A Film at 45: Alien

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Hello everyone, and welcome back.
In nineteen seventy nine, in a film

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by the limited series A Film at
forty five, I am David Burns and

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I'm Scott Hoffman with this limited series
from a film by a podcast where we're

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dusting off the end of a decade
that changed cinema forever with a fresh look

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at modern classics and hidden gems,
so we can't stop watching. In this

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episode, we're heading into space where
no one can hear you scream with the

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Ridley Scott classic Alien God. It's
using the air shafts. That's the only

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way we'll move in pairs. We'll
go step by step and cut off every

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bulkhead and every event until we have
it cornered, and then we'll blow it

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the fuck out into space. Is
that acceptable to you in the near future?

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I might add twenty thirty seven Scott, which yes, is a pretty

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near future to us. Yep,
yep, it gives me a very mystery

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science theater three thousand kinbes it does. Yeah, but yeah. We were

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introduced to the crew of the Nostromo
in a film ranked in the many top

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ten greatest sci Fi Films of all
times, a film that would launch a

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franchise that is still going strong to
this day, and it is a film

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that masterfully blends the sci fi genre
with horror. I might add, do

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you remember seeing this film for the
first time? Only that I remember seeing

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it after Aliens? Interestingly enough,
Yeah, I needed it for backstory.

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Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I caught this. I want to

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say it was on HBO. It's
too I was too young when it was

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in the theaters, but I did
catch it before nineteen eighty six because I

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got to see James Cameron's Aliens in
the theater, so I got to see

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it in order. I just didn't
see Alien until, like I want to

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say, eighty five. It was
not too far away from when Aliens came

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out theater, so I was like
it already made me hungry, like I

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want more, I want more.
And then when I discovered Aliens was coming,

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I was like, holy crap,
what a perfect opportunity to continue this.

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Yeah. Perfect. I had a
really backwards path to it. I

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think I discovered Aliens because I saw
the I think it was dark Horse at

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the time. Maybe had the comic
book rights, okay, yeah, yeah,

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and early nineties those covers of those
comics were beautiful. I was like,

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what's this? Started looking into it, I was like, oh,

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interesting, it's a movie. Saw
the movie. Oh my god, blew

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me away. Obviously going back to
nineteen eighty six. Yeah, and yeah,

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then I had to see Alien to
see where did it all start.

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Absolutely, and we have to say
that we did cover Aliens in the limited

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series nineteen eighty six, So listeners
out there, if you've not listened to

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that one, please go listen to
that. It was a fantastic podcast as

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well. Absolutely, well, Scott, I like to think that everyone on

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this planet knows or has seen this
movie, but just in case there was

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someone out there living in a galaxy
that maybe hasn't, how would you describe

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this film toom? And I would
love to imagine that there are people that

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aren't, because I'm just envious of
those people who haven't discovered it yet.

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This is a big one. Yeah. In the not too distant future,

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a crew of seven people on the
Nostromo are just working for a living through

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space. Clock in, do your
work, clock out with cryo sleep typical

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nine to five. Just as they
wake up from their latest gig, they

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get a course change as part of
a rescue mission, follow the source of

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a beacon of unknown origin, investigated
if it's human or otherwise, and report

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back to Earth. That's where the
trouble starts, as one of the crew

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is attacked by a face hugging alien
that grafts itself to his skin, has

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acid for blood, and lays a
deadly egg in his chest. The newborn

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alien bursts free, killing him and
starting a rampage around the ship. There

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remaining six crew members quickly become five, then three, until just one of

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them is left to be the last
survivor or the first host to a single

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minded horror that's headed for Earth.
This is the mother of all sci fi

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horror movies. This is Alien,
absolutely man fantastic job. You know,

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this is just like Raiders of the
Lost Arc made me fall in love with

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filmmaking, Alien did the same thing. This movie holds a special place in

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my heart because of just the way
it was created, the way it was

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done in the time that they didn't
have CGI. You know, here we

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go again, practical effects Scott.
It was fantastic in this movie, and

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the way Ridley Scott directed it,
and you know and shot it's fantastic.

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But what I love about the opening
of this It's like Star Wars, right.

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You get this huge epic shot of
this ship just coming over top of

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the camera, you know, and
then you get like six minutes no dialogue,

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none, zero, and you just
get like all these interior shots of

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showing off these massive and beautiful sets
that they have created. Yeah. I

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know they've got some mirrors and stuff
down at the end of hallways and stuff

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like that, but man, they
really worked hard on these sets and made

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them look fantastic, and it just
builds this atmosphere for you. You know,

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you know, you've got a movie
about an alien because we're crying out

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loud, that's what it's called.
I mean, you don't know what's gonna

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be in this ship, but man, it's so massive. There's like so

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many places to hide. Yeah.
Yeah, and it's it's very interesting how

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much atmosphere really plays into that.
Yeah, and as you mentioned, you

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know, had a great title sequence
that itself kind of builds itself mysteriously apparently

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designed by the great Saul bass uh
famous crack off look him up if you

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don't know. Although not credited,
there's a lot of this movie that uses

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alien as a noun. And an
adjective to be Obviously, there's the Xenomorph,

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but then things that are just unfamiliar
enough to make you uneasy. And

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I think that opening establishing shot you
see all of these things that kind of

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are dangling from the walls, swaying
in the breeze, and you're water dripping

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kind of station yep chains, You're
gonna see a lot of things that feel

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like they should be familiar, but
every every one of those shots make you

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want to look closer to see exactly
what you're seeing, and then it cuts

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away to something else. It does
a great job throughout of disorienting the audience

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and making them feel like they're always
trying to understand exactly what this is or

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what's going on, and that there's
just a much, just enough of that

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uneasiness to put you on edge to
the whole thing. Yeah, and here's

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the other crazy part about this film. That Creature is only on screen for

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what four minutes total? Yeah?
Four minutes, Scott, this is almost

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a two hour film about a movie
called Alien. But it's so effective.

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Yeah, and that's the Xenomorph and
the your total yeah right, but yes,

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that's even less like that's shared screen
time, right. Yeah, it's

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it's unbelievable, and it's it's it's
the brilliance of this film, and it's

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the brilliance of what Ridley Scott did
for this film, you know, I

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mean, I know a majority of
this film he shot handheld, and a

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lot of that was actually Ridley Scott
having the camera and controlling the camera.

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And they had to do that because
of the set, because they were so

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small that you couldn't do the dollies
and all of that kind of stuff.

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You had to do a lot of
handheld. But that actually benefited the film

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in my opinion, because when when
when the characters are running down hallways and

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you don't know where the creature is
at, and chaos is going on,

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and that camera is just rocking back
and forth and you know, trying to

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keep up with them, it just
adds to the atmosphere of all of it.

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Yeah, Yeah, and establishes so
many things that would be used to

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such great effect in Aliens mm hmm
and the sequel. Right, there's a

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lot of beats where you're like that
that's very familiar. Mm hmm. Oh,

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I mean, I know, we're
talking about a sci fi horror and

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a sci fi action movie, so
it's somewhat on different planes of existence.

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But yeah, there's so much intricacy
into this that's just so well done.

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It is, and you know,
and then you have these massive sets which

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are probably not as big as we
think the artist because of the camera trucks

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and stuff that they play on us. But you know, you're using models,

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you're not using CGI. You are. Like the space jockey scene,

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I mean that was on screen for
like what thirty seconds? How much money?

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I'm not sure how much they spent. I know they spent a fortune

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because I think Fox was throwing a
fit about it, and I think it

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was they said something in regards that
they don't want to look like a B

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movie. They want this to look
like an expensive movie, which is why

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they kept it in the movie.
But it's not on screen, law,

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but yet it adds so much to
it. Yeah. Yeah, And thinking

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about that space jockey scene specifically,
that does such a good job of you

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know, it's playing with darkness,
it's playing with shadow, it's introducing just

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enough new to make you want to
take a closer look. Yeah. So

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I feel like it had this great
idea of let's take people from the back

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of their seat to the edge of
their seat before we even scare them with

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what's supposed to be happening, because
it's where they're expecting. But in that

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space jockey scene, there's that last
shot where they're looking at the opening where

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the chest chestbursts are in come out, and they're right there next to the

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face and one of them kind of
bends down a little bit, taking their

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light at a frame and you see
it accentuate the face in this very interesting

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way that the audience is waiting there
to see, like is this thing going

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to stand up? Is this going
to be like the monster that grabs them?

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And nothing? But that's all part
of building the suspense exactly. Yeah,

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and the whole chess thing there,
you know, you're foreshadowing what's to

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come. Your audience doesn't know this
yet, right, it's coming, know,

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And then the whole scene where you
know, Pain finds the the eggs

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and you know, and he falls
in, but like how you have like

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that layer of mists and like that
blue lighting on how it just eliminates the

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entire set and you don't know what's
going on, and then you know he's

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looking at the egg closely again,
No, CGI listeners. This is this

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is all you know, done on
screen by you know, very talented people.

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And the egg opens up and you
look inside of it and then it

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burst out. It's just made it, all of it is. You're so

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fantastic with the with the sound.
Yeah, you even get the subtle like

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like reaction when he breaks the plane. Yeah, and that great squealing noise

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when the chest burster with the face
hugger jumps out, yes and attacks Kine.

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Yeah. I also thought it was
interesting who made that laser possible?

