A Film at 45: Alien

0:00 Hello everyone, and welcome back. In nineteen seventy nine, in a film by the limited series A Film at forty five, I am David Burns and I'm Scott Hoffman with this limited series from a film by a podcast where we're dusting off the end of a decade that changed cinema forever with a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems, so we can't stop watching. In this episode, we're heading into space where no one can hear you scream with the Ridley Scott classic Alien God. It's using the air shafts. That's the only way we'll move in pairs. We'll go step by step and cut off every bulkhead and every event until we have it cornered, and then we'll blow it the fuck out into space. Is that acceptable to you in the near future?

0:55 I might add twenty thirty seven Scott, which yes, is a pretty near future to us. Yep, yep, it gives me a very mystery science theater three thousand kinbes it does. Yeah, but yeah. We were introduced to the crew of the Nostromo in a film ranked in the many top ten greatest sci Fi Films of all times, a film that would launch a franchise that is still going strong to this day, and it is a film that masterfully blends the sci fi genre with horror. I might add, do you remember seeing this film for the first time? Only that I remember seeing it after Aliens? Interestingly enough, Yeah, I needed it for backstory.

1:37 Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I caught this. I want to say it was on HBO. It's too I was too young when it was in the theaters, but I did catch it before nineteen eighty six because I got to see James Cameron's Aliens in the theater, so I got to see it in order. I just didn't see Alien until, like I want to say, eighty five. It was not too far away from when Aliens came out theater, so I was like it already made me hungry, like I want more, I want more. And then when I discovered Aliens was coming, I was like, holy crap, what a perfect opportunity to continue this. Yeah. Perfect. I had a really backwards path to it. I think I discovered Aliens because I saw the I think it was dark Horse at the time. Maybe had the comic book rights, okay, yeah, yeah, and early nineties those covers of those comics were beautiful. I was like, what's this? Started looking into it, I was like, oh, interesting, it's a movie. Saw the movie. Oh my god, blew me away. Obviously going back to nineteen eighty six. Yeah, and yeah, then I had to see Alien to see where did it all start.

2:39 Absolutely, and we have to say that we did cover Aliens in the limited series nineteen eighty six, So listeners out there, if you've not listened to that one, please go listen to that. It was a fantastic podcast as well. Absolutely, well, Scott, I like to think that everyone on this planet knows or has seen this movie, but just in case there was someone out there living in a galaxy that maybe hasn't, how would you describe this film toom? And I would love to imagine that there are people that aren't, because I'm just envious of those people who haven't discovered it yet. This is a big one. Yeah. In the not too distant future, a crew of seven people on the Nostromo are just working for a living through space. Clock in, do your work, clock out with cryo sleep typical nine to five. Just as they wake up from their latest gig, they get a course change as part of a rescue mission, follow the source of a beacon of unknown origin, investigated if it's human or otherwise, and report back to Earth. That's where the trouble starts, as one of the crew is attacked by a face hugging alien that grafts itself to his skin, has acid for blood, and lays a deadly egg in his chest. The newborn alien bursts free, killing him and starting a rampage around the ship. There remaining six crew members quickly become five, then three, until just one of them is left to be the last survivor or the first host to a single minded horror that's headed for Earth. This is the mother of all sci fi horror movies. This is Alien, absolutely man fantastic job. You know,

4:12 this is just like Raiders of the Lost Arc made me fall in love with filmmaking, Alien did the same thing. This movie holds a special place in my heart because of just the way it was created, the way it was done in the time that they didn't have CGI. You know, here we go again, practical effects Scott. It was fantastic in this movie, and the way Ridley Scott directed it, and you know and shot it's fantastic. But what I love about the opening of this It's like Star Wars, right. You get this huge epic shot of this ship just coming over top of the camera, you know, and then you get like six minutes no dialogue, none, zero, and you just get like all these interior shots of showing off these massive and beautiful sets that they have created. Yeah. I know they've got some mirrors and stuff down at the end of hallways and stuff like that, but man, they really worked hard on these sets and made them look fantastic, and it just builds this atmosphere for you. You know, you know, you've got a movie about an alien because we're crying out loud, that's what it's called. I mean, you don't know what's gonna be in this ship, but man, it's so massive. There's like so many places to hide. Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's very interesting how much atmosphere really plays into that. Yeah, and as you mentioned, you know, had a great title sequence that itself kind of builds itself mysteriously apparently designed by the great Saul bass uh famous crack off look him up if you don't know. Although not credited, there's a lot of this movie that uses

5:45 alien as a noun. And an adjective to be Obviously, there's the Xenomorph, but then things that are just unfamiliar enough to make you uneasy. And I think that opening establishing shot you see all of these things that kind of are dangling from the walls, swaying in the breeze, and you're water dripping kind of station yep chains, You're gonna see a lot of things that feel like they should be familiar, but every every one of those shots make you want to look closer to see exactly what you're seeing, and then it cuts away to something else. It does a great job throughout of disorienting the audience and making them feel like they're always trying to understand exactly what this is or what's going on, and that there's just a much, just enough of that uneasiness to put you on edge to the whole thing. Yeah, and here's the other crazy part about this film. That Creature is only on screen for what four minutes total? Yeah? Four minutes, Scott, this is almost a two hour film about a movie called Alien. But it's so effective.

6:56 Yeah, and that's the Xenomorph and the your total yeah right, but yes, that's even less like that's shared screen time, right. Yeah, it's it's unbelievable, and it's it's it's the brilliance of this film, and it's the brilliance of what Ridley Scott did for this film, you know, I mean, I know a majority of this film he shot handheld, and a lot of that was actually Ridley Scott having the camera and controlling the camera. And they had to do that because of the set, because they were so small that you couldn't do the dollies and all of that kind of stuff. You had to do a lot of handheld. But that actually benefited the film in my opinion, because when when when the characters are running down hallways and you don't know where the creature is at, and chaos is going on, and that camera is just rocking back and forth and you know, trying to keep up with them, it just adds to the atmosphere of all of it.

