First-time "Alien" watch... some questions...

[Gaith]

No spoilers for the sequels, please. Thanks!


1. If the Company knew about the signal and deliberately sent the Nostromo into its vicinity, why did it allow the computer to (possibly) identify the signal as a warning? (Though that was a cool beat; I'll give it that.)

2. How did the cat get in that storage box? How did the motion sensor pick it up through what looked like a pretty well-sealed door? And why, minutes after ordering everyone to travel in pairs, does Ripley let the hat-wearing dude wander off for several minutes, when it becomes clear that finding the cat wasn't a piece of cake?

3. The captain screwed up his own plan pretty well, didn't he? There was no reason to believe the alien knew about his flame-thrower or had any cause to fear him, so as long as he stayed put, he had the upper hand. But a bit of Lambert screaming rattles him enough to move down a freakin' ladder, which negates his entire weapon ability?

4. For that matter, the flame-throwers were admittedly cool, but on a ship with that much metal and gear, wouldn't there be some heavier-duty potential weapons? If not guns or laser guns, laser cutters or at least arc welders?

5. I suppose the Company assumed that the alien won't have any interest in Ash, and that he'll be able to pilot the ship home? A dubious assumption, seeing as he's been eating and hanging around with the human-scented crew, but okay, I'll bite...

6. How can Ripley be so close to the alien in the shuttle and not smell it? Does it really not smell like anything? Has she no sense of smell? (Seems this scene was an unscripted one by Scott... out-universe, that makes sense...)


Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the movie, and a homicidal alien is at least more plausible than Jaws' ship-destroying shark (riiiiggghhht), and then I suppose horror movies require characters to act stupidly, but...

 

[Candlelight]

1. The computer didn't, it interpreted it as a beacon, Dallas thought it was a distress call. It was Ripley who worked out it was a warning. This scene was (for some reason) removed from the 2004 edit I believe.

2. The cat-in-the-box is a bit of a silly scene, and isn't explained. There may have been a hole in the back of the locker. As for letting Brett go off by himself, at that stage they thought they were dealing with something the size of a squirrel. Searching in groups of three was for catching the Alien, not for protection.

3. The motion trackers were pretty iffy to start with. Whether it was deliberate or Ridley Scott's filming style, Dallas does think he saw a shadow move above him, which is why he goes down a level.

4. Acid for blood.

5. Ash was stronger than a human, so may have been able to 'wrestle' with it. Remember the company only picked up the signal, they had no idea what the Alien was. Plus the android would be loyal to the end; a human might chicken out.

6. It mustn't have a smell. Or the cabin smelled of last night's curry which masked the smell.

 

[Gaith]

1. The computer didn't, it interpreted it as a beacon, Dallas thought it was a distress call. It was Ripley who worked out it was a warning. This scene was (for some reason) removed from the 2004 edit I believe.

No, it's pretty clear that the computer's doing the decoding, albeit at Ripley's request - which is probably why that beat was removed.

Dallas does think he saw a shadow move above him, which is why he goes down a level.

He does? Must have missed that entirely.

4. Acid for blood.

Yes. Quite. Okay.

Remember the company only picked up the signal, they had no idea what the Alien was.

It certainly seemed as though the Company knew the creature was possibly deadly.

It mustn't have a smell. Or the cabin smelled of last night's curry which masked the smell.

I think you'd do better sticking to my "Ripley can't smell" theory.

 

[Candlelight]

1. The computer didn't, it interpreted it as a beacon, Dallas thought it was a distress call. It was Ripley who worked out it was a warning. This scene was (for some reason) removed from the 2004 edit I believe.

No, it's pretty clear that the computer's doing the decoding, albeit at Ripley's request - which is probably why that beat was removed.

Sorry, I meant initially. Ash probably got Mother to wake everyone up and got everyone into rescue mode, but when Ripley actually got Mother to decipher the signal down to the specifics she found the real meaning.

Remember the company only picked up the signal, they had no idea what the Alien was.

It certainly seemed as though the Company knew the creature was possibly deadly.

I believe it was more along the lines of "they wanted it for their bio-weapons division". It's likely they determined the signal was a warning early on, which meant it was protecting something of value. Further, the signal may have had more information embedded in it than Ripley was able to gleam from it.

Either way, the crew were expendable. If the warning turned out to be something else, it didn't matter if they didn't come back.

