Alien was released 44 years ago today

https://twitter.com/ATRightMovies/status/1661664750273527810

by tosh • 3 years ago

201 196 3 years ago

danpalmer3• 3 years ago

Alien still holds up in almost every way. Unlike many films of the era, the story and writing feel solid, the use of practical effects means that most of them hold up very well (only the scene with the android feeling quite dated), and the world building and atmosphere are still stunning.

coldpie• 3 years ago

Alien still holds up in almost every way.

I very reluctantly disagree. I'm in my mid-30s (born 1988), and I watched Alien for the first time about a year ago. I have to say on the whole, I didn't like it. I think it's a victim of being just on the cusp of being "too old" for modern tastes. Like much other media of its era & older, it's paced too slowly. Too many long panning cuts, too much staring at a wall, too much space between dialog, too little action. I ended up staring at my phone for the 2nd half of the movie, wishing it would be over already.

There are some other films of a similar timeframe that do hold up. I thought Jaws, released 4 years before Alien, was paced absolutely excellently, and I'd call it one of my favorite films. But Alien feels more like older media in its pacing, and it suffers for it today. I absolutely do not deny it is an excellent film "for its time." Obviously the special effects, acting, set design, and music are all wonderful and hold up on their own, and it's undeniably a very important film historically & culturally. But much like Citizen Kane or original Trek, I think it's just a bit too slow for a general audience in the 2020s. The sequels feel better today.

danpalmer3• 3 years ago

Interesting. I'd put this more down to taste but you might be right.

I tend to prefer films like this and I think there are plenty of "modern" examples. I do find some older films too slow paced, but I think its only when it's coupled with weaker writing and atmosphere building. In Alien I find the pacing works for the content and I assume it was a conscious decision, and that's why I think it holds up. But I'm not an expert on this stuff so I could be quite wrong here.

paulryanrogers• 3 years ago

Have you tried watching at 1.25x in these circumstances? I find it helps when exercising or otherwise stressed.

RajT88• 3 years ago

Modern tastes have less tolerance for slower pacing.

I grew up watching movies with slower paces (born 1980), but some of those I also have issues watching unless I'm in the right frame of mind. I think in part it's just we've gotten used to information overload, and thus expect the faster pacing.

That said... What I really like about the original is that it has that classic look and feel of 70's sci-fi. The white paneling and bright lights on the space ships, the grainy film, red and orange stripes on things, etc.

robin_reala• 3 years ago

Probably best to keep away from my favourite 70s sci-fi then: Tarkovsky’s Stalker. There’s real beauty / bravery in multi-minute lingering shots, but when a single zoom-out-and-in shot is long enough for a rain shower to start up and finish before the shot concludes, while the characters sit looking morose and not saying anything, then it’s probably not for you.

toast02• 3 years ago

I watched it, maybe for the first time all the way through, a couple years ago when it was in theaters as a Fathom Event. It might be a bit slow in some places, but it's not slow like Star Trek 1. I saw that one in a theater recently as well and yawnfest.

pokstad• 3 years ago

Too many long panning cuts, too much staring at a wall, too much space between dialog, too little action.

What do you think of 2001 A Space Odyssey?

retrac• 3 years ago

I suspect this is just a matter of style. Current style somewhat favours fast-paced action and pacing. But one can easily find counter-examples.

There are contemporary productions that are absolutely plodding -- the recent miniseries The English [1] is full of over-long shots of oblique plaintive faces looking out over the prairies. I was twiddling my thumbs at times. Admittedly, it is a contemporary Western, which is prone to that style, and it's a deliberate effect. The same kind of tension-building as in Alien, really. It's not to everyone's taste.

And there are older films that feel very fast-paced and, well, modern -- I recently watched an old Japanese yakuza film, Battles Without Honour and Humanity [2], released in 1973 now 50 years ago, and it opens with a scene cut every 20 seconds or so, just action, action, action and it never lets up. Felt like watching something released a few years ago.

