I saw ALIEN on May 26, 1979 the second day of its release. The audience knew it was somewhat scary, but we had no idea what we were in for! The theatre was packed, and people were screaming and jumping out of their seats! This was one of the greatest times I had at the movies!
Yes! I saw it on the first day of release in NYC! The line to get in was wrapped around the block. When the 'chest-burster' scene occured...the entire audience applauded! It was wild!😊
Loved your reaction! You were biting your nails at the jump scares lol. You asked about the first time we saw Alien and if it blew our minds. To be completely honest, I don't remember when I actually saw it the first time. I was only 8 years old when it came out and nobody was taking me to the theater to see it!🤣 But I remember all the TV commercials for it and it was huge! I eventually got ahold of the book version when I was 11. I was an advanced reader so I didn't have any trouble with a science fiction book. (I had my trusty dictionary beside me lol!). I tell, you, as an 11 year old experiencing that story with nothing but my imagination to tell me what that alien looked like, it was beyond scary! Probably way scarier than actually watching it at that age would've been! And the scene with the chestburster! The book said it was "trailing bits of Kane" across the table. Trailing BITS!🤣🤣🤣 OHMYGOD! That book scared the crap out of me! And the big deleted scene was in the book where Ripley found Dallas being changed! OMG! Definitely an unforgettable experience!
Shanelle this film was written by Dan O'Bannon, who went to film school with John Carpenter. The two directed a student film that was made into a full length feature called "Dark Star". After the less than terrifying alien of "Dark Star", O'Bannon wanted to make an alien/space movie with a truly scary creature and so he wrote Alien. There is some controversy with producers claiming O'Bannon's script was heavily rewritten, but there is some doubt to the voracity of those claims. Dan O'Bannon cemented his cred with me when he would write and direct "Return of The Living Dead", released in 1985. While not associated with the Romero zombie films, they share a history with them and a title, but that's a long story. While the zombie genre has become fairly routine, in 1985 "Return of The Living Dead" re-invented the whole damn genre. It is a punk rock, nihililstic, funny, terrifying tale that explores some fairly complex themes, while remaining utterly entertaining. I hope you watch it for your own enjoyment! Oh yeah, Alien is fantastic too.
@18:44: Remember this film came around the time of the 70s Sexual Revolution and Woman’s Liberation and Feminist movement… bra burning (or rather rejection of formerly normative gender roles and items that seem to be an embodiment of the reenforcement of elements that bounded American Women- physical and or figuratively) and all this trends were still culturally relevant and film productions and studios did there best to reflect the events of the time (if not, to be apart of the movement, then instead, to use the trends of the movement to sell the films). Much like today when you have tv and film productions reflecting social progress, “Wokeness” or other social contemporary culture
Ridley Scott liked getting realistic reactions from his actors. In a deleted scene, Ridley did not tell Sigourney that she was about to be slapped by her co-star Veronica.
While they don't mention it in the film, Alien is one of the earliest blockbusters to feature a transgender character, Lambert. In the sequel Aliens (1986) a biography for her character very briefly flashes up on a computer screen in the background. The biography establishes Lambert as having had her gender altered from male to female. The biography is obscured in the film itself, but you can view the entire crew's bios on the DVD,
Alien is one of the best sci-fi movies there is. Rivaled, in my opinion, only by Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens. Aliens actually IS the best sci-movie there is. If you haven't watched it yet, you definitely should. I love that you finish up going through all the 'fun facts' about the movie. It's great to see someone so into it.
Well, greetings from Vienna, Austria! And yes, we ARE still smoking as much here. About 30% of our citizens. So on average more people than the crew of the Nostromo. I myself am smoking a ciggy right now. 🙂
To watch a scary movie properly, you really should watch in a dark room with as big a screen as possible. Seems like you're watching a bedroom TV in a brightly lit room. At least you are wearing headphones, because sound is equally important.
This is even more obscure: I also remember a cheap teen comedy at the time Alien came out called "Hog Wild" that parodied that tag line with their own version: "In deep fat, no one can hear you gag." That always cracked me up.
I've always really liked that Ripley went back for Jonesy. It shows how compassionate she is as a character, she wasn't willing to leave anyone behind, even the cat.
Ridley Scott said on the commentary that he's a dog owner and would go back to get his dogs in a situation like that, which makes me like Ridley Scott rather a lot.
Fun fact, when the script was written, the character genders were not chosen. They were all written with just the personalities in mind. Then they gave the parts to the best actors for those parts. Also, Sigourney Weaver had actually suggested to be naked at the end, but Ridley Scott opted not to in favor of the underwear.
Yeah, according to Scott, the skimpy underwear scene was sort of added after the studio started asking for some sexiness to be included in the movie (funnily enough, a sex scent between Ripley and Dallas was in the script but never filmed). Weaver was fine with nudity but had said more recently that looking back, she was a bit troubled with how easily she considered it, and how easily it would've been to have exploited a naive young actress in that way, had Scott gone for it.
I think the Ripley-naked-at-the-end option wouldv'e made artistic sense if it was bookending the entire Nostromo crew emerging naked-at-the-beginning idea they'd originally had. The whole emerging-from-the-womb imagery would've compounded the surviving character being at their most vulnerable again.
The entirety of the documentaries shot and produced by Charles de Lauzirika for the original Alien Quadrilogy DVD set are all worth watching in my opinion. That guy really knows how to produce a making of doc well. He also did 'Dangerous Days: The making of Blade Runner' too, of a similar length and quality, and just as worth watching.
I'm only 38 so I wasn't even born when this came out, but about seven years ago I saw this and it's sequel Aliens back to back at the cinema on Halloween. Was brilliant seeing it on the big screen with the volume jacked up. There were a bunch of 16 or so year Olds sat near the front and they were gigleing like children when ash was laid in his undies. Left before it even really got started.... Their loss really 😂🤣😂
"Truckers in space" to quote the film makers. It's also much closer to modern day than even the OG Star Trek. Prometheus is set in 2090 ish, so Alien is about 100 years from now at 30 years later.
A few years earlier, Dan O'Bannon wrote Dark Star with John Carpenter, which was even more "human". One of the very first lines in the film is about how the short circuit that killed the captain remains a problem, but even worse is a problem in a storage area has destroyed the rest of their toilet paper.
"Nobody smoked on Star Trek" -- except Iman in Star Trek VI. Everyone else obeyed the No Smoking sign on the Bridge Simulator at Starfleet Academy from Star Trek II.
The dark visions of Swiss artist H.R. Giger were largely responsible for the set design in the horseshoe shaped alien ship as well as the Alien Xenomorph. Google his work to see what nightmarish drawings / paintings were the source material and inspiration for his designs in this film. You'll be fascinated, though perhaps a little sickened at times.
When Ridley Scott saw Gigers work the first time , he was in shock , and asked Giger how he get those ideas. Giger answered: he doesnt need inspiration ; he has every night those nightmares, even worse nightmares. So he paints them.
@@PygmalionFaciebat That reminds me of how the horror author H.P. Lovecraft got some of his inspiration from his nightmares. I am quite fond (if that's the correct word in this context) of Giger's art, but wasn't aware that he based it off dreams. Thanks for mentioning this!
@@ShanelleRiccio Make "Aliens" next on the list, then "Thing." I'm sick of all the "Thing" reaction videos everyone's doing in October. But I can never get sick of "Alien" and "Aliens" reaction videos.
@@ShanelleRiccio And for Aliens, watch the theatrical version. The Special Edition is fun once you're a fan of the movie, but it's not the best telling of the story. And I won't tell you my reasons why due to spoilers. But I'll say I love Aliens even better than the first movie, although they're both fantastic in their own right. They are very different stylistically, but complement each other so well.
Carrie Fisher had a great story about the whole bra thing: George (Lucas) comes up to me the first day of filming (Star Wars) and he takes one look at the dress and says, "You can't wear a bra under that dress." "So, I say, "Okay, I'll bite. Why?" And he says, "Because. . . there's no underwear in space." Now George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can't wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense very soon, so here's why you cannot wear your brassiere, per George. So, what happens is when you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands? But your bra doesn't -- so you get strangled by your own bra. Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit -- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.
A couple of notes on some of the cast members: Ian Holm who played Ash was also old Bilbo in Lord of the Rings John Hurt who played Kain was the chancellor in V for Vendetta
Veronica Cartwright (Lambert) was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as a kid (she and her sister Angela were kid actors) the 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Witches Of Eastwick. Yaphet Kotto (Parker), who passed away this year, was the first Black actor to play a James Bond villain in "Live and Let Die". He was also in The Running Man.
Having lived and survived the 1970's, women going braless was a thing at that time as it was the peak era of feminism. Being a man I had no issues with it.😁
Yeah, bras were for some reason equated with male oppression. Even burning bras in protest was a thing for a time. I’ve no idea why any of that happened.
@@WallyHartshorn It wasn't *really* a ~thing~. It was more of a media-spread exaggeration and catchy nickname for feminists based on some clever headlines and someone tossing (not burning) a bra into a trash bin of different things at one protest. There may have been the odd copycat once the stereotype had been spread around, but it wasn't really a common thing among feminist protestors.
I was in middle school in the early '70s and 1 day my French teacher came to class bra-less, which was clearly evident. I didn't learn a thing in class that day.
