Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason, this week covering the nineteen seventy nine film Alien.
Welcome to Spacey Now.
I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are starting to discuss the Alien franchise, one movie at a time, and at the moment of this recording, the first film is available to stream on Hulu. This podcast is being released on two different podcast feeds, so if you have found it through the Spacing Out with Alien podcast feed, then I invite you to check out our main channel, Spacing Out with BB and Jason, where we have covered things like Battlestar Galactica star trek Our Flagman's death, plus many
more thanks to come. So, we are only discussing the first Alien movie today, so if there is any discussion of other entries into the franchise, we will save that for a spoiler section at the end of the podcast, So if you haven't seen the other movies yet, we will shield you from spoilers. Although, to be honest, my memory of the other movies are not that great, not that great, so I know.
The memories suck. The memories are just like, oh, just remember bad memories. That's what it sounded like. Like you only have bad memories about the book.
No, I just have a poor memory, that's what I was. Yeah, Okay, I've definitely seen the first two movies multiple times, but.
I feel like I've seen this first movie once. Maybe, but I was not cognitively proficient. It was a long time ago.
But for now we are talking about Alien, which originally premiered May twenty fifth, nineteen seventy nine, written by Dan O'Bannon, with a story by Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Triushtt, and directed by Ridley Scott. A quick plot summary. In the distant future, the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo is on its way home when the crew picks up a distress call
from a distant moon. The crew is under obligation to investigate, and the spaceship descends on the small planetoid afterward, after a rough landing, three crew members leave the spaceship to explore the area on the planetoid. At the same time, as the crew discovers a hive colony of some unknown creature. Of the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a just stress call. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew realizes it is not alone on
the spaceship and must deal with the consequences. I pulled this from IMDb, and it's definitely like a promotional plot summary because it doesn't really go into what else happens.
But right, vibe check. Did we like the movie overall? How does it stand the test of time?
Alien nineteen seventy nine.
It's a classic. I don't know, it feels like when I was watching it, I'm like, oh, this movie's old, but somehow it felt super authentic. So I really enjoyed it even though it was like from the seventies.
Yeah, I mean there's just definitely something like really like authentic I guess about it, And yeah.
It like stands the test of time, as you would say, and it still feels relevant somehow. We've been in like twenty twenty four, like a company like calling a crew expendable at the cost, like willing to sacrifice the lives of humans in order for them to profit off of a military advantage. Yeah, so it's like very relatable, Like.
Yeah, it's very like simple in that regard that. Like we've got seven characters, I think, and it's all on the spaceship and on the planet right there, Like there's no other like world building happening.
Right, But there's plenty of world building just with the sets themselves, Like you can tell it's not of this time. Yeah, And I'm sure back in the seventies this movie was like crazy.
Yeah. So I've definitely seen this a few times, and I'm always like, I know, I just like I forget the specifics of it, and so it's always really fresh when I rewatch it.
Nice. So I liked it, and I do think it stands the test of time. Like I would recommend this film to somebody who wanted to see like a sci fi thriller. I think it's cool.
Yeah, it is forty five years old.
Damn.
Apparently they had it in theaters early this year.
Oh we missed it yep, back in May probably right?
Uh yeah, trivia time?
What facts could we uncover for Alien?
All?
Right? Trivia? I say this every time we cover a movie. There is tons and tons of trivia out there. For this movie, I'm just going to scrape the very like broad surface of it here. So if you're like, are an expert in alien trivia, I'm not going to tell you anything new.
Yeah, Well, I don't have any knowledge of it, so I'd be interested to see any nation.
I'm pretty sure you could buy like books on it at this point.
Oh, I'm sure, all right.
So the script was in the work for several years before signing with twentieth Century Fox had the script produced, and the studio was initially not very interested in financing a science fiction film, but the success of Star Wars in nineteen seventy seven changed all that, so they went ahead with the only space script they had on their desk.
Very different from Star Wars. Yeah, but I think in a lot of really great ways.
Ridley Scott came on board as director and began creating storyboards for the look of the film, and these impressed the studio so much that they doubled the budget of the film.
Wow, look at him, he's a doodler.
Yeah, It's like, what if it looked really cool?
What if it looked like this, like ancient science Like it's like somehow ancient looking but very like technologically advanced, like rig Or Spaceship. I love it. It's great.
