19:43 I don't think I realised that sound was a Xenomorph hiss, if I noticed it at all. I think I did notice two Xenomorph sounds when Dallas is in the vent, right after he finds the Alien's spit (one that makes Dallas flinch and fire the flamethrower, another right after Lambert says "Oh God. It's moving right towards you!").
Ah the joys of finding a new channel worthy of a binge watching session when the house has fallen silent in the evening. Good move leaving the link here👍
Something that never gets explored is how the alien was able to grow to such a large size so soon. What was it eating to gain all that mass? I think it was consuming parts of the Nostromo. Ash said its cells are silicon-based so it doesn't need to eat organic food, and the characters talk about how things on the ship are breaking down that were working before ("I thought we fixed 12 module" - "We did, I don't understand it.") The Nostromo was like a "Mother" to the alien, suckling it so it could grow. This fits in with HR Giger's art style that merges life with machinery.
I like how, when Kane wakes up after the face hugger is no longer on his face, Ash comes over to give him more water to drink. Ash never shows any concern for the wellbeing of the crew or any acts of kindness towards them, so this looks out of character. However, he is really nurturing the creature inside of Kane.
I don't think I noticed that it was Ash giving Kane the water until I watched this video and I agree that it does seem out of character. Kane is the only crew member I can think of that Ash APPEARS to care about.
@@uburtono be fair, Ash is the science officer - when do we see other crew mates being sick or injured, and directly under his care? Saying he’s nurturing the alien is a bit of a leap. It’s like saying “the nurses only bring patients water.. the rest of us have to buy it for ourselves from the vending machine.. they must a have a nefarious purpose!”
The scene where Ripley finds the crew members cocooned is terrifying, and explains why, in the second movie, she tells hicks “They don’t kill you” when newt gets caught. IMO, it adds a lot to the horror, because of the worse than death fate of the Alien’s prey, and could be explained as a survival mechanism of the Alien when alone with no queen.
There are so many times throughout the movies where the xenomorphs just kill people when there are eggs nearby and it annoys the hell out of me, like what is the rhyme and reason
@@JennifuhhGilardi The aliens are reasonably intelligent and can make decisions based on their own judgement. If they don't have the comfort of kidnapping someone and cocooning them to a wall (like if there's other humans with weapons close by), then they'll put their own survival first and just kill them.
I think the cast complained about the original scripted dialogue being too geeky and this was never satisfactorily resolved by the writers. Instead the cast used a lot of improv and the results are really grounded and a great fit for the characters and the mockumentary style of the movie.
I can't stand it when some people crap on Alien for the dialogue. Do they prefer the cringy cheesy '80s dialogue from the middle finger follow up Aliens? Come oooooon! The dialogue in Alien feels natural and downplayed, as dialogue in films should be during the down time!
@@casesoutherland4175 yeah most people actually prefer the 80's cheese of Aliens for some reason. I personnaly find that this movies shits on everything Alien 1 built, and especially the creatures itself, now reduced to just a big ant.
The scene in the director's cut where Ripley finds a coccooned Dallas and she has to mercifully kill him was one of the most horrific scenes in the movie.
It’s almost like Ash was put on the ship for that very reason!?!?! Crew Expendable! The science division wanted Ash to put science before humanity! (Bring back life form all other actions resented)!? Probably misspelled… Awesome movie! I remember going to our local movie theater to see part one! (1979!) Nostalgia!🤙🏽👍🙌🏽👋🏻
One thing I wanted to point out: They did not land "the shuttle" on LV426 (there was no shuttle other than the Narcissus), they landed with the Nostromo itself. Because the Nostromo is essentially just a small tug, dragging this huge refinery behind it, which they detached from before landing.
I love all the acting in this but I think a special shout out is deserved for Ian Holm. Such a subtle performance that could so easily have been hammy. He played it so well….I love watching his performance for clues to his betrayal. Everyone does fantastic but for me Holm underplays so well.
@@tiffsaver Dyer. He’s an (I use the term loosely) actor. Check him out…..or better yet don’t. We have a lot of good actors and a good number of rubbish ones.
I was 11 years old in 1979. I remember it very well. My good friend Mark had talked his dad into bringing him to see Alien at the theater. It blew him and his dad's minds!! They came back telling everyone how scary the movie was. There was nothing like it in 1979. They told us we had to see it. So, I talked my mom into taking me and my cousin to see it. I loved it, and it's still one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies ever made!!
I watched it at the age of 7 or so. Together with the aliens - my mother was part of a so called "culture clubs" that were basically a cinema theater, place for performances of all kinds, and children's club where they could learn various creative skills such as drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, etc. in the Soviet Union at that time. Once they were having a tour visiting several smaller cities, giving performances by day, and by night they had a janky soviet VCR with bootleg copies of both alien films. I still remember the frames of the landing on the planet from the second movie with the CRT picture showing the colony during the initial flyover photographically, it's been burned into my memory.
It's amazing you only see the Alien (or parts of it) for like 5 minutes in the film. Scott and the people making this film understand true horror comes from within. And I think that's why the scene of the point-of-view shot of Ripley running through the halls as the Alien attacks Lambert is one of the best shots in horror. You hear the screams and then silence.
Lambert's death made me cry out of fear, making Alien the only horror film to ever make me do so. The implications of what it was doing to her with its tail was horrifying! I had to pause the movie to get composure! It's moments like that in Alien that make me love it more and make me despise its completely unnecessary follow-ups WAY more. To hell with the Alien follow-ups! None of them are remotely comparable to the original!
I'm at the shaft scene where Dallas holding a flamethrower with his back against a sealed door. That's the best place to kill the alien since it only can run toward Dallas facing. Lambert should tell Dallas to go back up the stairs once she picked up the alien signal and held his position, but she panicked and told Dallas to move causing him to climb down the stairs where he meet face to face with a loud screeching Alien. What's the point of running when you're out there to kill the alien? Lambert causes Dallas to die.
That is why Alien remains the most claustrophobically scary film of all. We never actually see much of the monster, only bits and pieces of it, in glimpses, and always with this realistic organic wetness. Pure brilliance, especially for a not-very-high-budget film. In a comparison that may anger other Alien fans, Blair Witch Project was scary for a similar reason: One actually never sees what h(a)unts the protagonists. Partially in Aliens and particularly in Alien 3, this effect was ruined, by showing the aliens often, fully, and (in Alien 3) clearly computer-animated and dry/metallic rather than wet/organic.
I don't consider the Brett-coccoon scene as contradictory to the Queen/egg lore. It's reasonable to assume that under the right conditions, a solitary Alien can attempt to reproduce in this way as a species-based secondary method of creating a new hive, especially if a Queen dies. To me, it makes the Aliens more terrifying, that all it takes is one Alien to survive to start a new colony, and it also adds to the body-horror themes of the first movie.
It still actually works that way to a degree. Any lone xenomorph can morph into a queen and lay eggs. Also the ovomorph thing has been used in comics and novels multiple times so it's not like it was removed from the canon. Basically it can all be handwaved away as the xenomorph being designed to survive and spread whatever it takes.
@@xKinjax yea but when the regular alien turns into the queen alien, and he wants to make some more aliens eggs, then where does he get the come from? he will need some alien come to make a baby? maybe he just makes some his own come while still a regular dude alien, and saves it , then when he turn into the queen version of a alien, that’s when he put the come inside his brand new queen alien ovaries and then maybe THAT turn into new alien baby egg? not sure..
@@severalwolves you're thinking about this all wrong. The eggs are just a part of the reproduction cycle. The facehugger that grows inside them would be the equivalent of a sperm and the victim, be it humans or any random animal they can catch are the ovaries. The queen doesn't need anyone to fertilize anything. Technically she doesn't even need drones to bring her new prey. This wasn't really something they had to delve into in the movies but In books and videogames it was shown that all that is required for a massive infestation is a single queen that can hide and lay eggs. If there is prey around the facehuggers will get out of the eggs and go look for it. You need to keep in mind that the process doesn't need to work like life works in our world. These aren't creatures that evolved, they're creatures specifically bioengineered to spread easily and kill on a massive scale.
@@thedarthflagger Not according to the "assembly cut" of Alien 3! In one of the extra scenes they find a dead "Queen" facehugger that looks different than a regular one.
Two things. How amazing does this film look after all this time since it was made? Some films age badly for one reason or another, but Alien looks like it's just been made everytime I watch it. Secondly, symphony no. 2 will always be remembered as the piece of music played as Ripley blasts the alien into space. That whole scene with the music gives it such a feeling of catharsis, which for me is so much better than the present day post-modern cliché of "everyone dies". Alien is definitely one of my top ten movies of all time.
They had the same happy accident as Jaws. They had problems with the alien suit (Jaws had problems with the mechanical shark). So they were forced to reduce its time on camera. And in both movies that had the effect of heightening the tension, since you never really got a good look at what they were up against (until the very end). It's now a staple of horror movies. This was also one of the early grungy, realistic, dystopian sci-fi films (which culminated with Blade Runner). In contrast to the more sterile, idealistic universes portrayed in Star Trek and Star Wars. That helps it age better since you're not expecting everything to be perfect in "the future." (Star Wars tries to hang the lampshade by saying the ship sucks, but never actually shows why it sucks. So to our eyes it might as well be a perfect.)
@@louisberry4403 yeah I feel the same way but I still would’ve liked for them to end the trilogy with the third movie. I’m glad we’re at least getting a new Alien Movie going to Hulu.
The fact that IGN gave it a 5.9 shows how out of touch they were! Alien: Isolation is regarded as one of the BEST Sci-Fi horror games w/ graphics and gameplay still holding up after 10 years!! The games was ahead of its time and still among the best compared to more recent games, which aren't that great. I'm definitely subscribing to you, great analyzation of this amazing classic film!
Just because the Queen is introduced in Aliens, it does not mean that that drones can not make eggs out of captured humans. It makes sense that this is why the xenomorh is attacking the crew. Not just to kill them senselessly, but to perpetuate the species. I think this is part of Ash saying it is a perfect creature. It does not need another xenomorh to reproduce.
Plus there's the fact that Cameron's Aliens comes after Alien and was made almost a decade after. Just because he decided there should be a queen - which is a much less interesting idea - doesn't mean it trumps the original idea.
@@nutyyyy the more layers they add though, the more needs to be explained or hinted at. Like how is a queen produced? Does it just evolve after a female birth to eventually become a queen? I think the homogeny of the original Alien meant a single xeno could wipe out crews by dissolving their bodies to feed egg growth. I.e they don't morph, the cocoon eats them and fuels egg growth. We know that the alien cocoons itself in order to draw power from the ship and sustain itself. It does this in Alien and Aliens in the reactor area of the site. Which is how it grows so fast and why the hive is generally in a high power area.
Nah, it was acting according to type - capturing and cocooning hosts for the facehuggers. It just wasn't to know that there was no Queen or other drones around.
Interesting fact, Ridley Scott absolutely despises the idea of the Queen and refuses to have it in any movie he works on. He never intended for their to be a hierarchical society amongst the creature and hates that it's been introduced to the story.
One thing you forgot to mention that's just a neat little moment, you can see the Alien walking past the windows on the shuttle when Ripley is trying to turn the cooling system back on. Also, another small thing I noticed, when they're talking to Ash after he's been decapitated, he almost never blinks. I like to think that he doesn't bother trying to blend in with the humans anymore, and it reminds me of the actor that played the T-1000 in T2 training himself to not flinch and close his eyes when firing his weapons.
I'm not sure if Ian knew this, but serial killers blink much less often than most humans. An unblinking human can be unnerving, like a wild animal that stalks it's prey. I heard Anthony Hopkins talk about this in an interview when he was prepping to play Hannibal Lector the first time.
@@johnnichols8553 Watch it again, when she goes back to turn the cooling unit back on, there's a two second external shot of the shuttle, and you can just see a figure moving off to the right of the window. Blink and you'll miss it.
I never thought of Brett/Dallas as morphing into eggs, I always thought of this scene as much more like a Wasp laying its eggs in a much larger spider. While the spider is constrained by the wasps venom the crew is constrained by the Xenomorphs resin. I always found it interesting that while the Alien could clearly overpower the crew in a stand up fight, it is an ambush predator and stays true to that instinct through the whole film. Always emerging from the shadows to strike.
This was the first horror movie my dad showed me when I was 5 and used me as an excuse to buy all his toys and alien memorabilia. Still to this day these movies hold up so well and are something I hold near and dear to my heart ❤️ thank you for such an amazing breakdown on one of my favorite movies!
