Turns out I've been avoiding this for a reason 😅 I really don't handle horror/suspense well... I'm not opposed to continuing the franchise, but I'm going to have to space them out. I can't handle watching these back-to-back 😂 In other news, FIREFLY will be back on Monday!
:grins: I saw this just pop into my feed and my first thought is "Jacqui is going to need an ambulance!" :D This is *the* sci-fi horror movie - it lived free in the nightmares of many of us after it first hit the screens!
@@kd72183 I think I saw Prometheus when it came out, but I didn't know it was part of the Alien franchise, and I don't remember much about it--probably because I blocked out the memory 😂
@@movienightwithjacqui Its worth mentioning that this first film is the only real horror film, well its more a haunted house in space,but i digress. The others move away from this, Aliens is actually really good, but is a action film and the suspense that brings, rather than the terror of the first.
This came out in 1979. 45 years of cultural references. 45 years of special effects 'advances'. 45 years of copycats. And 45 years later it still scares the bejezus out of people. Even among those who saw it on its first run.
It's old-school immersive cinema: slow, gradual submergence into the film's world through ambience rather than quicker immersion through visual manipulation.
The practical effects, the acting, the pacing, the build up That's the formula that made those 70/80's horror movies so timeless classics Alien, The thing, Predator, Terminator...
For me, part of what makes Ripley an amazing protagonist is that she is not fearless. She has very relatable and appropriate fear responses. Her edge is that she is not paralyzed by her fear. She goes into problem solving mode, breaking down problems into manageable sizes and keeps tackling one after another. One of my favorite protagonists up there with Sarah Connor.
And the only time in the entire franchise we ever see her totally lose her shit is when Newt gets taken after she slides down into the water. Hicks literally had to drag her away otherwise she would've gotten taken too.
Ironically that was in part due to the film budget and the lack of funding for the practical effects. Some of the script was altered to cut the alien down to a minimum. But I think it "accidentally helped" make it a masterpiece.
@@kathrynck kind of plays in to that "less is more" trope that a lot of artists would do well to remember. I see folks lionize practical effects and in the same breath bash CGI. Its not just about overlooking the vast history of practical effects not holding up. Or where CGI does well (i.e. how often do reactors comment about the CGI in Forrest Gump). But rather they note where CGI fails because the artists are asked to do too much with what they have available (I'm looking at you, George Lucas). Both practical effects and CGI work best where its used sparingly and within the bounds of what the tool can do - altering the way the story is told if need be. Even where movie trickery is needed constantly - less is more.
@@kathrynck Yet they also had a lot of footage that they ended up cutting (some of which was reintroduced in the inferior Director's Cut), so you get the feeling that they were aware of that "less is more" as well. Jaws had already been a success while doing similar things for seemingly similar reasons.
They had a hard time not having it look like a guy in a rubber suit. This is why they use strobes and smoke in the few scenes where you do see it. The young man they hired to play the alien did the best he could but unfortunately he had no acting or dance or mime experience at all and I think that may have been what they were struggling with in trying to get him to convey movement in a way that evoked something "alien". Ridley Scott is reportedly not an easy director to work with in that he, like Lucas, has difficulty in conveying to his actors what he wants from them in a performance. Harrison Ford struggled to understand his character in Blade Runner, or even what the film was about, while Rutger Hauer and Scott seemed to be on the same wavelength so that Hauer had no problem in understandings Scott's vision.
@@Lethgar_Smith I recall there were even scenes filmed where the alien suit actor was instructed to do a crab/spider walk like in The Exorcist, which of course looked more goofy than threatening and couldn't be used.
Don't forget Vasquez and Hicks...Hudson was an amazing comedy relief. :) I honestly couldn't imagine another scenario where such a group of people are brought together to face the same crazy odds and would say the things that were said. Nothing else comes close...if you were ever in such a situation IRL, that's the team you'd want to get you to safety.
If it eases your anxiety over watching the next one, Aliens was more of an action flick rather than horror. It's rightfully regarded as among the best sequels made. It's probably the reason this franchise was as successful as it is.
@@wojtek1274 wild how different opinions can be. personally thought romulus was way too safe and more of the same while everything else that followed was pretty good compared to other popular franchises. i didnt think 3 or resurrection were good but the others were fine
I really like how the frustrated crew argues for a little bit at the start about if they're going to get bonuses for checking out a random planet and get reminded that the mega corp that owns their ship has a clause for it in their contract. It feels very human for what if basically a bunch of space truckers.
It's interesting how she expected a jump scare in the first 5m, much more common with current horror movies. But it sets the tone of this masterpiece to not offer a jump until at least 20m in.
In my opinion one of the worst things to happen to horror movies has been lazy filmmakers managing to convince audiences that being startled is the same thing as being scared.
I don't mind the commentary at all. The appeal of these reaction videos is getting to vicariously experience a movie for the first time through someone else's eyes who hasn't seen it before. I'm really glad you liked it. This truly is a one of a kind, once in a generation type of movie that stands the test of time.
The brilliant thing about Alien is that before we knew Sigorney Weaver was the star of the franchise, Tom Skerritt's Dallas character was the one that everyone assumed was going to be the hero at the end. To have him killed part way through (killing off the lead character years before Game of Thrones did) was such a shock. So naturally, based on common cinema tropes, most of the audience stupidly assumed that Yaphet Kotto's character would be the hero replacement, as he's the biggest built member of the cast and an archetypal hero type. At no point did anyone believe that the "by the numbers" rather rigid second officer, who got on most of the crew's nerves, would be the one we would be cheering for at the end. Aside from everything else that makes Alien such a masterpiece, It's so beautifully subtle how they built up Ripley as a relatively cold and unlikeable side character that seemed destined to be killed off, only to be the one survivor at the end. Unfortunately it's such a brilliant twist that lost its uniqueness due to what we know now.
@@Otokichi786The first officer is the person directly below the captain, so it's captain, then first officer (2nd in command), then second officer (3rd in command). Kane is the first officer because he's second in command and Ripley is the second officer.
Every time I watch this, I'm blown away by how fantastic it still looks - there's one or two dodgy moments with the effects, but most of the time I'm convinced that this was filmed on an actual spaceship.
@@ericgen5022 There's a bit during the Ash scene where it's clearly a fake head (and an unconvincing one), and I seem to remember that there's one shot of the Xenomorph where my brain can't see anything other than "that's a guy in a rubber suit", but I can't remember exactly when that happens.
"Yah, she's just pissed now. It's personal. It's just you and me now..." No. No, she's not pissed. It's not personal. Watch Aliens. That's when she gets pissed. That's when it's personal.
lol, no. Ripley thought she was finally in the clear. And terror begets rage and frustration already. Not only is she still a bit scared, but she's feeling the weight of hope being snatched away from her. Double the rage and frustration, and terror as well. It is personal. How dare the alien try and stop her even now, basically. Don't mansplain.
@@ZylonBane Right, because being a film student means being able to guess things correctly every single time without much to go on, which is exactly the point of a movie like this. Her actual analysis of the movie and its symbolic use of colours, shaky cam, etc. were all completely spot-on. Try harder.
@@sarahnadeofpoetry Sorry, anyone who whips out "mansplain" unironically these days has automatically excused themselves from being taken seriously. Try harder to not make such a cliched joke of yourself.
The original sets were about 25% taller but when he came to the set Scott told the set crew to lower the ceilings to make the set feel more claustrophobic. Worked perfectly. The story though is just basically a re-telling of "The Captain's Log" chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's the voyage of the Demeter. The ship that brought Dracula to England. A crew stuck on a ship with a monster... but set in space. And as to why you volenteered to watch this, and I say this as an accredited Film Historian, because you're a Film Student and it's your duty to watch the classics no matter how much they scare, disgust or disturb you. Welcome to the family. 😁
Just wanted to say thank you for going out your comfort zone, I know your not big on horror movies but this is a classic and hope you watch the second one at least.Also been sharing your channel with my Apple corporate coworkers and they love it.Lastly you said that you talked alot?I think you did great, for me at least seemed you talked the same amount as other movies, so just giving you kudos.Keep up the great channel
I think your reaction to Ash being "unmasked" was even better than seeing the xenomorph at full size. I hear in most places that if you don't see Aliens after watching this movie it is a crime against humanity.
@Smokie_666 Agreed, and I hope she realizes that Aliens is a very different kind of movie, and not another dose of the 'slow torture suspense' of the original film.
@@paulp9274 Like Terminator, Horror followed by Action, which is the best way to go. It's hard to make a sequel as scary, the evil was seen and defeated the first time.
The bigger crime will be watching Aliens, then watching Romulus and questioning everything. No you can't go back and look for clues, as you can with Ash in the first movie. Because there aren't any.
@@Crosis89 He got Brett killed because he ran away and hid. As long as he was running around free, he could produce a false positive on the motion sensors when trying to locate the Alien so it was necessary to catch him and put him in his cage.
Not entirely. If Dallas had listened to Ripley about waiting for the ship to be repaired before takeoff? They'd all be dead. The Alien would be born while they're stuck on surface, and I doubt the lifeboats would be powerful enough to achieve escape velocity.
Thing is, to really understand ALIEN, you have to consider what the world was like back in 1979. To put this in perspective, the idea of a monster bumping-off almost all the characters in a movie was actually new and shocking back then. Most people's idea of scifi was either the quaint 1960's utopia of Star Trek or the slightly crustier but just as noble Star Wars universe. Within that paradigm, ALIEN was... it was like an atomic bomb going off and obliterating everybody's preconceptions about scifi. What the Alien did to the characters in the movie; that was what the movie did to it's audiences. People were walking out of cinemas utterly stunned. They'd watched a movie for 2 hours and when it finished the world had become a more dangerous, dystopian, desolate, place.
Well, there had been a good chunk of bug-eyed monsters invading Earth to cause carnage in the 50s (and "War of the Worlds" is ancient as far as sci-fi works go), but A) Those were pretty silly bug-eyed alien monsters, B) they generally took place on Earth in the modern day, so even if the characters were isolated there was a sense that someone, somewhere, would be able to deal with it eventually, C) they tended to stick with that optimistic, family-friendly Hayes Code tone. "The Thing From Another World" and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" are both films that contributed a lot of DNA to "Alien," in being more claustrophobic, bleaker in tone, and at least trying to take the monsters a bit more seriously and make them genuinely threatening.
@SiCrewe So I think the idea behind a "monster bumping off almost all of the characters" in a story, actually originates with a 1939 Agatha Christie novel called "Ten Little Indians". The book was adapted to film at least twice, once in 1945 and again in 1965. The premise of the book is that 10 people are invited to a remote lodge and over the next couple of days, they are murdered, one by one. In that the movie adaptations were filmed in the UK, I'd say there's a good chance that Ridley Scott, an Englishman, was aware of the book and the movies. So, to be clear, nothing I've said here takes away from Scott's movie, I've always thought Alien was brilliant. But the only real things that are original to the script of Alien was H.R. Giger's biomechanical monster, and having a female protagonist slay the monster. Something I think was handled so well in the movie, Ripley is left in a terrible situation and managed to rise to the occasion. Great script writing made a female heroine almost "matter of fact". Anyway, great movie, great reaction. I could watch Alien a thousand times and never tire of it.