Alien originally was to conclude with the destruction of the Nostromo while Ripley escapes in the shuttle However, Scott conceived of the fourth act to the film, in which the alien appears on the shuttle and Ripley is forced to confront it. He pitched the idea of the twentieth century Fox and negotiated another budget increased the film the scene
of the Next Few Days Wow. A crew of over two hundred craftspeople and technicians constructed the three principal sets, the surface of the alien planetoid, the interiors, and the stromo and the they're like spacecraft and like that's like that one point, like you can dive in and find so much information about how they created everything in the two hundred.
People that's like bigger than most art schools in like like if or an art department, Like if you took like the ceramic, the the sculpture, the painting, the all of that two hundred people that it shows. I think it shows really like like the meticulous, thoughtful handwork that happened in this in this production, like the set design.
Yeah, like art direction was on point. And I think that's one of the reasons this is such a classic.
Right because I'm pretty damn sure this is a zero CGI film, so it's all like practical effects the only computer images were those nineteen eighties kind of TV screens that you saw, So it's a very cool to see the juxtaposition of all this handwork next to the very early images of what a computer was giving to people.
The film utilizes lots of miniature photography, with models made of the different locations and chips. The space suits were thick, heavy, hot, and lacked ventilation, and eventually, after they shot for a while, oxygen systems were added to help the actors breathe.
Thank god, they were like functioning space suits.
No production stills of The Alien were released in order to keep the design of the creature surprised for audiences.
It was freaky. I was creeped out.
The initial cut of the film was over three hours long, and the final cut is one hundred and sixteen minutes.
Three hours long. That's like Dune.
Yeah, well, I think that's pretty common.
For a film to be three hours long. The initial stage, first.
Cut, and then they could down find the right pacing for everything.
They're like an extended cut of that original I wonder.
Oh that's the next point.
Oh okay.
A director's cut was released in two thousand and three for The Alien. Quadrileogy box set, and some deleted scenes are restored, while other scenes are cut, causing this version to be slightly shorter, and Ridley Scott considers the theatrical cut to be the better one. So the studio had approached him with like restoring a lot of these scenes, but he didn't like how it slowed the movie down, so he chose to add some and take some albums
create like kind of a different version. Alien has had a budget of eleven million and a box office gross of one hundred and eighty four million damn, and despite initial mixed reviews, Alien has received critical acclaim over the years, particularly for its realism and unique environment, and decided as one of the best films of nineteen seventy nine and is seen as one of the most influential science fiction films.
Won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, was nominated for Best Art Direction, and it's also was nominated one several other awards as well, including a Hugo Award and several Saturn Awards. Alien has frequently been the subject of cinematic analysis, particularly the sexual imagery of the alien, non consensual reproduction, the male fear of penetration, body horror, and abjection,
which is the breakdown of conventual borders and rules. And writer Dan O'Bannon has argued that the oral invasion of Kine by the Face Hugger functions as payback for the many horror films in which sexually vulnerable women are attacked by male monsters.
Oh, who's Dan O'Brien, Obannon, he's the writer. Oh, he's the writer. He's like, well, stick this in your type and smoke it.
And finally, the success of the film launched a franchise with several sequels, prequels, novels, comics, games, and more.
Deep Space Dove, let's break down some of our thoughts on the film. You can share your thoughts with us through email or social media. We may use your comments on an upcoming episode.
Wow, I really, I think it's really interesting to think about how the male gaze was subverted in that in the way that Dan O'Bannon was talking about. That's really interesting perspective. I think if I would have had that quote and that information before I started watching it, or like initially, I think I would have been paying attention to it from a different like I would have definitely seen a lot that is very clear, and it does not I mean, there is not a lot of misogyny
in this film. There's some like objective like that she really need to get almost naked, but I mean it's it's a film in the seventies. You got to you got a little you gotta have a little tits and.
Ass did her underwear like not? Was it not able to come up all the way?
Did they not have it in her size? It just didn't look like it fit her, but it fit her well, Like she looked good, and I think she was like probably considered a sex symbol of the time because of that, but not in a way like you would think of Leah in the slave outfit. You know, there's more autonomy and agency in this character. So interesting. I guess when I think of male fears, I think about like masculinity being challenged in some way, But damn they really went there, huh.
Also like the fear of pregnancies in there as well.
Yeah, well should we start from the beginning, like they come out of these pods in diapers.
Yeah, So there's not a lot of dialogue in the beginning. It's a lot of like scratching and showing around the ship and everything.
I mean, the art you have to show like we spent We had two hundred artisans, artists working on this tirelessly for god knows how long, So we want to show that off.
