is discovered that Ash is a robot sent by the company to bring back the alien for the weapons division. Ash is another subversion of the sci-fi genre. Killer robots had existed prior to Alien but in general these had become self aware, faulty or had broken their programming. What is chilling about Ash is that he is following orders but at the same time breaking Asimov’s laws of robotics.
With the crew reduced to three humans Ripley is suddenly listened to and she decides that they will blow up the ship and leave in the escape shuttle. Ripley in an echo of the maternal side that will be important in later films goes off to save the cat while Parker and Lambert pack. This saves Ripley’s life proving the importance of being nice to cats.
In the director’s cut there is a scene between the self-destruct sequence and the failure of the override where Ripley discovers Dallas alive in the beginnings of an alien nest. There is the further hint of prior relationship between the two as she euthanizes him. This is an interesting piece character development in the longer edition but it is not so vital that it reduces the impact of the theatrical release.
As she tries to escape Ripley almost comes face to face with the Alien. As a fan intermittently reduces the light Ripley backs away. It is too late to stop the ship blowing up but with moments to spare Ripley gets away on the shuttle and the Nostromo explodes. It seems as though our heroine and ship’s cat are finally safe but in horror movies you should always be wary when the film keeps running.
As Ripley prepares for hyper sleep a black leathery hand shoots out from the panel of dark wires. After only a moment of distress Ripley climbs into a space suit and singing a song to calm her nerves forces the alien out into the open before harpooning and blasting it into the vacuum of space. Then she and Jones go to sleep and drift off hoping for rescue.
The plot of Alien is essentially that of the standard haunted house monster film but set in space. However through the use of utilitarian sets, clever lighting and H E Geiger Ridley Scott transcended this simple premise and created a claustrophobic masterpiece. One of the most effective devices in Alien is the lack of onscreen carnage. In the theatrical version there are only two on screen deaths. Of these only one can be considered gory. Parker’s death is noble and valiant but cut so that there isn’t the bloodshed that there is with Kane’s exit.
This leaves much of the violence to the audience’s imagination. This is a device that can be very effective as people under tension can usually come up with consequences lot more devastating than comfortable writers can.
Alien leaves the viewer with as many questions as it gives answers. The company wanted the alien for the weapons division but how did they know it was there. What was the creature in the chair? Will Ripley and the cat get picked up?
This ensures that people not only remember the film but they talk about it too.
Of course the subversive element in Alien is the female lead. In the 1970’s women in horror films tended to spend most of their time in their underwear screaming. Admittedly Ripley is shown in her underwear but she does not panic and wait to be rescued by man. She spends most of the film as the only sensible crew member and even though she commits one of the cardinal sins of horror by going back to get the cat she not only survives but deserves to.
Alien is a classic, it is a well made, atmospheric and has the greatest heroine in the whole of the horror genre.
- Lizzy
- Lizzy
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