#35 ALIEN

"The first trauma is birth"


"Alien" is the quintessential Sci-Fi Horror movie, and when people think of the movie they generally think of this perfect movie monster. In my opinion, as far as movie monsters go, it doesn't get any better than this. Its the image of those salivating, shiny, razor sharp teeth. Its that second layer of teeth that come sling-shotting forward. Its the absolute hostility, the fascinating look of his head which is part phallus, part vagina, part death skull. Its the biomechanical look of its body, its exo-skeleton, that lethal tail. Its all shiny black death. It just totally rules.

So the monster is absolutely amazing but let's put this in perspective. The movie is two hours and four minutes long and you see the actual Alien for maybe five minutes. That means that for approximately two hours you don't see the Alien and for about half of the movie you don't even know it exists. I adore this movie. I watch it again and again and as I began thinking about this essay and watching the movie again I realized that it can't just be great because of this perfect movie monster. Don't get me wrong. It's amazing how incredibly potent this creature is but there's much more to this movie, especially the first half. It's about atmosphere and threat. It's about a trajectory of unease transitioning into a primal terror. What "Alien" really is is a visceral representation of perinatal trauma, our first and possibly greatest trauma as human beings, the most primal of terrors that this movie taps into.

Much of the terror of birth comes when the contractions start. You're resting calmly in an oceanic bliss and then the whole universe changes. Descriptions of this process include: (Overwhelming feelings of increased anxiety and an awareness of an imminent vital threat. The experience of being swallowed by a terrifying monster or being attacked by a monstrous spider. Images of being stuck or trapped. A feeling of no way out. The experience of suffocation. Condemned to a claustrophobic nightmare with no escape. A struggle for survival amidst crushing pressures. If you've seen "Alien" before you know that these descriptions basically describe this movie.

Its no coincidence that Ridley Scott chose H.R. Giger to design everything revolving around the Alien, from the Derelict (Alien Ship) to the parasitic organism to the Alien. Giger is a master, through his art, at representing the archetypal imagery of perinatal terror. Whether Ridley Scott was conscious or unconscious of this connection to the perinatal the whole movie is marinating in it.

So the movie begins.....

You see a beautiful shot of outer space, stars, utter black emptiness, and in super close up you see a dark planet encircled by a glowing greenish yellow ring. The camera moves left to right very slowly, allowing you to take in this striking image. Just because a movie is terrifying doesn't mean it can't be beautiful. I don't think Ridley Scott could make a movie look bad even if he tried real hard. The musical score in the background feels somber, desolate, and scary. The music in this movie by Jerry Goldsmith is perfect, constantly capturing and building upon the mood and atmosphere of the movie. The next shot is of the Nostramus, a mining ship where most of the movie will take place. The camera takes its time revealing the vastness of the ship as it cruises on by. It looks rustic and industrial and the look and the camera angle remind me of Star Wars. Definately a cool factor here. Of course something can look cool and disturbing as well. It reminds me of a dark castle floating in space, or some might say a haunted house. The camera then goes inside the ship. The score shifts from somber and creepy to somber, haunting, and ominous. The inside of the ship feels claustrophobic and desolate and its almost in total darkness. With the combination of the music and the movement of the camera (Totally reminds me of Kubrick and "The Shining") it almost feels haunted inside, like something really bad once happened here or maybe something really bad is about to occur. We're basically talking about a haunted house motif in space, and getting back to the overarching theme of this movie, a haunted house can also symbolize a hostile womb.

This whole opening is this brilliant atmospheric foreshadowing. Something terrible is going to happen on this ship. Its going to be a really, really bad place to be. As the tension builds in this movie it is going to be taking place mainly in an environment where the corridors and rooms are narrow and the ceilings are low. As the movie progresses towards its beast the ship will also get progressively darker until it looks like it does in this opening exploration. Once things really start getting fucked up the terror in the movie is going to feel like no way out, like the walls are closing in, like its hard to breath. The actual environment will literally mirror this and create a visceral terror.

THE SLOW BUILD

It begins in a calm sleep. Then comes disappointment and unease. It then transitions into fear, and then into panic and terror.

