Bill Hader reacts to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic Alien. Source: Eli Roth's History of Horror Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4djlRs0...
Huge props to Dan O'Bannon. When the question came up, what should the alien look like, he opened a book of HR Giger's art (O'Bannon and Giger met on Jodorowsky's aborted Dune project) and pointed to a piece called Necronom IV. With very few small cosmetic changes, Necronom IV became the Alien, and Giger was commissioned to design the facehugger, chestburster, Space Jockey, etc. O'Bannon deserves more credit than he gets, for the look of the film.
Just a little bit of interesting insight here, Giger did some initial designs for the Chestburster which he and Ridley didn't feel satisfied with. Giger once said, no matter what he did it always looked like a deformed turkey or something. So he was really not happy with it. I don't remember who it was but someone suggested at some point to simply use the "orignial" design of the adult creature as base and simply making it smaller.
Yeah, Dan O'Bannon doesn't get nearly as much credit as he deserves, just look at the Alien movies Ridley Scott made without him. From what I remember Scott actually came in pretty late in production and the human side was designed by Moebius (another Jodorowski's Dune alumni). Even his involvement in solid movies like Screamers, Total Recall, Return of the Living Dead, Dead & Buried and Life Force shows he's more than just a fluke.
Did it really happen like that? Because I know that their other artist and set designer (forgotten his name, but he designed the Nostromo and many other practical sets) did an alien design also. It was a great design, artistically, but didn't capture what they were going for. I'm just wondering if it really played out the way you described it. I mean it could very well have, and they still asked their artists to all submit an alien concept design despite already being confident that they would go with H.R. Giger's style of art. I can't even remember whom the final decision fell upon.
@@Aquascape_Dreaming Ron Cobb is the fellow you're thinking of, and yeah his designs for the human tech are some of the best in the history of Sci Fi. I think whether by plan or by accident, having two designers one for the humans and one for the xeno's really paid off .
Barry essentially becomes as unhinged as anything before it and it really was a let down as far as building scenes up only to tear them down with no care other than the exact moment on screen. Surface level, he's a good director. But honestly rewatching anything hader has worked on is a bit like seeing the wires, it's just too played out for a good shot.
That describes the failure of so many Marvel movies lately, they don't do character development, the characters are just flat, they have no heros journey.
I always felt that was shown best by Alien vs Alien 3. In Alien, you knew every character. You knew people like them, and could relate to them. You'd remember their names at the end of the film. In Alien 3, even though I've seen it probably 10 times, I can barely remember half of them, and couldn't have cared less when they died, since they were just alien fodder. It makes a difference.
I loved seeing how Roger Corman dealt with this in his very low budget horror movies. It takes a lot to make you care about a character and want them to survive but not much at all to make them such terrible characters that you love seeing them get the horrible death they deserve.
For myself the most frightening part of this movie was when Dallas was in the “vents” and said “ I want to get out of here” … we are so used to a male hero devoid of fear , but that scene reminds me of being younger and stuck in a dark room and wanting to leave , that scene is my favorite part
Yeah, the fear felt so real, so primal. There was true panic. Not superheroes going out of their way to fight the monster, but just cargo shippers who want to make it home alive.
As a kid in the 80's, I watched it after midnight on a TV picking up the broadcast from an antenna so the picture was grainy and static. Made it seem like a lost transmission from space, and realistic. Scary stuff for a little kid to watch.
Aliens is a Kiddy movie joke compared to Alien. Alien has a timeless quality to it whereas aliens looks like the 80s threw up. I’ll never understand it’s hype.
@@allthingsclassicrock I saw Alien in 1980. The hype I've seen has usually gone to the 1st film. The 2nd film is praised, too. It's a good action film.
Interesting bit of trivia - they weren't entirely acting. From an old interview the cast did: Sigourney Weaver: All it said in the script was, "This thing emerges." Everyone was wearing raincoats - we should have been a little suspicious. And, oh God, the smell. It was just awful. Ron Shusett (executive producer/ screenwriter): Veronica Cartwright - when the blood hit her, she passed out. I heard from Yaphet Kotto's wife that after that scene he went to his room and wouldn't talk to anybody. Yaphet Kotto: Oh man! It was real, man. We didn't see that coming. We were freaked. The actors were all frightened. And Veronica nutted out.
@@Blackhoodie85similarly to the audience, even the actors hadn't seen anything like it on screen ever before. I just wonder if that scene had made such a profound impact on them all, that it set the mood for the actors for the rest of the film. It perhaps helped them to appreciate how special a project this was, and they wanted to do it justice.
The story goes that the music Jerry Goldsmith initially wrote was too uplifting and Ridley Scott rejected it. As they wanted to use some existing music by Goldsmith that they thought was a better fit and Goldsmith wasn’t particularly happy about this. I don’t remember what the eventual outcome was whether he wrote new music as a result of this or they did reuse an older work.
I saw Alien in the theatre with my mom back in May of ‘79. As a 13 years old I can tell you it was one of the scariest and most intense experiences of my life. With only his second feature film Ridley had clearly established himself as a visual auteur.
Jealous of that experience. I was born in '81 and If I could have experienced any movie for the first time, at the time it was first released, I'd pick Alien. I mean seeing it today for the first time would just not be the same, there's been so much stuff since that have been influenced by it, it wouldn't have the same impact, but man, in '79 seeing that shit must have been mind blowing.
I was only 6 at the time. I did see it about 4 years later at age 10 or 11 at an older neighbor kid's house who had it on a reel to reel projector! It was crazy.
Yes, me too! Except I was 15 and we saw it Memorial Day weekend with my mother and my poor 8yo brother lol.. My experience was identical to yours. It was incredibly intense, consciousness expanding, almost spiritual. An experience I will never forget. I am turning 60 soon and it has stayed with me my whole life. It became a part of me.
I sometimes wish I were old enough to have seen movies like Aliens or Star Wars or etc. in theatres. I don't think I've ever seen something I was blown away by. Maybe Mad Max: Fury Road or Bladerunner 2049 but something tells me it isn't the same haha
I was also 13, going on 14, in the summer of '79, and my dad took me to see this amazing film! My mom was NOT at all for him doing this, and even said so. He assured her, the 'R' rating was probably for some language, and not "boobies", or excessive "nudity". She was convinced it was going to be some "shlock" film with lots of nudity! Well, when we got home after this horrifying experience of a movie, she took one look at me, with my hair plastered to my head, white as a ghost, salami stains on my under arms and chest, and looked right at my dad and said, "I KNEW it! I KNEW it!" He assured her, there was no nudity what-so-ever. The bad language was really only a few words, and not even that bad. So she asked him, then why the heck does he look like that? All he could say, at the time, was that this was one VERY scary movie, and one scene in particular, which he tried to explain to her, was what really did it for us.....not to mention the "alien" was nothing like we'd ever seen before! She had that look, like, un huh....and just walked off shaking her head! To this day, I have always loved "Alien", and consider it to be second ONLY to 1971's "The Andromeda Strain", which is my most favorite movie of all-time!