There was a TV shopping channel I Norway, this was the early to mid 90s where they sold the vhs trilogy, and to advertise the box they showed the chestburster scene.. Several times, during the day, with just a warning that the scene was graphic 😂 I was probably somewhere around between 5-8 when this aired.. So for a long time all I knew about the alien movies was that scene
I had a model of the Alien when I was about 10 but my brother broke it...around 1980?...and had the Alan Dean Foster book taken off me by the teacher when I was In junior school, I hadn't seen the film then and I was kinda disappointed the Alien didn't get its arm chopped off, only for it to regrow, like it did in the book....ha ha I can't believe I can rember that , its 40 odd yrs ago....its possibly my favourite film, it was so groundbreaking and I loved science-fiction and horror
I was 10 years old when my Dad takes me and my 13 year old Sister to a drive in triple feature in the summer of 1979. 1st movie- Helter Skelter The Manson Murders. 2nd movie- George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. 3rd movie - Alien. In the back of a station wagon - EVERYONE can hear you scream. Lol
"Cain's son" can also be seen as a Bible Reference. Cain's offspring were seen as "monstrous" and disconnected from God. That was always what I looked at Ash saying when he mentioned it
@@MaryBrownIsTheBlairWitch His name in the film is Kane, but in the Abrahamic bibles, the name is Cain. Cain famously killed his brother Abel, and had children who were evil. Cain himself is often seen as the originator of evil, you can see how this relates to the film and to the line Ash says. That's why OP brought it up and used the spelling of Cain.
@@no-barknoonan1335 How's this for strange: the financial success of Star Wars was the impetus for Fox to make Alien in the first place - look up who directed RoboCop 2... 🤯
One big plot "hole" is that Ash, being fully aware of the "special order: science officer eyes only" also is aware that the alien will NOT see him as a potential "incubator", and therefore, once the alien is on the ship and away from the planet, WHY didn't "Ash" simply eliminate the rest of the biological humans and "shut himself down" leaving the ship on course for Earth to be picked up by a company sponsored "rescue ship"?
Couple of points that almost nobody seems to pick up on: 1. A lot of people pick up that Ripley and Dallas are attracted to each other, but there are clues that Lambert and Parker are also either a couple or want to be. Watch the way they move: Lambert is the the only one who Parker isn't confrontational with at some point, and he's the first to rush to comfort her when she's losing it. He even puts his arm around her as they go off to get the supplies for the shuttle. In the second mess table scene, before Kane kicks off, Parker makes a joke: "I'd rather be eating something else, but right now, food will do." Everybody else makes faces and noises to indicate they're grossed out, but the camera lingers on Lambert who smiles and drops her head as though she's the only one who _really_ gets the joke. In an earlier version of the script, two 'lovers' are having an assignation in an observation bubble on the ship when a body floats past. People assume this would have been Ripley and Dallas, but I suspect it would have been Lambert and Parker. 2. The reason the dead face-hugger drops on Ripley in the infirmary is because Ash does it as a sick joke. He first stops Dallas from poking into a corner over the medical desk, and then pokes into the very same space, with a tray ready, in a manner that suggests intent, not exploration: he's retrieving the dead face-hugger from where he stashed it, not looking for it. His first reaction after it drops on Ripley is to offer an excuse too quickly, "I didn't see it! It was in the overhead!", when, given that he was in a distant corner of the room, nobody could have expected him to see it. My theory is that he pulled it out of the corner, then threw it into the area above where Ripley was standing so that it seemed to drop on her. We know that his conflicting programming makes him behave oddly in the scene where he assaults Ripley: maybe this is an early sign of his 'android psychosis'.
Great points you made. I think Parker just liked women, and a great guy to have around in critical situations. When Kane was convulsing before the alien erupted from his chest, Parker was right there to help assist Kane. When Ash was trying to murder Ripley, Parker flew into his ass.
I saw on a video that “the love scene”, was actually going to be Ripley and Dallas to “relieve” themselves after all the chaos, but Sigourney Weaver said it felt unnecessary and it was cut.
When I was a kid, before I got to watch the movie, I read the graphic novelization. In it there's a conversation between Ripley and Lambert where it's strongly implied that both of them are no strangers to having sex with the other guys as they come to the realization that neither of them has slept with Ash.
The room where Brett is taken is actually the bay for one of the landing legs. The four large structures open up. You can see how they look the same in the landing shots. The water is condensation from some of the atmosphere that was scooped up when it retracted back into the ship.
alien isolation is hands down one of the best horror games ever and captured the terror of Alien perfectly. Im still astounded I managed to complete it. The hive at the end was totally cross over between alien and aliens and freaked me out something chronic. nice videos by the way!
I've always liked the fan theory that the xenomorphs have more than one way to produce eggs. And the way shown in the first movie would be an alternative way they Xenomorphs could produce eggs when they didn't have an Egg laying Queen hive.
The video games (and to a limited extent, the Dark Horse comics) addressed this; a lone Alien, under the right circumstances, will morph into a Queen if separated from its Hive. Once a suitable habitat and source of sustenance has been located, she will begin laying eggs and establish a Hive of her own
That's kind of like situation in Jurassic Park. Scientists didn't have complete DNA, so used frog's DNA fill in gaps genetic code. They thought if produced only females the Reptiles couldn't reproduce forget that some species have male/female reproductive systems.
I recently noticed a moment involving Ash at the dinner table just before Kane started convoluting. The camera cuts to him - you see him just breifly smiling and joining in with the crew, then just for a second he tilts his head slightly and glares over at Kane for a second, as if to imply he knows whats coming and is waiting for it to happen. Its just a quick moment but its quite unnerving.
Look what ash does when the alien bursts out, he has his arm and smashes it down brutally on the table, at the same time the alien is Born. Ash is its birthmother. He just nails his crewmate to the cross. In deleted scenes Dallas asks ash during the Cramps what they should do, uterly weak and helpless. Ash just says "HOLD HIM DOWn!" Just after Kane eats his last supper, there is a faint alien scream on the soundtrack. So, it is coming out of the Embryo inside him, and from this little scream on kane is DEAD.
Bit of trivia. The hulking giant seen in the opening credits isnt the Nostromo. That is a mining rig. If you watch closely, the Nostromo is a (relatively smaller) ship towing it, which is dwarfed by it.
It's not a mining rig, it's a refinery, a blast furnace station. They are carrying a mobile smelter / blast furnace with x millions tons of ore to be refined automatically.
One of my favorite scenes is Brett's death scene. I love that we don't see what happens to him. I also think the Alien coming from above and the movements it makes throughout this scene and the rest of the movie just add to the beautifully horrific execution of the design and performance of the creature. We can't quite understand what the Alien's goals/motives are and that makes it so much more terrifying and enjoyable to watch. There's a really good podcast episode on the Perfect Organism where they break this scene down. One question I always had was why is it so steamy and humid in that room? On the podcast they talk about how the Alien's lifecycle is so quick and it's consuming energy so quickly that it would be incredibly exothermic and, therefore, is generating a lot of heat, causing the steaminess that we see. Ah! There's so much to love about this movie and I will never grow tired of watching it and finding little details I've never really noticed before. Great video!
I'm sure if you wandered around a modern cargo vessel, below decks, engine room, kitchens, you'd come across lots of humid conditions, steamy places, damp corners. Crew comfort is not the highest priority on commercial vessels, functionality and profit is.
One thing to note is that when Brett enters the landing claw room, there's a POV shot tilting up the entirety of the folded landing claw, and the xenomorph can be seen curled up on top of it, looking like part of it. Just Scott's way of showing us more of the creature than we thought we saw.
I saw this when it came out at the cinema. The audience was on edge from the start and the first jump scare of the the computer coming to life caught everyone. The genius of Ridley Scott.
I saw the film at it's release by word of mouth. There was no internet for sneak peeks. I saw it at a large theater in 70mm. Packed house on a Friday night.
@@adopequeenatyrantkingaboss8057 It’s probably in my top 5 horror movies ever. Own 2 copies of it on Blu-Ray: Scream Factory release with every special feature I could want (except the cut scenes that few outside of the editing team have seen) & the 4K Steelbook that was limited issue last year.
Everyone’s seen Event Horizon man. While it’s not terrible I don’t think it holds a candle to Alien. Look how many sequels Alien had: the monster is so unique and visceral that everyone has such a primal reaction. It’s an incredible work of imagination. Event Horizon was kinda freaky till we find out it’s the ship itself harboring a portal to hell if you will. Meh.
Another detail: Jonesy is very aware of when the Alien is around: of course we see and hear that during the Brett scene, but he growls when Ripley holds him in the shuttle. That's a warning sign that Ripley didn't know to pay attention to.
2:26 contrary to popular belief the “eggmorphing” scene isn’t the crew being turned into eggs but rather they were going to be used as a food source for the alien’s offspring so the offspring could have food until a potential host came along to start the lifecycle over again
The creature would lay eggs, which when hatched, the face huggers would lay their parasite in the cemented in crew, to realise more aliens, and essential for survival.
The space truckers thing and how the dialogue underlines it is so underrated... It's a huge reason why the movie can function as a slasher... we all have a coworker that complains about the food or the bonuses... we've all heard the lunch break banter... because we see ourselves and our friends and coworkers in the characters, the fear comes almost naturally.
I think the fact that they are space truckers helps explain the fact that they don’t cope very well with the alien. After all, they’re not professional, soldiers, or officers of the law
@@brycesuderow3576 Right. They're not marines...I don't think there's one single weapon on board. They have to make do with makeshift cattle prods and other improvised stuff. They are completely out of their ....wochuma call it.....DEPTH (my brain is frazzed! no sleep...)
what do you mean, its "underrated". Alien is officially rated as one of the greatest movies of all cinema history. Ye...they're all more or less completely identifiable as fellow next-door-types. Makes it easier to live (and die) through their senses. Great typecasting. Weaver is exquisite with her balance of vulnerability and enormous courage. Lucky someone saw sense and switched her from "Lambert" to "Ripley" during typecasting otherwise we would have got a crybaby Ripley pooing her pants at every turn of the ship's corridors instead of a six foot plus kick ass Amazonian heroine...
I've seen this movie like a hundred times because it's one of my favs, but I feel like I still learned quite a bit from this video. The A,B,C,D android names blew my mind. And the different colored pants when the tail grabs Lambert. How did I miss that all these years?
I've also watched this (and Aliens) ad nauseum, and I had never noticed the A, B, C, D android thing either! Or the alien hissing at Brett as he lets the water drip on his face. Dunno how I missed that...
@@pneumaz The 3 producers in the original Alien film were David Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll. So if there is a 3rd prequel expect the android to be called Gordon.
Taking the Joseph Conrad theme a bit further: the name of the ship in Aliens is the “Sulaco”, which is the name of the town in which the book “Nostromo” is set.
It blew my mind when I saw it the first time. It is the only movie I’ve ever seen that left my stomach tied in knots after I left the theater. I really think Ridley Scott is under appreciated. It’s too bad Tod Browning and James Whale didn’t live to see how far Ridley Scott was able to take the genre they pioneered. The special effects and story are really standing the test of time, that’s for sure. 28:54
What’s sad to me is most (reactors) tend to end the film just as the end credits start to scroll. The closing music is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard.
I'm not a horror movie fan but ALIEN is one of my very few exceptions. What makes it horrifying, unlike the usual slasher flicks, is the characters felt like real, relatable people caught up in a web of horror and deceit and not the usual annoying teenagers who I don't care if they die. I think because, at the time, I knew none of the actors-- so there was no "star" who would predictably survive. Aside from ALIENS, all the other movies in the Alien franchise unsuccessfully tried to recapture "the magic" of the first film. But once the xenomorph was let out of the bag, it's impossible for Hollywood to rediscover that which was perfect to begin with.
"...because, at the time, I knew none of the actors... " Weaver had already appeared in a number of films before "Alien." I was very familiar with her and I think the audience was too..
@@robertmaybeth3434 I agree. Aliens and Terminator 2 are the best movie sequels of all time. It's probably not a coincidence that both were directed by James Cameron.
@@luisdireito Terminator 2, pretty much although compared to "ALIENS" the level of Cameron's mastery is a bit less in this one and suffers a bit in comparison to Cameron's master-work. "Aliens" is amazing and full of astounding surprises to the very end, perfectly paced, with masterful use of every story element there is. The exquisite attention which Cameron lavished on every element from sets to story to choice of actors, and Cameron's complete mastery of every detail in this movie shows him at the high water mark of his sheer genius in film-making, at least for "Aliens". Probably why nobody has made an Alien sequel nearly as good, and why 40 years, and 5 lack-luster films later they all look like cheap satires of what they ought to be...