You first see the crew of seven waking up from a deep hypersleep. There's a feeling of calm and relief. They've almost made it home to Earth. All is well. They then find out that the ship's computer has altered their course so that they're in another system and much farther away from Earth than expected. They then find out that the computor has intercepted a transmission of unknown origin, and that they have to go to an unknown planet to investigate. Fuck this. Parker says it best. "I just wanna go home and party."
The entire sequence of getting to the planet and then returning to the ship is an example of why this movie works on so many levels. First there's the cool factor. Yes it's atmospheric as all hell but it's still a sci-fi movie and it has the kick-ass elements of a sci-fi movie. The spaceship while resembling a haunted house and serving as a gradually mounting claustrophobic nightmare looks really cool. It's very rustic and industrial which to me makes it feel more real, and enough cool gadgetry to keep you immersed in the fact that it's a spaceship. In the vision you can see the influence of both Star Wars and 2001. What's not cool about a spaceship, and what's not cool about a dropship? The dropship detaches itself from its dock and makes its way towards the planet. Enter the beauty factor. The shot of this ship against the massiveness of this planet is amazing. There's the glowing ring and the glowing yellowish blue moon nearby and this minuscule looking ship in comparison. Just an example of numerous stunning images in this movie. Nobody shoots a movie like Ridley Scott. They all look beautiful.

One of my favorite movies is "The Silence of the Lambs" There's a great moment in that movie that reminds me of so much of what Ridley Scott does in "Alien." Clarice Starling has, unknown to her but known to the audience, entered the home of the terrifying serial killer in the movie. Instead of continuing on with the scene of the two of them in his home there is a pause. The next shot is of the outside of the house and the neighborhood. One of my fondest memories of first watching this movie was the buzz of the audience in anticipation of what was going to happen next. The audience was able to really take in this moment of suspense, savor it, and let it build a little more before moving on to the next shot inside.

Ridley Scott is masterful in utilizing this method of building suspense in this movie and he uses it to perfection once they've landed on the Alien Planet. He allows you to really sit with and digest the unease of the journey.

The ship has a rocky landing and immediately sirens go off in the ship. There's damage. The viewpoint shifts to outside the ship in the stormy elements of the planet. As you're watching there's this real feeling of a stranger in a strange land and it feels very precarious. This really sinks in because you're able to pause and take in what has just happened. The ship is damaged on an unknown planet with nasty elements, and who knows what the fuck is going to happen next. The scene continues to build as there is talk of how much damage there is, and again a pause by switching your viewpoint outside the ship, and talk of going out and taking a look, and again a viewpoint change to let this sink in. Lambert during this entire section, as she will be throughout the film, is a compass of tension. You can look to her and really know how fucked they are throughout the film. She really let's you know the deal through her facial expressions and voice. At this point she looks stressed. You can see her in the foreground of the ship in a couple shots and she is smoking a cigarette and obviously concerned. I identified with her and really felt the tension of this situation. As Dallas, Kane, and Lambert journey on the planet towards the source of the transmission it keeps cutting back to the ship, to once again allow the suspense to build, to allow you to take in and digest this experience of walking in a really nasty storm towards the unknown, and the reality that they were just on this ship which feels safe and quiet, and now they're slowly heading towards who knows what? Of course just the fact that the journey is happening slowly builds the overall suspense in general.

Then they see the Alien Ship and this is one of those moments that make this movie so aesthetically pleasing. It's the very definition of hauntingly beautiful. There is a glowing mist surrounding it, and it reminds me of an ancient artifact or the remains of some ancient beast. There's a beautiful shot of them walking towards the ship. In a wide shot you see three tiny lights heading towards it. You get a real sense of the immensity of this thing, and then they go inside and once again that description of hauntingly beautiful. It feels like they are walking inside a beast's belly. The inside of the ship looks biomechanical. The walls look like they're comprised of shiny black metal bones. It's creepy and at the same time highly intelligent, like an intimidating menace. It feels surreal, almost like a waking nightmare. Its been described as a dark, ominous womb. This has to be one of the most amazing sets ever created for a film.