The shrinking set trick is also done in the original classic 12 Angry Men. The jury room gets smaller and smaller and the camera framing gets closer and closer to the characters throughout the film.
totally agree. i saw Magic in the theater when it came out and it really made an impression on me. it was the first time i'd seen anthony hopkins and i was amazed at what an incredible actor he was.
Terminator and T2 are about the only other exception to this rule. "The sequel is always inferior to the original; but the original will arguably be eclipsed by the finale in a trilogy." See also: all 3 Star Wars trilogies, the matrix trilogy...
This is what you can do with a small cast, if the whole cast is really good. And these guys were. It put Sigourney Weaver on the map, but for me - he doesn't last long here , but I can watch John Hurt in anything. I remember when I was a kid, seeing him play Caligula in I Claudius, and he was so convincing playing a complete lunatic that I couldn't get him out of my head.
_I Claudius_ is one of the greatest television series ever made. I remember watching it when it was first broadcast, it was absolutely unmissable, no-one was talking about anything else. Great performances all around - Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Biggins, John Rhys-Davies (25 years before LOTR!), Sheila White, Sian Phillips, Patricia Quinn... but yes, John Hurt's performance of quite insanity was arresting.
Actually think that Dallas insisting on going to the air vent instead of Ripley, it's his guilty conscience. Because he knows she insisted on bringing cane of aboard when he was infected.
In the 70´s, the feminists were burning bras on the streets because they considered them symbols of masculinity oppression and the sexualization of women. Many other people end up agreeing with them at some point and bras became somewhat out of fashion. That´s why you don´t usually see bras in the movies of those times, specially in a movie like this, being Ripley a (strong) woman.
Ripley being ignored when giving advice, and having so much stuff explained to her is because she's a stand-in for the audience. Most people watching have the reaction of "Run, just get the hell out of there." when they encounter the eggs. They kept explaining the stuff to her so the viewers would understand what and why they were doing it.
I love that she and Parker were so much on the same page about handling business and surviving. Also their compassion in the face of death - her going back to save Jones the cat, his refusing to burn up Lambert along with the Alien. RIP Parker.
Did you seriously just mansplain what an audience surrogate is? Shanelle is fully aware of what that is because she's seen at least one movie in her life.
@@uosdwiSrdewoH I'm glad everything in filmmaking is so obvious to you, but not all explanations come from a place of condescension. It's there for people who might not understand. You can always just ignore comments explaining things you already know instead of being toxic and assuming people are trying to talk down to you.
@@iremainteague5653 What are you talking about? It was very much condescension and it wasn't directed at the folks who post comments. It was directed at a comment Shanelle made during the video with the underlying assumption being she doesn't understand what the audience stand in, or surrogate, is. Shanelle is an actor so would be fully aware of what the role of the surrogate is. The explanation also came from a misread whether intentional or not of what she was talking about. She was saying how nobody listened to Ripley despite her being right pretty much every time while everyone else makes stupid choices. Paraphrasing. Which somehow got the OP explaining why people explain things to Ripley. Although ignoring her doesn't really help the audience understand. It just shows that everyone not named Ripley on that ship is an idiot. Whether they meant to or not they were talking down to her and making the assumption she didn't understand the situation. I was a bit quick to jump into the reply. I should've just ignored it. I was probably feeling a little feisty that day and decided to be a jerk to someone in a comment section which I can't stand when other people do. I promise that I'm usually slightly less of a jerk. I will be more mindful in the future.
The entire Nostromo ship interior was built as one continuous set like a submarine on the soundstage, with only one entrance/exit to keep the actors feeling claustrophobic all the time. The atmosphere of the film is just so amazing as a result in my opinion.
I felt the same way. A haunting scream that gave me chills. Then when Ripley went to the room to find them, I felt sorrow for them, anger towards the alien, and fear for Ripley.
The sequence with Ripley trying to enforce quarantine procedure and being ignored is really great. It establishes the main character as not only sympathetic (others ignore her good advice or trying to follow rules) but it also shows the viewer that all the bullshit that happens afterward is in no way her fault. The film doesn't make her act stupid or commit silly mistakes in order to allow room for the story to happen. The rest of the movie reinforces this, but the whole thing really respects the both viewer's and the characters' intelligence.
This was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. I begged my father to take me and my best friend to see it. Being adolescent girls, we made my dad sit separately from us. When the thing jumped out of the egg onto his face, we screamed and practically jumped into the row behind us! I can still hear my dad laughing from several rows away. 🤣
It's still hard for me to believe American adults haven't seen certain movies, like this one. I refuse to believe I'm that old, or that culturally competent adults have missed them. But mostly I refuse to believe I'm that old.
A large part of it is the corporate media keeps trying to (as they did with books) make old films 'uncool'. That way their contrived, poorly written twaddle isn't seen as the vapid swill it is because - they hope - the audience won't have a proper frame of reference for what a movie should be.
Yes, I think we need to take this with a grain of salt sometimes,its epic,legendary movies we are talking about here that its really weird that so many people can have missed...even 20+ people...the millenials. I dont really buy it,so I have to take it with some grains of salt..really...that said,its still interesting to see the best reactors out there do reactions on legendary movies like,this one..
I understand the feeling, but this movie's almost 45 years old now. We're old. There's a great comic about growing up and aging where it shows a progression of bodies from child to elderly, but behind every facade is the same child holding up different masks.
Well that and Parker/Lambert were making a shit load of noise while she looked for Jones 😅 In all seriousness though, the concept of quarantine is an extremely serious one where space and foreign life is concerned. (For good reasons why watch 'The Andromeda Strain', one of Michael Crichton's less well known novel -> film adaptations that deals with a deadly pathogen of extraterrestrial origin, it was made around the same time period as Westworld, also a Crichton story!) Probably the biggest plot hole in this film is that the captain of the ship blithely ignores the safety of everyone else to save one crew member who may already be dead, not to mention the organism attached to his helmet could be infectious as Ripley herself mentioned. Quarantine procedures would demand some sort of separate module to examine and potentially treat crew members suspected of infection - not to mention that they did not rescan him after the face hugger leaves him.
Ian holm also played the priest Cornelius in the fifth element. Tom skerritt (Dallas) played viper in top gun. Harry dean stanton(Brett) played toot-toot the trustee in the green mile.
ya know -- so many people say that about the voice and I don't get it! haha I guess too many people told me to stop talking in school 😂😂 and welcome! happy to have you!
@@notmee2388 haha im trying to think, like when I speak I'm doing a softer tone for the channel to save my voice from constant vocal fry, so maybe that's it? I'm just over here like how do I make this intentional? 😂😂
If you watch the Abyss... watch the special edition. The theatrical cut is missing really important scenes that are super important. (Like the scene that was based on the dream that was the inspiration for the movie).
70's movies are still in the period of the 60's - 70's burn the bra era. The burn the bra name though isn't referring to real bra burning but a rebellion to wearing them.
In discussing how people didn’t follow Ripley from the start, I think you may be overlooking the hierarchy of the ship. She wasn’t being ignored because she was a woman; her comments were simply coming from someone who was lower down in the ship’s hierarchy and therefore didn’t carry as much weight. Dallas’s not allowing Ripley to go into the tunnels wasn’t because they were forcing her to take a subordinate role; as the captain, it was Dallas’s responsibility to take on such a dangerous job.
"as the captain, it was Dallas’s responsibility to take on such a dangerous job". Not at all, as captain he has a responsibility of not partaking in such dangerous activities at all.
@@Henrik_Holst huh? The captains job is to ensure the safety of the ship and crew. If he felt he was best suited for that mission of course he’d take it. They dont take missions thinking - we will probably die, so send a recruit.
@@normcmiller The captains job is administering the ship, that means delegating the job to the crew (via the XO) and not doing them himself. If he goes on a dangerous mission himself then he risks the ship ending up without a captain which means leaving it without a leader. In the chain of command on a ship the crew is expendable, not the captain.
She was the Warrant Officer third in command after Captain Dallas and Executive Officer Kane, after Kane's death she's second in command. Sure Dallas' decision overrules hers but it is frustrating that she wasn't listened too more, as she was the one going by the book and following regulations.
It was the 70’s people smoked everywhere even on planes. You don’t see much of the alien in this one because the costume wasn’t very good and it was obvious that it was a guy in a suit. It was very common in the 70’s and 80’s for women to be bra less even when there wasn’t really a reason for her to be.
Can't speak for the bulk of the costume but can confirm the hands were a bit iffy. I worked for a magazine company in the early 80s that published electronics/technology titles and the studio lent the hands to "Video Today", I guess when they did an article about Alien being released on video? They were basically gloves made out of a coarse gauze fabric overpainted with latex, coming halfway the forearm with a slit that let you slide it over your hand and was then closed with Velcro. I did get a photo of me wearing them but I lost the print years ago. 😢
also, i have never seen another alien movie where the title doesn't just reference the monster but the look of the ship and the dead pilot. the ship is the first time i ever saw something not of this earth, truly 'alien', made of bone, skin and leeches but also looking like organically grown metal and not like all other movies, where the ships look like every ufo ever seen in a movie
Shanelle, I've truly enjoyed your reactions and commentaries. I was 31 when my wife and I saw this movie in a big theater, Mission Valley in San Diego during the summer of '79, with several other couples. To set the scene: hot summer afternoon, everybody in our group of friends clad in shorts, tank tops and sandals...we enter the theater and suddenly realize it was oddly cold. We were all shivering and had goose bumps before the first frame of the film appeared on the screen. Suffice to say the first jump scare set the tone for the rest of the movie. Just wondering if all the theaters chilled their auditoriums for an added scare factor. Thanks for reviving the memories about this movie...one of my fav of all times.