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Who was that? Who? Who? That's right? Yeah? Who?

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We're practicing a stage there, you
know, their concert stage performance nearby,

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and they had this blue laser light. So it's thanks to Peter Townsend and

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the company that we got that great
scene. I thought that was kind of

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interesting. Yeah, it worked out
perfect, So I'm glad. I'm glad

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that happened like that. It's funny
how things work itself out for to doing

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things like that that are just so
iconic, you know that we that we

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see. But you know, speaking
of iconic, Scott, you know,

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you can't talk about Alien without talking
about the most incredible scene that everybody knows.

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And that's the chest bursting scene.
Yeah. That. You know,

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anyone who knows the alien immediately probably
thinks of that scene, right, I

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know I do, Yeah, Yeah, I mean that's that's what it's been

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kind of. I guess what's made
it the most famous is at the time,

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I mean, that was one of
the the goorious scenes, completely unexpected,

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because it does a great, great, great job of lulling you into

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that false sense of security. He's
fine, he's eating, they're about to

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go into crood seats, everything's just
fine, and no, yeah, it

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is completely turned upside down. For
the longest time, I was under the

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impression that that was done in one
take and we're getting their genuine reaction because

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it was all surprised apparently. Not
true. Yeah, it's part ye.

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Everybody had read the script and knew
what was going to happen, but they

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didn't know specific details, except for
Tom Scarrett apparently and John Hurt obviously because

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he's kind of there on the scene
to know exactly what was coming. But

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the genuine reaction that we are we
always hear about is from Veronica Cartwright and

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a lot of the others not knowing
exactly how much to expect. Buckets of

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blood, even though it's only happening
to one person, it's only one wound,

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but there's a lot of it.
Yeah, it's a very surprising visceral

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and something that has never been done
before ever, And I think that's what

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made it so intense. And everyone's
reactions to this too was genuine. You

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know, you actually see these characters
who are freaking out just as the audience

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is. And I'm telling you that
heartbeat sound that you hear in the background

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that's going they use that. Scott
uses that a lot, because I listen

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when I watched it, I paid
attention to all the deaths throughout the movie.

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He uses that heart beat sound a
lot, and man, that just

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puts you on the edgier feet.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's

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used a great effect in aliens as
well. Right, Yes, you've got

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the motion tracker that syncs up with
a heartbeat. Yep. Yeah, it's

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amazing to think how iconic that scene
has become. But it's just one slice

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of what you get with this with
this movie. I mean, it's I

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would say even the face hugger aspect
gets very underplayed because just thinking about how

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claustrophobic that makes somebody that thought of
being strangled and suffocated. Yeah, while

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that, you know, acid bleeding
spider is attached to your face. Well,

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the scene where they're trying to get
it off, they're trying to figure

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out how to get it off,
and then when they were touching it,

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when its tail was wrapping tighter,
Yeah, around his neck. Oh man,

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it just gives you too. Yeah, it gives your Poulter gust vibes.

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Yeah, very much. Yeah,
it's just just so incredibly well done.

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Man. This film is just so
good in so many ways, you

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know, and and you know,
let's talk a little bit about the cast

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themselves. I mean, let's let's
talk about who you just mentioned, Veronica

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Cartwright, who plays Lambert. You
and I discussed her last year nineteen seventy

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eight Invasions of the Body Snatchers,
and we mentioned how good she was crying

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and screaming, and in this movie
she does it so well. Yeah.

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Yeah, especially you know, obviously
there's a famous chest burster scene, but

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the scene where Dallas is being pursued. Now, if you look at that

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in a vacuum and you only look
at the chest prister scene, it can

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seem like she's it's a little grating. The screams absolutely appropriate. But when

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she is in the scene with Dallas
being pursued, it just adds to the

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tension in a great way because you
can feel that that's probably what the audience

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is saying in the theater, just
like, get out of there, dear

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God, please get out of there. Oh go. And yeah, you

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know, like you said, we've
covered Invasion of the Body Snatchers in nineteen

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seventy eight, and this poor lady
has done so much for sci fi horror,

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and then both places, her performance
adds so much more to the atmosphere

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for that feeling of fear that is
just pervasive throughout the whole thing. Yeah,

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that shot of her when they're getting
the stuff ready to get to the

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nostroma to get out of there,
and she's you know, the lights on

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her and you get the shadow of
the alien of the xenomorph on her when

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she flips around and then sees it. Oh my god, man, that

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scene was just so incredibly well done. Her reactions, and then when you

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get like the tail that comes up
underneath her legs, you know, it

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is so sinister. And then you
know, you go back to Ripley who's

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running through the hall and you just
hear her screaming and it's just, oh

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my gosh, it's just so well
done. Dude. Yeah, yeah,

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all right, Scott, before we
continue on, let's take a little break

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and we'll come back. We will
continue. Looking at the release of this

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was fairly sick like. Apparently the
first screening didn't get a great reception until

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the second, when they, I
guess had more of a visceral reaction from

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the audience. The wife of twentieth
Century Fox president Ellen laid Junior got so

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scared that she refused to leave her
house for over a day. There were

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people that were leaving the first row
and getting seats further away, people yelling

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at the characters not to do certain
things, send them a personal passing out,

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people fleeing to toilets and stuffing the
speakers with napkins to drawn out the

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sound. Wow, and the restrooms
that were apparently left in a bad state

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because of getting sick in Tom Scarett's
hometown, Apparently he visited one theater and

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they said, yeah, we had
a real problem with that, so we

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cut out the chest prister scene.
Oh my god, just yeah, just

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to avoid all that. It's like
no, well, that's still not going

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to do it because people are terrified
of this kind of things, right.

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So you mentioned Tom Scarett, who
plays Captain of the Ship Captain Dallas.

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We know he was covered in nineteen
eighty six Space Camp Top Gun. He's

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a laundry list of roles that he's
done over the years. Then of course

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you've got John Hurt, who plays
Kine, who obviously is famous for the

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chest bursting scene. I will always
know him as Olivander from Harry Potter,

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but we we talked to him about
him and the Black Cauldron in nineteen a

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six, and we talked him out
in Watership down right m then three times

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because he was also the voice of
Eric Gorton and Lord of the Rings.

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Yeah, so yeah, there's quite
a few times that we've talked about John

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Hurt because he's a fantastic actor.
So the War Doctor, yes the way,

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Yeah, that's right, The War
Doctor. Yep. Harry Dean Stanton

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as Brett. Many will know him
from like Red Dawn, Pretty and Pink

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as Jack Christine the Green Mile,
and on Ian Holme as Ash always will

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know him as Bilbo Baggins from Peter
Jackson's Lord of the rings. He has

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a lot of other Obviously, I
thought he was fantastic Ash. You did

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not know he was a robot and
he did. They just had such a

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fantasty dub of hiding that, obviously, until Ripley finds out in that shot,

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you know, when she shoved him
and then he comes back out and

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you just see that white stream just
coming down his head, which just like,

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what what is that? Why is
white coming down his head? And

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you know, and then you start
figuring out what's going on as Ripley finds

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out. Yeah, yeah, and
that's what a roller coaster of a sequence

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that is. Yeah, yeah,
you know. Throughout this there's amazing writing

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by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald chuss it. But it seems like the character of

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Ash. We have to thank Walter
Hill and David Guyler for making Ash and

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Android okay. But I audiences must
have thought at the time, and again

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I'm enviously the people that are gonna
see this for the first time because you're

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wondering, was he impregnated and we
didn't know about it? So is he

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one of the aliens? Again,
we have no context for what these this

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Zeno more species does yet, so
Yeah, to see him sweating that milky

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white substance and then to have his
head knocked off. Yeah, and all

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of the decision to make his the
mechanisms so organic and absolutely disgusting instead of

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the usual like C three po wires
or something like that. Oh, it

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just completed that scene so much.
And it must have just you know,

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talk about disgusting scenes seeing it had
completely knocked off, that would have bet

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that probably made people pass out,
Oh, no doubt. And then of

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course you know you mentioned the guy
who knocked it out. Was it Yafat

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Coto who plays part uh huh who
did such a fantastic And my understanding is

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Ridley Scott told him to always annoy
Segony Weaver, even off camera, so

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that they would have so it would
come off screen. I mean it would

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come on screen that she's passed off
with him all the time. He just

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aggravated by him, and it shows. Yeah. Yeah, I mean to

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me, he's always going to be
one of my favorite FBI agents of all

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time. Alonzo Moseley from Midnight Run
Night Run, Yes, sir, he

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is so good. This is the
guy that loves his coffee. Right every

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movie. I thought it was interesting
to know that so Yaffett was a little

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upset about knowing what was going to
happen and would I guess get into arguments

288
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with Ridley Scott about it got to
the point where he tried to avoid Yaffat

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with another entrance of the building entirely
and what apparently slash with I'm going to

290
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say this the the wrong way,
Uh but logi bodejo alien, Yeah,

291
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thinking that he could take him down
with one punch, but apparently at one

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point that lifts him up in the
air and that settled the whole thing and

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we're done. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's all right. Yeah.