Well, the first thing that I noticed was that Sigourney Weaver was not the top builled cast member. Well, this is the second one that Dallas guy, Yeah I believe. So yeah, Tom Scaret as Dallas and honestly, through like at least like the first half the movie, like, it's not a parent that she's going to be the lead.
No.
I like that though. I like that there's a she's the final girl, but not in the conventional way where you're kind of I'm thinking of Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, where she's introduced and is obviously the main girl. So it's it's but she is the final girl.
It's just interesting, like knowing the film and like the franchise in pop culture and like Sigourney Weaver.
She's like it was established later on to be mother. Yeah, so but uh yeah, it's really interesting because she is the cornerstone eventually of this film franchise. Yeah, but initially Yeah, I mean, it could have very well been her or the other any other character in this film. But damn, there was so many twists and turns, like I didn't know what was going to happen. Like initially they were just going home. They got up for some because the ship is like we got a signal, we got to follow it.
Yeah, So I guess they believe that they've been woken up because they're almost home.
Yeah, because that's the regular protocol.
Yeah. So they don't even like check before they eat breakfast.
Yeah, they eat breakfast, they like take a long pee, you know, they get up.
Is wild that no one went and checked. That's like, I don't know, waking up and getting ready you without like choking the weather.
Yeah yeah. But yeah, so they're they're woken up like ten months early or some shit, or they're not even on the way home. They've been rerouted.
And some of them care a lot about how big of a share they're getting out of the profits from their their refinery work that they're doing.
Yeah, I mean it sounds like they didn't get a very fair deal. Yeah, they're only getting half of a share instead of a whole share, and it seems like they're doing most of the grunt work. So there's like a hierarchy that's being established and within the crew, and we see that too with the captain. And then they go out and s Gourdiney Weaver is now the acting captain, and that guy Ash is a total dick. God, I hate that guy. He's the worst.
Well he kind of turned out to be the villain.
Yeah, yeah, he really did. He's acting in the interests of the company, and we don't do we find out which company this is.
I don't think they name it, it's.
Just the company. It's very like big brother is watching us, kind of like they will withhold payment if we don't investigate this. They will punish us if we don't do the thing we're supposed to do, follow protocol. It's crazy.
But so they go and they're like none of them except for Ash are scientists, right, and the fact that they land on a strange planet that's never been explored, and they're just like, oh, we'll just walk over, like let's just go check it out without and then like I don't remember if they took weapons or any sort of like translators or any sort of field equipment to take samples or pictures or anything that would say we
are going to document this. The one camera shot that they had was from the ship, and I didn't I didn't really I didn't notice that he was like, Okay, stop right there, let's take a picture or anything like that. There was no indication that this was being documented for like future expeditions, because in my head, I would think, you have cargo on your ship that has a monetary value.
Shouldn't your priority be to document the distress signal and take it to the appropriate authorities, like an actual science ship or a military ship or something that would be able to investigate this properly. And why wouldn't you send your science officer over to help and be like, oh, you guys, you know what this looks like this or
that or you know. In my head that makes sense, like a science officer would definitely be boots on the ground, like maybe taking samples of the dirt and shit, yeah, maybe I've watched too much Star Trek.
They don't know what they're walking into. I assume they're looking for like people as center the stress.
Call, but they don't know if it's people. It's been established that they're not sure who or what they're looking for and they don't know if it's dangerous or not. The fact that they didn't analyze the message before going out and figuring and like poking around is unheard of. But that also shows maybe how they aren't trained for this type of like stop, they're not supposed like they
should not have ever stopped. They should have taken the coordinates and sent them to their company and been like, we have to go. But then their company could have been like, well, you didn't follow protocol and we're going to fucking take all of your pay. Yeah, so the company knew somehow, and it makes me think that maybe this company has lost more than this is not their first time trying to exp tracked the alien out of this planet, mate.
Yeah, I mean they know it's there.
Yeah, they set up they sent an alien or not an alien, a robot.
Yeah. They swapped out the science officer so that they would have that guy there.
Yeah, because I'm guessing no normal human would be like, yeah, let's go on a mission where the crew is expendable. But even the the robot was programmed to be kind of weird. They just programmed him to be the worst. I don't know, because if they would have listened to was it Ridley Ripley? Ripley Ripley, Ridley's the director? Okay Ripley. If they would have listened to Ripley and done the quarantine, then Homeboy would have had that little alien thing explode
out of his spacesuit. Yep, and there wouldn't there would be a movie.