7:47 Yeah, Yeah, and establishes so many things that would be used to such great effect in Aliens mm hmm and the sequel. Right, there's a lot of beats where you're like that that's very familiar. Mm hmm. Oh, I mean, I know, we're talking about a sci fi horror and a sci fi action movie, so it's somewhat on different planes of existence. But yeah, there's so much intricacy into this that's just so well done. It is, and you know, and then you have these massive sets which are probably not as big as we think the artist because of the camera trucks and stuff that they play on us. But you know, you're using models, you're not using CGI. You are. Like the space jockey scene, I mean that was on screen for like what thirty seconds? How much money?

8:37 I'm not sure how much they spent. I know they spent a fortune because I think Fox was throwing a fit about it, and I think it was they said something in regards that they don't want to look like a B movie. They want this to look like an expensive movie, which is why they kept it in the movie. But it's not on screen, law, but yet it adds so much to it. Yeah. Yeah, And thinking about that space jockey scene specifically, that does such a good job of you know, it's playing with darkness, it's playing with shadow, it's introducing just enough new to make you want to take a closer look. Yeah. So I feel like it had this great idea of let's take people from the back of their seat to the edge of their seat before we even scare them with what's supposed to be happening, because it's where they're expecting. But in that space jockey scene, there's that last shot where they're looking at the opening where the chest chestbursts are in come out, and they're right there next to the face and one of them kind of bends down a little bit, taking their light at a frame and you see it accentuate the face in this very interesting way that the audience is waiting there to see, like is this thing going to stand up? Is this going to be like the monster that grabs them?

9:48 And nothing? But that's all part of building the suspense exactly. Yeah, and the whole chess thing there, you know, you're foreshadowing what's to come. Your audience doesn't know this yet, right, it's coming, know, And then the whole scene where you know, Pain finds the the eggs and you know, and he falls in, but like how you have like that layer of mists and like that blue lighting on how it just eliminates the entire set and you don't know what's going on, and then you know he's looking at the egg closely again, No, CGI listeners. This is this is all you know, done on screen by you know, very talented people. And the egg opens up and you look inside of it and then it burst out. It's just made it, all of it is. You're so fantastic with the with the sound. Yeah, you even get the subtle like like reaction when he breaks the plane. Yeah, and that great squealing noise when the chest burster with the face hugger jumps out, yes and attacks Kine.

10:50 Yeah. I also thought it was interesting who made that laser possible? Who was that? Who? Who? That's right? Yeah? Who? We're practicing a stage there, you know, their concert stage performance nearby, and they had this blue laser light. So it's thanks to Peter Townsend and the company that we got that great scene. I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, it worked out perfect, So I'm glad. I'm glad that happened like that. It's funny how things work itself out for to doing things like that that are just so iconic, you know that we that we see. But you know, speaking of iconic, Scott, you know, you can't talk about Alien without talking about the most incredible scene that everybody knows.

11:39 And that's the chest bursting scene. Yeah. That. You know, anyone who knows the alien immediately probably thinks of that scene, right, I know I do, Yeah, Yeah, I mean that's that's what it's been kind of. I guess what's made it the most famous is at the time, I mean, that was one of the the goorious scenes, completely unexpected, because it does a great, great, great job of lulling you into that false sense of security. He's fine, he's eating, they're about to go into crood seats, everything's just fine, and no, yeah, it is completely turned upside down. For the longest time, I was under the impression that that was done in one take and we're getting their genuine reaction because it was all surprised apparently. Not true. Yeah, it's part ye.

12:31 Everybody had read the script and knew what was going to happen, but they didn't know specific details, except for Tom Scarrett apparently and John Hurt obviously because he's kind of there on the scene to know exactly what was coming. But the genuine reaction that we are we always hear about is from Veronica Cartwright and a lot of the others not knowing exactly how much to expect. Buckets of blood, even though it's only happening to one person, it's only one wound, but there's a lot of it. Yeah, it's a very surprising visceral and something that has never been done before ever, And I think that's what made it so intense. And everyone's reactions to this too was genuine. You know, you actually see these characters who are freaking out just as the audience is. And I'm telling you that heartbeat sound that you hear in the background that's going they use that. Scott uses that a lot, because I listen when I watched it, I paid attention to all the deaths throughout the movie.

13:35 He uses that heart beat sound a lot, and man, that just puts you on the edgier feet. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's used a great effect in aliens as well. Right, Yes, you've got the motion tracker that syncs up with a heartbeat. Yep. Yeah, it's amazing to think how iconic that scene has become. But it's just one slice of what you get with this with this movie. I mean, it's I would say even the face hugger aspect gets very underplayed because just thinking about how claustrophobic that makes somebody that thought of being strangled and suffocated. Yeah, while that, you know, acid bleeding spider is attached to your face. Well, the scene where they're trying to get it off, they're trying to figure out how to get it off, and then when they were touching it, when its tail was wrapping tighter, Yeah, around his neck. Oh man, it just gives you too. Yeah, it gives your Poulter gust vibes.

14:35 Yeah, very much. Yeah, it's just just so incredibly well done. Man. This film is just so good in so many ways, you know, and and you know, let's talk a little bit about the cast themselves. I mean, let's let's talk about who you just mentioned, Veronica Cartwright, who plays Lambert. You and I discussed her last year nineteen seventy eight Invasions of the Body Snatchers, and we mentioned how good she was crying and screaming, and in this movie she does it so well. Yeah. Yeah, especially you know, obviously there's a famous chest burster scene, but the scene where Dallas is being pursued. Now, if you look at that in a vacuum and you only look at the chest prister scene, it can seem like she's it's a little grating. The screams absolutely appropriate. But when she is in the scene with Dallas being pursued, it just adds to the tension in a great way because you can feel that that's probably what the audience is saying in the theater, just like, get out of there, dear God, please get out of there. Oh go. And yeah, you know, like you said, we've covered Invasion of the Body Snatchers in nineteen seventy eight, and this poor lady has done so much for sci fi horror, and then both places, her performance adds so much more to the atmosphere

