"I got you, you son of a bitch!"
With Prometheus just
a couple of weeks away I thought it was about time I filled one of the most
unforgivable gaps in my film history and finally watch Alien. The crew of the Nostromo
are in stasis on a return trip to Earth, carrying a cargo of mineral ore.
They are awakened early by the ship’s computer as it has intercepted a transmission
for a nearby planetoid. Upon investigation, crew member Kane (John Hurt)
discovers what appear to be eggs inside an unidentified ship. A life form
hatches out of one of the eggs and attaches itself to his face. Returning to
the Nostromo the crew try to detach
the creature from Kane’s face but with no success. A short time later the
creature removes itself from Kane and the crew find it dead. While preparing to
go back into stasis for the return to Earth something extraordinary happens
that unleashes an even greater threat to the ship and the crew.
My first thoughts were that the Nostromo reminded me of so much I’ve seen already. It is obvious
how much influence the film has had on subsequent science fiction. The living
quarters reminded me of the film Moon and
in just about every other scene I said to myself “That’s just like Red Dwarf”. Everything about the film’s
design was excellent. The ship felt large and real and the creature design was
incredible. Considering the film is now over thirty years old, the latex or prosthetics
that were used looked really good. Even now. Obviously some aspects of the film
have aged noticeably. The computers for instance look as old as they are. This isn’t
a major problem though as anything older than about five years or without a
touch screen looks aged. 