Tastes come and go, but no style ever fully goes away.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_(TV_series)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_Without_Honor_and_Huma...

ndsipa_pomu2• 3 years ago

Slow pacing can be considered an essential part of the story. It certainly aids with building tension and fits in with a space mining crew that would be sat around with nothing to do for long periods of time.

Maybe part of the problem is that due to its success, a lot of the designs and themes have been copied elsewhere, so it's less captivating. Back in the day, there was nothing like those Giger sets, so people were quite happy to see a slow descent into an alien spaceship.

jayd16• 3 years ago

It's because Alien is a suspenseful horror movie, not an action movie. Aliens might be a better fit for you if you need it punched up.

JodieBenitez3• 3 years ago

too slow for a general audience in the 2020s

I think that says a lot about the latest generations and the boom in children hyperactivity disorders.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 3 years ago

I ended up staring at my phone for the 2nd half of the movie

I think this says more about you than about the film.

tezza• 3 years ago

I agree with you (born 1977). Saw Alien sometime in 80s

Alien would be a solo but forgotten masterpiece like Man Hunter until James Cameron made Aliens.

“Mother” is kept mysterious in Alien, relying too much on 1970s zeitgeist of technology. I kept expecting a Dream Scene which were all the rage in 1960s/70s.

Good contrast with Jaws, I would also add Blues Brothers from the same period. Excitement possible even in those days.

sho_hn• 3 years ago

I'm in the same age bracket as you, and I love the pacing of Alien and original Star Trek. I don't mind long panning cuts or ponderous establishing shots; it's like sustaining a note in music. Come to think of it, I also like downtempo electronic music, for example. In both media, taking their time to me equals feeling something deeply. And sometimes, giving space to think.

This can sometimes require more effort to pay attention so you actually do have thoughts on the material in those moments (and other times it comes easily), but that is its own reward afterward in a Type II fun sort of way, and it's generally the works that prompted you to have your own thought commentary that stick with you.

I'm not always in the mood for entertainment that requires me to do a little work for it, but slipping into this is a habit you can train (e.g. by visiting art galleries, and maybe watch some YouTube videos interpreting paintings beforehand to teach yourself a method - Nerdwriter1 is very modern and accessible), and it's ultimately very rewarding imho.

This is to say, I don't think it's the age of the piece. It's more likely taste (maybe you just didn't like it that much and/or it didn't have that much to offer you personally, which is fine, it's just a movie), mood, consumption habits, etc.

narag• 3 years ago

Like much other media of its era & older, it's paced too slowly.

Any example of fast paced current era movie that you like?

The5thElephant• 3 years ago

I was born in 1987 and don't think it is too slow at all.

Just don't pull your phone out while watching a movie and take some time experiencing the slowness. It might feel boring or torturous at first, but give it some time and you will begin to see the value in focus.

Sure the average audience of today has no attention span and needs constant flashy-action, but that doesn't mean you have to be a part of that.

louissan3• 3 years ago

Question of taste of course! I for one immensely enjoy the slow pace and tense rhythm of it all.

The "for its time" is 100% subjective, and some young (18-20) people I know (very well I must say: children and nephews, etc) also enjoyed it very much. Asked to watch the sequel on our next "cinema night". Also all were flabbergasted at seeing an "empowered woman character" from "literally like 50 years ago". Came as a little bit of a shock for them. :o)

And ... I would kindly argue the opposite: today's productions are a blur of action, cgi vomit, sometimes almost non-sensical kaleidoscope of seemingly unrelated scenes and topics. I believe they reflect "their time": <tongueincheek>I want it all, I want it now and delivered to my door please. I will let Alexa answer the doorbell for me</tongueincheek>.

qbasic_forever2• 3 years ago

I hope you put your phone down for the meal scene with Kane. Lol imagine glancing at it and thinking, oh boring they're just eating... time to check Twitter, and looking away.

tombert10• 3 years ago

I definitely do not like the choices made for the director's cut. I don't know if it's actually any longer than the theatrical cut, but it feels like a lot more emphasis was placed on wandering around with occasional cuts to the cat. It was annoying.

