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Hans B. Kahl
In 1979, Ridley Scott brought together the film genres of horror and science fiction in his
Academy Award winning "Alien". Now recognized as one of the greatest science fiction films of
all time. The film was controversial for its unsettling design, depiction of future roles for women
and, at one point, the only film of its kind to be considered for an X-rating (AFI, 2015).
Within “Alien” are very subtly depicted Freudian themes of psycho-sexuality, mother-
child dynamics, and, for the time, an unusually strong female leading character. Such social
interrogatories are often explored through the genres of science fiction. Serious scientists
dismiss science fiction films because of the elements that are embraced: exoplanetary mining,
interstellar travel, and the yet unrealized ability for mankind to live among the stars. Many of
these films, however, through fictional devices, take on non-scientific issues. The controversial
government/ corporate autonomy (The Company), and conspiratorial disdain for ordinary life in
preference to new exobiology. “Alien” shares many of its dramatic themes with older films,
such as 1951's “The Thing from Another World”, 1968's “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and 1958's
“The Fly”.
At the time of its release, movies were a myriad of one-word titles intended to titillate
and cajole audiences into lining up for the next "Jaws" or "Westworld" blockbuster. But "Alien"
is far more than "Jaws" in space; the "monster" has a cunning intellect and a hunter's sense of
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timing for its "kills". Moreover, it is not a "Westworld" variant with androids that can't be
reasoned with or must be destroyed before they willingly violate the company's programming.
"A genre is a type, or category, and genre films are usually easily recognizable as part of a
certain genre. This is because they tend to use familiar story formulas, character types,
settings, and iconography (visual imagery with symbolic implications), all of which lead viewers
to have certain expectations about what the movie will be like before actually watching it."
The director's immersive and innovative setting for the story is not the starkly beautiful,
empty vastness of space or debris swept planetoids but of close-in, unsettling compartments.
The audience views a cramped, crowded and confusing collection of industrial machinery. The
opening scenes "set the stage", moving from the majestic sweep of external, star spotted
blackness into the grimy, claustrophobic confines of an empty bridge. The tug, more formally
known as the Commercial Towing Vessel “Nostromo”, an M-Class star freighter, is being guided
by the on-board artificial intelligence unit "Mother". The ship sleeps soundlessly, as it moves
through the abyss of space, pulling an ore refinery behind it; seemingly on autopilot.
Derek Vanlint, the film's cinematographer and DP, or Director of Photography, uses the
elements of framing, low-key lighting, and in-camera special effect techniques to begin the
action. Bright, unintelligible reflections off of an unoccupied space helmet's glassy faceplate.
The lighting adds to the mystery; the audience has no frame of reference other than the
helmet. The helmet is currently devoid of a human occupant, layering the scene with suspense.
Survival of The Fittest: The Fantastic Horror of Alien
"Where is the crew?" one might ask. Is the star freighter a "Flying Dutchman", abandoned and
derelict? As the faceplate flashes with coded syntax eerily displayed, it fills the bridge with light
Instead of a well earned homecoming and rescue from the dull, monotonous duty of
maintaining, piloting and commanding the Nostromo, Captain Dallas, and his crew are
inexplicably woken from their hypersleep chambers. A "distress" call, emanating from the
“The science fiction genre (or SF) are considered films dealing with realistically reasoned
speculation about future events or scientific theories, often set in outer space or alternative
realities or dealing with time travel. Examples of the SF genre include titles like Metropolis,... The
Day the Earth Stood Still, ... Forbidden Planet, ... 2001: A Space Odyssey,... Star Wars, Alien, ...
Learning answers to mysteries without the cost of consequence, the audience is safely
ensconced in their theater seats, some undoubtedly enjoying popcorn. The same cannot be
said of the sometimes unfortunate characters in the film being watched. Space is a dark, cold,
and terrifying place. The studio marketing for “Alien” stated, quite unnervingly, “in Space, no
one can hear you scream.” (Scott, 1979). This statement is both metaphoric and based on
scientific fact. We know humans require air not only to breathe, but also to move our vocal
cords. In the desolate void, a terrifying scream cannot easily be heard by anyone.
