SCORETOBER!!!! Day 28 ALIEN!!

Day 28

ALIEN

So, ALIEN. Science Fiction horror.

It’s an odd genre and one I enjoyed watching video store clerks struggle with. Sometimes you find ALIEN in horror, other times you find it OR ALIENS in their science fiction film section. It still gets debated and it should. TILL THE END OF TIME!!

Because how can a film be both? First it starts with scifi/horror. Next you’ll see Country/Metal.

But here we are. The Classic of classics. And now a film they’ve released nearly as many copies of as they’ve put out Army of Darkness and Terminator 2.

Seriously there are so many versions of those two damn films you could fill a Blockbuster with them. Almost.

We shall be journeying down into the Directors Cut of this film. It’s not as essential as the ALIENS directors cut. But I enjoy what it gives us. Though we still have yet to get the Jonesy Cut of the film. Where Jonesy takes out the alien the moment it pops out and drops it at Ripley’s feet.

One day maybe. One day.

As for now, lets enjoy this classic and see how we do while enjoying and a nice bottle of something called Diplomatico. Because flavor is everything. Or just why not. ANYWAY

Let’s gooooo

The Movie.

It’s kind of hard to beat the opening to this movie. The music is so unassuming too. The screen just taking its time to spell out the film. Making some of the people wondering if they walked into the right movie theater door or not, having to wait midway through to spell out the title and realize “Yeah, no Aimee. This ain’t Rocky 2, we gotta go to the other double doors. I told you so!”

Believe it or not it used to happen. But just to be sure yes, this is not Rocky 2

Instead of Rocky and Apollo being taken to the hospital after their champion fight. We are introduced to the site of the commercial towing vehicle ‘The Nostromo’ on its way back home to earth, hauling 20 million tons of mineral ore.

Which is fun and all, but when you’re a towing vehicle in space, I’d expect someone hauling broken down ships and I get a little sad that we don’t get that.

It’s honestly one of the most intimidating tow vehicles I’ve seen, on the outside it looks like it could royally destroy a planet if the crew of 7 were that bored. On the inside it’s a beautiful looking ship made into a home away from home.

One of my favorite shots in the film is just the camera panning across the ships empty halls and bridge. All the old tech made to look new. The computer turning on and communicating the intercepted emergency signal, reflected on a helmets visor moments before the crew is awakened from their deep hyper sleep. Which honestly the fact we don’t have yet. It’s sad. If I could wake up the way Kane(John Hurt) does, looking like I slept for days. I’d be happy. But here we are stuck in harsh, stark reality of 5 hours sleep, and that’s if your lucky.

It's still a beautiful shot of the crew waking up and their sleep pods opening, the slow signs of life, and the praying their fruit of the looms cover things we need not see nor signed up to see. From there to the breakfast of champions. Cigarettes and cornbread. Now you know your dealing with space truckers.

As our group wakes up and begin enjoying their assumingly last meal before departing for home. They are soon told they have intercepted a transmission of unknown origin. It comes off like an S.O.S. but its unknown if it in fact is. All they know is that an intelligent organism has scent out a distress beacon and they were the closest ship to investigate. It might be the future, but laws are still laws, so their trip home is put on hold. The way she goes bud. The way she goes.

Of course as you might imagine not everyone is happy with this, especially the engineers Parker(Yaphet Kotto) and Brett(Harry Dean Stanton), they’d rather collect their paycheck, pluss a better bonus for the work they’ve done, as far as they’re concerned rescue parties are someone elses responsibility. But thank the maker for Bilbo Baggins being aboard the ship as their science officer. Yes the lovable hobbit of the Shire In Holm is in this as science officer Ash. Who informs Parker and Brett that they should shut their pie holes if they want to keep any money at all, because the law is the law, and they gotta check this out. The way of the road, the way of the toe.

So we are going off on an adventure to an alien world, an alien ship, and dealing with alien problems.

Thankfully they aren’t landing their big bertha of a rig on the planet. Though that itself would be curious to see. Instead they are separating a small landing craft from the main ship and headed toward the planets surface, given a quick scan shows the surface to be okay for their suits, and enough atmosphere they can walk on the surface without being crushed or bouncing around.

WHICH also means, we get to form a group! The best and worst part of any planetary exploration in films. But this might fair well for the group as we have capable people it seems. We have the ships navigator Joan Lambert(Veronica Cartwright), Executive Officer Kane, and Captain Dallas! The one and only Tom Skerritt. With a mustache so classy they must be safe.

Meanwhile they have Science Officer Ash back on the ship monitoring their excursion from live camera feeds directed from their helmets.

Surely they’ll be just fine on the surface.

It would seem so! They are having a place dealing with crap tons of flying debris and space particles blinding their vision while trekking toward a crashed space vessel, the one in question that scent the distress beacon.

As for the ship itself well. The landing was a bit rough. So our Engineers have their hands full during the crews alien world exploration, meaning Parker and Brett need to work on repairs so they can get off that rock and head back to the Nostromo once the party returns, thankfully they have Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley(Sigourney Weaver) overseeing repairs and offering aid. Which they don’t want because. Well who knows. She was trying to be friendly and these two are more worried about job security and more than fair pay. Take it up with the unions!

Meanwhile back on planet LV-426, the crew has located the downed vessel, and are entering its vaginal door. No, I am not being ‘me’, the door is very much a vaginal opening. H.R. Geiger did the designs for the ship, and much much more within. The man loved dicks and vaginas. Bless him.

Also bones of his ex’s. Any way.

It’s still a really beautiful shot, both outside the ship when they locate it, seeing it through their visors, and the eventual reveal inside, of the ships interiors.

It’s also now, unfortunately a reminder that PROMETHIUS happened, and the mystery of the pilot they find, known simply as ‘the Space Jockey’, is in fact apparently our creator. If. IF they’d just left well enough alone, the idea was the large beautiful creature we find sitting in its chair, was the ships pilot. It had a very interesting, otherworldly look to it over all and it genuinely looked like a giant creature. It’s a beautiful shot and the fact they build this set and that thing existed there on it. It’s beautiful and a rarity now with CGI doing a good deal of the work, unfortunately. The entire set is breathtakingly beautiful, if not for the fact it’s a crashed ship, the pilot has an exploded ancient chest wound, and the floor has been melted nearby by acid.