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But yeah, the fact that he
he admired Sigourney's so much and he liked

295
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her so much that he regretted having
to do it. But it works,

296
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It works, It absolutely works.
Yeah. You can see that they those

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characters do not like one another on
screen, and that's what you want to

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see. You know, that scene
where you know, she was trying to

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explain what was going on and he
kept doing the turning on the gas or

300
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whatever that was and pissing her off
as she was trying what yeah, you

301
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know, trying to explain. Oh
man, that scene was so cool,

302
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so well done, and you could
just see the tension between those two characters.

303
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Yeah, well that they established that
so well. When he's talking about

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bonuses, Yeah, oh yeah,
we're not getting paid enough, we're not

305
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getting appreciated at all. And he's
probably right. Yeah, and at a

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time when they're trying to just get
home safe, there's a lot of arguing,

307
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a lot of you know, undercutting
some kind of decisions that they were

308
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making. So yeah, that was
really well written and fantastic performance by Jaffett.

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Absolutely well. I want to come
back to Badeo, who plays the

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alien in it, But first off
we've got to talk about the star of

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this movie. Of course, that's
Ripley herself, Sigooney Weaver. She wasn't

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really well known up to this point. I know she had some television work

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and she was doing a lot of
Broadway play. My understanding is what she

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was doing. I think we can
all agree, Scott that Ripley is the

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very definition of a very strong female
character. Yes, something we don't get

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a lot, we haven't had a
lot of up to this point. But

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when you think of a strong female
character, you immediately think Ripley. At

318
00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:57.319
least I do ye, and it
goes further on with Aliens to see how

319
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strong her character is. But apparently
she came up with the muttering you are

320
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my lucky star when she was strapping
herself into the seat there at the end

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getting ready to get rid of the
xenomorph that was on the Nostromo with her.

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Just shows you how much she had
bought into her character and wanting to

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make it something special. I thought
she was incredible in this. You know,

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this is my introduction to Sigourney Weaver. No, I take that back.

325
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Ghostbusters was my introduction to Scorney Weaver, and then it would have been

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Alien because since I saw Alien so
late. But still, it was nice

327
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to see her in this role because
I don't see anybody else in this role,

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do you not? At all?
I know that we'll get into what

329
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ifs a little bit later, and
I just no. The flat answer is

330
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no, I can't imagine anybody else
doing it. Her sense of authority on

331
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the screen that isn't demanding, it's
not overpowering, it's just I'm right,

332
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Yeah, we shouldn't violate quarantine.
I'm yeah, absolutely right, And you're

333
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:11.119
not listening. Yeah, Oh my
god, I can't. I can't imagine

334
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:14.279
anybody else doing it. Yeah,
me neither. You neither. Well,

335
00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:19.440
let's let's talk about Balagio Baldejo,
who plays the creature the Xenomorph in this

336
00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:27.920
movie. Apparently he was a graphic
designer by trade and they found him,

337
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I guess was at a bar.
They were looking for somebody to play the

338
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creature. And about that point two, Ridley Scott made it very sure to

339
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:42.880
everyone that he did not want a
man in a suit. He did not

340
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want that to be seen on screen
at all, and he did it because

341
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you don't really see the creature completely, you know, head to toe in

342
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hardly any scene. I think there's
one scene it almost is the whole thing,

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00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.960
and that's when it comes out with
Ripley there on the Nostromo. You

344
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:03.319
almost get the whole creature, right, But the way he shot at the

345
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:06.880
whole movie, you get like little
bits and pieces. You get shadows on

346
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the wall, you get the tail, you know, obviously, you get

347
00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:14.039
the mouth because you can't get around
that because that is the most important piece

348
00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:18.599
of the Xenomorph that we all love
to see, that like the teeth and

349
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stuff like that. And with the
I don't know what is that oil wherever

350
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they use that smiling iconic shot where
it is its teeth and then opens its

351
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jaw for the second jot to come
out. Yes, just just incredible stuff.

352
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But they apparently found this actor at
a bar and it's this is his

353
00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:44.279
only role, is that correct?
Playing this creature? Yeah, and apparently

354
00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:47.000
he's like really tall. I want
to say he was like six foot ten

355
00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:52.160
or something to those regards. Yeah, and that's why they want him because

356
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.359
he was very wiry, and you
know, he was would be able to

357
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get into this suit and be able
to pull off what he pulls off in

358
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this movie. And I just thought
he did an incredible job. And it's

359
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.200
unfortunate, you know, you don't
ever get to see his face because you

360
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.720
can't because he's the Xeno Morph.
But he still really did a fantastic job

361
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:12.839
in that suit. Yeah, and
considering you know, the impression they had

362
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to give of height and kind of
the immense size of the Zeno Morph,

363
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but like you said, without ever
giving it the scale, you never really

364
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knew how tall this thing was.
You just knew that when it lands in

365
00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:34.200
front of Brett and kind of,
you know, rears up to its massive

366
00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:37.920
form, that it cuts immediately to
the head and you just see the head

367
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coming up and then you see the
great Jaws and also other kind of things.

368
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But at the same time, it's
able to contort itself into a very

369
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what seems like a kind of finite
space. When Ripley is on the escape

370
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:57.640
shuttle and it's just sitting there waiting, it kind of feels like if you've

371
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ever seen one of those spiders that
kind of hides itself, that like folds

372
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:07.440
its legs in on itself to hide
in a very tight space. Same kind

373
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of idea. I couldn't imagine being
able to, you know, fit all

374
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six foot ten of that person in
that tiny, tiny, none at all

375
00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:18.599
corner. But yeah, not at
all. It reminds me one of one

376
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of my favorite shots. And there's
a lot of good shots in this movie,

377
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but one of the shots that I
love is when Brett was going to

378
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find Jones and he finally finds Jones
and he's like, come on, come

379
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:30.000
on out, come on, come
on, and Jones starts to come out,

380
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.440
and it starts that hissing and then
the camera Brett doesn't see it,

381
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:38.440
but but behind Brett you just see
that the the is xenomorph come down behind

382
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:44.160
him. You know, I love
that shot. Dude silently, completely silent,

383
00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:48.759
silently and just you're like, oh
crap, here we go. Yeah.

384
00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:52.759
And one of the scenes where I
kind of suspected Jonesy a little bit,

385
00:28:52.920 --> 00:29:00.079
to be honest, because he goes
from being terrified and rearing back to

386
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:06.119
a scene of almost curiosity when Britt
is getting ripped apart by the xenomorph.

387
00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:08.000
And I mean, you know,
it's not like the cat is malicious,

388
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:14.440
but you're a little bit like,
what's going on there? Played by four

389
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:23.000
different cats? Wow? Very necessary
and that shot apparently. Listening to the

390
00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:30.160
thirty fifth anniversary commentary with Ridley Scott
talked about the use of a German shepherd

391
00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:33.799
in that scene. Yeah, so
they had like a some kind of plane

392
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:41.039
to obscure a German shepherd in the
the eye line of the cat, and

393
00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:44.160
then when they needed to, they
just pulled the board away slowly and it

394
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:49.480
gave that great reaction, that hiss
backing up into a corner. Not too

395
00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:57.799
but yeah, and almost I wonder
if we almost didn't get Jonesy because of

396
00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:04.240
an allergic reaction with Sigourney Weaver.
No, really, So the first day

397
00:30:06.039 --> 00:30:11.839
the Sigourney shot a scene with Jonesy, she started getting a really bad skin

398
00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:18.640
reaction hm. And they thought that
she might be allergic to cats, and

399
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:23.000
that it might be you know,
instead of trying to find different cats,

400
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:27.519
maybe recast the cat, recast Sigourney. I can't imagine it, but apparently

401
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:30.240
what was happening was that she was
reacting to the glister and that was spread

402
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:34.599
on her skin to make her look
hot and sweaty. Wasn't the cat at

403
00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:38.480
all. No, let's blame the
cat right away. Come on, now

404
00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:42.960
exactly we got our Jonesy, So
yeah, that's awesome, all right,

405
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:45.240
Scott, Well, we've talked a
lot about this film already, so let's

406
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.759
look through the lens a little bit
here. A lot of behind the scenes

407
00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:52.240
kind of stuff. Man. I
mean, when I was digging for information,

408
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:56.640
there is information go lore out there
on Alien. One of the things

409
00:30:56.680 --> 00:31:03.920
that I found interesting was apparently when
Ridley Scott went to twentieth Century Fox,

410
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:06.640
there's some other students that turned this
down Fox, that actually turned this down

411
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:08.640
too, And then he came back
to Fox and they were like, all

412
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.599
right, well, let's let's put
a budget together and this kind of thing.

413
00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:15.759
So initially his budget was like for
a little over four million dollars,

414
00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:18.759
but yet they were still arguing over
it and trying to figure it out.

415
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:23.039
So while they were doing this,
Ridley got bored and basically storyboarded the whole

416
00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:27.599
film while they were arguing, And
then he took the storyboards and showed it

417
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:30.240
to them, and they were so
impressed by his storyboards, like, you

418
00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:36.759
now have eight million dollars. Yeah, I mean that's that's a hell of

419
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:40.759
a storyboard job. Yeah. Right, you doubled the budget. Good job.

420
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:45.480
Yeah, absolutely, and at a
time when you know, they they

421
00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:52.359
probably had you know, uh sawceurcized
eyes because they saw the success of Star

422
00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:57.960
Wars in seventy seven, right,
yep, And apparently there's there's a lot

423
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:05.519
of Star Wars connections to it.
There was a lot of influence on Ridley

424
00:32:05.559 --> 00:32:08.039
Scott. This is one of three, the other two being two thousand and

425
00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:15.480
one in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which
is easy to see. Oh yeah,

426
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:20.359
uh, but yeah, they were
interested in seeing another sci fi hit,

427
00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:23.599
but then when they saw the storyboards, they got the green light. Yeah.

