Director: Ridley Scott
Pigeonhole: Horror / Sci-Fi
The Basics: The small crew of a space ship responds to an apparent SOS signal received from a derelict ship on the surface an uncharted planet in deep space. During the search of the ship a crewman, Kane (Hurt), is “attacked” by an alien creature which attaches itself to his face. Back on board their ship, the crew tends to Kane by attempting to remove the “face-hugger”, but they are unable to do so. A short time later Kane is found to be fine and the face-hugger now dead. But, that night while eating dinner with the crew, Kane goes into violent convulsions and an alien (different than the face-hugger) bursts out of his chest and runs off. The alien grows from about the size of small cat (after coming out of Kane) to human size and then begins stalking and killing each of the crew despite their attempts to capture/kill it.
Recommendation: I highly recommend seeing this film. I would also recommend watching at night, in the dark. If possible, watch the theatrical version of the film vs. the so-called Director’s Cut.
My Take: **spoiler alert** The cast really works well in this movie, because they appear to be everyday, working type people who get caught up in this bad situation. It seems easy to relate to them (at least for me) and I think that makes the fear and horror they experience that much more believable.
This is, as noted, a horror film first, with the science fiction element being that it takes place primarily on a space ship. The tag-line for the movie “in space, no once can hear you scream” is simple, yet draws you into that fear of the infinite blackness of outer space. Beyond the dark of space, this movie uses the confinement of the space ship to its advantage. Every dimly lit area or shadowy corner seems to be potential hiding place for the alien, from which it will attack the next crew member. Hallway hatch doors opening and closing seem to be like traps. Scott is even able to use the characters being restricted in their space suits as a source of fear – the crew members have limited vision and appear suffocated at times. In a very memorable and claustrophobic scene, Dallas goes crawling alone into a cramped, pitch black airshaft in attempt to flush the alien out, while Ripley (Weaver) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) and Parker (Yaphet Kotto) can only helplessly watch on a hand fashioned tracker as Dallas gets attacked by the alien. Rounding out the horror, Ripley discovers that another crewman, Ash (Ian Holm), has notified the company they work for about the creature, who now want the alien brought back to earth for research, “crew expendable”, as the note states. Ash seems to go crazy and attacks Ripley, which ends in Parker knocking his head off. Ash is then discovered to be an android – which no one previously knew about. Only Ripley (and a cat) survives, escaping on a shuttle as the main ship was set to self destruct.
Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: Weaver, stepping into her first big role, does a great job as Ripley… The drone of Mother’s voice (the ship’s computer) counting down to the ship’s self destruction really builds good intensity as the film is moving towards 1 of 2 final climaxes… The DVD “director’s cut” (although it shouldn’t really be called that, as Scott has stated his cut is the theatrical version) of Alien doesn’t really do much for me. I do not feel it added anything to the story, and in fact the additional footage slowed the pace…
This film launched an entire franchise of films, and other media, not to mention all themes that get reused/ recycled/ regurgitated, and the spoofs… I am curious where Scott will go with Prometheus (slated for a 2012 release), as it is supposedly related the Alien mythology, but reported to be distinctly separate… Direct follow ups to this film include: Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997), all of which have Weaver returning as Ripley; plus Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)…
