I cannot overstate how revolutionary this film was for design, cinematography, and especially tone and atmosphere. And the depiction of these people as workers-not dashing explorers but people just doing a job-was a huge change for the genre.
Another amusing story that I think you will enjoy. I was at a science fiction convention when they were promoting Aliens (when it was about to come out). The guy showed us photos from the set and some shots of the actors and told us some little bits of what to expect in the film. After the presentation - they asked for questions from the audience and a lot of hands went up. The first person called on asked "What about Jonesy?! Is Jonesy OK?!" There was a lot of speculation that the alien had impregnated Jonesy and worry that this was how the alien would return in a sequel. The person at the mic was confused by the question and someone came over to whisper information. Then he said, "Oh... the cat. Yeah, don't worry... Jonesy is fine." There were many sighs of relief. He then asked for the next question. Not a single hand went up.
I liked Alien 3. Sure, it was a missed opportunity to further broaden the scope. And one or two bits were unforgivable. But it also had some excellent sequences.
Alien 3 did put to question the impregnation process. Because if it was just simply an egg it put in you, then no matter what the creature was that was the host the ceature would be the exact same as all the others we had seen so far. But it wasn't, it was showing features of the animal it came out of. Suggesting genetic cross over. So it did add a little to the franchise's mythology, it just stumbled and fell flat on its face when trying to be the Rollercoaster ride of thrills and chills the other 2 films had done before it.
One of the most unique aspects to this story, in terms of how space travel was usually portrayed, these were not "astronauts" working for a government, nor were they in some kind of quasi-military organization like star fleet, but just merchant marines, people working for a paycheck. That had never been explored before in a movie featuring space travel. Star Wars was still in a unique category all its own but the element that Star Wars lends to this movie is the idea that spaceships can be dirty and grimy. Star Wars was the first to do that and this film takes that concept to its logical conclusion. Working class people, working in space.
I think one of the best parts of the film is that the titular Alien isn't the antagonist. The Company is. The alien is more like a force of nature the company want to exploit so they put everyone in harms way. Great writing and I love the slow build tension.
That's why I find it mindblowing that Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the first draft, hated this part of the script, added by Ronald Schusett. He wanted only the alien part, no company or androids. He called it a "traffic accident." Personally, I think he might have been jealous that he didn't come up with this himself.
@@henrikmikaelkristensen4784 O'Bannon was similarly pompous over *Total Recall,* saying Arnold Schwarzenegger was miscast, the film needed more comedy and less violence, and that it didn't have a proper ending. He comes off as someone who's needlessly hard to please.
@@henrikmikaelkristensen4784 I kind of agree with Dan myself. The whole company thing was, at its most basic level, injecting politics into a movie where they weren't needed. It's a tired trope anyway, the big evil company. Profits = bad, capitalism = bad, blah blah blah. Just STFU and show me the damn alien eating people's faces.
Yes. And that Ash is not only 'alien' to being truly human but alien to truly sympathising with humans desire to, you know, live. And simply having a 'day job' in space is alien to us.
Cool production fact, many of the really wide shots of the crew roaming around in their space suits early on, were played by Ridley Scott's young children. Their small size made the practical sets look even grander in scale.
FUN FACT - When this movie came out, the only big name in it was John Hurt. This movie actually pulls the same technique as Psycho... where they give you John Hurt as the main character... and then KILL him early on in the movie giving you a subconscious sense of uncertainty as you now don't know who to follow... and the presumption is that most people will turn to an authority figure... in this case, the captain. So who gets killed soon after? That's right! Captain is killed... leaving you subconsciously scrambling on who to follow in the film It's a really clever technique to add on to the level of fear in the film.
The Captain is killed off screen, no less. They even make it a point that there was no blood or sign of him. So plenty of the audience at the time thought he'd surely show up last minute to save Ripley and the day. Nope. He's dead.
ANOTHER FUN FACT - The blue mist that hovered above the alien eggs was created with blue lasers borrowed from none other than Pink Floyd, who used them in their concerts at the time.
@@MDestron2282 deleted scene actually shows him being transformed into an egg pod. Ridley Scott clearly didn't see the aliens just as big termites, they were unknowable biomechanical horrors from space.
Fun Fact: During Brett's death scene, they couldn't get Jones to hiss when the alien appeared, so they brought in a German shepherd and had it standing behind a sheet of cardboard. When they pulled it away, revealing the dog, Jones hissed.
It's one of the few perfect movies that will forever stand the test of time. It still looks and feels better than most sci-fi movies of modern days. You'll probably like the sequel as well. I'd recommend the director's cut. It adds some important context to understand Ripley's motivation better towards the finale of the movie.
That last scene of her sleeping. Her hand resting on her chest looks like a face-hugger alien. I notice that when I saw it in the theater but nobody ever comments on it.
Alien is a masterclass of tense scifi horror. Aliens is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of how to make a sequel. The way it builds off of the original, but switches genres a little into more of an action/horror film - just superb.
Although everyone skips over how they have the same beats in the opening and final parts. Both open with slow quiet panning about a spaceship to reveal the actors and set the scene and both end with a huge explosion ( the Nostromo and the Refinery), a fake ending broken by the alien popping back up which leads to the final fight and both aliens being blown out a door into space. Two different takes on the same set up 😃😃
A seen-it-all viewer is boarding the "Nostromo." This movie makes you "jumpy," even though you're a Horror fan? You are in for a ride, Mr. I-know-the-Seventies SF.;) The Company is sending the equivalent of a freighter crew to "do science" on an unexplored planet! 8:30 The Space Jockey, a mystery for decades. 10:56 Second Officer Kane = Zapp Brannigan. 11:56 Just raised eyebrows? For other first-timers, this is a genuine jump scare 12:20 This conversation has become iconic, due to recent events. 13:12 The Face Hugger, grossing out audiences for years. 14:19 This answers the "why don't you just cut off him?" question. 17:19 A Props dept. work of ART, made of sea animals. 18:40 Kane's last meal. 19:50 The Xenomorph, scaring audiences for over 40 years. 22:52 Say hello to Bolaji Badejo. 25:53 You're in command, Third Officer Ripley. 28:11 In 1979, this was my "WTF? Ash ISN'T Human!?" moment. 29:58 Most didn't see this coming. 33:45 I've read that Lambert is standing in for us, the audience. 36:00 Escape route cut off, stop Destruct to gain time for Plan B. 39:22 Sigourney Weaver was OK with "going natural," but that would have raised the rating to X. 40:48 Tonight's entree on the shuttle "Narcissus" is Steamed Xenomorph in Shell. 41:47 Correction, Char-Broiled Xenomorph. This and the next movie made newcomer Sigourney Weaver a major movie star. Along with Linda Hamilton, they became Action movie Badasses. "Jennifer Lawrence?" Who is that? Uh-oh, you haven't officially reacted to "The Terminator" (1984)?
I am STUNNED you have not seen Alien! I strongly suggest (STRONGLY) you see this and Aliens (the Director's Cut) and then don't watch anything else from Alien. The reason I say this is because the original creative team behind Alien (including Dan O'Bannon who is the mind behind it) were all removed... and the Studio Executives took over replacing writers and directors with cheap substitutes because they were convinced everyone would come to see shit in a can so long as it had "Alien" in the title. I kid you not, there was a science fiction magazine that dedicated an ENTIRE ISSUE of their magazine to just how much Alien 3 sucked from top to bottom. When you hear what Dan O'Bannon ad wanted for Alien 3 and Alien 4 and knowing we will NEVER get that... it just makes you weep a little. There are few movies I genuinely hate more than Alien 3.