@@MrChippiechappie John Carpenter's The Thing is my favorite movie of all time and its for all the same reasons the first Alien film is my favorite in its own franchise. The characters are just normal people doing their job when something extraordinary happens. The reason I like The Thing better is because the enemy isnt a giant standalone monster. It could be any person in that base at any time. It takes all that tension you felt in Alien and cranks it up to 11. In the Alien franchise the number one priority of the protagonists is preventing the xenomorph from getting to Earth where it could quickly overrun the entire population. In The Thing the stakes are much higher because that worst-case scenario has already occurred. It's here and it has to be stopped at all costs. Plus I love the ending that resolves literally nothing.
@@brucewayne7838I would have agreed with you last year, but I watched both the 1951 original and the 1982 remake back-to-back. Although both are very different, both are great in their own ways! The original has better pacing and funnier characters, while the remake has better effects and scarier moments!
Paul, in the middle of my annual Alien fanboy phase & just completed Alien Isolation (and the DLCs), and still wanted more. So glad I ran across your video here. Well done & nicely scripted & edited. I remember as a kid in the late 70s, K-Mart sold these toy eggs I guess an alien inside them. For kids! I hadn't seen the film at that point yet (too young) but was already hooked by the toy. I've never been disappointed. Even the worst of the films are a treasure to me, and Alien Isolation just went above & beyond everything it needed to do. Truly one of the great games. Applause for all of your videos as they are pro quality. Keep up the good work!
One of the aspects of a Space Trucker crew is that they don't take the precautions or have the same respect for process and procedure that a military crew would have, hence Kane charging headlong (and face first) into unknown territory followed by Dallas and Lambert treating quarantine restrictions as just bs that gets in the way. Frustrating for the more professional Ripley but still in character for the more lax / unfussed crew.
We are in a world where space travel for commercial reasons has become common place. The crew are like the crew of a modern cargo vessel. Perhaps waited more towards the Officer class, but the grease monkeys in the engine rooms, are a familiar type, and realistic in terms of real human beings, which is one of the reasons why the film works.
@@onastick2411This maybe the only part of the movie that has aged like milk. After Coronavirus even people woefully uinterested in biology or history of exploration, realise that contact with any alien environment is potentially deadly because of pathogens our immunity system is unable to recognize due to lack or insufficient exposure. Had humans not contacted an iteration of this virus before, the fatality rate would have been like 80-90%. Only people who's bodies are able to produce unusually extremely high numbers of T lymphocytes would survive. In other words, Nostromo crew in distant future would have known that any contact with anything biological that was not from Earth would be a likely death sentence. Unless in Alien universe, all people are genetically modified to be T lymphocite freaks.
I always, even from that first mind-blowing watch at the cinema, in 1979, had the impression that Ash knew exactly what was going to happen. Ian Holm is so good in the role, his cut off smiles, looks off camera, and total and utter lack of surprise as events unfurl, are both telling, and chilling. If he hadn't been found out, he'd have been the Xenomorph's 'zookeeper' on the way back to earth. I also thought it possible that Ash could have been 'awake', and altered the course of the Nostromo to go near to LV-426, whilst the humans (and cat) were in hypersleep. Being an 'Artificial Human', he would not need to sleep, and only be in his pod for show.
The opening scene, reflected in the helmet on the crews workstation, shows the computer picking up the signal, and bringing the ship to life. Mother's programmed to do that should certain situations occur.
In Alien: Isolation your synthetic crewmate’s first lines are about how he woke up before the humans since he doesn’t need to sleep as much. In the movie I always took Ash’s stiff posture as a sign that he was only pretending to be asleep since he seems to be pretending in one way or another for most of the movie
I was 7 when Aliens came out and my dad and his parents took me to see it. Questionable in retrospect but I have loved the entire franchise ever since! ❤
"I've got access to Mother now and I'll get my own answers.." Truly magnificent. Learn to think for yourselves people. This is what makes Ripley a strong protagonist, and person in general.
"Learn to think for yourselves" too often morphs into "embrace the info that reinforces your current beliefs, ignore or belittle the rest." Might as well be, "I've got access to the internet now and I'll get my own answers." Except there's a thousand different answers and 990 of them are dead wrong. And those are the ones that get the most attention because there are so many of them. Was Ripley thinking for herself or was she relying on Mother's thinking? Maybe the most important thing is to determine which sources to trust and which not to. Ripley's eventual solution was the same as Monty Python's King Arthur: "Run away!"
I like how the cockpit was rigged up so that when one person flipped a switch or pushed a button, it did a thing to someone else's area, so that it looked natural with everyone appearing to know what they were doing.
Balaji Imperial I think refers to Bolaji Badejo who played the Alien in the movie. Also, the way the whole ship was personalized in the movie is astounding. The attention to detail is staggering.
The most disappointing thing about the Engineers to me was their almost psychotic hostility. The cast of Alien are known to have felt that the corpse of the Space Jockey was not unsettling despite its size and strangeness, but rather struck them as benevolent and tragic.
I agree. Imo it goes against the idea if one of themselves sacrificing itself to seed earth way back when. Are they benevolent/curiosity driven creators or psychotic barbarians fighting anything they see? But I guess maybe that's our fault for assuming they're all the same. Maybe there's different factions and moralities between them.
I think the Engineer in Prometheus was supposed to be a soldier of some sort,@@benwilliams3539? But that still implies that a nontrivial polity of Engineers were in favour of committing genocide against their creations.
I am proud to say that I have never seen Prometheus or Alien Covenant and that I never will. Just like the three Alien sequels, they're all about making money and ruining the mystery and suspense of the first film to cash in big.
@@casesoutherland4175 Almost everybody that saw those two movies was hoping that SOMEHOW Ridley Scoot might recapture the excellence of the first two masterpiece movies, only to be doomed to complete disappointment by the final product, AGAIN, which was why when they were released I had no excitement... sadly, my being disappointed in advance was justified
Just recently re-watched and one of the things I noticed about Ash was in the sleep pod scene while all the other crew members are sleeping more naturally or human-like, hands resting on their chests or stomachs or their legs are slightly bent etc. All the while Ash is just assuming the corpse pose with his arms straight down along his sides.
Kane is eager to discover new things- 7:30 Kane is first out of the beds, he leads the three heading to the ship, he volunteers to repel down into the egg chamber after convincing Dallas and Lambert not to turn around after they lose communication with Ash. More notes on Ash helping the Alien- 1) I think he shuts off communication with the away team because he knows Ripley is using the translator and may figure out the message is a warning, which she does rather quickly. This should also make her suspicious of Ash/The Company. Why didn't it translate the message as a warning if she could do it so quickly? 2) He lets Kane into the ship 3) He hides the fact there's a growing alien in Kane's chest?!?!? 4) When the alien is "born" he holds Parker back from stabbing it immediately. 5) The scanners he makes for the crew to track the alien often malfunction 5) He recommends using fire to fight the alien. We know it can survive exposed to the moon's atmosphere, what makes you think heat will hurt it? 6) In two scenes not filmed Ripley discovers Lambert has also not slept with Ash, which it's common for the crew to sleep with each other. Ash sets off a klaxon to help the alien escape a trap in the airlock set by Parker. That's the point Ripley is finally convinced something is going on so visits Mother.
"Why didn't it translate the message as a warning if she could do it so quickly?" It originally was. Mother was hacked / directed to a false response by the Company to report the message when detected as a garbled distress call so the Nostromo would get diverted from its original flight path back to Earth. Think Google Translate: if enough people "correct" a translation to the same wrong thing, that's what it will return. Ripley ran the translation program herself and only got as far as realising it was a warning. She was interrupted before the whole of it was translated by the return of face-hugged Kane, Dallas and Lambert. In the novel, there is more about this: Ash knows the content of the warning and reveals that it was detailed and specific about the threat the Xenomorph represented. This explains his impassive manner when things go sideways as he _knows_ what is going to happen and wants to see it for himself, also knowing he is not going to be targeted by it so long as he doesn't interact with it. "When the alien is "born" he holds Parker back from stabbing it immediately" Yeah, well, after the tiny squirt of blood from the face-hugger burned through three decks, stopping someone about to stab something also likely to compromise the hull integrity when you're travelling at supra-light speed is naturally precautionary. "The scanners he makes for the crew to track the alien often malfunction" He knocked them up quickly from stuff lying around. You make a perfectly working scanner that detects micro variations in atmospheric density out of spare parts in an hour, complete with a screen and distance meter. Then make another one. If anything, he would have preferred they didn't malfunction as he knew the whole idea of running at the thing with just a flamethrower was suicide, and the quicker they are all dead, the quicker he can fulfil his mission and get back to Earth. As it was, that was an engineering feat only matched by Tony Stark being able to secretly build a flying metal suit out of scrap in the middle of the desert while being held prisoner.
Kane just acts like an idiot ) And the breakfast scene itself is the most stupid moment since the captain put his head in the egg. No quarantine, no worries, even Kane
At the time the movie came out, Dallas was the one you would assume would be the hero, and up until he dies, everything seems to point that way, so killing him off is really a sign that the usual rules have gone out the airlock.
I literally said "hell yeah!" Out loud when I saw you put out this video. I love this movie so much, I grew up watching it and Aliens (and Alien 3) they terrified me as a kid but i actually once answered a question once in elementary school that was "who is your hero?" And I said Ellen Ripley lmao I was very disappointed once showing this to a group of my friends who had never seen it but are definitely sci Fi fans and they didn't really like it and thought it was boring. They don't make movies like this much anymore but I love slow burn sci Fi horror like this and The Thing
You'd almost have to have been raised on a steady diet of 1970's movie and TV productions to not feel it was "boring". Because aside from Star Wars and a couple other movies (Apocalypse Now) the 1970's was not a great time for movies. And along comes Alien at decade's end with cinematography and story telling done a way we've never seen it before. To a modern audience, raised on a million different movies of wildly varying quality and with instant audience pay-off scenes, I get why they'd think it was "boring".
Alien: Isolation is a MUST if you love these movies. The way it ties into the lore of the storyline makes it an essential link in the timeline that doesn’t exist in the official movies.
Saw this at the drive-in in 1980. The fast that you see so little of the creature added to the sense of claustrophobia. Still one of the best. Prometheus, on the other hand....
Great video. I think it is worth noting that at first the crew makes attempts at killing the Alien because the "abandon the ship and escape in shuttle" idea is not really an realistic option as the shuttle would not support 4 or more people. Only after Ash is burned is using the shuttle to escape a valid plan for the remaining three.
Well done, Paul I'm compiling my 50 favorite movies, and Alien is right up there. Thank you for your very accurate description. I just watched it again since 1979, and it's even better thanks to people like you.
Dude your introduction to the alien series is the exact same as mine. When I was 4 he showed me Alien on vhs because he knew I loved space related stuff, many sleepless nights and terror filled dreams....I loved every second of it. I still watch this film regularly to this day and it always brings me back to simpler times, afternoons spent watching movies with my grandpa. But this by far was my favourite
Grandads are the best, mine you to do that, saw Legend when I was about 6 cause he recorded it for me..... and then saved all the dairy milk sweets from a tin of Roses cause he knew they were the only ones I ate then.... best day ever!
It really fills my pants every time to see a new video from you. I wish you good fortune with your legal battles. Let me know what size jean shorts you wear and I'll hook you up with a fresh pair son.
Terrific breakdown HS, and your observation on the motion trackers @ 22:00 is spot on since even with crude digital tech of 1979, Lambert's simple black grid screen with moving dots, is all you'd need to track two objects - and any additions to such a screen, as they'd almost certainly do today, would simply muddle the image and confuse the operator. And I was instantly reminded of Hudson's motion tracker 7 years later in "Aliens", with the audible "ticks", the pulse wave, and flashing dots to show life forms. Because James Cameron clearly used the same concept for the motion tracker - simplicity - was used once again with the device having the least complicated possible interface - exactly as you'd want for such an instrument. And of all things during this classic, that I rewatch at least once a year (to remind myself of what real movie magic should be) the one scene I remember the most, seems like an afterthought. Near films end. when everyone is dead but Ripley and her cat Jones, who she has stuffed into his cat carrier (talk about dedication), Ripley has to set Jones down and leave him temporarily, to try to undo the self-destruct sequence. And we see an amazing shot where the drooling Alienin the background is regarding Jones, in his carrier, as the cat looks back at it ears twitching! And for a fraction of a second we are certain Jones is doomed - he can't even run away! - but instead we later are relieved to see the carrier, with Jones intact, getting put in the shuttle by Ripley. This film is a masterpiece of imagery, as Ridley Scott uses every visual theme, device, or concept in existence to tell this story.