They continue on the ship and see the space jockey, the fossilized remains of the apparent pilot of the ship. It's your first glimpse of the true immensity of the ship and the creep factor goes up a notch. This dude is gigantic and you see that his bones are bent outward like he exploded from the inside. Lambert being the true compass of the situation says "Let's get the hell out of here." They continue on and Kane is lowered down into what almost looks like a giant cave. Once again an absolutely beautiful shot of this ship and its immensity.What it really is is a holding area for the famous leathery pod-like eggs. When you really take this in it is so intense. This ship is carrying these eggs as biological weapons to be distributed on other planets and it appears as if it backfired on the crew. You don't really get all of this on first viewing but it sinks in eventually. So the eggs. There is a ridiculous amount of them spread out and there is a mist just above them. Kane gets close to one, it slowly opens up, he looks down at a slimy life form and whammo, it leaps onto his face and attaches itself to him. Once again this all happens slowly, and of course once the life form leaps out and attaches itself to him the next shot is outside looking at the outside of the ship. You get a chance to take this in. Holy shit. What the fuck just happened? A buzz in the theatre.



One of the classic horror conventions is that the characters are usually teenagers, they're often getting drunk or smoking some weed, and there's usually sex involved. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. People like to watch attractive people, they like to watch partying, and they certainly like to watch people get naked and go at it. However It feels to me like a supplement. We've got some scares, maybe some really fucked up, terrifying shit, but the movie's two hours long and we have to fill in the nooks and crannies. It's fun. You watch really good looking people party, do stupid shit, get naked, and then you get the scares. "Alien" doesn't need that shit. "Alien" has transcended that shit. There are no nooks and crannies to fill in. Therefore the characters in it are real because they can be, and feel more real because the movie pulls you in. We're talking about a group of middle aged blue collar workers on a mining ship in deep space. That's it. We're interested in them because they are well drawn characters cast extremely well. This is part of what keeps you drawn in to this whole visceral experience. These are normal people, not Hollywood conventions.

Dallas, played by Tom Skerrit, is the captain and in general he's pretty laid back. He doesn't take any shit, and he shows his leadership ability but he's just doing his job and wants to get back home. Something about this quality makes him more accessible. I think maybe its the fact that so often it's cliche to make the captain act in a certain way in the Sci-Fi Universe. They're supposed to be disciplined, courageous, often authoritarian, and often do the right thing. Dallas just seems more human. He has flaws. He makes mistakes and even though he's the leader he seems to have some camaraderie with his crew. Acting wise it's also one of the best things Skerritt has ever done.

Kane, played by John Hurt, is pretty bland overall, but its John Hurt, so it's going to be a good performance. A pretty low key, normal guy who has his most memorable moment, and one of the more memorable moments in movies, at the breakfast table.

There's the engineers, Parker and Brett, played by Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton. They are disgruntled, sarcastic, and rebellious. They provide for some comic relief
in the movie. Parker is the alpha to Brett's beta.

Ash, played by Ian Holm, is the science officer on board, and it always feels like there is something off about him. Holm gives a really creepy performance that adds to a feeling of unease aboard the ship.

I've already mentioned Parker but I'll mention him again in a different context. There are three characters in this movie who really act as doorways of immersion for the audience; Parker, Lambert, and Ripley. Ripley works most of her magic at the end. Parker and Lambert, from the beginning, really give us a feeling for what this escalating stress feels like.

When the crew is told that they have to investigate this unknown planet Parker is very agitated.

Parker- "This is a commercial ship not a rescue ship and its not in my contract to do this kind of duty, and what about the money? If you wanna give me some money I'd be happy to oblige. Let's go with the bonus situation. Can we just talk about the bonus situation. I wanna go home and party." It's partly what he says but so much about the way he's saying it. He's escalated. He's on edge. It gives the scene an edge.

When Kane is back on the ship with the organism attached to his face he is visibly upset. Ash and Dallas are trying to figure out how to get it off of his face and Parker doesn't want any of this....

Parker- "Why don't you freeze him." A few seconds later. "Why don't they just freeze him?" He has a bad feeling about this and his overall demeanor is representative of the shit getting more and more fucked up on this voyage.

He gets more and more agitated, aggressive, and loud as things progress.