Survival of The Fittest: The Fantastic Horror of Alien
In the far-flung reaches of interstellar space, the characters inhabiting the Nostromo
are, by definition, beyond the reach of rescue or intervention should they come upon a threat
to their survival. They must use what is available on their ship to investigate, assess and report
to “The Company” what they have discovered. This fact is not lost upon any of the crew, with
the ship's Chief Engineer Parker stating “Christ. We're a commercial ship not some rescue
team. This kind of duty's not in our contract.” to which the Science Officer Ash, (played by the
magnificent and then little known Ian Holm), replies “You better read your contract.
in forfeiture of all shares." Parker and Brett, his auxiliary engineer and seemingly inseparable
sidekick accede to their shared fate. They must come along despite their reservations about the
The conflict over crew members deserving half or full shares is quickly dismissed by the
Captain's decision to detach the space tug from the ore refinery and descend to the planetoid
LV-426. The descent to the surface barely avoids disaster; the star freighter's engines overheat,
causing a loss of power and a near crash landing. The crew finds itself grounded, while outside
the ship a howling, inhospitable environment of swirling dust and 300 mile-per-hour winds
awaits. The derelict vessel they are to investigate is nearby but not visible, due to the storm and
darkness. The captain, Dallas, and two other members of the crew, Executive Officer Kane and
Ship's Navigator Lambert, set off towards the downed ship, on foot in environmental suits. They
are bulky and claustrophobic with limited visibility, further narrowing the options for safety by
the explorers.
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derelict. Its horseshoe shape is reminiscent of legs to either side of a cavernous womb-like
portal, apparently designed for astronauts many times their human size. Barbara Creed in her
article 'Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine' made interesting theories on the use by Scott of
the 'primal scene' of "first contact" (1993). She provides three important representations of
women: monsters, victims, and mothers. In the film, all three are depicted, revealed slowly and
First, the explorers appear childlike in comparison to the enormous pilot of the vessel. It
is long dead, mummified in a reclining, sofa-like cockpit. The calcified body shows mysterious
wounds, seemingly explosive in origin, erupted from many openings in its chest and torso. The
"monstrous birthing" alluded to very early in the story. As the crew explores the huge ship,
Kane locates a “nursery” bathed in an eery laser-like "field" encapsulating a much warmer
daring or the allure of the unseen treasures below, descends. He breaks the laser light barrier,
the cable above carrying him beyond the dimly lit field into the cavernous hold of the ship.
Notably absent from the sequence is any use of a suspense-building score or, indeed,
any sound other than the labored breathing of Kane. It is interesting to note that the only
recognizable "star" actor of the cast of "Alien" is the actor portraying Kane, John Hurt. As in the
use of Janet Leigh with Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", the audience is falsely assured that the
storyline of the film revolves around a main character. The "heroine" (or in this case male) is
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later killed, violently, the scene shocking the viewer into a realization that even heroically
Kane, oblivious to his danger, investigates the strange, leathery ovoid shapes lined in
rows on the floor of the hold. Suddenly, reacting to the proximity of Kane's helmeted face, the
ovum opens, like a deadly orchid. Inside is crouched a menacing set of pulsing flesh. A hiss of
air punctuates the violent springing of the ovum's contents onto the hapless Kane.
A disconcerting change of scene jars the audience back into the howling darkness, lit
only by the huge floodlights of the Nostromo. Kane is carried by Dallas and Lambert, their
exodus from the marooned craft unexplained. Dallas demands that the party of explorers be
readmitted to the safety of the Nostromo. When the ship's First Officer, Ellen Ripley (played by
the then unknown actress, Sigourney Weaver) , denies the requests, due to established
quarantine rules, Ash inexplicably opens the outer hatch. The children have returned to their
“Mother”.
Now in the brightly lit, sterile whiteness of the medical bay, the unconscious Kane is
examined. He has a creature, seemingly fused to his helmet, the protective faceplate dissolved
and useless. When the helmet is cut away, the extent of the creature's fusion to Kane is
revealed. A literally described "face hugger", its finger-like appendages are inexorably wrapped
around Kane's face and head. Additionally, a tail is tightly coiled around his throat, preventing
any removal by force as it squeezes to remain in place. An attempt by the crew to remove the
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creature from Kane with a cutting laser results in the subsequent wound spraying a highly
corrosive, molecular acid, eating its way through several of the ship's floors and deck materials.