It was the end of the 70's. Women's Lib was still pretty strong. Many women weren't wearing bras, but in the fiction, yes, it makes sense that you wouldn't want to wear a bra (especially a 70's one) for the months and months of a hypersleep journey.
I had a girlfriend in the 80s who frequently didn't bother with a bra. My wife can't get away with that, but she still hates them, and certainly never sleeps in one.
They aren't "consistently keeping her back". I don't know where you're getting this from. Dallas overrode Ripley volunteering to go into the vents because they all knew how dangerous it was and it could be a one way trip. As captain, he wasn't going to let one of his crew risk themselves like that. He'd already lost too many under his command, so he took responsibility for it. If he hadn't, Tom Skerritt would have been the face of the franchise going forward instead of Sigourney Weaver. Ripley isn't supposed to be a heroic figure. She's just a blue collar industrial worker trying to do her job, like the rest of them. But with a bit of luck, ingenuity and determination, she's the one who gets to escape the Nostromo. Ripley "the hero" emerges in the next film.
As a captain he is not allowed to put himself under such a risk at all, if anything it actually was Ripley's task of going to the vents as the warrant officer.
There are three other documentaries that you should watch that are associated with the Alien series. One is "Dark Star: HR Giger's World." It covers the life of HR Giger, who came up with the design of the xenomorph. Then there is "Memory: The Origins of Alien" which delves into the lore and mythology that inspired the story. And the third is "Jodorowski's Dune" which doesn't have anything to do directly with the Alien series but the team Jodorowski assembled for his movie ended up being instrumental in the sci-fi film industry in the 70's and 80's (including the Alien series).
Shanelle, if you really like the deep quiet of space in movies, you might like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The out-in-space POV shots, were absolutely silent. No noise, no score (except the early shots with the space shuttle approaching the space station accompanied by the Blue Danube). It's the only a movie I can think of that has done silent space shots like that. And the silent shots go on forever, primarily to give the idea of how deliberately slow things have to happen when there's no gravity and people have to move around. I saw that movie for the first time in a movie theater in Detroit when I was 10 and I was absolutely enthralled.
On the Silver Globe is pretty coconuts and does some silent shots but it's like the most heavy and intense polish dialogue that barely makes sense and ends horrifically. and like hardly ANYONE has seen that movie. The Holy Mountain is also bananas, pretty sure it's the most expensive movie made in mexico ever and hardly anyone has seen that. Stalker is a very grim Russian Scifi and widely acclaimed. Hardly anyone has seen that either.
Ironically the Kachachurian theme used in 2001 when we first see the Discovery and its crew was ripped off for the score James Horner composed for Aliens and used in a very similar context.
@@criss_x "The Holy Mountain is also bananas, pretty sure it's the most expensive movie made in mexico ever and hardly anyone has seen that." Hardly anyone has seen Alejandro Jodorowsky's work full stop. Ironic considering he was the first to try and adapt Dune to film as the new adaptation is released and has some visual elements noticeably similar to Jodorowsky Dune's pre production art (some of which was also used to inspire art for Alien and Prometheus too, as well as Flash Gordon).
The 70s were a largely-braless era, for the fashion set (as an echo of bra-burning in the 60s). But also...summer blockbusters needed something to pull in teenage boys, without making it R-rated.
Bra-burning wasn't really a thing. There was one incident at the 1969 Miss America protest, but whether even a few bras were set alight (amongst many other "feminine" items) is well-disputed. The trope of feminist bra-burners was mostly journalistic hype, conflating the protest with actual draft-card burning. Women not wearing bras, however, definitely became widespread.
I'm glad you loved this movie. The second one is a 180 and more focused on action but that is not a negative in this case. One thing I would like to point out is the score. The original done by Jerry Goldsmith was hacked up by Scott and editor Terry Rawlings to make it more minimalist. On one hand, I think it works, but his original was more avant-garde and used a lot of dissonant notes to unnerve the audience. Sort of like the scores that recreate the frequency that babies cry at to illicit that uneasy feeling in our species. I'm not sure, but their could be some examples of that in Goldsmith's work. The score to this is often overlooked which is sad. The alien doesn't appear until an hour in and yet you're on edge the entire time. If you are interested in hearing Goldsmith's original score , there are alternate audio tracks on DVD and Blu-ray copies.
Watched this movie dozens of times and just realized the grammatical error in the computer: "Insure protection of organism" It should be *ensure* , unless they're paying premiums on policy for alien organisms
Very good review...Veronica Cartwright played Lambert already had a well established career like Witches of Eastwick,Invasion of the Body Snatchers(70's) she played Cassandra Crossing in 4 episodes of Xfiles as the Smoking Mans ex-wife,plus many other roles/movies,all the cast except for Weaver were established actors actually well known,you might be surprised at some of their roles/movies if you check IMDB.
If you are going to watch the sequel, I'd recommend the director's cut. There are a couple of scenes early in the film that flesh out Ripley's character and put things that happen later in better context.
My girlfriend and I were so freaked out by the movie, that we ended up seeing it about 15 or 16 times at the theater. Even after seeing it many times, and knowing what was going to happen, we still jumped at the scary spots. Yeah, it was great. IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM.
There's an absolutely wonderful book called "Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo" done in the style of a children's' story picture book, that tells the plot of the movie from the slice-of-cat-life perspective. Given the subject matter, I wouldn't actually recommend it for children. Although, that's never stopped people in the past. When this movie came out, Kenner Toys made action figures, playsets, and even a movie viewer toy based on this film. Years later, Froot Loops cereal had a commercial that recreated the facehugger scene.
Having watched Alien when I was 8 or 9, I was absolutely ready for Aliens when it was released. I was 11, and a neighbor friend accompanied me to the theater. He wasn't allowed to watch R rated films, though, so he saw Howard The Duck 😖 instead. As Aliens was quite long, he was already waiting in the parking lot with my mother when I came out. I was like "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, "WOOOOOO"-ing like a madman. My friend tried to say that Howard The Duck was probably just as good, but I wasn't buying what he was selling 🤘
I really love the trivia sections in all your videos, I've watched a lot of different reaction videos from different creators, and you're the only one that I've seen do this! Also really enjoy the filmmaker's perspective, hearing details that I didn't pick up on when I watched the films myself is what makes reaction videos so enjoyable.
The same year Alien came out, Ridley Scott was hired by Dino De Laurentiis to direct Dune years after the Jodorowsky version fell apart. Ridley's version fell apart as well, and he went on to do Blade Runner.
@@skyhawksailor8736 Now you had me wondering, so I checked again. One of the black guys KINDA looks a little like Yaphet Kotto, but it definitely isn't him.
Watch, The General, buster ketons masterpiece, its a black and white, silent, and all the stunts are shockingly real, and performed by buster himself, one of my top ten, along with alien, back to the future, and escape from New York, ps keep up the good work 💪
27:30 Frankly, if we ever develop the technology to put people into hyper sleep, I think people would be required to do it nude. Bras are not the only thing that is unnecessary. Wearing clothes over your skin 27/7 for years would lead to skin break down and infection. There are other issues that clothing would create, along with quite a bit that just isn't known at this time, I think. Nude hyper-sleep just makes everything easier. Larry Nevin speculated the "Belters" (people who live and work in space full time) would practice nudism when not working outside, where pressure suits would be needed. It makes sense from a practical standpoint. If energy and other resources are limited, doing laundry is kind of a waste in a climate controlled, closed environment. Being nude in public is something most people can get used to quickly, especially if nudity is normal in a given situation. Of course that can't really depict that in a movie.
technology she says as she looks at a miniature :p Also, it's a delight to see someone really watch the movie as you do. And I guess a Spaceship is the ultimate cabin in the woods
Awesome reaction to a great movie, you discussed some great points about this movie. Definitely check out Aliens The Special Edition that film is on par with this, it's bad ass.
Back Then we didn't use Minorities very much at all, Even Asian and Native American roles were Mostly Played by Caucasian Actors... TODAY, We're being "Over Exposed" to Minorities, as Every Show, Commercial or Even Comic Book are Over-Saturating These to "Appease" their Audience. The Superman and Lois Romance is ICONIC but Now Superman is Suddenly Gay? I Feel that We need to use Local Statistics to Determine the Appropriate Ratio for a More Accurate Depiction for the Desired Settings and to be PROPERLY Inclusive.
I only just watched this recently myself! It’s so beautiful and tense. Even though I knew about the chest burster, it was still really upsetting! The face hugger is like all my arachnid nightmares made fleshy and I KNEW that it was made of real fleshy stuff.
Most of the actors here already had “made it” or went on to do big things, this being a big break for some as well as Sigourney. Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm and John Hurt were already well established. John Hurt is practically acting royalty. Tom Skerritt was fairly successful before and more successful after. Yaphet Kotto was Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, and for the 6 year run of Homicide: Life on the Street was The larger than life Lt Giardello.
Niiice! Alien shaped the sci-fi horror genre forever. Often copied, never bettered. You seen Aliens yet, Shanelle? One of the greatest sequels of all time. Alien 3 is ok, but a bummer of a movie. Ignore Alien Resurrection and the Prometheus movies, they're hot garbage. Also, can't believe you didn't recognise Bilbo Baggins, Ollivander and the pukey woman from Witches Of Eastwick!