16:06 for that feeling of fear that is just pervasive throughout the whole thing. Yeah, that shot of her when they're getting the stuff ready to get to the nostroma to get out of there, and she's you know, the lights on her and you get the shadow of the alien of the xenomorph on her when she flips around and then sees it. Oh my god, man, that scene was just so incredibly well done. Her reactions, and then when you get like the tail that comes up underneath her legs, you know, it is so sinister. And then you know, you go back to Ripley who's running through the hall and you just hear her screaming and it's just, oh my gosh, it's just so well done. Dude. Yeah, yeah, all right, Scott, before we continue on, let's take a little break and we'll come back. We will continue. Looking at the release of this was fairly sick like. Apparently the first screening didn't get a great reception until the second, when they, I guess had more of a visceral reaction from the audience. The wife of twentieth Century Fox president Ellen laid Junior got so scared that she refused to leave her house for over a day. There were people that were leaving the first row and getting seats further away, people yelling at the characters not to do certain things, send them a personal passing out, people fleeing to toilets and stuffing the speakers with napkins to drawn out the

17:36 sound. Wow, and the restrooms that were apparently left in a bad state because of getting sick in Tom Scarett's hometown, Apparently he visited one theater and they said, yeah, we had a real problem with that, so we cut out the chest prister scene. Oh my god, just yeah, just to avoid all that. It's like no, well, that's still not going to do it because people are terrified of this kind of things, right. So you mentioned Tom Scarett, who plays Captain of the Ship Captain Dallas. We know he was covered in nineteen eighty six Space Camp Top Gun. He's a laundry list of roles that he's done over the years. Then of course you've got John Hurt, who plays Kine, who obviously is famous for the chest bursting scene. I will always know him as Olivander from Harry Potter, but we we talked to him about him and the Black Cauldron in nineteen a six, and we talked him out in Watership down right m then three times because he was also the voice of Eric Gorton and Lord of the Rings.

18:37 Yeah, so yeah, there's quite a few times that we've talked about John Hurt because he's a fantastic actor. So the War Doctor, yes the way, Yeah, that's right, The War Doctor. Yep. Harry Dean Stanton as Brett. Many will know him from like Red Dawn, Pretty and Pink as Jack Christine the Green Mile, and on Ian Holme as Ash always will know him as Bilbo Baggins from Peter Jackson's Lord of the rings. He has a lot of other Obviously, I thought he was fantastic Ash. You did not know he was a robot and he did. They just had such a fantasty dub of hiding that, obviously, until Ripley finds out in that shot, you know, when she shoved him and then he comes back out and you just see that white stream just coming down his head, which just like, what what is that? Why is white coming down his head? And you know, and then you start figuring out what's going on as Ripley finds out. Yeah, yeah, and that's what a roller coaster of a sequence that is. Yeah, yeah, you know. Throughout this there's amazing writing by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald chuss it. But it seems like the character of Ash. We have to thank Walter Hill and David Guyler for making Ash and Android okay. But I audiences must have thought at the time, and again I'm enviously the people that are gonna see this for the first time because you're wondering, was he impregnated and we didn't know about it? So is he

20:12 one of the aliens? Again, we have no context for what these this Zeno more species does yet, so Yeah, to see him sweating that milky white substance and then to have his head knocked off. Yeah, and all of the decision to make his the mechanisms so organic and absolutely disgusting instead of the usual like C three po wires or something like that. Oh, it just completed that scene so much. And it must have just you know, talk about disgusting scenes seeing it had completely knocked off, that would have bet that probably made people pass out, Oh, no doubt. And then of course you know you mentioned the guy who knocked it out. Was it Yafat Coto who plays part uh huh who did such a fantastic And my understanding is Ridley Scott told him to always annoy Segony Weaver, even off camera, so that they would have so it would come off screen. I mean it would come on screen that she's passed off with him all the time. He just aggravated by him, and it shows. Yeah. Yeah, I mean to me, he's always going to be one of my favorite FBI agents of all time. Alonzo Moseley from Midnight Run Night Run, Yes, sir, he is so good. This is the guy that loves his coffee. Right every movie. I thought it was interesting to know that so Yaffett was a little upset about knowing what was going to happen and would I guess get into arguments

21:45 with Ridley Scott about it got to the point where he tried to avoid Yaffat with another entrance of the building entirely and what apparently slash with I'm going to say this the the wrong way, Uh but logi bodejo alien, Yeah, thinking that he could take him down with one punch, but apparently at one point that lifts him up in the air and that settled the whole thing and we're done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all right. Yeah. But yeah, the fact that he he admired Sigourney's so much and he liked her so much that he regretted having to do it. But it works, It works, It absolutely works. Yeah. You can see that they those characters do not like one another on screen, and that's what you want to see. You know, that scene where you know, she was trying to explain what was going on and he kept doing the turning on the gas or whatever that was and pissing her off as she was trying what yeah, you know, trying to explain. Oh man, that scene was so cool, so well done, and you could just see the tension between those two characters.

22:51 Yeah, well that they established that so well. When he's talking about bonuses, Yeah, oh yeah, we're not getting paid enough, we're not getting appreciated at all. And he's probably right. Yeah, and at a time when they're trying to just get home safe, there's a lot of arguing, a lot of you know, undercutting some kind of decisions that they were making. So yeah, that was really well written and fantastic performance by Jaffett. Absolutely well. I want to come back to Badeo, who plays the alien in it, But first off we've got to talk about the star of this movie. Of course, that's Ripley herself, Sigooney Weaver. She wasn't really well known up to this point. I know she had some television work and she was doing a lot of Broadway play. My understanding is what she was doing. I think we can all agree, Scott that Ripley is the very definition of a very strong female character. Yes, something we don't get a lot, we haven't had a lot of up to this point. But when you think of a strong female character, you immediately think Ripley. At least I do ye, and it goes further on with Aliens to see how strong her character is. But apparently she came up with the muttering you are my lucky star when she was strapping herself into the seat there at the end getting ready to get rid of the xenomorph that was on the Nostromo with her.