@@davemackenzie8466 I read "Ten Little Indians" at about 10 years old and I distinctly remember being terrified to go on because it was so scary. Look up what the original title of "Ten Little Indians" was if you want a sad but interesting glimpse into our rac*st past. (It's had 4 different titles over the years.)
An important fact to remember with the original release is that Sigourney was an unknown actor back then, so you would not know that she turns out to be the heroine of this film. You didnt know who was going to survive, if any. Obviously with her movie history and knowing she is in the next few films you can root for her but when this came out, it added to the suspense!
To see these great movies when they first came out was a blessing. When we saw this in the late 70’s, we had never seen anything like it (same with Psycho, Jaws and The Exorcist). When Winston’s chest exploded, the entire theater screamed. The response was unbelievable.
Ridley Scott made two films back to back that defined entire genres: Alien and Bladerunner. Each of these films features some of the greatest cinematography in motion picture history. Ridley and his DP shot these films in a very unusual style, almost like cinema verite. That Ridley lost his edge after and abandoned this shooting style is one of the great tragedies of cinema.
Agree. The beautiful cinematography of his early movies was what originally attracted me to his movies. The Duelists is another great film of his with every scene reminding me of an Old Masters painting. Good story telling as well. I don't know what happened to him with his later movies. Very sad.
Ridley Scott remains a great stylist, or at least has assembled a good team in production design and cinematography. His long term flaw (post Blade Runner) is that neither he or his agent has the ability to distinguish a good script from a mediocre one. He just doesn't seem particularly literate (this was reinforced in his defenses of Napoleon).
I was an 18 Airman at tech school, at Lowry AFB, Denver, Co when it premiered in 1979. Saw it with a buddy at one of the new cinemas which a wider, curved screen. We sat about the third row from the screen and we "felt the goo" hit us, when the face huggers popped out of the egg. I've been hooked on this franchise ever since. I hope you make it all the way through, to Alien Romulus.
I just realized something: when Ripley is telling Parker, "if you have any trouble, I'll be on the bridge", it's foreshadowing. When the alien comes for him and Lambert, Ripley is, in fact, on the bridge. Also, you are right about a lot of the lines meaning more than they appear. Like Ash saying "I take my responsibilities as seriously as you do." It turns out that he does in fact, it's just that his responsibilities are different than even the characters knew. Also, if you do decide to continue with Aliens, I recommend the Director's cut.
A regularly overlooked part is the duo of Parker and Brett: The two are the working class, non-officers on the ship, and they were very practical-minded with some good common sense. They rightfully said immediately that they were not competent enough to investigate an alien signal, they suggested to freeze Kane and so on. Like with Ripley, they made the reasonable suggestions which would have saved the crew, but they had no command. Goes to show that the working class often is more reasonable and practically minded, and ALIEN cleary differentiated between the two classes on the ship. I mean the guys literally were working on the lowest deck. In that regard, the Alien creature also was a plaque unleashed by the hubris and greed of the privileged non-working classes. ALIEN is a lot more about birth trauma than it is about rape. The creature's lifecycle breaks down any natural or perceived gender roles regarding birth and reduces any human-like organism to a walking, talking womb for its offspring. The sound design of the Nostromo also evokes what a foetus would perceive accustically inside the womb: A heartbeat and other organic, breathing-like sounds, all of which were prevalent on the Nostromo. Hence the ships main computer being called "Mother".
The class theme is definitely there, also notice how the people who express worry and caution since very early on are the two women and a black man. All the white men simply go along with the orders - Kane is genuinely curious and excited, Dallas just wants to get it over with, Brett does whatever the others tell him to do, and Ash... well. Was it intentional? Probably not. But I think it does reveal something that members of oppressed demographics have a stronger sense of danger and suspicion towards the situation.
After you watched the Firefly episode you thought was like Alien, i was like "I hope she reacts to that film" and thank the Gods it has happened. This is one of my favorite horror films, along with Halloween and The Thing.
You have pretty good taste :) The Shining, and Jaws are really good too. And Poltergeist really affected me because it was a buffet of childhood phobias, but I don't consider it to be a top 10 looking at it objectively.
@@theother1281 You know, The story of The Thing from Another World, and Alien, have the same story: _Group of people with limited resources isolated in a remote place, happen upon an alien spacecraft, and then dealing with an alien danger which grows in threat, while struggling with the unfamiliarity of the creature, being picked off one by one, and facing conflict from the science officer who want's to study it, until a climactic final showdown where the alien feels confident enough to finish the humans off, and at last it's defeated with a creative solution_ I think Alien (1979) showed that the story had good audience appeal, and that the 1951 movie's success wasn't a fluke. And very likely caused money for John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) to materialize.
@@kathrynck Yes, I think of Alien as a remake of TTFAW. Very similar to the relationship between Dances with Wolves and Avatar. Carpenter's The Thing is great, never reached the tension of the original or Alien, but a top notch splatter horror.
Alien is a masterpiece of Suspense. James Cameron was wise not to try to reproduce it with the sequel. Instead he created a masterpiece of Action. I think both movies define their genre.
The Chestbuster’s scene is freaking good made. Even if I know this scene, it always surprises me. If you want to watch the sequel "Aliens", I suggest you watch the extended version.
Space Balls had a lasting effect on me when the chestbuster puts on a Hat and Cane before dancing. Watching Alien makes me think straight back to this comedy.
Disagree. Do *NOT* watch extended/director's cut/Special Edition of Aliens, at least for 1st viewing of movie. ONLY Watch the theatrical cut for 1st time. That version released in theaters is PERFECT, the other versions throw off pacing and actually bleed off suspense that lessens payoff. The editing of theater release is PERFECT. Watch Theater version FIRST.....Then watch Extended cut for more background exposition that while nice just really isn't needed, and is clunky. Theater version for Aliens virgins, ALWAYS.
Love how 90% of this was you trying to predict things but them not coming true until a few minutes after you thought it would initially happen, Alien's horror is very well done
So, I didn't *avoid* this movie on purpose, but I missed it for years, but it had such a huge sci-fi reputation (and I loved all other things sci-fi) ,so I sat down to watch it with some friends of my parents (they had a laserdisc player and a copy of Alien) when we were there for a parent party - I made it as far as that damn computer reflecting in the helmet glass and had to turn it off. Between that opening setup, and everything I knew about the reputation of the movie, I was sooo terrified. Then, like a year later, I hung out at a convention with a bunch of guys who just wouldn't shut up about every scene from Aliens, and I realized I had to watch these movies. I made myself sit down for Alien, and by the end I was absolutely addicted. This movie is a masterpiece in just about every way, and it's only the beginning. Welcome to the cult Jacqui! One of ussss...one of ussssss...
One part that kills me is that Dallas was taking it very slowly and cautiously through the vent. There's a good chance that if anything was near him he would have noticed it ahead of time but with Lambert screaming into his ear panicking over coms he started moving quickly and feeding off of her panic which is probably what got him killed. Parker had a clear shot at the Xenomorph with a flame thrower but he threw it down to attack it hand to hand because Lambert wouldn't get out of the way. Which got him killed. I wonder if there was an intended theme that incompetent people get competent people killed because once Lambert died no other human died.
It's interesting how both the most collected/competent and unstable/incompetent characters in the movie are women. Lambert reflects the audience's reactions and behaves like probably most of us would in this scenario, Ripley is who we wish we could be like. Another thing I noticed is how the characters who express unease early and just want to turn around and go back home are the women and the black guy. All the white dudes blindly move head first into danger, either out of curiosity (Kane), a begrudging sense of obligation (Dallas), passive conformity (Brett) or a more nefarious reason (Ash). Whether these were conscious choices or not, I think they do betray something about the social climate the movie was made in.
Or it can be summed up as "A bunch of reasonably smart people have no reason to listen to the least experienced member of the crew. Things go poorly.".
It's not that she's necessarily smart. She's competent. Knowledgeable in this one, going by the rules designed to keep them alive, and her expertise is ignored in the next by people who think bang bang solves everything.
@@blakewalker84120 Not really. In the first movie she was still the most experienced at her position, and in the 2nd and 3rd she was the ONLY person with any experience at all when it came to dealing with the Alien creatures. In both cases others thought they knew better, or that their interests should supersede her knowledge. Each one of those ended up dead.
@blakewalker84120 She's the third highest ranking person on the crew. She states that when Dallas (captain) and Kane (executive officer) are off the ship she is the ranking officer, so hardly the least experienced member of the crew.
As someone who has owned cats through out my life, I still hold that Jonesy was working with the Alien. At the very least he was sacrificing the crew to survive.
That chestburster scene is iconic, especially since they didn't tell the cast exactly what was going to happen and intentionally pointed the blood jets for maximum effect so things like Lamberts yell are genuine terror.
It's not "genuine terror" because they perfectly aware that they're making a movie, and that they're participating in a scene. Commentary like that makes good 'trivia' for fans to gossip about, but nobody here was "terrified", because they'd been shooting that scene from multiple angles and takes. Sheesh, people.
I love that you were suspicious of Ash right from the start! I was 14 when I watched this movie in the theater back then. No internet and no spoilers in 1979! It gave me nightmares for several weeks! Thanks for reacting to this absolute, timeless masterpiece!
5:30 "Any time there's a clock or a countdown it just adds more pressure and makes me more nervous." Well, then you will really love the end of the movie!
Two men sitting at a diner, talking about baseball, is boring. But showing the audience the ticking time bomb under the table creates excitement. ~Hitchcock (paraphrased)
Alien is a horror movie that's for everyone. Harry Dean Stanton (who plays Brett) said he didn't like monster/sci-fi films but Scott was able to talk him into it by selling him on the idea that it would be more of a thriller. Scott himself had no previous experience with horror or sci-fi. His previous film was "The Duelists", and Scott's sensibilities brings a sort of realism you didn't often see in horror before this. On an unrelated note, John Hurt would do a parody (saying, "not again" LOL) of the chestburster scene in which the baby xenomorph walks across a counter singing in the film Spaceballs, itself a space opera parody.
As a former film student, I can relate. People would bring up movies in conversation all the time and then act shocked and almost insulted if I had not seen it. I'd often need to remind them that just because I studied film, that doesn't mean that I've seen *every movie ever made.* And despite that, I still experience a little bit of Imposter Syndrome because of it.
To be honest, I always think of this when I see content creators using titles like that. But like, nobody's expecting you to have seen *"every movie ever made"* when they're shocked, but they're surprised that as a person that's so interested in film that you're pursuing it in uni and professionally, you hadn't seen some of the most iconic, popular, groundbreaking, influential movies ever made 🤔 It's not like these films are hidden, obscure gems, lmao.