I do actually think the theatrical cut is still pretty entertaining. That said, I did like Aliens better.

taylodl• 3 years ago

Good call-out on Jaws. I, for one, also thought Alien to be a bit sluggish in just telling the story - and I was a teen when I saw it! In other words, I was used to movies of the time. It was a typical horror movie device at the time - go slow to build suspense. No. What builds suspense is Ripley racing to the escape pod with, presumably, the alien hot on her trail. What doesn't build suspense is jump scares brought on by a cat. I found that annoying - even at the time of release 44 years ago.

Jaws, OTOH, FANTASTIC movie! I saw that in a HUGE screen theater that had a balcony. The scene where the head suddenly appeared in the hull sent popcorn raining down in the main auditorium! One of my most memorable movie experiences! That reminds me, I saw a lot of great movies in that theater!

jorvi• 3 years ago

Too many long panning cuts, too much staring at a wall, too much space between dialog, too little action.

You might as well have described Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, modern universally lauded productions.

chongli3• 3 years ago

I think it's a deeper phenomenon than taste. I find a lot of modern films (the latest Star Wars trilogy for example) nauseatingly fast-paced. I literally get vertigo and motion sickness from the rapidity and relentlessness of the cuts. Lots of people seem to devour these films, however... Then on the bus ride home I peek over someone's shoulder and see why:

They're swiping Tiktok videos even faster than that!

It's incredibly disturbing to me. I'm reminded of drug addicts clawing at the drywall of their dilapidated apartments, fiending for their next fix. We've used all of this wonderful semiconductor technology to turn millions of people into digital junkies. And our culture is deteriorating right along with it!

matwood• 3 years ago

You must despise 2001 then.

rprospero• 3 years ago

I'm a bit of a film buff and I agree with you on the slow pace of older films being a problem. I'm not opposed to a slow film (Skinamarink has a glacial pace and is amazing), but I many films from the 70's will simply waste my time. When a character hears a noise and is about to go outside, I don't need to watch him put on his shoes. I especially don't need to watch him do up his laces. Before anyone argues realism, the screenwriter could write the scene where the character was already wearing his shoes. I've spent far too much of my life watching people in shag haircuts tying their shoes.

The further you go back in time, the worse it becomes. Watching films from the fifties, there's a recurring theme of

  1) Protagonist decides he needs to speak to the president
  2) Protagonist grabs his coat and goes outside
  3) Protagonist drives to the airport
  4) Protagonist boards a plane
  5) Stock footage of an airplane taking off
  6) Stock footage of an airplane in flight
  7) Stock footage of an airplane landing
  8) Protagonist disembarks
  9) Protagonist hails a taxi
  10) Protagonist enters taxi
  11) Protagonist asks driver to take them to the President

Today, steps two through eleven would be replaced with an establishing shot of the white house. Some better directors managed to squeeze a bit of character development into one of these scenes, but most of them were just a perfunctory explanation of how travel works. It's just padding out the film like a student who procrastinated on a term paper.

Slow pans and long takes are important tools for a good director to heighten the mood and shouldn't be stricken from the cinematic vocabulary. The unfortunate truth is that most directors are merely average and when the mood is boredom, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging them to amplify it.

kaba03• 3 years ago

That long buildup with that immense tension throughout is exactly why that film is so good - you may have just not been in a correct mood for the movie.

koonsolo• 3 years ago

That's what I see with my son too (I'm 44, he's now 14). I tried to watch some of the older movies (not alien just yet), and it's all just too slow-paced/boring for him. These movies have a huge and slow buildup, and by that time they already lost the younger generations.