Lambert isn't remembered like Ripley but Veronica Cartwright's performance, in my opinion, is every bit as good as Sigourney Weaver's. Hers is the face that reveals the true terror of the situation. We constantly feel the stress and fear through her facial expressions and words. I think the average person identifies most with Lambert. She's the real doorway in to the experience.


Lambert is in the foreground once they've landed on the alien planet. It's all in her face, a tension, as she smokes a cigarette. The camera cuts away from her as Dallas, Kane, and Ash are talking about their predicament. Back to her. She's watching, continuing to smoke the cigarette and its a mixture of stress and fear on her face. Everyone else is trying to keep it together. She's our doorway to the truth of what's happening, that things are bad and maybe getting worse.

Kane volunteers to be in the first group to go out, and Lambert tilts her head as if to say "What the fuck are we doing?" "This is real. Holy shit this is real."

Once they get close to the ship and also explore the inside she's the one saying "Let's get the hell out of here." She's the one feeling the real danger here and we feel it through her. Maybe her two greatest moments of translating terror happen later and I'll talk about in a little bit.


Sigourney Weaver became a star over night after this movie. She was a very rare thing at this point in time, in the late 70's. She was a kick ass female protagonist who survives a horror movie, and isn't a teenage virgin. More importantly she is in total charge of the situation from the very beginning. She isn't running screaming, and somehow finding a way to survive the horror. She faces it head on.

She's the toughest member of the Nostramus. She's willing to do things that aren't popular, and she doesn't give a shit about ruffling feathers. She's the one who said no to Kane coming back onto the ship before he was quarantined. She's the one who constantly is inwardly and outwardly questioning Ash, and when she is the one in charge towards the end she rounds up the troops and comes up with the best plan possible. What's so great about this character is the combination of her strength and her humanity. You can see that she's terrified but she manages to hold it together just enough to do what needs to be done. In the end this movie is about her birth.

To ratchet up the drama, just before the crescendo of horrors, Ripley finds out that the plan all along for this ship and this crew was to bring back an alien organism from this planet, and that the crew was expendable. Going along with the birth theme she finds this out from the ship's computer named MOTHER. She is then attacked by Ash who it turns out is an android who's chief role was to make sure this organism got back home. One of the enjoyable things about future viewings of this movie is seeing Ash differently. His behavior, which before seemed off, and a little creepy, now totally fits. From the very beginning he knows what's going on and he's keeping a watchful eye on the crew and this organism and doing what he can to manipulate the situation.

So the crew has been betrayed by one of their own and their MOTHER. This is what it can feel like when, during the birth process, you go from oceanic bliss to being pushed forward into a vise. There can be a feeling of total betrayal, and a feeling like you've truly been expelled from paradise into a kind of hell.

The movie transitions into a true horror film once that little Alien Fucker rips his way out of Kane's chest. This is one of the most shocking scenes I've ever seen and it's this holy shit moment every time I see it. All is well at the breakfast table and Kane starts having chest pains, and convulsing, and whammo, this vicious little phallic looking bastard with these metallic teeth and shit kicking scowl bursts out and we are in full haunted house mode. The chase is on for this little fucker not realizing that he's mere minutes away from being a big bastard. This is part of the greatness. They're searching for a dangerous little guy so there's some fear but it seems doable. They have no idea what they're in for and neither does the audience.

I'm going to talk about one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It's just so perfect in its look and it's feel and it's the first introduction of the greatest movie monster of all time.


So the setup- The remaining crew has divided up into two groups of three. Ripley, Parker and Brett read a life form in a creepy ooking locker and slowly move forward, open the locker and the cat on board leaps out freaking them all out. Brett who was holding the net needs to go after the cat so that they know for sure it's the alien next time. You're totally spooked and startled and then the rest goes nice and slow. Brett makes his way towards the holding area on the ship and picks up a what looks like a slimy layer of the little alien's skin, as if its been shedding. It feels ominous. what's the deal with this little dude. The camera creeps forward slowly into the room and now its atmospheric bliss. You hear chains rattling, water dripping, and it feels menacing, like making your way towards a haunted house. It's all real slow with all these sounds throughout and you hear a subtle heartbeat underneath everything. Awesomeness. There's a severe closeup of Brett underneath dripping water and he's getting his face wet. The sound is phenomenal in this scene. You hear the dripping of water, the rattling of chains and the sound of water dripping on the bill of his hat. It's just his face in the frame. Anything can happen at any moment, the creepy sounds everpresent. There's a wide shot again and he walks forward and then sees the cat. You then see the alien's tail whip down and know that the alien is right behind him, and its not a little fucker. He's all grows up. The cat hisses- is scared of something. Then an iconic closeup of the alien mouth, salivating, looking large as hell in the frame with the razor sharp teeth shining, the second teeth slowly jutting forward, and unparalleled hostility. Shazam!!!