Check out Pandorum. I'm sure it's not in the same stratosphere as Alien, but it's still a good time, especially the beginning and the ending. Lots of very, very dark scenes with bright flashlights. Apparently on set his crew was like, "Are you sure you want it _this_ dark?" But _man_ does it look beautiful and have a great blu-ray transfer.
@@Selrisitai I liked it. They really stretched a dime to a dollar with the budget. Plus I’ve been a fan of Ben Foster forever. I’ll watch anything he’s in.
Cinematographers and REAL directors with an eye for the bigger picture are what we're really missing... Great directors can do magical things with CGI, there's a reason why ILM is a keystone in the history of cinema regardless of your opinion of the literary quality of the media it produced over the decades. Take the guy who did Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that was all modern RED cams and CGI effects. but it looks wonderful because it's well implemented, whereas The Hobbit uses the same tech of the same era but looks absolutely ridiculous by comparison.
As overplayed as it is through multiple sequels, the "xenomorph" is the only movie monster that has entered my nightmares as an adult. A few years ago I dreamt that an alien was curled up in the corner of my bedroom. Much like with Ripley in the shuttle it was just chilling, like it was asleep. I realized that the only reason it hadn't killed me was because it didn't remotely view me as a threat. As I plotted rushing to the door as fast as possible I could feel it staring at me (even without eyes) and knew that while it hadn't moved an inch, it was now coiled like a spring waiting for me to jump out of bed.
I also think the facehugger is a terrifying concept. When I watch the scene of them assessing John Hurt with it on his face in the lab, I always feel they are not scared enough 😂 like they are comfortable walking around it when, in theory, it could just jump off Hurt and onto one of them. Just the visual of it is so iconic.
Wow. Same. I watch a lot of horror, but to this day the Alien is the only creature I have nightmares even as an adult. In my nightmare, I'm being stalked. I hear the alien more than I see it. It crawls in vents, or through windows. I can hear the thumping of its footsteps. The dread of waiting and unknowing in my dreams is perfectly incapsulated by Ridley's Alien. A testament to the haunting power of this film.
It makes sense considering Giger got inspiration from his nightmares. Its a true nightmare creature and its presence in dreams is something that can't truly be replicated on screen. But if you know it from you dreams then then you know it on the screen.
I have had at least 3 dreams that I can remember about Xenomorphs. Every time I am with a group of people and we are armed to fight them but I always know that it was a losing battle. I wake myself up before they get me. The setting is usually in or around ancient structures made of megalithic stone.
I love that game, so realistic, the first game I ever played where sounds in your environment are heard by the characters in the came. I remember someone walking in on me playing sand aid something and the alien killed me, they didn't believe the game was listening.
Ditto! I will also add, the opening few minutes of Alien is an absolute masterclass in scene set up. The key here is patience. With a soundtrack just dripping with atmosphere, using slow continuous camera movement, illustrating the scale of the Nostromo from the outside, then from inside the corridors. The reflection shots of the helmet visors as the computers spring to life with their stark, beeps and blips, were nothing short of brilliant. The funny thing is...if this movie came out in theaters today, it would not seem dated in any way! It was literally decades ahead of its time! Bravo Ridley, bravo!
I watched Alien for the first time with my parents when I was maybe 10 or so? My sister and I were on the couch, terrified out of our minds during the vent sequence when my father, who had went to the kitchen to get a beer, snuck up behind us and jump-scared us in time with the Alien jumping out at Dallas. I was so scared that I straight up bolted, tripped over the coffee table and spilled drinks everywhere XD For weeks after, my sister used to sprint down the hall to come get me if she had to use the bathroom at night and would force me to inspect the bathroom and open the shower/cover the exhaust fan before she would even step foot in there. What a movie man, truly the perfection of that "cassette-futurism" aesthetic as well.
@PBRatLord my friend as a kid I saw both Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott and The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter on TV in the 1990s as a kid and Alien (1979) well I would always check the air vents to make sure the Alien wasn't crawling in them and The Thing (1982) winter became not my favorite season anymore after watching The Thing (1982) so I wouldn't go outside for a couple of weeks after watching The Thing (1982) during the cold winter weather only as well:).
Best film ever. Tiny budget, relentless pressure from the producers. Superb sets and spacecraft models. No cgi. All the little details done from scratch. Amazing performances. The most terrifying monster ever. Excellent editing and a terrifying movie. Amazing score and eerie background sound effects.
I love listening to Bill Hadar talk about anything in films, TV, or comedy. He’s a professional but still has all of the enthusiasm he’s still had his whole life and brings the knowledge of a fan AND a studied professional. AND he’s as funny as ever as he goes through it.
One of the best horror movies ever made. Saw this at 14 yo when it came out. Scared the daylights out of me. The Veronica Cartwright death scene with the slow build up and the alien seemingly savoring every moment until it murders her is just genius.
Honestly I think the only way Cameron could make a followup with a shot at being considered an equal was to take it in a completely different direction--make it a completely different *genre* of movie. The subsequent chapters tried to take it back to one or the other or some mixture and never got the respect. So Alien is probably the greatest SF horror movie, and Aliens is one of the great SF action movies (and two of the other contenders were also made by Cameron).
today we live in a fake work trying to relive something the never lived through. there are so many fakes women trying to PROJECT SOMETHING THEY ARE NOT.
Parents took me to Alien when I was nine. I was peeking between the seats from the egg scene on. Some lady in the audience lost her mind at the chest burster scene.
Absolutely LOVE Alien!! Was a Giger fan before the movie came out from a magazine called Omni. His artwork was often in with different stories. I had a cat named Giger as well. Saw it the summer before 9th grade. Still love it and have lost count how many times I’ve seen it.
I personally feel like the most terrifying element of this film is the sheer sense of claustrophobia and abandonment it gives you. But Bill Hader explains so much of what makes the cinematography great here. It's just an amazing movie top-to-bottom.
Seeing Tom Skerritt as the leading role of the movie instead of Sigourney Weaver is something I had never even considered. The third movie had already been released long before I had ever seen the original, so it was already cemented into public knowledge that Weaver is the hero, and Skerritt had faded into obscurity. But when the movie was released, Weaver was a relative unknown and Skerritt was the most famous actor in the movie. Damn, it would have been so cool to see this movie during the original release.
I’ll never forget the first time I watched Alien. It was the mid eighties and I was off school sick. My parents probably wouldn’t have let me watch it as they were fairly strict when it came to age appropriate movies (I was twelve). Being home alone I took my chance and put it on but as I’d heard it was scary I sat with the VHS remote in my hand with my thumb hovering over the stop button the whole way through. The movie blew me away and I have loved it ever since that day.
ALIEN is the only movie ad on TV that scared the CRAP out of me. I was babysitting alone a lot at that time and the ad was just terrifying. Then to see it in the theater, people were jumping and yelling. It was AWESOME.
A lot of the best movies I've ever seen feel like a masterful high wire dance between the viewer feeling a bit detached and voyeuristic while still connecting with the characters on a human level. It's a wonderful thing to behold! What a movie!
Bill really knows the elements that make this film so good. It's been in my top 5 for a long, long time, and my only current dilemma is how old my son needs to be before I show it to him! He's currently 11 and still think he's way too young for this intense sci-fi horror.