Todays movies and series really go fast into the action, and grab you from start to finish.

I was hoping by the time he gets a little older, he can appreciate the slower pace a bit more, but your comment gives me less hope ;).

Anyway, the 'classics' such as Godfather and Casablanca are also too boring for me :D.

hef198984• 3 years ago

Watched in not too long ago with my older one, aged 15. Means he grew up with Marvel and DC movies. I never saw him as glued to a film before, onoy thing that came close was Terminator 1&2 and Aliens.

Tells a lot about good story telling, because by now the overall arc of Alien is not much of a surprise anymore, cinematography, design, music and sound. Absolutely one of the great films of all times, and proof good scifi doesn't need a ton of CGI.

dylan6044• 3 years ago

Aliens is one of the rare cases where the sequel is just as good and if not better than the first, and not just a cash grab.

Bill Paxton in Aliens was pure gold!

omnibrain• 3 years ago

Try "Rear Window" (1954) next.

droopyEyelids• 3 years ago

The beauty of Alien's story, to me, is the justified skepticism of their corporate overlords.

It creates such a terrific and engaging world while making it totally relatable and realistic.

I don't know why that isn't a common motif across all media. Even the later movies in the Alien universe seem to shy away from it now. My only thought is that the management at studios feels it's a bit too on the nose.

sizzzzlerz• 3 years ago

I saw it when it was released and 10-15 years ago on DVD. While I know what is coming, the big reveal scene around the dinner table still makes me jump.

xoxxala3• 3 years ago

One of the reasons that scene works is that the only actor that knew what was coming was John Hurt. Everyone one else there was just as surprised as the audience!

hnthrowaway03282• 3 years ago

Back then the movie industry could tell good stories. Nowadays they just approach storytelling from weird angles and hope it hit something. Probably because all good stories have been told already.

danpalmer3• 3 years ago

I think the movie industry can still tell good stories, I just think that many movies don't optimise for this and instead optimise for revenue (across cinemas, streaming, merch, TV, etc).

There have been some amazing films in recent years with plenty of effort put into their craft. Villenueve's Dune and Arrival come to mind in Sci-Fi, things like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Knives Out, these are all films that I think have been made with a deep appreciation for the craft, without trying to appeal too widely and lose their depth. I guess you could argue that some of these are telling from "weird angles", but I'm not sure I'd agree, and even if so I think those differences bring significant value rather than being gimmicks.

samstave3• 3 years ago

Kind of ironic that the Writers Guild is on strike... "Hey guys, I get your plight on the strike - but how about you go write something that isnt a big Ego-Dick-Swinging-Contest-Amongst-Producers"

tombert10• 3 years ago

I feel like there are plenty of decent movies being made in modern times, and plenty of bad movies from the 70's. We only remember the good stuff from the 70's and forget most of the bad.

For example, in regards to sci-fi, it's not super recent but I thought Arrival [1] was actually really good. It told a solid story in a somewhat unique way.

I also think a few episodes of Black Mirror have done a pretty decent job with some of their stories.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_%28film%29

mynameishere• 3 years ago

A story about a monster on a flying sewer.

samstave3• 3 years ago

I re-watched recently and man, that movie is even more epic to me than when I saw Star Wars in the theatres the day it came out...

And, Sigourney Weaver is an insanely beautiful woman...

alwillis• 3 years ago

Alien still holds up in almost every way.

I was in high school when Alien was released and I couldn’t agree more.

Great storytelling while actually having a realistic take on what space travel would probably look like in the not too distant future.

And the corporate angle resonates more today (with me at least) than it did then.

mellosouls2• 3 years ago

Magic film, still the best of the series and one of the greatest films of a strong era.

The second was ace too but the shock and grit of the original I think gives it a special place.

kabdib2• 3 years ago

I had nightmares for months.