One of the brilliant things about this movie is how many times they were able to stick the Alien right in front of us and we didn't see it until it moved. When we're watching Brett chase Jones the cat there's a point when it cuts to the ceiling with a bunch of hanging chains and the alien is right in front of the camera hanging onto the chains but the audience doesn't notice it at all, even on multiple watches you still miss it. I highly recommend watching the sequel, it's a great movie, possibly the greatest sequel of all time. It's also less horror and more action so it should eb somewhat easier to watch.
"Why did I volunteer to watch this?" - Because great art must be experienced. It's a wildly uncomfortable movie, true. Expertly crafted to be exactly that. But it has to be experienced. It's too good not to. It's one perfect example of all the techniques you can use to *MAKE* your audience feel what you want them to feel - and that's a skill every great artist should aspire to.
Loved your reaction Jacqui, in particular it's a delight to watch how sensitive you are to the cinematography. When the movie came out in 1979, Alien was landmark and pioneering in its realism, sight, sound and dialogue to produce phenomenal tension right from the very opening credits. It therefore blew audiences away on countless levels, and truly stands the test of time.
It's a thing of beauty. Just glimpses, shadows, seconds of something and then gone. Swift movements, but clearly drawn out in sound. The klaxon reverberating through the corridors is just perfection.
I made mistake of watching Alien (on video) when I was 12... I couldn't enter a dark room for 6 months that followed. And when I finally stopped being afraid of the dark, my parents took me to cinema to see Jurassic Park...
For me it was Alien 3 when I was 9. Nightmares for weeks. Never had that issue with Jurassic Park, which I must have watched around the same time. Dinosaurs were fascinating animals that could just be left alone, but the aliens were unknowable and invasive monsters. I ended up getting a VHS trilogy box set some years later. Then a quadrilogy DVD box with all kinds of extras. Lastly a large blu-ray box that also included the less-than-stellar Prometheus.
Whaddya mean? Jurassic park was fun, Dinosaurs are cool. every kid knows that! Alien (the first one) was sheer suspense and terror. A masterpiece. Everyone was scared of that mfer. The rest of the franchise in my opinion got worse with every sequel. Aliens was just 'Platoon' in space, the rest not worth mentioning, just disappointing.
@@Thenogomogo-zo3un Dinosaurs are cool. However, because cloning is already here and space exploration is not, my 13 year old self was more likely to be ambushed by a cloned velociraptor than by a xenomorph.
"this is terrifying" at the beginning. 😂 I can highly recommend anxiety meds. It's sci-fi horror movie. Let the thing cook. Patience. 😛 I love the beginning bit in space and then when the computer turns on. Listen to that through your hifi. The low frequencies are incredible. Even the VHS version, which has surprisingly high quality stereo sound. Then that eerie music as the lights turn on. Btw, it's a disservice to watch this film with those earphones. Not because of the jump scares, but because of the sound in general. You want to enjoy the full wide frequency range of the film. Stop being scared. Enjoy the cooking, savour it, each and every moment, it's all in the cooking.
In all my years in manufacturing and exposure to all kinds of safety protocols, there's been one common procedure. You never went anywhere alone, especially in an unknown situation.
Although it does depend on how dangerous the situation is. Cave diving is one of the most dangerous sports where all your equipment is doubled up, you go in pairs _but,_ if your buddy gets into difficulty, the recommended procedure is to leave them. Kind of like mountaineering where you rope yourself together and are supposed to cut someone loose if you get into trouble so I guess there might be some rather callous operating procedures in deep space, especially given the emphasis on profits.
This is why I've always said: A good horror story is a sexual act. It starts out slowly, teasing you. More, more, more until its climax makes your head explode!
Literary reference time: Their ship is named Nostromo, which is the title of a Joseph Conrad book, as well as the name of a character in the book. If you go on to watch Aliens, the ship in that movie is the Sulaco, which is the fictional port city in the novel Nostromo. Joseph Conrad is most famous for his novel Heart of Darkness, which was adapted into the film Apocalypse Now.
Many people who are new to the franchise think Ripley is a badass from the beginning. Not really true. In this the first movie she was smart and made good decisions but she wasn’t out there kicking ass and taking names. Instead she was in full bore survival mode. Which she did really well. It’s actually the second movie , Aliens , where she gets her well deserved ass kicking badge. That’s when she rises to the top. Which is very good , long term character development. Great writing.
Every time I see Dallas in the vents and the alien reaches for him, all I hear is...JAZZ HANDS. Nice to see you enjoy a classic. I'm a horror fan, especially '80s horror. Some good and some bad but still fun to watch.
Now just for reference, the second film, Aliens, is directed by James Cameron. It's not cookie cutter sequel but the next logical development of how news of this event would go. They send in the military.
Alien was the first truly modern high brow scifi psychologial jump horror ... and a pretty darn good date movie, for young men like me banking on the cinematic freakouts to drive their date into their arms. 😂 Gods, I remember seeing it in the theaters. I remember seeing it all over Omni magazine. I remember Omni's fascination with the art of H.Geiger, and how seeing it come to life on the silver screen in the form of the xenomorph, was both thrilling and terrifying. I remember the iconic shock and horror of the chest popper scene ... nothing like that had ever appeared in a major motion picture before, and it left many traumatized at the time. Good times. Oh, and Ripley was such a genre shattering badass . . . the first true cinematic antithesis to the whole "perils of pauline" helpless frail trope.
A group of us were first in line on opening day at the Avco Cinema Center in Westwood. Sigourney was a revelation. Many years later, I had the chance to work as an extra on LA Law. The episodes in which I worked guest starred Veronica Cartwright, who very generously shared her experiences filming Alien. I was in heaven. And, yes, I wore a Nostromo baseball cap until it crumbled.
watching away now. we're just about to get to Brett discovering the big one. You will probably ask "why is it raining in the ship?" - they're in the room with the landing legs - that is the condensation from the planet's atmosphere (it was raining remember) dripping down the 100 foot long legs.
You'd be amazed how much you can avoid, even in film school, if you're really determined 😅 I couldn't avoid Jaws though. Had to watch it on the big screen in my very first class 😂
Non-horror people are VERY good at avoiding horror movies. Especially if we KNOW it's a horror. Just think about the first people who saw this in theaters. They did not know what they were getting. Even with the poster "in space no-one can hear you scream"
The absolute GOAT, blends Horror and Science Fiction seamlessly into a perfect movie and the creature design by the supremely talented H.R. Giger is sublime. This movie turned Sigourney Weaver into a star. Absolutely loved this video and watching Jacqui's reactions was hilarious.
Congrats! This is one of my favorite movies I revisit every year! Always fun seeing someone experience it for the first time and I totally get filling the suspenseful times with commentary 😆 I’m a curl up and prepare myself for the scares person myself.
The Jaws comparison is apt, as Alien was originally conceived as "Jaws in space". Big budget sci-fi films weren't really a thing before the late 1970s, and it was only the success of Star Wars that ultimately secured funding for Alien. By the way, at one point Ridley Scott wanted Ripley to die at the end but the studio vetoed it.
One of my favorite things about this movie is how natural a lot of the dialogue is, especially at the dinner scene! It really just sounds like a bunch of friends/coworkers hanging out.
My favorite description of this movie, loosly paraphrased: no one listens to the smart lady, and then everybody dies except for the smart lady and her cat. 😂😂😂
7:50 Lambert: "Let's get out of here." Jacqui: "Yes, yes do that please! Please" Kane: "We have to go on." Jacqui: "No, no you don't You really really don't" Well, you might be forgetting that they are forfeiting at least 40 months of pay. How much do you make in 40 months? Now, what would you be willing to do if the alternative was to give away that much money? I bring this up because a lot of people watching this think the crew members do stupid things in this movie. Them walking around this planet is no more stupid than Luke Skywalker walking around Dagobah, and nobody tells him to leave, even after a giant monster eats R2-D2. But this crew does nothing stupid. That is part of why this movie is so awesome. Everybody makes good decisions, or at least when they don't, it's very obvious and easy to understand why they did what they had to. Except Lambert. She panics and makes bad decisions. But even that's believable - some people panic in pressure situations.
I'm always reminding people that, especially in the sequels, people are making decisions based on the information they have. And also behaving in a human way. Humans panic.
Yeah, the "dumbest" thing anyone does in Alien is Kane expressing curiosity about an alien egg (which he had no real reason to fear, since he didn't know he was in a horror movie) and then Lambert panicking and freezing up (which is entirely in-character). That's nowhere near the bullshit the Prometheus characters get up to in order to move the plot forward. (Like the geologist mapping the place somehow getting lost, and the xenobiologist being afraid of ancient corpses but wanting to get his face all up in that of a hissing alien cobra.)
Lambert's behaviour can be a little frustrating at times, but yeah, it's believable. She's the navigator of a cargo ship. None of this is stuff she's supposed to be dealing with.
@@JediMB It's not only not knowing they are in a horror movie, it's like they have never seen a horror movie. I think they try to show that all these creepy and dangerous things happening is quite normal for these space-truckers. But shoving your head into an alien egg of that size is still a bad idea. If that had been a regular animal the hatchling would have been big enough to tear his face off. You also wouldn't shove your head into a trashbin that has a can in it.
@@jasperzanovich2504 Kane did approach the egg very carefully, just trying to get a glimpse of what was inside. Aside from seeing some movement, it just looked like a fleshy mass. And as far as never having seen a horror movie goes, that comes with the territory of this being a sci-fi future imagined in the late 70s. They were clearly aware of older horror stuff like zombies, but parasitic spiders that leap onto your head and shove an alien embryo down your throat wasn't on anyone's bingo card. I think it's safe to say that known human contact with dangerous extraterrestrial life had been extremely limited in the year 2122.
Great review You understood immediately what historians and experts have been figuring out over the years, with the aid of research, when it comes to 'mother' and the colours used and also dangling things which I never caught onto myself. Keep up the good work!!
The cinematography and camera work in the movie is simply amazing. The camera is always behind stuff, people are in the scene, but maybe just there arm, so you know they are there and where they are. Most of the scenes with multiple people were filmed with two cameras, and no pickup shots, so there are zero continuity errors (even tiny ones) from composting multiple shots.
“This is so well done. I hate it!” ❤ Sigourney Weaver was very much a newcomer when this was released. No one, I mean no one, expected Ripley to end up being the star. This movie was shocking on so many fronts.
Now you should consider reacting to John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). It’s a similar concept to this film, but the alien antagonist is vastly more interesting and terrifying.
Listening to this via headphones robs you of an experience. From the drive of the spaceship there's a low frequency hum whenever there's a scene inside the ship. It also seems to contain a healthy amount of sub bass, the frequency range where you start to feel anxiety. :) In a good cinema with great bass and sub bass production, you're on the edge of your seat almost the entire time without really knowing why. This is completely lost when you listen with headphones or via TV speakers.
