Our next episode is on Alien — what should we talk about?

Thanks for covering Alien Isolation as part of your podcast. It's an amazing game, and also incredibly stressful and frustrating, because it captures the rhythm of being prey. Your observation about the film's smart editing reminds me that while I'm playing the game, I often think I'd find an edited replay of my playing it more entertaining: much less time spent crouching under desks or hiding in closets.

I’d be interested in the team’s thoughts on Ash as an expository device once he’s outed, both in his dialogue and his physical makeup. It kind of bumped for me when I watched recently, but it’s also plenty clever. Does it work? Does it not? Could it be improved upon?

Maybe how Ripley was written without a gender and how it impacts the characterisation of the character

I'd like to hear you discuss Ellen Ripley vs. the trope of the "final girl" in horror movies, and whether that label even applies here. I think Sigourney Weaver gives an incredible performance in the first two Alien movies, but what is happening on the script level that makes her character so iconic?

Eric Johnson

What about the cat? Is there any significance to the cat beyond giving the characters motivation to search for him and in turn putting the them in position to face the alien?

(May be in other posts.) Does Ellen Ripley have a character arc? She’s competent and level-headed at the beginning (like when they need clearance to bring Kane back aboard). She’s the same at the end. Is Alien then just a horror movie, where the protagonist doesn’t change, but it’s just their innate characteristics that pull them through (e.g., Ripley = Laurie Strode)? PS: I like the question about Alien as an allegory for motherhood, especially given the themes in Aliens.

andrew

Regarding the underwear scene, it’s a excellent talking point. I can see both sides - Would they have done the same to a male character? Because it was a female, is the framing, the choices from the male gaze. However, regardless of gender, having a character in their underwear up against the big ol’ bad makes them incredibly vulnerable. It would be absolutely terrifying to have no amour between you and the beast. Was it always in the script but how it was shot lost perspective on why it was there in the first place?

Sera Prince McGill

I can’t seem to “reply” to some of the excellent comments here, but to build upon what Andrew & Jhandle said: Discussion of the world building would be great. The world is so well built (through both what we see and what we learn though character discussion) we truly suspend our disbelief. But given it became a franchise, how can one better create new stories within an existing world? What did future film makers build with, build upon, and disregard?

Sera Prince McGill

Love this movie -- and probably love the sequel, Aliens, even more. (I will maintain that Aliens contains one of the most realistic depictions of the military in any movie, regardless of genre.) I second Carlos's comment on the motherhood allegory. I think the motherhood theme is emphasized even further in Aliens, showing a "positive" version with Ripley and Newt (and of course, the deleted scene with Ripley's daughter), and a "negative" version with the Alien queen. The creature design can't be praised enough. After 43 years the classic xenomorph design has not been surpassed, in my opinion. I also appreciate the "used" and "industrial" appearance of all the sets, props, and equipment. This wasn't the sleek, pristine aesthetic we typically saw in science fiction films. "We ought to discuss the bonus situation," Parker says. These "truckers in space" are more worried about going home and getting paid than they are with building some idyllic Roddenberry-style utopia.

How the movie is ahead of it’s time for having a female lead but falls short with the underwear scene

Cameren Ceniceros

To cap off the unintentional Ridley Scott -trilogy of podcasts, I would like you to give us your opinion on the man himself and his career. Is he overrated, underrated or simply rated? Is there a Ridley Scott style?

Joel Lehtonen

My girlfriend and I are seeing this in the theater on Friday. Perfectly timing for the podcast. I can’t wait!

Grant Henninger

I'd like to hear your take on some of the weirdest interpretations you've heard on Alien. For example, I once read about how the film is an allegory of motherhood. One that's clean and painless (The crew being cared by an AI called "Mother" that wakes them up without any pain), and one that's violent (Monsters that impregnate their prey/Kane giving birth and dying while doing so)

Juxtapose Alien from Prometheus on the grounds of the intelligence of the crew. Prometheus is often heavily criticized for its crew making dumb decisions, but Alien (and Aliens) often gets a pass. I understand that the crew in Alien are blue collar workers while Prometheus are scientists, but I don't think that distinction is enough to justify the discrepancy in other films getting a pass while Prometheus is heavily criticized.

Walter Hills screenplay (if you read it). Really interesting approach. I personally love the style but it might be interesting to talk about even if you don’t.

Ripley's underwear. Discuss the necessity of this costuming choice. Had Ripley been played by a male actor, as originally written, would he have stripped down to his briefs, buttcrack on display, for the audience's entertainment?

Cherie

Seconded! I find creature design fascinating and I think the Xenomorph is a master class in excellent creature design. I would love to hear the LFTS team break down what makes it work so well!

Michael Bouma

When I watched Alien the first time a few years ago (2018 or 19), I was surprised how -- ordinary the movie was. There were very few surprises (of course I was heavily spoilered by cultural osmosis) in the way the story went and how the writers, director and actors were taking me along that ride. I have since come to the conclusion that masterpieces that create or at least shift a whole genre will always seem ordinary for a palate that is used to the resulting landscape. I feel the same shrug-that's-fine-but-nothing-special when I listen to the Beatles or Jimmy Hendrix.

ascii158

On the "distant hills (horizons?)" idea that a world can feel more fleshed out if you don't explain everything: Do Prometheus and Alien: Covenant explaining the space jockey and origins of the xenomorph undercut this effect in Alien? I don't mean this as an assessment of the quality of those films. The question is whether the mystery of one work can be undermined by the existence of answers in a later work. Or do you think that separate works are more compartmentalized than that (especially if the works are separated by decades)? You could apply this question to The Matrix series as well, to a degree (e.g. only hearing about Zion vs. seeing it, picking up hints late in the game that Smith has independent desires despite being a program vs. getting detailed exposition on free will in sentient programs, seeing a weird bank of TVs when Neo is interrogated vs. finding out that this is the Architect's... weird bank of TVs etc). Separately, what is it with Ridley Scott and robots?

I think ALIEN is one of those films that blends genre basically better than any other film. It’s simultaneously an incredible science-fiction and horror story. A couple other films I’d put with ALIEN for this reason are THE THING & THE TERMINATOR. All three, in my opinion, are masterclasses in tone and genre-bending, and they somehow never forget to be science fiction films and they certainly never forget to be horror films. I just think it’s really impressive when filmmakers are able to make films where someone could say it’s one of their favorite horror films or sci-fi films, or thrillers, and they’re *totally* valid in feeling that way.

I'd love to hear how much weight good creature design can carry. Like, of course a lot of the atmosphere is created by NOT showing it, but having this smart life cycle idea and then the ultimate design which is just sooo inhuman and otherworldly really does a lot imo. There's a reason it is one of the most iconic designs. It's a great example of writers utilising the artists' and designer's vision to its fullest.