Yeah, I'd give it a couple of years. While his generation is more prepared for weird things, as Hader says, Alien was designed to surprise and frighten viewers, specifically by *not* falling into the usual horror movie cliches. As such, it gets past your expectations and can genuinely scare you in ways you don't expect. As Weremoogle says below, though, you know your kid best. Thirteen at minimum, maybe?
Alien and Predator were the first R-rated movies I ever saw. I was 3 😂 To be fair, I think both movies scared the shit out of me, but I ended up watching both (and the rest of each franchise) enough times that I just wanted the cool toys.
My god, I just saw it in theatres for the first time. The sound is such an integral part of the movie, jumpscare that hit hard, and the tension that builds over the first 45 minutes! Perfection
I love Alien and I love Bill Hader. He's so great at breaking down scenes and figuring out what makes them work. I think I could listen to him talk about movies for hours. I must admit though, as much as I like Alien, Aliens is my favorite of the bunch. The marines, their weapons, their banter, etc. I remember how creepy it was when they were doing their first sweep of the base and seeing the clues left behind that indicate that some dark and serious stuff went down before they arrived. It played so well off of the first movie too. Can you trust the android? If one alien was bad, what about a whole bunch of them? So good.
Couldn’t agree more, accidentally saw the chest buster scene when I was 3 when I woke up and went downstairs to talk with my parents. Had nightmares for a while BUT it changed me into an enormous horror movie fan.
One of the reasons that scene works so well with the chestburster is the actors didn't know about the chest burst, they weren't told this was going to happen before it happened so the panic and visceral reactions you see on their faces are real. She freaked when the blood splattered on her face in real life/film and it was captured beautifully. Honestly, its my favorite horror film, I've watched it I can't tell you how many times. That jump scare in the tunnels still makes me jump a bit. I especially love introducing this movie to people who have NEVER seen it before. Its fantastically scary in all the right ways and beautifully shot.
Wrong. They knew about it. They read the script, were given direction and were on the set as it was all being put together. It’s nonsense to think they had absolutely no clue what was going to happen. The only thing that was a surprise was the amount of fake blood and gore used. They didn’t expect it to violently shoot out at them as much as it did. That’s all.
Like the other guy said this is a bit of an urban legend. They knew what was going to happen. However, Ridley Scott had the pressure increased on the fake blood and none of them expected to get it splattered all over them.
When they're at the table eating, leading up to the chest burst scene, the looks on Ash's face mean so much more after you've seen the movie at least once.
Ridley’s run of Aliens, Bladerunner, Legend is just astounding, each of those films half invented the visual grammar for every horror, Sci fi, futuristic dystopia, high fantasy movie that followed for the following like 20-30 yrs. it’s incredible, Ridley Scott is a genius, no one builds a better world
When I was like 8, I couldn't sleep.. So I got out of bed and took a peek downstairs to see what my parents were watching.. It just happened to be the chest-burster scene. It scarred me for years.
@@Njbear7453 - Not to shit on Cronenberg's first few films, but I don't think they're nearly as good as Videodrome, the Fly, and Dead Ringers. Other apparent counterexamples are Hitchcock, Kieślowski, and Kubrick.
That jump scare Bill talks about, I see what he's saying, but I always laughed at it because it looked like the alien was doing jazz hands. That was my initial impression, and I couldn't unsee it.
Yeah, I've thought about that, too... I think a more aggressive move like an attack motion / movement would have been better than "Surprise!!!!!!" hands
I said it at 17 years old in 1979 and I say it today at 61 in 2024. Alien is the single most terrifying film I’ve ever seen in my life. Affected me for years.
I love hearing about movies from actors and directors points of view, because they are the only people I can truly say are probably more passionate about movies than I am.
I remember when i was in middle school, around '93. I wasnt allowed to watch R rated movies, nor did my parents for the most part. But i was asleep one night and my dad came into the bedroom and woke me up quietly (as i had younger brothers) sayin "hey, we wanna show you something". And i go out to the living room and my parents are watching Alien.Grantted it was on tv so it was edited. But at such a young age i fell in love with it.Its so amazing. And im glad i have that core memory with my parents
So happy Bill Hader picked up on the documentary vibe of ALIEN. Lack of music stings and formulaic plot indeed. And that the last survivor bothers to find and rescue the cat is just the chef's kiss to this incredible movie.
The vison, the artistry, the script, pacing and the cast makes it unmatched, the alien could have been ridiculed but the H.R.Giger design just makes it something otherworldly which is outstanding considering the quality and impact of a lot of 'monsters' in the sci-fi genre not long before that or even after it.
I love how Hader really comments on the more tactical aspects of film making. The use of music, motion, shot angles, etc. You also see this stuff in his series "Barry".
Every shot is a work of art. Scott really pushed for the European chiaroscuro style of lighting scenes for a big-budget Hollywood production. About the only one that had done it previously was Francis Ford Coppola in the Godfather films where the studio execs hated it. Scott was perfect for this because he already knew how to shoot from the inside out and be confident in his technical abilities regardless of what studio execs said. He also went with the naturalist style of micing the dialogue (reminds me of 70s Robert Altman films) where characters speak at different volumes depending on their location and there is room ambiance and dialogue overlap
Scott was amazing. The crew who built the set in England was made up of true craftsman and artist. And Giger was a perfect fit. His artwork was macabre. It embraced a carnal instinct with elements of mythically advanced technology. The actors melded together perfectly. Not one bad performance. The movie has aged very well. All the CGI and unlimited budgets still haven't captured an audience like that movie. I wish I was old enough to have experienced this in theaters having no idea what I was getting into.
It was still pretty effective on home video I can assure you, lol. When choosing what to see we'd hear 'oh thats a good movie' from friends, but much of the time we rented vids by cover alone because trailers were to be found only before other movies or sometimes on the telly (late night for a horror) so yea - nobody knew what to expect when they put it on. Just that it was a sci fi horror-- probably like a timid Hammer movie. How wrong we were.. I still tease my little bro with how he screamed and hid behind the couch watching Alien, and couldn't even get through the entire movie until he was about 15
I remember the first time I saw Alien as a teenager in the early 2000’s. I remember thinking how crazy it would have been to see it in theaters. To this day, it is my favorite film of all time. As much as I love Aliens, Alien is still the GOAT for me. Also, Aliens would not have been possible without Alien.
Just saw the rerelease in the theater. The quality of the update, combined with the direction/visuals, made it seem like it could have been made just yesterday and not in ‘79. It truly is a timeless movie/story. It will be as good 100 years from now, as it was the day it opened.
Fun fact: The set was created by the same team that worked on the millennium falcon. That's why it looks kind of similar. They wanted to use real retired bomber parts, real computers, real buttons. That's why it looks so real compared to other sci fi films. Another fun fact, is that was Sigourney's first movie. She had no clue it was going to go anywhere, but apparentley it did and so did her career.
I remember reading about it in magazine periodicals. They did a good job of fleshing out the director’s vision for the movie….a year in advance of it’s release. Such as, changing the gender of some characters without any re-writes. And how space travel had advanced so much it was like truckers had become astronauts. And the notion of the haunted house in space - where you are essentially trapped. Also talked about HR Ginger’s involvement and exploring life cycles.