Fun fact, the first time watchers weren't the only ones shocked and terrified by the chestburster scene... The only one that knew exactly what was going to happen were Kane and Ash; the rest of the actors knew something was going to happen, but didn't know what, so the reactions from the crew is authentic, but Ash needed to know so as to keep his cold like reaction.
I saw "Alien" as a college student in the summer of 1979. Went into the theater having NO idea what to expect, but since I was a sci-fi fan I thought I would enjoy it. And as it happened I had never seen a horror movie before. It was utterly terrifying and left me with sweaty palms and -- just like you -- a firm commitment to never watch it (end to end) again. In 45 years I've never broken that commitment nor desired to. On the other hand I loved "Aliens" and have seen it multiple times, and think you'll enjoy that too. After you see it I'm pretty sure you'll understand why.
We saw this in the theater the day it was released, I was 16. One my make friends had an asthma attack, and I looked in the back of the car to make sure there were no aliens hiding; hey, I was young and terrified! ETA: The first trailers that were released where shots of the egg, the title, and "In space, no one can hear you scream". That's it, no clips from the movie at all. So we all went in blind. Ah, the days before internet spoilers!
19:40 "Why are you so calm?!" Because they work in space, an unforgiving environment that will kill you at the earliest opportunity...and that's without the added influence of an alien killing machine. Panic increases the opportunity for it to kill you.
I heard the reason for framing a lot of the shots so that the ceiling is visible rather than the floor is to emphasize the cramped, claustrophobic nature of the ship's interior.
I was only thirteen when this came out so didn't get to see it in theaters. It would be a few years later at a late night VHS party. It made such an impact though. Between Star Wars and Alien you have every kind of sci-fi that is to come. It made me love the sci-fi genre.
"Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars." Also, watch the second movie, because it changes genre to more of an action movie.
A seldom mentioned aspect of "Alien", by reactors... the practical effects and set work. From the moment I saw this in the theater, when it was first released, I knew I needed to learn to build in such an extraordinary and creative way. Thank you for doing this, even though it is not your cup of tea. Little side note, much of the sets were created from junk yard parts.
A couple fun facts. The chestburster scene was the only scene kept in all the scripts written. I can't remember if it was all or a few of the cast members but they weren't told about what was going to happen so those are honest reactions. Aliens is labeled as scifi action and directed by the man I don't even need to name by now lol.
I remember going to see Alien with my father when I was 14. When *The Scene* came up, my dad upped and fled the room, leaving me there to brave it on my own 😂.
The term 'mother' comes from the designation of the computer system. In the shot where Dallas puts his thumb print onto a button immediately before entering the computer room, you can just make out the word MU/TH/UR 6000 on the panel above the thumb print button.
Scenes were removed for the cinema cut, mainly to maintain the pace of the movie. On Ripley’s run to escape she finds Dallas and Brett cocooned, morphing into eggs, a sex scene with Dallas and Ripley showed they were in a relationship, hinted in how they behaved talking in the corridor, a more detailed scene of the attack on Lambert wasn’t used.
False - Sigourney Weaver has stated it was in the script. It's the sheer amount of gore and blood they weren't advised of prior, which took them off guard. There's a hilarious blooper of Veronica Cartwright slipping on blood and her boots sticking up in the air.
@@tulinfirenze1990 True. They knew it was going to happen, just not the how. There's an interview Sigourney Weaver did not too long ago (you can find it here on UA-cam titled "Sigourney Weaver Remembers John Hurt's Famous Alien Scene") where she talks about how all five of the cast were shocked at the practical effects of the creature running off the table in a single fluid motion.
The chest burster scene has become a kind of urban myth. They all knew it would happen. Veronica Cartwright has told a story how she and Sigourney visited the the Special effects department and watched them work on the chest burster. What they didn't know was that John Hurt was rigged with an explosive squib and his yell and the explosion of blood did surprise the cast. All the actors were told to be in a certain place. They did not tell Veronica there was a blood tube pointed at her. Her reaction to getting sprayed with blood was real.
@@tulinfirenze1990 More backpedalling and tripping over the back of the seats, but yeah. She was told "You'll get a little blood on you," but had the bad luck to be standing RIGHT in the path of one of the blood hoses. The cast knew what was going to happen, but not what it would look like or how it would be achieved, because no one had done an effect like this before.
I was 11 when this came out. My dad heard a review that said there was humor in it (very dark humor, but yes), misunderstood, and thought it was a comedy. So he took me to see it on the first day, first showing. The movie rolls along. The chestburster scene happens. A lady in the front row throws up and runs out of the theater (different times). Oh yeah, dad, great comedy. But once I got what kind of movie I was in, I loved it. Such a masterfully done movie. Years later, I had the best cinema experience of my life when I saw Aliens first day, first showing with no spoilers. Two of the best SF movies ever. One of the best horror, and one of the best action.
Would recommend The Frighteners (1996) starring Michael J. Fox and directed by someone called Peter Jackson as a "very slight horror" element but more than enough comedy to make up for it.
6:40 the exterior scenes of them in the space suits by the landing leg of the spaceship was actually done semi miniature. Those are mini space suits with Ridley Scotts children in them, and I think other children from the production team.
"Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars." And with that said, you need to watch Aliens now!! 😄
Geiger's work was selected because of the pre-production designs he did for Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed attempt at Dune. That movie's corpse is the soil from which modern sci-fi has grown. I highly recommend the documentary (Jodorowsky's Dune) to anyone who hasn't seen it. Geiger's themes of se×ually charged bio-mechanical monstrosities were perfect for Dan O'Bannon's script and I love how his imagery is evolved across the series. Romulus in particular is rife with Geiger homage in the filthiest ways 😖
Just went to the Giger museum in Gruyere (Switzerland) a couple weeks ago. They have the original alien costume there (a lot worse for wear by now). That thing is *huge*.
My Dad tells a story from when he was in the Royal Air Force. They were on an exercise in the jungles of Belize in the early 80s. It was night time, raining, and the land crabs were migrating. A group of them watched this in a large tent with the sides pulled up on a projector. Despite the fact it was on multiple reels that had to be changed and help break the tension, several of the people there, including members of the SAS simply said NOPE! And walked away. The story has always tickled me.
Now you have to watch Aliens. Less horror, more action. On the horror tropes, the concepts of a final girl and a 4th act were not yet ubiquitous when this movie was made. So Ripley being the survivor and the Big Chap being on the shuttle would’ve been totally…umm…alien to 1979 audience. I know this to be true, because I was one of them.
Watching Jacqui slowly lose her mind with fear and anxiety was honestly, quite the treat that I wasn't expecting. This move is absolutely fantastic, especially the first time that you watch it. Loved the reaction
Yes. Movies nowadays don't take their time for 'world building' to let the audience understand the rules of the world/environment before distracting them with the action. That's why they feel so unsatisfying sometimes because they use aspects of their respective world that comes totally out of left field without rhyme or reason.
@peterzerfass4609 Alien doesn't really do a lot of worldbuilding. It's mostly focused on characterization and building suspense with very careful bits of information coming out about the real situation to build up the Ash twist. I think any sense of worldbuilding is only felt in retrospect after the later movies discussed the Weyland Yutani corporation, the different stages of Xenomorphs, and the origins of their species and possibly all intelligent life.
Turns out I've been avoiding this for a reason 😅 I really don't handle horror/suspense well...
I'm not opposed to continuing the franchise, but I'm going to have to space them out. I can't handle watching these back-to-back 😂
In other news, FIREFLY will be back on Monday!
:grins: I saw this just pop into my feed and my first thought is "Jacqui is going to need an ambulance!" :D This is *the* sci-fi horror movie - it lived free in the nightmares of many of us after it first hit the screens!
Hi , thx for reordering the playlist eps. Next you might try "the thing" , the other iconic film of that Era. Thx
Does your commentary mean that you haven't seen ANY of the alien movies? This one is the most horrific. At least to me, there others are more action-y
@@kd72183 I think I saw Prometheus when it came out, but I didn't know it was part of the Alien franchise, and I don't remember much about it--probably because I blocked out the memory 😂
@@movienightwithjacqui Its worth mentioning that this first film is the only real horror film, well its more a haunted house in space,but i digress. The others move away from this, Aliens is actually really good, but is a action film and the suspense that brings, rather than the terror of the first.
This came out in 1979. 45 years of cultural references. 45 years of special effects 'advances'. 45 years of copycats.
And 45 years later it still scares the bejezus out of people. Even among those who saw it on its first run.
Well done practical effects stand the test of time. Even modern CGI is going to look dated in 10 or 20 years, let alone 45.
It's old-school immersive cinema: slow, gradual submergence into the film's world through ambience rather than quicker immersion through visual manipulation.
I wouldn’t count Predator as a copycat.
The practical effects, the acting, the pacing, the build up
That's the formula that made those 70/80's horror movies so timeless classics
Alien, The thing, Predator, Terminator...
Honestly you have to be extremely skittish if this film scares you, cause it's not scary
For me, part of what makes Ripley an amazing protagonist is that she is not fearless. She has very relatable and appropriate fear responses. Her edge is that she is not paralyzed by her fear. She goes into problem solving mode, breaking down problems into manageable sizes and keeps tackling one after another. One of my favorite protagonists up there with Sarah Connor.
Calm people live, panicked people die.
@@chrismaverick9828if things go well. Otherwise panicky people get everyone killed along with them.
And the only time in the entire franchise we ever see her totally lose her shit is when Newt gets taken after she slides down into the water. Hicks literally had to drag her away otherwise she would've gotten taken too.
@@sagaswp And it was an earned moment of losing her shit. It was great.
Yeah not a "girl boss" basically lol
This film is a masterpiece in building suspense. The alien is on screen a total of four minutes.
Ironically that was in part due to the film budget and the lack of funding for the practical effects. Some of the script was altered to cut the alien down to a minimum. But I think it "accidentally helped" make it a masterpiece.
@@kathrynck kind of plays in to that "less is more" trope that a lot of artists would do well to remember. I see folks lionize practical effects and in the same breath bash CGI. Its not just about overlooking the vast history of practical effects not holding up. Or where CGI does well (i.e. how often do reactors comment about the CGI in Forrest Gump). But rather they note where CGI fails because the artists are asked to do too much with what they have available (I'm looking at you, George Lucas). Both practical effects and CGI work best where its used sparingly and within the bounds of what the tool can do - altering the way the story is told if need be. Even where movie trickery is needed constantly - less is more.
@@kathrynck Yet they also had a lot of footage that they ended up cutting (some of which was reintroduced in the inferior Director's Cut), so you get the feeling that they were aware of that "less is more" as well.
Jaws had already been a success while doing similar things for seemingly similar reasons.