Oh hey look the floor was melted away by acid.

Meanwhile on the friendly towing vessel, finding herself not welcome among the engineers. Ripley decides to monitor things on her side and check in with the ships main A.I. appropriately named ‘Mother’, While skimming through her screens, Ripley makes a discover that warrants interrupting Bilbo and his entertainment of the landing party fumbling around the ship. It would seem that Mother has deciphered part of the emergency transmission, and from what Ripley can make out. It doesn’t appear to be a distress beacon.

It actually is a warning beacon. Telling ships to stay the hell away.

So she feels it best that, perhaps you know. They should alert their away party about this developing news. Which I would definitely appreciate being told before entering a vagina ship if there was cause to be concerned or, y’know a beacon screaming DO NOT ENTER!

But Ash tells Ripley that a hobbit shouldn’t worry about problems not concerning them. He figures with their friends being out there already and far away, if they’d found something they would’ve reported it by now, so. Best leave them be. That’s what your insurance is for and why you pay monthly union dues.

Oh right, so that acid burnt hole on the ship? The dangerous looking one on the ship that was sending a warning beacon and the away team knows nothing about? Yeah they’re going in. I mean you already entered one strange vagina door without caution, why not chance exploring a deeper darker hole.

So Kane is getting set up with a rig to help him safely explore this dark dank looking hole and instantly is amazed by the wonders he finds within. Which appear to be rows upon rows of textured large egg shaped orbs. Whatever was down there was definitely busy, and make a very lovely home for itself and its hundreds of eggs.

So spotting fields upon fields of fertile looking eggs, on an alien ship, that was sending a loud blaring beacon of distress, not of hope. Kane decides, hell with safety and protocol. I’m gonna touch everything in this hole! So with the glee of a man being given access to places otherwise left unexplore, Kane fumbles around like he knows what he’s doing when he very clearly doesn’t. Instead of taking his time to investigate, he just charges in and ends up slipping deeper into trouble.

Trouble in the shape of undisturbed eggs protected by a thin layer of mist and what looks like a climate controlled locked secure egg tray. So after regaining his footing and debating playing the bongos on one of the eggs he sees, Kane watches in surprise as the egg decides to open itself up to him, surely this is leading to something wonderful!

An alien egg, behind a protected field, in a secure hold on an alien ship, accessed through an acid burned hole in the ground, naturally yes. Only good can come from this.

With this new development, Kane watches with the wide eyed excitement of a 30 year old watching a Pixar movie waiting for the cute creature they will fall in love with to shyly come out of its egg. So he shoves his face right over it, making sure this cute creature will bond with him and be his best space friend through many adventures.

Or instead it’s a goddamn alien crab looking thing with a literal vagina mouth that spits acid to melt through his helmet as he screams and the alien wraps its tail around his neck, clawed arms lock around his skull and forces cunnilingus on the man whether he’s down with it or not and puts his ass to sleep.

Again, I am not purposely making this dirty. Look up the Facehugger on google. It has a very, purposely designed. It’s a coochy. The man made coochy a nightmarish threat.

So our landing party is bewildered something that bad could go so wrong, and instead of rescuing someone from the ship, they now have to rescue poor Kane.

Honestly it really is the scariest thing. The ship they entered was ancient. There’s space dust all over the place, it looks like it’d crashed hundreds of years ago, so finding something still alive there, and now attached to someone. Yeah. That’s scary as hell.

So they quickly retrieve Kane and begin their return trip to their ship, Figuring the distress beacon was ancient enough whoever sent it must’ve died by now, likely the jockey in the chair.

However as they approach their ship, they are being forced by regulations to stay outside. Ripley is a smart woman. She is looking at this appropriately, and she paid attention at their meetings, as well as read the union guidelines.

People think she was being a bitch, believe it or not, when she told the away team she can’t let them back on the ship. Seriously its kinda rude.

You have a group coming back, from a ship of unknown origin, having come in contact with an unknown creature that has now attached itself to a crew member. They could be infected. Bringing an unknown organism on board is dangerous for the whole ship, if its also contaminated? They’ll all be at risk. So she’s right to follow regulation that they quarantine before entering the ship.

Even if Tom Skerritt’s mustache is in charge!

Argue as the away team might about regulations being B.S. and trying to save a friends life, Ripley is more concerned with the larger overall picture. She also is worried about the distress signal being a warning, and that whatever attached itself to Kane, could be the source of that warning.

But leave it to Hobbits as being the most unlikely of brave souls, as Ash opens the doors letting the away team back onto the ship and directly into the medic bay.

Leading us to two iconic moments. First being the removal of Kane’s helmet and revealing to us, in all its horrific glory, the facehugger. Wrapped around Kane’s face, tail flexing, and the creatures lungs pumping. Secured on the face of Kane, who is also steadily breathing under it. The creature seems to have sedated him somehow, and any attempt to free it from Kane’s face immediately results in the facehugger. Well. Hugging his face that much tighter. To the point you’d rip his face off or choke him out trying to remove it. It’s very much like my cat when she cuddles your chest, and you want to free yourself because that cute fluff ball is so cute, but has some heft to it, and when you try to lift her off you, she digs her claws into your skin securing herself because. She didn’t say cuddle time was over yet.

The other iconic scene is Ripley entering the room, wanting a reasonably priced explanation as to what the hell is going on, and Lambert open palm slapping Ripley as she initiates female combat protocol with Ripley. It’s a real slap. The director told her to really slap her, just lay into her so. She did. Sigourney got the taste slapped out of her mouth and never broke character.

So with Kane now carrying an aggressive cuddle buddy, and attempts at manually removing it seeming a very big bad not good thing to do. They decide well, if we can’t pull it off him. Lets cut it off him!

So armed with a surgical laser they cut into one of the knuckles of the creature. Immediately awarded with light yellow acidic blood. How lovely.

The thing only bled out a small spurt of acidic blood. But it was enough to melt through the flooring of two levels before stopping. So. You know. Maybe not do that again.

Now had the crew on the away team paid more attention to the melted floor of the ship they entered, this might begin to piece together a puzzle for them. But no. Kane is the focus here, him and his cuddle buddy.