I went to family friend 12th bday party sleepover, when i was about 6 years old. Great night. We started watching a film called House Party, it was hilarious, we were laughing so much. I was in heaven , hanging out with the big boys, watching adult movies with lots of swearing. Then the movie finished, and they put on Alien, followed by Nightmare on Elm St, followed by The Dark side of the Moon. I had nightmares for months, and am still traumatized by that night. I remember Tom Skerritt getting killed, and the the cat Jonesy. And when Freddy Krueger kills the girl in her sleep while the boyfriend is screaming in horror, and he's covered in blood when the police burst through the door. I had trouble going to the bathroom after cos i was scared something would get me. Even being in a room alone was enough to scare me. Thank you Ridley Scott! Great Movie though :)
What he said about Scott not being a horror guy effecting the movie in a good way is so true. Its so procedural at the beginning when the alien shows up it almost feels like its barged in on the wrong movie and has decided to terrorize these guys instead. The alien is as unfathomable to the main cast as it is to the viewer
Opening week of Alien I found myself at the Egyptian theater cluelessly watching it, and in no time at all, many of us were hanging from the chandelier.
Born in '73. Saw it on pirate video. Shat my pants. THE greatest. Adore this movie. We did the Alien Run at the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus , London. Shat my pants, again. Twice.
I saw this movie with my sister-in-law when I was twelve. First movie I saw that left me really frightened even after it was over. I remember looking over at my sister-in-law driving home afterward, asking her what she thought of it, secretly hoping that an adult would project some calm reassuring energy to me. She didn't, she seemed just as frightened as me. Uh-oh...
When i watch this movie i cant help but think about the science officer 'Veronica Cartwright' because she was also the little girl in Hitchcock's The Birds. Wow, two ground breaking movies of different eras.
I first saw Alien at the Cinerama 70mm in Seattle....two young teenage girls in front of me totally freaked out screaming at the chest bursting scene.....they missed most of the rest of the movie because they just couldn't look. Just amazing.
I still remember watching the chestburster scene for the first time as a kid. I was just stunned and felt frozen to my seat. I watched Alien for the first time on VHS and remember vividly where I was at the time.
Love hearing him talk about horror films like this, Evil Dead, etc . When is Hader going to direct his own horror? Just like Jordan Peele, he could add his own unique perspective
Alien is amazing. One of the reasons the chest burster meal scene worked so well and felt so natural is because John Hurt, the guy the alien pops out of, was the only actor there that knew where the alien was coming from. The rest of the cast was just told that the alien would appear. The disgust, surprise, and fear were all as real as you can get from an actor because it was real.
As mentioned earlier in these comments, that's an urban myth. The chest burster scene was a major piece of prop work, with Kane's body from the shoulders down being hidden beneath the table. What the cast weren't expecting was the amount of blood that spurted out and hit them - that's why there's such a great reaction - especially from Lambert.
Alien, Blade Runner... I wish Ridley Scott had kept more true to 'that' going forth. It seems as if he can't quite shake the commercials and their fundamental vacuous nature
I think he's trying, but is a victim of his own success. He wanted Prometheus to be an entirely new franchise with themes similar to Blade Runner and Alien, but the studio execs told him "no" and we got what we got. Raised by Wolves was looking to be another great franchise, but the show got cancelled. Basically, he's big enough that he can get large projects green lit, but not small enough to just sort of fuck around and do whatever.
I was 12 in 1979 and I heard all about 'Alien' and 'Mad Max' from my older friends. They talked about these movies with awe. I was glad when I got to see them a few years later on VHS that they were truly awesome movies that lived up to the hype.
Hader explains it so eloquently .
He knows his stuff man. Dude is probably a literal genius, love him.
I like to listen to him break things down, he seems very intelligent
The casting was incredible. True character development through subtle detail.
Huge props to Dan O'Bannon. When the question came up, what should the alien look like, he opened a book of HR Giger's art (O'Bannon and Giger met on Jodorowsky's aborted Dune project) and pointed to a piece called Necronom IV. With very few small cosmetic changes, Necronom IV became the Alien, and Giger was commissioned to design the facehugger, chestburster, Space Jockey, etc. O'Bannon deserves more credit than he gets, for the look of the film.
Yeah, always took issue with ppl calling it “Ridley Scott’s” Alien, the introduction of Giger, the original script, the whole concept was O’Bannon
Just a little bit of interesting insight here, Giger did some initial designs for the Chestburster which he and Ridley didn't feel satisfied with. Giger once said, no matter what he did it always looked like a deformed turkey or something. So he was really not happy with it. I don't remember who it was but someone suggested at some point to simply use the "orignial" design of the adult creature as base and simply making it smaller.
Yeah, Dan O'Bannon doesn't get nearly as much credit as he deserves, just look at the Alien movies Ridley Scott made without him. From what I remember Scott actually came in pretty late in production and the human side was designed by Moebius (another Jodorowski's Dune alumni). Even his involvement in solid movies like Screamers, Total Recall, Return of the Living Dead, Dead & Buried and Life Force shows he's more than just a fluke.
Did it really happen like that? Because I know that their other artist and set designer (forgotten his name, but he designed the Nostromo and many other practical sets) did an alien design also. It was a great design, artistically, but didn't capture what they were going for.
I'm just wondering if it really played out the way you described it. I mean it could very well have, and they still asked their artists to all submit an alien concept design despite already being confident that they would go with H.R. Giger's style of art. I can't even remember whom the final decision fell upon.
@@Aquascape_Dreaming Ron Cobb is the fellow you're thinking of, and yeah his designs for the human tech are some of the best in the history of Sci Fi. I think whether by plan or by accident, having two designers one for the humans and one for the xeno's really paid off .
Bill Hader is gonna be one hell of a film director.
He loves everything that's GOOD, regardless of genre. His taste is impeccable.
His director credits on Barry are almost all fantastic.
He already is.
His directing on Barry is phenomenal
Barry essentially becomes as unhinged as anything before it and it really was a let down as far as building scenes up only to tear them down with no care other than the exact moment on screen. Surface level, he's a good director. But honestly rewatching anything hader has worked on is a bit like seeing the wires, it's just too played out for a good shot.
Where most horror movies go wrong is the lack of character development. If you’re emotionally invested in a character, you care what happens to them.
That describes the failure of so many Marvel movies lately, they don't do character development, the characters are just flat, they have no heros journey.
I always felt that was shown best by Alien vs Alien 3.
In Alien, you knew every character. You knew people like them, and could relate to them. You'd remember their names at the end of the film.
In Alien 3, even though I've seen it probably 10 times, I can barely remember half of them, and couldn't have cared less when they died, since they were just alien fodder.
It makes a difference.
I loved seeing how Roger Corman dealt with this in his very low budget horror movies. It takes a lot to make you care about a character and want them to survive but not much at all to make them such terrible characters that you love seeing them get the horrible death they deserve.
This applies to all movies and tv shows.
@@prv2182about to say that, most modern movies have no characterisation.
I remember the reaction in the theater when the twist of Ash being a robot was revealed. Actual mind blowing moment.