24:14 Just shows you how much she had bought into her character and wanting to make it something special. I thought she was incredible in this. You know, this is my introduction to Sigourney Weaver. No, I take that back. Ghostbusters was my introduction to Scorney Weaver, and then it would have been Alien because since I saw Alien so late. But still, it was nice to see her in this role because I don't see anybody else in this role, do you not? At all? I know that we'll get into what ifs a little bit later, and I just no. The flat answer is no, I can't imagine anybody else doing it. Her sense of authority on the screen that isn't demanding, it's not overpowering, it's just I'm right, Yeah, we shouldn't violate quarantine. I'm yeah, absolutely right, And you're not listening. Yeah, Oh my god, I can't. I can't imagine anybody else doing it. Yeah, me neither. You neither. Well, let's let's talk about Balagio Baldejo, who plays the creature the Xenomorph in this movie. Apparently he was a graphic designer by trade and they found him, I guess was at a bar. They were looking for somebody to play the creature. And about that point two, Ridley Scott made it very sure to everyone that he did not want a man in a suit. He did not want that to be seen on screen at all, and he did it because

25:49 you don't really see the creature completely, you know, head to toe in hardly any scene. I think there's one scene it almost is the whole thing, and that's when it comes out with Ripley there on the Nostromo. You almost get the whole creature, right, But the way he shot at the whole movie, you get like little bits and pieces. You get shadows on the wall, you get the tail, you know, obviously, you get the mouth because you can't get around that because that is the most important piece of the Xenomorph that we all love to see, that like the teeth and stuff like that. And with the I don't know what is that oil wherever they use that smiling iconic shot where it is its teeth and then opens its jaw for the second jot to come out. Yes, just just incredible stuff.

26:33 But they apparently found this actor at a bar and it's this is his only role, is that correct? Playing this creature? Yeah, and apparently he's like really tall. I want to say he was like six foot ten or something to those regards. Yeah, and that's why they want him because he was very wiry, and you know, he was would be able to get into this suit and be able to pull off what he pulls off in this movie. And I just thought he did an incredible job. And it's unfortunate, you know, you don't ever get to see his face because you can't because he's the Xeno Morph. But he still really did a fantastic job in that suit. Yeah, and considering you know, the impression they had to give of height and kind of the immense size of the Zeno Morph, but like you said, without ever giving it the scale, you never really knew how tall this thing was. You just knew that when it lands in front of Brett and kind of, you know, rears up to its massive form, that it cuts immediately to the head and you just see the head coming up and then you see the great Jaws and also other kind of things.

27:42 But at the same time, it's able to contort itself into a very what seems like a kind of finite space. When Ripley is on the escape shuttle and it's just sitting there waiting, it kind of feels like if you've ever seen one of those spiders that kind of hides itself, that like folds its legs in on itself to hide in a very tight space. Same kind of idea. I couldn't imagine being able to, you know, fit all six foot ten of that person in that tiny, tiny, none at all corner. But yeah, not at all. It reminds me one of one of my favorite shots. And there's a lot of good shots in this movie, but one of the shots that I love is when Brett was going to find Jones and he finally finds Jones and he's like, come on, come on out, come on, come on, and Jones starts to come out, and it starts that hissing and then the camera Brett doesn't see it, but but behind Brett you just see that the the is xenomorph come down behind him. You know, I love that shot. Dude silently, completely silent, silently and just you're like, oh crap, here we go. Yeah.

28:48 And one of the scenes where I kind of suspected Jonesy a little bit, to be honest, because he goes from being terrified and rearing back to a scene of almost curiosity when Britt is getting ripped apart by the xenomorph. And I mean, you know, it's not like the cat is malicious, but you're a little bit like, what's going on there? Played by four different cats? Wow? Very necessary and that shot apparently. Listening to the thirty fifth anniversary commentary with Ridley Scott talked about the use of a German shepherd in that scene. Yeah, so they had like a some kind of plane to obscure a German shepherd in the the eye line of the cat, and then when they needed to, they just pulled the board away slowly and it gave that great reaction, that hiss backing up into a corner. Not too but yeah, and almost I wonder if we almost didn't get Jonesy because of an allergic reaction with Sigourney Weaver. No, really, So the first day the Sigourney shot a scene with Jonesy, she started getting a really bad skin reaction hm. And they thought that she might be allergic to cats, and that it might be you know, instead of trying to find different cats,

30:23 maybe recast the cat, recast Sigourney. I can't imagine it, but apparently what was happening was that she was reacting to the glister and that was spread on her skin to make her look hot and sweaty. Wasn't the cat at all. No, let's blame the cat right away. Come on, now exactly we got our Jonesy, So yeah, that's awesome, all right, Scott, Well, we've talked a lot about this film already, so let's look through the lens a little bit here. A lot of behind the scenes kind of stuff. Man. I mean, when I was digging for information, there is information go lore out there on Alien. One of the things that I found interesting was apparently when Ridley Scott went to twentieth Century Fox, there's some other students that turned this down Fox, that actually turned this down too, And then he came back to Fox and they were like, all right, well, let's let's put a budget together and this kind of thing.

31:11 So initially his budget was like for a little over four million dollars, but yet they were still arguing over it and trying to figure it out. So while they were doing this, Ridley got bored and basically storyboarded the whole film while they were arguing, And then he took the storyboards and showed it to them, and they were so impressed by his storyboards, like, you now have eight million dollars. Yeah, I mean that's that's a hell of a storyboard job. Yeah. Right, you doubled the budget. Good job. Yeah, absolutely, and at a time when you know, they they probably had you know, uh sawceurcized eyes because they saw the success of Star Wars in seventy seven, right, yep, And apparently there's there's a lot of Star Wars connections to it. There was a lot of influence on Ridley Scott. This is one of three, the other two being two thousand and one in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is easy to see. Oh yeah, uh, but yeah, they were interested in seeing another sci fi hit, but then when they saw the storyboards, they got the green light. Yeah.

32:24 I went right through. Very impressive storyboards, that is for sure. Well, one of the things we got to talk about is HR Geiger Scott. Yeah, clearly his illustrations. His inspiration for the look. The way this film looks is because of him, I know, his original stuff. They had to like tone it down a little bit because apparently, I guess the creature was too sexualized, I believe, so they had to tone down that. But a lot of that is HR Geiger that we're seeing in the background and the space shockey and you know, all that kind of stuff, And that's really impressive. If no one hit if you ever seen H. R. Geiger's work, go look at it. You'll easily pull it up online. His stuff is very, very impressive. So I definitely can see why really Scott wanted his work to be some inspiration for this film. Yeah.

