Chad’s Grade: A
“In space, no one can hear you scream.” The phrase is still one of the best tag lines in film history and perfectly captures the tone of the original Alien. The film was an unlikely launch to a long-running and influential franchise that still lasts to this day. And it reshaped the science fiction genre with its classic horror tropes and gave us our beloved Ripley, one of the first female leads of an action extravaganza.
Alien was also a breakthrough for Ridley Scott, who was an up-and-coming director in the late 1970s. Scott had just made his debut helming the 1977 period thriller The Duellists and was eager for a big-scale production that could show off his unique visual style. Taking a cue from the first Star Wars, which portrayed a gritty, lived-in science fiction universe, Scott brought that same grimy, grounded look to Alien. And he filmed Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett’s tense screenplay like a gothic haunted house feature, with an atmosphere of existential dread.
The film follows the doomed “Nostromo,” a commercial spacecraft towing a huge refinery and mineral payload in deep space. The seven-person crew (and one Jonesy the cat) is awakened from hypersleep, thinking they’ve arrived home to Earth. Only to discover they’ve been reawakened early by their employer, the Weyland-Yutani corporation, to investigate an S.O.S. beacon on the moon LV-426. Agitated and confused, the crew makes landfall to check out the signal so they can finish their return trip home.
The first act perfectly sets the tone, with the creepy cues of Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score and those slow long shots of the Nostromo’s interior. This is the anti-Star Trek as crew members bicker, like ship mechanics Parker and Brett complaining about the “bonus” situation. Or grumpy Captain Dallas just trying to finish the task at hand to get home. This is far from the gleaming utopian hallways of the starship Enterprise, with coffee cups, posters, and toys littering the proceedings. There’s a run-down, blue-collar vibe as the Nostromo is essentially a tow truck. Even Scott and the producers describe the movie ensemble as “truckers” in space.
And these truckers locate the source of the beacon, emitting from a crashed spacecraft. Dallas assigns Kane and Lambert to accompany him inside the mammoth, tube-like ship, even as Ripley suspects that the distress signal looks more like a warning. This is where director Scott flexes his stylistic flourishes, filming the alien designs from Swiss artist H.R. Giger like a psychosexual bioengineering nightmare. Watching the crew approach the bizarre alien ship is like a bleak Dante’s inferno painting come to life. Scott ratchets the creep factor as Dallas looks over the remains of a skeletal creature nicknamed the “space jockey” or the stunning image of a vast chamber filled with thousands of alien eggs.
The film’s best jump scare is when Kane leans over an egg, opening like a flower petal as the face hugger clamps onto his face. The idea that the alien starts its life cycle ingesting inside a host is a genius plot twist, making the film stand apart from other creature flicks. There’s even a hint that the “alien” takes on the deadliest attributes of its host, a physical manifestation of the demon that resides in us all. And watching the baby alien explode from Kane’s chest is still a terrifying (and gross) movie moment. It’s here that Scott seamlessly switches gears, blending science fiction and horror as the “alien” quickly grows and methodically pics off the crew one by one.
The film showcases one of the unsung talents of director Scott: his exceptional eye for casting the perfect actors. The movie is essentially an ensemble piece, and the strong script imbues the Nostromo crew with distinct and relatable personalities. Tom Skerrit makes for an excellent curmudgeonly Captain Dallas. Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton have a fun banter as the grease monkey mechanics. Veronica Cartwright was fast becoming one of the great genre character actors, playing pilot Lambert with anxiety-ridden energy. And Ian Holm, as the android Ash is almost as terrifying as the alien creature. The actor gives subtle hints of his robotic nature, like the cold stare as he watches Kane’s chest burster death or the clownish smile when he tells the remaining survivors, “You have my sympathies.”