Yeah, if they followed the protocol, then they would have been safe except for that one guy.
Yeah, well and those two others that were with him potentially, but who knows where that little thing would have scurried off to right to grow into this big alien thing. The gestation process was so fast. Yeah, holy shit. But it was creepy how he was like down there. He's like, oh, look, I found this hole. Why don't you fucking put me down there? Let me just go in there. They didn't even have flashlights. They the only source of light they had was the little light on the top of their spacesuit.
They didn't even have fucking flashlights. Bro, I would go nowhere and it wasn't even daylight. They were like, oh, let's wait till dawn. Let's wait till the light comes in. They're like, let's go, don's in twenty minutes, and I'm like, what is going on? But they find this like skeleton thing. It doesn't look like the alien that we see later in the film. It looks like it's a different type of skeleton.
Yeah, because they comment that it's like it's been burst, like the chest burst thing has happened to it. Yeah, so some other creature was just stated.
In right, they were hosts to the alien, and the alien then laid all of those eggs waiting to be activated by some dumb ass.
Yeah. So they just they explore way too much.
They're doing too much.
Well, they just got time to kill or something because they got to wait for the ship that you're repaired.
I mean, honestly, as soon as I saw a skeleton, I'd be like, you, guys, I think we're good. I think we're good. It looks bad, bad, bad things have happened here. I think we should just, you know, take our pictures, say we didn't find anything, and let's go let's go home. But Homeboy is like, nah, how do you say it? You know, when you when you when you use a rope and you and you take somebody down the hole, you know you strap them in. What do you call it. How do you say that? Send
me down? Like, I don't know. How do you throw me in that hole with a rope? I don't know. I don't know if there's a technical term for that. He went plunking basically, I don't know. Yeah, maybe repel down this rope into this giant void. And then he's like, oh, walking on this platform and he notices there's like this mist and a bunch of egg like things, and he's like, oh, well, let me look down there, and then he fucking falls like a dumbass. And then he's like, oh, what is that?
And then he's like, it's moving and then it opens up. And as soon as I saw a movement, I'd be like, let's go. Honestly, as soon as I'd fall, I would be freaking. Ou'd be like, oh my god, I'm in the mist. Give me out of here. But this weird like the egg opens and it looks like a fucking chicken cutlet. It looks so nasty, it's got veins and shit, and it's like it was so disgusting. It was so disgusting.
And then it fucking gets out and like attaches itself to his face and it's like it's just it's really like body horror for real body horror. I didn't know it was had like a techno. I didn't know that that's what it was called. But damn, it's like there's like something like I want to say, like primordial about wanting to breathe, right, Like we want to breathe and we want our fucking face to be clear of things.
So to imagine a physical like obstruction on your fucking face where you can't see, you can't smell, you can't speak. You might be able to hear people around you, but you cannot react. It's like being paralyzed or something like you cannot like, oh my god, I don't know. It's like freaky. It's really freaky. And to be a mobile I can understand a little bit about why they would want him to get in the ship so they can get this thing off of him. They want to save
their comrade, right, their coworker. Yeah, but as soon as I saw him like that, I'd be like, bye, bro. As soon as I heard him screaming, I'd leave. I'd be like, we gotta go. We'll come back and get a rescue mission. But I'm also a scaredy cat and then who knows, there's like hundreds, if not thousands of those eggs on that planet.
Yeah, eggs.
That was crazy, and there's only like, oh, I don't know if it was more than him going down there. Could you imagine if more than one of those things was like attached to their faces.
I mean they couldn't handle one of them.
So yeah, it was oh my god. But it looks like that's its like initial phase. Like there's multiple like stages of like life process that it goes through, and the initial stage is like this face sucker. I don't know what the official term is.
Uh, face sucker is what I was seeing. So it goes from the egg to the face sucker, which I then puts like more like egg stuff down in their throat that then just states and hatches.
Out Yeah, through the chest cavity.
Yeah, they need a host in the middle of this process.
Right, and unwilling, like a non consensual host. That's horrifying. Yeah, And like the I think one of the most horrifying parts about it is that once it's deposited its like chest cavity friend, it like dies and you're able to wake up and kind of feel normal again. Yeah, and that's fucking horrifying. It's like what was his name, Gary or what was that was?
Cain?
Cain? Oh fucking Cain.
Man.