33:12 Well, and there's looking at some of that stuff is like looking at a maze, right, Like if you followed any of the lines, it's just such intricate line work and so industrially organic. Yeah. Right. It's one of the things that makes us Xeno work really interesting is that it blends so well into the the structure and the scenery that it's hard to distinguish one from the other. Geiger's work is great. It is admittedly has a lot of sexual elements to it, to say east But when you look at how much Geiger has really influenced character design just with this one movie, just with this one character, it's it's very impressive. And you know, we wouldn't have a lot of the alien characters that we have today. I don't think without that I kind of design, oh, without doubt. Yeah, no, yeah, I completely agree with that. Apparently, I guess Abandon and shot said were inspired by World War Two stories about the so called Grimlins that were on like the fighter planes and stuff, which which helped them inspire to write this film. Apparently, I guess one of them came up with the idea that they were trying to figure out how to get the alien on the ship or get it loose. But apparently they came up with the idea that the alien basically has sex with yeah, which I mean, yeah, the face hugger element, there's definitely an element there once you know how the mechanism

34:47 actually works. Yes, but I'm glad that they cut that out. There's a pin also supposed to be a sex scene between Dallas and Ripley. Yeah, I'm so glad they cut that needed it needed in this film at all, you would have just you know, ruined the you know how this film goes, the pacing everything, if you've done something like that. I think the pacing of the film is perfect. I noticed a three hour cut. I've never seened a three hour cut, but I want to. But what they have on screen is perfect in my opinion. Yeah, and to anybody who's watching for the first time, I would probably recommend watching the original just because I know there's director's cuts out there, but really, Scott has even said it really will works so well in that original edition. There's plenty of copies that you can find blu rays that have both, so you can kind of compare in contrast if you want to. But yeah, I think it's pitch perfect the way that it's straying together right now. Oh yeah, absolutely.

35:45 And know it's you know, we always talk about practical effects, you know, we you know, they use them in the seventies. They didn't have CGI and stuff back then. One of the things I found very interesting was the alien eggs. Apparently the inside of it was organic. I mean, they use like fresh cattle hearts and stomachs. You know that they got from like a local butchery apparently, and like the egg tube of the face hugger with sheep intestines. I mean, do you think they would go to this degree today? I don't think so. No, they certainly wouldn't risk it just from a health code violation. You know, there's a lot of stories on here thinking about the you know, the milky substances that come out of ash or you know, the sputtering that John Hurt does on the chest burster. Even when they're dissecting the face Hugger's innards. All of those things are under hot, hot, hot studio lights. Several takes that had to smell horrible. Yeah, no, thank you, no, thank you.

36:47 I smelled like the red lobster dumpster in the summer. Like, yeah, I wouldn't want to be a part of that, that's for sure. And you see gao you want what to come to that? Yeah? Well, then there's that other element, the sound engineering of this. You know, we've already talked about that surprising yelp that you get from the face Hugger that jumps a cane. But the newborn alien the chest Burster was apparently voiced by animal impersonator Percy Edwards really who was personally requested by Ridley Scott to do the sound effect. And we've heard him twice before and some big ones. Really.

37:30 In nineteen eighty six he was the voice of Ambrosious the dog in Labyrinth That's awesome, and he also collaborated with Jim Henson as the voice of fizz Gig in the Dark Crystal. Oh wow, yeah, okay, so pretty cool. Yeah, that is all right. So Scott, I know you mentioned earlier, you know, about we were talking about the water pouring down, you know, the the chains and stuff like. Apparently, I guess Fox was confused by that twenty century Fox. They were like, why why is this on this ship? But you know, Ridley Scott basically you know, told him, you know, he wanted those chains dangling in the movements and stuff like that because it, like you said, it added to the atmosphere of what was going on this ship. Because when you're moving around with these characters in that vinomorphe creature, who knows where it's at, So any kind of movement in the background or anything is gonna get your arges gone, Oh cup, there it is and make you jump. But then it's a false jump, right, So when the creature does finally come out, it's gonna get you. The scene where Brett you know, gets attacked, you know, and he you know, he takes his hat off and he puts his face up in the air and the water is like dripping on him, you know, basically to coul himself off. And you got all that going on around him, all of those elements and stuff that's happening. You know, it's sensory overload for your audience, which is a good thing, and that's what he was going for because he wanted the audience to be confused, which is what you said earlier of what's going on, and it's gonna stress you out, put you on the edge of your seat even more so.

38:59 When the creature does pop out, it's it just does everything it needs to do. So I agree with Gon on this, keep keep that stuff in there. Yeah, absolutely no, it was a it was a great decision. And I mean it also speaks to kind of the massive scale of this ship too, and how many hiding spaces they'd really have to explore. When he steps in there and you see that immants, I guess it's like a drop ship or something like that. Yeah, and all those chains hanging down, You're you're really forced to explore every nook and cranny with your eyes, but just as soon as you start to get a little bit closer, it cuts away. Used to absolutely perfect effect with with using something that felt familiar, like him taking off his hat and having that little, you know, mini shower, just letting the fresh water, you know, right onto your face cool you down after a little bit, after seeing the horrors that they've seen and getting into that sense of secure already right before he's at the park.

40:00 Yeah, Scott, did you know there's a connection to this movie too Back to the Future. I did not. I know you're a big Back to the Future fan, and I respect that. Yes, But apparently in the beginning, when the camera is moving around the ship, there's a Crups coffee grinder mounted to the wall. Oh, which is the same model that became the mister Fusion in Back to the Future. Yep. Yeah, hopefully he had an easier time getting it. Hopefully he just had to go to like, you know, a future target or whatever it was the show. Absolutely all right, Well, I'll tell you what. Let's take a little bit of a break and when we come back we'll get into let's score it. All right, everybody, welcome back Scott. Let's let's score this film.