So, after scanning Kane and his buddy, they discover the facehugger has a tube fed down Kanes throat. It would appear the creature is feeding him oxygen and indeed keeping him sedated. So it’s decided that he remain quarantined, kept under watch and once the ship is repaired return to earth.

All of this, both worries our crew, worries the captain about his friend and crewmates well being, and fascinates our science officer Ash.

Who begins immediately studying all he can of the creature and Kane.

He also is about to get a study in rules and regulations from warrant officer Ripley. Who comes to pay the man a visit and make small talk to ask about the cuddle buddy space traveler, and Kanes condition. Through it though, we are able to discover he’s learned the facehugger has a very flexible but touch exoskeleton and skin, it also is able to regulate its body temperature to match its environment so no chance of trying to heat it up or chill it out in hopes it’ll drop off Kane. Its rather resilient and lethal in every way.

Which is fascinating, but Ripley would rather discuss how Ash went behind her orders, broke quarantine regulations and the science officers conduct, all to bring Kane aboard the ship putting them all at risk.  Ash is very aware what he did, not just putting everyones lives at risk, but the huge leaps and bounds he took in doing so. Which for someone in his position is highly suspect and questionable. There’s being heroic and helping someone. Then there’s being motivated by your own agenda and calling it heroic.

But he wont budge and simply tells Ripley to get over it, take it up with the Captain and leave him alone to finish his glass of…milk. Apparently.

So as Parker and Brett remain the unseen true heroes of the Nostromo, putting the ship back together, hours pass and our dear Captain is on the landing ship, he’s making it rather clear he wants to be away from the crew and left to his own thoughts. He also wants to stay away from Ripley both because she is going to issue her list of complaints, read off union guidelines, and he’s going to get upset eitherway. So its time to chill and listen to some classical music.

That is until Ash interrupts his vibe and tells him he should come check out Kane. He isn’t saying he’s awake, he isn’t saying he’s dead. He’s just saying his condition is…interesting.

You would think. When you have an alien creature never recorded before by any other ship or planet exploration team, that bleeds acid and is latched onto a crew members face, and remains a possible threat to your crew. That you’d want a more detailed answer when asking has his status changed, what’s wrong. You’d expect something more involved and detailed, versus “his condition is…interesting.”

Well by ‘interesting’, what Ash meant was the facehugger has stopped face cuddle time and has now vanished somewhere in the science lab. So Ash wants Captain Dallas and Ripley to help him find it. Because why not? Who wouldn’t sign up to explore a dark lab room without any kind of weapon or face mask, to look for a creature that so far is known for leaping at you and making love to your face for hours. Makes sense.

Our brave three roam the science lab and try to ignore the odd ‘fluid’ streaks on Kanes mouth and face, looking for the facehugger. Which thankfully is just hanging around, and decides to introduce itself the best way it can, by mimicking the familiar greeting of a bug in your home, deciding to land on your bare shoulder and then tumble down your side so you can FEEL the fucker do so all the way down, giving you intense creepy vibes.

Well kind of. The facehugger just drops from a scanning device onto Ripley and then to the floor. It’s still enough to warrant pissing yourself over and screaming. Which Ripley does at least one of these things that we know of. Thankfully it would appear the facehugger is now dead. Which Ash proves by rudely poking and prodding its body. They have no explanation as to what or why. But it would appear whatever it was doing, it died soon after leaving Kanes cuddlable face. So that means Ash has free reign to examine, poke, prod and play around with the facehugger corpse! For science!

The question is, does warrant officer Ripley approve of this?

OF COURSE NOT!

She wants the corpse shot out into space!

Sure it’s the corpse of an alien species never before seen or interacted with. But it needs to be vanquished!

I am actually with her on this. A creature attaches itself to one of your crews face, stays a few hours then wonders off and dies, the same creature which has acid for blood.

This should either immediately frozen, or tossed out, you have no idea what happens to the body once its dead, it could either leak acid and dissolve itself, and then dissolve through the ship, it could release parasites. I mean the law of most known worlds is when a thing dies and is left to rot, it’s going to spawn micro organisms, if one larger organism will wrap around your head and hump your face, I don’t want to now what little beasties spawning from the corpse of the thing will do. Nor does Ripley.

But Dallas tells her to shut it. It’s the find of the century, its scientific, and Bilbo wants it so. He gets it. Dallas just wants to get home and be done with all of this. The man is an absolute mood and I get it.

As for where things stand now, well. They aren’t good. Lambert has been crunching the numbers while everyone is all about Kane and is face fucker. She’s calculated that after their small pit stop, it’ll take roughly 10 months before they reach earth. Which makes everyone as happy as you can imagine to hear that. So this means everyone will go to sleep in their hyper sleep terminals in a bad mood, and I would not be surprised if someone ends up farting on someone elses pillow before they drift off to sleep. Imagine having that smell with you for 10 months.

But before anyone can even strip down to their underwear for another lengthy sleep. Bilbo is beckoning everyone over to his end of the shire. Apparently there has been a change in Kane. Kane who was set to be put into a medical coma for the ride home. What change has come you ask? Well, Science Officer Ash puts it rather simply for us, cutting past the medical doctor speak and says “It’s better if you come see for yourself.”

Goddamn.

Imagine going to your doctor, because of an odd rash, doing a few test and the doctor calls you. You are ready for the results of your test and he just tells you, “It’s better if you come in.” Instantly your mind is flashing about death. You begin realizing you must make peace with the fact you have something and you will die, you will have to deal with the tears of your family and loved ones now. When you arrive, the doctor tells you “Oh well, it appears to be fine, isn’t that wonderful.”, you then end up arrested that day for having ‘acted out’ after your doctors decision to instead of TELLING YOU WHAT YOU HAD, just suggest “It’s better if you come see yourself.” My god man, my boss would’ve loved it if I told him “It’s best if you come see for yourself” when he ask if I finished what he asked me to do an hour ago.

Actually that would be kinda funny. Nevermind. Moving on.

The crew rushes to the medical station and would you look at that! Which you can’t because you are reading this…..weird. Kane is up and moving! Well sitting up at least, and thankfully Ash has cleaned the weird alien jizz from his face.