HI! I just discovered you on a whim! I absolutely LOVE your breakdowns of all the Alien movies and would LOVE to hear more of you! Would you be able to do the breakdowns of the movies PROMETHEUS & the 1980's movie THE THING?? These are 2 of my most FAVE movies! Plus your accent is so soothing....please let me know! Thank you! XOXO
Really obscure factoid: The operating room scene where the acid blood comes out, and eats through the floor, was lifted from some tv episode (I don't know what tv show), with Roddy McDowall as a scientist, who spills some acid that eats through the floor...I don't remember how many floors it ate through in the tv version of scene.
Thanks to this video, just realized that Kane could allude to Cain from the bible too, since he was the originator of evil/violence/greed (like how Ash refers to the xenomorph as "Kane's son"). Great as always! Like button smashed.
my dad showed me the alien movies when i was around 5-7 years old, cant remember how old i was exactly but i never had nightmare's about it, i was fascinated by those movies
I love this movie. My only target comment. I agree with Ridley on why he cut out the Cocoon Scene. It brings all the momentum to a standstill. Ripley should have heard Dallas on the intercom instead of Jones. That is what leads her down. As she is frying the Aliens lair, Parker and Lambert are attacked and then Ripley triggers the Auto Destruct. I will stand by this Edit In My Head and I love this movie.
Well done Paul! Clearly, I've subscribed ages ago - but watching this one was special as it remains in my top 10 favourite films of all time. Thanks dude.
I also remember being completely baffled by the IGN review of Alien: Isolation, as it was pretty much my GOTY at the time. Still holds up tremendously well.
Thanks for that. I’ve been waiting around on the Internet for 47 years for someone to do a breakdown of this movie! Good to see you’re keeping up to date
Great video for an epic movie. My mom saw this in the theater when she was pregnant with me and told me she had to walk out when the chest buster scene happened - no one had ever seen anything like that in a movie and no one expected it either.
Ripley's nosebleed is a continuity bit, where she was meant to have gotten it from the depressurisation caused when they were about to blow the Alien out of the airlock. As you say, part of the scene was filmed, but was abandoned due to time and money (Fox money guys were all over this production). They filmed the scene where she has the remaining bit of nosebleed before they were due to shoot the abandoned airlock scene.
@@hollywooda111 Nope, that occurs much earlier in the film. The deleted airlock sequence was meant to happen right before Ripley discovers the truth about Ash, hence her nosebleed from the brief de-pressurisation.
What if he gets arrested and put on some kind of offender list? Do you think he'll be anle to maintain consistency of quality as a registered sex offender or is it imortant that he remains an unregistered offender?
No, the Nostromo is not a mining vessel. It's a TUG, towing the refinery full of ore. So they aren't landing a shuttle but the ship itself, after it detaches from the refinery platform.
That's awesome! My dad took me to see Alien when I was 6. It has stuck with me ever since. Then the next horror/sci -fi movie was The Thing. I saw both in the theater upon release and to this day have both movie posters hanging on my wall.
I love how Kane wakes and moves long before the others; it adds interest and drama to the scene. We get a clear sense of how *driven* Kane is. The same drive that drives him to push forward ("We must go on!") and be the first to explore the derelict ship. Ironically, it is the same drive that dooms him in the end.
I think you have to be British to understand. He is a posh boy, public school educated, but gone down in the world through some bad choices made as a young man, and serving as first officer on a tug boat is rock bottom for him. the traits you notice are the reflexes of his class
Lambert's death is actual cut scenes from Brett's death - if you look for the unedited death of Brett you will see the tail between the legs scene in full as it goes into his back and lifts him up if I recall. It's on UA-cam.
If you get a chance, read Ian Holms' autobiography, Acting My Life. There’s a whole chapter on Alien. Great stuff. He describes something I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else, the differences in the way the Americans and Brits practiced their craft. If that’s the sort of thing you care about, rewatch the film focusing entirely on Holms’ performance. The guy is just brilliant.
@@heavyspoilers awesome! There wouldn’t be an Interstellar without Contact. Love your videos Paul and team. You and Grace are my absolute favs in the space.
This was and still is, my mothers favorite movie. She will watch it every Christmas Eve. Yeah, a sci-fi horror flick for Christmas Eve. :D Welcome to my childhood.
When I first saw this movie back in late '79 on a cold, dark Edinburgh night it blew me away. Like Jaws it left a powerful impression on me, being an impressionable youngster. Thanks for a fab breakdown of Ridley Scott's masterpiece. Learned many new things here. The theatrical version is the one I became so familiarised with since its release and prefer that to the director's cut. But the DC still has its moments though. The re-edited sequence of Brett's pursuit of Jones and his death, with extra footage of the xenomorph, is much more effective. The crew checking out the transmission from the skeletal pilot (known as the space jockey) is a curiosity. I read somewhere that Ben Burtt had created something for it but that might not actually be the case. Still what can be heard is so much more effective than the sound effect heard in its deleted scene presentation. Ripley discovering the xenomorph's nest appears to contradict the alien's life cycle in Cameron's Aliens but it so creepy, horrific and disturbing; the last sequence of horror aboard the Nostromo. Again, the sound design is highly effective. Scott used Goldsmith's The Alien Planet from the soundtrack album and it really adds to the scene. Would have been great if Goldsmith had actually scored the scene during the infamous scoring sessions. Ultimately the extra scenes got left out due to pacing issues. The film would never have existed without the great Dan O' Bannon who originally conceived it. Key components which define this movie as a Sci-Fi horror classic are the naturalistic acting from a stellar cast, enabling the great John Hurt to depict Kane's death as truly disturbing and horrific, and Veronica Cartwright, who has a real gift for expressing anguish, fear and sheer terror, showcasing Lambert's gut-wrenching screams to great effect. There's the eerie, nightmarish set designs and creatures by H.R. Giger, the bloody and shocking effects, the unique designs of Ron Cobb, Carlo Rambaldi and Moebius, and, of course, the legendary Jerry Goldsmith's creepy, unsettling score. Was disappointed with Scott's prequels because the story could have been so much better, unwisely stripping away the eerie mystique of the bio-mechanical space jockey. ALIEN, like Jaws and other classics, was a very difficult film to make and, like Spielberg's masterpiece, evolving the way it did, ending up very different from the original script, became the movie we all know and love. They don't make films like this anymore.
Check out our breakdown of ALIENS here - ua-cam.com/video/UMTdkS38_uM/v-deo.html
19:43
I don't think I realised that sound was a Xenomorph hiss, if I noticed it at all.
I think I did notice two Xenomorph sounds when Dallas is in the vent, right after he finds the Alien's spit (one that makes Dallas flinch and fire the flamethrower, another right after Lambert says "Oh God. It's moving right towards you!").
Bring back life form, all other priorities…..Rescinded
☠️ CREW EXPENDABLE ☠️
six "foot"? It is not the dark ages anymore, use standard units of measurement.
Ah the joys of finding a new channel worthy of a binge watching session when the house has fallen silent in the evening.
Good move leaving the link here👍
@@guderian557 Six foot is fine and stop telling people what to do.
Something that never gets explored is how the alien was able to grow to such a large size so soon. What was it eating to gain all that mass? I think it was consuming parts of the Nostromo. Ash said its cells are silicon-based so it doesn't need to eat organic food, and the characters talk about how things on the ship are breaking down that were working before ("I thought we fixed 12 module" - "We did, I don't understand it.") The Nostromo was like a "Mother" to the alien, suckling it so it could grow. This fits in with HR Giger's art style that merges life with machinery.
Xenomorphs eat flesh and shed when they grow
@@Spectrefox1313 But what flesh was it eating before it killed Brett? How did it get from Chihuahua-sized to bigger than a man in one day?
Mind blown
DAMN DUDE! They definitely never give any other explanation as to why the ship components start suddenly failing, I think you nailed it!
In the novel it finds the ships food store
I like how, when Kane wakes up after the face hugger is no longer on his face, Ash comes over to give him more water to drink. Ash never shows any concern for the wellbeing of the crew or any acts of kindness towards them, so this looks out of character. However, he is really nurturing the creature inside of Kane.
I don't think I noticed that it was Ash giving Kane the water until I watched this video and I agree that it does seem out of character. Kane is the only crew member I can think of that Ash APPEARS to care about.
He wanted the Xeno baby to stay hydrated.
Ash knows.
But warns Ripley "No! Not in the corner!" when looking for its remains earlier.
@@uburtono be fair, Ash is the science officer - when do we see other crew mates being sick or injured, and directly under his care?
Saying he’s nurturing the alien is a bit of a leap. It’s like saying “the nurses only bring patients water.. the rest of us have to buy it for ourselves from the vending machine.. they must a have a nefarious purpose!”
The scene where Ripley finds the crew members cocooned is terrifying, and explains why, in the second movie, she tells hicks “They don’t kill you” when newt gets caught. IMO, it adds a lot to the horror, because of the worse than death fate of the Alien’s prey, and could be explained as a survival mechanism of the Alien when alone with no queen.
one two ash is coming for you three four better lock the door
@@christophersayrs907 one two ash is coming for you three four better lock the door
There are so many times throughout the movies where the xenomorphs just kill people when there are eggs nearby and it annoys the hell out of me, like what is the rhyme and reason
@@JennifuhhGilardi The aliens are reasonably intelligent and can make decisions based on their own judgement. If they don't have the comfort of kidnapping someone and cocooning them to a wall (like if there's other humans with weapons close by), then they'll put their own survival first and just kill them.
@@JennifuhhGilardiit's still a primal creature... Kill first is basic instinct for something that vicious
Don't think I have ever seen another movie that has such realistic dialogue as Alien. Just feels so natural and adds to the horror.
I think the cast complained about the original scripted dialogue being too geeky and this was never satisfactorily resolved by the writers. Instead the cast used a lot of improv and the results are really grounded and a great fit for the characters and the mockumentary style of the movie.
I can't stand it when some people crap on Alien for the dialogue. Do they prefer the cringy cheesy '80s dialogue from the middle finger follow up Aliens? Come oooooon! The dialogue in Alien feels natural and downplayed, as dialogue in films should be during the down time!
MASH or Altman movies in general. Which Scott was emulating here. (Ask him.)
Lake Artifact...
@@casesoutherland4175 yeah most people actually prefer the 80's cheese of Aliens for some reason. I personnaly find that this movies shits on everything Alien 1 built, and especially the creatures itself, now reduced to just a big ant.
The scene in the director's cut where Ripley finds a coccooned Dallas and she has to mercifully kill him was one of the most horrific scenes in the movie.
Imagine being conscious and aware of the metamorphosis 😨
Yup very scary!
That scene inspired James Cameron to make Aliens.
Alien 79’ on hulu didn’t show that part😔
@@pandorin2348 it's a deleted scene because it ruins the pacing of the movie even though it is a great scene.
The science officer that Ash replaced dodged a bullet
@@newatlantisrepublic6844 an alien shaped one
Or he would have abided by quarantine rules and left Kane outside
@@wjzav1971have you not seen the movie?
@@meepmeep3874 Yeah, it was Ash who opened the door to the ship. Another science officer might have abided quarantine procedures.
It’s almost like Ash was put on the ship for that very reason!?!?! Crew Expendable!
The science division wanted Ash to put science before humanity! (Bring back life form all other actions resented)!? Probably misspelled…
Awesome movie! I remember going to our local movie theater to see part one! (1979!) Nostalgia!🤙🏽👍🙌🏽👋🏻
One thing I wanted to point out: They did not land "the shuttle" on LV426 (there was no shuttle other than the Narcissus), they landed with the Nostromo itself. Because the Nostromo is essentially just a small tug, dragging this huge refinery behind it, which they detached from before landing.
@nrezmerski That is accurate. And with an engineering staff of two! I sure hope those guys got a full share
@@versebuchanan512 they’ll get what they’re contracted for, just like everybody else.
@@jekw23 "Yeah but everybody else gets more than us, our time is there time, that's the way they see it. Same old shit man!"
Yup. And the Nostromo isn't s mining vessel. It's a tug.
I always thought of the nostromo as the tractor unit of a lorry/truck and the refinery as the trailer it's been contracted to tow.
