OK, now we can enjoy ourselves, at least until the sequels get really shitty. Alien is directed by Ridley Scott, and has a hell of a cast. You have Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, and Yaphet Kotto (also in The Running Man!). I’ll be watching the Theatrical version because that’s what most people will be familiar with. This has an 8.5 on IMDB.
Love the old school 20th Century Fox at the beginning. It’s also cool watching the lines up top slowly morph into the word Alien. It’s a nice, creative touch. We have a 7 person crew on The Nostromo. They have 20 million tons of mineral ore and they are on their way back to Earth. We get to check out the interior of the spaceship, and it is what you’d expect from this era. Helmets, coffee mugs. A message come up on a screen, looks pretty urgent, but nobody is there. We check out the sweet sleeping chambers, everybody in their underwear, and all have those white circle patches on them for monitoring. Here we see the crew up and having breakfast. So we have 4 white dudes, a token black dude, and 2 women, for drama. They are apparently not where they are supposed to be in their flight path. They are only halfway home, and they got a transmission that they are going to check out. Parker and Brett are all about the money, and they want more money if they have to go check out this potential SOS or possible other life form. Dallas kinda puts them in their place. Man, Tom Skerritt has aged weirdly.
They are taking a ship out to check out the area. Somebody just said to rotate 92 degrees. 9 Deuce!!! The ship gets fucked up as it is trying to land. They aren’t quite sure what happened. Parker and Brett have some work to do to fix the damage. They keep getting this distress signal every 12 seconds. It sounds like it will take a day to repair the ship. Kane seems to be the super smart science guy. Dallas is sending Kane and Lambert out first. Lambert is the female who isn’t Ripley (Sigourney). Ripley is with Parker and Brett. Parker has more monetary questions, hahaha. These guys are the best, just being obnoxious dicks. Dallas is out with Kane and Lambert, and Ash is inside keeping contact with the group. Hey, there is a cat with everybody. The explorers see something big, I assume a ship that has crashed, at least that’s my impression at first. This is really, visually stunning for its time. The video for Ash has cut out so now he can’t see what is happening with the group, but they head to the ship anyway.
They navigate inside to this big open room, and there appears to be a big body in the center in a seat. It appears to be dead. The alien exploded from the inside. Lambert wants to get out, but Kane is so damn curious. Ripley says that Mother, which is like the ship’s onboard computer, is deciphering the signal and it appears to be more of a warning than a call for help. Kane is getting lowered down this hole. He gets to the bottom, and it’s this huge, expansive area, and he sees something that looks like eggs. There’s a sweet layer of mist over the eggs. There are a bunch of fucking eggs. There is movement in the egg, and he is enthralled by this. The egg hatches. Boom, it latches onto his face mask. Nice jump scare. Dallas and Lampert want in and they need to get Kane in the infirmary, but Ripley doesn’t want to let them in due to quarantine protocol. Dallas is demanding that they be let inside and Ripley is like, you got 24 hours before I can let you in, thems the rules. Ash opens the hatch anyway. They bring in Kane, and the facehugger is wrapped around. Dallas and Ash are trying to figure out how to get it while everybody else watches from afar. This thing wraps it’s tentacle tighter around Kane’s neck. Shit is getting good now.
They are doing a scan of Kane’s body, like a cat scan. There is a tentacle down his throat. They are afraid of removing it that may kill him. Ash doesn’t want to remove it, but Dallas says that they have to, so time to operate. They cut into the alien, and it squirts some yellow ooze that just eats away at the floor, so now panic sets in. That is some badass ooze. They follow it down 2 floors. Parker says that it makes for a hell of a defense mechanism. True.
Ripley asks Ash how Kane is holding up and he is doing fine. The Alien is replacing its cells apparently, like regenerating Wolverine style. Ripley is pissed at Ash for breaking quarantine, especially disobeying a commanding officer. He basically says for her to do her job, and he can do is because what’s done is done. Ash tells Dallas that he should come look at Kane as something interesting has happened, and Dallas gets Ripley to come with. Well, the facehugger is gone. They look around for it. Haha, jump scare. The silence is building great tension. The alien drops on Ripley. She is fine. Ash decided to analyze it. Of course, he does. Ripley wants to get rid of it. Ash is like, this is the first time that they have found a specimen like this. Dallas agrees with Ash. Ripley is all pissy. Ash gets final say with science things, Dallas runs the ship, and those are separate guidelines. Ripley is just riding his ass, and he wants to get the hell out of there, even if everything is not 100%. They go to take off, but there is some overheating. They are up and moving.