They had a hard time not having it look like a guy in a rubber suit. This is why they use strobes and smoke in the few scenes where you do see it. The young man they hired to play the alien did the best he could but unfortunately he had no acting or dance or mime experience at all and I think that may have been what they were struggling with in trying to get him to convey movement in a way that evoked something "alien".
Ridley Scott is reportedly not an easy director to work with in that he, like Lucas, has difficulty in conveying to his actors what he wants from them in a performance. Harrison Ford struggled to understand his character in Blade Runner, or even what the film was about, while Rutger Hauer and Scott seemed to be on the same wavelength so that Hauer had no problem in understandings Scott's vision.
@@Lethgar_Smith I recall there were even scenes filmed where the alien suit actor was instructed to do a crab/spider walk like in The Exorcist, which of course looked more goofy than threatening and couldn't be used.
Ripley isn't just one of the greatest female film characters of all time - she's one of THE GREATEST characters, period.
when feminists whine that there are no strong female characters lol
She is one of the greatest characters of all time who also happens to be the greatest female character of all time.
Yep and really flags up the dire mary sues that pass for "heroes" today.
Ripley and Sarah Connor
Don't forget Vasquez and Hicks...Hudson was an amazing comedy relief. :) I honestly couldn't imagine another scenario where such a group of people are brought together to face the same crazy odds and would say the things that were said. Nothing else comes close...if you were ever in such a situation IRL, that's the team you'd want to get you to safety.
If it eases your anxiety over watching the next one, Aliens was more of an action flick rather than horror. It's rightfully regarded as among the best sequels made. It's probably the reason this franchise was as successful as it is.
Agreed. Everything after Aliens is just varying degrees of "meh," with maybe the exception of Romulus. And that's a big maybe.
Absolutely this. It's such an incredible action movie while still having the horror from the original.
@@wojtek1274 They don't compare well to Alien and Aliens, but very few movies do.
@@wojtek1274 Haven't seen Romulus yet, but one of my friends did today, and said it's the best since Aliens.
@@wojtek1274 wild how different opinions can be. personally thought romulus was way too safe and more of the same while everything else that followed was pretty good compared to other popular franchises. i didnt think 3 or resurrection were good but the others were fine
I really like how the frustrated crew argues for a little bit at the start about if they're going to get bonuses for checking out a random planet and get reminded that the mega corp that owns their ship has a clause for it in their contract. It feels very human for what if basically a bunch of space truckers.
It's interesting how she expected a jump scare in the first 5m, much more common with current horror movies. But it sets the tone of this masterpiece to not offer a jump until at least 20m in.
The substitution of non-stop, meaningless jump scares for suspense is one of the greatest failings of newer movies. That and the reliance on CG.
I hate jump scares. It’s not that I don’t jump. I do. It’s that jump scares are cheap and too easy, and they kill the re-watchability of a movie.
@@Educated2Extinction And the lack of mentally disabled orange kitties.
In my opinion one of the worst things to happen to horror movies has been lazy filmmakers managing to convince audiences that being startled is the same thing as being scared.
@@Diomedene And gore so over the top that it becomes comical. Nobody really wants to be truly horrified anymore.
I don't mind the commentary at all. The appeal of these reaction videos is getting to vicariously experience a movie for the first time through someone else's eyes who hasn't seen it before. I'm really glad you liked it. This truly is a one of a kind, once in a generation type of movie that stands the test of time.
The brilliant thing about Alien is that before we knew Sigorney Weaver was the star of the franchise, Tom Skerritt's Dallas character was the one that everyone assumed was going to be the hero at the end. To have him killed part way through (killing off the lead character years before Game of Thrones did) was such a shock. So naturally, based on common cinema tropes, most of the audience stupidly assumed that Yaphet Kotto's character would be the hero replacement, as he's the biggest built member of the cast and an archetypal hero type.
At no point did anyone believe that the "by the numbers" rather rigid second officer, who got on most of the crew's nerves, would be the one we would be cheering for at the end. Aside from everything else that makes Alien such a masterpiece, It's so beautifully subtle how they built up Ripley as a relatively cold and unlikeable side character that seemed destined to be killed off, only to be the one survivor at the end. Unfortunately it's such a brilliant twist that lost its uniqueness due to what we know now.
On the "Nostromo," Dallas was the Captain, Kane was the Second Officer, and Ripley was the Third Officer.
@@Otokichi786 Thanks
Common cinema trope would have made Yaphet Kotto’s Parker - as the lone black dude in a horror movie - one of the first to die.
@@awlabrador Not really. Check out 1968's Night of the Living Dead.
@@Otokichi786The first officer is the person directly below the captain, so it's captain, then first officer (2nd in command), then second officer (3rd in command). Kane is the first officer because he's second in command and Ripley is the second officer.
Every time I watch this, I'm blown away by how fantastic it still looks - there's one or two dodgy moments with the effects, but most of the time I'm convinced that this was filmed on an actual spaceship.
What are the two dodgy moments?
@@ericgen5022 There's a bit during the Ash scene where it's clearly a fake head (and an unconvincing one), and I seem to remember that there's one shot of the Xenomorph where my brain can't see anything other than "that's a guy in a rubber suit", but I can't remember exactly when that happens.
@@clarbri Right at the very end pretty much.
"Yah, she's just pissed now. It's personal. It's just you and me now..." No. No, she's not pissed. It's not personal. Watch Aliens. That's when she gets pissed. That's when it's personal.
Exactly. In this, she was terrified.
She seems to get every single prediction wrong. Some film student.
lol, no. Ripley thought she was finally in the clear. And terror begets rage and frustration already. Not only is she still a bit scared, but she's feeling the weight of hope being snatched away from her. Double the rage and frustration, and terror as well. It is personal. How dare the alien try and stop her even now, basically. Don't mansplain.
@@ZylonBane Right, because being a film student means being able to guess things correctly every single time without much to go on, which is exactly the point of a movie like this. Her actual analysis of the movie and its symbolic use of colours, shaky cam, etc. were all completely spot-on. Try harder.
@@sarahnadeofpoetry Sorry, anyone who whips out "mansplain" unironically these days has automatically excused themselves from being taken seriously. Try harder to not make such a cliched joke of yourself.
The original sets were about 25% taller but when he came to the set Scott told the set crew to lower the ceilings to make the set feel more claustrophobic. Worked perfectly. The story though is just basically a re-telling of "The Captain's Log" chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's the voyage of the Demeter. The ship that brought Dracula to England. A crew stuck on a ship with a monster... but set in space. And as to why you volenteered to watch this, and I say this as an accredited Film Historian, because you're a Film Student and it's your duty to watch the classics no matter how much they scare, disgust or disturb you. Welcome to the family. 😁
"Looked bigger when I couldn't see him." -- Jayne Cobb
Women say the same about Trump.
But it's Friday, why no Firefly reaction? 😢
@@tulinfirenze1990Put down the TDS brain and enjoy the video.
@@FalconOfStorms Why would I do that? I love Tokyo DisneySea and have visited six times. I LOVE TDS!!! Best theme park in the world!!
@@tulinfirenze1990 This explains a lot. Disney Adults should not be allowed to vote.
Just wanted to say thank you for going out your comfort zone, I know your not big on horror movies but this is a classic and hope you watch the second one at least.Also been sharing your channel with my Apple corporate coworkers and they love it.Lastly you said that you talked alot?I think you did great, for me at least seemed you talked the same amount as other movies, so just giving you kudos.Keep up the great channel
I think your reaction to Ash being "unmasked" was even better than seeing the xenomorph at full size. I hear in most places that if you don't see Aliens after watching this movie it is a crime against humanity.
@Smokie_666 Agreed, and I hope she realizes that Aliens is a very different kind of movie, and not another dose of the 'slow torture suspense' of the original film.
@@paulp9274 Like Terminator, Horror followed by Action, which is the best way to go. It's hard to make a sequel as scary, the evil was seen and defeated the first time.
The bigger crime will be watching Aliens, then watching Romulus and questioning everything.
No you can't go back and look for clues, as you can with Ash in the first movie.
Because there aren't any.
I like the irony of having a cat on board a ship for good luck, a long naval tradition, and Jones caused them so much trouble.
Cats are also on board to kill vermin. Jones did not really shine here either. What a troublesome cat! 🙂
I must have missed that :) How did Jones cause them trouble?
@@Crosis89 He got Brett killed because he ran away and hid. As long as he was running around free, he could produce a false positive on the motion sensors when trying to locate the Alien so it was necessary to catch him and put him in his cage.
Yeah not if your Brett lol
@@Crosis89
Everyone was wasting time looking for the damn cat.
Welcome to the first movie in the "For the Love of God, Listen to Ripley!!!" series.
All two of them.
@@wristcontr0l 🤣🤣🤣
Not entirely. If Dallas had listened to Ripley about waiting for the ship to be repaired before takeoff? They'd all be dead. The Alien would be born while they're stuck on surface, and I doubt the lifeboats would be powerful enough to achieve escape velocity.
Thing is, to really understand ALIEN, you have to consider what the world was like back in 1979.
To put this in perspective, the idea of a monster bumping-off almost all the characters in a movie was actually new and shocking back then.
Most people's idea of scifi was either the quaint 1960's utopia of Star Trek or the slightly crustier but just as noble Star Wars universe.
Within that paradigm, ALIEN was... it was like an atomic bomb going off and obliterating everybody's preconceptions about scifi.
What the Alien did to the characters in the movie; that was what the movie did to it's audiences.
People were walking out of cinemas utterly stunned.
They'd watched a movie for 2 hours and when it finished the world had become a more dangerous, dystopian, desolate, place.
Well, there had been a good chunk of bug-eyed monsters invading Earth to cause carnage in the 50s (and "War of the Worlds" is ancient as far as sci-fi works go), but A) Those were pretty silly bug-eyed alien monsters, B) they generally took place on Earth in the modern day, so even if the characters were isolated there was a sense that someone, somewhere, would be able to deal with it eventually, C) they tended to stick with that optimistic, family-friendly Hayes Code tone. "The Thing From Another World" and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" are both films that contributed a lot of DNA to "Alien," in being more claustrophobic, bleaker in tone, and at least trying to take the monsters a bit more seriously and make them genuinely threatening.
@SiCrewe So I think the idea behind a "monster bumping off almost all of the characters" in a story, actually originates with a 1939 Agatha Christie novel called "Ten Little Indians". The book was adapted to film at least twice, once in 1945 and again in 1965. The premise of the book is that 10 people are invited to a remote lodge and over the next couple of days, they are murdered, one by one. In that the movie adaptations were filmed in the UK, I'd say there's a good chance that Ridley Scott, an Englishman, was aware of the book and the movies.
So, to be clear, nothing I've said here takes away from Scott's movie, I've always thought Alien was brilliant. But the only real things that are original to the script of Alien was H.R. Giger's biomechanical monster, and having a female protagonist slay the monster. Something I think was handled so well in the movie, Ripley is left in a terrible situation and managed to rise to the occasion. Great script writing made a female heroine almost "matter of fact". Anyway, great movie, great reaction. I could watch Alien a thousand times and never tire of it.