40:45 But let's do something a little bit different this time. I know we love to discuss the film's music, but this time let's have our very own co host of phasers set the stun. Wayne, Why did do the honors? Since he is our Jerry goldz myth expert, Wayne, what can you tell us about this score? Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film Alien has a very interesting and troubled story. When director Ridley Scott was trying to decide who he wanted to score the film, Jerry Goldsmith's name was suggested to him by the then head of music for twentieth Century Fox, Lionel Newman, who had worked with Goldsmith many times and actually conducted the composer's score for Bandaleiro, The Damnation Alley and The Omen. Goldsmith wrote a score that was incredibly lush, terrifying, and oddly beautiful at times, and was very innovative, as he was known to be with the use of his instruments. He used many unusual sounds and instruments in his score, including a Conk's shell, an ectoplex, and a digeridoo to create this fifty seven minute masterpiece of score. His opening theme for the title has an almost romantic sense to it, starting with a solo trumpet and building into crescendo, which to the full orchestra as the full title of the film appears on screen. His score is incredibly atmospheric and very unnerving, and while it isn't the first science fiction film or horror film that Jerry Goldsmith scored, it is definitely his most ambitious. But after the score

42:16 was completed, things behind the scenes didn't go as well as whole. Goldsmith was well known for hating the use of temp tracks and films. He preferred to score his films unhindered and uninfluenced. However, Ridley Scott had requested that the film editor Terry Rollins create a temp track for the film, using music from past films that Goldsmith' has scored, but most prominently the nineteen sixty two film Freud. Scott had become very attached to the style of music the temp track brought to the film, which was very very different from the vision that Jerry Goldsmith had created in his original score for the film. Scott asked Goldsmith to return to the scoring stage again to rewrite some of the music, and again Ridley Scott wasn't happy with what had created for him, feeling that he had just given him exactly more the same thing. But in the end, very little of Goldsmith's score was used as intended in the film, with only one cue used in its entirety and the others chopped and clipped to pieces, with much of the temp track and the cues for Freud heard in the final release of the film. Goldsmith's incredible end credits were replaced with a classical music piece called The Romantic by composer Howard Hanson, and Goldsmith would go on to call his experience working on Alien one of the most miserable experiences I have ever had in this profession. It would sour his relationship with Ridley Scott, however, but he would return six years later to score the director's film Legend, only to find his entire score rejected by the studio and replaced with another.

43:50 It's amazing the variety of music that we got with this score, given just how different it is from the other sci fi masterpiece from nineteen seventy nine, he wrote Star Trek the motion picture. The complete score and all of the unused and rescored cues were finally released in two thousand and seven by Introda Records for everyone to listen and to finally enjoy, and it really is an incredible listening experience. The two disc CD was newly remastered from the original one inch multi track session Masters, giving us the perfect best quality of the music, and also includes the nineteen seventy nine album LP Master And it's still available to buy from both in Troda and Amazon stores, so it's a must to own for both Goldsmith's soundtrack collectors and alien film fans. All right, Wayne, thanks for the incredible in depth look at Jerry goldsmith work on this. That's was fantastic of your explanation. It's hard to believe that they chopped up his score like that. It's just as talented as Jerry Goldsmith is. I just cannot believe they would do that. Now, I do understand the portion of when you don't have music as a director and you're putting something together, you need something to go with it so you can get that pacing going on.

45:07 You know what little work that I've done. I do do that. You know, I'll grab a score that I think is going to work right there to give me that that feeling as I'm putting the edit together. But you shouldn't be stuck on that. And apparently Scott got stuck on that, which made him butcher Goldsmith's score. What a shame. Yeah, and it's a shame because I mean, the pieces that we do here contribute so much to that atmosphere and that that pacing. Yeah, it's a shame to hear that something happened like that, especially with Goldsmith. But yeah, it definitely caused some tension between those two in the future sity, which Wayne did explid. All right, well, let's quote this. Scott find any interesting quotes?

45:50 Yeah, I mean the one that I wanted to go to. I absolutely love Secordney Weaver and such an important contribution to cinema and sci fi in general. But I found a quote about playing Ripley. She said, I felt like she's flying by the seat of her pants the whole time and hoping that she's right and that she can save her crew. There's no time to think that I do the right thing, because you're always onto the next horrible crisis. Looking back, I feel like the tremendous gift to me that I certainly didn't ever feel like the start of the star of a movie. And I think it's appropriate because its an ensemble movie. I felt like a survivor at a certain point, for sure. But she's not putting herself in the sense that she was the star of the movie. She's acknowledging how much this is very much a group effort, even though she's known as such an iconic poor character to the Alien franchise in general. A lot of humility there, and that makes it that much more impressive to think about what she's done for female characters and for little in general. Yeah. Absolutely so. I found one from really Scott. It was in an interview in twenty seventeen on casting Alien in nineteen seventy nine. He said, I cast Ripley really late. Two weeks out, we still hadn't found her. Then somebody came up, I think it was Warren Batty, and said, there's this woman on off Broadway on the theater boards called Sigourney Weaver. You shouldn't meet with her. Interesting,

47:23 So I called her, went to New York. She walks in she must have been six foot six with an afro, So she's seven foot two and I was like a midget and I had dinner with her. That was it. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, And Saganoni Weaver is tall. I do know that. I want. I think she's like six foot two or something like that. So she is a tall lady. But how interesting is he found his Ripley that way? Yeah? What she has done to today. Sigourney Weaver was just a fantastic actress, still is a fantastic actress, but always been known for such a strong lead in Ripley. Yeah, and I can't imagine anybody else having any of these roles. We can get into the what if a little bit, let's talk about who else may have been there. So with Ripley, it was almost Meryl Streep. Oh really at one point. Rich When I think about it, if I'm going to that you know, alternate reality blockbuster that we always talk about, it would be interesting to pull that off the shelf because I think we would have gotten a very strong screen presence. I don't think we would have gotten the same energy that we got from Sigourney, because I can't imagine that coming from everybody else.

48:45 It's so indelible to her performance. I can't imagine anybody else doing it. I think they made the right choice without question. Apparently they were college mates at Yale. Yeah. Kind of interesting. Another what if was Harrison Ford turned down the role of Dallas, and I'm glad for that. I mean, come on, we had Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Star Wars a New Hope. Yeah, and we're gonna be getting him soon in in proNT Structs Back, which is after this movie. I know that. But he's had a lot of movies going on. We've already discussed several of them, you know, in seventeen and seventy nine. No, I'm glad that didn't happen, to be honest. I love Harrison Ford, but no, not as Captain Dallas. No way, no, no. And I think Tom Scarrett is a perfect choice there as well. Right, I think his his energy. It never really felt like Dallas was overtaking the situation or having a little bit too much intensity. There was always a little bit of that laid back to Dallas. Yeah, I think Harrison Ford probably would have dialed that a little too forward. It would have been a little bit too much, you know, probably the iconic finger pointing and a lot of the stuff that we're used to. I feel like they would have been inclined to dial up any kind of romantic angle between Dallas and Ripley, which I think would have been a mistake. We've already talked about that. But yeah, yeah,