Parker wants to freeze Kane. They are still 10 months away from getting to their destination. Ash calls Dallas to check on Kane, and he is up and talking, and drinking, and has on a unique outfit to say the least. Time for everybody to sit down and eat. Like Kane is just back at the table and everybody is happy. Kane starts choking. He collapses on the table. They try to hold him down. It’s almost seizure like. Then blood spurts out of his belly, a few seconds later, an alien comes out of his chest. Parker goes to stab it, but Ash says not, and the thing scurries away. Business just picked up. The pacing is decent enough. They wrapped up Kane and shot him out of the ship as a farewell.
Brett is showing the crew this badass cattle prod. Ash is setting up a sensor to detect movement. It’s pretty neat. They are going to split up into 2 groups because this is a horror film. It will be Ash, Lambert, and Dallas on team 1, and Ripley, Parker, and Brett for team 2. Obviously, I am partial to team 2. Ripley is manning the sensor. The lights are flickering. Brett has the prod, Parker has the net. What the fuck is the net going to accomplish? They have a reading on some movement. Probably the cat, that is my guess. They have a good reading now. Everybody is ready for the door to open and capture it. It was, in fact, the cat. Brett let the cat go free like a dumbass. So now Brett is on his own to find the cat. The cat is named Jonesy. I like it. We all know how this will go. Brett finally hears the cat, so he slowly looks to find it. He found the cat running away and we see lots of liquid and the cat is pissed. Brett finds the shedded outer layer of the facehugger. He picks up and drops it and is back looking for the cat. He ends up in a very wet room, and it is so quiet, aside from some chains clanging and him calling out to Jonesy, and of course, the water raining down. He finds Jonesy at long last and calls for it. The cat hisses as we see the full-grown alien lower below him. He turns around and gets got and the cat looks on.
The crew is back and trying to figure out where this thing may be. They talk about how big it is, and what they can do against it, so the question of temperature comes up, so let’s make some incinerator units! Dallas sends Ripley with Ash to the main airlock. Lambert and Parker will cover up the maintenance whatever. Dallas asks Mother how to rid them of the alien. Mother says that it has insufficient data, so he asks what are his chances. Does not compute.
Everybody is in position. Dallas goes in the vent with a flamethrower. He gets the hatch open and proceeds. He tells Ripley to close all hatches behind him. Lambert says that she found it, somewhere near the 3rd junction. He lets loose a stream of fire. I like it! Lambert has lost the signal, says that it’s gotta be close. He sees some slime. He wants to get out now, but it is moving towards him. He sees nothing. He climbs down the stairs, turns, and boom, jump scare and alien. Damn, that was well done.
They found no blood, no Dallas, nothing. We are down to 4. Ripley says that they will proceed with Dallas’ original idea. Lambert wants to take a shuttle, but it won’t make it. Parker is gung-ho about getting it. Ripley and he are bitching. Time to try cornering this thing. Parker has to recharge his weapon, but Parker refuses anybody to come with him. Ripley is pretty bitchy towards Ash. Parker has a sweet headband going. Ripley has access to mother now that Dallas is gone. She requests enhancements, but mother refuses, it’s only for the scientist’s eyes. Curious. She wants to know what the hell special order 937 is, so she tries to override the system. Ohh, Nostromo has been rerouted to new coordinates to investigate life form and gather specimen. Well, that explains why Ash was being so unhelpful. The top priority is to ensure the return of the organism for analysis, and everything else is considered secondary, and the crew is expendable. Ash sneaks up beside her and says that there is an explanation, but she is pissed and shoves him.
Ripley is going to try finding Parker and Lambert, but Ash keeps closing the doors on her. He has something dripping down his face, some ooze. He just threw Ripley’s ass all over the place. Hey, a wall with pictures of nude chicks. Add 2, you can maybe say there are 3, but I can clearly see 2 for now. Ash rolls up like a magazine and goes to shove it into Ripley’s mouth. Parker and Lambert make it in and try stopping Ash. Ash squeeze’s Parker’s chest incredibly hard. Nothing is budging him. I can make out #3. They get Ash off of her and he starts spinning around like crazy, so Parker hits Ash in the face, and his head practically tears all the way off, it is just dangling. He is spewing ooze, and there are wires, and Parker says that Ash is a robot. Huh, no shit.