I love all the acting in this but I think a special shout out is deserved for Ian Holm. Such a subtle performance that could so easily have been hammy. He played it so well….I love watching his performance for clues to his betrayal. Everyone does fantastic but for me Holm underplays so well.
Bilbo
No one can beat a British actor. NO ONE.
@@tiffsaver we have our share of rubbish actors. One Mr Danny Dyer comes to mind
@@jekw23
Danny WHO??
@@tiffsaver Dyer. He’s an (I use the term loosely) actor. Check him out…..or better yet don’t. We have a lot of good actors and a good number of rubbish ones.
I was 11 years old in 1979. I remember it very well. My good friend Mark had talked his dad into bringing him to see Alien at the theater. It blew him and his dad's minds!! They came back telling everyone how scary the movie was. There was nothing like it in 1979. They told us we had to see it. So, I talked my mom into taking me and my cousin to see it. I loved it, and it's still one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies ever made!!
I love how you forget to mention how pissed your mom and your cousin were for making them watch such a scary film lol
I was 10 in 1979 so we both grew up in the BEST era for movies ! Alien, Road Warrior, E.T., Star Wars, and so on....
I watched it at the age of 7 or so. Together with the aliens - my mother was part of a so called "culture clubs" that were basically a cinema theater, place for performances of all kinds, and children's club where they could learn various creative skills such as drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, etc. in the Soviet Union at that time. Once they were having a tour visiting several smaller cities, giving performances by day, and by night they had a janky soviet VCR with bootleg copies of both alien films. I still remember the frames of the landing on the planet from the second movie with the CRT picture showing the colony during the initial flyover photographically, it's been burned into my memory.
Well, it objectively IS one of the best sci-fi movies of all time... and one of the best horror thrillers of all time, as well.
What'd your mom think of it?
It's amazing you only see the Alien (or parts of it) for like 5 minutes in the film. Scott and the people making this film understand true horror comes from within. And I think that's why the scene of the point-of-view shot of Ripley running through the halls as the Alien attacks Lambert is one of the best shots in horror. You hear the screams and then silence.
Lambert's death made me cry out of fear, making Alien the only horror film to ever make me do so. The implications of what it was doing to her with its tail was horrifying! I had to pause the movie to get composure!
It's moments like that in Alien that make me love it more and make me despise its completely unnecessary follow-ups WAY more.
To hell with the Alien follow-ups! None of them are remotely comparable to the original!
Lamberts breathing and sounds implied she was getting raped
@@casesoutherland4175no movie scene made me cry out in fear
I'm at the shaft scene where Dallas holding a flamethrower with his back against a sealed door. That's the best place to kill the alien since it only can run toward Dallas facing. Lambert should tell Dallas to go back up the stairs once she picked up the alien signal and held his position, but she panicked and told Dallas to move causing him to climb down the stairs where he meet face to face with a loud screeching Alien. What's the point of running when you're out there to kill the alien? Lambert causes Dallas to die.
That is why Alien remains the most claustrophobically scary film of all. We never actually see much of the monster, only bits and pieces of it, in glimpses, and always with this realistic organic wetness. Pure brilliance, especially for a not-very-high-budget film. In a comparison that may anger other Alien fans, Blair Witch Project was scary for a similar reason: One actually never sees what h(a)unts the protagonists. Partially in Aliens and particularly in Alien 3, this effect was ruined, by showing the aliens often, fully, and (in Alien 3) clearly computer-animated and dry/metallic rather than wet/organic.
I don't consider the Brett-coccoon scene as contradictory to the Queen/egg lore. It's reasonable to assume that under the right conditions, a solitary Alien can attempt to reproduce in this way as a species-based secondary method of creating a new hive, especially if a Queen dies. To me, it makes the Aliens more terrifying, that all it takes is one Alien to survive to start a new colony, and it also adds to the body-horror themes of the first movie.
It still actually works that way to a degree. Any lone xenomorph can morph into a queen and lay eggs. Also the ovomorph thing has been used in comics and novels multiple times so it's not like it was removed from the canon. Basically it can all be handwaved away as the xenomorph being designed to survive and spread whatever it takes.
@@xKinjax yea but when the regular alien turns into the queen alien, and he wants to make some more aliens eggs, then where does he get the come from? he will need some alien come to make a baby?
maybe he just makes some his own come while still a regular dude alien, and saves it , then when he turn into the queen version of a alien, that’s when he put the come inside his brand new queen alien ovaries and then maybe THAT turn into new alien baby egg? not sure..
@@severalwolves you're thinking about this all wrong. The eggs are just a part of the reproduction cycle. The facehugger that grows inside them would be the equivalent of a sperm and the victim, be it humans or any random animal they can catch are the ovaries. The queen doesn't need anyone to fertilize anything.
Technically she doesn't even need drones to bring her new prey. This wasn't really something they had to delve into in the movies but In books and videogames it was shown that all that is required for a massive infestation is a single queen that can hide and lay eggs. If there is prey around the facehuggers will get out of the eggs and go look for it.
You need to keep in mind that the process doesn't need to work like life works in our world. These aren't creatures that evolved, they're creatures specifically bioengineered to spread easily and kill on a massive scale.
All aliens have the ability to molt into a queen
@@thedarthflagger
Not according to the "assembly cut" of Alien 3! In one of the extra scenes they find a dead "Queen" facehugger that looks different than a regular one.
The picture of Jonesy kitten is an amazing detail.
Two things. How amazing does this film look after all this time since it was made? Some films age badly for one reason or another, but Alien looks like it's just been made everytime I watch it. Secondly, symphony no. 2 will always be remembered as the piece of music played as Ripley blasts the alien into space. That whole scene with the music gives it such a feeling of catharsis, which for me is so much better than the present day post-modern cliché of "everyone dies". Alien is definitely one of my top ten movies of all time.
hi, yes it is a unique movie and what i would call an intelligent and realistic looking film which has some great surprises throughout the story.
They had the same happy accident as Jaws. They had problems with the alien suit (Jaws had problems with the mechanical shark). So they were forced to reduce its time on camera. And in both movies that had the effect of heightening the tension, since you never really got a good look at what they were up against (until the very end). It's now a staple of horror movies.
This was also one of the early grungy, realistic, dystopian sci-fi films (which culminated with Blade Runner). In contrast to the more sterile, idealistic universes portrayed in Star Trek and Star Wars. That helps it age better since you're not expecting everything to be perfect in "the future." (Star Wars tries to hang the lampshade by saying the ship sucks, but never actually shows why it sucks. So to our eyes it might as well be a perfect.)
Just watched it tonight. Looks fantastic still.
@@solandri69constrains create creativity.
good lighting and camerawork will never age
This and Aliens are some of the best films ever. Top notch Sci-Fi Horror. Weaver deserved a Oscar for this and Aliens.
💀
People be sleeping on the Prometheus Trilogy tho, sucks we aren’t getting that third movie.
@@patrickk___ Covenant is OK But Prometheus is good.
@@louisberry4403 yeah I feel the same way but I still would’ve liked for them to end the trilogy with the third movie. I’m glad we’re at least getting a new Alien Movie going to Hulu.
@@patrickk___ Yeah. Hope the new captures of the magic of the first 2.
The fact that IGN gave it a 5.9 shows how out of touch they were! Alien: Isolation is regarded as one of the BEST Sci-Fi horror games w/ graphics and gameplay still holding up after 10 years!! The games was ahead of its time and still among the best compared to more recent games, which aren't that great. I'm definitely subscribing to you, great analyzation of this amazing classic film!
IGN have been taken over by wokism people with their own agenda
The fix was clearly in. IGN was rating games based on how they were paid. That is all.
Yea IGN is garbage
It’s one of my favorite games ever
I suggested the same thing. Alien: Isolation was one of the greatest video games I've ever played - and it was most definitely the scariest!!
Just because the Queen is introduced in Aliens, it does not mean that that drones can not make eggs out of captured humans. It makes sense that this is why the xenomorh is attacking the crew. Not just to kill them senselessly, but to perpetuate the species. I think this is part of Ash saying it is a perfect creature. It does not need another xenomorh to reproduce.
Plus there's the fact that Cameron's Aliens comes after Alien and was made almost a decade after. Just because he decided there should be a queen - which is a much less interesting idea - doesn't mean it trumps the original idea.
@@nutyyyy the more layers they add though, the more needs to be explained or hinted at. Like how is a queen produced? Does it just evolve after a female birth to eventually become a queen?
I think the homogeny of the original Alien meant a single xeno could wipe out crews by dissolving their bodies to feed egg growth. I.e they don't morph, the cocoon eats them and fuels egg growth.
We know that the alien cocoons itself in order to draw power from the ship and sustain itself. It does this in Alien and Aliens in the reactor area of the site. Which is how it grows so fast and why the hive is generally in a high power area.
Nah, it was acting according to type - capturing and cocooning hosts for the facehuggers. It just wasn't to know that there was no Queen or other drones around.
Interesting fact, Ridley Scott absolutely despises the idea of the Queen and refuses to have it in any movie he works on. He never intended for their to be a hierarchical society amongst the creature and hates that it's been introduced to the story.
@@bennytea7215 the Queen wasn't a thing in the original movie, wasn't even supposed to be a thing either
One thing you forgot to mention that's just a neat little moment, you can see the Alien walking past the windows on the shuttle when Ripley is trying to turn the cooling system back on. Also, another small thing I noticed, when they're talking to Ash after he's been decapitated, he almost never blinks. I like to think that he doesn't bother trying to blend in with the humans anymore, and it reminds me of the actor that played the T-1000 in T2 training himself to not flinch and close his eyes when firing his weapons.
I'm not sure if Ian knew this, but serial killers blink much less often than most humans. An unblinking human can be unnerving, like a wild animal that stalks it's prey. I heard Anthony Hopkins talk about this in an interview when he was prepping to play Hannibal Lector the first time.
I've looked and looked, are you sure?
The alien walking past the shuttle windows? There's no such scene.
@@johnnichols8553 Watch it again, when she goes back to turn the cooling unit back on, there's a two second external shot of the shuttle, and you can just see a figure moving off to the right of the window. Blink and you'll miss it.
Screw you there is no alien in that scene
I never thought of Brett/Dallas as morphing into eggs, I always thought of this scene as much more like a Wasp laying its eggs in a much larger spider. While the spider is constrained by the wasps venom the crew is constrained by the Xenomorphs resin. I always found it interesting that while the Alien could clearly overpower the crew in a stand up fight, it is an ambush predator and stays true to that instinct through the whole film. Always emerging from the shadows to strike.
This was the first horror movie my dad showed me when I was 5 and used me as an excuse to buy all his toys and alien memorabilia. Still to this day these movies hold up so well and are something I hold near and dear to my heart ❤️ thank you for such an amazing breakdown on one of my favorite movies!
There was a TV shopping channel I Norway, this was the early to mid 90s where they sold the vhs trilogy, and to advertise the box they showed the chestburster scene.. Several times, during the day, with just a warning that the scene was graphic 😂 I was probably somewhere around between 5-8 when this aired.. So for a long time all I knew about the alien movies was that scene
I had a model of the Alien when I was about 10 but my brother broke it...around 1980?...and had the Alan Dean Foster book taken off me by the teacher when I was In junior school, I hadn't seen the film then and I was kinda disappointed the Alien didn't get its arm chopped off, only for it to regrow, like it did in the book....ha ha I can't believe I can rember that , its 40 odd yrs ago....its possibly my favourite film, it was so groundbreaking and I loved science-fiction and horror
@@davedennison7386 WAS your book returned? I certainly hope so.
@rjampiolo32 ha ha, yeah, I did, I think it was at the end of the week?
I was 10 years old when my Dad takes me and my 13 year old Sister to a drive in triple feature in the summer of 1979. 1st movie- Helter Skelter The Manson Murders. 2nd movie- George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. 3rd movie - Alien. In the back of a station wagon - EVERYONE can hear you scream. Lol
"Cain's son" can also be seen as a Bible Reference. Cain's offspring were seen as "monstrous" and disconnected from God. That was always what I looked at Ash saying when he mentioned it
Kane. Cain is the villain in RoboCop 2.
@@MaryBrownIsTheBlairWitch His name in the film is Kane, but in the Abrahamic bibles, the name is Cain. Cain famously killed his brother Abel, and had children who were evil. Cain himself is often seen as the originator of evil, you can see how this relates to the film and to the line Ash says. That's why OP brought it up and used the spelling of Cain.