@@DMichaelAtLarge Agreed wholeheartedly. It's been nearly 30 years, and I have never forgiven Alien 3. It took Alien Covenant coming along to finally surpass it as worst Alien movie, which Covenant achieved by just being awful.
You're one of the few people who picked up on the underwear thing. One of the themes of this movie is innocence. Ripley becomes a little girl again in the end. She looks like a child that's growing too fast out of her clothes. She sings a lullaby and returns to the womb, after having defeated the evil phallus monster. That's another theme: The xenomorph represents both, male and female primary reproductive organs, and with teeth. Both Kane and Ripley are orally violated. Kane by the face hugger who also impregnates him, and Ripley by Ash with a rolled-up dirty magazine. His blood also looks like male ejaculate. He's a prime example of toxic masculinity, and he isn't even a man. In fact, all the men are horrible sexists. Ripley is visibly irritated by this, but Lambert seems to accept this as the natural order of things. Consequently, she's a useless girly girl who freezes in front of the xenomorph and dies. The movie is also about motherhood. Kane gives birth to the alien. The ship's main computer is called MU/TH/UR and can only be accessed in a spherical room that looks just like a womb. Yet, it doesn't act very motherly. Ripley, OTOH, takes care of Jones and even endangers her own life to save him - she acts like a parent. So i'd say, the movie is deeply feminist.
In the 1970s and 1980s smoking was very normal, and they wanted to show that life on a commercial spacecraft was as simple and normal as life in any job on Earth. If I remember correctly, the promotion for the movie said something like "in space no one can hear you scream". In the long version there's a scene that explains why they couldn't find the remains of Dallas. I'm glad not even you were able to foresee that Ash was a robot
I’ve always like Tom Skerritt, also in Top Gun, Space Camp, Contact & A River Runs Through It. The alien erupting from the stomach, repeated many times since, in Space Balls, even cartoons.
As for the underwear.... it was the 70s, baby! Most prime time network television then would be TV14 today due to the burn-your-bra revolution of the decade.
Just to add to the conversation about how the crew treated Ripley. In the corridor conversation with Dallas it is confirmed that while the rest of the crew have worked together many times before both Ash and Ripley were new members thus were not part of the close knit crew. Also before shooting began a small plot point was dropped from the shooting script that had Dallas and Ripley in a semi romantic relationship. And the Director's Cut has a bit more to say about Dallas' encounter with the Alien in the shafts. I saw Alien in the summer of 1979 at 14. One of my most vivid movie memories is watching the Chestburster scene. Saw it in the theater atleast 30 times. And read and collected every book and magazine ever written about Alien. Even owned the 18 inch figure that Kenner released in December '79. Alien quite literally changed how I viewed films forever.
For a 2nd flick, Scott knocked it out of the park. In spades. I hope you try his first flick (The Duellists is pretty great) sometime, even if on your own time.
@@ShanelleRiccio Don't I know it. I got dragged to The Ring when it came out and all I could think of was "How can I tell exactly when the idiot who made me sit through this gets home so I can call his phone and whisper 'Seven days...' when he picks it up." If I could have done it I figure I would have had a better than even chance of scarring him to death he was so easily frightened. And don't even get me started on Blair Witch. That movie had me yawning and giggling until about the last 5-10 seconds of found footage which had the only scare in the film. And that wasn't a jump or slash scare, it was more horrid realization. Oh dear, I hope i kept that vague enough. I hope you;re going to react to The Sixth Sense soon (do not research it and I hope no one has spoiled it for you), You'll love it as a well crafted film.
Enjoyable reaction. Yes, out of all the things I could comment on, I chose this item: My 2 cents on the braless phenomenon. 1. The majority viewing population for this movie is probably male. Female nudity (partial or complete) has a naturally penetrating and connecting effect on males. It secures attention and creates a psycho-sexual bond between the character and the male viewer. It increases the male viewer's personal investment in the welfare of the character. 2. It displays vulnerability which heightens awareness of the potential for trauma. Because the audience identifies with the protagonist, the audience experiences a heightened level of vulnerability along with the character, thereby heightening the suspense experience. It's an approach that works remarkably well. I wonder if you figure the fact that you're a woman into how you respond to and interpret movie scenes. I know that being a male predisposes me towards certain points of view. Not always or with everything, but a lot. Peace.
I saw ALIEN on May 26, 1979 the second day of its release. The audience knew it was somewhat scary, but we had no idea what we were in for! The theatre was packed, and people were screaming and jumping out of their seats! This was one of the greatest times I had at the movies!
Yes! I saw it on the first day of release in NYC! The line to get in was wrapped around the block. When the 'chest-burster' scene occured...the entire audience applauded! It was wild!😊
And Aliens was just as great - ‘get away from her you bitch!’
@@QueensLadyDay Haha, I saw it in Syosset Long Island the same day.
@@HistoritorJimaldus No. Good, but not great. Singular far superior to plural.
@@ralphficker167 in fairness, alien is a great space horror thriller. Where as aliens in a great space action thriller.
Loved your reaction! You were biting your nails at the jump scares lol. You asked about the first time we saw Alien and if it blew our minds. To be completely honest, I don't remember when I actually saw it the first time. I was only 8 years old when it came out and nobody was taking me to the theater to see it!🤣 But I remember all the TV commercials for it and it was huge! I eventually got ahold of the book version when I was 11. I was an advanced reader so I didn't have any trouble with a science fiction book. (I had my trusty dictionary beside me lol!). I tell, you, as an 11 year old experiencing that story with nothing but my imagination to tell me what that alien looked like, it was beyond scary! Probably way scarier than actually watching it at that age would've been! And the scene with the chestburster! The book said it was "trailing bits of Kane" across the table. Trailing BITS!🤣🤣🤣 OHMYGOD! That book scared the crap out of me! And the big deleted scene was in the book where Ripley found Dallas being changed! OMG! Definitely an unforgettable experience!
Shanelle this film was written by Dan O'Bannon, who went to film school with John Carpenter. The two directed a student film that was made into a full length feature called "Dark Star". After the less than terrifying alien of "Dark Star", O'Bannon wanted to make an alien/space movie with a truly scary creature and so he wrote Alien. There is some controversy with producers claiming O'Bannon's script was heavily rewritten, but there is some doubt to the voracity of those claims.
Dan O'Bannon cemented his cred with me when he would write and direct "Return of The Living Dead", released in 1985. While not associated with the Romero zombie films, they share a history with them and a title, but that's a long story. While the zombie genre has become fairly routine, in 1985 "Return of The Living Dead" re-invented the whole damn genre. It is a punk rock, nihililstic, funny, terrifying tale that explores some fairly complex themes, while remaining utterly entertaining. I hope you watch it for your own enjoyment! Oh yeah, Alien is fantastic too.
As George Lucas said to Carrie Fisher on Star Wars when she asked to wear a bra: "There is no underwear in space." LOL
Just absolutely one of the best of all time, without a doubt. A masterclass in film-making. Loved your reaction, thanks :)
@18:44: Remember this film came around the time of the 70s Sexual Revolution and Woman’s Liberation and Feminist movement… bra burning (or rather rejection of formerly normative gender roles and items that seem to be an embodiment of the reenforcement of elements that bounded American Women- physical and or figuratively) and all this trends were still culturally relevant and film productions and studios did there best to reflect the events of the time (if not, to be apart of the movement, then instead, to use the trends of the movement to sell the films). Much like today when you have tv and film productions reflecting social progress, “Wokeness” or other social contemporary culture
Love this. Your reactions and excitement to this genius movie are amazing.
Alien was the first movie my parents took me to see in theaters. I was 2 years old. Apparently, this explains a lot about me, lol!
Ridley Scott liked getting realistic reactions from his actors. In a deleted scene, Ridley did not tell Sigourney that she was about to be slapped by her co-star Veronica.
While they don't mention it in the film, Alien is one of the earliest blockbusters to feature a transgender character, Lambert. In the sequel Aliens (1986) a biography for her character very briefly flashes up on a computer screen in the background. The biography establishes Lambert as having had her gender altered from male to female. The biography is obscured in the film itself, but you can view the entire crew's bios on the DVD,
Alien is one of the best sci-fi movies there is. Rivaled, in my opinion, only by Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens.
Aliens actually IS the best sci-movie there is. If you haven't watched it yet, you definitely should.
I love that you finish up going through all the 'fun facts' about the movie. It's great to see someone so into it.
♫ Thiiiiiis guy's gonna fuckin' diiiie sooon ♫♪ LOL
Well, greetings from Vienna, Austria! And yes, we ARE still smoking as much here. About 30% of our citizens. So on average more people than the crew of the Nostromo.
I myself am smoking a ciggy right now. 🙂
To watch a scary movie properly, you really should watch in a dark room with as big a screen as possible. Seems like you're watching a bedroom TV in a brightly lit room. At least you are wearing headphones, because sound is equally important.
This movie also had one of the great ad tag lines: "In space, no one can hear you scream."
Frightening! haha
But somehow "Here, Kitty, Kitty" is scarier.
This is even more obscure: I also remember a cheap teen comedy at the time Alien came out called "Hog Wild" that parodied that tag line with their own version: "In deep fat, no one can hear you gag." That always cracked me up.
The tag line alone made an impression on a very young version of myself, several years before I actually saw the film.
but they can if you are in a ship...