He goes through it and he had he hardly has any lines. Yeah, and then that like so they try to cut one of the little fingers off the knuckles and they find out that this thing's blood is made out of acid yep, And I'm like, it bleeds acid? What the fuck? Who came up with this? This is scary, Like if you shoot it, it's just gonna fucking you're on a spaceship. If you get a hole in a spaceship,
you fucking die. Yeah, that is fucked Thankfully, it stopped dripping after a while, like it lost its like potency and it wasn't going through like the whole of the ship. But holy shit, that's that makes it like another level of like predator, like like vicious and like unkillable almost ye Lee Right, if they would have been outside then they could have tried, but they couldn't obviously do it
because they didn't have the equipment with them. And I'm like, if you're in quarantine, maybe there's like a little drawer, you know where we can put like these supplies and push them out there and you pick them up and and try to cut it off of him. But yeah, what a self like self defense mechanism. Imagine if you cut me and I bleed acid, that'd be fucking You wouldn't want to cut me because I could spit acid
at you. Oh I want that? So yeah, he then it like it's like this gray dead thing after it's deposited, it's warm.
Yeah, So they don't seem to be monitoring monitoring him, right, like where's.
The camera, where's the I think Kin is watching, but he's not saying anything or not Kane Ash. Yeah, yeah, I think Ash is watching, but he's not saying anything because he's like obviously got ulterior motives. But it's weird that he's like, hey, Dallas, come look at this thing. I'm not going to say just come over.
Then they go in there because the face sucker has left the face and they go in there to like look for it, and they're not wearing any sort of suits or anything.
Right, they're not wearing any sort of protection against it either.
Yeah, but I.
Mean homeboy was wearing a full suit and it didn't help him at all. So I guess they figured it doesn't matter.
At this point, I would still feel better.
But they find it and it's clearly dead or it's done its duty, right yep. And at this point they're like, get it out of here and they're done. They're calm. Now it's dead. There's nothing else to question here. We should run any tests on good old Gary or whatever his name is. Yeah, and then like no tests, no cognitive, no, no physical, no X rays, no MRIs, nothing, not even like check your heart, blood pressure, temperature, nothing. They're like, oh, he's good, let's go eat.
Yeah. Because as they leave him alone again and the next time Ash calls him back down there, he's up and moving around.
It's hungry, yeah, and he barely has a scratch on him. And as they're eating, uh, what's his name is it? Gary? No, the guy with the worm, Cain Cain Caine starts freaking out and they're like, the food's not that bad, Caine, because they were all joking about the food being bad, but he's having like literal problems. And that scene is so chaotic and distrustful and freaky. Yes, like the mood changes in a snap. They're all like jovial and calm and relaxed and ready to go back to bed so
they could go home. And Cane starts having convulsions basically, and they can't hold them still. They do this thing that they used to do when somebody was having an epilectic seizure, where they put a spoon in your mouth so you don't swallow your tongue, as what they the thought process was. And it was really freaking funny to see a little bit that they were trying so hard
to put that spoon in that guy's mouth. Now, I think the common practice is to leave the person alone, just let them have their seizure, try to make sure that they're as comfortable as possible without having been like injuring their head and neck. But yeah, it's like very interesting to see that old trick of putting a spoon in the mouth. It's kind of a sign of the times. That's the one thing that ages in my book.
Well, I mean the computers that are just like green text.
Oh yeah no. And then when they were approaching the planet, those squares that kept like rotating, Yeah, that too. But honestly, it kind of reminded me a little bit of Battlestar Galactica.
Yeah, there's like that retro future, because I mean space travel and landlines.
I've had jobs doing data entry where like in the two thousands and even currently where we are still using those operating systems. So even in twenty twenty four, those black and white screens are still utilized in a lot of like fields, so I still kind of buy it.
Yeah. And then all the little like those yellow like led lights that are like that room where they go to talk to the ship.
Oh yeah, I love that. That room was magical. I think it was really well executed with all the little twinkling lights. I thought that was like so gorgeous. It had an aura to it that felt like a shrine, like an altar, and that you know what else, I noticed they really liked their swivel chairs. Almost all the chairs that they sat at were swivel chairs.
Well you got a swivel.
In the future, we all swivel.
Yeah, yeah, like talking to the ship the mother they call that.
That text was funny too.
Yeah, but it was like something that was exclusively reserved for the captain, and like Ripley was only allowed to go in there once. The two people above her had died.
Right, I can't believe the other captain knew what the mission was and he was like, I don't know. He's the science officer, he's in charge, sketchy.