Of course the man wakes up thirsty as all hell, and actually gives what I felt was one of the more disturbing responses when they ask him if he remembers anything about the planet. He shakes his head no and says “I remember some…horrible dream about, smothering and…” and he trails off. It’s just terrifying to me the idea you completely forget everything that happened once you left your ship, and only remember a nightmare about smothering and god whats what it was he didn’t want to relive by telling them. It’s scary man But not as scary as things to come, unfortunately. As we are about to begin.

The last supper aboard The Nostromo.

Even though everyone was preparing to be locked away in hyper sleep beds for the journey home. Kane ask for at least one meal before they go as he’s absolutely starving. They all agree and sit for one last meal together before sleepy time for 10 months. So they enjoy the best food space travel has to offer, which seems to be Chinese food and instantly I’m jealous. Chinese food and beer. What an age they live in.

As they eat and laugh, Ash watches with little amusement, and keeps a cautious eye on Kane. It’s like he knows something is not right here, but he’s not said a word. It was very deliberate while filming too, There’s actually a lot if you pay attention on multiple viewings you can pick up here. But Kane for all of dinner seems just fine. Everyone is happy to have their buddy back and dinner before bed, which is normally frowned upon.

Soon though, their meal is disturbed as Kane suffers the realization that eating too many noodles, then shoveling fried rice down your throat waiting to feel full, is going to instantly jab you with the pains of regret. He begins coughing and looking pained. Something is very obviously wrong. The crew things he’s just got a bit of food stuck in his pipe, but no. He’s going into full on convulsions and what looks like a seizure. As they try putting a spoon handle in his mouth to keep him from biting his own tongue. He begins shaking and screaming until his chest cracks and blood suddenly spurts out of him. Everyone is in a moment of legitimate fear, also because it was a genuine reaction NO ONE was told during filming the blood and chest would explode, so their reactions are real. Seconds feel like minutes as they stare at their friends now bloody chest before his body begins shaking again and they once more move to hold him. Only this time they see his chest leap forward again, and then finally once more as his shirt rips open, his chest burst and blood paints Lamberts face, and we see the source of his chest explosion. A small alien that grew inside him from the facehugger that planted the egg inside of him. The alien shrieks out at the crew and lunges out of the chest cavity of the now dead Kane and runs off and away onto the ships corridors. Leaving the entire room in a deep state of shock.

Here we are 43 years later, and the scene still looks damn good. It has aged incredibly well and still remains something you end up watching closely even when you know what’s coming. It still holds your attention which I gotta give credit to them for that. It’s just well done.

Now that the crew faces an unknown and now roaming creature. It’s time to get real and find this sucker before it can cause any more trouble, or worse hurt someone. So this being a commercial towing vehicle, that means there are no weapons on board. Which knowing a few tow drivers? I can say is bullshit. Those people are usually packing, and for good reason. But if tow people are respected in the future of space, I will accept them not having weapons. Which we must. Instead what they have are a modified shock stick, a short range motion tracker, and a net. An actual net. They are going full caveman with that thing.

So we send out our teams and the lucky team is Ripley, Brett and Parker.

I say lucky because they have the best of luck! They actually get to test out the equipment to make sure it works, and chase after a dangerous chest bursting little alien scamp. If that doesn’t inspire confidence I don’t know what would.

But luck be thy name because they’ve found something using the short range motion tracker!, Parker readies the net, Ripley holds the electric prod, and Brett moves a crate in hopes that it’ll startle the sucker out. Well what they find is better and more dangerous. A space cat! Our space cat, Jonesy. I love Jonesy, and having a space cat on board is the best idea imaginable. However Jonesy is testing their readiness and manages to escape the group of hunters. How? Because it’s a cat. Cats are swift and agile.

The only problem now however, is that they need to retrieve Jonesy as they’ll be headed to hyper sleep after this so. Brett has to collect our furry space companion.

Brett is roaming the ship having followed Jonesy on what all cat owners know as the “I want you to pick me up, but first I want you to follow me around the house before I let you” routine. But it also gives us a better look around the ship which is well worth it, it’s also a highlight of the directors cut as we see a lot more rooms and a change to a main scene to come. During Brett’s exploration, he happens across something highly concerning, He isn’t sure what it is exactly. But looking at it ourselves, we can tell this is the shed skin of the baby alien. Which already is a pretty impressive size given the skin it left behind.

Brett begins reaching out in the language of poets, meowing for Jonesy he in turn responds, leading Brett right to their hiding spot. Which yes, it is a hiding spot. Jonesy was not playing come follow me. Jonsey was playing come hide with me to keep safe.

Which we learn very soon from what. It’s a really ballsy shot for a horror film back in the day. But if you pay close enough attention you can spot it, and once you do, you’ll wonder how anyone could’ve missed it. But as Brett enters the wettest room on a space ship in history. We hear dangling chains clanking together and dragging lazily back and fourth on the floor From a shot of those chains, we can see hanging out, without a care in the world, our now fully grown adult sized Xenomorph, as played by Eddie Powell. It’s funny because a lot of people never spotted it. There’s enough hanging around the alien to sort of blend it in, but not nearly THAT much. And once you spot it, you get both an oh crap moment, but then you also wonder how no one saw it.

More concerning I feel then that though. Is the fact as I said. This is the wettest room in the entire ship. Ships, are not meant to be damp. Nor should they ever. That would be highly worrying. But this room is just a wet sprinkler of a room, and the reasoning behind this? It’s the landing bay of the ship. So everything inside is left open to the elements. So given how long they were on the windy rainy surface of LV-426, that’s the reason the room is so damp and dripping wet.

Still, a bit concerning but moving right along.

Jonesy spots Brett and Brett spots Jonesy, he’s reassuring the cat that it’s totally cool to come out and he’ll take him back to safety. Jonesy is willing to believe this, at first. Until they sense something and hiss. Jonesy is no foolish cat. Brett is alarmed that Jonesy would react this way to him so he tries a kinder approach to the cat. But Jonesy is backing up into a corner growling. He sees something he doesn’t like, or trust.