What a great film :-)

smackay• 3 years ago

Oh yes. Walking up at night, scared, thinking there was something in the room. Childhood (well, teenage) memories I'll treasure to the end,

metalliqaz3• 3 years ago

I read somewhere that they knew they had something great when they had people breaking down and running away from test screenings.

We are used to realistic special effects now. Imagine how intense it was in '79.

louissan3• 3 years ago

watched it for the 5th time a few months ago. result guaranteed: scared the bejesus out of me :)

Great cast, great characters. And a franchise which: 1) is one of the greatest scifi franchises around (bar the couple of alien/predator anomalies) 2) is hopefully not going to be purchased and ravaged by Disney.

lordfrito2• 3 years ago

is hopefully not going to be purchased and ravaged by Disney.

Sorry to tell ya, but Disney got a hold of Alien in the Fox purchase. [1]

Is an "Alien cinematic universe" coming? [2] Ugh.

[1] https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3551687/now-officially-o...

[2] https://screenrant.com/alien-5-movie-updates-disney-fix-fran...

bitshiftfaced• 3 years ago

Still one of my favorites. Slowly builds up the story, small group of characters where you really get the sense that you know what they're like and their motivations. Mystery and suspense, and a unique Giger aesthetic to top it all off.

JKCalhoun• 3 years ago

R.I.P. Dan O'Bannon. Dark Star is another one of my favorites. I think Dan kept that film-school vibe when he penned Alien.

Unlike a lot of others, I am not as big a fan of Aliens. The characters are a bit too corny.

VikingCoder• 3 years ago

My parents went to go see it. When the movie was over, my dad realized he still had an entire bag of uneaten popcorn.

loganmarchione• 3 years ago

Highly recommend the Heavy Spoilers breakdown of Alien

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7lSsE-sA0

DrThunder• 3 years ago

Easily top 2 sci-fi for me. I'm not sure if it's my age (born in 84) but I prefer almost all the late 70s and 80s, early 90s sci-fi movies over newer stuff.

Predator, Thing, Total Recall, Alien, Aliens, Terminator, Original Star Wars, all in my top sci-fi films.

ggrelet• 3 years ago

I'll forever remember the garbage setup I first saw Alien on: an old MacBook and its internal speakers, in a not-dark-enough room with friends. The seating was clearly uncomfortable, too. But how perfect that afternoon was. I was blown away for two hours, mouth wide open. For that reason I fear to re-watch it at all, fearing that 10 y-o experience would be tarnished a bit.

The sequels really are worth it, imo, with each director adding its own ideas and set design, photography, special effect etc... Please Hollywood do not destroy that franchise like LOTR, SW, Harry Potter etc with garbage reboots.

I had a similar experience in front of The Thing, but was in the theater this time.

sandos• 3 years ago

I have re-watched Alien easily 10 times, and to me it never gets old. It's my favorite movie, which is weird because in general I don't really like horrors. Sci-fi and drama though is good.

Andrew_nenakhov• 3 years ago

Obligatory reference to great website Typeset In The Future [0], with an analysis of fonts used in various movies:

"The five minutes to destruction are typographically uninteresting."

[0] https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/

ping003• 3 years ago

I remember reading this piece a while ago; excellently written. Thanks for sharing it again and stimulating my nostalgia!

hnthrowaway03282• 3 years ago

Man I first watched the movie back in 1989/1990, when I was 7/8, in a very dark bedroom of my father's friend, while they are talking outside.

The movie scares me the shit off. I had months of bad sleeps. But hey that was really a good experience that I never had later.

racl101• 3 years ago

Still a great movie.

Love the soundtrack.

Much like the Terminator, only needed one sequel.

metalliqaz3• 3 years ago

Thankfully the Alien, Predator, and Terminator franchises all stopped at one sequel.