19:38 -- The actors read the scripts, but the first take was shot with multiple cameras to capture their reactions when they saw the chest effect for the first time. Veronica Cartwright didn't expect to get blood in her face and didn't like it. She was surprised and disgusted, so yes, her scream was real. Yaphet Kotto's reaction and facial expression were also real. He wasn't expecting to see that much "blood" busted and be all over the place like that, at all.
8:45 My favorite part in the movie is when they find the skeleton of a HUGE alien on the other ship. I would love to have an entire room designed just like that!
The Aliens movies are all completely different. The first and second one are superior to anything following. Alien Resurrection is the 4th(?) movie, and while not as groundbreaking as the first two, some dark humour is added into it. The third movie is a departure from the first two, and I agree with most that it is the weakest of the 4 that has Sigourney Weaver as the lead.
@30:58, you ask how did they already know about the alien to send Ash to get it. It was never explained, but remember it only took mother a matter of hours to deciphered the transmission enough so that Ripley could tell it was a warning and not an SOS. Who knows how long the company studied that message before sending them out there. You should watch the sequel, it's really good.
Didn't realize you had this channel, too! This is awesome. I actually just streamed "Alien: Isolation" last night. If you watch the sequel, "Aliens", also, I highly recommend playing that game after seeing both films. Incredible survival horror game.
i think the scariest thing about this movie is the way that the monster seems to be permanently grinning and having such fun terrorisng and slaughtering everybody- the first kill where(in the directors cut) it is merrily swinging waiting for harry dean stanton to fall into its trap-when dallas is killed the alien is waiting happily in the shadows with its arms out as if it has been playing hide and seek with him - then before it kills veronica cartright it stands right next to her just looking in her face seeming to enjoy her terror- and then finally on the shuttle where it just just seems to be waiting in its own good time as if it seems to enjoy her not knowing when the inevitable attack will come-
In the book, the conversation with Ash's head is somewhat longer, and in it he reveals that the company had long since intercepted and translated the alien message, and knew exactly what they were getting the Nostromo crew into.
Ridley Scott knew exactly what he was doing with the trailer in 1979: no showing of any of the actors, no action scenes, no plot points... absolutely nothing. All the trailer did show was an egg; with the title slowly spelled out like the title card at the beginning of the movie, a crack appearing in the egg with eerie green light spilling out of it, and the quote at the bottom of the screen, "In space, no one can hear you scream." Everyone went to the theater completely blind, and got the shock of their lives!
Correction: We’ve known that AI can’t be trusted since 1968. Go and watch “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It was a revolutionary film that influenced every movie about outer space that followed it.
You, of course, are now going on to watch the sequel, "Aliens", right? I mean...I can't imagine would have watched that before seeing the OG. So, onward to watch one of the best sequels ever made, "Aliens"!!
You HAVE to watch Aliens, dude! You HAVE to! Why? It belongs in the same & very special category of sequels that is considered BETTER than the original movie! Films such as Godfather 2, Terminator 2, TESB! For Alien fans this is a 50-50, roughly half prefer the first film while the other half prefers the second film, give or take. Since you are such a huge SW fan look at it like this; TESB follows ANH perfectly & respectfully & sets up the franchise & the story's own universe. Aliens does the exact same thing! Aliens has also inspired basically the whole first-person gaming thing as well. And, just as the first film, has the only sound effects that can actually rival (never defeat!) the sound effects in SW! But Aliens is a masterpiece all on its own. Many fans, including myself, saw Aliens first & you could still understand having not seen the first film. And it's a James Cameron film as well, in my opinion by far his best! Just as the first Alien, Aliens is a marksmanship of movie making in every single detail. Still quite different from the first film in terms of themes, settings & the fact that its far more action than horror, but everything you still enjoyed about the first film is still in Aliens as well. And claiming it lacks horror just because it is action is a pure lie. No time to relax, buddy. Oh, you asked a very nice question regarding Ripley & her possible dreaming at the end of Alien here. Watch Aliens & you WILL get your answer to your own question! Above all else, Aliens is a very emotional roller-coaster with some very legendary characters played by some very legendary actors, too. Some unfortunately no longer with us. And, as a fellow SW fan, I will stress this again; you MUST watch Aliens to totally understand & experience Alien! Aliens does what TESB did for SW! Just as vital & huge, no kidding. Just a terrible shame that Alien 3 does not at all do what ROTJ did. Then the Aliens franchise would have been an even greater rival.
Great reaction, i got nightmares with this movie when i watched as a Little kid....black then, i just Wanna see space sci-fi and ships and Star wars...., big mistake 😂. Cheers from Chile southamerica.
The Ash as a robot I don't think was in the original script idea, but the producers wisely thought the film needed another level of complexity and added it in.
Looking forward to the sequel(s)! Just make sure you watch the _Special Edition_ since the theatrical version cut out some very good parts that developed the characters. Both Weaver and Cameron didn't like to cut down for the theatrical version, so they both prefer the Special Edition. If you're a bit of a gamer, try _Alien: Isolation_ once you've watched _Aliens_ . It captures the feeling of both movies really well and it's well-received, garnering a reputation as one of the most tense games. Just don't look it up until you've seen _Aliens_ due to some spoilers. According to some other people Ridley Scott apparently asked Parker to annoy her off-set to make her annoyance towards him more natural and fierce in her acting. You can see that escalation in her reaction when they're discussing what to do after Dallas dies for instance. I just hope Parker or Scott told her afterwards ;) In terms of what you've "missed", throughout the entire movie you'll see how Ripley's constantly being overruled or not taken seriously by most of the cast. My personal opinion is that Ripley's one of the newer crew mates so she doesn't have the respect yet. Dallas dismissed her when she asked him about Ash. Dallas also tried to command her to open the airlock to let them in and he overruled her when she wanted to go into the vents, taking that role himself. Ash opened the airlock, but he had ulterior motives, so that doesn't quite count. The entire crew is practically gaslighting her constantly, which is a bit of a trope in horror movies, to dismiss the rational thinker. It could also be a bit of a social commentary of women not being valued as much. You also see how Lambert is mostly being ignored or belittled, so Ripley not getting the respect may be a similar thing. Sure this was a wide-spread thing back in the 70s and 80s, but now it's something that people start pointing out in the media. Perhaps Ridley Scott was ahead of his time or I may be completely wrong on that and it's all just a coincidence to make the story work. Still, for a movie to have a female bad-ass protagonist, it was pretty unheard of. I believe Ripley and Sarah Connor are the ones that have laid the groundwork for female bad-ass protagonists in current movies.
Onwards to Aliens. One of the movies that falls in the 'better then the original or at least damn near as good" category. I'd mostly say it's almost equally good but mostly just different. Alien 3 is a step down (far from the worst movie ever still), then Alien 4 is a big step up again, got some interesting characters and idea. And if you want another space(ish) movie with Sigourney Weaver I suggest Galaxy Quest. Got a fun little nod to Alien in it. And its one of the few movies I'd actually call perfect. Even knowing movies like Godfather and Ben Hur are out there and are basicly better in the grand scheme. ;p (and if you watch that movie I'll sub ;p)
It's not to be understated the importance of ripleys character. There were very little if any female role models or cinematic heroes at this time, ripley was the pioneer in this realm. Before this IF there was any female action scenes with anyone, they were bitches or basically men in a woman's body as if they couldn't conceive of a woman holding her own as a woman. Ripley was the first to be a truly smart born leader who happened to be a woman. She wasn't there bc she was a woman or despite being a woman. Yet she still retained than feminine stand. She was scared, she cried, she didn't always know what to do but she worked it out and did what she had to. On the flip was lambert, who was horrible in a crises and helped get people killed. Watch aliens, the sequel. I think even better and ripley becomes truly a legend.