 

[RedShirt]

1. If the Company knew about the signal and deliberately sent the Nostromo into its vicinity, why did it allow the computer to (possibly) identify the signal as a warning? (Though that was a cool beat; I'll give it that.)

I guess the company didn't think it was all that important.
"Mother" certainly wouldn't have been as powerful as the computers back home, and as we saw the first hint that the beacon might have a deeper message wasn't even found until it was too late to do anything about it.

2. How did the cat get in that storage box? How did the motion sensor pick it up through what looked like a pretty well-sealed door? And why, minutes after ordering everyone to travel in pairs, does Ripley let the hat-wearing dude wander off for several minutes, when it becomes clear that finding the cat wasn't a piece of cake?

I assume you mean the equipment locker down on the engineering deck? Take a look at the movie again; not only was the locker open a couple of inches but the door to the room was partially open as well.

3. The captain screwed up his own plan pretty well, didn't he? There was no reason to believe the alien knew about his flame-thrower or had any cause to fear him, so as long as he stayed put, he had the upper hand. But a bit of Lambert screaming rattles him enough to move down a freakin' ladder, which negates his entire weapon ability?

These weren't trained soldiers, these were "truckers in space."
Dallas may have went into the air ducts with the best of intentions but found himself overwhelmed by the whole situation. I thought he kept his cool admirably well once Lambert started to panic but made a bad tactical decision to move to a different area after putting his hand in goo - bringing it home in no uncertain terms that he was not alone in there. His main concern was then getting back to safety as fast as possible... too bad the other tracker apparently wasn't showing movement and Lambert was to panicked to be helpful.

4. For that matter, the flame-throwers were admittedly cool, but on a ship with that much metal and gear, wouldn't there be some heavier-duty potential weapons? If not guns or laser guns, laser cutters or at least arc welders?

An arc welder? Really?
Would you want to have to get close enough to the monster to attempt to attach a grounding wire to it then hope it sits still long enough for you to find out if it is conductive enough to sustain a welding arc?
To expand on the earlier answer, when the little monster (the face hugger) bleeds enough acid to eat through 3 decks after getting a little nick then the last thing you want to be doing is intentionally trying to blow large holes in the adult.
The original point of the incinerator units was not really to be a weapon but a simple method of "discouragement" as they attempted to corral the alien through the ducts to the airlock.

5. I suppose the Company assumed that the alien won't have any interest in Ash, and that he'll be able to pilot the ship home? A dubious assumption, seeing as he's been eating and hanging around with the human-scented crew, but okay, I'll bite...

I'm pretty sure the company assumed their android would be smart enough to stay out of the alien's line of fire as well.
We have absolutely no clue what kind of sense organs the aliens have, nor how they detect & tack their prey so the android might possibly have been the safe bet on surviving... until he malfunctioned, anyway.

6. How can Ripley be so close to the alien in the shuttle and not smell it? Does it really not smell like anything? Has she no sense of smell? (Seems this scene was an unscripted one by Scott... out-universe, that makes sense...)

What exactly do you expect a bio-mechanical entity to smell like? If it has spent the whole movie crawling through the bowels of the Nostromo I would expect it to smell like industrial greases & lubricants as well as general grime... kind of like what I expect that equipment area on the Narcissus to smell like.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the movie, and a homicidal alien is at least more plausible than Jaws' ship-destroying shark (riiiiggghhht), and then I suppose horror movies require characters to act stupidly, but...

The alien wasn't homicidal, it was attempting to procreate.
Hell, we're never left with a really good impression of who it did kill (beyond its host, that is)...
Kane: obviously
Brett: maybe, maybe not. Definitely received a head shot, but I don't see what happened to him in the novel and director's cut happening to dead tissue.
Dallas: no
Parker: yes, but in self defense... and possibly with intent to do to him what it did to Brett.
Lambert: no clue one way or the other. The quick cut of the killing room that Ripley finds is somewhat ambiguous.

I've always loved this movie with a passion so I have to disagree with the notion that any of the characters acted stupidly. They were regular people with blue collar jobs thrust into the middle of a really fucked up situation. I thought they were all well written & played, and I can see many people I've known throughout my life in each one of them.

 

[saturn5]

1. If the Company knew about the signal and deliberately sent the Nostromo into its vicinity, why did it allow the computer to (possibly) identify the signal as a warning? (Though that was a cool beat; I'll give it that.)