Why does everyone leave comments like they're writing a hyperbolic video essay now?
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o "everyone"?
This video has six billion comments and they're ALL hyperbolic?
Seems like hyperbole to me!
@@davemackenzie8466 I read "Ten Little Indians" at about 10 years old and I distinctly remember being terrified to go on because it was so scary. Look up what the original title of "Ten Little Indians" was if you want a sad but interesting glimpse into our rac*st past. (It's had 4 different titles over the years.)
An important fact to remember with the original release is that Sigourney was an unknown actor back then, so you would not know that she turns out to be the heroine of this film. You didnt know who was going to survive, if any. Obviously with her movie history and knowing she is in the next few films you can root for her but when this came out, it added to the suspense!
To see these great movies when they first came out was a blessing. When we saw this in the late 70’s, we had never seen anything like it (same with Psycho, Jaws and The Exorcist). When Winston’s chest exploded, the entire theater screamed. The response was unbelievable.
Ridley Scott made two films back to back that defined entire genres: Alien and Bladerunner. Each of these films features some of the greatest cinematography in motion picture history. Ridley and his DP shot these films in a very unusual style, almost like cinema verite. That Ridley lost his edge after and abandoned this shooting style is one of the great tragedies of cinema.
Agree. The beautiful cinematography of his early movies was what originally attracted me to his movies. The Duelists is another great film of his with every scene reminding me of an Old Masters painting. Good story telling as well. I don't know what happened to him with his later movies. Very sad.
Yeah....'Gladiator' and 'The Martian' were such a yawn....
"Lost his edge..." 😂
Alien and Bladerunner are both my favourite films.
Ridley Scott remains a great stylist, or at least has assembled a good team in production design and cinematography.
His long term flaw (post Blade Runner) is that neither he or his agent has the ability to distinguish a good script from a mediocre one. He just doesn't seem particularly literate (this was reinforced in his defenses of Napoleon).
I was an 18 Airman at tech school, at Lowry AFB, Denver, Co when it premiered in 1979. Saw it with a buddy at one of the new cinemas which a wider, curved screen. We sat about the third row from the screen and we "felt the goo" hit us, when the face huggers popped out of the egg. I've been hooked on this franchise ever since. I hope you make it all the way through, to Alien Romulus.
I just realized something: when Ripley is telling Parker, "if you have any trouble, I'll be on the bridge", it's foreshadowing. When the alien comes for him and Lambert, Ripley is, in fact, on the bridge. Also, you are right about a lot of the lines meaning more than they appear. Like Ash saying "I take my responsibilities as seriously as you do." It turns out that he does in fact, it's just that his responsibilities are different than even the characters knew.
Also, if you do decide to continue with Aliens, I recommend the Director's cut.
A regularly overlooked part is the duo of Parker and Brett: The two are the working class, non-officers on the ship, and they were very practical-minded with some good common sense. They rightfully said immediately that they were not competent enough to investigate an alien signal, they suggested to freeze Kane and so on. Like with Ripley, they made the reasonable suggestions which would have saved the crew, but they had no command. Goes to show that the working class often is more reasonable and practically minded, and ALIEN cleary differentiated between the two classes on the ship. I mean the guys literally were working on the lowest deck. In that regard, the Alien creature also was a plaque unleashed by the hubris and greed of the privileged non-working classes.
ALIEN is a lot more about birth trauma than it is about rape. The creature's lifecycle breaks down any natural or perceived gender roles regarding birth and reduces any human-like organism to a walking, talking womb for its offspring. The sound design of the Nostromo also evokes what a foetus would perceive accustically inside the womb: A heartbeat and other organic, breathing-like sounds, all of which were prevalent on the Nostromo. Hence the ships main computer being called "Mother".
The class theme is definitely there, also notice how the people who express worry and caution since very early on are the two women and a black man. All the white men simply go along with the orders - Kane is genuinely curious and excited, Dallas just wants to get it over with, Brett does whatever the others tell him to do, and Ash... well. Was it intentional? Probably not. But I think it does reveal something that members of oppressed demographics have a stronger sense of danger and suspicion towards the situation.
After you watched the Firefly episode you thought was like Alien, i was like "I hope she reacts to that film" and thank the Gods it has happened. This is one of my favorite horror films, along with Halloween and The Thing.
You have pretty good taste :)
The Shining, and Jaws are really good too. And Poltergeist really affected me because it was a buffet of childhood phobias, but I don't consider it to be a top 10 looking at it objectively.
Love The Thing, but I prefer the 1951 'The Thing from Another World'.
@@theother1281 You know, The story of The Thing from Another World, and Alien, have the same story:
_Group of people with limited resources isolated in a remote place, happen upon an alien spacecraft, and then dealing with an alien danger which grows in threat, while struggling with the unfamiliarity of the creature, being picked off one by one, and facing conflict from the science officer who want's to study it, until a climactic final showdown where the alien feels confident enough to finish the humans off, and at last it's defeated with a creative solution_
I think Alien (1979) showed that the story had good audience appeal, and that the 1951 movie's success wasn't a fluke. And very likely caused money for John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) to materialize.
@@kathrynck
Yes, I think of Alien as a remake of TTFAW. Very similar to the relationship between Dances with Wolves and Avatar. Carpenter's The Thing is great, never reached the tension of the original or Alien, but a top notch splatter horror.
Alien is a masterpiece of Suspense. James Cameron was wise not to try to reproduce it with the sequel. Instead he created a masterpiece of Action. I think both movies define their genre.
The Chestbuster’s scene is freaking good made. Even if I know this scene, it always surprises me.
If you want to watch the sequel "Aliens", I suggest you watch the extended version.
Nobody except Ian Holm (RIP) knowing what was going to happen really sells the moment.
Space Balls had a lasting effect on me when the chestbuster puts on a Hat and Cane before dancing. Watching Alien makes me think straight back to this comedy.
After seeing the alien they found with its chest exploded I was actually expecting the chest busting scene. Doesn’t make it any less disturbing.
Disagree. Do *NOT* watch extended/director's cut/Special Edition of Aliens, at least for 1st viewing of movie. ONLY Watch the theatrical cut for 1st time. That version released in theaters is PERFECT, the other versions throw off pacing and actually bleed off suspense that lessens payoff. The editing of theater release is PERFECT. Watch Theater version FIRST.....Then watch Extended cut for more background exposition that while nice just really isn't needed, and is clunky. Theater version for Aliens virgins, ALWAYS.
@@topcat989 Yep. Aliens is one of those occasions where the shorter theatrical version is by far the best.
Love how 90% of this was you trying to predict things but them not coming true until a few minutes after you thought it would initially happen, Alien's horror is very well done
So, I didn't *avoid* this movie on purpose, but I missed it for years, but it had such a huge sci-fi reputation (and I loved all other things sci-fi) ,so I sat down to watch it with some friends of my parents (they had a laserdisc player and a copy of Alien) when we were there for a parent party - I made it as far as that damn computer reflecting in the helmet glass and had to turn it off. Between that opening setup, and everything I knew about the reputation of the movie, I was sooo terrified. Then, like a year later, I hung out at a convention with a bunch of guys who just wouldn't shut up about every scene from Aliens, and I realized I had to watch these movies. I made myself sit down for Alien, and by the end I was absolutely addicted. This movie is a masterpiece in just about every way, and it's only the beginning. Welcome to the cult Jacqui! One of ussss...one of ussssss...
One part that kills me is that Dallas was taking it very slowly and cautiously through the vent. There's a good chance that if anything was near him he would have noticed it ahead of time but with Lambert screaming into his ear panicking over coms he started moving quickly and feeding off of her panic which is probably what got him killed.
Parker had a clear shot at the Xenomorph with a flame thrower but he threw it down to attack it hand to hand because Lambert wouldn't get out of the way. Which got him killed.
I wonder if there was an intended theme that incompetent people get competent people killed because once Lambert died no other human died.
It's interesting how both the most collected/competent and unstable/incompetent characters in the movie are women. Lambert reflects the audience's reactions and behaves like probably most of us would in this scenario, Ripley is who we wish we could be like.
Another thing I noticed is how the characters who express unease early and just want to turn around and go back home are the women and the black guy. All the white dudes blindly move head first into danger, either out of curiosity (Kane), a begrudging sense of obligation (Dallas), passive conformity (Brett) or a more nefarious reason (Ash). Whether these were conscious choices or not, I think they do betray something about the social climate the movie was made in.
A lot of this franchise can be summed up: "A bunch of people do not listen to the smart woman. Things go poorly."
Or it can be summed up as "A bunch of reasonably smart people have no reason to listen to the least experienced member of the crew. Things go poorly.".
It's not that she's necessarily smart. She's competent. Knowledgeable in this one, going by the rules designed to keep them alive, and her expertise is ignored in the next by people who think bang bang solves everything.
@@blakewalker84120 Not really. In the first movie she was still the most experienced at her position, and in the 2nd and 3rd she was the ONLY person with any experience at all when it came to dealing with the Alien creatures. In both cases others thought they knew better, or that their interests should supersede her knowledge. Each one of those ended up dead.
@blakewalker84120 She's the third highest ranking person on the crew. She states that when Dallas (captain) and Kane (executive officer) are off the ship she is the ranking officer, so hardly the least experienced member of the crew.
@@trhansen3244 Get off, this movie is older than you.
As someone who has owned cats through out my life, I still hold that Jonesy was working with the Alien. At the very least he was sacrificing the crew to survive.
TRUTH!
That chestburster scene is iconic, especially since they didn't tell the cast exactly what was going to happen and intentionally pointed the blood jets for maximum effect so things like Lamberts yell are genuine terror.
It's not "genuine terror" because they perfectly aware that they're making a movie, and that they're participating in a scene. Commentary like that makes good 'trivia' for fans to gossip about, but nobody here was "terrified", because they'd been shooting that scene from multiple angles and takes. Sheesh, people.
As I left the theatre past the people awaiting tickets on opening night of this film, I said to my date "Wow! I wasn't expecting the cat to do that!"
You HAVE to watch the sequel, "Aliens"!
One of the most perfect SciFi movies ever.
She may get hospitalized.
Aliens is an absolute must watch now!! Director's Cut too!
Special Edition.
@@GaryBonaducciEvery Cameron extended cut is worse except The Abyss.
"This is so well done ... AND I HATE IT!"
Best description ever.
"It's so good I hate it." --Jacqui 2024
I love that you were suspicious of Ash right from the start! I was 14 when I watched this movie in the theater back then. No internet and no spoilers in 1979! It gave me nightmares for several weeks! Thanks for reacting to this absolute, timeless masterpiece!
5:30 "Any time there's a clock or a countdown it just adds more pressure and makes me more nervous."
Well, then you will really love the end of the movie!
My first thought, too!