In space no one can hear you scream was the. tag line for this movie thought of it when you mentioned sound design
I've always really liked that Ripley went back for Jonesy. It shows how compassionate she is as a character, she wasn't willing to leave anyone behind, even the cat.
Ridley Scott said on the commentary that he's a dog owner and would go back to get his dogs in a situation like that, which makes me like Ridley Scott rather a lot.
Not only that, but according to surrounding lore such as the Trading Cards sold at the time with tidbits of character info, Jones was HER cat.
Yea it was a nice touch, even if he is a little shit-head.
If a better film about one woman's love for her cat exists, i haven't seen it.
Fun fact, when the script was written, the character genders were not chosen. They were all written with just the personalities in mind. Then they gave the parts to the best actors for those parts.
Also, Sigourney Weaver had actually suggested to be naked at the end, but Ridley Scott opted not to in favor of the underwear.
LOVE THIS you can totally tell too, because there isn't much cliched dialogue/character behvaior
It’s one of those I get I like it but … damn what a loss too lol
Yes, Ripley is an actual character and not just "muh skrong wamen"
Yeah, according to Scott, the skimpy underwear scene was sort of added after the studio started asking for some sexiness to be included in the movie (funnily enough, a sex scent between Ripley and Dallas was in the script but never filmed). Weaver was fine with nudity but had said more recently that looking back, she was a bit troubled with how easily she considered it, and how easily it would've been to have exploited a naive young actress in that way, had Scott gone for it.
I think the Ripley-naked-at-the-end option wouldv'e made artistic sense if it was bookending the entire Nostromo crew emerging naked-at-the-beginning idea they'd originally had. The whole emerging-from-the-womb imagery would've compounded the surviving character being at their most vulnerable again.
The 3 hour long documentary you mention (available on RUclips: "The Beast Within: The Making of Alien"), is highly recommended.
The entirety of the documentaries shot and produced by Charles de Lauzirika for the original Alien Quadrilogy DVD set are all worth watching in my opinion.
That guy really knows how to produce a making of doc well.
He also did 'Dangerous Days: The making of Blade Runner' too, of a similar length and quality, and just as worth watching.
I'm only 38 so I wasn't even born when this came out, but about seven years ago I saw this and it's sequel Aliens back to back at the cinema on Halloween. Was brilliant seeing it on the big screen with the volume jacked up.
There were a bunch of 16 or so year Olds sat near the front and they were gigleing like children when ash was laid in his undies. Left before it even really got started.... Their loss really 😂🤣😂
Nobody smoked on Star Trek... I think they wanted to show that this wasn't Star Trek (or Wars) but a Sci-Fi future with pretty familiar humans in it.
it was VERY human, I Loved that touch. All of the conversations felt like eavesdropping
"Truckers in space" to quote the film makers.
It's also much closer to modern day than even the OG Star Trek.
Prometheus is set in 2090 ish, so Alien is about 100 years from now at 30 years later.
A few years earlier, Dan O'Bannon wrote Dark Star with John Carpenter, which was even more "human". One of the very first lines in the film is about how the short circuit that killed the captain remains a problem, but even worse is a problem in a storage area has destroyed the rest of their toilet paper.
"Nobody smoked on Star Trek" -- except Iman in Star Trek VI. Everyone else obeyed the No Smoking sign on the Bridge Simulator at Starfleet Academy from Star Trek II.
Dont forget Jabba the Hutt smoked a hookah pipe in Jedi!
The dark visions of Swiss artist H.R. Giger were largely responsible for the set design in the horseshoe shaped alien ship as well as the Alien Xenomorph. Google his work to see what nightmarish drawings / paintings were the source material and inspiration for his designs in this film. You'll be fascinated, though perhaps a little sickened at times.
My first glimpse of H.R., Giger's work was the Emerson, Lake And Palmer album, "Brain Salad Surgery" (1973). Hauntingly beautiful!
I lived in Switzerland. One of my favorite places was Gruyere, where there is a museum and cafe/bar complete with alien style chairs.
When Ridley Scott saw Gigers work the first time , he was in shock , and asked Giger how he get those ideas. Giger answered: he doesnt need inspiration ; he has every night those nightmares, even worse nightmares. So he paints them.
@@PygmalionFaciebat That reminds me of how the horror author H.P. Lovecraft got some of his inspiration from his nightmares. I am quite fond (if that's the correct word in this context) of Giger's art, but wasn't aware that he based it off dreams. Thanks for mentioning this!
If you've not watched The Thing (1982), you may also like that one.
I think that's next on the list!
Followed by Aliens.
@@ShanelleRiccio Make "Aliens" next on the list, then "Thing." I'm sick of all the "Thing" reaction videos everyone's doing in October. But I can never get sick of "Alien" and "Aliens" reaction videos.
@@DMichaelAtLarge making a request/suggestion is way cooler than making demands 👍 be cool stay in school... And stop being a douche
@@ShanelleRiccio And for Aliens, watch the theatrical version. The Special Edition is fun once you're a fan of the movie, but it's not the best telling of the story. And I won't tell you my reasons why due to spoilers. But I'll say I love Aliens even better than the first movie, although they're both fantastic in their own right. They are very different stylistically, but complement each other so well.
Carrie Fisher had a great story about the whole bra thing: George (Lucas) comes up to me the first day of filming (Star Wars) and he takes one look at the dress and says, "You can't wear a bra under that dress." "So, I say, "Okay, I'll bite. Why?" And he says, "Because. . . there's no underwear in space."
Now George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can't wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense very soon, so here's why you cannot wear your brassiere, per George.
So, what happens is when you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands? But your bra doesn't -- so you get strangled by your own bra.
Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit -- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.
A lot of Star Wars fans quoted that message in Carrie's honour when she died. "Strangled by her own bra." She would have loved that.
But many more have said that she rests now forever in the embrace of the Force. ❤️
Omg that’s funny as hell!!!
I knew a few girls who didnt like wearing bras, my ex only wore her's outside the house.
"The cat who played Jones: "acatemy" award." Lol
I love watching these reviews, it's like watching a movie with a friend whose never seen it, and they have a ton to say about it.
Poor Dallas! The first victim killed by "jazz hands"!
That scene is 90% of why I watch reactions to this movie! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
A couple of notes on some of the cast members:
Ian Holm who played Ash was also old Bilbo in Lord of the Rings
John Hurt who played Kain was the chancellor in V for Vendetta
Veronica Cartwright (Lambert) was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as a kid (she and her sister Angela were kid actors) the 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Witches Of Eastwick.
Yaphet Kotto (Parker), who passed away this year, was the first Black actor to play a James Bond villain in "Live and Let Die". He was also in The Running Man.
@@Madbandit77 And Yaphet was Lt. Al Giardello in the series "Homicide: Life On The Streets".
@@Madbandit77 How could you mention Angela Cartwright without mentioning that she was most famously in "Lost in Space"? ;)
@@lafelong Mea culpa, sir. 😊
John Hurt also hilariously lampooned his own character in Mel Brooks' "Space Balls": ruclips.net/video/otJ2rXMuLno/видео.html
Having lived and survived the 1970's, women going braless was a thing at that time as it was the peak era of feminism. Being a man I had no issues with it.😁
Yeah, bras were for some reason equated with male oppression. Even burning bras in protest was a thing for a time. I’ve no idea why any of that happened.
It was a very nippley era, and it was wonderful
@@WallyHartshorn I maintain the more important thing to find out is why it stopped.
@@WallyHartshorn It wasn't *really* a ~thing~. It was more of a media-spread exaggeration and catchy nickname for feminists based on some clever headlines and someone tossing (not burning) a bra into a trash bin of different things at one protest. There may have been the odd copycat once the stereotype had been spread around, but it wasn't really a common thing among feminist protestors.
I was in middle school in the early '70s and 1 day my French teacher came to class bra-less, which was clearly evident. I didn't learn a thing in class that day.
The shrinking set trick is also done in the original classic 12 Angry Men. The jury room gets smaller and smaller and the camera framing gets closer and closer to the characters throughout the film.
Only Lumet used depth of field for that-not moving walls.
Hey Shanelle, you should watch 1978's "Magic" starring Anthony Hopkins!
totally agree. i saw Magic in the theater when it came out and it really made an impression on me. it was the first time i'd seen anthony hopkins and i was amazed at what an incredible actor he was.
People always refer to Silence and Hopkins but I found him scary before that; in this.
ALIENS is one of the best sequels of all time. Not much holds a candle to these films.
Terminator and T2 are about the only other exception to this rule. "The sequel is always inferior to the original; but the original will arguably be eclipsed by the finale in a trilogy." See also: all 3 Star Wars trilogies, the matrix trilogy...
I love Aliens even more than this one. My fave in the franchise.
Yes Aliens is my favorite ! Awesome sequel !
More of an action movie than scary but I think that's why it works.....
Die Hard and Die Harder is a close runner up for a good sequel.
Aliens is a worthy sequel for sure. Can't say the same for the rest of the sequels however.
This is what you can do with a small cast, if the whole cast is really good. And these guys were. It put Sigourney Weaver on the map, but for me - he doesn't last long here , but I can watch John Hurt in anything. I remember when I was a kid, seeing him play Caligula in I Claudius, and he was so convincing playing a complete lunatic that I couldn't get him out of my head.