I don't think Ash or the company knew about the alien. I think the company planted Ash as an experiment,when things happened Ash & the company conspired to secure it for study. Ash admired the damn thing because he wasn't human.
It's kind of ambiguously presented in the original film. The suggestion is the Company at the very least was aware of the extraterrestrial distress signal. Later entries seemed to suggest they'd encountered the life form before, but my interpretation taking the first film in a vacuum is that the Company simply wanted to investigate the signal and recover any biological material at any cost.
Thanks, Grizz! Thanks, Nerd Chronic! 👾 If you ever watch the sequels, be prepared that they're less suspense and more action-based. ALIENS is widely considered to be the best sequel from this franchise (I agree with that); opt for the director's cut, if you can. But, as with most controversial properties, even the less-than-superb sequels have moments of brilliance, whether the overall product is ultimately palatable. The prequels are pretty good, too. I think I appreciated them a tad more than the general consensus might suggest. Keep facing your fears and watching stuff that you might normally avoid; that's a most admirable trait. #GrizzledWizard #RidleyScott #Alien
One thing I always appreciated about this, the first page of the script that they used to sell and cast the movie had a paragraph that said that the characters were not written to specify gender or race to allow for whatever direction the casting ended up taking. Ripley wasn't necessarily written as a woman, but when Sigourney Weaver came to their attention they went in that direction. The stuff about everyone ignoring the second officer and letting Kane back on the ship was there, but it took on another layer if Ripley was a woman who everyone kind of disregarded. Yaphet Kotto (Parker) was encouraged to push Weaver's buttons day-to-day so that their interactions became a bit more charged, and they're clearly having a bit of fun with that here and there. He also behaved a bit 'aggressively' toward Veronica Cartwright and made a point of bonding and only hanging out with Harry Dean Stanton, all of which paid off during the group scenes as you can see if you keep an eye out second time through. Weaver and Cartwright decided between them that their characters didn't like each other, and allowed that to inform everything between them. Nobody hated each other or anything like that, and I never heard anything that suggested Kotto or anyone else took any of this beyond acting technique. Hope not, anyway. It's not clear how much Ridley had to do with any of this - he wasn't too experienced with actors at this point beyond hiring great ones and letting them do their thing, which some directors with a lot more experience than he had in the late '70s never learn. The internet tends to give more credit for enlightened gender politics to "Alien" for having Ripley be a woman but I'm not sure it was anything other than finding an amazing performer that they could get cheap and abiding by the 'final girl' thing which had been established in horror movies for a while when this movie was made.
The entire cast is gold. Veronica Cartwright is in another ‘70’s horror movie: “The Invasion of The Body Snatchers,” with Leonard Nimoy, Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum. Funny, everyone nowadays think of Ian Holme as Bilbo, but for us GenX types, he’s always been Ash. Check out the movie trailer for “Alien.” It gives away nothing. When we saw this in the theater in 1979, we had no idea what was coming. Nobody knew who HR Giger was and, of course, the Xenomorph was not embedded in pop culture. This movie scarred and delighted an entire generation.
Congratulations on watching the gold standard for horror/sci-fi. I remember watching this in Jr. High in the early 80's. Talk about mind blowing and life changing. Your next task is to watch the gold standard for action/sci-fi: Aliens. Great reaction.
This is an incredible film!! And a great reaction!! Thank you Grizzled Wizard! ;) Absolutely looking forward to your reaction to Aliens (1986)!! please try to get the director's cut!!
I don't know if you'll clock this comment, but I HIGHLY recommend the Director's Cut of the sequel "Aliens" No spoilers; the extra scenes give some excellent context for the story and one of them happens to be my favorite suspenseful scene in SciFi. I will die mad that they left it on the cutting room floor for the theatrical release.
Awesome, I never gave thought to Jonesy growling at the end in the shuttle, good catch! Also apparently when the movie came out it was way scarier to men than women for some reason, something about having a creature inside you that comes out or some such, I dunno...
It makes a lot of sense that the creature is ok in space for a while. Even humans can survive in space for short time periods and these creatures are quite a bit tougher.
Hyper suspension, wouldn't call it horror, just an awesome film that also changed what a Robot looked like! If you want SciFi Horror try Jeff Goldblum / Geena Davis - The Fly Or Laurence Fishbourne / Sam Neill - Event Horizon
My first real horror film that I saw a few years ago. Started watching at night. Worst decision. Stopped halfway through and watched the rest in the morning. Terrifying.
This movie has a Star Wars connection. The song that Ripley sings "You are my lucky Star" is from the movie Singing in the Rain and was performed by Gene Kelly and Carrie Fisher's mom Debbie Reynolds.
One of the most scariest thing in this movie, is the fact that the Alien is never showed entirely. That is one psychological trick to us, because the human race is scared to the unknown, and the fact we never saw the entire form of the alien in a single shot, adds more psy-horror to every situation. And, of course, this was premeditated.
Believe it or not, Disney owns this... (They bought a large part of 20th Century Fox, including the theatrical portion not too long ago, who originally released this movie.)
I love this movie! I first saw it on HBO when I was way too young, around 7. The alien didn't scare me probably I because I missed the chestburster scene; however, the Ash reveal scared this crap out of me. Oddly enough=, I never thought of it as a horror film until I was older and recognized the tropes. Fun fact, Fox saw dollar signs after Star Wars merchandising was so successful and misguidedly had Kenner make and market an Alien action figure with plans for more in the future before the film's release. It did not go well. Here's the commercial: ruclips.net/video/tNTI8EOODgI/видео.html
The acid burning through the floor effect was done with styrofoam. If you take a styrofoam cup and poor acetone in it, the cup will bubble and dissolve.
Awesome reaction! Roger Christian was the art director on Alien and set designer on A New Hope... very much responsible for SW awesome look. If you haven't already, I bet you would love Christian's book "Cinema Alchemist: Designing Star Wars and Alien"!
Just want to say... It's interesting that you noted how Scott "resisted the urge" to mimic the A NEW HOPE opening with the Star Destroyer when in fact the whole inspiration he had to get into big budget theatrical film making and indeed doing some project like ALIEN (A space based sci fi film) was him being in a theater and watching Star Wars for the first time and being blown away by the opening Star Destroyer fly by shot. He's talked about this in a few interviews which I am sure you can find.
When I first watch this when I was young, out of order since I'd already seen Aliens (i.e. through my fingers behind the sofa), I wondered why Ash tried to kill her in such a bizarre way. It was only after revisiting the film when I was older that I understood the sexual violence and "dark mother" subtext. Since Ash isn't "equipped" it uses the magazine as a substitute. I can only assume its behaviour scripting was supposed to emulate male behaviours to blend in, but it doesn't have the abilities or capacity to act upon them.
"God damn it, Ash, what the fuck?! So far he hasn't done a single helpful thing!" I had to actually pause the reaction so I could finish laughing at that comment.
I love this movie. It really stands the test of time and is one of the few movies where the sequel, while setting a different tone, is just as good. If you had watched the extended cut, you'd have seen Dallas was cocooned in the bowels of the ship. That's always really creepy. I'm also a huge fan of H R Giger by the way. I did my art finals based on his work. 😊 I hope you stick with full movie reactions like this. You're good at it. Anyway, I've subscribed and looking forward to more. ❤ Edited to add: I see you like gaming too (love me some Baldur's Gate 3). You should really play Alien Isolation. It captures all the anxiety of this first movie perfectly and the set designs are just like this.