428
00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:27.880
I went right through. Very impressive
storyboards, that is for sure.

429
00:32:28.519 --> 00:32:30.480
Well, one of the things we
got to talk about is HR Geiger Scott.

430
00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:37.240
Yeah, clearly his illustrations. His
inspiration for the look. The way

431
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:42.799
this film looks is because of him, I know, his original stuff.

432
00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:45.480
They had to like tone it down
a little bit because apparently, I guess

433
00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:49.960
the creature was too sexualized, I
believe, so they had to tone down

434
00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:53.000
that. But a lot of that
is HR Geiger that we're seeing in the

435
00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:57.000
background and the space shockey and you
know, all that kind of stuff,

436
00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.559
And that's really impressive. If no
one hit if you ever seen H.

437
00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:04.519
R. Geiger's work, go look
at it. You'll easily pull it up

438
00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:07.279
online. His stuff is very,
very impressive. So I definitely can see

439
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:12.799
why really Scott wanted his work to
be some inspiration for this film. Yeah.

440
00:33:12.839 --> 00:33:15.119
Well, and there's looking at some
of that stuff is like looking at

441
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:19.480
a maze, right, Like if
you followed any of the lines, it's

442
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:27.400
just such intricate line work and so
industrially organic. Yeah. Right. It's

443
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.920
one of the things that makes us
Xeno work really interesting is that it blends

444
00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:36.440
so well into the the structure and
the scenery that it's hard to distinguish one

445
00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:43.240
from the other. Geiger's work is
great. It is admittedly has a lot

446
00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:46.799
of sexual elements to it, to
say east But when you look at how

447
00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:54.480
much Geiger has really influenced character design
just with this one movie, just with

448
00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:01.599
this one character, it's it's very
impressive. And you know, we wouldn't

449
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:06.279
have a lot of the alien characters
that we have today. I don't think

450
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.519
without that I kind of design,
oh, without doubt. Yeah, no,

451
00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:14.320
yeah, I completely agree with that. Apparently, I guess Abandon and

452
00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:19.480
shot said were inspired by World War
Two stories about the so called Grimlins that

453
00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:23.639
were on like the fighter planes and
stuff, which which helped them inspire to

454
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:29.519
write this film. Apparently, I
guess one of them came up with the

455
00:34:29.559 --> 00:34:31.440
idea that they were trying to figure
out how to get the alien on the

456
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:35.079
ship or get it loose. But
apparently they came up with the idea that

457
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:40.880
the alien basically has sex with yeah, which I mean, yeah, the

458
00:34:42.199 --> 00:34:46.760
face hugger element, there's definitely an
element there once you know how the mechanism

459
00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:51.159
actually works. Yes, but I'm
glad that they cut that out. There's

460
00:34:51.159 --> 00:34:54.239
a pin also supposed to be a
sex scene between Dallas and Ripley. Yeah,

461
00:34:54.360 --> 00:35:00.519
I'm so glad they cut that needed
it needed in this film at all,

462
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.679
you would have just you know,
ruined the you know how this film

463
00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:07.400
goes, the pacing everything, if
you've done something like that. I think

464
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:10.719
the pacing of the film is perfect. I noticed a three hour cut.

465
00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:16.159
I've never seened a three hour cut, but I want to. But what

466
00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:20.519
they have on screen is perfect in
my opinion. Yeah, and to anybody

467
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:24.239
who's watching for the first time,
I would probably recommend watching the original just

468
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:29.000
because I know there's director's cuts out
there, but really, Scott has even

469
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:34.679
said it really will works so well
in that original edition. There's plenty of

470
00:35:34.920 --> 00:35:37.000
copies that you can find blu rays
that have both, so you can kind

471
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.239
of compare in contrast if you want
to. But yeah, I think it's

472
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:44.960
pitch perfect the way that it's straying
together right now. Oh yeah, absolutely.

473
00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:49.239
And know it's you know, we
always talk about practical effects, you

474
00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:51.159
know, we you know, they
use them in the seventies. They didn't

475
00:35:51.159 --> 00:35:53.840
have CGI and stuff back then.
One of the things I found very interesting

476
00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:59.920
was the alien eggs. Apparently the
inside of it was organic. I mean,

477
00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:04.320
they use like fresh cattle hearts and
stomachs. You know that they got

478
00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:07.760
from like a local butchery apparently,
and like the egg tube of the face

479
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:12.920
hugger with sheep intestines. I mean, do you think they would go to

480
00:36:13.320 --> 00:36:17.000
this degree today? I don't think
so. No, they certainly wouldn't risk

481
00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:21.199
it just from a health code violation. You know, there's a lot of

482
00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:25.039
stories on here thinking about the you
know, the milky substances that come out

483
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:30.280
of ash or you know, the
sputtering that John Hurt does on the chest

484
00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:37.639
burster. Even when they're dissecting the
face Hugger's innards. All of those things

485
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:44.039
are under hot, hot, hot
studio lights. Several takes that had to

486
00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:47.079
smell horrible. Yeah, no,
thank you, no, thank you.

487
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:53.519
I smelled like the red lobster dumpster
in the summer. Like, yeah,

488
00:36:53.559 --> 00:36:57.119
I wouldn't want to be a part
of that, that's for sure. And

489
00:36:57.239 --> 00:37:00.000
you see gao you want what to
come to that? Yeah? Well,

490
00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:04.639
then there's that other element, the
sound engineering of this. You know,

491
00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:08.800
we've already talked about that surprising yelp
that you get from the face Hugger that

492
00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:17.000
jumps a cane. But the newborn
alien the chest Burster was apparently voiced by

493
00:37:17.079 --> 00:37:23.840
animal impersonator Percy Edwards really who was
personally requested by Ridley Scott to do the

494
00:37:23.880 --> 00:37:30.679
sound effect. And we've heard him
twice before and some big ones. Really.

495
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:36.360
In nineteen eighty six he was the
voice of Ambrosious the dog in Labyrinth

496
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:39.920
That's awesome, and he also collaborated
with Jim Henson as the voice of fizz

497
00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:45.480
Gig in the Dark Crystal. Oh
wow, yeah, okay, so pretty

498
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:49.440
cool. Yeah, that is all
right. So Scott, I know you

499
00:37:49.480 --> 00:37:52.480
mentioned earlier, you know, about
we were talking about the water pouring down,

500
00:37:53.480 --> 00:37:58.039
you know, the the chains and
stuff like. Apparently, I guess

501
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:01.320
Fox was confused by that twenty century
Fox. They were like, why why

502
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:06.760
is this on this ship? But
you know, Ridley Scott basically you know,

503
00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:09.440
told him, you know, he
wanted those chains dangling in the movements

504
00:38:09.440 --> 00:38:13.039
and stuff like that because it,
like you said, it added to the

505
00:38:13.079 --> 00:38:15.960
atmosphere of what was going on this
ship. Because when you're moving around with

506
00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:22.159
these characters in that vinomorphe creature,
who knows where it's at, So any

507
00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:24.719
kind of movement in the background or
anything is gonna get your arges gone,

508
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:27.760
Oh cup, there it is and
make you jump. But then it's a

509
00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:30.800
false jump, right, So when
the creature does finally come out, it's

510
00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:35.039
gonna get you. The scene where
Brett you know, gets attacked, you

511
00:38:35.079 --> 00:38:37.159
know, and he you know,
he takes his hat off and he puts

512
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:38.360
his face up in the air and
the water is like dripping on him,

513
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:43.239
you know, basically to coul himself
off. And you got all that going

514
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:45.360
on around him, all of those
elements and stuff that's happening. You know,

515
00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:49.880
it's sensory overload for your audience,
which is a good thing, and

516
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.480
that's what he was going for because
he wanted the audience to be confused,

517
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:55.760
which is what you said earlier of
what's going on, and it's gonna stress

518
00:38:55.840 --> 00:38:59.480
you out, put you on the
edge of your seat even more so.

519
00:38:59.480 --> 00:39:02.760
When the creature does pop out,
it's it just does everything it needs to

520
00:39:02.760 --> 00:39:07.079
do. So I agree with Gon
on this, keep keep that stuff in

521
00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:09.920
there. Yeah, absolutely no,
it was a it was a great decision.

522
00:39:10.039 --> 00:39:14.800
And I mean it also speaks to
kind of the massive scale of this

523
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:19.679
ship too, and how many hiding
spaces they'd really have to explore. When

524
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:22.920
he steps in there and you see
that immants, I guess it's like a

525
00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:28.039
drop ship or something like that.
Yeah, and all those chains hanging down,

526
00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:31.800
You're you're really forced to explore every
nook and cranny with your eyes,

527
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:35.960
but just as soon as you start
to get a little bit closer, it

528
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:44.480
cuts away. Used to absolutely perfect
effect with with using something that felt familiar,

529
00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:46.519
like him taking off his hat and
having that little, you know,

530
00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:51.679
mini shower, just letting the fresh
water, you know, right onto your

531
00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:54.760
face cool you down after a little
bit, after seeing the horrors that they've

532
00:39:54.760 --> 00:40:00.639
seen and getting into that sense of
secure already right before he's at the park.

