I had the chance to watch Ridley Scott’s classic film, Alien, tonight. This is not the first time I have had the pleasure of watching this movie, but it never fails to put me on the edge of my seat. Each time I watch Ripley creep carefully around the lower levels of the ship searching for her escape pod, forcing herself to ignore the warnings in the background shouting, “T-Minus 60 seconds until ship self-destructs,” it’s almost like I can feel the shear dread that she is experiencing. That’s how well Ridley Scott did on this movie, and it is likely one of the reasons why this movie won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1979.
The alien in the movie is extremely eerie looking, but it really does not look like what we consider an “archetypal alien.” Source: http://khpbooks.com/cinemaknifefight/tag/the-thing/
Anyways, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I am going to continue to do my best to convince you to watch it. The film starts out with the crew of the towing spaceship Nostromo on their way back to Earth, carrying loads of mineral ore that had been gathered in a distant corner of space. The crew is awakened from their stasis by SOS signals coming from a spaceship on a nearby planet. When they go to explore and potentially give aid to the source of these signals, the crew encounters something slightly unexpected (I don’t want to ruin it for you) that completely alters the nature of their voyage.
For me, the most captivating aspect of the film has to be its uncanny ability to bring some legitimacy to what it must feel like to encounter intelligent, extraterrestrial beings. Humans are naturally terrified of the unknown, and that is precisely the reason so many people oppose astronomy and its goals. These people simply believe that we are not doing ourselves any favors by sticking our head out there for the cosmos to see. There is no doubt that if we ever do have the fortune (although many people might not call it a fortune) of encountering aliens, there is absolutely a chance of them being hostile. This is a pretty terrifying thought, and must be multitudes more terrifying when it is brought to life in front of you, as it is in Alien. Combining the excellent performances of the actors with an incredible script and director, Alien turned out to be a pretty awesome movie. Taking all this into mind, now consider that this movie was created in 1979, about 34 years ago. Clearly the technology that the filmmakers had available to them then was not anything like it is now, and yet they still managed to make a phenomenal film. Seriously, go see this movie!
If I somehow still haven’t convinced you that you should take a few hours out of your day to watch Alien, then don’t take it from me… Take it from the real critics – Alien has an 8.5 rating on IMDB, making it the 40th greatest movie of all time. Moreover, 97% of people who reviewed the movie on Rotten Tomatoes said it was “fresh.” The bottom line is, most people, myself included, agree that Alien is a classic movie that is a must-see for all sci-fi fans.