For myself the most frightening part of this movie was when Dallas was in the “vents” and said “ I want to get out of here” … we are so used to a male hero devoid of fear , but that scene reminds me of being younger and stuck in a dark room and wanting to leave , that scene is my favorite part
Yeah, the fear felt so real, so primal. There was true panic. Not superheroes going out of their way to fight the monster, but just cargo shippers who want to make it home alive.
Most males are devoid of some fear..real life, not fairy tales.
@@Workerbee-zy5nx wat?
@@Workerbee-zy5nx bot
Wat @@Workerbee-zy5nx
As a kid in the 80's, I watched it after midnight on a TV picking up the broadcast from an antenna so the picture was grainy and static. Made it seem like a lost transmission from space, and realistic. Scary stuff for a little kid to watch.
That's quite a mnemonic way to experience it, for sure.
‘Aliens’ gets most of the credit but ‘Alien’ has always been my favorite in the series. It’s amazing to this day
Aliens is a great popcorn action movie, but the the first Alien is more atmospheric and terrifying. I prefer the first one too.
Aliens is a Kiddy movie joke compared to Alien. Alien has a timeless quality to it whereas aliens looks like the 80s threw up. I’ll never understand it’s hype.
Agreed. Just guessing, but I think the hype for Aliens may have been an attempt to pacify the horror created by the original.
@@allthingsclassicrock I saw Alien in 1980. The hype I've seen has usually gone to the 1st film. The 2nd film is praised, too. It's a good action film.
@@barryschwarz Aliens is a well made movie for sure. I just don’t get why some call it the greatest sequel ever, a masterpiece, etc.
Great acting made that chestburst feel real too. John Hurt WAS hurting.
And Veronica Cartwright’s reaction! Tops.
Interesting bit of trivia - they weren't entirely acting. From an old interview the cast did:
Sigourney Weaver: All it said in the script was, "This thing emerges." Everyone was wearing raincoats - we should have been a little suspicious. And, oh God, the smell. It was just awful.
Ron Shusett (executive producer/ screenwriter): Veronica Cartwright - when the blood hit her, she passed out. I heard from Yaphet Kotto's wife that after that scene he went to his room and wouldn't talk to anybody.
Yaphet Kotto: Oh man! It was real, man. We didn't see that coming. We were freaked. The actors were all frightened. And Veronica nutted out.
@@Blackhoodie85similarly to the audience, even the actors hadn't seen anything like it on screen ever before. I just wonder if that scene had made such a profound impact on them all, that it set the mood for the actors for the rest of the film. It perhaps helped them to appreciate how special a project this was, and they wanted to do it justice.
She was also great in Philip Kaufman's 'Body Snatchers' remake, just a year earlier, with another stellar ensemble cast.
The music Jerry Goldsmith composed for the movie doesn't get mentioned enough. Incredible score. On point the whole film.
I agree. It's so good goes hand in hand seamlessly with the epic terror it helps create
Well said 👏
Yep! So mysterious and unsettling! 💜
The story goes that the music Jerry Goldsmith initially wrote was too uplifting and Ridley Scott rejected it. As they wanted to use some existing music by Goldsmith that they thought was a better fit and Goldsmith wasn’t particularly happy about this. I don’t remember what the eventual outcome was whether he wrote new music as a result of this or they did reuse an older work.
@@nickd1973 ahh ok! Interesting
I saw Alien in the theatre with my mom back in May of ‘79. As a 13 years old I can tell you it was one of the scariest and most intense experiences of my life. With only his second feature film Ridley had clearly established himself as a visual auteur.
Jealous of that experience. I was born in '81 and If I could have experienced any movie for the first time, at the time it was first released, I'd pick Alien. I mean seeing it today for the first time would just not be the same, there's been so much stuff since that have been influenced by it, it wouldn't have the same impact, but man, in '79 seeing that shit must have been mind blowing.
I was only 6 at the time. I did see it about 4 years later at age 10 or 11 at an older neighbor kid's house who had it on a reel to reel projector! It was crazy.
Yes, me too! Except I was 15 and we saw it Memorial Day weekend with my mother and my poor 8yo brother lol.. My experience was identical to yours. It was incredibly intense, consciousness expanding, almost spiritual. An experience I will never forget. I am turning 60 soon and it has stayed with me my whole life. It became a part of me.
I sometimes wish I were old enough to have seen movies like Aliens or Star Wars or etc. in theatres. I don't think I've ever seen something I was blown away by. Maybe Mad Max: Fury Road or Bladerunner 2049 but something tells me it isn't the same haha
I was also 13, going on 14, in the summer of '79, and my dad took me to see this amazing film! My mom was NOT at all for him doing this, and even said so. He assured her, the 'R' rating was probably for some language, and not "boobies", or excessive "nudity". She was convinced it was going to be some "shlock" film with lots of nudity!
Well, when we got home after this horrifying experience of a movie, she took one look at me, with my hair plastered to my head, white as a ghost, salami stains on my under arms and chest, and looked right at my dad and said, "I KNEW it! I KNEW it!" He assured her, there was no nudity what-so-ever. The bad language was really only a few words, and not even that bad. So she asked him, then why the heck does he look like that? All he could say, at the time, was that this was one VERY scary movie, and one scene in particular, which he tried to explain to her, was what really did it for us.....not to mention the "alien" was nothing like we'd ever seen before! She had that look, like, un huh....and just walked off shaking her head!
To this day, I have always loved "Alien", and consider it to be second ONLY to 1971's "The Andromeda Strain", which is my most favorite movie of all-time!
I don't know how this came to be on my feed but I love Alien and I loved Bill Hader, so thanks for this.
Always felt like this was the first movie to use a pitch black set. The way they used light sources to create atmosphere and shadows was so brilliant.
If you’ve seen Halloween they used blue lights shadows to hide Michael Myers; ie the scene at the end with Laurie and you see his face.
Check out Pandorum. I'm sure it's not in the same stratosphere as Alien, but it's still a good time, especially the beginning and the ending. Lots of very, very dark scenes with bright flashlights. Apparently on set his crew was like, "Are you sure you want it _this_ dark?"
But _man_ does it look beautiful and have a great blu-ray transfer.
@@Selrisitai I liked it. They really stretched a dime to a dollar with the budget. Plus I’ve been a fan of Ben Foster forever. I’ll watch anything he’s in.
@@micahclawrence Oh. :(
Ridley is a master of lighting. Blade Runner may be the best lit film ever and this is a close 2nd
Practical effects! We miss you 💀
Cinematographers and REAL directors with an eye for the bigger picture are what we're really missing... Great directors can do magical things with CGI, there's a reason why ILM is a keystone in the history of cinema regardless of your opinion of the literary quality of the media it produced over the decades.
Take the guy who did Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that was all modern RED cams and CGI effects. but it looks wonderful because it's well implemented, whereas The Hobbit uses the same tech of the same era but looks absolutely ridiculous by comparison.
Yeah, like Mac & Me, Solarbabies, and Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend. 🤨
Alien is still a classic and holds up because the script and the cast were SOOO good.
As overplayed as it is through multiple sequels, the "xenomorph" is the only movie monster that has entered my nightmares as an adult. A few years ago I dreamt that an alien was curled up in the corner of my bedroom. Much like with Ripley in the shuttle it was just chilling, like it was asleep. I realized that the only reason it hadn't killed me was because it didn't remotely view me as a threat. As I plotted rushing to the door as fast as possible I could feel it staring at me (even without eyes) and knew that while it hadn't moved an inch, it was now coiled like a spring waiting for me to jump out of bed.