So did he know the mission?
I'm pretty sure he did. He just didn't want to take responsibility for it, so he passed the buck to the science officer because he had full like he he was in charge, he had full rights to say no, you know, don't do this. So I think he did, but it's hard to say, right, I'm not.
Clear on how much he.
Knew the mission wasn't clear.
Yeah, like Ripley did some sort of override, which I assume the other captain could have done as well. Yeah, just to see what the mission was crew expendable. So after the chest bursting, we started seeing some more like I think it's a lot of puppetry and maybe some stop motion of the like the alien creature, like when it scampers off.
Oh, when uh Ash was like don't touch it, I'm like, bitch, Like hell, I will touch it. But honestly, somebody should have shot that thing. I guess they were at lunch so nobody had anything, but they had like a box of cereal. They could have trapped it. Somebody could have trapped it or knocked it out or something. Put in a shoe box. That little cat carrying case something.
Well, yeah, there's a cat on board too.
For those pesky space rats.
Yeah, like is the cat there for like rodent control? I think it's just for like friendship.
Maybe, I don't know, it's hard to say. I feel like there could be rats on this ship. It definitely gives rat vibes.
So they wrapped Cane up like a burrito and launch him in.
The space looks like a joint and nobody says anything. It's so sad. He's just a coworker to them. You know, what do you got to say about their coworker. He showed up to work on time, and he he always shared his lunch. What do you say? I don't know. I would be so sad if I died at work. But honestly, also so metal. That is so metal.
And then when we learned that Ash is a robot, Oh yeah.
He was like sweating milk. Yeah, that is so nasty. I didn't know robots were bled white.
Well he was drinking it in earlier scenes.
Oh, I thought it was milk, but it was his fluids.
I don't know. I mean, maybe everyone would have thought it was milk.
Right, Yeah, in the future, there's still cows like.
He ate with everyone, right, so his body can handle that, I guess.
Not a lot to explain that robot science. They put him back online though. It was crazy how they killed him.
Yeah, and when.
His head came off, I was like dead. I was like, I can't believe they just did that. What the fuck? His head just came off and that, uh, what was that black guy's name, Parker? That sounds like a white kid's name. Maybe that's a last name, but anyway, Parker just gets covered in that white shit, just covered in it. It's horrible, horrible, and I'm like, I bet it stinks, but it smells nasty in there. And I think Parker's
role gets elevated too after a while. At first, he's just like this employee that's complaining about their pay, and then he's like fixing critical like systems in the s and then all of a sudden, he's like rescuing Ripley from this robot guy who was putting a newspaper in her mouth. What was that about?
I don't know what's going on. What objective was there?
Was he gonna put milk in her mouth? I didn't know what was happening. Was he gonna turn her into a robot? I don't know. That was weird. It was like he was making a funnel to do something to her.
Yeah, I don't know. Then they knock his head off. They knock his block off, so then there's like a prosthetic head obviously, and then there's there's one shot where they like they clearly cut from the prosthetic head to his actual head.
Right. I wish they would have cut to them looking at him, like all around him, and then cut to his head so that the cut wasn't so obvious. It was just like a black screen, and then it was his head again. Yeah, and it was so shitty, but I guess, you know, for the time, it was good. It was like the one thing that was like it took me out of the fantasy a little bit. And and his voice was very robotic and he was like gushing over the perfection of this alien.
Yep.
So he knows how like a lot more than he leads on about this creature. And it's fucking frustrating that he's not telling them anything about it.
He's collating information or whatever.
He said, Yeah, I'm colating talk like a robot. I can't believe I didn't realize he was a robot.
Well at first he's just kind of an asshole.
Yeah he's a dick, but damn.
I was noticing. Like a lot of really long shots, I really like build the tension and even someone like conversations when Ripley goes to talk to Ash to be like, hey, what the fuck why did you open the door and break protocol? Like it's just one camera shot on Ash, like the whole time with Ripley in the foreground, and then all the times when they're out there searching for the creature, Like a lot of long shots really makes you uneasy. And then a while it jumps a lot
of jump scares. Sometimes aliens just like surprise.
Literally with its hands out like boo. I think the reveal to the alien was really good because you know, it was like this little worm thing that was like any like it's toddler phase maybe, but then it like.
Sure grows up fast.