Parker is wondering why a robot was sent and Ripley rationalizes that the Company wanted the alien all along and Ash served to provide and protect it. The try to reconnect Ash to talk to him. Ripley asks Ash about his special order, but it’s what she already read. She asks how do they kill it, Ash says that you can’t, and Parker says it’s bullshit. Ripley decides that they need to blow up the ship and take their chances in the shuttle. Hmmm, where have I heard that suggestion before? Lambert is clearly shaken. Parker sets Ash on fire.
So once they flip the switches, they have 10 minutes to get off the ship. They need a lot of coolant. Ripley sends Parker and Lambert to get as much coolant as they can, and she will get the shuttle ready. She gives them 7 minutes. This is a great idea, definitely. A good horror film knows how to separate a group, even if they don’t want to, but maybe feel it is out of necessity. A lazy horror film just does it. Ripley hears something and calls out to Jonesy. They have a lot of coolant and a cart. Time to make their way back. They make another stop and are getting more stuff. Ripley is worried about the damn cat. Really? She is spending so much time looking for this cat. There it is, for jump scare $4. She now has Jones and put him in a carrier. Where Parker and Lambert are, well something bad is happening. The alien is in there. Parker is yelling at Lambert to get out of the way as he has the flamethrower, but she doesn’t move. Parker tries to run up behind, but he gets fucking worked. Lambert is frozen with fear. Ripley overhears this and takes Jones and takes off. We hear Lambert scream as Ripley is running, and then nothing.
She then finds a body and runs away from the dead body. She is heading back to flip the switches to destruct the ship. This is neat how they have so many things that they have to do before it goes through. She did activate it. After 5 minutes, you can’t override it. Time for Ripley to get the fuck outta there. The alarms are sounds, lots of smoke. She is making her escape cautiously. She keeps backing up into darker and darker territory. She’s in the same room as it. So she backpedals. The alien is staring down Jones. We are at the last 30 seconds before she can override. She tries to override it. She failed to turn it off in time. Mother won’t turn the cooling back on. Ripley is pissed and panicking obviously. She is running and everything is barely lit. She has the flamethrower at least. Dark corridors, blinking lights, ladders. This is intense. This had to terrify people in the theater I imagine.
She grabs Jones, and now makes her way towards the shuttle I’d hope. The tunnel that she was in started bursting out flames. She is in the ship and has one minute to bounce. She straps herself in. 30 seconds to go. The countdowns add so much tension, which I love. She has detached and is flying. She is away for the final 10 seconds. That was a ridiculous boom. It was a thing of beauty. She can’t even watch it all, it is so bright. Now it’s just her and Jones and it’s so quiet. But there is at least 5 minutes remaining. She takes Jones out of the carrier. We can all assume what happens here. She opens her pod to sleep. Jones is all loving. She puts him in the containment bed thingy. She starts to undress. Allllright. Down to shirt and panties. Shirt comes off and she has this white tank underneath. She takes off her jewelry. Those panties are a little low, so we get some ass crack.
She goes to program something, and the alien arm reaches out. The alien is on board…..duh. More ass. So she hides behind some shit and just stands and watches and observes it. She watches it walk over cables. Man, they really tried sexing her up her with the hard nipples and the crotch shot there. She is putting on a space suit. She is trying to be quiet. She takes her eyes off of it though. She arms herself with a gun. She looks at it, and it’s just staying where it is. She comes out of hiding and straps herself to a seat. She is muttering to herself. She is trying to free it I think. She pissed it off and it crawled out. Oh, he is still moving. He is in her face. She opens the door. He is holding while every else is flying. She shoots the alien with the grappling hook, and it knocks him out of the ship, but when she closes the door, the gun is stuck inside, so Alien is still attached. She turns on the rockets or whatever you want to call it. It appears that was enough of a boost to push it off the hook.
She then gives this verbal report of what happened. She is about 6 weeks away from being found, best case scenario. And so she goes to sleep.
End film.
Wonderful! That is one of the scarier films out there I believe. The audio and lighting added to the tension and desperation of the situation. I hate jump scares, but in this film, in tight corridors, it was the right call. It had a really amazing cast. If I had one minor critique, it was how much effort was put into finding saving that cat. Minor gripe, but in that life or death situation, you do you. Overall, it’s still the standard bearer after all of these years for outer space horror.
Final rating: 8.0
Best death scene: I liked Ash’s best
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Brandywine Productions (A Ridley Scott Film) (as A Brandywine-Ronald Shusett Production)
- Twentieth Century-Fox Productions
Please go find a copy and support the creators.