Leading us to another great scene, as Brett leans forward politely trying to coax Jonesy out of hiding, while we see a large ominous shape slowly land and unfurl itself behind Brett, Soon giving us a look at the head alone of the Xenomorph. A smooth elongated white skull coated in slime. Brett finally realizing the cat isn’t reacting to him, but something else, turns around and finds himself facing  a very tall, very deadly creature.  Towering over him. It grabs his head tightly holding and we are given the horrific view of the creatures mouth as it opens slowly, and a second set of hidden jaws shoots out from its open mouth and punctures Brett’s Skull, lifting him up and into the large vents above.

Now, in the original cut, the scene ends with Brett yelling in pain and Jonesy looking upward watching the impressive sight. But in the directors cut, we have the added terror of showing how fast the creature actually moves by having Ripley and Parker run into the room the moment Brett cries out and is killed. Parker and Ripley can see the alien from above them, and are soon both showered in trickles of blood.

Parker is losing it. His best friend was just killed by an alien thing, standing over 10 feet tall, The crew is once again together, and informing the others of what happened and what they saw. It’s genuinely creepy how well its acted and more so the dialog when you listen closely to it. Dallas is suggesting they use the air shafts since that’s what this thing is using to get around. The air shafts come out to the main airlock. So if they close off all portals and doors, they can create a one way passage for it, drive the thing up into the airlock and zap it out into space. Parker shakes his head in disbelief, “How?! This son of a bitch is huge! I mean, it’s like a man. It’s…it’s big!”, he’s genuinely terrified of this and having seen it, now hearing Dallas’s plan, as if this thing is something less of a threat. But the chilling part comes from Ash as Parker is talking and ends his speech, you can hear ash whisper out, “Kanes son.”, I know it makes sense, it’s just creepy hearing from him. The one man who seems the most calm of everyone during all of this.

So now, its time for plan Dallas. So the crew goes off in pairs, Ash and Ripley, Lambert and Parker, sealing off the ship access portals and Dallas sets himself up with a modified home made flamethrower, and motion tracker. His logic is that everything from the beginning of mankind has been fearful of fire so, why not this thing too. He begins making his trek through the air vents, having his team seal off each vent behind him as he clears his way through. Checking the motion tracker often incase he picks up any signal of the xenomorph nearby.

It's not terribly that bad of a plan to be honest. It could work. It’s just the lack of weapons, protection, and respect for something that huge and horrific that’s worrying. Also the hope that Jonesy is safe somewhere. Really wish they had a team dedicated to Jonesy and their safety. But any way.

It’s a tense setup and scene that plays out, as we all know the alien is going to show up eventually. We just don’t know when, or how. All we have to go by, is a blip on a screen our crew is watching, and Dallas using a mic to communicate with his team while traveling through the vents. Which is beginning to creep even him out. Especially when he comes across a rather large puddle of alien slime. His first encounter with proof there is something in there with him, and finally giving him a sense of fear that maybe going in alone was a horrible idea, especially if this thing is anywhere near as large and imposing as Parker made it out to be.

He begins getting so spooked in fact he decides it might be a good idea to get him the hell out of there, becoming increasingly away his situation. But just as this realization hits him. It’s about to get a lot more real as they finally have movement on the tracker, and it is headed right for Dallas.

Immediately Lambert is panicking and trying to direct him away from the signal. But he’s confused, they keep telling him the alien is there and moving but he sees nothing. He seems alone in the tunnels. But he is not taking his time. He’s hurrying the hell out and down a ladder, as he does though Lambert is breaking down, trying to warn him As Dallas makes his descent Lambert is crying over the comms telling him he’s going the wrong way, only its too late. As he peers to his right with his flashlight he sees nothing, but to his left the alien sits waiting and reaches out grabbing hold of him. You hear a struggle over the comms and then silence.

Moments later parker slams the flamethrower onto the table, saying it was the only thing left up there. Nothing else was there, no body, no blood. Just the flamethrower marked in slimy spittle.

It may be the worst events in the history of towing. But it’s not over yet. With Dallas gone, that puts warrant officer Ripley in the position of Captain now. She still believes they should follow Dallas’s plan of leading that thing out into the airlock and out of the ship. She’s also recommending they all carry a flamethrower, some form of better weapons than what they started and keep in pairs. She also ask Ash if he has any news from Gandalf or Mother. Ash tells her unfortunately no on both accounts. Nothing from the wise wizard or their A.I. computer. Which Ripley finds hard to believe. Especially the Gandalf part. So she’s going straight to Mother herself for answers.

Even if it may seem a bit dated now, I love the design and look of the main chamber used for communicating to Mother. It’s designed like a super computer of the time period would ideally look. And by todays standards the room would easily be replaced with a simple cellphone having the same power and abilities. Fuck it. I’d still have a room designed just like that for my own ship, hell even my home.

Ripley sits down at the computer and begins her inquiry, typing first to ask for clarification on Science inability to neutralize alien. Mother didn’t understand the requestion, which makes sense. How could science ever fail!

So she reclarifies her inquiry. She request an Enhancement, which Muther denies her. Stating “No further enhancement. Special order 937. Science officer eyes only.”

Well that isn’t sounding right, nor is it sitting well with Ripley. Why would Ash be the only one given this information and what the hell is special order 937? Well let’s find out. Ripley inputs her new captains status into the computer authorizing a command override and ask Muther exactly that, what the flippin hell is special order 937.

SPECIAL ORDER 937

NOSTROMO REROUTED

TO NEW CO-ORDINATES.

INVESTIGATE LIFE FORM. GATHER SPECIMEN.

PRIORITY ONE

INSURE RETURN OF ORGANISM

FOR ANALYSIS.

ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY.

CREW EXPENDABLE.

Well. That. Is certainly a special order, and special consideration for the alien.

So with that we learn the horrible truth. We learn that Ripley was right when deciphering the message, that it was in fact a warning beacon, not a distress call. More alarmingly the company knew what was there. They knew that ship had those eggs, or at the very least the existence of the alien. They sent them there specifically to infect one of the crew and bring back the alien. That’s why Ash looked so concerned when the crew agreed to Kane’s request for a last meal before sleeping. He knew they had to get him into stasis before it was too late, and risk the alien roaming freely. Ash knew the entire time, and from that special order was given authority over everyone elses lives.

Sometimes its good to be on the side of science. I guess!

With this discovery sinking in and Ripley now having to process it all. She is greeted by of all people you don’t want to talk to in that moment, Bilbo Baggins, who assures her there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all this. I would like hearing that explanation.