I also think the facehugger is a terrifying concept. When I watch the scene of them assessing John Hurt with it on his face in the lab, I always feel they are not scared enough 😂 like they are comfortable walking around it when, in theory, it could just jump off Hurt and onto one of them. Just the visual of it is so iconic.
Wow. Same. I watch a lot of horror, but to this day the Alien is the only creature I have nightmares even as an adult. In my nightmare, I'm being stalked. I hear the alien more than I see it. It crawls in vents, or through windows. I can hear the thumping of its footsteps. The dread of waiting and unknowing in my dreams is perfectly incapsulated by Ridley's Alien. A testament to the haunting power of this film.
That's a terrifying dream. The implacable violence you have no hope of outrunning.
It makes sense considering Giger got inspiration from his nightmares.
Its a true nightmare creature and its presence in dreams is something that can't truly be replicated on screen.
But if you know it from you dreams then then you know it on the screen.
I have had at least 3 dreams that I can remember about Xenomorphs. Every time I am with a group of people and we are armed to fight them but I always know that it was a losing battle. I wake myself up before they get me. The setting is usually in or around ancient structures made of megalithic stone.
Alien and aliens are two of the greatest movies ever made. Periodically watch the entire franchise over and over 😂❤👽
Alien and Bladerunner are on my short list of best movies. Had the privilege of watching both in cinema at their respective premiers
They're not tho
@@capndallas4918that’s why he said his list. It’s called an opinion.
@thewalrus8396 no it's a list which isn't to do with him. You need jesus
@@capndallas4918 you are not making sense...
@emillyyelen5169 what is this gang up on the Christian day? I'm right and you know it.
The Tom Skerrit jump scare is, maybe, the best of all time. Fucked me up for life.
Alien: *jazz hands*
@@DoctorNemmo I never considered Alien might be the one horror sci-fi film to be 100% approved by Bob Fosse. Mind now blown.
My favorite movie of all time. It was like NOTHING that came before it, and sci-fi has been chasing it ever since. Absolute classic.
3:32 Lambert's look of terror in this scene is incredible.
If you loved Alien, play Alien Isolation.
At least in the beginning where other humans are shooting at you, not so much. Maybe it gets better?
@@TexasGit x10
The first time you meet the alien in-game is amazing. It's stalking you most of the game. The stuff up to that is a mild tutorial.
Tried playing it in VR once but nope nope, too much
I love that game, so realistic, the first game I ever played where sounds in your environment are heard by the characters in the came. I remember someone walking in on me playing sand aid something and the alien killed me, they didn't believe the game was listening.
I was 12 or 13 the first time I saw Alien, and it scared the hell out of me. It's as close to perfect as a movie can be.
Ditto! I will also add, the opening few minutes of Alien is an absolute masterclass in scene set up. The key here is patience. With a soundtrack just dripping with atmosphere, using slow continuous camera movement, illustrating the scale of the Nostromo from the outside, then from inside the corridors. The reflection shots of the helmet visors as the computers spring to life with their stark, beeps and blips, were nothing short of brilliant.
The funny thing is...if this movie came out in theaters today, it would not seem dated in any way! It was literally decades ahead of its time! Bravo Ridley, bravo!
I watched Alien for the first time with my parents when I was maybe 10 or so? My sister and I were on the couch, terrified out of our minds during the vent sequence when my father, who had went to the kitchen to get a beer, snuck up behind us and jump-scared us in time with the Alien jumping out at Dallas. I was so scared that I straight up bolted, tripped over the coffee table and spilled drinks everywhere XD
For weeks after, my sister used to sprint down the hall to come get me if she had to use the bathroom at night and would force me to inspect the bathroom and open the shower/cover the exhaust fan before she would even step foot in there.
What a movie man, truly the perfection of that "cassette-futurism" aesthetic as well.
@PBRatLord my friend as a kid I saw both Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott and The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter on TV in the 1990s as a kid and Alien (1979) well I would always check the air vents to make sure the Alien wasn't crawling in them and The Thing (1982) winter became not my favorite season anymore after watching The Thing (1982) so I wouldn't go outside for a couple of weeks after watching The Thing (1982) during the cold winter weather only as well:).
Best film ever. Tiny budget, relentless pressure from the producers. Superb sets and spacecraft models. No cgi. All the little details done from scratch. Amazing performances. The most terrifying monster ever. Excellent editing and a terrifying movie. Amazing score and eerie background sound effects.
I love listening to Bill Hadar talk about anything in films, TV, or comedy. He’s a professional but still has all of the enthusiasm he’s still had his whole life and brings the knowledge of a fan AND a studied professional. AND he’s as funny as ever as he goes through it.
Alien has one of the best DVD commentary tracks of Ridley just talking about how the film was made
One of the best horror movies ever made. Saw this at 14 yo when it came out. Scared the daylights out of me. The Veronica Cartwright death scene with the slow build up and the alien seemingly savoring every moment until it murders her is just genius.
That scream she let's out
Hader nailed it. This was the biggest movie of my youth, even more than Star Wars. The music, the art, it's a perfect film.
Cameron, “For the sequel, we’ll have her fight the alien behind the wheel of a forklift!”
Ha, true, yet also it was awesome.
@@TheGeneralDisarray That fight was crazy awesome!
The idea was way off the tone of original movie. But somehow it totally works.
That’s why Aliens is the best action movie lol along with Predator and Mad Max Fury Road.
Honestly I think the only way Cameron could make a followup with a shot at being considered an equal was to take it in a completely different direction--make it a completely different *genre* of movie. The subsequent chapters tried to take it back to one or the other or some mixture and never got the respect.
So Alien is probably the greatest SF horror movie, and Aliens is one of the great SF action movies (and two of the other contenders were also made by Cameron).
I'm so glad Jennifer Lawrence paved the way for female action stars like Sigourney Weaver.
😂😂😂😂lol yeah wat a thing she sed. No account for who came before🤦♂️😅
Yeah, J Law really stepped on her dick with that statement.
today we live in a fake work trying to relive something the never lived through. there are so many fakes women trying to PROJECT SOMETHING THEY ARE NOT.
😂😂😂😂 She needs to stop the drugs and drink and wake up! Lol
Jennifer Lawrence is a pathetic joke, haha
Parents took me to Alien when I was nine. I was peeking between the seats from the egg scene on. Some lady in the audience lost her mind at the chest burster scene.
I was taken to Return of the Jedi aged 9. Jabba the Hutt was scary as hell.
Absolutely LOVE Alien!! Was a Giger fan before the movie came out from a magazine called Omni. His artwork was often in with different stories. I had a cat named Giger as well. Saw it the summer before 9th grade. Still love it and have lost count how many times I’ve seen it.
The python in the car analogy is so good.
I personally feel like the most terrifying element of this film is the sheer sense of claustrophobia and abandonment it gives you. But Bill Hader explains so much of what makes the cinematography great here. It's just an amazing movie top-to-bottom.