It's amazing how Alien and Aliens after all these decades are still such big influences on other SF to this day. E.g. if you look at the "Zillo Beast" episode of The Bad Batch that you reacted to earlier this year, it drew _heavily_ from Alien.
Alien was written by Dan O'Bannon who would in 1985 direct one of the greatest zombie movies of all time The Return of the Living Dead, which you should definitely react to.
Glad you enjoyed “Alien”. It’s in my top five favourite movies of all time. There is a brilliant “making of” documentary called “The Beast Within” which I can’t recommend highly enough. “Aliens” is an excellent film but “Alien” is a masterpiece. It’s interesting to me that the three most successful movies of the 1970s were “The Exorcist”, “Jaws” and “Star Wars” and “Alien” kind of takes elements from all three. Btw, there exists a Director’s Cut of “Alien” which inserts a couple of deleted scenes but it doesn’t add anything to the original. If anything, it slows down the pace. Ridley Scott admits that the original release is the TRUE Director’s Cut, as he was happy with this version. When they released the version reinstating the missing scenes they called it the Director’s Cut largely because they didn’t have a better name for it.
I couldn’t help commenting when you asked how they did the effect of the floor boards disappearing; pour nail polish remover on styrofoam and it just disappears.
In the original script it was an all male crew. None of the parts were rewritten to accommodate the female actors. None of them have first names. Ashe, Ripley, Lambert, Parker....heck, even the cat is Jones. Saw it in the theater - the only jump scare that got me was the alien coming out of the black vent - glad it wasn't in 3D but was still glad I wore the brown pants. Guess what happens in Aliens. The actor for my favorite character in that film isn't listed in the opening credits
Bear in mind this was Ridley Scott's second movie he directed Alien (1979) followed by another iconic masterpiece movie ''Blade runner''1980, however before all that, he directed ''The duelist'' (1977) a most underrated film, never quite made it successfully and financially on the audience, that does not in anyway slights the film, his previous work was in advertising TV . commercials so this was his first ever hollywood movie, a period drama, set in the napoleonic times, the film is about two warring french cavalry officers, with the antagonist who won't let up after a slur against his honor was made, keeps challenging the other officer to duels forbidden by Napoleon, based on a true story starred Keith carradine and Harvey keitel(antagonist) both actors when initially approach for the role, were very reluctant to play a 19th century french cavalry officers, because being american might not pull it off and look ridiculous, however both actors pulled it off, one of the most interesting aspects of the movie , is how much he went to town on getting it right, the setting, the uniforms etc. Ridley scott being Ridley scott , went for authenticity big style , ridley spent thousands of dollars on commissioning the correct uniforms of the time period, the correct cavalry reigment both french officers served in , a company in italy produced the uniforms correct in every detail including the sabers they were real weapons of the time, not ''copies'' or stage props , a deal was struck , ridley scott later did a reaction to this movie years later, and he explained the deal with italian company that made the uniforms, but to cut though that scott handed over the uniforms back to the company that produced them i would strongly recommend this movie also , talking of ridley scott films, he has just released details of his latest film, and ironically this is set in the 19th century, the story of Napoleon himself .
Giger is definitely my favorite artist if I had to pick one. Alien and Aliens are absolute masterpieces. I just wish more reactors would keep the film on screen more.
What strikes me about this movie is how clunky and awkward the dialogue and the performances are. It gives a fantastic sense of realism while also feeling just a tad bit unnerving.
Tech aboard Nostromo looks dated, but truth is that's the hardware you want in space hardware. Buttons, switches, dials and big bulky screens that withstand abuse. Not a iPad that breaks or cracks
Note that the Alien didn't burn up when blasted with the shuttle's thrusters, it was blasted back but not burned up. Just something to remember should you even watch Alien 3.
Ah, Alien. An entire franchise dedicated to the concept that human beings, when you get right down to the soul and centre of them, are *phenomenally* stupid.
It's not about that. The Company are human beings and they're greedy, remorseless, and inquisitive. They're not stupid. The prisoners in Alien3 weren't stupid (at least some weren't). They were unlucky to be near the alien. If anyone's stupid, it's Ripley herself for choosing to get close to the alien again in Aliens. I appreciate that characters in Prometheus were stupid though. But it's a series more about not putting your trust in those who have power over you, and the psychopathic yet organised viciousness of nature red in tooth and claw that can render you powerless.
I loved your reaction. I particuarly liked that you recognised that the Nostromo is a tug and not the entire spaceship we see in the opening. I think that you're the first reactor to regonise this? One of the things that I think make this movie such a success is that the crew are all ordinary Joes; you or I. ANd they react and try and deal with the situation as best they can. Most of us (me certainly) would be Lambert. Will you do the sequel "Aliens"? It's a completely different style of movie from this one but very good in its own right. Whatever you do, don't watch Alien III (as it shits on the ending of Aliens from a great height, and ruins it - at least, imo). In fact do9n't bother with any of the other Alien franchise movies. Love your other reactions btw; particularly the SW ones. Please keep on poruding more vids for us to enjoy 👍👽😀
"Ash why did you stop them from killing it?" Well, at that point you have to remember you can't just stab the thing the way Parker wanted to, or you would compromise the hull and vent your air out into space.
From a certain perspective, 'Alien' is simply a story about saving a cat.
I cannot overstate how revolutionary this film was for design, cinematography, and especially tone and atmosphere. And the depiction of these people as workers-not dashing explorers but people just doing a job-was a huge change for the genre.
@@moon-moth1 And Parker _didn’t_ die first!
Another amusing story that I think you will enjoy.
I was at a science fiction convention when they were promoting Aliens (when it was about to come out). The guy showed us photos from the set and some shots of the actors and told us some little bits of what to expect in the film.
After the presentation - they asked for questions from the audience and a lot of hands went up. The first person called on asked "What about Jonesy?! Is Jonesy OK?!" There was a lot of speculation that the alien had impregnated Jonesy and worry that this was how the alien would return in a sequel. The person at the mic was confused by the question and someone came over to whisper information. Then he said, "Oh... the cat. Yeah, don't worry... Jonesy is fine."
There were many sighs of relief.
He then asked for the next question.
Not a single hand went up.
Q: "Why would you stop him from killing it?" - Grizzled Wizard
A: "Acid for blood" - Every Alien fan ever
"...but you have my sympathies!" that little smirk/smile..... Brilliant writing and acting.
Now do "Aliens"! More action-oriented, another fantastic cast, and James Cameron. Stop after Aliens. The rest are puréed garbage. Trust Me.
I liked Alien 3. Sure, it was a missed opportunity to further broaden the scope. And one or two bits were unforgivable. But it also had some excellent sequences.
Alien 3 did put to question the impregnation process. Because if it was just simply an egg it put in you, then no matter what the creature was that was the host the ceature would be the exact same as all the others we had seen so far. But it wasn't, it was showing features of the animal it came out of. Suggesting genetic cross over. So it did add a little to the franchise's mythology, it just stumbled and fell flat on its face when trying to be the Rollercoaster ride of thrills and chills the other 2 films had done before it.
One of the most unique aspects to this story, in terms of how space travel was usually portrayed, these were not "astronauts" working for a government, nor were they in some kind of quasi-military organization like star fleet, but just merchant marines, people working for a paycheck. That had never been explored before in a movie featuring space travel.
Star Wars was still in a unique category all its own but the element that Star Wars lends to this movie is the idea that spaceships can be dirty and grimy. Star Wars was the first to do that and this film takes that concept to its logical conclusion. Working class people, working in space.