However Ripley does not. She is done with Ash, she was right since the beginning, Dallas and everyone else questioned her, but now she’s in the right, she wasn’t a bitch, she wasn’t crazy, and she could’ve saved them all. So now its time to notify the crew.

However, Ash cant let that happen. He would likely though, except there’s a few problems. For starters. Ash is bleeding milk from is scalp. Which humans don’t do. Our blood while inside our bodies is actually blue. It doesn’t become red until introduced to oxygen. But still. White blood is not human blood. It is however advanced cybernetic life form blood. Ash is a robot!

Which brings the other problem. Ash cannot harm, not allow himself to be harmed by humans. So his main programming is at conflict. He is programmed not to harm humans. However his special orders dictate the safety and survival of that alien, deeming all other lives expendable. So he’s at a bit of a dilemma which causes him to short circuit and break down. Attacking Ripley.

He’s tossing her like a rag doll around the ship and having a fun time it appears, while Ripley is fighting for her life in a fight she can’t possibly win on her own. Thankfully though as Ash attempts to suffocate her using a rolled up porno magazine, which seems oddly and purposely sexual, the directors commentary goes into that mind you. As he attempts to suffocate her, Parker and Lambert arrive and begin trying to help Ripley. Only for Parker to soon realize himself there is something special about Bilbo and its not just his mithril undershirt. Ash is able to fend off Parkers attempts to stop him and tosses him back. But Parker is a fan of professional wrestling, he grabs an illegal object and introduces it to the side of Ash’s face. He’s attacking Bilbo like someone who just saw The Rings of Power series on Amazon, felt the show was slow, boring and lacked good writing, only to have people online and amazon call him a nazi and a racist.

With that he hits Ash so hard it severs his robot head from his shoulders. Sending Ash into seizures, spurting out milk blood and jittering as his body shorts out and he finally dies. Saving Ripley and the last two human survivors of the Nostromo. I say human because I count Jonesy as the third survivor.

But Ripley isn’t done. Oh no. One does not simply attempt to choke her out with a porno mag and get away with it. She’s having his head wired up to a power source and they’re going to get some answers out of him. If the company knew about the Alien and Ash was under their orders. It’s possible he knows something that could help them. Anything. It’s worth a shot so they’re taking it.

Gifting us with the sight of. Well. You can draw your own conclusions on what a man looks like with his face splattered and streaked with white fluid.

They manage to bring him back online and he’s as polite as ever still.

Ripley starts off by having him recite Special Order 937 to the rest of the crew, letting them know what she knows. Before finally getting to the meat of the situation, asking Ash how they can kill the alien, any weaknesses it has, something, anything that can help, his answer is simple, and quiet, “You can’t”

Ash: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

Lambert: You admire it.

Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

Parker has heard enough. He tells Ripley to power it down and kill Ash, none of them need to hear this shit and Ripley agrees, but before she does Ash politely ask for one last word to them, So Ripley allows it, “I can’t lie to you about your chances, but…you have my sympathies.”, with that he smiles and Ripley rips the power cables from his head, ending Ash for good.

“We’re going to blow up this ship. We’ll take our chances in the shuttle.”, that’s the first commanding order from Ripley that Lambert and Parker agree with entirely. So now the final stage is set. Ripley is going to set the ship to self destruct, that will give them a ten minute countdown before the ship blows up. Ripley is going to ready the ship for take off, and is sending Lambert with Parker to gather all the coolant they can get their hands on for the trip. They’re gonna need it. The whole thing should take them roughly 7 minutes, giving them three minutes to clear out a safe distance and watch the ship blow up.

She begins reading the ship turning coms on and powering things up. She can hear Lambert and Parker coming in just fine as the two hurry through opening and gathering coolant tubes. Also coming through on the coms is Commander Space Cat Jonesy! How the cat is using coms you ask? Because it’s a space cat. All space cats have their own com channels, duh.

So Ripley now with the ship ready, sets out to locate Jonesy and bring him with them to the shuttle. This is why Ripley is a true hero. She isn’t just finding her own inner strength and becoming the leader, she is insuring the safety of her entire crew. Jonesy is part of that crew. She knows the importance of cats in space and she is not leaving them behind. Even if Jonesy is the least cooperative feline. It’s just in their nature. But she manages to find them, and puts Jonesy in their special space cat carrier. It’s really cute as hell and I need one. Even if my cat hates carriers. She needs it, we need it. For reasons.

Well Ripley was successful in her mission, so what about Lambert and Parker? They are nearly done and collected a crap ton of coolant tubes for the journey. However the Alien has grown curious and is now watching them. Stepping out to introduce itself. Lambert stares terrified as the alien faces her, watching curiously. Parker notices the alien and immediately jumps into action.

Through most of the film Parker and Brett came off as assholes who only cared about their paychecks, but I really do feel Parker got the short end of the stick in the movie. There was more there to his character and the actor brought a lot to it where he could. You can see bits of it throughout once shit starts to hit the fan and hats off to the guy. He proved a hero in the end and I really felt he could’ve survived along side Ripley but alas. Here we are. Parker rushes the alien and begins the incredibly one sides melee battle. He knows he’s going to die but he is trying his hardest to give Lambert time to escape. Even shouting at her before the alien punctures his skull “Run! Get out of the room!”, but it’s no use. Even as he dies, Lambert is glued to the floor in pure terror. The alien makes a menacingly slow approach to her and just as slowly, unfortunately. Kills her. Which Ripley listens to over the comms as she races toward her friends in an attempt to save them. Only arriving too late and discovering their bodies.

She has no time to mourn, she’s arming the ships self destruct sequence. Which let me tell you, is no easy task, and I’m glad its such an involved process. In most films it’s a single code that’s needed, or in the case of Star Trek it needs clearance codes of three to four officers before it can be given. Here? Ripley needs to unseal the panel by pulling four large levers. She then needs to punch in a 12 key sequence. Unfasten 4 primers and attach them to four individual cores. As each one lifts up, she then has to arm all four. The ship automatically warns you that a ten minute sequence has begun, and you only have before the remaining 5 minutes to deactivate it, anytime after that and your fate is sealed.