533
00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:04.679
Yeah, Scott, did you know
there's a connection to this movie too

534
00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:07.800
Back to the Future. I did
not. I know you're a big Back

535
00:40:07.800 --> 00:40:12.000
to the Future fan, and I
respect that. Yes, But apparently in

536
00:40:12.039 --> 00:40:15.800
the beginning, when the camera is
moving around the ship, there's a Crups

537
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:19.920
coffee grinder mounted to the wall.
Oh, which is the same model that

538
00:40:19.960 --> 00:40:24.599
became the mister Fusion in Back to
the Future. Yep. Yeah, hopefully

539
00:40:24.599 --> 00:40:28.280
he had an easier time getting it. Hopefully he just had to go to

540
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:31.000
like, you know, a future
target or whatever it was the show.

541
00:40:31.320 --> 00:40:35.039
Absolutely all right, Well, I'll
tell you what. Let's take a little

542
00:40:35.039 --> 00:40:37.760
bit of a break and when we
come back we'll get into let's score it.

543
00:40:39.639 --> 00:40:45.400
All right, everybody, welcome back
Scott. Let's let's score this film.

544
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:49.679
But let's do something a little bit
different this time. I know we

545
00:40:49.719 --> 00:40:52.280
love to discuss the film's music,
but this time let's have our very own

546
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:57.920
co host of phasers set the stun. Wayne, Why did do the honors?

547
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.719
Since he is our Jerry goldz myth
expert, Wayne, what can you

548
00:41:01.719 --> 00:41:07.800
tell us about this score? Jerry
Goldsmith's score for the film Alien has a

549
00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:12.719
very interesting and troubled story. When
director Ridley Scott was trying to decide who

550
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:16.320
he wanted to score the film,
Jerry Goldsmith's name was suggested to him by

551
00:41:16.360 --> 00:41:21.960
the then head of music for twentieth
Century Fox, Lionel Newman, who had

552
00:41:21.960 --> 00:41:25.719
worked with Goldsmith many times and actually
conducted the composer's score for Bandaleiro, The

553
00:41:25.800 --> 00:41:31.679
Damnation Alley and The Omen. Goldsmith
wrote a score that was incredibly lush,

554
00:41:32.119 --> 00:41:37.719
terrifying, and oddly beautiful at times, and was very innovative, as he

555
00:41:37.840 --> 00:41:42.000
was known to be with the use
of his instruments. He used many unusual

556
00:41:42.039 --> 00:41:45.280
sounds and instruments in his score,
including a Conk's shell, an ectoplex,

557
00:41:45.800 --> 00:41:52.840
and a digeridoo to create this fifty
seven minute masterpiece of score. His opening

558
00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:57.119
theme for the title has an almost
romantic sense to it, starting with a

559
00:41:57.159 --> 00:42:01.400
solo trumpet and building into crescendo,
which to the full orchestra as the full

560
00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:07.320
title of the film appears on screen. His score is incredibly atmospheric and very

561
00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:10.400
unnerving, and while it isn't the
first science fiction film or horror film that

562
00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:16.480
Jerry Goldsmith scored, it is definitely
his most ambitious. But after the score

563
00:42:16.559 --> 00:42:22.360
was completed, things behind the scenes
didn't go as well as whole. Goldsmith

564
00:42:22.440 --> 00:42:25.440
was well known for hating the use
of temp tracks and films. He preferred

565
00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:30.840
to score his films unhindered and uninfluenced. However, Ridley Scott had requested that

566
00:42:30.920 --> 00:42:36.559
the film editor Terry Rollins create a
temp track for the film, using music

567
00:42:36.559 --> 00:42:39.840
from past films that Goldsmith' has scored, but most prominently the nineteen sixty two

568
00:42:39.880 --> 00:42:45.599
film Freud. Scott had become very
attached to the style of music the temp

569
00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:49.199
track brought to the film, which
was very very different from the vision that

570
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:52.920
Jerry Goldsmith had created in his original
score for the film. Scott asked Goldsmith

571
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:57.719
to return to the scoring stage again
to rewrite some of the music, and

572
00:42:57.760 --> 00:43:01.760
again Ridley Scott wasn't happy with what
had created for him, feeling that he

573
00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:07.079
had just given him exactly more the
same thing. But in the end,

574
00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:10.559
very little of Goldsmith's score was used
as intended in the film, with only

575
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:15.119
one cue used in its entirety and
the others chopped and clipped to pieces,

576
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:20.199
with much of the temp track and
the cues for Freud heard in the final

577
00:43:20.239 --> 00:43:24.800
release of the film. Goldsmith's incredible
end credits were replaced with a classical music

578
00:43:24.840 --> 00:43:30.360
piece called The Romantic by composer Howard
Hanson, and Goldsmith would go on to

579
00:43:30.400 --> 00:43:36.159
call his experience working on Alien one
of the most miserable experiences I have ever

580
00:43:36.239 --> 00:43:40.360
had in this profession. It would
sour his relationship with Ridley Scott, however,

581
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:44.880
but he would return six years later
to score the director's film Legend,

582
00:43:45.360 --> 00:43:49.119
only to find his entire score rejected
by the studio and replaced with another.

583
00:43:50.719 --> 00:43:53.719
It's amazing the variety of music that
we got with this score, given just

584
00:43:53.960 --> 00:43:59.159
how different it is from the other
sci fi masterpiece from nineteen seventy nine,

585
00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:02.840
he wrote Star Trek the motion picture. The complete score and all of the

586
00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:08.039
unused and rescored cues were finally released
in two thousand and seven by Introda Records

587
00:44:08.239 --> 00:44:13.480
for everyone to listen and to finally
enjoy, and it really is an incredible

588
00:44:13.480 --> 00:44:17.679
listening experience. The two disc CD
was newly remastered from the original one inch

589
00:44:17.760 --> 00:44:23.199
multi track session Masters, giving us
the perfect best quality of the music,

590
00:44:23.559 --> 00:44:29.079
and also includes the nineteen seventy nine
album LP Master And it's still available to

591
00:44:29.119 --> 00:44:31.960
buy from both in Troda and Amazon
stores, so it's a must to own

592
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:40.400
for both Goldsmith's soundtrack collectors and alien
film fans. All right, Wayne,

593
00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:45.679
thanks for the incredible in depth look
at Jerry goldsmith work on this. That's

594
00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:51.159
was fantastic of your explanation. It's
hard to believe that they chopped up his

595
00:44:51.239 --> 00:44:55.639
score like that. It's just as
talented as Jerry Goldsmith is. I just

596
00:44:55.760 --> 00:45:00.880
cannot believe they would do that.
Now, I do understand the portion of

597
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:04.400
when you don't have music as a
director and you're putting something together, you

598
00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:06.840
need something to go with it so
you can get that pacing going on.

599
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:08.800
You know what little work that I've
done. I do do that. You

600
00:45:08.840 --> 00:45:12.440
know, I'll grab a score that
I think is going to work right there

601
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:16.039
to give me that that feeling as
I'm putting the edit together. But you

602
00:45:16.039 --> 00:45:21.119
shouldn't be stuck on that. And
apparently Scott got stuck on that, which

603
00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:24.639
made him butcher Goldsmith's score. What
a shame. Yeah, and it's a

604
00:45:24.679 --> 00:45:30.039
shame because I mean, the pieces
that we do here contribute so much to

605
00:45:30.119 --> 00:45:34.920
that atmosphere and that that pacing.
Yeah, it's a shame to hear that

606
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:42.880
something happened like that, especially with
Goldsmith. But yeah, it definitely caused

607
00:45:42.920 --> 00:45:45.159
some tension between those two in the
future sity, which Wayne did explid.

608
00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:49.400
All right, well, let's quote
this. Scott find any interesting quotes?

609
00:45:50.119 --> 00:45:52.599
Yeah, I mean the one that
I wanted to go to. I absolutely

610
00:45:52.639 --> 00:46:01.559
love Secordney Weaver and such an important
contribution to cinema and sci fi in general.

611
00:46:01.719 --> 00:46:07.320
But I found a quote about playing
Ripley. She said, I felt

612
00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:10.559
like she's flying by the seat of
her pants the whole time and hoping that

613
00:46:10.599 --> 00:46:15.440
she's right and that she can save
her crew. There's no time to think

614
00:46:15.440 --> 00:46:19.079
that I do the right thing,
because you're always onto the next horrible crisis.