I think one of the best parts of the film is that the titular Alien isn't the antagonist. The Company is. The alien is more like a force of nature the company want to exploit so they put everyone in harms way. Great writing and I love the slow build tension.
SPOILER ALERT: That’s true of the sequel as well.
That's why I find it mindblowing that Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the first draft, hated this part of the script, added by Ronald Schusett. He wanted only the alien part, no company or androids. He called it a "traffic accident." Personally, I think he might have been jealous that he didn't come up with this himself.
@@henrikmikaelkristensen4784 O'Bannon was similarly pompous over *Total Recall,* saying Arnold Schwarzenegger was miscast, the film needed more comedy and less violence, and that it didn't have a proper ending. He comes off as someone who's needlessly hard to please.
@@henrikmikaelkristensen4784 I kind of agree with Dan myself. The whole company thing was, at its most basic level, injecting politics into a movie where they weren't needed. It's a tired trope anyway, the big evil company. Profits = bad, capitalism = bad, blah blah blah. Just STFU and show me the damn alien eating people's faces.
Yes. And that Ash is not only 'alien' to being truly human but alien to truly sympathising with humans desire to, you know, live. And simply having a 'day job' in space is alien to us.
Cool production fact, many of the really wide shots of the crew roaming around in their space suits early on, were played by Ridley Scott's young children. Their small size made the practical sets look even grander in scale.
FUN FACT - When this movie came out, the only big name in it was John Hurt. This movie actually pulls the same technique as Psycho... where they give you John Hurt as the main character... and then KILL him early on in the movie giving you a subconscious sense of uncertainty as you now don't know who to follow... and the presumption is that most people will turn to an authority figure... in this case, the captain. So who gets killed soon after? That's right! Captain is killed... leaving you subconsciously scrambling on who to follow in the film It's a really clever technique to add on to the level of fear in the film.
The Captain is killed off screen, no less. They even make it a point that there was no blood or sign of him. So plenty of the audience at the time thought he'd surely show up last minute to save Ripley and the day. Nope. He's dead.
ANOTHER FUN FACT - The blue mist that hovered above the alien eggs was created with blue lasers borrowed from none other than Pink Floyd, who used them in their concerts at the time.
@@MDestron2282 deleted scene actually shows him being transformed into an egg pod. Ridley Scott clearly didn't see the aliens just as big termites, they were unknowable biomechanical horrors from space.
Fun Fact: During Brett's death scene, they couldn't get Jones to hiss when the alien appeared, so they brought in a German shepherd and had it standing behind a sheet of cardboard. When they pulled it away, revealing the dog, Jones hissed.
It's one of the few perfect movies that will forever stand the test of time. It still looks and feels better than most sci-fi movies of modern days. You'll probably like the sequel as well. I'd recommend the director's cut. It adds some important context to understand Ripley's motivation better towards the finale of the movie.
As a 27 year old I noticed this too
Please watch aliens also, make sure to watch the directors cut if you can, it adds some great details to the movie :)
That last scene of her sleeping. Her hand resting on her chest looks like a face-hugger alien. I notice that when I saw it in the theater but nobody ever comments on it.
H. R. Giger. That's all that needs to be said. He pioneered the "bio-mechanical" style.
A perfect combination of artists - Giger, Ridley Scott, Weaver.
Alien is a masterclass of tense scifi horror. Aliens is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of how to make a sequel. The way it builds off of the original, but switches genres a little into more of an action/horror film - just superb.
Although everyone skips over how they have the same beats in the opening and final parts. Both open with slow quiet panning about a spaceship to reveal the actors and set the scene and both end with a huge explosion ( the Nostromo and the Refinery), a fake ending broken by the alien popping back up which leads to the final fight and both aliens being blown out a door into space. Two different takes on the same set up 😃😃
How the hell has RUclips just now recommended this channel to me? Been on your Kyle Katarn channel for years!
A seen-it-all viewer is boarding the "Nostromo." This movie makes you "jumpy," even though you're a Horror fan? You are in for a ride, Mr. I-know-the-Seventies SF.;) The Company is sending the equivalent of a freighter crew to "do science" on an unexplored planet! 8:30 The Space Jockey, a mystery for decades. 10:56 Second Officer Kane = Zapp Brannigan. 11:56 Just raised eyebrows? For other first-timers, this is a genuine jump scare 12:20 This conversation has become iconic, due to recent events. 13:12 The Face Hugger, grossing out audiences for years. 14:19 This answers the "why don't you just cut off him?" question. 17:19 A Props dept. work of ART, made of sea animals. 18:40 Kane's last meal. 19:50 The Xenomorph, scaring audiences for over 40 years. 22:52 Say hello to Bolaji Badejo. 25:53 You're in command, Third Officer Ripley. 28:11 In 1979, this was my "WTF? Ash ISN'T Human!?" moment. 29:58 Most didn't see this coming. 33:45 I've read that Lambert is standing in for us, the audience. 36:00 Escape route cut off, stop Destruct to gain time for Plan B. 39:22 Sigourney Weaver was OK with "going natural," but that would have raised the rating to X. 40:48 Tonight's entree on the shuttle "Narcissus" is Steamed Xenomorph in Shell. 41:47 Correction, Char-Broiled Xenomorph. This and the next movie made newcomer Sigourney Weaver a major movie star. Along with Linda Hamilton, they became Action movie Badasses. "Jennifer Lawrence?" Who is that? Uh-oh, you haven't officially reacted to "The Terminator" (1984)?
I am STUNNED you have not seen Alien!
I strongly suggest (STRONGLY) you see this and Aliens (the Director's Cut) and then don't watch anything else from Alien.
The reason I say this is because the original creative team behind Alien (including Dan O'Bannon who is the mind behind it) were all removed... and the Studio Executives took over replacing writers and directors with cheap substitutes because they were convinced everyone would come to see shit in a can so long as it had "Alien" in the title. I kid you not, there was a science fiction magazine that dedicated an ENTIRE ISSUE of their magazine to just how much Alien 3 sucked from top to bottom. When you hear what Dan O'Bannon ad wanted for Alien 3 and Alien 4 and knowing we will NEVER get that... it just makes you weep a little. There are few movies I genuinely hate more than Alien 3.
19:38 -- The actors read the scripts, but the first take was shot with multiple cameras to capture their reactions when they saw the chest effect for the first time. Veronica Cartwright didn't expect to get blood in her face and didn't like it. She was surprised and disgusted, so yes, her scream was real. Yaphet Kotto's reaction and facial expression were also real. He wasn't expecting to see that much "blood" busted and be all over the place like that, at all.
Great reaction. Just some fun info. The Ripley character was intended for a man(glad they changed it.).
8:45 My favorite part in the movie is when they find the skeleton of a HUGE alien on the other ship. I would love to have an entire room designed just like that!
The Aliens movies are all completely different. The first and second one are superior to anything following. Alien Resurrection is the 4th(?) movie, and while not as groundbreaking as the first two, some dark humour is added into it. The third movie is a departure from the first two, and I agree with most that it is the weakest of the 4 that has Sigourney Weaver as the lead.
@30:58, you ask how did they already know about the alien to send Ash to get it. It was never explained, but remember it only took mother a matter of hours to deciphered the transmission enough so that Ripley could tell it was a warning and not an SOS. Who knows how long the company studied that message before sending them out there. You should watch the sequel, it's really good.