So with the ship alive and buzzing with its final alarm. Ripley is taking off and looking for an alternate route away from using the main corridors in an attempt to escape encountering the alien. This leads her to a scene unfortunately cut from the original film, and reveals the sad fate of Dallas, As she finds her way into a room lined now with odd growths, something the alien secreted and put in itself. On the walls she finds Dallas. Covered in slime and held to the wall through a web of secreted solid plates formed by the alien. Later in the series we learn this is done to people in order for the alien to infect them with another facehugger, so it was preparing Dallas for just that. Dallas is still alive and weakly calls out to Ripley, “Kill me…kill…me.” She listens to his suffering and with little choice does as he begs her. Using her flamethrower she ends his suffering.

Quickly exiting the room, she hasn’t forgotten about Jonesy. She picks up the cat and they are headed for the shuttle. UNFORTUNATELY the alien was also headed that way and got lost, unsure if he was on the right floor for the alien eggs or escape pod. He turns to see if anyone is there he can ask, only for Ripley to hide herself and drop Jonesy’s carrier so she can escape as quickly as possible. Jonesy is fine though. They are an expert negotiator and he immediately enters into negotiations. Which the alien does not have time for so it politely excuses itself. Shoving Jonesy and their cat carrier aside rather rudely. Jonesy will remember this. I can assure you.

So Ripley is screwed. She can’t get to the shuttle in time without trying to out race the alien, so she needs to disarm the bomb and reset the timer. She races back to the destruct panel and goes through the entire sequence again, as the final countdown begins as to when she can no longer stop the timer. But even as she races she can’t beat the timer and misses it by just a split hair second. The ship notified Ripley and the alien that the ships destruct sequence cannot be stopped and they now have 5 minutes and counting until exploding time begins.

With that, Ripley is racing to find some form of hope. But there is none, she’s left with one last path. The one she abandoned because of the alien. But if its between her dying from the alien and the ship blowing up? Or making it past the alien to the ship and surviving. She’s game for either as long as it results in the alien dying.

Also she can’t leave on her own down a different path because Jonesy is still on the ship and needs rescuing. So she returns for Jonesy NATURALLY! Whom she finds. Perhaps a little upset and shaken from being left behind and having an imposing alien slam its carrier to the side. But they are willing to forgive Ripley as long as they make it to the ship and escape.

She is wasting no time what so ever and the duo make it just in time to the shuttle. Entering the last minute of time left before things get really bright. She detaches the shuttle craft and goes full throttle the hell away from the Nostromo. Both her and Jonesy flipping a finger at the ship as it explodes in a large glorious ball of light and with it the remains of her crew, and the alien, so they hope.

Leading to our final two classic and creepy scenes.

Including Ripley stripping down to tiny panties and a nearly see through top as she readies for hyper sleep. As she moves to the console and begins checking things. We enter our second scary scene. If you’ve a careful eye for detail. You just might spot among the various tubing, the elongated head of the alien as it rest, nestled within the ships components. Immediately scaring the shit out of Ripley. I would say scared the pants off of, but she’s already shown us pants are not where she’s going.

Ripley backs up cautiously to the closet and slides herself cautiously into a space suit. Eyes glued to the alien as it begins to stretch and awaken having been disturbed from its sleep. Ripley grabs the only weapon she can loaded grapple hook gun. I’m not sure what else to call it really. a hook gun? Maybe its used to shoot a hook into minerals floating off and you draw it in toward you, or its used in cases of emergency.

All I know. Is this is her one weapon against the alien.

So she steps out in her cool space suit, sits down carefully at the command console and begins punching in a sequence to open the airlock. We can only safely assume that Jonesy is secured and equally ready in their own space cat suit. In fact we know they are. They are a smart cat. Naturally.

As she readies to push the button and open the airlock, she begins looking around the quiet room, feeling she is being watched, and indeed she was. The alien stands behind her and opens its metallic mouth ready to lunge its second set of jaws out at her. She screams! And slams her fist on the airlock button. Immediately the alien is getting sucked out of the ship. However its hands are able to grip and hold onto the door frame. As the alien attempts to calm Ripley and discuss their living space and how they can both occupy it safely. Riply takes aim with her hook gun and shoots the alien right in the chest. Sending it flying outside the ship. Ripley seals the airlock and….is almost safe. Her hook gun did not fly out of the ship. So the alien is now, in pain, floating in space, with a large dart hook thing in its chest, with a tethered rope, slamming its body into the ship. It is now convinced Ripley is an asshole. It also finds a way to get into the ships exhaust port by the engines, trying to save itself. Ripley seeing this immediately thrust the ship back into full throttle. The alien immediately regretting its decision to hide right in front of the engine. But with that, the ship flies off to safety, and the alien is sent flying out into space, freezing, dying. No longer Ripley’s problem. With that? Ripley, believe it or not. Has survived. As has Jonesy. She safely strips out of her space suit, she makes one last entry into the computer, which I love, and when you hear it again in the game Alien Isolation, it’s still just. Yeah.

“Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew - Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas - are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.”. With that, Ripley gets up, picks up Jonesy whom she gives the last line in the movie too with “Come on, cat” Tell me another movie that gives mention to their cat before its end!

She lays down in her sleep tube, sealing herself and Jonesy inside and drift off to sleep, waiting to be rescued.

Which eventually does happen. 200 years after the events on LV-426 and the destruction of the Nostromo. Making Jonesy the oldest cat in history.

The End!

The movie has aged in a way that is both believable, and works within its universe. The tech inside the ship is purposely old and very much in the vein the director wanted of ‘space truckers’, its dirty, a bit run down and not exactly the top of the line tow. But the tech looks appropriately futuristic. When its sequel ALIENS came out, the tech was updated and still managed to carry a sense of being from the same universe, while again not coming off dated. The film was a large undertaking and bless them for it. It also is a film yet to be topped by any other like it, and has been replicated to infinity and beyond.

The film is great, I love it, I fell in love with it growing up, it stuck with me. It was scary as hell as a kid and I am far far more obsessed with this film and its series, than I am…believe it or not. Star Wars.

Seriously nothing geeks me out more than anything ALIEN related, Alien Isolation was the fastest preorder game I got and I played according to xbox over 400 hours, and on steam 80. So let that speak for itself.