I guess the company didn't think it was all that important.
"Mother" certainly wouldn't have been as powerful as the computers back home, and as we saw the first hint that the beacon might have a deeper message wasn't even found until it was too late to do anything about it.

2. How did the cat get in that storage box? How did the motion sensor pick it up through what looked like a pretty well-sealed door? And why, minutes after ordering everyone to travel in pairs, does Ripley let the hat-wearing dude wander off for several minutes, when it becomes clear that finding the cat wasn't a piece of cake?

I assume you mean the equipment locker down on the engineering deck? Take a look at the movie again; not only was the locker open a couple of inches but the door to the room was partially open as well.
These weren't trained soldiers, these were "truckers in space."
Dallas may have went into the air ducts with the best of intentions but found himself overwhelmed by the whole situation. I thought he kept his cool admirably well once Lambert started to panic but made a bad tactical decision to move to a different area after putting his hand in goo - bringing it home in no uncertain terms that he was not alone in there. His main concern was then getting back to safety as fast as possible... too bad the other tracker apparently wasn't showing movement and Lambert was to panicked to be helpful.
An arc welder? Really?
Would you want to have to get close enough to the monster to attempt to attach a grounding wire to it then hope it sits still long enough for you to find out if it is conductive enough to sustain a welding arc?
To expand on the earlier answer, when the little monster (the face hugger) bleeds enough acid to eat through 3 decks after getting a little nick then the last thing you want to be doing is intentionally trying to blow large holes in the adult.
The original point of the incinerator units was not really to be a weapon but a simple method of "discouragement" as they attempted to corral the alien through the ducts to the airlock.

I'm pretty sure the company assumed their android would be smart enough to stay out of the alien's line of fire as well.
We have absolutely no clue what kind of sense organs the aliens have, nor how they detect & tack their prey so the android might possibly have been the safe bet on surviving... until he malfunctioned, anyway.

6. How can Ripley be so close to the alien in the shuttle and not smell it? Does it really not smell like anything? Has she no sense of smell? (Seems this scene was an unscripted one by Scott... out-universe, that makes sense...)

What exactly do you expect a bio-mechanical entity to smell like? If it has spent the whole movie crawling through the bowels of the Nostromo I would expect it to smell like industrial greases & lubricants as well as general grime... kind of like what I expect that equipment area on the Narcissus to smell like.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the movie, and a homicidal alien is at least more plausible than Jaws' ship-destroying shark (riiiiggghhht), and then I suppose horror movies require characters to act stupidly, but...

The alien wasn't homicidal, it was attempting to procreate.
Hell, we're never left with a really good impression of who it did kill (beyond its host, that is)...
Kane: obviously
Brett: maybe, maybe not. Definitely received a head shot, but I don't see what happened to him in the novel and director's cut happening to dead tissue.
Dallas: no
Parker: yes, but in self defense... and possibly with intent to do to him what it did to Brett.
Lambert: no clue one way or the other. The quick cut of the killing room that Ripley finds is somewhat ambiguous.

I've always loved this movie with a passion so I have to disagree with the notion that any of the characters acted stupidly. They were regular people with blue collar jobs thrust into the middle of a really fucked up situation. I thought they were all well written & played, and I can see many people I've known throughout my life in each one of them.

Agree with the last point, they did ok considering they were out of their depth, facing the unknown and being undermined by Ash at every turn.

In the novelisation they do have laser guns but they could pierce the hull as could the xenos blood (significantly the Marines in Aliens use projectile weapons). The plan was to drive the critter into an airlock with the heat and then vent it into space as Ripley eventually does. Gotta say I never considered the whole smell bit, maybe it doesn't smell of anything? It's never mentioned in any other film.
There is a theory that the creature actually tries to mate with Lambert as a female and intends to do the same with Ripley which is why it enjoys voyeuristically watching her strip to her skimpy pink undies (as do we!).
If you watch Alien vs Predator; Requiem you discover the company actually does know of the creatures existence. I always figured Ash planned to freeze Kane but the chestburster erupted before he could. And I'm sure Ash would have let the creature kill him if necessary (all other priorities rescinded)

 

[Starkers]

Interesting thread.