Didn't realize you had this channel, too! This is awesome. I actually just streamed "Alien: Isolation" last night. If you watch the sequel, "Aliens", also, I highly recommend playing that game after seeing both films. Incredible survival horror game.
i think the scariest thing about this movie is the way that the monster seems to be permanently grinning and having such fun terrorisng and slaughtering everybody- the first kill where(in the directors cut) it is merrily swinging waiting for harry dean stanton to fall into its trap-when dallas is killed the alien is waiting happily in the shadows with its arms out as if it has been playing hide and seek with him - then before it kills veronica cartright it stands right next to her just looking in her face seeming to enjoy her terror- and then finally on the shuttle where it just just seems to be waiting in its own good time as if it seems to enjoy her not knowing when the inevitable attack will come-
I can’t believe this is your first time seeing Alien!
Really hope you had a good time mate :)
If you haven't watched it yet, I recommend "American Werewolf In London" and "Altered States".
In the book, the conversation with Ash's head is somewhat longer, and in it he reveals that the company had long since intercepted and translated the alien message, and knew exactly what they were getting the Nostromo crew into.
Ridley Scott knew exactly what he was doing with the trailer in 1979: no showing of any of the actors, no action scenes, no plot points... absolutely nothing. All the trailer did show was an egg; with the title slowly spelled out like the title card at the beginning of the movie, a crack appearing in the egg with eerie green light spilling out of it, and the quote at the bottom of the screen, "In space, no one can hear you scream."
Everyone went to the theater completely blind, and got the shock of their lives!
Correction: We’ve known that AI can’t be trusted since 1968. Go and watch “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It was a revolutionary film that influenced every movie about outer space that followed it.
It's a shame you didn't watch the director's cut. It adds a nice bit of extra closure on some elements.
You, of course, are now going on to watch the sequel, "Aliens", right? I mean...I can't imagine would have watched that before seeing the OG. So, onward to watch one of the best sequels ever made, "Aliens"!!
(Next you should watch "Aliens" which is definitely the only film sequel ever made to this movie!)
The movie changed rules. A woman leader/survivor& you saw a man get(technically) raped& impregnated. The Alien wasn't the main problem;.
You HAVE to watch Aliens, dude! You HAVE to! Why? It belongs in the same & very special category of sequels that is considered BETTER than the original movie! Films such as Godfather 2, Terminator 2, TESB! For Alien fans this is a 50-50, roughly half prefer the first film while the other half prefers the second film, give or take. Since you are such a huge SW fan look at it like this; TESB follows ANH perfectly & respectfully & sets up the franchise & the story's own universe. Aliens does the exact same thing! Aliens has also inspired basically the whole first-person gaming thing as well. And, just as the first film, has the only sound effects that can actually rival (never defeat!) the sound effects in SW!
But Aliens is a masterpiece all on its own. Many fans, including myself, saw Aliens first & you could still understand having not seen the first film. And it's a James Cameron film as well, in my opinion by far his best! Just as the first Alien, Aliens is a marksmanship of movie making in every single detail. Still quite different from the first film in terms of themes, settings & the fact that its far more action than horror, but everything you still enjoyed about the first film is still in Aliens as well. And claiming it lacks horror just because it is action is a pure lie. No time to relax, buddy. Oh, you asked a very nice question regarding Ripley & her possible dreaming at the end of Alien here. Watch Aliens & you WILL get your answer to your own question!
Above all else, Aliens is a very emotional roller-coaster with some very legendary characters played by some very legendary actors, too. Some unfortunately no longer with us. And, as a fellow SW fan, I will stress this again; you MUST watch Aliens to totally understand & experience Alien! Aliens does what TESB did for SW! Just as vital & huge, no kidding. Just a terrible shame that Alien 3 does not at all do what ROTJ did. Then the Aliens franchise would have been an even greater rival.
They couldn't stab it because it has acid for blood. That's why Ash stopped Parker...besides his nefarious reasons of course.
Great reaction, i got nightmares with this movie when i watched as a Little kid....black then, i just Wanna see space sci-fi and ships and Star wars...., big mistake 😂. Cheers from Chile southamerica.
The Ash as a robot I don't think was in the original script idea, but the producers wisely thought the film needed another level of complexity and added it in.
When you do Aliens, try to find the Director's Cut. It adds a bunch to an already excellent film.
Makes a 10/10 movie a 12/10 haha
Dude if you liked Alien you will love Aliens, up next surely 🙏
Looking forward to the sequel(s)! Just make sure you watch the _Special Edition_ since the theatrical version cut out some very good parts that developed the characters. Both Weaver and Cameron didn't like to cut down for the theatrical version, so they both prefer the Special Edition.
If you're a bit of a gamer, try _Alien: Isolation_ once you've watched _Aliens_ . It captures the feeling of both movies really well and it's well-received, garnering a reputation as one of the most tense games. Just don't look it up until you've seen _Aliens_ due to some spoilers.
According to some other people Ridley Scott apparently asked Parker to annoy her off-set to make her annoyance towards him more natural and fierce in her acting. You can see that escalation in her reaction when they're discussing what to do after Dallas dies for instance.
I just hope Parker or Scott told her afterwards ;)
In terms of what you've "missed", throughout the entire movie you'll see how Ripley's constantly being overruled or not taken seriously by most of the cast. My personal opinion is that Ripley's one of the newer crew mates so she doesn't have the respect yet.
Dallas dismissed her when she asked him about Ash. Dallas also tried to command her to open the airlock to let them in and he overruled her when she wanted to go into the vents, taking that role himself. Ash opened the airlock, but he had ulterior motives, so that doesn't quite count. The entire crew is practically gaslighting her constantly, which is a bit of a trope in horror movies, to dismiss the rational thinker.
It could also be a bit of a social commentary of women not being valued as much. You also see how Lambert is mostly being ignored or belittled, so Ripley not getting the respect may be a similar thing. Sure this was a wide-spread thing back in the 70s and 80s, but now it's something that people start pointing out in the media. Perhaps Ridley Scott was ahead of his time or I may be completely wrong on that and it's all just a coincidence to make the story work.
Still, for a movie to have a female bad-ass protagonist, it was pretty unheard of. I believe Ripley and Sarah Connor are the ones that have laid the groundwork for female bad-ass protagonists in current movies.
Aliens is amazing. not exactly the same type of movie as Alien, it's more action oriented but a classic anyway.
Great reaction! Now to watch Aliens Special Edition and Alien 3 Assembly Cut.
Onwards to Aliens. One of the movies that falls in the 'better then the original or at least damn near as good" category. I'd mostly say it's almost equally good but mostly just different. Alien 3 is a step down (far from the worst movie ever still), then Alien 4 is a big step up again, got some interesting characters and idea.
And if you want another space(ish) movie with Sigourney Weaver I suggest Galaxy Quest. Got a fun little nod to Alien in it. And its one of the few movies I'd actually call perfect. Even knowing movies like Godfather and Ben Hur are out there and are basicly better in the grand scheme. ;p
(and if you watch that movie I'll sub ;p)
It's not to be understated the importance of ripleys character. There were very little if any female role models or cinematic heroes at this time, ripley was the pioneer in this realm. Before this IF there was any female action scenes with anyone, they were bitches or basically men in a woman's body as if they couldn't conceive of a woman holding her own as a woman. Ripley was the first to be a truly smart born leader who happened to be a woman. She wasn't there bc she was a woman or despite being a woman. Yet she still retained than feminine stand. She was scared, she cried, she didn't always know what to do but she worked it out and did what she had to. On the flip was lambert, who was horrible in a crises and helped get people killed. Watch aliens, the sequel. I think even better and ripley becomes truly a legend.