The journey this film took and how it came to be are astoundingly amazing. The idea originally came from Dan O’Bannon who also on this list gave us Return of the Living Dead. He first played with the idea of Alien when doing a film with John Carpenter called Dark Star. There are some scenes in that you later find IN Alien and its hilarious. Dan O’Bannon also was chosen to work with Alejandro Jodorowsky, and H.R. Geiger for DUNE. However that never came to pass, and from having met Geiger through Jodorowsky, well. The two ended up working together with Fox Studios and Ridley Scott to make Alien.

The cast was perfectly done. Everyone is given a moment to shine. They are all believable and have a great dynamic that works into the film and you do care for them when they are in danger, which is sadly a lost art in most films now. Everything on the ship felt organic and it really did feel like this was their home and their life. There’s a lot of little details in the film that add to its believability, and the mystery later is so fun trying to solve on repeat viewings to find little hints and clues from Ash and others about what was going to happen, and sighting the alien itself.

Overall its just a fun beautiful film, and I’ve not lost one ounce of love for it. I’m always ready to sit down and watch it, and the music is…well.

The Music.

One of the best features from the Alien Quadrilogy, I’d go as far as saying best gifts even. Is the option to watch the movie with no dialog. Just the isolated film score. Even they knew the score for this was so rich and beautiful, powerful on its own. You should be offered the experience of just having that itself. It’s really interesting and a fun experience. The score itself, was crafted by one of the masters of the 80’s, Jerry Goldsmith. Who scored really, every film of my childhood, into the 90s and so on. The mans a legend and he also gave us the very wonderful The Omen score.

Which I did not include on this list because, this movie? Definitely hit me harder than that one did. Classic or not. Alien wins me every time, hands down, and the music is a large part of that.

I was the happiest I’ve ever been, with a saw Mondo records had released a 4 album collection of the complete score to ALIEN, including unused music tracks, and alternate takes. It’s still the largest box in my vinyl and I have never regretted that purchase, or opening it. Given how much the thing is worth now….no. Still glad I opened it and listen to it.

With Star Wars having come out two years before Alien. It introduced a new score for science fiction and space. John Williams gave space a grand operatic orchestral sound of hope and adventure. Since then films have tried replicating similar with their space films, Even Star Trek to an extent as well.

The sound of Alien is something detached from those entirely and comes off, especially with its opening theme, an almost romantic but eerily foreboding tone. It’s just so beautifully harmonic in how it delivers this sense of quiet in space, through the halls of the ship and seems to come alive once Kane wakes from his pod and the crew begins rising from their sleep and beginning their day. It’s just so subtle and unassuming once you get into the meat of the movie and its real intent.

One of the creepier tracks, and appropriately so, was and is “The Skeleton”, it plays out during the discovery of the space jockey on the derelict space craft. It starts out with a very ominous dark tone, that soon turns into a mysterious evolving tone carrying the crew through their discovery and trek through the ship. It’s a beautiful use of wind and string instruments it always gives me chills as it progresses and finally reaches its end.

In fact the music that leads into Kane’s discovery of the egg beds, appropriately called “The Eggs”, its terrifying. There is nothing in that music to suggest anything other than impending doom. Something is going to happen, it’s going to be horrible, and this room is the furthest from safe you can possibly me.

And it only grows more so once the facehugger launches itself out and the score picks up. Parts of that track became what essentially turned into the theme of the Xenomorph, coming back in ‘Sleepy Alien’, which played both in Ripley’s discovery of the alien in the hallway corridor and when the alien later appeared on the shuttle.

As much as I love hearing the opening music, and trust me I’ve let Alien Isolation play for longer than an hour on the main menu just to hear the track play. As much as I love that, and a vast overwhelming majority of the album. I love pairing and listening back to back to the tracks ‘To Sleep’, followed by the “End Title’ music. The whole thing could sing me off to sleep, both tracks. Its one of the rare moments afforded in the film where you truly feel relief in the film. Like you can finally relax your butthole and not worry about somethings second mouth puncturing your skull. You relax, you can breathe. You get a sense that it’s finally done, the nightmare is over. And when ‘End Title’ hits, you know its really safe and finally done. It’s sublime and an experience that captures why I love music so much. Especially film scoring.

Ridley Scott said it perfectly when he talked about Jerry’s film score, “It seems to play the DNA of some distant society.”

However, I have to be truthful here and geeky. Because I want to show I know my shit with this lol. But they actually still replaced in the film some of Jerry’s music. In fact large bits were unused. And they instead brought in another composer, Howard Hanson. He was responsible for the end theme and other cues through the soundtrack. Originally Goldsmith has scored the track “Out the Door” and that would play into the end title. But they ended up using only a few beats from that track for the final. On the DVD/Blurays isolated score for the film? That’s the closest you could get before to hearing Jerry’s original score for the film. Until the release of the complete score both on vinyl and cd.

Jerry had said many times that his time spent working on Alien was the worst in his career. He rarely ever talked to Ridley Scott and having his music replaced without so much as a word to the man, it stings yeah. But things didn’t go so nicely with him and Ridley later when they worked again on LEGEND, and Ridley decided to say screw it and tossed out Jerry’s entire score for THAT film and brought in Tangerine Dream instead.

Buuuut, years later. Jerry has mellowed a bit, and he as well as Ridley have put aside some differences. He’s fine with the score, but still feels his tracks had their place and I agree. The tracks they released that were unused and finally included on the score for the first time. They’re beautiful. He really added something to the film and he’s done that in other films as well. It’s why he’s a great composer, he just finds the heart of the film and runs with it. Just sometimes, like with Alien. You get a difference of vision and you either work with it, or you go behind their back.

Which even then. It was the right choice. Both music from both composers are beautiful, and work for the film. Creating an incredible musical experience and I’ve never loved or appreciated a films score as much as I had this expanded score. Thus its place on this list.

So with that being said. Yes you need to watch this movie again or for the first time. Yes you need to check it out repeatedly and listen to the damn music. Its perfect damn you!  Buy it, rent it, whatever you gotta do. Just so it pal.

And until tomorrow, neve enter a ships vaginal opening without first checking it out and making sure its clean. You’ll live longer and the risk of having something smother your face and latch onto you, burying something deadly inside you that’ll eventually come bursting out destroying your life, is a lot less likely. Your welcome.