@@no-barknoonan1335 Tom NOONAN plays the aforementioned Cain, interestingly 😉
@@MaryBrownIsTheBlairWitch I'm dead, reality be stranger than fiction it seems
@@no-barknoonan1335 How's this for strange: the financial success of Star Wars was the impetus for Fox to make Alien in the first place - look up who directed RoboCop 2... 🤯
Lambert’s death was so disturbing -- you can only HEAR what’s happening. It’s an audio nightmare fuel that doesn’t get much attention.
Holy shit
Someone else who thinks like me
I actually think that’s the best and scariest death in the whole film for that reason
i thought it sounded funny
@@neglectfulsausage7689 🤣🤣huglokglokok **choking sounds
@@cyrusvail yas
One big plot "hole" is that Ash, being fully aware of the "special order: science officer eyes only" also is aware that the alien will NOT see him as a potential "incubator", and therefore, once the alien is on the ship and away from the planet, WHY didn't "Ash" simply eliminate the rest of the biological humans and "shut himself down" leaving the ship on course for Earth to be picked up by a company sponsored "rescue ship"?
Couple of points that almost nobody seems to pick up on:
1. A lot of people pick up that Ripley and Dallas are attracted to each other, but there are clues that Lambert and Parker are also either a couple or want to be. Watch the way they move: Lambert is the the only one who Parker isn't confrontational with at some point, and he's the first to rush to comfort her when she's losing it. He even puts his arm around her as they go off to get the supplies for the shuttle. In the second mess table scene, before Kane kicks off, Parker makes a joke: "I'd rather be eating something else, but right now, food will do." Everybody else makes faces and noises to indicate they're grossed out, but the camera lingers on Lambert who smiles and drops her head as though she's the only one who _really_ gets the joke. In an earlier version of the script, two 'lovers' are having an assignation in an observation bubble on the ship when a body floats past. People assume this would have been Ripley and Dallas, but I suspect it would have been Lambert and Parker.
2. The reason the dead face-hugger drops on Ripley in the infirmary is because Ash does it as a sick joke. He first stops Dallas from poking into a corner over the medical desk, and then pokes into the very same space, with a tray ready, in a manner that suggests intent, not exploration: he's retrieving the dead face-hugger from where he stashed it, not looking for it. His first reaction after it drops on Ripley is to offer an excuse too quickly, "I didn't see it! It was in the overhead!", when, given that he was in a distant corner of the room, nobody could have expected him to see it. My theory is that he pulled it out of the corner, then threw it into the area above where Ripley was standing so that it seemed to drop on her. We know that his conflicting programming makes him behave oddly in the scene where he assaults Ripley: maybe this is an early sign of his 'android psychosis'.
Gaeeee
Great points you made. I think Parker just liked women, and a great guy to have around in critical situations. When Kane was convulsing before the alien erupted from his chest, Parker was right there to help assist Kane. When Ash was trying to murder Ripley, Parker flew into his ass.
I saw on a video that “the love scene”, was actually going to be Ripley and Dallas to “relieve” themselves after all the chaos, but Sigourney Weaver said it felt unnecessary and it was cut.
When I was a kid, before I got to watch the movie, I read the graphic novelization. In it there's a conversation between Ripley and Lambert where it's strongly implied that both of them are no strangers to having sex with the other guys as they come to the realization that neither of them has slept with Ash.
@@MLennholm Yes, I remember that. I think it was in some earlier versions of the script if I remember correctly.
The room where Brett is taken is actually the bay for one of the landing legs. The four large structures open up. You can see how they look the same in the landing shots. The water is condensation from some of the atmosphere that was scooped up when it retracted back into the ship.
All this time I thought it was the cargo area that held mining equipment. Thanks.
alien isolation is hands down one of the best horror games ever and captured the terror of Alien perfectly. Im still astounded I managed to complete it. The hive at the end was totally cross over between alien and aliens and freaked me out something chronic. nice videos by the way!
I've always liked the fan theory that the xenomorphs have more than one way to produce eggs. And the way shown in the first movie would be an alternative way they Xenomorphs could produce eggs when they didn't have an Egg laying Queen hive.
The video games (and to a limited extent, the Dark Horse comics) addressed this; a lone Alien, under the right circumstances, will morph into a Queen if separated from its Hive. Once a suitable habitat and source of sustenance has been located, she will begin laying eggs and establish a Hive of her own
That's kind of like situation in Jurassic Park. Scientists didn't have complete DNA, so used frog's DNA fill in gaps genetic code. They thought if produced only females the Reptiles couldn't reproduce forget that some species have male/female reproductive systems.
The original screenplay for Alien mentioned spores several times. Scott eventually used this in his sequels.
No, simply no.
Alien is genuinely so amazing and well done. The effects, the set design, the xenomorph itself. Sooooo so so good!
The on screen soundtrack is great sleep music
Just imagine this: Kane's body shooting through the cold, sterile vastness of space forever. Forever.
I've thought about that: it's also the last physical remains of the Nostromo crew and the xenomorph encounter!
@@TonyC-uz5uu at least until it hits something.
Makes me rethink life.
I recently noticed a moment involving Ash at the dinner table just before Kane started convoluting. The camera cuts to him - you see him just breifly smiling and joining in with the crew, then just for a second he tilts his head slightly and glares over at Kane for a second, as if to imply he knows whats coming and is waiting for it to happen. Its just a quick moment but its quite unnerving.
Look what ash does when the alien bursts out, he has his arm and smashes it down brutally on the table, at the same time the alien is Born. Ash is its birthmother. He just nails his crewmate to the cross.
In deleted scenes Dallas asks ash during the Cramps what they should do, uterly weak and helpless. Ash just says "HOLD HIM DOWn!"
Just after Kane eats his last supper, there is a faint alien scream on the soundtrack. So, it is coming out of the Embryo inside him, and from this little scream on kane is DEAD.
I want to know how Ash knew what was going to happen to Kane.
I caught that, as well.
@@SalveRegina8Because he saw the embryo growing inside Kane and saw the burst chest from the space jockey. He probably put two and two together.
Maybe the same reason they knew the Aliens were there and the mission to bring it back. Someone had knowledge back home? @@SalveRegina8
Bit of trivia. The hulking giant seen in the opening credits isnt the Nostromo. That is a mining rig. If you watch closely, the Nostromo is a (relatively smaller) ship towing it, which is dwarfed by it.
Yes, Nostromo even disconnects from the rafinery in order to land on the planet. Thought it was clear for everyone.
@@VRGamercz Its not the first time the refinery tug has been labelled the actual Nostromo, on this vid and a couple of others
@@kanedaku Guess it was not clear to everyone after all :D
It's not a mining rig, it's a refinery, a blast furnace station.
They are carrying a mobile smelter / blast furnace with x millions tons of ore to be refined automatically.
@@Xingmey Yeh, I misnamed it.
One of my favorite scenes is Brett's death scene. I love that we don't see what happens to him. I also think the Alien coming from above and the movements it makes throughout this scene and the rest of the movie just add to the beautifully horrific execution of the design and performance of the creature. We can't quite understand what the Alien's goals/motives are and that makes it so much more terrifying and enjoyable to watch. There's a really good podcast episode on the Perfect Organism where they break this scene down. One question I always had was why is it so steamy and humid in that room? On the podcast they talk about how the Alien's lifecycle is so quick and it's consuming energy so quickly that it would be incredibly exothermic and, therefore, is generating a lot of heat, causing the steaminess that we see. Ah! There's so much to love about this movie and I will never grow tired of watching it and finding little details I've never really noticed before. Great video!
I'm sure if you wandered around a modern cargo vessel, below decks, engine room, kitchens, you'd come across lots of humid conditions, steamy places, damp corners. Crew comfort is not the highest priority on commercial vessels, functionality and profit is.
One thing to note is that when Brett enters the landing claw room, there's a POV shot tilting up the entirety of the folded landing claw, and the xenomorph can be seen curled up on top of it, looking like part of it. Just Scott's way of showing us more of the creature than we thought we saw.
Is that in the directors cut?
@@nutyyyy It's in the original theatrical cut.
I saw this when it came out at the cinema. The audience was on edge from the start and the first jump scare of the the computer coming to life caught everyone. The genius of Ridley Scott.
You lucky f*ck!
Sure…
Budurrrrrr...bripbripbripbripbrip.................chabbachabbachabbachabbachabba...ee-eh-oo-arr-ip-ip-ap-ap jabba jabba jabba jabba jibber jabber jub
I saw the film at it's release by word of mouth. There was no internet for sneak peeks. I saw it at a large theater in 70mm. Packed house on a Friday night.
Unforgettable movie! I remember the ads on TV. “ IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM”
Still one of my all-time favorite horror movies. Alien & Event Horizon are still the best space horror movies ever made.
I can't believe I found someone else that has seen Event Horizon! It's horrifying.
@@adopequeenatyrantkingaboss8057 It’s probably in my top 5 horror movies ever. Own 2 copies of it on Blu-Ray: Scream Factory release with every special feature I could want (except the cut scenes that few outside of the editing team have seen) & the 4K Steelbook that was limited issue last year.
Back when spoilers were rare the chest buster scene was mind- blowing.
Everyone’s seen Event Horizon man. While it’s not terrible I don’t think it holds a candle to Alien. Look how many sequels Alien had: the monster is so unique and visceral that everyone has such a primal reaction. It’s an incredible work of imagination. Event Horizon was kinda freaky till we find out it’s the ship itself harboring a portal to hell if you will. Meh.
Event horizon is Hellraiser in space
Another detail: Jonesy is very aware of when the Alien is around: of course we see and hear that during the Brett scene, but he growls when Ripley holds him in the shuttle. That's a warning sign that Ripley didn't know to pay attention to.
Well said hence why Jonesy spent so much hiding from the Alien as his heightened awareness helped keep him alive.
2:26 contrary to popular belief the “eggmorphing” scene isn’t the crew being turned into eggs but rather they were going to be used as a food source for the alien’s offspring so the offspring could have food until a potential host came along to start the lifecycle over again
The creature would lay eggs, which when hatched, the face huggers would lay their parasite in the cemented in crew, to realise more aliens, and essential for survival.
The space truckers thing and how the dialogue underlines it is so underrated... It's a huge reason why the movie can function as a slasher... we all have a coworker that complains about the food or the bonuses... we've all heard the lunch break banter... because we see ourselves and our friends and coworkers in the characters, the fear comes almost naturally.
I think the fact that they are space truckers helps explain the fact that they don’t cope very well with the alien. After all, they’re not professional, soldiers, or officers of the law
Exactly, even this remote little reminder of my work environment puts me in the right state of anxiety to start off the movie
@@brycesuderow3576 Right. They're not marines...I don't think there's one single weapon on board. They have to make do with makeshift cattle prods and other improvised stuff. They are completely out of their ....wochuma call it.....DEPTH (my brain is frazzed! no sleep...)
what do you mean, its "underrated". Alien is officially rated as one of the greatest movies of all cinema history.
Ye...they're all more or less completely identifiable as fellow next-door-types. Makes it easier to live (and die) through their senses. Great typecasting. Weaver is exquisite with her balance of vulnerability and enormous courage. Lucky someone saw sense and switched her from "Lambert" to "Ripley" during typecasting otherwise we would have got a crybaby Ripley pooing her pants at every turn of the ship's corridors instead of a six foot plus kick ass Amazonian heroine...
I've seen this movie like a hundred times because it's one of my favs, but I feel like I still learned quite a bit from this video. The A,B,C,D android names blew my mind. And the different colored pants when the tail grabs Lambert. How did I miss that all these years?
I've also watched this (and Aliens) ad nauseum, and I had never noticed the A, B, C, D android thing either! Or the alien hissing at Brett as he lets the water drip on his face. Dunno how I missed that...
Just ignore W for Walter in Covenant 😉
@@pneumaz They broke the pattern 😔
@@pneumaz The 3 producers in the original Alien film were David Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll. So if there is a 3rd prequel expect the android to be called Gordon.
But his name is Walter in Covenant
My favorite movie ever. 7 well defined characters (played by 7 magnificent actors) and the most unforgettable and weird monster possible.
Taking the Joseph Conrad theme a bit further: the name of the ship in Aliens is the “Sulaco”, which is the name of the town in which the book “Nostromo” is set.
Got that coming In our upcoming aliens breakdown, really excited to talk about the movie
Can't beat a bit of Conrad, it has to be said.
This film changed my life when I saw it at a very young age. It is an absolute masterpiece.
It blew my mind when I saw it the first time. It is the only movie I’ve ever seen that left my stomach tied in knots after I left the theater.