615
00:46:19.639 --> 00:46:22.559
Looking back, I feel like the
tremendous gift to me that I certainly

616
00:46:22.599 --> 00:46:25.480
didn't ever feel like the start of
the star of a movie. And I

617
00:46:25.480 --> 00:46:30.199
think it's appropriate because its an ensemble
movie. I felt like a survivor at

618
00:46:30.199 --> 00:46:35.719
a certain point, for sure.
But she's not putting herself in the sense

619
00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:38.159
that she was the star of the
movie. She's acknowledging how much this is

620
00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:43.840
very much a group effort, even
though she's known as such an iconic poor

621
00:46:43.920 --> 00:46:51.880
character to the Alien franchise in general. A lot of humility there, and

622
00:46:51.960 --> 00:46:54.880
that makes it that much more impressive
to think about what she's done for female

623
00:46:54.920 --> 00:47:00.079
characters and for little in general.
Yeah. Absolutely so. I found one

624
00:47:00.079 --> 00:47:05.880
from really Scott. It was in
an interview in twenty seventeen on casting Alien

625
00:47:05.880 --> 00:47:09.280
in nineteen seventy nine. He said, I cast Ripley really late. Two

626
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:14.119
weeks out, we still hadn't found
her. Then somebody came up, I

627
00:47:14.159 --> 00:47:17.639
think it was Warren Batty, and
said, there's this woman on off Broadway

628
00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:22.760
on the theater boards called Sigourney Weaver. You shouldn't meet with her. Interesting,

629
00:47:23.159 --> 00:47:27.639
So I called her, went to
New York. She walks in she

630
00:47:27.719 --> 00:47:30.679
must have been six foot six with
an afro, So she's seven foot two

631
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:34.880
and I was like a midget and
I had dinner with her. That was

632
00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:40.480
it. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, And Saganoni Weaver is tall. I

633
00:47:40.559 --> 00:47:44.360
do know that. I want.
I think she's like six foot two or

634
00:47:44.400 --> 00:47:49.639
something like that. So she is
a tall lady. But how interesting is

635
00:47:50.039 --> 00:47:54.320
he found his Ripley that way?
Yeah? What she has done to today.

636
00:47:54.840 --> 00:47:59.280
Sigourney Weaver was just a fantastic actress, still is a fantastic actress,

637
00:47:59.559 --> 00:48:02.519
but always been known for such a
strong lead in Ripley. Yeah, and

638
00:48:02.599 --> 00:48:07.880
I can't imagine anybody else having any
of these roles. We can get into

639
00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:12.079
the what if a little bit,
let's talk about who else may have been

640
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:19.599
there. So with Ripley, it
was almost Meryl Streep. Oh really at

641
00:48:19.599 --> 00:48:22.679
one point. Rich When I think
about it, if I'm going to that

642
00:48:22.840 --> 00:48:29.199
you know, alternate reality blockbuster that
we always talk about, it would be

643
00:48:29.239 --> 00:48:35.239
interesting to pull that off the shelf
because I think we would have gotten a

644
00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:40.880
very strong screen presence. I don't
think we would have gotten the same energy

645
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:45.599
that we got from Sigourney, because
I can't imagine that coming from everybody else.

646
00:48:45.760 --> 00:48:51.679
It's so indelible to her performance.
I can't imagine anybody else doing it.

647
00:48:52.159 --> 00:48:58.360
I think they made the right choice
without question. Apparently they were college

648
00:48:58.440 --> 00:49:05.880
mates at Yale. Yeah. Kind
of interesting. Another what if was Harrison

649
00:49:05.960 --> 00:49:09.239
Ford turned down the role of Dallas, and I'm glad for that. I

650
00:49:09.239 --> 00:49:12.599
mean, come on, we had
Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Star Wars

651
00:49:12.639 --> 00:49:15.119
a New Hope. Yeah, and
we're gonna be getting him soon in in

652
00:49:15.199 --> 00:49:16.719
proNT Structs Back, which is after
this movie. I know that. But

653
00:49:17.320 --> 00:49:21.800
he's had a lot of movies going
on. We've already discussed several of them,

654
00:49:21.960 --> 00:49:24.599
you know, in seventeen and seventy
nine. No, I'm glad that

655
00:49:24.639 --> 00:49:28.719
didn't happen, to be honest.
I love Harrison Ford, but no,

656
00:49:29.239 --> 00:49:30.679
not as Captain Dallas. No way, no, no. And I think

657
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:36.920
Tom Scarrett is a perfect choice there
as well. Right, I think his

658
00:49:36.920 --> 00:49:44.920
his energy. It never really felt
like Dallas was overtaking the situation or having

659
00:49:44.960 --> 00:49:46.679
a little bit too much intensity.
There was always a little bit of that

660
00:49:46.760 --> 00:49:54.639
laid back to Dallas. Yeah,
I think Harrison Ford probably would have dialed

661
00:49:54.639 --> 00:49:58.840
that a little too forward. It
would have been a little bit too much,

662
00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:01.360
you know, probably the iconic finger
pointing and a lot of the stuff

663
00:50:01.400 --> 00:50:05.480
that we're used to. I feel
like they would have been inclined to dial

664
00:50:05.559 --> 00:50:12.280
up any kind of romantic angle between
Dallas and Ripley, which I think would

665
00:50:12.280 --> 00:50:15.719
have been a mistake. We've already
talked about that. But yeah, yeah,

666
00:50:15.880 --> 00:50:19.000
that's a note for me on Harrison
Ford. I agree. Apparently Tommy

667
00:50:19.079 --> 00:50:24.639
Lee Jones was up for Dallas as
well. No, thank you. I

668
00:50:24.639 --> 00:50:28.239
don't know. I don't know.
I can't see it. I can't see

669
00:50:28.280 --> 00:50:31.119
it now, No, not at
all. I don't understand. I mean,

670
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:35.000
obviously you're you don't know who your
cast is going to be. We

671
00:50:35.159 --> 00:50:39.599
obviously are looking back as the character
the actors who've already played these characters,

672
00:50:39.599 --> 00:50:43.960
so we know how good they are. Sure, it's a more difficult situation.

673
00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:49.559
But Tommy Lee Jones really, Scott? No? Yeah, did you

674
00:50:49.559 --> 00:50:52.119
say really Scott or Ridley Scott?
Take it either way. I'm fine with

675
00:50:52.159 --> 00:50:55.039
that, no, And I mean, you know, it kind of reminds

676
00:50:55.039 --> 00:51:00.320
me that Tommy's reaction at the time
kind of reminds me of his, you

677
00:51:00.360 --> 00:51:05.400
know, approach to two Face in
the Batman movie. You know, just

678
00:51:05.400 --> 00:51:08.280
wanting to kind of play it over
the top. Apparently he was very interested

679
00:51:08.280 --> 00:51:13.280
in playing the Xenomorph because he said
it was the only part that really grabbed

680
00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:17.679
him, which is surprising because there's
so much more to the interpersonal relationships between

681
00:51:17.679 --> 00:51:22.280
these characters that makes this so much
more than just a monster movie. It

682
00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:27.159
really is the the intensity and the
tension that you feel between them and the

683
00:51:27.159 --> 00:51:30.639
comriterie that you feel between the crew
that makes you want them to survive.

684
00:51:30.840 --> 00:51:35.000
So I think he's he's missing the
beat there, So I'm you didn't get

685
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:40.559
it. Apparently, when this movie
is trying to be made, Roger Corman

686
00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:45.239
wanted it, which I love Roger
Corman, but I'm glad it didn't happen.

687
00:51:45.880 --> 00:51:49.920
Yeah, and then Fox apparently wanted
George Lucas to do it, but

688
00:51:49.960 --> 00:51:52.800
obviously George Lucas was too busy with
Star Wars because he was in the middle

689
00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:57.280
of making Empire Strikes Back yep,
Count of Skinner Money. Yeah, so

690
00:51:57.360 --> 00:51:59.960
yeah. Walter Hill originally was going
to direct his film, but he pulled

691
00:52:00.119 --> 00:52:05.480
out because he gave the job to
Really Scott. Because Walter Hill apparently was

692
00:52:06.360 --> 00:52:10.320
the main reason why twentieth Century Fox
took this film, and he wanted really

693
00:52:10.360 --> 00:52:14.920
Scott to take it because he was
impressed with Scott's work on a Duellist in

694
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.800
nineteen seventy seven, which is why
really Scott got it. But I'm sure

695
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:22.440
there's more behind it that, because
this is such a passion project for really

696
00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:27.320
Scott. And you see elements of
Blade Runner in this too. That's going

697
00:52:27.320 --> 00:52:30.440
to come up later on in the
eighties that really Scott's going to do,

698
00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:34.440
you know. You see a little
bit of elements of that too coming up.

699
00:52:34.519 --> 00:52:37.280
So a lot of stuff that could
have really changed the face of this

700
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:40.840
film. But I'm glad that we
got what we did. Yeah. Well,

701
00:52:40.840 --> 00:52:45.480
and it's interesting the connection to Walter
Hill fod kind of an interesting factoid

702
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:51.119
out there. So the process of
getting ready for this movie had an impact

703
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:54.440
on The Warriors, another nineteen seventy
nine movie. Yep, Hill and Geiler

704
00:52:54.440 --> 00:53:00.760
were watching a movie called Madman from
seventy eight because they heard positive notes on

705
00:53:00.920 --> 00:53:05.360
Sigourney Weaver's performance. I wanted to
see if she might be a good fit

706
00:53:05.519 --> 00:53:09.880
for Ripley. It turned out she
was, obviously, and he was also

707
00:53:09.920 --> 00:53:16.440
impressed with a supporting actor named Michael
Beck, and then he thought back would

708
00:53:16.480 --> 00:53:21.559
be a good fit for the major
role in The Warriors, who obviously came

709
00:53:21.599 --> 00:53:23.719
back. We've already talked about as
the gang leader Swan in that movie.

710
00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:29.760
So thanks to Alien, Yeah,
thanks thanks to Sigourney Weaver, we got

711
00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:32.400
Michael Beck and the Warriors. It
all worked out, didn't it exactly?