50:15 that's a note for me on Harrison Ford. I agree. Apparently Tommy Lee Jones was up for Dallas as well. No, thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I can't see it. I can't see it now, No, not at all. I don't understand. I mean, obviously you're you don't know who your cast is going to be. We obviously are looking back as the character the actors who've already played these characters, so we know how good they are. Sure, it's a more difficult situation. But Tommy Lee Jones really, Scott? No? Yeah, did you say really Scott or Ridley Scott? Take it either way. I'm fine with that, no, And I mean, you know, it kind of reminds me that Tommy's reaction at the time kind of reminds me of his, you know, approach to two Face in the Batman movie. You know, just wanting to kind of play it over the top. Apparently he was very interested in playing the Xenomorph because he said it was the only part that really grabbed him, which is surprising because there's so much more to the interpersonal relationships between these characters that makes this so much more than just a monster movie. It really is the the intensity and the tension that you feel between them and the comriterie that you feel between the crew that makes you want them to survive.

51:30 So I think he's he's missing the beat there, So I'm you didn't get it. Apparently, when this movie is trying to be made, Roger Corman wanted it, which I love Roger Corman, but I'm glad it didn't happen. Yeah, and then Fox apparently wanted George Lucas to do it, but obviously George Lucas was too busy with Star Wars because he was in the middle of making Empire Strikes Back yep, Count of Skinner Money. Yeah, so yeah. Walter Hill originally was going to direct his film, but he pulled out because he gave the job to Really Scott. Because Walter Hill apparently was the main reason why twentieth Century Fox took this film, and he wanted really Scott to take it because he was impressed with Scott's work on a Duellist in nineteen seventy seven, which is why really Scott got it. But I'm sure there's more behind it that, because this is such a passion project for really Scott. And you see elements of Blade Runner in this too. That's going to come up later on in the eighties that really Scott's going to do, you know. You see a little bit of elements of that too coming up.

52:34 So a lot of stuff that could have really changed the face of this film. But I'm glad that we got what we did. Yeah. Well, and it's interesting the connection to Walter Hill fod kind of an interesting factoid out there. So the process of getting ready for this movie had an impact on The Warriors, another nineteen seventy nine movie. Yep, Hill and Geiler were watching a movie called Madman from seventy eight because they heard positive notes on Sigourney Weaver's performance. I wanted to see if she might be a good fit for Ripley. It turned out she was, obviously, and he was also impressed with a supporting actor named Michael Beck, and then he thought back would be a good fit for the major role in The Warriors, who obviously came back. We've already talked about as the gang leader Swan in that movie.

53:24 So thanks to Alien, Yeah, thanks thanks to Sigourney Weaver, we got Michael Beck and the Warriors. It all worked out, didn't it exactly? All Right, Well, let's rewind any favorite scenes, anything that you loved in this movie. Oh God, we've talked about so much. I feel like I want to go back to Ash's malfunction scene. It's a good one. There was. There was so much subtlety in there, and I think it's one that bears rewatching, its reason to rewatch. So if you've already seen in the movie and you know what happens with Ash, look for all the subtle cues that he wasn't that something was going wrong with him. And obviously it's a malfunction, but little eye flutters, little nuances of his performance that make him seem like he's obviously got something wrong. And then when you get into that scene where he's like spinning around the room spitting out that horrible white stuff. Oh that crazy sound all the way to one of my favorite bits, and it goes back to sound design his voice after being decapitated.

54:40 Oh yeah, it's very reminiscent of my absolute favorite scene from Alien three where they reactivate Bishop. Yeah. The way they modulated his voice was pitch perfect, Absolutely pitch perfect. I'm still curious as to how they did it, but it makes it sound so otherworldly, I guess there is a way to say it and semi mechanical but still organic. It's it's very disquieting all the way to his you know, when he's switched off and he just has that frozen grin on his face. Oh God, that seems so amazing, that whole scene that they shot there. I mean, obviously you know how he did it with his head up to the table and stuff like that, but man, it looked so good. Never once did it look fake. Well, it's that whole trick of like it's not necessarily about hiding the wires, it's making people not care enough to look for them, right, Yeah, that's where it does it. Yeah, so good. And the fact that they melt his face off of the flamethrower and it reveals that kind of like not really a skull underneath, but like a porcelain version of his face, which made what about you any other scenes. I think it's it's you know, I mentioned it earlier, it's how really Scott shot this film. You know, tons of handheld throughout this movie because of all the close quarters.

56:06 It gave it this very claustrophobic feel a lot. And even though you're dealing with this enormous ship outside of the Nostromo, but you don't know where the alien's at. So you've got these people who are running around chaos, and the camera is just following them and jiggling all around, and you know all of that. I just I love how this was shot, and I love the fact that Ridley Scott did a lot of that himself, which apparently you can't do when you're in the USA. My understanding is he tried to do it and later runner, but he wasn't allowed because it's against the rules that the director is not allowed to be the cameraman too. Apparently. I guess you can run the camera at times, but you can't be the actual cameraman themselves, which I guess he got irritated by those regulations that we have in America when it comes to those kind of things. But anyway, I just love the way he shot this movie in its entirety. You can tell that he storyboarded this movie from beginning to end, just because of the way how good it looks. Just the design of everything, the Xenomorph's design, you know, the ship's designs, the sets, the sets are so tangible.

57:13 You know, a lot of that would be CGI today, it really would, but back then, no, you don't have that. And you've got these real, genuine sets that look real, feel real. You can touch them, you can see them. And my understanding too is they wired a lot of the control so if you touched one button, another light would come on somewhere else in the background, so it looked like things were happening on that ship. And that's brilliant to me because it made it feel more tangible, more realistic. And I don't know how many other films have done that, but the fact that they went through that much problem, that trouble to make that happen makes this film that much better. Yeah. Well, I mean heads off to Scott for doing so much handheld work, especially considered the cramped quarters that they were in. The tight spaces, right, it's a varying scale of the giant room where Brett is killed all the way to where Dallas is crawling around through the air duct to the air fence whatever that is.