I really think Ridley Scott is under appreciated. It’s too bad Tod Browning and James Whale didn’t live to see how far Ridley Scott was able to take the genre they pioneered.
The special effects and story are really standing the test of time, that’s for sure. 28:54
How did it change u?
What’s sad to me is most (reactors) tend to end the film just as the end credits start to scroll. The closing music is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard.
Hanson Symphony No. 2 “Romantic” 1st Movement. I have it on Spotify. Amazingly good.
I'm not a horror movie fan but ALIEN is one of my very few exceptions. What makes it horrifying, unlike the usual slasher flicks, is the characters felt like real, relatable people caught up in a web of horror and deceit and not the usual annoying teenagers who I don't care if they die. I think because, at the time, I knew none of the actors-- so there was no "star" who would predictably survive. Aside from ALIENS, all the other movies in the Alien franchise unsuccessfully tried to recapture "the magic" of the first film. But once the xenomorph was let out of the bag, it's impossible for Hollywood to rediscover that which was perfect to begin with.
Yep they really dropped the ball on every Aliens since then. Aliens is not only the best "Alien" film, it is probably the best sequel of all time.
"...because, at the time, I knew none of the actors... "
Weaver had already appeared in a number of films before "Alien." I was very familiar with her and I think the audience was too..
@@Gertyutz I was only 15 at the time and I had never seen any of her movies until then.
@@robertmaybeth3434 I agree. Aliens and Terminator 2 are the best movie sequels of all time. It's probably not a coincidence that both were directed by James Cameron.
@@luisdireito Terminator 2, pretty much although compared to "ALIENS" the level of Cameron's mastery is a bit less in this one and suffers a bit in comparison to Cameron's master-work. "Aliens" is amazing and full of astounding surprises to the very end, perfectly paced, with masterful use of every story element there is. The exquisite attention which Cameron lavished on every element from sets to story to choice of actors, and Cameron's complete mastery of every detail in this movie shows him at the high water mark of his sheer genius in film-making, at least for "Aliens". Probably why nobody has made an Alien sequel nearly as good, and why 40 years, and 5 lack-luster films later they all look like cheap satires of what they ought to be...
Alien is the ULTIMATE sci-fi horror. There has never been another movie in this genre that even compares, and it still looks amazing!
The Thing remake comes a very close second in my opinion.
@@MrChippiechappie a rare example of a remake that is better than the original.
@@MrChippiechappie John Carpenter's The Thing is my favorite movie of all time and its for all the same reasons the first Alien film is my favorite in its own franchise. The characters are just normal people doing their job when something extraordinary happens. The reason I like The Thing better is because the enemy isnt a giant standalone monster. It could be any person in that base at any time. It takes all that tension you felt in Alien and cranks it up to 11. In the Alien franchise the number one priority of the protagonists is preventing the xenomorph from getting to Earth where it could quickly overrun the entire population. In The Thing the stakes are much higher because that worst-case scenario has already occurred. It's here and it has to be stopped at all costs. Plus I love the ending that resolves literally nothing.
@@brucewayne7838 Are you fucking kidding? Rofl kids these days
@@brucewayne7838I would have agreed with you last year, but I watched both the 1951 original and the 1982 remake back-to-back. Although both are very different, both are great in their own ways! The original has better pacing and funnier characters, while the remake has better effects and scarier moments!
Paul, in the middle of my annual Alien fanboy phase & just completed Alien Isolation (and the DLCs), and still wanted more. So glad I ran across your video here. Well done & nicely scripted & edited. I remember as a kid in the late 70s, K-Mart sold these toy eggs I guess an alien inside them. For kids! I hadn't seen the film at that point yet (too young) but was already hooked by the toy. I've never been disappointed. Even the worst of the films are a treasure to me, and Alien Isolation just went above & beyond everything it needed to do. Truly one of the great games. Applause for all of your videos as they are pro quality. Keep up the good work!
One of the aspects of a Space Trucker crew is that they don't take the precautions or have the same respect for process and procedure that a military crew would have, hence Kane charging headlong (and face first) into unknown territory followed by Dallas and Lambert treating quarantine restrictions as just bs that gets in the way.
Frustrating for the more professional Ripley but still in character for the more lax / unfussed crew.
We are in a world where space travel for commercial reasons has become common place. The crew are like the crew of a modern cargo vessel. Perhaps waited more towards the Officer class, but the grease monkeys in the engine rooms, are a familiar type, and realistic in terms of real human beings, which is one of the reasons why the film works.
@@onastick2411This maybe the only part of the movie that has aged like milk. After Coronavirus even people woefully uinterested in biology or history of exploration, realise that contact with any alien environment is potentially deadly because of pathogens our immunity system is unable to recognize due to lack or insufficient exposure. Had humans not contacted an iteration of this virus before, the fatality rate would have been like 80-90%. Only people who's bodies are able to produce unusually extremely high numbers of T lymphocytes would survive. In other words, Nostromo crew in distant future would have known that any contact with anything biological that was not from Earth would be a likely death sentence. Unless in Alien universe, all people are genetically modified to be T lymphocite freaks.
I always, even from that first mind-blowing watch at the cinema, in 1979, had the impression that Ash knew exactly what was going to happen. Ian Holm is so good in the role, his cut off smiles, looks off camera, and total and utter lack of surprise as events unfurl, are both telling, and chilling. If he hadn't been found out, he'd have been the Xenomorph's 'zookeeper' on the way back to earth. I also thought it possible that Ash could have been 'awake', and altered the course of the Nostromo to go near to LV-426, whilst the humans (and cat) were in hypersleep. Being an 'Artificial Human', he would not need to sleep, and only be in his pod for show.
The opening scene, reflected in the helmet on the crews workstation, shows the computer picking up the signal, and bringing the ship to life. Mother's programmed to do that should certain situations occur.
In Alien: Isolation your synthetic crewmate’s first lines are about how he woke up before the humans since he doesn’t need to sleep as much. In the movie I always took Ash’s stiff posture as a sign that he was only pretending to be asleep since he seems to be pretending in one way or another for most of the movie
I was 7 when Aliens came out and my dad and his parents took me to see it. Questionable in retrospect but I have loved the entire franchise ever since! ❤
Child abuse.....? 😂
Alien, The Shining, and The Thing are some of my all time favourites. I appreciate your recent deep dives into these movies, recently.
Thanks, I’ve loved going back through em so I appreciate the comment, hope you have a good weekend
Great trio of creepy flicks!
The thing is still amazing.
Literally my top three horror movies and I like horror movies..
Those 3 and Road Warrior! All 1979-1982
"I've got access to Mother now and I'll get my own answers.."
Truly magnificent. Learn to think for yourselves people. This is what makes Ripley a strong protagonist, and person in general.
I wish people did this in 2020 instead of running off to roll up their sleeves!?!?
"Learn to think for yourselves" too often morphs into "embrace the info that reinforces your current beliefs, ignore or belittle the rest."
Might as well be, "I've got access to the internet now and I'll get my own answers." Except there's a thousand different answers and 990 of them are dead wrong. And those are the ones that get the most attention because there are so many of them.
Was Ripley thinking for herself or was she relying on Mother's thinking? Maybe the most important thing is to determine which sources to trust and which not to.
Ripley's eventual solution was the same as Monty Python's King Arthur: "Run away!"
@@cgbleak well said
I do not understand how Ash snuck into the computer room without Ripley knowing it.
@@HardRockMaster7577that computer room door must be really quiet
I like how the cockpit was rigged up so that when one person flipped a switch or pushed a button, it did a thing to someone else's area, so that it looked natural with everyone appearing to know what they were doing.
Balaji Imperial I think refers to Bolaji Badejo who played the Alien in the movie. Also, the way the whole ship was personalized in the movie is astounding. The attention to detail is staggering.
The most disappointing thing about the Engineers to me was their almost psychotic hostility. The cast of Alien are known to have felt that the corpse of the Space Jockey was not unsettling despite its size and strangeness, but rather struck them as benevolent and tragic.
I agree. Imo it goes against the idea if one of themselves sacrificing itself to seed earth way back when. Are they benevolent/curiosity driven creators or psychotic barbarians fighting anything they see?
But I guess maybe that's our fault for assuming they're all the same. Maybe there's different factions and moralities between them.
I think the Engineer in Prometheus was supposed to be a soldier of some sort,@@benwilliams3539? But that still implies that a nontrivial polity of Engineers were in favour of committing genocide against their creations.
Even though they weren't in any scenes with it and saw Space Jockey exactly the same way we did?
I am proud to say that I have never seen Prometheus or Alien Covenant and that I never will. Just like the three Alien sequels, they're all about making money and ruining the mystery and suspense of the first film to cash in big.
@@casesoutherland4175 Almost everybody that saw those two movies was hoping that SOMEHOW Ridley Scoot might recapture the excellence of the first two masterpiece movies, only to be doomed to complete disappointment by the final product, AGAIN, which was why when they were released I had no excitement... sadly, my being disappointed in advance was justified
Just recently re-watched and one of the things I noticed about Ash was in the sleep pod scene while all the other crew members are sleeping more naturally or human-like, hands resting on their chests or stomachs or their legs are slightly bent etc. All the while Ash is just assuming the corpse pose with his arms straight down along his sides.
Kane is eager to discover new things- 7:30 Kane is first out of the beds, he leads the three heading to the ship, he volunteers to repel down into the egg chamber after convincing Dallas and Lambert not to turn around after they lose communication with Ash. More notes on Ash helping the Alien- 1) I think he shuts off communication with the away team because he knows Ripley is using the translator and may figure out the message is a warning, which she does rather quickly. This should also make her suspicious of Ash/The Company. Why didn't it translate the message as a warning if she could do it so quickly? 2) He lets Kane into the ship 3) He hides the fact there's a growing alien in Kane's chest?!?!? 4) When the alien is "born" he holds Parker back from stabbing it immediately. 5) The scanners he makes for the crew to track the alien often malfunction 5) He recommends using fire to fight the alien. We know it can survive exposed to the moon's atmosphere, what makes you think heat will hurt it? 6) In two scenes not filmed Ripley discovers Lambert has also not slept with Ash, which it's common for the crew to sleep with each other. Ash sets off a klaxon to help the alien escape a trap in the airlock set by Parker. That's the point Ripley is finally convinced something is going on so visits Mother.
"Why didn't it translate the message as a warning if she could do it so quickly?"
It originally was. Mother was hacked / directed to a false response by the Company to report the message when detected as a garbled distress call so the Nostromo would get diverted from its original flight path back to Earth. Think Google Translate: if enough people "correct" a translation to the same wrong thing, that's what it will return.
Ripley ran the translation program herself and only got as far as realising it was a warning. She was interrupted before the whole of it was translated by the return of face-hugged Kane, Dallas and Lambert.
In the novel, there is more about this: Ash knows the content of the warning and reveals that it was detailed and specific about the threat the Xenomorph represented. This explains his impassive manner when things go sideways as he _knows_ what is going to happen and wants to see it for himself, also knowing he is not going to be targeted by it so long as he doesn't interact with it.
"When the alien is "born" he holds Parker back from stabbing it immediately"
Yeah, well, after the tiny squirt of blood from the face-hugger burned through three decks, stopping someone about to stab something also likely to compromise the hull integrity when you're travelling at supra-light speed is naturally precautionary.
"The scanners he makes for the crew to track the alien often malfunction"
He knocked them up quickly from stuff lying around. You make a perfectly working scanner that detects micro variations in atmospheric density out of spare parts in an hour, complete with a screen and distance meter. Then make another one. If anything, he would have preferred they didn't malfunction as he knew the whole idea of running at the thing with just a flamethrower was suicide, and the quicker they are all dead, the quicker he can fulfil his mission and get back to Earth. As it was, that was an engineering feat only matched by Tony Stark being able to secretly build a flying metal suit out of scrap in the middle of the desert while being held prisoner.
Kane just acts like an idiot )
And the breakfast scene itself is the most stupid moment since the captain put his head in the egg. No quarantine, no worries, even Kane
Thanks!
At the time the movie came out, Dallas was the one you would assume would be the hero, and up until he dies, everything seems to point that way, so killing him off is really a sign that the usual rules have gone out the airlock.
Dallas in the air ducts is simply the most terrifying scene ever in movies. The suspense and pacing are brilliant.
“He taped it for me”, God that brings me back. Miss you VHS !