I don't think Ash or the company knew about the alien. I think the company planted Ash as an experiment,when things happened Ash & the company conspired to secure it for study. Ash admired the damn thing because he wasn't human.
It's kind of ambiguously presented in the original film. The suggestion is the Company at the very least was aware of the extraterrestrial distress signal. Later entries seemed to suggest they'd encountered the life form before, but my interpretation taking the first film in a vacuum is that the Company simply wanted to investigate the signal and recover any biological material at any cost.
Thanks, Grizz! Thanks, Nerd Chronic! 👾 If you ever watch the sequels, be prepared that they're less suspense and more action-based. ALIENS is widely considered to be the best sequel from this franchise (I agree with that); opt for the director's cut, if you can. But, as with most controversial properties, even the less-than-superb sequels have moments of brilliance, whether the overall product is ultimately palatable. The prequels are pretty good, too. I think I appreciated them a tad more than the general consensus might suggest. Keep facing your fears and watching stuff that you might normally avoid; that's a most admirable trait. #GrizzledWizard #RidleyScott #Alien
One thing I always appreciated about this, the first page of the script that they used to sell and cast the movie had a paragraph that said that the characters were not written to specify gender or race to allow for whatever direction the casting ended up taking. Ripley wasn't necessarily written as a woman, but when Sigourney Weaver came to their attention they went in that direction. The stuff about everyone ignoring the second officer and letting Kane back on the ship was there, but it took on another layer if Ripley was a woman who everyone kind of disregarded.
Yaphet Kotto (Parker) was encouraged to push Weaver's buttons day-to-day so that their interactions became a bit more charged, and they're clearly having a bit of fun with that here and there. He also behaved a bit 'aggressively' toward Veronica Cartwright and made a point of bonding and only hanging out with Harry Dean Stanton, all of which paid off during the group scenes as you can see if you keep an eye out second time through. Weaver and Cartwright decided between them that their characters didn't like each other, and allowed that to inform everything between them. Nobody hated each other or anything like that, and I never heard anything that suggested Kotto or anyone else took any of this beyond acting technique. Hope not, anyway. It's not clear how much Ridley had to do with any of this - he wasn't too experienced with actors at this point beyond hiring great ones and letting them do their thing, which some directors with a lot more experience than he had in the late '70s never learn.
The internet tends to give more credit for enlightened gender politics to "Alien" for having Ripley be a woman but I'm not sure it was anything other than finding an amazing performer that they could get cheap and abiding by the 'final girl' thing which had been established in horror movies for a while when this movie was made.
Never seen Alien? Blasphemous! On the other hand.. now you have an incredible universe to explore and I'm here for it.
Luckily, it's one of the rare films that only gets better with age!
Mr. Wizard, i greatly appreciated your noticing Ash's behavior early on, because . . . . . 👍!!!
The entire cast is gold. Veronica Cartwright is in another ‘70’s horror movie: “The Invasion of The Body Snatchers,” with Leonard Nimoy, Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum.
Funny, everyone nowadays think of Ian Holme as Bilbo, but for us GenX types, he’s always been Ash. Check out the movie trailer for “Alien.” It gives away nothing. When we saw this in the theater in 1979, we had no idea what was coming. Nobody knew who HR Giger was and, of course, the Xenomorph was not embedded in pop culture. This movie scarred and delighted an entire generation.
Congratulations on watching the gold standard for horror/sci-fi. I remember watching this in Jr. High in the early 80's. Talk about mind blowing and life changing.
Your next task is to watch the gold standard for action/sci-fi: Aliens.
Great reaction.
This is an incredible film!!
And a great reaction!!
Thank you Grizzled Wizard! ;)
Absolutely looking forward to your reaction to Aliens (1986)!! please try to get the director's cut!!
I don't know if you'll clock this comment, but I HIGHLY recommend the Director's Cut of the sequel "Aliens"
No spoilers; the extra scenes give some excellent context for the story and one of them happens to be my favorite suspenseful scene in SciFi. I will die mad that they left it on the cutting room floor for the theatrical release.
Greatest horror movie ever made. All of the terror and suspense of Texas Chainsaw married to the cosmic hopelessness of H.P. Lovecraft.
Awesome, I never gave thought to Jonesy growling at the end in the shuttle, good catch! Also apparently when the movie came out it was way scarier to men than women for some reason, something about having a creature inside you that comes out or some such, I dunno...
Never watched Alien- "gasp"
Reason for never watching Alien- "oh yeah, thats 100% solid, totally understand" 😂😂😂
Definitely DEFINITELY watch Aliens. James Cameron takes the story and elevates it to the upper stratosphere
have you seen the sequel to this? Aliens, yes looking forward to your reaction to it
“Seeing Bilbo Baggins playing a sociopath android is everything.” 😂😂😂😂😂
It makes a lot of sense that the creature is ok in space for a while. Even humans can survive in space for short time periods and these creatures are quite a bit tougher.
When you check out Part 2-ALIENS….the Expanded/ Special Edition is a MUST WATCH…..
ALSO, Have you ever seen
The Fly?
(1986 David Cronenberg version)
I was 14 years old at the movie, none of us had know clue. Not to day.😏😏
ALIEN'S......good, too.
Thoroughly enjoyed your review! I saw 'Alien' opening weekend in NYC 1979. Folks actually applauded the 'chestbursting' scene! It was wild!!😁
Hyper suspension, wouldn't call it horror, just an awesome film that also changed what a Robot looked like!
If you want SciFi Horror try Jeff Goldblum / Geena Davis - The Fly
Or
Laurence Fishbourne / Sam Neill - Event Horizon
My first real horror film that I saw a few years ago. Started watching at night. Worst decision. Stopped halfway through and watched the rest in the morning.
Terrifying.
One of my top 5 favorite movies. No other movie handles sustained suspense so well.
And the technical filmmaking is superb.
This movie has a Star Wars connection.
The song that Ripley sings "You are my lucky Star" is from the movie Singing in the Rain and was performed by Gene Kelly and Carrie Fisher's mom Debbie Reynolds.
Out of all the connections to Star Wars you pick that one.
One of the most scariest thing in this movie, is the fact that the Alien is never showed entirely. That is one psychological trick to us, because the human race is scared to the unknown, and the fact we never saw the entire form of the alien in a single shot, adds more psy-horror to every situation. And, of course, this was premeditated.
Imagine seeing this in a theater in 1979!!!! Holy fuck it was 100 times scarier cause people weren't used to this kind of stuff!
Believe it or not, Disney owns this... (They bought a large part of 20th Century Fox, including the theatrical portion not too long ago, who originally released this movie.)
I think you might enjoy this entire franchise; all sequels, the newer prequels (Prometheus, Coventant) maybe even AVP.
I love this movie! I first saw it on HBO when I was way too young, around 7. The alien didn't scare me probably I because I missed the chestburster scene; however, the Ash reveal scared this crap out of me. Oddly enough=, I never thought of it as a horror film until I was older and recognized the tropes. Fun fact, Fox saw dollar signs after Star Wars merchandising was so successful and misguidedly had Kenner make and market an Alien action figure with plans for more in the future before the film's release. It did not go well. Here's the commercial:
ruclips.net/video/tNTI8EOODgI/видео.html
The acid burning through the floor effect was done with styrofoam. If you take a styrofoam cup and poor acetone in it, the cup will bubble and dissolve.
Alien and The Thing are the Best Sci-Fi Horror Movies ever made.....Great Reaction.