712
00:53:32.880 --> 00:53:38.079
All Right, Well, let's rewind
any favorite scenes, anything that you loved

713
00:53:38.119 --> 00:53:44.440
in this movie. Oh God,
we've talked about so much. I feel

714
00:53:44.480 --> 00:53:53.000
like I want to go back to
Ash's malfunction scene. It's a good one.

715
00:53:53.320 --> 00:53:55.920
There was. There was so much
subtlety in there, and I think

716
00:53:55.920 --> 00:54:02.760
it's one that bears rewatching, its
reason to rewatch. So if you've already

717
00:54:02.760 --> 00:54:08.679
seen in the movie and you know
what happens with Ash, look for all

718
00:54:08.679 --> 00:54:14.280
the subtle cues that he wasn't that
something was going wrong with him. And

719
00:54:14.519 --> 00:54:20.000
obviously it's a malfunction, but little
eye flutters, little nuances of his performance

720
00:54:20.079 --> 00:54:23.639
that make him seem like he's obviously
got something wrong. And then when you

721
00:54:23.679 --> 00:54:29.800
get into that scene where he's like
spinning around the room spitting out that horrible

722
00:54:29.800 --> 00:54:37.119
white stuff. Oh that crazy sound
all the way to one of my favorite

723
00:54:37.159 --> 00:54:40.280
bits, and it goes back to
sound design his voice after being decapitated.

724
00:54:40.679 --> 00:54:46.559
Oh yeah, it's very reminiscent of
my absolute favorite scene from Alien three where

725
00:54:46.599 --> 00:54:53.559
they reactivate Bishop. Yeah. The
way they modulated his voice was pitch perfect,

726
00:54:54.159 --> 00:54:58.360
Absolutely pitch perfect. I'm still curious
as to how they did it,

727
00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:05.679
but it makes it sound so otherworldly, I guess there is a way to

728
00:55:05.719 --> 00:55:12.199
say it and semi mechanical but still
organic. It's it's very disquieting all the

729
00:55:12.239 --> 00:55:15.119
way to his you know, when
he's switched off and he just has that

730
00:55:15.159 --> 00:55:21.119
frozen grin on his face. Oh
God, that seems so amazing, that

731
00:55:21.159 --> 00:55:22.800
whole scene that they shot there.
I mean, obviously you know how he

732
00:55:22.880 --> 00:55:24.760
did it with his head up to
the table and stuff like that, but

733
00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:30.599
man, it looked so good.
Never once did it look fake. Well,

734
00:55:30.599 --> 00:55:34.800
it's that whole trick of like it's
not necessarily about hiding the wires,

735
00:55:34.800 --> 00:55:37.679
it's making people not care enough to
look for them, right, Yeah,

736
00:55:38.199 --> 00:55:44.000
that's where it does it. Yeah, so good. And the fact that

737
00:55:44.039 --> 00:55:46.880
they melt his face off of the
flamethrower and it reveals that kind of like

738
00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:51.920
not really a skull underneath, but
like a porcelain version of his face,

739
00:55:52.239 --> 00:55:57.880
which made what about you any other
scenes. I think it's it's you know,

740
00:55:57.920 --> 00:56:00.199
I mentioned it earlier, it's how
really Scott shot this film. You

741
00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:05.400
know, tons of handheld throughout this
movie because of all the close quarters.

742
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:10.440
It gave it this very claustrophobic feel
a lot. And even though you're dealing

743
00:56:10.440 --> 00:56:15.960
with this enormous ship outside of the
Nostromo, but you don't know where the

744
00:56:15.960 --> 00:56:20.440
alien's at. So you've got these
people who are running around chaos, and

745
00:56:20.480 --> 00:56:23.440
the camera is just following them and
jiggling all around, and you know all

746
00:56:23.440 --> 00:56:25.840
of that. I just I love
how this was shot, and I love

747
00:56:25.880 --> 00:56:30.760
the fact that Ridley Scott did a
lot of that himself, which apparently you

748
00:56:30.800 --> 00:56:35.360
can't do when you're in the USA. My understanding is he tried to do

749
00:56:35.400 --> 00:56:38.760
it and later runner, but he
wasn't allowed because it's against the rules that

750
00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:43.320
the director is not allowed to be
the cameraman too. Apparently. I guess

751
00:56:43.320 --> 00:56:45.880
you can run the camera at times, but you can't be the actual cameraman

752
00:56:45.960 --> 00:56:51.880
themselves, which I guess he got
irritated by those regulations that we have in

753
00:56:51.920 --> 00:56:53.840
America when it comes to those kind
of things. But anyway, I just

754
00:56:53.880 --> 00:56:58.760
love the way he shot this movie
in its entirety. You can tell that

755
00:56:58.840 --> 00:57:01.599
he storyboarded this movie from beginning to
end, just because of the way how

756
00:57:01.639 --> 00:57:07.880
good it looks. Just the design
of everything, the Xenomorph's design, you

757
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:13.159
know, the ship's designs, the
sets, the sets are so tangible.

758
00:57:13.480 --> 00:57:15.920
You know, a lot of that
would be CGI today, it really would,

759
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:20.280
but back then, no, you
don't have that. And you've got

760
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:22.440
these real, genuine sets that look
real, feel real. You can touch

761
00:57:22.480 --> 00:57:29.280
them, you can see them.
And my understanding too is they wired a

762
00:57:29.320 --> 00:57:31.679
lot of the control so if you
touched one button, another light would come

763
00:57:31.760 --> 00:57:37.199
on somewhere else in the background,
so it looked like things were happening on

764
00:57:37.239 --> 00:57:42.719
that ship. And that's brilliant to
me because it made it feel more tangible,

765
00:57:42.840 --> 00:57:45.599
more realistic. And I don't know
how many other films have done that,

766
00:57:45.679 --> 00:57:50.519
but the fact that they went through
that much problem, that trouble to

767
00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:53.719
make that happen makes this film that
much better. Yeah. Well, I

768
00:57:53.760 --> 00:58:00.559
mean heads off to Scott for doing
so much handheld work, especially considered the

769
00:58:00.679 --> 00:58:05.039
cramped quarters that they were in.
The tight spaces, right, it's a

770
00:58:05.719 --> 00:58:10.480
varying scale of the giant room where
Brett is killed all the way to where

771
00:58:12.719 --> 00:58:15.760
Dallas is crawling around through the air
duct to the air fence whatever that is.

772
00:58:17.760 --> 00:58:22.440
That's not going to be easy,
and especially in that tight space.

773
00:58:22.639 --> 00:58:30.480
Apparently that was something that was used
to effect to heighten that sense of claustrophobia.

774
00:58:31.079 --> 00:58:37.159
Redley Scott also chose to push the
walls of the set in a little

775
00:58:37.159 --> 00:58:42.679
bit more every day so they would
feel more and more cramped every single time.

776
00:58:43.519 --> 00:58:46.239
So to be able to work within
those kind of situations, it's amazing.

777
00:58:47.719 --> 00:58:51.800
So that that leads me to a
question for you, Scott, what's

778
00:58:51.800 --> 00:58:57.480
your favorite kill in this movie?
Do you have one? I'm going to

779
00:58:57.559 --> 00:59:02.239
disqualified Chess Burster. Yeah, yes, we're just qualifying Chess burchard Icic.

780
00:59:06.239 --> 00:59:10.639
I'm going to have to go ahead
and give it to Parker. Okay,

781
00:59:10.840 --> 00:59:20.440
fight Codo because the that's probably the
most visceral kill that we've seen, and

782
00:59:20.480 --> 00:59:23.239
the fact that he was fighting back
against it. I think he was one

783
00:59:23.239 --> 00:59:25.880
of the only characters where I thought
he had a chance, you know,

784
00:59:25.960 --> 00:59:30.239
of possibly getting out of it,
or at least getting a couple of hits

785
00:59:30.280 --> 00:59:35.960
in before before he was gone.
Yeah, but the offense performance in that

786
00:59:36.360 --> 00:59:39.119
specifically, there's this scene that keeps
playing in my head of when he's you

787
00:59:39.159 --> 00:59:43.199
know, he's giving it that final
screaming, you see, like the blood

788
00:59:43.239 --> 00:59:49.000
and his teeth just before he's absolutely
squished. That one was just so visceral.

789
00:59:49.079 --> 00:59:52.039
I think it probably had an impact
on all those movie goers that were

790
00:59:52.119 --> 00:59:54.760
running out of the theater. Yeah, what about you? No, I

791
00:59:54.840 --> 01:00:00.280
went with Parker, but I kind
of went with Lambert and Parker. They

792
01:00:00.280 --> 01:00:02.679
both get killed in the same spot. I went with both of them just

793
01:00:02.679 --> 01:00:08.559
because the way it was shot and
their reactions on you know, obviously Lambert

794
01:00:08.599 --> 01:00:14.599
had to watch Parker get killed and
then it was basically Lambert's turn. I

795
01:00:14.639 --> 01:00:17.079
went with both of them. I
thought that scene was so well done and

796
01:00:17.119 --> 01:00:21.159
their performances just made it that much
better. So, yes, I agree

797
01:00:21.199 --> 01:00:23.320
with you on that stut. Yeah, all right, Well let's move to

798
01:00:23.360 --> 01:00:28.960
the impact of this film. It's
a pretty big one in my opinion.