I don't think any of them really acted that stupidly, rather they did the sort of stupid things we'd all do (let's face it who wouldn't look into the egg like Kane did!) and lets be honest here, Ripley at least is smart enough to not want to let Kane back in and to enforce strict quarrantine! But even when the crew are smart things work against them, namely Ash!

As for the smell thing. Well as people have said how'd you even know an Alien smells of anything? Plus as has also been stated the ship likely stinks to high heaven anyway, and I doubt Narcissus smells any better really (probably a lot staler) plus there's the fact that Ripley herself probably smells pretty ripe by now given all the running about in extreme heat (plus fear) she's done.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Yeah. I kinda reached that conclusion as well. And as far as suspension of disbelief goes I've had to go much further with other films than I did with Alien.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Now go watch Aliens!

 

[Candlelight]

The alien wasn't homicidal, it was attempting to procreate.
Hell, we're never left with a really good impression of who it did kill (beyond its host, that is)...
Kane: obviously
Brett: maybe, maybe not. Definitely received a head shot, but I don't see what happened to him in the novel and director's cut happening to dead tissue.
Dallas: no
Parker: yes, but in self defense... and possibly with intent to do to him what it did to Brett.
Lambert: no clue one way or the other. The quick cut of the killing room that Ripley finds is somewhat ambiguous.

If you take the cocoon scene into account then after Kane, Brett and Dallas were taken as egg-fodder. Parker was killed because the Alien perceived him as a threat. Lambert was killed to be taken back as possible food/nutrients for the growing eggs.

In the novel (and partially shown in the film) the alien was trying to cram Lambert into an air shaft to take her back to the nest. For whatever reason the Alien abandoned this idea (with Brett and Dallas, keeping the bodies was part of the plan). Perhaps it realised Ripley was still running about and could use her instead? The other unfortunate thought is Lambert was still alive, and could've been used as a host for the new Brett-Egg facehugger.

What is interesting, and I wish we'd seen more of it, is why Lambert has no pants on in that final scene. There was a talk of a sort of 'rape' but it never made it to screen.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Remember the company only picked up the signal, they had no idea what the Alien was.

Or did they? Even after all of these films, it's still kinda ambiguous as to what the company knew & when. Presumably Ridley Scott's prequels will answer this (if they ever get made).

Still, it seems like the company didn't handle things particularly well. If they knew what they were dealing with, they should have sent marines. If they didn't know, they should have at least sent a more equipped science team. Unfortunately, they seemed far more concerned with secrecy than they did with successfully retrieving an alien.

I've always wondered, what exactly did the bio-weapons division plan to do with the alien?

There is a theory that the creature actually tries to mate with Lambert as a female and intends to do the same with Ripley which is why it enjoys voyeuristically watching her strip to her skimpy pink undies (as do we!).

You know, I've never gotten that voyeuristic interpretation of that scene that so many other people find in it.

 

[saturn5]

Now go watch Aliens!

And stop RIGHT THERE, don't bother with any of the others just watch Alien and Aliens and stop RIGHT THERE! Believe me it's the right thing to do

Alien is full or rape both literal and metaphorical, right down to the design of the creature. Ripley stripping off is so gratuitous you feel it belongs in a B-movie. Not that it's not an enjoyable scene

In Alien 4 the scientists say they've developed new alloys and vaccines from the bugs not to mention Ripley 8's formidable powers. And their potential as a weapon is pretty clear

 

[RedShirt]

Remember the company only picked up the signal, they had no idea what the Alien was.

Or did they? Even after all of these films, it's still kinda ambiguous as to what the company knew & when. Presumably Ridley Scott's prequels will answer this (if they ever get made).

Well the novelization goes a bit more in depth but the film itself only allows us to infer that the company knew enough to have their curiosity aroused.
Dallas said Ash had replaced his regular science officer at their last stop, and Ash turned out to be a company plant acting on orders that Ripley read with her own eyes.
The company may not have known if there was anything viable at the signal's source but it certainly hoped there was.

Still, it seems like the company didn't handle things particularly well. If they knew what they were dealing with, they should have sent marines. If they didn't know, they should have at least sent a more equipped science team. Unfortunately, they seemed far more concerned with secrecy than they did with successfully retrieving an alien.