Awesome reaction! Roger Christian was the art director on Alien and set designer on A New Hope... very much responsible for SW awesome look. If you haven't already, I bet you would love Christian's book "Cinema Alchemist: Designing Star Wars and Alien"!
and then he directed Battlefield Earth 😭
@@penoyer79 nobody's perfect! :)
@@penoyer79 In fairness to Christian, John Travolta was calling the shots on that movie. Christian was a hired gun at best.
Just want to say... It's interesting that you noted how Scott "resisted the urge" to mimic the A NEW HOPE opening with the Star Destroyer when in fact the whole inspiration he had to get into big budget theatrical film making and indeed doing some project like ALIEN (A space based sci fi film) was him being in a theater and watching Star Wars for the first time and being blown away by the opening Star Destroyer fly by shot.
He's talked about this in a few interviews which I am sure you can find.
When I first watch this when I was young, out of order since I'd already seen Aliens (i.e. through my fingers behind the sofa), I wondered why Ash tried to kill her in such a bizarre way. It was only after revisiting the film when I was older that I understood the sexual violence and "dark mother" subtext. Since Ash isn't "equipped" it uses the magazine as a substitute. I can only assume its behaviour scripting was supposed to emulate male behaviours to blend in, but it doesn't have the abilities or capacity to act upon them.
"God damn it, Ash, what the fuck?! So far he hasn't done a single helpful thing!" I had to actually pause the reaction so I could finish laughing at that comment.
I love this movie. It really stands the test of time and is one of the few movies where the sequel, while setting a different tone, is just as good. If you had watched the extended cut, you'd have seen Dallas was cocooned in the bowels of the ship. That's always really creepy. I'm also a huge fan of H R Giger by the way. I did my art finals based on his work. 😊
I hope you stick with full movie reactions like this. You're good at it. Anyway, I've subscribed and looking forward to more. ❤
Edited to add: I see you like gaming too (love me some Baldur's Gate 3). You should really play Alien Isolation. It captures all the anxiety of this first movie perfectly and the set designs are just like this.
It's amazing how Alien and Aliens after all these decades are still such big influences on other SF to this day. E.g. if you look at the "Zillo Beast" episode of The Bad Batch that you reacted to earlier this year, it drew _heavily_ from Alien.
Alien was written by Dan O'Bannon who would in 1985 direct one of the greatest zombie movies of all time The Return of the Living Dead, which you should definitely react to.
Glad you enjoyed “Alien”. It’s in my top five favourite movies of all time.
There is a brilliant “making of” documentary called “The Beast Within” which I can’t recommend highly enough.
“Aliens” is an excellent film but “Alien” is a masterpiece.
It’s interesting to me that the three most successful movies of the 1970s were “The Exorcist”, “Jaws” and “Star Wars” and “Alien” kind of takes elements from all three.
Btw, there exists a Director’s Cut of “Alien” which inserts a couple of deleted scenes but it doesn’t add anything to the original. If anything, it slows down the pace.
Ridley Scott admits that the original release is the TRUE Director’s Cut, as he was happy with this version. When they released the version reinstating the missing scenes they called it the Director’s Cut largely because they didn’t have a better name for it.
I couldn’t help commenting when you asked how they did the effect of the floor boards disappearing; pour nail polish remover on styrofoam and it just disappears.
In the original script it was an all male crew. None of the parts were rewritten to accommodate the female actors. None of them have first names. Ashe, Ripley, Lambert, Parker....heck, even the cat is Jones. Saw it in the theater - the only jump scare that got me was the alien coming out of the black vent - glad it wasn't in 3D but was still glad I wore the brown pants.
Guess what happens in Aliens. The actor for my favorite character in that film isn't listed in the opening credits
Bear in mind this was Ridley Scott's second movie he directed Alien (1979) followed by another iconic masterpiece movie ''Blade runner''1980, however before all that, he directed ''The duelist'' (1977) a most underrated film, never quite made it successfully and financially on the audience, that does not in anyway slights the film, his previous work was in advertising TV . commercials so this was his first ever hollywood movie, a period drama, set in the napoleonic times, the film is about two warring french cavalry officers, with the antagonist who won't let up after a slur against his honor was made, keeps challenging the other officer to duels forbidden by Napoleon, based on a true story starred Keith carradine and Harvey keitel(antagonist) both actors when initially approach for the role, were very reluctant to play a 19th century french cavalry officers, because being american might not pull it off and look ridiculous, however both actors pulled it off, one of the most interesting aspects of the movie , is how much he went to town on getting it right, the setting, the uniforms etc.
Ridley scott being Ridley scott , went for authenticity big style , ridley spent thousands of dollars on commissioning the correct uniforms of the time period, the correct cavalry reigment both french officers served in , a company in italy produced the uniforms correct in every detail including the sabers they were real weapons of the time, not ''copies'' or stage props , a deal was struck , ridley scott later did a reaction to this movie years later, and he explained the deal with italian company that made the uniforms, but to cut though that scott handed over the uniforms back to the company that produced them i would strongly recommend this movie also , talking of ridley scott films, he has just released details of his latest film, and ironically this is set in the 19th century, the story of Napoleon himself .
Here's a funny fact about this movie and this is on the down low Pam Grier what's up for the cast Sigourney Weaver's part yeah no joke😊
I don't care what anybody else's opinions are I think all four movies are great
I'm excited to see your reaction to Aliens! If possible, watch the Director's Cut, it's epic.
Practical effects beats out cgi anytime. Some cgi platforms look good but it's not practical effects
Giger is definitely my favorite artist if I had to pick one. Alien and Aliens are absolute masterpieces. I just wish more reactors would keep the film on screen more.
What strikes me about this movie is how clunky and awkward the dialogue and the performances are. It gives a fantastic sense of realism while also feeling just a tad bit unnerving.
Tech aboard Nostromo looks dated, but truth is that's the hardware you want in space hardware.
Buttons, switches, dials and big bulky screens that withstand abuse. Not a iPad that breaks or cracks
Note that the Alien didn't burn up when blasted with the shuttle's thrusters, it was blasted back but not burned up. Just something to remember should you even watch Alien 3.
Ah, Alien. An entire franchise dedicated to the concept that human beings, when you get right down to the soul and centre of them, are *phenomenally* stupid.
It's not about that. The Company are human beings and they're greedy, remorseless, and inquisitive. They're not stupid. The prisoners in Alien3 weren't stupid (at least some weren't). They were unlucky to be near the alien. If anyone's stupid, it's Ripley herself for choosing to get close to the alien again in Aliens. I appreciate that characters in Prometheus were stupid though. But it's a series more about not putting your trust in those who have power over you, and the psychopathic yet organised viciousness of nature red in tooth and claw that can render you powerless.
I loved your reaction. I particuarly liked that you recognised that the Nostromo is a tug and not the entire spaceship we see in the opening. I think that you're the first reactor to regonise this?
One of the things that I think make this movie such a success is that the crew are all ordinary Joes; you or I. ANd they react and try and deal with the situation as best they can. Most of us (me certainly) would be Lambert.
Will you do the sequel "Aliens"? It's a completely different style of movie from this one but very good in its own right. Whatever you do, don't watch Alien III (as it shits on the ending of Aliens from a great height, and ruins it - at least, imo). In fact do9n't bother with any of the other Alien franchise movies.
Love your other reactions btw; particularly the SW ones. Please keep on poruding more vids for us to enjoy 👍👽😀
You're the FIRST PERSON I've watched who watched this who took note of Jones hissing and such and realized what it might mean!!!! Good on you!!!
"Ash why did you stop them from killing it?"
Well, at that point you have to remember you can't just stab the thing the way Parker wanted to, or you would compromise the hull and vent your air out into space.