The film's story then concentrates on a frustrating dilemma; what to do with their
Executive Officer? Any further attempts to remove the creature would result in either the death
of Kane or the destruction of their ship. Captain Dallas decides to leave Kane apart from the
rest of the crew: alone in the medical bay, his fate to be determined after returning to the ore
refinery and the Nostromo's original purpose. The Freudian overtones of submissive
insemination and helplessness in the face (no pun intended) of the raw survival instincts shown
by the intruder give reversed sexual roles. Kane is depicted as a rape victim, laid out in the
With the next planetary sunrise, there is a change in Kane's condition. The creature has
left; Kane's mottled face no longer covered by the face hugger. There is no sign of the creature's
presence. Upon further, nerve-jangling suspense, the creature's body flops from an overhead
position onto Ripley. Apparently dead, the creature is no longer perceived as a threat. Ash, as
science officer, claims the gray, lifeless form for further study.
With the engines on the Nostromo repaired, Dallas pilots the tug and her crew back into
orbit, docking with the refinery. As the crew prepares for the long hypersleep and journey back
to Earth, they prepare a meal to commemorate the return of the revived Executive Officer
Kane. As he and the rest of the crew are eating, he is overcome with a sudden attack of spasms,
cramping and screaming in agony. The rest of the crew watch in horror as a "chest burster"
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form of the creature erupts from Kane's now lifeless body. The emergence of the Alien from
Kane after wolfishly devouring a big meal is a further allegory to what Freud described as a
child's version of the birth process. The illusion that the "baby" grows in their mother's
The depiction of Kane's "last supper" is one of the most jarring and iconic in the history
of horror films. The gruesome imagery of Kane's writhing torso, the sound of his rib bones
cracking apart and a torrent of blood, flesh, and other bodily fluids spraying onto horrified crew
members, is indelibly etched upon the viewer's memory. Incredibly, only Scott and Hurt knew
of the upcoming carnage before the scene was shot on film. The cast's reactions were
improvised but are entirely natural, stemming from the horrifyingly realistic effects taking place
at the table.
The prior scene of the sterile, clean medical bay was juxtaposed with the grimy,
industrial reality of their daily crew spaces. The sequence is brightly lit; the supper table and the
crews' uniforms are white to provide maximum contrast with Kane's blood. As a result, the
interplay of the otherwise dimly lit set is absent of color prior to the "arrival" of the Alien. The
escaped "chest burster" must now be perceived as a contamination and a deadly threat.
This scene is an another attempt to appropriate and reverse the procreative function of
the mother, to represent a man giving birth. The Alien is referred to later in the film by Ash as
'Kane's Son'. According to Creed, it is often depicted in horror films that, unlike women, when
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men create life they give birth to monsters (a la "Frankenstein") and the result almost always
The director’s use of measured suspense gives Alien a fresh nuance and look. Scott,
instead of having the creature leap out at the audience in the initial contact as a fully realized
"monster" he builds upon the viewers fears and "evolves" the "alien" through a series of
horrific encounters. No one, not even the film's cast could know what to expect next.
Take the sound design and the careful juxtaposition of agonizing, dominating silence
and jarring bursts of an audible terror. The Nostromo’s crew moves about the quiet ship in
virtual silence; the dialog is limited at first. Diegetic noise (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, Glossary,
2014) and the non-diegetic score by Jerry Goldsmith feels nearly nonexistent before the alien
arrives on board, and the lack of even inconsequential sounds seems to emphasize the ship’s
After the loss of nearly all the crew, Ripley has activated the ship’s auto-destruct
sequence, and the ambient noises becomes unbearable. Scott’s handheld camera captures
every bead of sweat, piece of grit, and droplet of alien slime in the frame. During the film’s
climatic and frenetic ending, when Ripley decides to cancel the destruct sequence, Mother is no
longer portrayed as a nurturing intelligence, she becomes the Angel of Death; implacable and
unfeeling. Ripley's only option becomes one of survival. Scott, shooting Weaver in close-up, the
emergency lighting, dim in contrast to the flashing alarm strobes, light bouncing off of her face
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as she runs from corner to corner, her back literally against the wall, knowing the alien might be
Alien's director, Ridley Scott, now a noted master of visuals, set design and immersive
environments (Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven just to name a few) first came
to fame with his television commercials, but he was relatively unknown in 1979. He was aided
in creature design with H.R. Giger’s alien notions through the film's writer, Dan O'Bannon prior
connections in film designs. The use of penetrative psychosexual dread (with the alien in its
"adult" form) and ambiguous sexual roles portrayed by Kane and Lambert (the alien raising its
"tail spear" causing Lambert's cringing submission prior to her death) and Ripley's pseudo strip
tease, donning her protective space suit, meeting the alien's gaze and her victory, spearing the
Alien stowaway, and jettisoning it from her lifeboat after the Nostromo's destruction.