Ah, but were talking about a profit driven interstellar corporation here. The options you bring up cost serious money... probably more than the company was willing to risk on something that could turn out to be nothing more than a xeno-archeological curiosity.
But on the slim chance that there may be something worthwhile at the signal's source it's probably much cheaper to reroute a heavily insured tugboat already scheduled to pass near the system (in a cosmic sense) crewed with peons and monitored by a specifically programmed android.
If it turned out nothing was there then all everybody has lost is time... and the company would probably figure out a way to dock the crew for that.
If something was there then they recover what they can, start patenting the hell out of anything viable, claim the planetoid as company property, and then send out the science teams.
And if something went wrong and the tugboat was lost, then they just let the insurance pay out and use the whole exercise as a massive tax write-off at the end of the fiscal year. And all the bigwigs get bonuses for their forethought and prudence.

 

[Candlelight]

[Q
Dallas said Ash had replaced his regular science officer at their last stop, and Ash turned out to be a company plant acting on orders that Ripley read with her own eyes.
The company may not have known if there was anything viable at the signal's source but it certainly hoped there was.

Exactly. It was a case of being there at the right place at the right time. The Nostromo would be passing near to LV426 so they took the opportunity, rather than have to wait potentially a year or more to get a specialised mission organised.

Then again, if they had they might've been able to successfully gather a specimen and get it back to the bio weapons division without all the calamity that generated.

Oh and despite what is said above, my personal preference is to watch the first three films then stop. Alien 3 has an undeserved reputation for being poor, yet it's actually one of Sigourney Weaver's most powerful performances. While Resurrection isn't entirely disastrous, I prefer to stop the story at Alien 3.

 

[Candlelight]

Oh and FYI, less than two weeks to go.

http://www.amazon.com/Alien-Antholo...O3QA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287001426&sr=8-1

 

[saturn5]

[Q
Dallas said Ash had replaced his regular science officer at their last stop, and Ash turned out to be a company plant acting on orders that Ripley read with her own eyes.
The company may not have known if there was anything viable at the signal's source but it certainly hoped there was.

Exactly. It was a case of being there at the right place at the right time. The Nostromo would be passing near to LV426 so they took the opportunity, rather than have to wait potentially a year or more to get a specialised mission organised.

Then again, if they had they might've been able to successfully gather a specimen and get it back to the bio weapons division without all the calamity that generated.

Oh and despite what is said above, my personal preference is to watch the first three films then stop. Alien 3 has an undeserved reputation for being poor, yet it's actually one of Sigourney Weaver's most powerful performances. While Resurrection isn't entirely disastrous, I prefer to stop the story at Alien 3.

No, stop at Aliens, the best sequal of all time. Or maybe just skip it and go straight to 4. NEVER watch 3, worst sequal of all time, it will spoil your enjoyment of the first 2 wonderful films

 

[Pingfah]

Alien Resurrection is utterly worthless trash.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think 3/4 are worth checking out but not necessarily essential. While there are those who hate 3 and those who hate 4 and those who hate 3 and 4, there are still some who like them to some degree.

They are not like DTV movies or duds in the sense that Superman IV is, they are at least competently helmed pictures. These are after all movies directed by David Fincher and Jean Pierre Jeunet. Personally, I like the atmosphere of 3 and even enjoy a lot of 4 despite being a flawed movie (did really hate it on first viewing though).

 

[Gaith]

I don't mind leaving it at 2. Disc's in the mail...

 

[Pingfah]

I think 3/4 are worth checking out but not necessarily essential. While there are those who hate 3 and those who hate 4 and those who hate 3 and 4, there are still some who like them to some degree.

They are not like DTV movies or duds in the sense that Superman IV is, they are at least competently helmed pictures. These are after all movies directed by David Fincher and Jean Pierre Jeunet. Personally, I like the atmosphere of 3 and even enjoy a lot of 4 despite being a flawed movie (did really hate it on first viewing though).

4 was a lesson in how to take one of the best cast and crews one could imagine, and completely squander it. Jeunet directing, Whedon writing, Caro supervising various aspects of the design and an excellent cast, some of whom have already made some cracking films with Jeunet & Caro.

They didn't even have the excuse that Fincher had of excessive studio interference, Whedon says his plot and script were largely intact, just badly communicated and delivered. And whilst there may be some fleeting glimpses of what the film could have been it is mostly an unmitigated disaster when measured against its great potential. Fincher I can cut a break because he was never allowed to make the film the way he wanted, Jeunet just made a really bad film.

Nil point M. Jeunet, nil point.