It's really our future in space. No wide decks in crisp suits, teleportation, diplomacy. Just grungy getting by while facing weird space horrors.
Seeing Tom Skerritt as the leading role of the movie instead of Sigourney Weaver is something I had never even considered. The third movie had already been released long before I had ever seen the original, so it was already cemented into public knowledge that Weaver is the hero, and Skerritt had faded into obscurity. But when the movie was released, Weaver was a relative unknown and Skerritt was the most famous actor in the movie. Damn, it would have been so cool to see this movie during the original release.
I’ll never forget the first time I watched Alien. It was the mid eighties and I was off school sick. My parents probably wouldn’t have let me watch it as they were fairly strict when it came to age appropriate movies (I was twelve). Being home alone I took my chance and put it on but as I’d heard it was scary I sat with the VHS remote in my hand with my thumb hovering over the stop button the whole way through.
The movie blew me away and I have loved it ever since that day.
ALIEN is the only movie ad on TV that scared the CRAP out of me. I was babysitting alone a lot at that time and the ad was just terrifying. Then to see it in the theater, people were jumping and yelling. It was AWESOME.
A lot of the best movies I've ever seen feel like a masterful high wire dance between the viewer feeling a bit detached and voyeuristic while still connecting with the characters on a human level. It's a wonderful thing to behold! What a movie!
Bill really knows the elements that make this film so good. It's been in my top 5 for a long, long time, and my only current dilemma is how old my son needs to be before I show it to him! He's currently 11 and still think he's way too young for this intense sci-fi horror.
15? Just a guess. I'd base it on your kid.
Yeah, I'd give it a couple of years. While his generation is more prepared for weird things, as Hader says, Alien was designed to surprise and frighten viewers, specifically by *not* falling into the usual horror movie cliches. As such, it gets past your expectations and can genuinely scare you in ways you don't expect. As Weremoogle says below, though, you know your kid best. Thirteen at minimum, maybe?
Alien and Predator were the first R-rated movies I ever saw. I was 3 😂
To be fair, I think both movies scared the shit out of me, but I ended up watching both (and the rest of each franchise) enough times that I just wanted the cool toys.
Alien is my favorite film. Thank you so much for validating this for me.
Alien barely beats out Aliens for my all time favorite. I love every second of both.
My god, I just saw it in theatres for the first time. The sound is such an integral part of the movie, jumpscare that hit hard, and the tension that builds over the first 45 minutes! Perfection
I love Alien and I love Bill Hader. He's so great at breaking down scenes and figuring out what makes them work. I think I could listen to him talk about movies for hours. I must admit though, as much as I like Alien, Aliens is my favorite of the bunch. The marines, their weapons, their banter, etc. I remember how creepy it was when they were doing their first sweep of the base and seeing the clues left behind that indicate that some dark and serious stuff went down before they arrived. It played so well off of the first movie too. Can you trust the android? If one alien was bad, what about a whole bunch of them? So good.
Couldn’t agree more, accidentally saw the chest buster scene when I was 3 when I woke up and went downstairs to talk with my parents. Had nightmares for a while BUT it changed me into an enormous horror movie fan.
One of the reasons that scene works so well with the chestburster is the actors didn't know about the chest burst, they weren't told this was going to happen before it happened so the panic and visceral reactions you see on their faces are real. She freaked when the blood splattered on her face in real life/film and it was captured beautifully. Honestly, its my favorite horror film, I've watched it I can't tell you how many times. That jump scare in the tunnels still makes me jump a bit. I especially love introducing this movie to people who have NEVER seen it before. Its fantastically scary in all the right ways and beautifully shot.
Wrong. They knew about it. They read the script, were given direction and were on the set as it was all being put together. It’s nonsense to think they had absolutely no clue what was going to happen.
The only thing that was a surprise was the amount of fake blood and gore used. They didn’t expect it to violently shoot out at them as much as it did. That’s all.
Like the other guy said this is a bit of an urban legend. They knew what was going to happen. However, Ridley Scott had the pressure increased on the fake blood and none of them expected to get it splattered all over them.
Her singing that lucky star song to herself, amazing!
Quite possibly my favorite movie of all time. I'll watch it anytime and every time it's on tv.
I could listen to discussions about movies like this all tucking day.
Perfectly put. Great interview
When they're at the table eating, leading up to the chest burst scene, the looks on Ash's face mean so much more after you've seen the movie at least once.
Ridley’s run of Aliens, Bladerunner, Legend is just astounding, each of those films half invented the visual grammar for every horror, Sci fi, futuristic dystopia, high fantasy movie that followed for the following like 20-30 yrs. it’s incredible, Ridley Scott is a genius, no one builds a better world
When I was like 8, I couldn't sleep.. So I got out of bed and took a peek downstairs to see what my parents were watching.. It just happened to be the chest-burster scene. It scarred me for years.
Ridley's first three were knocked outs.
A director’s first few films are always their best
@@Njbear7453 - Not to shit on Cronenberg's first few films, but I don't think they're nearly as good as Videodrome, the Fly, and Dead Ringers. Other apparent counterexamples are Hitchcock, Kieślowski, and Kubrick.
@@fdsfsdfsd1552 I like Rabid, but I understand what you mean; The Brood and Scanners are decent but get boring at times.
@@fdsfsdfsd1552 funny my favorite Kubrick is “The Killing” haha
That jump scare Bill talks about, I see what he's saying, but I always laughed at it because it looked like the alien was doing jazz hands. That was my initial impression, and I couldn't unsee it.
Yeah, I've thought about that, too... I think a more aggressive move like an attack motion / movement would have been better than "Surprise!!!!!!" hands
me too! jazz hands is what i think everytimr😂
Spaceballs
Same haha
I said it at 17 years old in 1979 and I say it today at 61 in 2024.
Alien is the single most terrifying film I’ve ever seen in my life.
Affected me for years.
I love hearing about movies from actors and directors points of view, because they are the only people I can truly say are probably more passionate about movies than I am.
the perfect mix of realistic sci-fi and suspenseful horror
I remember when i was in middle school, around '93. I wasnt allowed to watch R rated movies, nor did my parents for the most part. But i was asleep one night and my dad came into the bedroom and woke me up quietly (as i had younger brothers) sayin "hey, we wanna show you something". And i go out to the living room and my parents are watching Alien.Grantted it was on tv so it was edited. But at such a young age i fell in love with it.Its so amazing. And im glad i have that core memory with my parents
So happy Bill Hader picked up on the documentary vibe of ALIEN. Lack of music stings and formulaic plot indeed. And that the last survivor bothers to find and rescue the cat is just the chef's kiss to this incredible movie.
The vison, the artistry, the script, pacing and the cast makes it unmatched, the alien could have been ridiculed but the H.R.Giger design just makes it something otherworldly which is outstanding considering the quality and impact of a lot of 'monsters' in the sci-fi genre not long before that or even after it.
Those sets are so beauitful.
Love his break down, spot on!
I love how Hader really comments on the more tactical aspects of film making. The use of music, motion, shot angles, etc. You also see this stuff in his series "Barry".