I literally said "hell yeah!" Out loud when I saw you put out this video. I love this movie so much, I grew up watching it and Aliens (and Alien 3) they terrified me as a kid but i actually once answered a question once in elementary school that was "who is your hero?" And I said Ellen Ripley lmao I was very disappointed once showing this to a group of my friends who had never seen it but are definitely sci Fi fans and they didn't really like it and thought it was boring. They don't make movies like this much anymore but I love slow burn sci Fi horror like this and The Thing
You'd almost have to have been raised on a steady diet of 1970's movie and TV productions to not feel it was "boring". Because aside from Star Wars and a couple other movies (Apocalypse Now) the 1970's was not a great time for movies. And along comes Alien at decade's end with cinematography and story telling done a way we've never seen it before. To a modern audience, raised on a million different movies of wildly varying quality and with instant audience pay-off scenes, I get why they'd think it was "boring".
Alien: Isolation is a MUST if you love these movies. The way it ties into the lore of the storyline makes it an essential link in the timeline that doesn’t exist in the official movies.
Saw this at the drive-in in 1980. The fast that you see so little of the creature added to the sense of claustrophobia. Still one of the best. Prometheus, on the other hand....
OG Predator and first Alein movie were my childhood nightmares.....man I really got scared in first view of both...both being true classics!!!
Hell yea. Still are … probably cause they seem TOTALLY plausible.
Same, add in The Thing. Those transformations still hold up today.
Predator had us running around in camo face paint and stuff lol. Aliens was scary.
@@chrisprysok7634, Same As Commando lol
Great video. I think it is worth noting that at first the crew makes attempts at killing the Alien because the "abandon the ship and escape in shuttle" idea is not really an realistic option as the shuttle would not support 4 or more people. Only after Ash is burned is using the shuttle to escape a valid plan for the remaining three.
Well done, Paul I'm compiling my 50 favorite movies, and Alien is right up there. Thank you for your very accurate description. I just watched it again since 1979, and it's even better thanks to people like you.
Dude your introduction to the alien series is the exact same as mine. When I was 4 he showed me Alien on vhs because he knew I loved space related stuff, many sleepless nights and terror filled dreams....I loved every second of it. I still watch this film regularly to this day and it always brings me back to simpler times, afternoons spent watching movies with my grandpa. But this by far was my favourite
Check out our breakdown of Total Recall here - ua-cam.com/video/MQz0u01vOPM/v-deo.html
Started watching "The Intruder Within" (1981) on UA-cam, which is a Basically; ALIEN on an Oil Rig TV Movie.
Pls the first Scream movie.
Grandads are the best, mine you to do that, saw Legend when I was about 6 cause he recorded it for me..... and then saved all the dairy milk sweets from a tin of Roses cause he knew they were the only ones I ate then.... best day ever!
Definitely one of the best ever Sci fi films are you a fan of Alien 3.
It really fills my pants every time to see a new video from you. I wish you good fortune with your legal battles. Let me know what size jean shorts you wear and I'll hook you up with a fresh pair son.
Fantastic job putting this together. You’re a patient, thorough man. Cheers!
I could watch this movie again, and again, and again, and still learn something new every time I see it.
Terrific breakdown HS, and your observation on the motion trackers @ 22:00 is spot on since even with crude digital tech of 1979, Lambert's simple black grid screen with moving dots, is all you'd need to track two objects - and any additions to such a screen, as they'd almost certainly do today, would simply muddle the image and confuse the operator.
And I was instantly reminded of Hudson's motion tracker 7 years later in "Aliens", with the audible "ticks", the pulse wave, and flashing dots to show life forms. Because James Cameron clearly used the same concept for the motion tracker - simplicity - was used once again with the device having the least complicated possible interface - exactly as you'd want for such an instrument.
And of all things during this classic, that I rewatch at least once a year (to remind myself of what real movie magic should be) the one scene I remember the most, seems like an afterthought. Near films end. when everyone is dead but Ripley and her cat Jones, who she has stuffed into his cat carrier (talk about dedication), Ripley has to set Jones down and leave him temporarily, to try to undo the self-destruct sequence. And we see an amazing shot where the drooling Alienin the background is regarding Jones, in his carrier, as the cat looks back at it ears twitching! And for a fraction of a second we are certain Jones is doomed - he can't even run away! - but instead we later are relieved to see the carrier, with Jones intact, getting put in the shuttle by Ripley.
This film is a masterpiece of imagery, as Ridley Scott uses every visual theme, device, or concept in existence to tell this story.
I think the Alien was determining whether Jones was a lifeform fit for impregnation. "....nah. Too small to properly incubate an egg."
@@TheGuzeinbuick Very clever interpretation of a scene, that I never even thought of before!
HI! I just discovered you on a whim! I absolutely LOVE your breakdowns of all the Alien movies and would LOVE to hear more of you! Would you be able to do the breakdowns of the movies PROMETHEUS & the 1980's movie THE THING?? These are 2 of my most FAVE movies! Plus your accent is so soothing....please let me know! Thank you! XOXO
Really obscure factoid: The operating room scene where the acid blood comes out, and eats through the floor, was lifted from some tv episode (I don't know what tv show), with Roddy McDowall as a scientist, who spills some acid that eats through the floor...I don't remember how many floors it ate through in the tv version of scene.
If you scour around YT you may find the RM scene.....it burns through a bunch of floors before becoming inert.
Thanks to this video, just realized that Kane could allude to Cain from the bible too, since he was the originator of evil/violence/greed (like how Ash refers to the xenomorph as "Kane's son").
Great as always! Like button smashed.
I am happy you came around to Alien Isolation... Imo its first time the Alien franchise back to form since Aliens x)
I was able to see this in theaters for the anniversary and it was amazing! Keep up the great work I’m loving the random movies you’ve been doing,
my dad showed me the alien movies when i was around 5-7 years old, cant remember how old i was exactly but i never had nightmare's about it, i was fascinated by those movies
I wonder what R Rated films Dad's are showing 5-7 year olds today. When I was 5, my Dad took me to see Pinocchio.
Alien isolation was amazing. I'm so glad I picked it up a couple years ago.
Yeah such a good game
nyes
I love this movie. My only target comment. I agree with Ridley on why he cut out the Cocoon Scene. It brings all the momentum to a standstill. Ripley should have heard Dallas on the intercom instead of Jones. That is what leads her down. As she is frying the Aliens lair, Parker and Lambert are attacked and then Ripley triggers the Auto Destruct. I will stand by this Edit In My Head and I love this movie.
Well done Paul! Clearly, I've subscribed ages ago - but watching this one was special as it remains in my top 10 favourite films of all time. Thanks dude.
The Abyss would be a cool sci-fi film I’d like to see covered on this channel
Really loving these breakdowns of pre-breakdown era movies.
We time travelling right now
But why does it make me nervous? It feels like a curtain call.
Would you say you love them, very much?
"Here" instead of "hear" on the poster at 3:52 ?
I also remember being completely baffled by the IGN review of Alien: Isolation, as it was pretty much my GOTY at the time. Still holds up tremendously well.
Thanks for that. I’ve been waiting around on the Internet for 47 years for someone to do a breakdown of this movie! Good to see you’re keeping up to date
Great video for an epic movie. My mom saw this in the theater when she was pregnant with me and told me she had to walk out when the chest buster scene happened - no one had ever seen anything like that in a movie and no one expected it either.
Ripley's nosebleed is a continuity bit, where she was meant to have gotten it from the depressurisation caused when they were about to blow the Alien out of the airlock. As you say, part of the scene was filmed, but was abandoned due to time and money (Fox money guys were all over this production). They filmed the scene where she has the remaining bit of nosebleed before they were due to shoot the abandoned airlock scene.
@@hollywooda111 Nope, that occurs much earlier in the film. The deleted airlock sequence was meant to happen right before Ripley discovers the truth about Ash, hence her nosebleed from the brief de-pressurisation.
We appreciate the amount of effort and hard work that has been invested in this. Keep up the good work.
What if he gets arrested and put on some kind of offender list? Do you think he'll be anle to maintain consistency of quality as a registered sex offender or is it imortant that he remains an unregistered offender?
They are doing an amazing job revisiting these classics. Every one has been awesome so far and I love all the choices!!
Dude that was amazing !
This movie along with its sequel aliens are both sci fi masterpieces.
Concur, who wouldn't? Also it is the only example I know, of the sequel film actually topping the original.
@@robertmaybeth3434 I hate the sequel, but I'm glad you liked it.
No, the Nostromo is not a mining vessel. It's a TUG, towing the refinery full of ore. So they aren't landing a shuttle but the ship itself, after it detaches from the refinery platform.
That would explain why they _all_ went down. I always hated that. Thanks.
That is explained right at the beginning of the film, and actually shown in detail in the actual film.
That's awesome! My dad took me to see Alien when I was 6. It has stuck with me ever since. Then the next horror/sci -fi movie was The Thing. I saw both in the theater upon release and to this day have both movie posters hanging on my wall.
I love how Kane wakes and moves long before the others; it adds interest and drama to the scene. We get a clear sense of how *driven* Kane is. The same drive that drives him to push forward ("We must go on!") and be the first to explore the derelict ship. Ironically, it is the same drive that dooms him in the end.
I think you have to be British to understand. He is a posh boy, public school educated, but gone down in the world through some bad choices made as a young man, and serving as first officer on a tug boat is rock bottom for him. the traits you notice are the reflexes of his class
Lambert's death is actual cut scenes from Brett's death - if you look for the unedited death of Brett you will see the tail between the legs scene in full as it goes into his back and lifts him up if I recall. It's on UA-cam.
If you get a chance, read Ian Holms' autobiography, Acting My Life. There’s a whole chapter on Alien. Great stuff. He describes something I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else, the differences in the way the Americans and Brits practiced their craft. If that’s the sort of thing you care about, rewatch the film focusing entirely on Holms’ performance. The guy is just brilliant.
Thank You for the tip!
Do Contact with Jodi Foster next! Underrated Sci-Fi. It’s one of the first movies I saw that got me into the genre.
Gonna do Aliens and then probably jump onto another franchise so might put Contact on the list, got a lot of requests after interstellar
@@heavyspoilers awesome! There wouldn’t be an Interstellar without Contact. Love your videos Paul and team. You and Grace are my absolute favs in the space.
This was and still is, my mothers favorite movie. She will watch it every Christmas Eve. Yeah, a sci-fi horror flick for Christmas Eve. :D Welcome to my childhood.
When I first saw this movie back in late '79 on a cold, dark Edinburgh night it blew me away. Like Jaws it left a powerful impression on me, being an impressionable youngster. Thanks for a fab breakdown of Ridley Scott's masterpiece. Learned many new things here. The theatrical version is the one I became so familiarised with since its release and prefer that to the director's cut. But the DC still has its moments though. The re-edited sequence of Brett's pursuit of Jones and his death, with extra footage of the xenomorph, is much more effective. The crew checking out the transmission from the skeletal pilot (known as the space jockey) is a curiosity. I read somewhere that Ben Burtt had created something for it but that might not actually be the case. Still what can be heard is so much more effective than the sound effect heard in its deleted scene presentation. Ripley discovering the xenomorph's nest appears to contradict the alien's life cycle in Cameron's Aliens but it so creepy, horrific and disturbing; the last sequence of horror aboard the Nostromo. Again, the sound design is highly effective. Scott used Goldsmith's The Alien Planet from the soundtrack album and it really adds to the scene. Would have been great if Goldsmith had actually scored the scene during the infamous scoring sessions. Ultimately the extra scenes got left out due to pacing issues. The film would never have existed without the great Dan O' Bannon who originally conceived it. Key components which define this movie as a Sci-Fi horror classic are the naturalistic acting from a stellar cast, enabling the great John Hurt to depict Kane's death as truly disturbing and horrific, and Veronica Cartwright, who has a real gift for expressing anguish, fear and sheer terror, showcasing Lambert's gut-wrenching screams to great effect. There's the eerie, nightmarish set designs and creatures by H.R. Giger, the bloody and shocking effects, the unique designs of Ron Cobb, Carlo Rambaldi and Moebius, and, of course, the legendary Jerry Goldsmith's creepy, unsettling score. Was disappointed with Scott's prequels because the story could have been so much better, unwisely stripping away the eerie mystique of the bio-mechanical space jockey. ALIEN, like Jaws and other classics, was a very difficult film to make and, like Spielberg's masterpiece, evolving the way it did, ending up very different from the original script, became the movie we all know and love. They don't make films like this anymore.
Alien is a masterpiece! Thanks for the breakdown.
I love the alien franchise and the bit about the gun still in the door has never occurred to me before now 😊