Yeah, Dallas or who finds that skin? It was that white guy, that other worker he was looking for the cat, right that would have been red. Yeah, he's like right, he likes to say, right, yeah, yeah. So he's looking for the cat and he finds the alien and he finds its skin and it looks like a fucking condom. Disgusting, don't touch that. But these people are not trained, they're not fucking scientists.
The thing has acid for blood. Let me pick this up, right, like girl.
But then it comes out and it's got this like black exoskeleton, like shiny helmet of a head with its crazy teeth, and then it opens its mouth and there's another fucking alien in its mouth with an extra set of teeth, and it's just like like just like I don't even know how to say it. It's like salivating all this acid. Probably I don't know, that's not established. We don't know if it's aliva is acid or if just it's blood.
Still like a lot of liquid, Like really, where did this come from?
Like really gooey, and it it kind of you know, it reminds me a little bit of like a scorpion and it's like with a black, sleek kind of like like shell, and it's like like at one point when it was attacking that woman, uh, it had like a tail that scooped underneath her, so and it's just it's so otherworldly. You can tell it's a guy in a suit in some shots, but in others you're like, what is this?
Yeah, well, I think they stay away from like really just showing it head to toe and like you really kind of see close ups and angles of it, right.
I think the most effective shot was that close up of the teeth and this like this like oozing like kind of salivating, like gooey wet face and I don't know if it has eyes, Like I don't know how it like, we don't know anything about it, and I think that's what makes it so scary. We know as much as the characters know, and it's like, what why is it here? Obviously we brought it in, but like what is its end goal? What is it doing to these people? We at first we don't even know what
it's doing exactly. But then like he finds a homegirl and Parker like dead, so it's not like eating them. And I'm like, I don't know why it's killing, Like why is it killing? I don't know, it's crazy, I don't know. This shit is wild, like I would want to leave too. But the fact that she ran away and went on the ship and didn't check, she didn't close the door, or if she did close the door, that thing knows how to open doors.
Yeah. Well, she was trying to get to the shuttle and it's like cut off by the alien. She drops the cat there and runs and tries to like undo the self destruct. I can't do that. But then she goes to the shuttle again and she's able to get there.
Right, and she doesn't think where did it go? Yeah, the door was open, maybe it went in there. The fact that there's only one shuttle and that it only holds it holds less than what the crew is. It's giving Titanic where there's not enough lifeboard boats.
Yeah, but like why does it hold less, like physically there's space in there? Is it an oxygen things?
It's probably the pod thing, right, pods, it's got to be a pod thing alternate, Yeah, I mean, but there's not enough food for them to alternate. They have to sleep. But they could, you know, if they really wanted to, they could fit two people in one pod if it came down to it. I'm sure they could. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what it was. There's not enough pods? But why why is there not enough like escape pods or whatever for them all to be able to leave?
They better get Osha on that. I would sue my I would sue the company so hard. I feel like she's got a workman's comp case against them, for sure.
How do you feel about it? Like as a horror film?
Is it it's it's not that. I mean, it's definitely like a horror film, but I don't think it's like a traditional horror film. I see it more as a thriller because like there is a little bit of that body horror here, but it's not like excessive or or over the top like you get to in the eighties. I think this is like a taste of what's to come in this genre. But I think it's it's it's definitely because I mean, what we see and the horror
category mostly is a contemporary setting, right. We were not used to seeing horror in outer space in this time. What we see in outer space is like epic sagas of like war and and space and you know, Empire and shit like that with Star Wars. So it's very interesting to create because I think historically horror has been one of the lowest genres in film, like in terms
of like how people take it seriously. People don't take horror seriously, and I mean you can kind to see why in some of this shit, like think about Leprechaun. But I think this is a very elevated horror film, especially because you look at the art direction of it and the story, and that's why to me, it's hard to see it as a horror in a lot of ways because in a lot of ways, to me, horror can be very campy, and there's not a lot of
camp in this. It's very It's it's like the fanciest horror I've seen in a while.
Yeah, I've always, like first and foremost, thought of it as a science fiction movie.
Yeah, that's what I call I would call it.
When I'm always kind of reminding like, oh, yeah, the First Alien is like it's scary, really more of a horror movie.
It's kind of scary. It is scary, but it's like, I don't know, it's hard to say because I think horror has evolved so much since then. But again, I think horror has this element of camp to it that this is really missing, but we later come down like we make a campy I'm sure in the later seasons or it's later reiterations, it'll get more campy because I've seen like Family Guy does a bit where the alien
is like a teenage girl with lipstick and nails. So it's I don't like, like, I'm sure there's a there's an element of camp that's coming maybe, but I don't know. I just I think there's definitely horror elements, but I would I would classify it more under thriller. I would say this is more of a thriller than a horror movie because in horror, I don't know, it just doesn't feel horror to me like that, Like there are so many other films that I would classify as horror before this.