Two men sitting at a diner, talking about baseball, is boring. But showing the audience the ticking time bomb under the table creates excitement. ~Hitchcock (paraphrased)
Alien is a horror movie that's for everyone. Harry Dean Stanton (who plays Brett) said he didn't like monster/sci-fi films but Scott was able to talk him into it by selling him on the idea that it would be more of a thriller. Scott himself had no previous experience with horror or sci-fi. His previous film was "The Duelists", and Scott's sensibilities brings a sort of realism you didn't often see in horror before this.
On an unrelated note, John Hurt would do a parody (saying, "not again" LOL) of the chestburster scene in which the baby xenomorph walks across a counter singing in the film Spaceballs, itself a space opera parody.
As a former film student, I can relate. People would bring up movies in conversation all the time and then act shocked and almost insulted if I had not seen it. I'd often need to remind them that just because I studied film, that doesn't mean that I've seen *every movie ever made.* And despite that, I still experience a little bit of Imposter Syndrome because of it.
To be honest, I always think of this when I see content creators using titles like that. But like, nobody's expecting you to have seen *"every movie ever made"* when they're shocked, but they're surprised that as a person that's so interested in film that you're pursuing it in uni and professionally, you hadn't seen some of the most iconic, popular, groundbreaking, influential movies ever made 🤔 It's not like these films are hidden, obscure gems, lmao.
One of the brilliant things about this movie is how many times they were able to stick the Alien right in front of us and we didn't see it until it moved. When we're watching Brett chase Jones the cat there's a point when it cuts to the ceiling with a bunch of hanging chains and the alien is right in front of the camera hanging onto the chains but the audience doesn't notice it at all, even on multiple watches you still miss it.
I highly recommend watching the sequel, it's a great movie, possibly the greatest sequel of all time. It's also less horror and more action so it should eb somewhat easier to watch.
"Why did I volunteer to watch this?" - Because great art must be experienced. It's a wildly uncomfortable movie, true. Expertly crafted to be exactly that. But it has to be experienced. It's too good not to. It's one perfect example of all the techniques you can use to *MAKE* your audience feel what you want them to feel - and that's a skill every great artist should aspire to.
Loved your reaction Jacqui, in particular it's a delight to watch how sensitive you are to the cinematography. When the movie came out in 1979, Alien was landmark and pioneering in its realism, sight, sound and dialogue to produce phenomenal tension right from the very opening credits. It therefore blew audiences away on countless levels, and truly stands the test of time.
It's a thing of beauty. Just glimpses, shadows, seconds of something and then gone. Swift movements, but clearly drawn out in sound. The klaxon reverberating through the corridors is just perfection.
The all white room and white clothing was the perfect canvas for the bloody mess that was that first ever chestburster scene 👌
I made mistake of watching Alien (on video) when I was 12... I couldn't enter a dark room for 6 months that followed.
And when I finally stopped being afraid of the dark, my parents took me to cinema to see Jurassic Park...
For me it was Alien 3 when I was 9. Nightmares for weeks. Never had that issue with Jurassic Park, which I must have watched around the same time. Dinosaurs were fascinating animals that could just be left alone, but the aliens were unknowable and invasive monsters.
I ended up getting a VHS trilogy box set some years later. Then a quadrilogy DVD box with all kinds of extras. Lastly a large blu-ray box that also included the less-than-stellar Prometheus.
Whaddya mean? Jurassic park was fun, Dinosaurs are cool. every kid knows that!
Alien (the first one) was sheer suspense and terror. A masterpiece. Everyone was scared of that mfer.
The rest of the franchise in my opinion got worse with every sequel. Aliens was just 'Platoon' in space, the rest not worth mentioning, just disappointing.
Same. 11, had 6 weeks of nightmares.
@@Thenogomogo-zo3un Dinosaurs are cool. However, because cloning is already here and space exploration is not, my 13 year old self was more likely to be ambushed by a cloned velociraptor than by a xenomorph.
"this is terrifying" at the beginning. 😂 I can highly recommend anxiety meds.
It's sci-fi horror movie. Let the thing cook. Patience. 😛
I love the beginning bit in space and then when the computer turns on. Listen to that through your hifi. The low frequencies are incredible. Even the VHS version, which has surprisingly high quality stereo sound. Then that eerie music as the lights turn on.
Btw, it's a disservice to watch this film with those earphones. Not because of the jump scares, but because of the sound in general. You want to enjoy the full wide frequency range of the film.
Stop being scared. Enjoy the cooking, savour it, each and every moment, it's all in the cooking.
In all my years in manufacturing and exposure to all kinds of safety protocols, there's been one common procedure. You never went anywhere alone, especially in an unknown situation.
Unless you're the last one standing (cats excluded); then you have to move anyways.
Defies survival code to say the least
Although it does depend on how dangerous the situation is. Cave diving is one of the most dangerous sports where all your equipment is doubled up, you go in pairs _but,_ if your buddy gets into difficulty, the recommended procedure is to leave them. Kind of like mountaineering where you rope yourself together and are supposed to cut someone loose if you get into trouble so I guess there might be some rather callous operating procedures in deep space, especially given the emphasis on profits.
This is why I've always said: A good horror story is a sexual act. It starts out slowly, teasing you. More, more, more until its climax makes your head explode!
Literary reference time:
Their ship is named Nostromo, which is the title of a Joseph Conrad book, as well as the name of a character in the book. If you go on to watch Aliens, the ship in that movie is the Sulaco, which is the fictional port city in the novel Nostromo. Joseph Conrad is most famous for his novel Heart of Darkness, which was adapted into the film Apocalypse Now.
Many people who are new to the franchise think Ripley is a badass from the beginning. Not really true. In this the first movie she was smart and made good decisions but she wasn’t out there kicking ass and taking names. Instead she was in full bore survival mode. Which she did really well. It’s actually the second movie , Aliens , where she gets her well deserved ass kicking badge. That’s when she rises to the top. Which is very good , long term character development. Great writing.
Every time I see Dallas in the vents and the alien reaches for him, all I hear is...JAZZ HANDS. Nice to see you enjoy a classic. I'm a horror fan, especially '80s horror. Some good and some bad but still fun to watch.
Now just for reference, the second film, Aliens, is directed by James Cameron. It's not cookie cutter sequel but the next logical development of how news of this event would go. They send in the military.
Alien was the first truly modern high brow scifi psychologial jump horror ... and a pretty darn good date movie, for young men like me banking on the cinematic freakouts to drive their date into their arms. 😂
Gods, I remember seeing it in the theaters. I remember seeing it all over Omni magazine. I remember Omni's fascination with the art of H.Geiger, and how seeing it come to life on the silver screen in the form of the xenomorph, was both thrilling and terrifying. I remember the iconic shock and horror of the chest popper scene ... nothing like that had ever appeared in a major motion picture before, and it left many traumatized at the time. Good times.
Oh, and Ripley was such a genre shattering badass . . . the first true cinematic antithesis to the whole "perils of pauline" helpless frail trope.
A group of us were first in line on opening day at the Avco Cinema Center in Westwood. Sigourney was a revelation. Many years later, I had the chance to work as an extra on LA Law. The episodes in which I worked guest starred Veronica Cartwright, who very generously shared her experiences filming Alien. I was in heaven. And, yes, I wore a Nostromo baseball cap until it crumbled.
watching away now. we're just about to get to Brett discovering the big one. You will probably ask "why is it raining in the ship?" - they're in the room with the landing legs - that is the condensation from the planet's atmosphere (it was raining remember) dripping down the 100 foot long legs.
How can one be a film student and have never watched Alien in the last 45 years???
You'd be amazed how much you can avoid, even in film school, if you're really determined 😅 I couldn't avoid Jaws though. Had to watch it on the big screen in my very first class 😂
@@movienightwithjacqui why would you avoid jaws!! :P
Easy. Genre fims are often not yet seen as films to be studied in film school.
Non-horror people are VERY good at avoiding horror movies. Especially if we KNOW it's a horror. Just think about the first people who saw this in theaters. They did not know what they were getting. Even with the poster "in space no-one can hear you scream"
@@pettespizzaparlor3245 I can't stand horror. Never thought of Alien that way though.
I loved watching Jackie squirm. Seriously your reaction was a joy to watch.
The energy and enthusiasm really made this video.
The absolute GOAT, blends Horror and Science Fiction seamlessly into a perfect movie and the creature design by the supremely talented H.R. Giger is sublime.
This movie turned Sigourney Weaver into a star.
Absolutely loved this video and watching Jacqui's reactions was hilarious.
There is more tension in this movie BEFORE anyone actually appears on screen than in the whole of Romulus
Congrats! This is one of my favorite movies I revisit every year! Always fun seeing someone experience it for the first time and I totally get filling the suspenseful times with commentary 😆 I’m a curl up and prepare myself for the scares person myself.
This is one of my go-to's for spooky season 😁
The Jaws comparison is apt, as Alien was originally conceived as "Jaws in space". Big budget sci-fi films weren't really a thing before the late 1970s, and it was only the success of Star Wars that ultimately secured funding for Alien. By the way, at one point Ridley Scott wanted Ripley to die at the end but the studio vetoed it.
“Ripely you are the mother now.”
Hmmm…..interesting choice of words.
She has no idea... (hopefully)
and "yeah you deserve a nap.." at the end
...umm...nap...right...XD
One of my favorite things about this movie is how natural a lot of the dialogue is, especially at the dinner scene! It really just sounds like a bunch of friends/coworkers hanging out.
The exposure of Ash reaction was so much better than the chest burster because it was so unexpected.
My favorite description of this movie, loosly paraphrased: no one listens to the smart lady, and then everybody dies except for the smart lady and her cat. 😂😂😂
7:50 Lambert: "Let's get out of here."
Jacqui: "Yes, yes do that please! Please"
Kane: "We have to go on."
Jacqui: "No, no you don't You really really don't"
Well, you might be forgetting that they are forfeiting at least 40 months of pay.
How much do you make in 40 months?
Now, what would you be willing to do if the alternative was to give away that much money?
I bring this up because a lot of people watching this think the crew members do stupid things in this movie.
Them walking around this planet is no more stupid than Luke Skywalker walking around Dagobah, and nobody tells him to leave, even after a giant monster eats R2-D2.
But this crew does nothing stupid.
That is part of why this movie is so awesome.
Everybody makes good decisions, or at least when they don't, it's very obvious and easy to understand why they did what they had to.
Except Lambert. She panics and makes bad decisions. But even that's believable - some people panic in pressure situations.
I'm always reminding people that, especially in the sequels, people are making decisions based on the information they have. And also behaving in a human way. Humans panic.
Yeah, the "dumbest" thing anyone does in Alien is Kane expressing curiosity about an alien egg (which he had no real reason to fear, since he didn't know he was in a horror movie) and then Lambert panicking and freezing up (which is entirely in-character).