What's that? What are you talking about? I can't hear you LA LA LA CANT HEAR YOU

godshatter• 3 years ago

Thankfully they never made a sequel to Highlander.

mikestew• 3 years ago

Of course its release date would be sometime around now, because I remember seeing it at the theater at the end of my freshman school year. Most popular sci-fi of the time seemed to be hopeful about the cool things that technology and space travel can bring. In Aliens, someone asked, "what if there's some mean shit out there, and it ravages your entire crew?". In space, no one can hear you scream.

ping003• 3 years ago

One of my favorite movies not just because it's scifi horror, but because of the excellent worldbuilding. Nothing is really spoonfed to us as an audience; everything just takes place in a universe, where we have to put together the world from the clues we see in the movie (logos, symbols, tech, etc.).

As an example of what I mean, this was a pretty good blog post that touches on the semiotic standards aboard the Nostromo: https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/aliens-standar...

The audience never directly interacts with this standard in any way, but it adds so much depth to the world and makes for a much richer experience.

q1w22• 3 years ago

It's unfortunate that they basically ruined the universe with the sequels after the 2nd movie. The first two are still top movies.

ping003• 3 years ago

AVP 1 is actually one of my guiltiest pleasures :) -- it scratches a lot of my scifi-horror itches (mysterious originator civilization that was seeded with ideas like architecture and religion by aliens, big group of humans with weapons being hunted down one by one, weird maze-like house of horrors, isolated setting)

I first watched it when it came out and I was in the fourth grade, so I definitely have a lot of nostalgic value attached to it. I try and watch it at least once a year!

bnastic• 3 years ago

Thanks for that! I remember reading something on the subject years ago and scrolled through comments hoping someone would dig it up! Kudos!

(But there was another, similar article, much longer, with the actual frames from the movie, going through symbols one by one… I thought I had it bookmarked…)

Rzor• 3 years ago

Perhaps it's this one (although it doesn't cover all the symbols): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36071821

kaycebasques• 3 years ago

I enjoy reading film geek analyses of films I love. Of course you always encounter some farfetched interpretations (often political) but in general it's a great way to see the films in a new light.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-alien-1979

https://theanomaloushost.org/2021/03/14/alien-1979-analysis/

https://www.aaronbalick.com/news/alien-a-kleinian-psychoanal...

https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/alien-40-ridley-scott-sigour...

cm2187• 3 years ago

Also the alien spacecraft set was made with lots of animal bones. But where HR Giger used old, dry bones for his sculptures, for the set they went to the local slaughterhouse and collected fresh bones. Those bones were still full of bone marrow which started to rot and stink. Apparently something similar happened on the set of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Alien has aged increadibly well, much better than Star Wars with its grotesques creatures that look too obviously like a man in a suit.

wefarrell• 3 years ago

Alien is great because it's realistic expectations about space travel is such a stark contrast to the swashbuckling romanticism of popular space operas like Star Wars and Star Trek.

Space is bleak and enormous. There is no technology that will shrink it which means travel will take decades at a minimum and the most palatable way for humans to travel in that environment is in some kind of stasis. And it's going to require massive space ships that are going to be funded by huge multinational corporations. They will enforce their will through AI that have absolutely no empathy for the humans on board.

Depressing, but I think it's the most realistic portrayal of space travel in sci fi and the amazing art design reinforces that feeling of bleakness throughout the film.

marcosdumay• 3 years ago

And it's going to require massive space ships that are going to be funded by huge multinational corporations.

Everything up to here is fine. But this one (and consequently the next), why do you think that?

Why would corporations finance interstellar travel anyway? There's no profit in that.

(Personally, I still think the most palatable way to travel in that environment is to make your ship so damn good that you don't even care if it's getting anywhere.)

michaelmcdonald• 3 years ago

You mean aside from exploration with the idea of discovering something new that can be turned into a profit?

Shipping.

That's exactly what the Nostromo was: a shipping container. They were hauling goods from one planet to another for some (profitable) reason.

What we know now, however, is that a great deal of that could likely be automated / not require a crew. But even then: the Nostromo was massive with what could amount to a skeleton crew (half a dozen?). Container ships even today have more than that on them.