Loved John Hurt in Midnight Express...Spectacular filwork!!
He is a great actor my favorite of his is The Elephant Man with him and Anthony Hopkins
_I Claudius_ is one of the greatest television series ever made. I remember watching it when it was first broadcast, it was absolutely unmissable, no-one was talking about anything else. Great performances all around - Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Biggins, John Rhys-Davies (25 years before LOTR!), Sheila White, Sian Phillips, Patricia Quinn... but yes, John Hurt's performance of quite insanity was arresting.
Actually think that Dallas insisting on going to the air vent instead of Ripley, it's his guilty conscience. Because he knows she insisted on bringing cane of aboard when he was infected.
No she didnt...she vehemently fought against it!
In the 70´s, the feminists were burning bras on the streets because they considered them symbols of masculinity oppression and the sexualization of women. Many other people end up agreeing with them at some point and bras became somewhat out of fashion. That´s why you don´t usually see bras in the movies of those times, specially in a movie like this, being Ripley a (strong) woman.
Ripley being ignored when giving advice, and having so much stuff explained to her is because she's a stand-in for the audience.
Most people watching have the reaction of "Run, just get the hell out of there." when they encounter the eggs. They kept explaining the stuff to her so the viewers would understand what and why they were doing it.
I love that she and Parker were so much on the same page about handling business and surviving. Also their compassion in the face of death - her going back to save Jones the cat, his refusing to burn up Lambert along with the Alien. RIP Parker.
Did you seriously just mansplain what an audience surrogate is? Shanelle is fully aware of what that is because she's seen at least one movie in her life.
@@uosdwiSrdewoH I'm glad everything in filmmaking is so obvious to you, but not all explanations come from a place of condescension. It's there for people who might not understand. You can always just ignore comments explaining things you already know instead of being toxic and assuming people are trying to talk down to you.
@@iremainteague5653 What are you talking about? It was very much condescension and it wasn't directed at the folks who post comments. It was directed at a comment Shanelle made during the video with the underlying assumption being she doesn't understand what the audience stand in, or surrogate, is. Shanelle is an actor so would be fully aware of what the role of the surrogate is. The explanation also came from a misread whether intentional or not of what she was talking about. She was saying how nobody listened to Ripley despite her being right pretty much every time while everyone else makes stupid choices. Paraphrasing. Which somehow got the OP explaining why people explain things to Ripley. Although ignoring her doesn't really help the audience understand. It just shows that everyone not named Ripley on that ship is an idiot. Whether they meant to or not they were talking down to her and making the assumption she didn't understand the situation. I was a bit quick to jump into the reply. I should've just ignored it. I was probably feeling a little feisty that day and decided to be a jerk to someone in a comment section which I can't stand when other people do. I promise that I'm usually slightly less of a jerk. I will be more mindful in the future.
The entire Nostromo ship interior was built as one continuous set like a submarine on the soundstage, with only one entrance/exit to keep the actors feeling claustrophobic all the time.
The atmosphere of the film is just so amazing as a result in my opinion.
If i were rich,id have the entire set rebuilt and live there.
@@promnightdumpsterbaby9553 Damn bruh I damn near shit myself watching it as a kid, I wouldn't last a single night in that set 😅🤣🤣🤣
So when are we getting your reaction to Aliens? Alien and Aliens, The Terminator and Terminator 2. Two pairs of perfect movies.
Lambert's screams coming over the comms will always be chilling. Can't imagine something much worse to listen to
I felt the same way. A haunting scream that gave me chills. Then when Ripley went to the room to find them, I felt sorrow for them, anger towards the alien, and fear for Ripley.
The sequence with Ripley trying to enforce quarantine procedure and being ignored is really great. It establishes the main character as not only sympathetic (others ignore her good advice or trying to follow rules) but it also shows the viewer that all the bullshit that happens afterward is in no way her fault. The film doesn't make her act stupid or commit silly mistakes in order to allow room for the story to happen. The rest of the movie reinforces this, but the whole thing really respects the both viewer's and the characters' intelligence.
This was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. I begged my father to take me and my best friend to see it. Being adolescent girls, we made my dad sit separately from us. When the thing jumped out of the egg onto his face, we screamed and practically jumped into the row behind us! I can still hear my dad laughing from several rows away. 🤣
A cool Sigourney Weaver story: She was at the Beatles Hollywood Bowl performance in 1965 there are a few photos of her, how awesome! 🤘🤘
I saw that in a documentary about Beatles live proformaneces on Hulu
She a Beatles fan?? Wow!!
It's still hard for me to believe American adults haven't seen certain movies, like this one. I refuse to believe I'm that old, or that culturally competent adults have missed them. But mostly I refuse to believe I'm that old.
How old are you lol
@@-M0LE Old as dirt, and nearly as gritty. OK, only in my 50's, but I feel older. Every year things seem stranger and more stupid.
A large part of it is the corporate media keeps trying to (as they did with books) make old films 'uncool'. That way their contrived, poorly written twaddle isn't seen as the vapid swill it is because - they hope - the audience won't have a proper frame of reference for what a movie should be.
Yes, I think we need to take this with a grain of salt sometimes,its epic,legendary movies we are talking about here that its really weird that so many people can have missed...even 20+ people...the millenials. I dont really buy it,so I have to take it with some grains of salt..really...that said,its still interesting to see the best reactors out there do reactions on legendary movies like,this one..
I understand the feeling, but this movie's almost 45 years old now. We're old.
There's a great comic about growing up and aging where it shows a progression of bodies from child to elderly, but behind every facade is the same child holding up different masks.
18:31 "There's no bras in space" - George Lucas to Carrie Fisher
Many have said that Ripley survived because she's the only one on the ship who is *actually good at her job.*
haha yup!
Well, if they'd just talked about the damn bonus situation, Parker wouldn't have been distracted during the movie.
Ash is superb at their job.
That... doesn't seem to follow. These are space truckers. None of this is their job.
Well that and Parker/Lambert were making a shit load of noise while she looked for Jones 😅
In all seriousness though, the concept of quarantine is an extremely serious one where space and foreign life is concerned.
(For good reasons why watch 'The Andromeda Strain', one of Michael Crichton's less well known novel -> film adaptations that deals with a deadly pathogen of extraterrestrial origin, it was made around the same time period as Westworld, also a Crichton story!)
Probably the biggest plot hole in this film is that the captain of the ship blithely ignores the safety of everyone else to save one crew member who may already be dead, not to mention the organism attached to his helmet could be infectious as Ripley herself mentioned.
Quarantine procedures would demand some sort of separate module to examine and potentially treat crew members suspected of infection - not to mention that they did not rescan him after the face hugger leaves him.
Ian holm also played the priest Cornelius in the fifth element. Tom skerritt (Dallas) played viper in top gun. Harry dean stanton(Brett) played toot-toot the trustee in the green mile.
Tom Skerritt was also in Cheech -n- Chong's Up In Smoke. : D
@@fakereality96 thank you… it’s been so many years since I’ve seen that movie
Just found your channel!
Subscribed immediately!
This is SO much fun!!
Also, I love your voice
(but I’m sure you get that a LOT)
ya know -- so many people say that about the voice and I don't get it! haha I guess too many people told me to stop talking in school 😂😂 and welcome! happy to have you!
@@ShanelleRiccio you should do radio
@@ShanelleRiccio I've never really thought about it, but yeah, your voice is kinda smooth and sensual.
@@ShanelleRiccio I love your voice too but it's cause I'm from Philly and my mom's from Brooklyn so you remind me of home :)
@@notmee2388 haha im trying to think, like when I speak I'm doing a softer tone for the channel to save my voice from constant vocal fry, so maybe that's it? I'm just over here like how do I make this intentional? 😂😂
"There's a horror movie called Alien?! That's really offensive. No wonder everybody keeps invading you." - Doctor Who
Oh do you like aliens and deep ocean? May I suggest The Abyss by James Cameron?
Good one!
If you watch the Abyss... watch the special edition. The theatrical cut is missing really important scenes that are super important. (Like the scene that was based on the dream that was the inspiration for the movie).
The women in my life are not big fans of the bra. To me it seems normal for her not to be wearing one, especially if going to sleep.
same. my boobs are big but i only wear a bra at work or in some other professional~ situation. at home or doing errands or whatever? nah.
You want to walk around on that set. You need to play "Alien: Isolation"
Oh man yes - "Gravity" was a brilliant big-screen watch! And this is a distant second for my favorite Harry Dean Stanton role after "Repo Man".
Gravity in 3D. The ONLY way to experience it.
70's movies are still in the period of the 60's - 70's burn the bra era. The burn the bra name though isn't referring to real bra burning but a rebellion to wearing them.
In discussing how people didn’t follow Ripley from the start, I think you may be overlooking the hierarchy of the ship. She wasn’t being ignored because she was a woman; her comments were simply coming from someone who was lower down in the ship’s hierarchy and therefore didn’t carry as much weight. Dallas’s not allowing Ripley to go into the tunnels wasn’t because they were forcing her to take a subordinate role; as the captain, it was Dallas’s responsibility to take on such a dangerous job.
This. As someone who was in the military, this goes on all the time. They generally tell you nothing & don’t listen to your ideas.
"as the captain, it was Dallas’s responsibility to take on such a dangerous job". Not at all, as captain he has a responsibility of not partaking in such dangerous activities at all.