Every shot is a work of art. Scott really pushed for the European chiaroscuro style of lighting scenes for a big-budget Hollywood production. About the only one that had done it previously was Francis Ford Coppola in the Godfather films where the studio execs hated it. Scott was perfect for this because he already knew how to shoot from the inside out and be confident in his technical abilities regardless of what studio execs said. He also went with the naturalist style of micing the dialogue (reminds me of 70s Robert Altman films) where characters speak at different volumes depending on their location and there is room ambiance and dialogue overlap
Scott was amazing. The crew who built the set in England was made up of true craftsman and artist. And Giger was a perfect fit. His artwork was macabre. It embraced a carnal instinct with elements of mythically advanced technology. The actors melded together perfectly. Not one bad performance.
The movie has aged very well. All the CGI and unlimited budgets still haven't captured an audience like that movie. I wish I was old enough to have experienced this in theaters having no idea what I was getting into.
It was still pretty effective on home video I can assure you, lol. When choosing what to see we'd hear 'oh thats a good movie' from friends, but much of the time we rented vids by cover alone because trailers were to be found only before other movies or sometimes on the telly (late night for a horror) so yea - nobody knew what to expect when they put it on. Just that it was a sci fi horror-- probably like a timid Hammer movie. How wrong we were.. I still tease my little bro with how he screamed and hid behind the couch watching Alien, and couldn't even get through the entire movie until he was about 15
PERFECT summation Bill.
The mock up of the chest burster scene in spaceballs was a classic
my two favourite "horror" movies are the shining and alien, for the same reason of them being normal movies.
Me too! I was shook up in the dark for weeks after I saw it for the first time. GREAT film. GREAT performances. GREAT director
I remember the first time I saw Alien as a teenager in the early 2000’s. I remember thinking how crazy it would have been to see it in theaters. To this day, it is my favorite film of all time. As much as I love Aliens, Alien is still the GOAT for me. Also, Aliens would not have been possible without Alien.
Just saw the rerelease in the theater. The quality of the update, combined with the direction/visuals, made it seem like it could have been made just yesterday and not in ‘79.
It truly is a timeless movie/story. It will be as good 100 years from now, as it was the day it opened.
Scott is amazing in that he either hits home runs or completely whiffs....no in between
Great post mate, thanks ❤
Fun fact: The set was created by the same team that worked on the millennium falcon. That's why it looks kind of similar. They wanted to use real retired bomber parts, real computers, real buttons. That's why it looks so real compared to other sci fi films. Another fun fact, is that was Sigourney's first movie. She had no clue it was going to go anywhere, but apparentley it did and so did her career.
I agree with Bill Hader. To me the fact it has no music only makes it feel scarier. It's best movie of the ALIEN saga.
I love this channel
I remember reading about it in magazine periodicals. They did a good job of fleshing out the director’s vision for the movie….a year in advance of it’s release. Such as, changing the gender of some characters without any re-writes. And how space travel had advanced so much it was like truckers had become astronauts. And the notion of the haunted house in space - where you are essentially trapped. Also talked about HR Ginger’s involvement and exploring life cycles.
I love your channel!!!!
I went to family friend 12th bday party sleepover, when i was about 6 years old. Great night. We started watching a film called House Party, it was hilarious, we were laughing so much. I was in heaven , hanging out with the big boys, watching adult movies with lots of swearing. Then the movie finished, and they put on Alien, followed by Nightmare on Elm St, followed by The Dark side of the Moon. I had nightmares for months, and am still traumatized by that night. I remember Tom Skerritt getting killed, and the the cat Jonesy. And when Freddy Krueger kills the girl in her sleep while the boyfriend is screaming in horror, and he's covered in blood when the police burst through the door. I had trouble going to the bathroom after cos i was scared something would get me. Even being in a room alone was enough to scare me. Thank you Ridley Scott! Great Movie though :)
What he said about Scott not being a horror guy effecting the movie in a good way is so true.
Its so procedural at the beginning when the alien shows up it almost feels like its barged in on the wrong movie and has decided to terrorize these guys instead. The alien is as unfathomable to the main cast as it is to the viewer
Love that film. And it came out on the day I was born. One more reason to love it even more.
Opening week of Alien I found myself at the Egyptian theater cluelessly watching it, and in no time at all, many of us were hanging from the chandelier.
Born in '73. Saw it on pirate video. Shat my pants. THE greatest. Adore this movie. We did the Alien Run at the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus , London. Shat my pants, again. Twice.
Out of everything when he kiils with the magazine in mouth freaked me out as a young kid watching it
I saw this movie with my sister-in-law when I was twelve. First movie I saw that left me really frightened even after it was over. I remember looking over at my sister-in-law driving home afterward, asking her what she thought of it, secretly hoping that an adult would project some calm reassuring energy to me. She didn't, she seemed just as frightened as me. Uh-oh...
"Cinematically, I think that film is a real benchmark."
Truth. I knew Alien's Cinematographer, Derek, and I agree fully. Such a talented guy.
When i watch this movie i cant help but think about the science officer 'Veronica Cartwright' because she was also the little girl in Hitchcock's The Birds. Wow, two ground breaking movies of different eras.
I first saw Alien at the Cinerama 70mm in Seattle....two young teenage girls in front of me totally freaked out screaming at the chest bursting scene.....they missed most of the rest of the movie because they just couldn't look. Just amazing.
I still remember watching the chestburster scene for the first time as a kid. I was just stunned and felt frozen to my seat. I watched Alien for the first time on VHS and remember vividly where I was at the time.
Wonderfully summed up the movie. Put into words how I feel about it. Thx
Love hearing him talk about horror films like this, Evil Dead, etc .
When is Hader going to direct his own horror? Just like Jordan Peele, he could add his own unique perspective
Alien is amazing. One of the reasons the chest burster meal scene worked so well and felt so natural is because John Hurt, the guy the alien pops out of, was the only actor there that knew where the alien was coming from. The rest of the cast was just told that the alien would appear. The disgust, surprise, and fear were all as real as you can get from an actor because it was real.
As mentioned earlier in these comments, that's an urban myth. The chest burster scene was a major piece of prop work, with Kane's body from the shoulders down being hidden beneath the table. What the cast weren't expecting was the amount of blood that spurted out and hit them - that's why there's such a great reaction - especially from Lambert.
Ahhh, Bill Hader, a man of culture. Greatest movie of all time.
Alien, Blade Runner... I wish Ridley Scott had kept more true to 'that' going forth. It seems as if he can't quite shake the commercials and their fundamental vacuous nature
I think he's trying, but is a victim of his own success. He wanted Prometheus to be an entirely new franchise with themes similar to Blade Runner and Alien, but the studio execs told him "no" and we got what we got. Raised by Wolves was looking to be another great franchise, but the show got cancelled.
Basically, he's big enough that he can get large projects green lit, but not small enough to just sort of fuck around and do whatever.
Yes mate. My absolute fav. Scared the crap out of me for years, and still does..
I was 12 in 1979 and I heard all about 'Alien' and 'Mad Max' from my older friends. They talked about these movies with awe. I was glad when I got to see them a few years later on VHS that they were truly awesome movies that lived up to the hype.
Alien is my ultimate comfort movie, as weird as that may sound. Sometimes I'll just put it on to drift off to sleep.