799
01:00:29.480 --> 01:00:35.639
Yeah, I mean, this film
started an entire franchise that is still going

800
01:00:35.679 --> 01:00:39.519
strong. I mean, in a
few months we get Alien Romulus coming to

801
01:00:39.559 --> 01:00:45.119
the theater, which looks like it's
returning to the roots of this movie.

802
01:00:45.400 --> 01:00:47.760
By looking at the trailer, would
you agree with that absolutely. Yeah.

803
01:00:47.880 --> 01:00:52.119
I saw that trailer recently in the
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

804
01:00:52.159 --> 01:00:57.960
I think it was Yeah, and
it very much goes back to the terrifying

805
01:00:58.039 --> 01:01:05.320
nature of the face hiok, but
also a character that seems to be following

806
01:01:05.320 --> 01:01:14.079
in Ripley's footsteps, possibly pretty literally, but there's no denying that the character

807
01:01:14.159 --> 01:01:19.079
of Ripley, the way that Ripley
was written and the performance of Sigourney Weaver

808
01:01:20.159 --> 01:01:30.320
changed certainly sci fi but strong action
female leads, strong horror female leads.

809
01:01:30.760 --> 01:01:34.679
It very much defined. I think
a lot of the writing that we're lucky

810
01:01:34.679 --> 01:01:40.800
to have gotten afterward to follow in
those footsteps, to recognize how different that

811
01:01:42.079 --> 01:01:45.920
was at the time and how much
that could really change. Not only people

812
01:01:46.000 --> 01:01:53.920
that are are enamored with that character's
performance, absolutely captivated by it, but

813
01:01:54.199 --> 01:02:00.239
people that are inspired by it too
to find their own strength. I think

814
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:05.159
there's a lot of people that definitely
get that from not only this Ripley,

815
01:02:05.159 --> 01:02:07.920
but the Ripley that we see in
Aliens. Following this, Yeah, I

816
01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:14.199
mean, we get arguably the best
sequel with any film in eighty six with

817
01:02:14.280 --> 01:02:19.760
Aliens by James Cameron, and is
going to add to an even bigger depth

818
01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:24.360
to Ridley Ripley's story and her character
and how strong she is. But what

819
01:02:24.440 --> 01:02:29.440
I like to think is because of
Sigourney Weaver, because of Ridley Scott,

820
01:02:29.800 --> 01:02:34.480
because of Ripley, I think that's
how we got Sarah Connor. Oh good

821
01:02:34.559 --> 01:02:40.159
call, I really do. Yeah, very very similar arcs there with somebody

822
01:02:40.199 --> 01:02:47.920
who isn't necessarily assumed to be the
sole survivor at the end of this.

823
01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:53.960
It really doesn't seem like she will
be until we hear her say no,

824
01:02:54.039 --> 01:02:58.760
we need to maintain the quarantine.
Then it's kind of like this seems like

825
01:02:59.159 --> 01:03:04.119
probably the only in this crew that's
really thinking straight at this time, let

826
01:03:04.159 --> 01:03:07.760
alone how she you know, takes
care of the xenomorphon at the end yep.

827
01:03:07.599 --> 01:03:12.960
And then I mean this was continue
to launch Ridley Scott's career, launch

828
01:03:12.960 --> 01:03:15.079
Sigony Weaver's career. Everyone who's in
this movie is going to launch her career

829
01:03:15.079 --> 01:03:20.119
even more. And I mean,
my goodness, we're talking about a movie

830
01:03:20.719 --> 01:03:22.760
made in you know, came out
in seventy nine. I watched this with

831
01:03:22.840 --> 01:03:25.440
my nephew last night. Again,
you know, I've seen it many many

832
01:03:25.480 --> 01:03:30.079
times. My nephew had never seen
it. He's he'll be sixteen next month.

833
01:03:30.719 --> 01:03:35.559
He was amazed on how good this
movie was, and when I told

834
01:03:35.599 --> 01:03:37.920
him, you know when this was
made, he's like, no, so

835
01:03:37.239 --> 01:03:42.159
this came out in nineteen seventy nine. He's like, uh what He could

836
01:03:42.199 --> 01:03:45.519
not tell this was made in seventy
nine because it's done that well. Yeah,

837
01:03:45.559 --> 01:03:50.039
it absolutely holds up. Yeah,
I don't I don't see anything that

838
01:03:50.079 --> 01:03:58.119
would they would be questioned today.
I think the only possible scene is when

839
01:03:58.920 --> 01:04:02.360
Dallas turns around and the xenoworfh does
that kind of ta dha kind of reaching

840
01:04:02.400 --> 01:04:06.119
out with both hands. But otherwise, there's so much that's new to this

841
01:04:06.280 --> 01:04:12.480
and there's so much that is unfamiliar. It's not like it's dated tech.

842
01:04:13.360 --> 01:04:16.800
Everything is mechanical. You can very
much assume that this is, you know,

843
01:04:17.079 --> 01:04:25.079
kind of a working class ship.
There's nothing necessarily fancy about it.

844
01:04:25.119 --> 01:04:30.480
There's nothing that seems like it would
be dated future tech. Yeah, I'm

845
01:04:30.480 --> 01:04:31.800
glad you had a chance to do
that. So that sounds like it'd be

846
01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:35.480
a great experience. It really was. And let's not forget this movie created

847
01:04:35.519 --> 01:04:41.039
that sci fi horror genre. It
really did. I mean, other movies

848
01:04:41.079 --> 01:04:44.039
tried to be to duplicate this,
but they've not done it in my opinion.

849
01:04:44.719 --> 01:04:47.559
And I know Predtor comes along and
gets to share the universe with Alien

850
01:04:47.639 --> 01:04:53.559
with the Xenomorph, so we do
get that franchise as well down the road.

851
01:04:54.079 --> 01:04:58.440
Yeah, if I was gonna recommend
a double feature for this one,

852
01:04:59.119 --> 01:05:03.519
obviously you've got Alien and then Aliens. But if you're going back to movies

853
01:05:03.559 --> 01:05:08.280
that are forty five years old and
that I think still hold up, I

854
01:05:08.280 --> 01:05:11.519
would say do a double feature of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers an Alien,

855
01:05:12.440 --> 01:05:15.800
because I think there are several elements
of their DNA that are shared, the

856
01:05:16.320 --> 01:05:23.480
sound design, the production, the
use of atmosphere and suspense and terror.

857
01:05:24.639 --> 01:05:30.960
Obviously Alien surpasses Invasion of the Body
Snatchers, but they're both so closely related.

858
01:05:30.320 --> 01:05:33.280
In my opinion, I think it's
it's worth a double shot. YEP,

859
01:05:33.440 --> 01:05:36.360
I completely agree, All right,
Scott? Where'd you see this at?

860
01:05:36.960 --> 01:05:42.719
So? I saw this in two
separate places. I watched it once

861
01:05:42.840 --> 01:05:47.960
on Hulu, but then I,
you know, decided that's not good enough.

862
01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:53.360
So I saw it on Blu Ray
on the big screen of the house,

863
01:05:54.039 --> 01:05:59.159
and it's it's so worth the big
screen. When you're watching this,

864
01:05:59.440 --> 01:06:03.840
make sure that you've got the lights
low, you're tucked in. I'd ready

865
01:06:03.880 --> 01:06:10.119
to spend the next two hours or
more and really watch it the way it

866
01:06:10.159 --> 01:06:12.599
was meant to be a seene,
which is on a big screen. How

867
01:06:12.599 --> 01:06:15.239
about you. Yeah, I owned
it on Blu Ray. This movie belongs

868
01:06:15.280 --> 01:06:19.719
in the collection. Everybody should own
this because it's just so good. Yeah,

869
01:06:20.039 --> 01:06:24.920
turn up, turn up the volume, turn out the lights and watch

870
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:28.880
this movie for for two hours and
it is quite the treat. I agree.

871
01:06:28.960 --> 01:06:30.719
Watch it on the big screen.
You can watch it on all right.

872
01:06:30.760 --> 01:06:33.159
I was always We want to thank
our listeners and hope you're excited as

873
01:06:33.199 --> 01:06:36.239
much as we are as we continue
our journey through the year nineteen seventy nine.

874
01:06:36.760 --> 01:06:39.639
Hit us up, let us know
what. Who do you think had

875
01:06:39.679 --> 01:06:44.599
the best death in Alien? You
can always reach us at www dot film

876
01:06:44.639 --> 01:06:47.159
by podcast dot com. You can
reach us at a film by podcast at

877
01:06:47.159 --> 01:06:51.159
gmail dot com. You can also
reach us on any of the social media's

878
01:06:53.239 --> 01:06:58.320
final report of the commercial starship in
the Stunn, a third officer reporting the

879
01:06:58.360 --> 01:07:04.719
other members of the crew, Dean
Lambert Parker, Brett Ash and Captain Dallas

880
01:07:04.760 --> 01:07:10.800
are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about

881
01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:14.920
six weeks. With a little luck, network should pick me up. This

882
01:07:15.159 --> 01:07:19.239
is Ripley, last survivor of the
Strumo, signing off until our film reels

883
01:07:19.239 --> 01:07:24.079
start rolling again. Go out,
watch something new, watch something different,

884
01:07:24.119 --> 01:07:26.920
and who knows what you will discover
next. Thanks everyone,