But it was Sigourney Weaver who shined in her breakthrough role of Ripley. Scott famously clashed with producers over casting the (then) unknown actress. Especially as Ripley was written as the male lead in the original version of the script. But Scott felt having a woman as the sole survivor would be an unexpected plot twist. Ripley is the most level-headed character, staying cool and composed as the other characters panic. In one of the movie’s most tense scenes, she overrides Dallas and refuses to let the alien-infected Kane board the ship to protect the rest of the crew. Yet Weaver gives Ripley real vulnerability and fear when she makes her last stand against the “alien” in the shuttle, blowing it out of the airlock and incinerating the creature with the vehicle’s engines.
Alien is also a feast of retro-visual effects that were state-of-the-art in 1979. Scott hired celebrated futurist Ron Cobb to design the Nostromo and its many vehicles. The film is full of “model porn” shots highlighting the insanely detailed model work of the slow, lumbering spacecraft floating silently in space. The designs emphasized the movie’s gothic tone, like the opening shot of the massive Nostromo freighter, resembling a church cathedral with its towering spirals. And the steel and pipe labyrinth-like hallways would become a visual stamp for the rest of the franchise.
The movie stumbles a bit as the production had a “Jaws” issue with the fully-grown alien design. In the pre-CGI era, all visual effects had to be in-camera, and the alien creature looked like a guy in a suit that moved slowly and unnaturally. Scott managed to film around the problem with close-up shots and quick editing that mostly succeeded, especially during the claustrophobic shuttle finale. But there are still a few long takes, like the alien rising to attack Lambert, where the seams clearly show.
But that minor flaw didn’t hurt the finished film, as Alien became a huge box office hit, with a worldwide gross of $106 million and change. The bloody, R-rated film was a stark contrast to the kid-friendly science fiction fare that Star Wars spawned in 1977. The movie is a masterful blend of horror and science fiction, taking its cues from the slower-paced classic monster features. There’s even a dash of cyberpunk, with the trope of the evil corporation manipulating the working class to bring back a dangerous, bio-engineered creature that could be exploited for profit.
Alien also heralded the arrival of two major talents. Ridley Scott proved himself as one of the great visual stylists, helping shape the look of the science-fiction genre with Alien and Blade Runner. The director has that unique gift of creating an atmosphere and mood baked into the storytelling. And he would go on to direct some groundbreaking and innovative films like Legend, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and American Gangster.
And the movie introduced us to Sigourney Weaver, fast becoming one of the great actors of her generation. Her immense talent made Ripley an action icon, and I don’t think the character would have had the same impact with a different actress. But beyond the Alien franchise, she built a long and diverse filmography like Ghostbusters, Working Girl, and Avatar. And she would anchor the Alien franchise through its three wildly uneven sequels.
The Director’s Cut
In 2003, Fox Studios released a special edition DVD featuring a director’s cut of Alien that’s actually 37 seconds shorter. The changes are minimal, with a few scenes extended with minor dialogue additions. Most trims were needed, as they didn’t add to the overall story. Although Lambert and Ripley have a much more catty and contentious relationship. At one point, Ripley asks Lambert if she ever had sex with Ash, a hint of his true android nature.
The most significant scene is Ripley discovering the bodies of Dallas and Brett as she (and that damn cat Jonesy) race to escape on the shuttle. The pair are suspended in gross alien goo, their bodies slowly decomposing into alien eggs for future hosts. But Dallas awakens, still alive, and begs Ripley to kill him, which she promptly obliges with her flame thrower. I’m glad that Scott excised the scene as it interrupts Ripley’s tension-filled escape. And most importantly, it clashes with James Cameron’s sequel, Aliens, introducing the insect-hive society of the alien and a massive, deadly Queen laying the eggs.
Ultimately, the director’s cut is a curious version of the classic film. It’s available on Blu-Ray/DVD and the excellent Alien Quadrology set that collects the original four films with an array of behind-the-scenes features. Scott doesn’t seem enthused about the director’s cut in his many interviews, encouraging fans to watch the near-perfect theatrical version instead.