58:17 That's not going to be easy, and especially in that tight space. Apparently that was something that was used to effect to heighten that sense of claustrophobia. Redley Scott also chose to push the walls of the set in a little bit more every day so they would feel more and more cramped every single time. So to be able to work within those kind of situations, it's amazing. So that that leads me to a question for you, Scott, what's your favorite kill in this movie? Do you have one? I'm going to disqualified Chess Burster. Yeah, yes, we're just qualifying Chess burchard Icic.

59:06 I'm going to have to go ahead and give it to Parker. Okay, fight Codo because the that's probably the most visceral kill that we've seen, and the fact that he was fighting back against it. I think he was one of the only characters where I thought he had a chance, you know, of possibly getting out of it, or at least getting a couple of hits in before before he was gone. Yeah, but the offense performance in that specifically, there's this scene that keeps playing in my head of when he's you know, he's giving it that final screaming, you see, like the blood and his teeth just before he's absolutely squished. That one was just so visceral.

59:49 I think it probably had an impact on all those movie goers that were running out of the theater. Yeah, what about you? No, I went with Parker, but I kind of went with Lambert and Parker. They both get killed in the same spot. I went with both of them just because the way it was shot and their reactions on you know, obviously Lambert had to watch Parker get killed and then it was basically Lambert's turn. I went with both of them. I thought that scene was so well done and their performances just made it that much better. So, yes, I agree with you on that stut. Yeah, all right, Well let's move to the impact of this film. It's a pretty big one in my opinion.

1:00:29 Yeah, I mean, this film started an entire franchise that is still going strong. I mean, in a few months we get Alien Romulus coming to the theater, which looks like it's returning to the roots of this movie. By looking at the trailer, would you agree with that absolutely. Yeah. I saw that trailer recently in the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I think it was Yeah, and it very much goes back to the terrifying nature of the face hiok, but also a character that seems to be following in Ripley's footsteps, possibly pretty literally, but there's no denying that the character of Ripley, the way that Ripley was written and the performance of Sigourney Weaver changed certainly sci fi but strong action female leads, strong horror female leads.

1:01:30 It very much defined. I think a lot of the writing that we're lucky to have gotten afterward to follow in those footsteps, to recognize how different that was at the time and how much that could really change. Not only people that are are enamored with that character's performance, absolutely captivated by it, but people that are inspired by it too to find their own strength. I think there's a lot of people that definitely get that from not only this Ripley, but the Ripley that we see in Aliens. Following this, Yeah, I mean, we get arguably the best sequel with any film in eighty six with Aliens by James Cameron, and is going to add to an even bigger depth to Ridley Ripley's story and her character and how strong she is. But what I like to think is because of Sigourney Weaver, because of Ridley Scott, because of Ripley, I think that's how we got Sarah Connor. Oh good call, I really do. Yeah, very very similar arcs there with somebody who isn't necessarily assumed to be the sole survivor at the end of this.

1:02:50 It really doesn't seem like she will be until we hear her say no, we need to maintain the quarantine. Then it's kind of like this seems like probably the only in this crew that's really thinking straight at this time, let alone how she you know, takes care of the xenomorphon at the end yep. And then I mean this was continue to launch Ridley Scott's career, launch Sigony Weaver's career. Everyone who's in this movie is going to launch her career even more. And I mean, my goodness, we're talking about a movie made in you know, came out in seventy nine. I watched this with my nephew last night. Again, you know, I've seen it many many times. My nephew had never seen it. He's he'll be sixteen next month.

1:03:30 He was amazed on how good this movie was, and when I told him, you know when this was made, he's like, no, so this came out in nineteen seventy nine. He's like, uh what He could not tell this was made in seventy nine because it's done that well. Yeah, it absolutely holds up. Yeah, I don't I don't see anything that would they would be questioned today. I think the only possible scene is when Dallas turns around and the xenoworfh does that kind of ta dha kind of reaching out with both hands. But otherwise, there's so much that's new to this and there's so much that is unfamiliar. It's not like it's dated tech.

1:04:13 Everything is mechanical. You can very much assume that this is, you know, kind of a working class ship. There's nothing necessarily fancy about it. There's nothing that seems like it would be dated future tech. Yeah, I'm glad you had a chance to do that. So that sounds like it'd be a great experience. It really was. And let's not forget this movie created that sci fi horror genre. It really did. I mean, other movies tried to be to duplicate this, but they've not done it in my opinion. And I know Predtor comes along and gets to share the universe with Alien with the Xenomorph, so we do get that franchise as well down the road.

1:04:54 Yeah, if I was gonna recommend a double feature for this one, obviously you've got Alien and then Aliens. But if you're going back to movies that are forty five years old and that I think still hold up, I would say do a double feature of Invasion of the Body Snatchers an Alien, because I think there are several elements of their DNA that are shared, the sound design, the production, the use of atmosphere and suspense and terror. Obviously Alien surpasses Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but they're both so closely related. In my opinion, I think it's it's worth a double shot. YEP, I completely agree, All right, Scott? Where'd you see this at?

1:05:36 So? I saw this in two separate places. I watched it once on Hulu, but then I, you know, decided that's not good enough. So I saw it on Blu Ray on the big screen of the house, and it's it's so worth the big screen. When you're watching this, make sure that you've got the lights low, you're tucked in. I'd ready to spend the next two hours or more and really watch it the way it was meant to be a seene, which is on a big screen. How about you. Yeah, I owned it on Blu Ray. This movie belongs in the collection. Everybody should own this because it's just so good. Yeah, turn up, turn up the volume, turn out the lights and watch this movie for for two hours and it is quite the treat. I agree.

1:06:28 Watch it on the big screen. You can watch it on all right. I was always We want to thank our listeners and hope you're excited as much as we are as we continue our journey through the year nineteen seventy nine. Hit us up, let us know what. Who do you think had the best death in Alien? You can always reach us at www dot film by podcast dot com. You can reach us at a film by podcast at gmail dot com. You can also reach us on any of the social media's final report of the commercial starship in the Stunn, a third officer reporting the other members of the crew, Dean Lambert Parker, Brett Ash and Captain Dallas are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, network should pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Strumo, signing off until our film reels start rolling again. Go out, watch something new, watch something different, and who knows what you will discover next. Thanks everyone,