@@Henrik_Holst huh? The captains job is to ensure the safety of the ship and crew. If he felt he was best suited for that mission of course he’d take it. They dont take missions thinking - we will probably die, so send a recruit.
@@normcmiller The captains job is administering the ship, that means delegating the job to the crew (via the XO) and not doing them himself. If he goes on a dangerous mission himself then he risks the ship ending up without a captain which means leaving it without a leader. In the chain of command on a ship the crew is expendable, not the captain.
She was the Warrant Officer third in command after Captain Dallas and Executive Officer Kane, after Kane's death she's second in command. Sure Dallas' decision overrules hers but it is frustrating that she wasn't listened too more, as she was the one going by the book and following regulations.
It was the 70’s people smoked everywhere even on planes. You don’t see much of the alien in this one because the costume wasn’t very good and it was obvious that it was a guy in a suit.
It was very common in the 70’s and 80’s for women to be bra less even when there wasn’t really a reason for her to be.
Can't speak for the bulk of the costume but can confirm the hands were a bit iffy. I worked for a magazine company in the early 80s that published electronics/technology titles and the studio lent the hands to "Video Today", I guess when they did an article about Alien being released on video? They were basically gloves made out of a coarse gauze fabric overpainted with latex, coming halfway the forearm with a slit that let you slide it over your hand and was then closed with Velcro. I did get a photo of me wearing them but I lost the print years ago. 😢
also, i have never seen another alien movie where the title doesn't just reference the monster but the look of the ship and the dead pilot. the ship is the first time i ever saw something not of this earth, truly 'alien', made of bone, skin and leeches but also looking like organically grown metal and not like all other movies, where the ships look like every ufo ever seen in a movie
Shanelle, I've truly enjoyed your reactions and commentaries. I was 31 when my wife and I saw this movie in a big theater, Mission Valley in San Diego during the summer of '79, with several other couples. To set the scene: hot summer afternoon, everybody in our group of friends clad in shorts, tank tops and sandals...we enter the theater and suddenly realize it was oddly cold. We were all shivering and had goose bumps before the first frame of the film appeared on the screen. Suffice to say the first jump scare set the tone for the rest of the movie. Just wondering if all the theaters chilled their auditoriums for an added scare factor. Thanks for reviving the memories about this movie...one of my fav of all times.
It was the end of the 70's. Women's Lib was still pretty strong. Many women weren't wearing bras, but in the fiction, yes, it makes sense that you wouldn't want to wear a bra (especially a 70's one) for the months and months of a hypersleep journey.
Bra burning for protest was a thing too
I had a girlfriend in the 80s who frequently didn't bother with a bra. My wife can't get away with that, but she still hates them, and certainly never sleeps in one.
Also, the male gaze is a thing.
They aren't "consistently keeping her back". I don't know where you're getting this from. Dallas overrode Ripley volunteering to go into the vents because they all knew how dangerous it was and it could be a one way trip. As captain, he wasn't going to let one of his crew risk themselves like that. He'd already lost too many under his command, so he took responsibility for it. If he hadn't, Tom Skerritt would have been the face of the franchise going forward instead of Sigourney Weaver.
Ripley isn't supposed to be a heroic figure. She's just a blue collar industrial worker trying to do her job, like the rest of them. But with a bit of luck, ingenuity and determination, she's the one who gets to escape the Nostromo. Ripley "the hero" emerges in the next film.
As a captain he is not allowed to put himself under such a risk at all, if anything it actually was Ripley's task of going to the vents as the warrant officer.
There are three other documentaries that you should watch that are associated with the Alien series. One is "Dark Star: HR Giger's World." It covers the life of HR Giger, who came up with the design of the xenomorph. Then there is "Memory: The Origins of Alien" which delves into the lore and mythology that inspired the story. And the third is "Jodorowski's Dune" which doesn't have anything to do directly with the Alien series but the team Jodorowski assembled for his movie ended up being instrumental in the sci-fi film industry in the 70's and 80's (including the Alien series).
The very best Harry Dean Stanton film: 'Paris Texas' directed by Wim Wenders, written by playwright Sam Shepard, 1984. A great 'film buff' film.
Harry's greatest role. I could watch it every week and never tire of it. What a triumph of filmmaking.
Shanelle, if you really like the deep quiet of space in movies, you might like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The out-in-space POV shots, were absolutely silent. No noise, no score (except the early shots with the space shuttle approaching the space station accompanied by the Blue Danube). It's the only a movie I can think of that has done silent space shots like that.
And the silent shots go on forever, primarily to give the idea of how deliberately slow things have to happen when there's no gravity and people have to move around. I saw that movie for the first time in a movie theater in Detroit when I was 10 and I was absolutely enthralled.
On the Silver Globe is pretty coconuts and does some silent shots but it's like the most heavy and intense polish dialogue that barely makes sense and ends horrifically. and like hardly ANYONE has seen that movie. The Holy Mountain is also bananas, pretty sure it's the most expensive movie made in mexico ever and hardly anyone has seen that. Stalker is a very grim Russian Scifi and widely acclaimed. Hardly anyone has seen that either.
The Expanse tv show, as realistic as space can get.
Agreed. Perfect example of "show it don't explain it".
Ironically the Kachachurian theme used in 2001 when we first see the Discovery and its crew was ripped off for the score James Horner composed for Aliens and used in a very similar context.
@@criss_x "The Holy Mountain is also bananas, pretty sure it's the most expensive movie made in mexico ever and hardly anyone has seen that."
Hardly anyone has seen Alejandro Jodorowsky's work full stop.
Ironic considering he was the first to try and adapt Dune to film as the new adaptation is released and has some visual elements noticeably similar to Jodorowsky Dune's pre production art (some of which was also used to inspire art for Alien and Prometheus too, as well as Flash Gordon).
Kane's burial in space is less about protecting the ship, and more an extension of a "burial at sea" for ocean ships.
The 70s were a largely-braless era, for the fashion set (as an echo of bra-burning in the 60s). But also...summer blockbusters needed something to pull in teenage boys, without making it R-rated.
Bra-burning wasn't really a thing. There was one incident at the 1969 Miss America protest, but whether even a few bras were set alight (amongst many other "feminine" items) is well-disputed. The trope of feminist bra-burners was mostly journalistic hype, conflating the protest with actual draft-card burning. Women not wearing bras, however, definitely became widespread.
"Alien" was rated R. You're thinking of "Meatballs", which is rated PG and came out the same year as "Alien".Shanelle should watch that.
Going braless was way popular from the sixties through the nineties.
Thank you again for another great reaction If you like Sigourney Weaver try Gorilla's In The Mist.. It is based on the life of Dian Fossey.
I'm glad you loved this movie. The second one is a 180 and more focused on action but that is not a negative in this case. One thing I would like to point out is the score. The original done by Jerry Goldsmith was hacked up by Scott and editor Terry Rawlings to make it more minimalist. On one hand, I think it works, but his original was more avant-garde and used a lot of dissonant notes to unnerve the audience. Sort of like the scores that recreate the frequency that babies cry at to illicit that uneasy feeling in our species. I'm not sure, but their could be some examples of that in Goldsmith's work. The score to this is often overlooked which is sad. The alien doesn't appear until an hour in and yet you're on edge the entire time. If you are interested in hearing Goldsmith's original score , there are alternate audio tracks on DVD and Blu-ray copies.
Watched this movie dozens of times and just realized the grammatical error in the computer: "Insure protection of organism"
It should be *ensure* , unless they're paying premiums on policy for alien organisms
Probably just a leximoron. Bad speller I'd assume.
Very good review...Veronica Cartwright played Lambert already had a well established career like Witches of Eastwick,Invasion of the Body Snatchers(70's) she played Cassandra Crossing in 4 episodes of Xfiles as the Smoking Mans ex-wife,plus many other roles/movies,all the cast except for Weaver were established actors actually well known,you might be surprised at some of their roles/movies if you check IMDB.
And don't forget legendary The Birds with Veronica playing a little girl
“There are no bras in space…” - George Lucas
Or
"In space, no one can see your nipples!"
If you are going to watch the sequel, I'd recommend the director's cut. There are a couple of scenes early in the film that flesh out Ripley's character and put things that happen later in better context.
My girlfriend and I were so freaked out by the movie, that we ended up seeing it about 15 or 16 times at the theater. Even after seeing it many times, and knowing what was going to happen, we still jumped at the scary spots. Yeah, it was great. IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM.
There's an absolutely wonderful book called "Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo" done in the style of a children's' story picture book, that tells the plot of the movie from the slice-of-cat-life perspective. Given the subject matter, I wouldn't actually recommend it for children.
Although, that's never stopped people in the past. When this movie came out, Kenner Toys made action figures, playsets, and even a movie viewer toy based on this film. Years later, Froot Loops cereal had a commercial that recreated the facehugger scene.
Yeah, bras werent a big thing back in the 70s and 80s
Good Times
Having watched Alien when I was 8 or 9, I was absolutely ready for Aliens when it was released. I was 11, and a neighbor friend accompanied me to the theater. He wasn't allowed to watch R rated films, though, so he saw Howard The Duck 😖 instead. As Aliens was quite long, he was already waiting in the parking lot with my mother when I came out. I was like "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, "WOOOOOO"-ing like a madman. My friend tried to say that Howard The Duck was probably just as good, but I wasn't buying what he was selling 🤘
I really love the trivia sections in all your videos, I've watched a lot of different reaction videos from different creators, and you're the only one that I've seen do this! Also really enjoy the filmmaker's perspective, hearing details that I didn't pick up on when I watched the films myself is what makes reaction videos so enjoyable.