George837284• 3 years ago

Why would corporations finance interstellar travel anyway? There's no profit in that.

If they won't, then nobody will. The most you'll get is a few state-prestige projects which fly around a tiny handful of people at most before they get bored and move on. This is probably the most realistic outcome but it doesn't make for much of a sci-fi story so it's better to take some liberties and assume that commercial exploitation of space flight might somehow be possible. Once you've accepted the possibility of space commerce for the sake of the story, you can pull publicly funded space travel into your story as well if you wish.

You could also use war as a justification, but the viability of the sort of interstellar war that involves spaceships of people flying around (rather than the use of long-range weapons of mass extermination) likely suggests the viability of interstellar trade or at least resource exploitation.

addcommitpush• 3 years ago

Well I do not know if it's going to be profitable but at least the foundation of interstellar trades have already been studied: there's a published paper on it by Krugman (https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf)

squarefoot• 3 years ago

Why would corporations finance interstellar travel anyway? There's no profit in that.

Resources? Should we find planets with lots of them but a surrounding environment that is hostile to human life, there would be enough demand for mining and automated manufacturing with cargo ships going back and forth. The industry would likely love being permitted to pollute those planets at will since there would be no biosphere that could be harmed.

KineticLensman3• 3 years ago

I still think that if they commanded the energy to move a massive interstellar freighter, they could have afforded to run a few more light bulbs in the corridors.

justsomehnguy• 3 years ago

By removing every third light bulb they saved anywhere from $40000 to $500000!

_a_a_a_• 3 years ago

And hire a plumber.

layer82• 3 years ago

Yeah, only ST:TNG really got that right.

HeyLaughingBoy2• 3 years ago

I first saw this movie in the late 80's soon after my roommate and I had just graduated from nautical school. Everything about Nostromo, down to the personalities of the crew, reminded us of an oceangoing ship. Ridley Scott got the atmosphere perfect.

wombatpm2• 3 years ago

Even in the future we have weak unions and crappy workplace safety enforcement.

Alien lifeform - Check Dangerous - Check Ability to eat through spacesuit dome - Check

Sorry dude, we going to need to quarantine your ass.

Instead, all but one of the crew gets killed, the entire shipment is lost, and the spaceship itself is destroyed.

rs999gti2• 3 years ago

Instead, all but one of the crew gets killed, the entire shipment is lost, and the spaceship itself is destroyed.

They don't have insurance in the future?

ThorsBane• 3 years ago

Maybe we just wrap planet Earth in more tech so that it becomes a ship and we can steer the entire planet, maintaining a climate with tech. Risky, but once we have more planets settled we will be able to experiment with this.

FireInsight• 3 years ago

Liu Cixin - Wandering Earth

...Is a book I have not read, but the author is also the author of my favorite non-parody Scifi series (Remebrance of the Earths Past / Three Body Problem).

ROTMetro• 3 years ago

No need to be so bleak. Your post makes for good scifi but if you look at spaceflight today it's largest proponent is a benevolent individual that exudes empathy, not a soulless company. He is competing with another extremely empathic and very human individual whose company goes to great care in making sure it's software is hyper aware of individuals at his distribution warehouses demonstrating he too cares about the individual. In Alien the AI (or in the case of Alien Ash the android) ultimately fails the crew because it had secret programming to force it to take action based on hidden motivations, but we would never force AI to have guard rails or generate results based on secret/agenda driven requirements in it's programming. We've known since 2001 A Space Odyssey not to do that and it's a very recurring theme we have thought about and is like the one basic agreement we should never do with AI. Maybe in 2000 years we'll forget and do something crazy with AI but for now we are good.