That's nowhere near the bullshit the Prometheus characters get up to in order to move the plot forward. (Like the geologist mapping the place somehow getting lost, and the xenobiologist being afraid of ancient corpses but wanting to get his face all up in that of a hissing alien cobra.)
Lambert's behaviour can be a little frustrating at times, but yeah, it's believable. She's the navigator of a cargo ship. None of this is stuff she's supposed to be dealing with.
@@JediMB It's not only not knowing they are in a horror movie, it's like they have never seen a horror movie.
I think they try to show that all these creepy and dangerous things happening is quite normal for these space-truckers.
But shoving your head into an alien egg of that size is still a bad idea. If that had been a regular animal the hatchling would have been big enough to tear his face off. You also wouldn't shove your head into a trashbin that has a can in it.
@@jasperzanovich2504 Kane did approach the egg very carefully, just trying to get a glimpse of what was inside. Aside from seeing some movement, it just looked like a fleshy mass.
And as far as never having seen a horror movie goes, that comes with the territory of this being a sci-fi future imagined in the late 70s. They were clearly aware of older horror stuff like zombies, but parasitic spiders that leap onto your head and shove an alien embryo down your throat wasn't on anyone's bingo card.
I think it's safe to say that known human contact with dangerous extraterrestrial life had been extremely limited in the year 2122.
Great review You understood immediately what historians and experts have been figuring out over the years, with the aid of research, when it comes to 'mother' and the colours used and also dangling things which I never caught onto myself. Keep up the good work!!
The cinematography and camera work in the movie is simply amazing. The camera is always behind stuff, people are in the scene, but maybe just there arm, so you know they are there and where they are. Most of the scenes with multiple people were filmed with two cameras, and no pickup shots, so there are zero continuity errors (even tiny ones) from composting multiple shots.
“This is so well done. I hate it!” ❤
Sigourney Weaver was very much a newcomer when this was released. No one, I mean no one, expected Ripley to end up being the star. This movie was shocking on so many fronts.
Now you should consider reacting to John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). It’s a similar concept to this film, but the alien antagonist is vastly more interesting and terrifying.
this is the first react of yours I've watched. Finally - someone who pays attention! Probably helps you study films.
Even the movie poster is terrifying with it's catch phrase - "In space no one can hear you scream"
Listening to this via headphones robs you of an experience. From the drive of the spaceship there's a low frequency hum whenever there's a scene inside the ship. It also seems to contain a healthy amount of sub bass, the frequency range where you start to feel anxiety. :) In a good cinema with great bass and sub bass production, you're on the edge of your seat almost the entire time without really knowing why. This is completely lost when you listen with headphones or via TV speakers.
Fun fact, the first time watchers weren't the only ones shocked and terrified by the chestburster scene... The only one that knew exactly what was going to happen were Kane and Ash; the rest of the actors knew something was going to happen, but didn't know what, so the reactions from the crew is authentic, but Ash needed to know so as to keep his cold like reaction.
I saw "Alien" as a college student in the summer of 1979. Went into the theater having NO idea what to expect, but since I was a sci-fi fan I thought I would enjoy it. And as it happened I had never seen a horror movie before. It was utterly terrifying and left me with sweaty palms and -- just like you -- a firm commitment to never watch it (end to end) again. In 45 years I've never broken that commitment nor desired to. On the other hand I loved "Aliens" and have seen it multiple times, and think you'll enjoy that too. After you see it I'm pretty sure you'll understand why.
We saw this in the theater the day it was released, I was 16. One my make friends had an asthma attack, and I looked in the back of the car to make sure there were no aliens hiding; hey, I was young and terrified!
ETA: The first trailers that were released where shots of the egg, the title, and "In space, no one can hear you scream". That's it, no clips from the movie at all. So we all went in blind. Ah, the days before internet spoilers!
19:40 "Why are you so calm?!" Because they work in space, an unforgiving environment that will kill you at the earliest opportunity...and that's without the added influence of an alien killing machine. Panic increases the opportunity for it to kill you.
I heard the reason for framing a lot of the shots so that the ceiling is visible rather than the floor is to emphasize the cramped, claustrophobic nature of the ship's interior.
I was only thirteen when this came out so didn't get to see it in theaters. It would be a few years later at a late night VHS party. It made such an impact though. Between Star Wars and Alien you have every kind of sci-fi that is to come. It made me love the sci-fi genre.
The tag line should've been "In Space, nobody turns on the lights"
"Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars."
Also, watch the second movie, because it changes genre to more of an action movie.
A seldom mentioned aspect of "Alien", by reactors... the practical effects and set work. From the moment I saw this in the theater, when it was first released, I knew I needed to learn to build in such an extraordinary and creative way. Thank you for doing this, even though it is not your cup of tea. Little side note, much of the sets were created from junk yard parts.
Apparently the face hugger in the egg was actually the directors gloved up hands wiggling and flexing about. Practical effects can be so good.
A couple fun facts. The chestburster scene was the only scene kept in all the scripts written. I can't remember if it was all or a few of the cast members but they weren't told about what was going to happen so those are honest reactions. Aliens is labeled as scifi action and directed by the man I don't even need to name by now lol.
To explain the random Ripley nose-bleed, there was actually a scene cut where she was in an airlock and the decompression gave her the nosebleed.
I remember going to see Alien with my father when I was 14. When *The Scene* came up, my dad upped and fled the room, leaving me there to brave it on my own 😂.
The term 'mother' comes from the designation of the computer system. In the shot where Dallas puts his thumb print onto a button immediately before entering the computer room, you can just make out the word MU/TH/UR 6000 on the panel above the thumb print button.
Scenes were removed for the cinema cut, mainly to maintain the pace of the movie. On Ripley’s run to escape she finds Dallas and Brett cocooned, morphing into eggs, a sex scene with Dallas and Ripley showed they were in a relationship, hinted in how they behaved talking in the corridor, a more detailed scene of the attack on Lambert wasn’t used.
Fun fact, the chest burster scene was filmed with most of the cast not knowing what was going to happen, so their reactions are real.
Same with Spaceballs and the space special.
False - Sigourney Weaver has stated it was in the script. It's the sheer amount of gore and blood they weren't advised of prior, which took them off guard. There's a hilarious blooper of Veronica Cartwright slipping on blood and her boots sticking up in the air.
@@tulinfirenze1990 True. They knew it was going to happen, just not the how. There's an interview Sigourney Weaver did not too long ago (you can find it here on UA-cam titled "Sigourney Weaver Remembers John Hurt's Famous Alien Scene") where she talks about how all five of the cast were shocked at the practical effects of the creature running off the table in a single fluid motion.
The chest burster scene has become a kind of urban myth. They all knew it would happen. Veronica Cartwright has told a story how she and Sigourney visited the the Special effects department and watched them work on the chest burster. What they didn't know was that John Hurt was rigged with an explosive squib and his yell and the explosion of blood did surprise the cast. All the actors were told to be in a certain place. They did not tell Veronica there was a blood tube pointed at her. Her reaction to getting sprayed with blood was real.
@@tulinfirenze1990 More backpedalling and tripping over the back of the seats, but yeah. She was told "You'll get a little blood on you," but had the bad luck to be standing RIGHT in the path of one of the blood hoses. The cast knew what was going to happen, but not what it would look like or how it would be achieved, because no one had done an effect like this before.
I was 11 when this came out. My dad heard a review that said there was humor in it (very dark humor, but yes), misunderstood, and thought it was a comedy. So he took me to see it on the first day, first showing.
The movie rolls along. The chestburster scene happens. A lady in the front row throws up and runs out of the theater (different times). Oh yeah, dad, great comedy.
But once I got what kind of movie I was in, I loved it. Such a masterfully done movie.
Years later, I had the best cinema experience of my life when I saw Aliens first day, first showing with no spoilers.
Two of the best SF movies ever. One of the best horror, and one of the best action.
Would recommend The Frighteners (1996) starring Michael J. Fox and directed by someone called Peter Jackson as a "very slight horror" element but more than enough comedy to make up for it.
Did that Kiwi director ever make any more movies??!?? lol
LOVE "The Frighteners"!
@@parissimons6385
I think he did some little "swords and sorcery" thing.
Doubt it made box office.
@@kenle2 After Jacqui said she doesn't like horror movies...
HERE, TRY THIS ONE INSTEAD!
6:40 the exterior scenes of them in the space suits by the landing leg of the spaceship was actually done semi miniature. Those are mini space suits with Ridley Scotts children in them, and I think other children from the production team.
19:30 “Oh no…not again!”
“What did he have?”
“The Space Soup…”
“Check please!”
"Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars."
And with that said, you need to watch Aliens now!! 😄
Have always loved the HR Giger designs for the movie that gave it such a unique and original look that IMO has never been outdone
Geiger's work was selected because of the pre-production designs he did for Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed attempt at Dune. That movie's corpse is the soil from which modern sci-fi has grown. I highly recommend the documentary (Jodorowsky's Dune) to anyone who hasn't seen it.
Geiger's themes of se×ually charged bio-mechanical monstrosities were perfect for Dan O'Bannon's script and I love how his imagery is evolved across the series. Romulus in particular is rife with Geiger homage in the filthiest ways 😖
Just went to the Giger museum in Gruyere (Switzerland) a couple weeks ago. They have the original alien costume there (a lot worse for wear by now). That thing is *huge*.
My Dad tells a story from when he was in the Royal Air Force. They were on an exercise in the jungles of Belize in the early 80s. It was night time, raining, and the land crabs were migrating. A group of them watched this in a large tent with the sides pulled up on a projector. Despite the fact it was on multiple reels that had to be changed and help break the tension, several of the people there, including members of the SAS simply said NOPE! And walked away. The story has always tickled me.
Now you have to watch Aliens. Less horror, more action.
On the horror tropes, the concepts of a final girl and a 4th act were not yet ubiquitous when this movie was made. So Ripley being the survivor and the Big Chap being on the shuttle would’ve been totally…umm…alien to 1979 audience. I know this to be true, because I was one of them.
Watching Jacqui slowly lose her mind with fear and anxiety was honestly, quite the treat that I wasn't expecting. This move is absolutely fantastic, especially the first time that you watch it. Loved the reaction
Yes, this starts very slowly. I don't think such a film would have such a slow start in the 2020s. It makes the chest-burster scene more surprising.
Unless it was being directed by Denis Villeneuve, then I think it might have had an even slower start.
Yes. Movies nowadays don't take their time for 'world building' to let the audience understand the rules of the world/environment before distracting them with the action. That's why they feel so unsatisfying sometimes because they use aspects of their respective world that comes totally out of left field without rhyme or reason.
@peterzerfass4609 Alien doesn't really do a lot of worldbuilding. It's mostly focused on characterization and building suspense with very careful bits of information coming out about the real situation to build up the Ash twist. I think any sense of worldbuilding is only felt in retrospect after the later movies discussed the Weyland Yutani corporation, the different stages of Xenomorphs, and the origins of their species and possibly all intelligent life.