Scott’s use of suspenseful and deliberately slow pacing heightened the audience's fear
of the unknown. He built the film's tempo carefully by using measured steps until it conclusion
reached wrenching, nearly unbearable proportions. By staving off the alien’s arrival as long as
possible, our curiosity and growing fear gradually drove us mad with anticipation. When the
monster was finally revealed, it was shown only with hints that defied precise description. In its
destruction, the resulting shadowy manifestations reserve the alien an eternal place in our
nightmares.
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REFLECTIONS:
It has been often asked by critics and filmgoers alike "What can be gained through
analyzing film? " The answer is as obvious as when the malevolent Queen in Snow White asked
In order not to sound trite or overreaching, I always reflect upon the Myths of the
Ancient World to help find the answers that perplexed the philosophers and common men the
same thousands of years before movies. To prevent another "apple of discord" from causing
strife, jealousy and loss we must have a judge, respected and admired to give the proverbial
"thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down". Although Roger Ebert is no longer with us, I admired his
candor and fearlessness when addressing the big Hollywood studios and championing little
independent films. "Alien" was a polarizing film when it was released in 1979. It was different, it
"At its most fundamental level, "Alien" is a movie about things that can jump out of the
dark and kill you. It shares a kinship with the shark in "Jaws," Michael Myers in
"Halloween," and assorted spiders, snakes, tarantulas, and stalkers. Its most obvious
influence is Howard Hawks' "The Thing" (1951), which was also about a team in an
isolated outpost who discover a long-dormant alien, bring it inside, and are picked off
one by one as it haunts the corridors. Look at that movie, and you see "Alien" in
embryo."
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He went on to state, as I have in this essay, that "Alien" is an original film in many ways.
He applauds the director's pacing and careful building with many avenues to guess at before
revealing its horrible form. Ebert even acknowledges the texture of having an older,
experienced cast rather than the titillating use of fresh faces and firm fannies as in most films of
The only young ones in the cast are young by a relative degree. Sigourney Weaver, who
played Ripley and Veronica Cartwright, who played the hapless Lambert, are 30 and 29
respectively. These are not adventurous thrill-seekers but wise, hardened workers in a gritty,
dirty job. A job that somebody has to pay to have done. He ends his critique by stating "A few
more ambitious and serious sci-fi films have also followed in the footsteps of "Alien," notably
the well-made "Aliens" (1986) and "Dark City" (1998). But the original still vibrates with a dark
Analyzing a film is a condensed and sped-up version of analyzing life... if you blink, you
might miss it, so make sure your eyes are wide open. The director was using a series of
deliberate "red herrings" to suck the viewing audience into a belief that touches all human
endeavors - The challenge of the unknown. We love to see new things, new horizons, and new
ways of doing something. Is it any wonder when, faced with a cryptic message from an
unknown, unexplored world about a previously unencountered lifeform that we want to know
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what its all about? This is the magical device in the story, the opening of "Pandora's Box" and
Ridley Scott doesn't want to insult his audience. No one in life encounters a mystery and
then solves everything about it in two hours. The is a vast tale and by killing off the crew of the
Nostromo and having only Ellen Ripley and "Jones" the cat as survivors, he was sending a clear
message and setting up four decades of sequels. In Ripley, the strong, feminine, motherly, and
incredibly brave "new" woman; we the audience find "Hope", in the bottom of the Box, after all
of the terror and carnage of the previous two hours. Hope is truly what it means to be human.
Survival of The Fittest: The Fantastic Horror of Alien
RESOURCES:
http://www.afi.com/10top10/
Buckle, A. (2011, March 11). The Film Emporium: Critical Analysis: Alien (Ridley
http://thefilmemporium.blogspot.com/2011/03/critical-analysis-alien-ridley-scott.html
Carroll, G., Giler, D. & Hill, W. (Producers), & Scott, R. (Director). (1979). Alien
[Motion picture]. United States, United Kingdom: 20 th Century Fox, Shepperton Studios,
Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK. Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire,
England, UK.
Ebert, R. (2003, Oct 26). Great Movie Reviews [Web log]. Retrieved from
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-alien-1979
Eggert, B. (2012, June 4). Deep Focus Review - The Definitives - Alien (1979)
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/?ref_=nv_sr_1