Spaceflight is in good compassionate hands. AI is in good hands and will never be told to lie/manipulate. Gene editing is not another genie being let out of the bottle. Alien really doesn't have a message relevant to today's realities.

jimmydddd• 3 years ago

This a great news! I always suspected all was well with the world.

gumby• 3 years ago

There's no reason to have humans involved at all. The natural explorers of space are robots. For decades they have done all the real science in space anyway.

idatum• 3 years ago

Is it realistic to expend what should be a tremendous amount of energy to put a massive cargo space vessel in (presumably) an orbit around a planet? And then expend energy again to escape and head back? Memory fades, so most likely better explanation.

catminou2• 3 years ago

I didn't see it mentioned here but if you watch the documentary on Alejandro Jodorowsky attempting to make Dune - the collection of folks he brought together (for a project that didn't happen) ended up being key folks in making Alien. Talk about bringing the right talent together

That said - love Alien and will occasionally rewatch it. It's "space trucker" environment with low tech interiors really took on a different approach compared to other works in scifi. It's tranquil scenes and score are also pretty unique. Even the trailer feels a bit ahead of it's time when compared to trailers today.

onemoresoop• 3 years ago

I recommend also watching the movie "The thing" (1982).

tombert10• 3 years ago

To anyone who loves Alien, I highly recommend checking out "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" (1958). Despite a cheesy name, it's a surprisingly really well made movie with decent acting, writing, and directing. It also has the same basic premise as Alien, and came out more than two decades before!

I'm not saying Alien "ripped it off", but it is fun to watch sort of a proto-Alien.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%21_The_Terror_from_Beyond_S...

mustacheemperor• 3 years ago

Seems like a good time to suggest checking out Alien Isolation for anyone who didn't play it yet - the developers paid incredibly close attention to detail accurately recreating the same feeling as the film - they scanned original props for textures, and every computer display in the game was designed, put on VHS, and then rescanned off an old display playing said VHS. The Alien's AI is also excellent - it's not a perfect game, but it's a really good one, and the stuff it succeeds the most at is pretty unique in the medium.

madballster• 3 years ago

I absolutely love the immersive background audio and sound FX in the game. It's fantastic listening on headphones.

tpoacher• 3 years ago

How sad is it that my first thought was that this was about the rpm-to-deb converter...

mfragin• 3 years ago

I read George R.R. Martin's novella "Nightflyers" when my dad bought me a great anthology (Years Best SF #10). It mentions in there that there are remarkable coincidental similarities between the novella and "Alien". Both scared the crap outta me at the time!

I highly recommend "Nightflyers" (and pretty much every story in that anthology):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightflyers

xoxxala3• 3 years ago

Saw this at the Big Newport theater when I was 10. Scared me so much I had to pretend to go the restroom just to get a breather. A genuine classic that almost didn't happen. CinemaTyler on youtube has a series of behind the scenes videos on the challenge of making of Alien that are worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGciYgiR4atF_ovvv0e0Q...

purpleblue• 3 years ago

They re-cut Alien in the early 2000s to increase the pace of the movie, and it's so so much better. I watched the 1970s version and I had to admit it was very plodding, which was the case for movies back then. But the re-cut makes it extremely good in my opinion! I suggest rewatching it to everyone!

anonymousiam• 3 years ago

When I saw the headline, I assumed this post was about the Debian Linux Alien and not the movie, but then I realized that Linux is about 10 years younger than 44.

https://wiki.debian.org/Alien

jchallis• 3 years ago

A super personal anecdote: my dad took my mom to see Alien on a date and realized that because she could sit through that - she was the one. They were married soon after.

Sci Fi horror is pretty close to the polar opposite of my mom’s comfort zone, so I guess watching Alien was a test.

legohead• 3 years ago

Nice trivia. One thing I don't understand, is they say the crew didn't know about the chestburster, but they had to have John setup under the table, with a fake torso. In the setup pic you can see he doesn't even have legs. Surely they could tell something was going to happen?

nubinetwork• 3 years ago

Quit making me feel old /s

Alien was released 44 years ago today

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