Yeah, it's like it keeps me interested more than it keeps me like scared. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, any other points you when I bring up about the movie.
I really liked it. I think I'm really interested to see how they're going to do a sequel with this because it's to me, it's very clear that the alien is dead, but there's so many eggs, right, yeah, so and hopefully so. Gordoney Weaver comes back, but I wouldn't blame her if she didn't come back right away. But yeah, I'm very I'm very pleased that we started with this franchise.
I feel like it's it's diverse, it's unique, and it's interesting, and we'll see if they can keep the momentum going with the good writing and the beautiful art direction.
Well, you seem to know a lot less than I do about what's to come, so I don't want to spoil anything for you.
Oh you know, I love spoilers. Tell me, let's going to the spoiler section. Or you want to do an astrol queen.
We should do the Astral queen.
Astral queen? Who was the standout character in the movie.
Well, I think it's obvious that it is Sigourney.
We Journey.
Who the cat? You were saying the cat did it?
Just kidding? Of course, it's Ellen Ripley. Yes, you're going to pick this.
I mean, she does it. She she looks so good in it, but she's also very strong and very sure of herself, and she's like somebody you look up to in this film, and you're rooting for her, You're like, holy shit, nobody's listening to her. What the fuck? It's like an everyday occurrence in a woman's world.
You just listened to her, she wouldn't be the last one.
Alive, right, Even the robot got it all right?
So Alien Romulus is releasing on August sixteenth. Whoa, So that's gonna be I think the next movie in our podcast feed now, because we're recording a few weeks before that. I think BB and I are going to watch Aliens and Alien three prior to that. But in terms of releasing, next up is Alien Romulus.
Oh okay?
Is that confusing enough?
That was really confusing, So we're actually gonna do it in order in real.
Life somewhat there's more movies than that, but oh okay, I would say, like the first three movies are more of a trilogy.
How many of them are there?
There's like four of the main series, and then there's these two pre coel movies And what's this Romulus Romulus is? I know very little about it, but I know it's like a standalone story and it comes in between Alien and Aliens.
Oh okay, so we if we watch Alien and Aliens, we can kind of get a hold of what's going on in Romulus hopefully.
Yes, okay, but yeah, so next up should be Alien Romulus. We're gonna watch that and record and released right away. Okay, that's a plan. Hopefully that works out, and then we'll be moving into the rest of the movies. All right, do you want to do a spoiler section?
Tell me, tell me, tell me, I want to know.
All right, I guess we are living stereo stylist in this group.
Brace for impact spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the whole film series, now is the time to say goodbye. Remember you can contact us at Spacingoutpod at gmail dot com, find us on social media, share your thoughts and be a part of the discussion. Spoilers in five, four, three, two one.
So does she come back?
Yeah? So Sigourney Weaver is in four movies?
Oh, come on money.
And so Aliens. So James Cameron movie, and it's much more like an action movie than.
It is maybe movie.
Yes, oh eighties is James Cameron after he's done Terminator before Terminator two, so he hasn't done like the super high budget stuff. But yeah, then there's Alien three, and then Alien Resurrection is when it starts to get weird, and those are all different directors, and then Ridley Scott comes back and makes a couple of prequel movies. Okay, and that's about it. Yeah. So, and there's also the spin off crossover Alien Versus Predator. I don't know that
we're going to go there or not. We'll see.
I think we should because I like that Prey movie a lot.
Yeah, but like that movie is so far from like Alien Versus Predator. Oh really, I mean that movie is so different than like any of the other Predator movies. Yeah.
Oh okay, Oh so it's like catfishing me into thinking. But I could like this Predator thing. We'll think about it.
Well, we'll keep that open. We've got quite a few Alien movies to hit, and then sometime next year there should be a TV series. All right, all right, I think that's everything. Then, So thank you for spacing out with us. And remember that in space, no one can hear you scream.
Is that a tagline from this movie?
Yes, it is, which is interesting seeing that they showed a lot of sound in space.
Yeah, they did.
Thank you for spacing out with Bob and Jason. You can help us out by subscribing and leading a positive rating or review. Next time we will cover the twenty twenty four film Alien Romulus. We hope you will join us