The last 1/3 of this movie is just over the top. There's a bad-ass monster on the ship. That's scary to begin with. It could be anywhere but it looks like its using the air vents. So let's ramp up this tension. Dallas crawls down the air vents, with barely enough room to breath, and in utter darkness, armed with a flame thrower. The idea is to push it backwards until they can flush it into outer space. What could be worse than crawling down a claustrophobic tunnel, barely able to see, knowing that around any corner this monster could be waiting to tear you apart, and there's really nowhere to go if it finds you. If the fire doesn't work you are totally fucked. What an amazing set piece. This scene totally gets my heart rate jumping every time. So he's crawling down the air shafts and even the closing and opening of the air shafts is menacing, the metallic scraping sound, and what resembles a monster's mouth opening and closing. He can tell where the Alien is by communicating with the crew which has a tracking device. The Alien's position shows up as a moving dot on a grid. So let's take things up a notch. They know the Alien is near to Dallas's location but the tracker malfunctions for about ten seconds. Panic. He could be anywhere. Dallas notices something slimy on the ground. Oh shit. What does this mean?, and so much of this is Lambert. All of a sudden they see the dot on the grid moving right towards him and Lambert is freaking out. "Oh god he's heading right towards you." Her voice is so primal. Dallas is standing still, not sure what to do. He's freaked, and if Dallas is freaked you know it's fucking bad. Lambert again and louder. "Move Dallas. Move Dallas. No. The other way, and Monster shot!!!


Now for the real panic and terror. How does this sound. We have to get to the escape pod, and we have to do it fast because we're going to set the ship auto-destruct which activates in ten minutes, and in the midst of all of this the perfect killing machine could be anywhere on the ship just waiting to turn the corner and devour.

Lambert and Parker are trying to gather supplies for the escape pod knowing that the monster could be anywhere, could sneak up on them in the claustrophobic darkness. Even if you get all the supplies you have to make it across the ship to the escape pod with the supplies and hope he doesn't get you. This is an amazing scene for Lambert. As she's gathering supplies you can subtly see the Alien sneaking up behind her. She turns around, doesn't see at first, and then holy shit frozen terror. She can't move. It's too much. She lets out these primal mewls. Parker tells her to move but she is in an almost terror coma, and all she can do is cringe and mewl.

Sigourney in the mean time has to set the self destruct mechanism and then make it to the escape pod. As she's doing this she hears the screams below from her recently deceased shipmates. It's the very essence of panic. It's the very essence of heightened terror. She sets the destruct mechanism and makes it back to the escape pod only to find this terrifying motherfucker hovering in front of it. A moment of "I am so seriously fucked right now. So fucked." She runs back, tries to disarm the destruct mechanism. Too late. She's running out of time. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Wow!!!!

Not enough. Of course not. You see with Ripley, the greatest action heroine of all time one birth isn't enough. She has to be born twice. In the midst of the ultimate panic she makes her way back to the escape pod and the monster isn't there anymore. There's hope. There's relief. She escapes the ship and all is well. Or is it. One last deep breath before the final plunge. She's made it. She takes time to have a moment with the cat, to take off most of her clothes, to stretch, to relax, and then she is terrified again. Camouflaged beneath some black piping in the corner of the pod is the Alien hitching a ride. What the fuck. One of those moments when everyone in the audience jumps. The scariest part of this scene is when she's putting on her spacesuit and she has her back to the beast the whole time. One last little batch of terror before she blows him into space.