The same year Alien came out, Ridley Scott was hired by Dino De Laurentiis to direct Dune years after the Jodorowsky version fell apart. Ridley's version fell apart as well, and he went on to do Blade Runner.
@Gerald H Agree. I utterly despise Lynch's Dune.
I think it was a burial in space situation.
Great reaction ✌
You are now going to have to watch Mel Brooks' Space Balls, he actually has the crew from this movie in Space Balls doing a cameo.
One of the crew.
@@DMichaelAtLarge I thought there were two.
@@skyhawksailor8736 Maybe I missed one, but the only one I saw was John Hurt. The others were generic crew trying to duplicate the movie's crew.
@@skyhawksailor8736 Now you had me wondering, so I checked again. One of the black guys KINDA looks a little like Yaphet Kotto, but it definitely isn't him.
@@DMichaelAtLarge Thanks for correcting me, I have always thought it was at least two of the original crew.
Braless was the way to go in the 70’s, believe me I lived it .
Watch, The General, buster ketons masterpiece, its a black and white, silent, and all the stunts are shockingly real, and performed by buster himself, one of my top ten, along with alien, back to the future, and escape from New York, ps keep up the good work 💪
27:30 Frankly, if we ever develop the technology to put people into hyper sleep, I think people would be required to do it nude. Bras are not the only thing that is unnecessary.
Wearing clothes over your skin 27/7 for years would lead to skin break down and infection. There are other issues that clothing would create, along with quite a bit that just isn't known at this time, I think.
Nude hyper-sleep just makes everything easier.
Larry Nevin speculated the "Belters" (people who live and work in space full time) would practice nudism when not working outside, where pressure suits would be needed. It makes sense from a practical standpoint. If energy and other resources are limited, doing laundry is kind of a waste in a climate controlled, closed environment. Being nude in public is something most people can get used to quickly, especially if nudity is normal in a given situation.
Of course that can't really depict that in a movie.
Did you mean _Larry Niven?_
"It's a little bigger than I remember" - That's what she said!
technology she says as she looks at a miniature :p
Also, it's a delight to see someone really watch the movie as you do.
And I guess a Spaceship is the ultimate cabin in the woods
The graphics shown as they enter the atmosphere demonstrating the ship path/orientation are 3D CGI though, albeit very basic.
@@mnomadvfx That's true😃
"Ash. Is a hobbit, Ash is a God damn hobbit!"
Awesome reaction to a great movie, you discussed some great points about this movie.
Definitely check out Aliens The Special Edition that film is on par with this, it's bad ass.
Back Then we didn't use Minorities very much at all, Even Asian and Native American roles were Mostly Played by Caucasian Actors... TODAY, We're being "Over Exposed" to Minorities, as Every Show, Commercial or Even Comic Book are Over-Saturating These to "Appease" their Audience. The Superman and Lois Romance is ICONIC but Now Superman is Suddenly Gay?
I Feel that We need to use Local Statistics to Determine the Appropriate Ratio for a More Accurate Depiction for the Desired Settings and to be PROPERLY Inclusive.
I only just watched this recently myself! It’s so beautiful and tense. Even though I knew about the chest burster, it was still really upsetting! The face hugger is like all my arachnid nightmares made fleshy and I KNEW that it was made of real fleshy stuff.
Most of the actors here already had “made it” or went on to do big things, this being a big break for some as well as Sigourney.
Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm and John Hurt were already well established. John Hurt is practically acting royalty. Tom Skerritt was fairly successful before and more successful after. Yaphet Kotto was Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, and for the 6 year run of Homicide: Life on the Street was The larger than life Lt Giardello.
Niiice!
Alien shaped the sci-fi horror genre forever. Often copied, never bettered.
You seen Aliens yet, Shanelle? One of the greatest sequels of all time.
Alien 3 is ok, but a bummer of a movie.
Ignore Alien Resurrection and the Prometheus movies, they're hot garbage.
Also, can't believe you didn't recognise Bilbo Baggins, Ollivander and the pukey woman from Witches Of Eastwick!
Resurrection is a blast if you look at it like the goofy Dark Horse Aliens comics from around the same time.
Alien 3 is pure garbage and completely ruins Aliens.
@@DMichaelAtLarge Agreed wholeheartedly. It's been nearly 30 years, and I have never forgiven Alien 3. It took Alien Covenant coming along to finally surpass it as worst Alien movie, which Covenant achieved by just being awful.
@@BunBun299 With Prometheus being a close second.
I still want to see Neill Blomkamp's Alien movie.
@@DMichaelAtLarge That is a movie I would love to see.
You're one of the few people who picked up on the underwear thing. One of the themes of this movie is innocence. Ripley becomes a little girl again in the end. She looks like a child that's growing too fast out of her clothes. She sings a lullaby and returns to the womb, after having defeated the evil phallus monster.
That's another theme: The xenomorph represents both, male and female primary reproductive organs, and with teeth. Both Kane and Ripley are orally violated. Kane by the face hugger who also impregnates him, and Ripley by Ash with a rolled-up dirty magazine. His blood also looks like male ejaculate. He's a prime example of toxic masculinity, and he isn't even a man. In fact, all the men are horrible sexists. Ripley is visibly irritated by this, but Lambert seems to accept this as the natural order of things. Consequently, she's a useless girly girl who freezes in front of the xenomorph and dies.
The movie is also about motherhood. Kane gives birth to the alien. The ship's main computer is called MU/TH/UR and can only be accessed in a spherical room that looks just like a womb. Yet, it doesn't act very motherly. Ripley, OTOH, takes care of Jones and even endangers her own life to save him - she acts like a parent.
So i'd say, the movie is deeply feminist.
Ridley Scott is responsible for three of my favourite SciFi movies:
Alien, Blade runner and The Martian
And Gladiator. At least it's so historically inaccurate that it's almost science fiction.
In the 1970s and 1980s smoking was very normal, and they wanted to show that life on a commercial spacecraft was as simple and normal as life in any job on Earth.
If I remember correctly, the promotion for the movie said something like "in space no one can hear you scream".
In the long version there's a scene that explains why they couldn't find the remains of Dallas.
I'm glad not even you were able to foresee that Ash was a robot
I’ve always like Tom Skerritt, also in Top Gun, Space Camp, Contact & A River Runs Through It. The alien erupting from the stomach, repeated many times since, in Space Balls, even cartoons.
spoiler
As for the underwear.... it was the 70s, baby! Most prime time network television then would be TV14 today due to the burn-your-bra revolution of the decade.
Love this movie!
me too! As of this week haha
Just to add to the conversation about how the crew treated Ripley. In the corridor conversation with Dallas it is confirmed that while the rest of the crew have worked together many times before both Ash and Ripley were new members thus were not part of the close knit crew. Also before shooting began a small plot point was dropped from the shooting script that had Dallas and Ripley in a semi romantic relationship. And the Director's Cut has a bit more to say about Dallas' encounter with the Alien in the shafts. I saw Alien in the summer of 1979 at 14. One of my most vivid movie memories is watching the Chestburster scene. Saw it in the theater atleast 30 times. And read and collected every book and magazine ever written about Alien. Even owned the 18 inch figure that Kenner released in December '79. Alien quite literally changed how I viewed films forever.
For a 2nd flick, Scott knocked it out of the park. In spades. I hope you try his first flick (The Duellists is pretty great) sometime, even if on your own time.
Ha ha, joke's on you, girl. I've been to the future and everybody smokes like chimneys. Just kidding. But you should watch Millennium.
14:40 is one of the most savage jump-scares in cinema. You showed no emotion, lol. Shock? Not scared? Frozen in fear? How!?
I wish I got scared more easily, but I don't! LOL
@@ShanelleRiccio I get that, by now I'm so dead that the only things that scare me are when its properly built up to like in Haunting of Hill House.
@@ShanelleRiccio Don't I know it. I got dragged to The Ring when it came out and all I could think of was "How can I tell exactly when the idiot who made me sit through this gets home so I can call his phone and whisper 'Seven days...' when he picks it up." If I could have done it I figure I would have had a better than even chance of scarring him to death he was so easily frightened. And don't even get me started on Blair Witch. That movie had me yawning and giggling until about the last 5-10 seconds of found footage which had the only scare in the film. And that wasn't a jump or slash scare, it was more horrid realization. Oh dear, I hope i kept that vague enough.
I hope you;re going to react to The Sixth Sense soon (do not research it and I hope no one has spoiled it for you), You'll love it as a well crafted film.
Enjoyable reaction. Yes, out of all the things I could comment on, I chose this item: My 2 cents on the braless phenomenon. 1. The majority viewing population for this movie is probably male. Female nudity (partial or complete) has a naturally penetrating and connecting effect on males. It secures attention and creates a psycho-sexual bond between the character and the male viewer. It increases the male viewer's personal investment in the welfare of the character. 2. It displays vulnerability which heightens awareness of the potential for trauma. Because the audience identifies with the protagonist, the audience experiences a heightened level of vulnerability along with the character, thereby heightening the suspense experience. It's an approach that works remarkably well. I wonder if you figure the fact that you're a woman into how you respond to and interpret movie scenes. I know that being a male predisposes me towards certain points of view. Not always or with everything, but a lot. Peace.