Alien prequel

SF genre TV and Movie discussions
Post Reply
User avatar
Rakis
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:07 pm
Location: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Alien prequel

Post by Rakis »

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/ridley-sco ... ect-al.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, i know, another reboot...but if Scott is onboard as director, that could be awesome ! :)
Neutrinos watch alert !

Image
Omphalos
Alien Overlord
Posts: 5680
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:24 pm
Location: The Mighty Central Valley of California
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Omphalos »

I'm there.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)



The Omphalos Umbrella Page
User avatar
Freakzilla
Archivist
Posts: 3453
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Duluth, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Freakzilla »

I'm not feeling it, yet. I couldn't give a shit less about the lives of the original salvage crew. More about the aliens would interest me, though.

Sounds like they've got a good crew on it.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

~Leto II, God Emperor
User avatar
SandChigger
Archivist
Posts: 4577
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:11 pm
Location: Sietch Tigr, near Arrakeen
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by SandChigger »

I don't know, I'm just totally fucked off with almost ANY series continuation or remake or moronic "reboot" (I'm coming to actively hate that term almost as much as I loath "embedded" journalists :evil: ) at this point.

DEFIE NO-NEW-THING SHLOMO AND GIVE ME NEW, GODDAMMIT! :twisted:

(And I really like Scott, more's the pity. :( )
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."

"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."

Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
GamePlayer
Posts: 1156
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:38 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Alien prequel

Post by GamePlayer »

It's going to be hard to care. When rumors first started of Scott's return, I was excited and curious, but I've had too much time to think about it since. I'm such a fan of Alien/Aliens, that I have actively purged almost all the subsequently lousy sequels and spin-offs from existence. After 20 years of filtering like that, even Ridley Scott or James Cameron will have to work hard to defeat my willful skepticism. If all the shit between 1986 to now didn't happen, I'd leap at Scott helming a new Alien picture that's grabbed his attention. Now, if it's the sacred Alien/Aliens fiction, it might as well be Uwe Boll directing a prequel.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"

"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
User avatar
Trang
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: Hot Tub Time Machine

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Trang »

Im ok with a prequel, that alien ship was cool as shit for 1979. Finding out where it came from or if it was just an innocent victim or involved other wise. I just watched ALIEN on A&E the other day.. Maybe this has been asked before..

How the hell did the company know about the alien before the cargo ship even got there??

Or would this be answered in the prequel.

Guess have to go back and check.

Go Ridley!!
2/11/1986
User avatar
Eyes High
Momma Eyes
Posts: 1220
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:39 pm
Location: between the worlds of men and make believe

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Eyes High »

Have mercy, I'm so behind...Just watch Alien 3 for the first time night before last. Still havn't seen the fourth one. Will it be 5 years before I see the prequel? uggg.


Oh and with that said. The ending scene in 3 was neat. I kept saying that was what she should do, glad she did it.
I shall lift up my eyes unto the glory of the Lord.
Image

Safety's just danger out of place.
User avatar
Rakis
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:07 pm
Location: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Rakis »

Trang wrote:Im ok with a prequel, that alien ship was cool as shit for 1979. Finding out where it came from or if it was just an innocent victim or involved other wise. I just watched ALIEN on A&E the other day.. Maybe this has been asked before..

How the hell did the company know about the alien before the cargo ship even got there??
Well, if you followed AVP 2, there is evidence that earth knew about it back then...but ONLY if you followed AVP 2...
Neutrinos watch alert !

Image
GamePlayer
Posts: 1156
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:38 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Alien prequel

Post by GamePlayer »

Trang wrote:Im ok with a prequel, that alien ship was cool as shit for 1979. Finding out where it came from or if it was just an innocent victim or involved other wise. I just watched ALIEN on A&E the other day.. Maybe this has been asked before..

How the hell did the company know about the alien before the cargo ship even got there??

Or would this be answered in the prequel.

Guess have to go back and check.

Go Ridley!!
No need to watch other movies to answer that question. It's all there in the original Alien film.
RIPLEY: Did you ship out with Ash before?
DALLAS: I shipped out five times with another science officer. They replaced him two days before we left Thedus with Ash.
RIPLEY: I don't trust him.
DALLAS: I don't trust anybody
So the company knew about the repeating beacon at some point BEFORE the Nostromo's return journey and recognized it as of alien origin. They then had the science officer aboard replaced with a robot, one which was under their control (Ash). We don't know where Thedus is located, but we do know from Dallas' dialog that Thedus was a location of departure. Hence, the crew was on a return trip from Thedus to Earth, hauling mineral ore back home as the movie describes. With their plant aboard the ship, the company reroutes the Nostromo to the planet in the hopes the crew will obtain an alien life form. The company doesn't know it's a xenomorph, they simply know the signal HAS to be alien and they want that alien for themselves before anyone else. They know the hauling crew is ill-suited and unqualified to handle recovery of an alien, but they don't care. Ash is there to look out for company interests, even at the expense of the crew.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"

"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
User avatar
Trang
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: Hot Tub Time Machine

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Trang »

GamePlayer wrote:
Trang wrote:Im ok with a prequel, that alien ship was cool as shit for 1979. Finding out where it came from or if it was just an innocent victim or involved other wise. I just watched ALIEN on A&E the other day.. Maybe this has been asked before..

How the hell did the company know about the alien before the cargo ship even got there??

Or would this be answered in the prequel.

Guess have to go back and check.

Go Ridley!!
No need to watch other movies to answer that question. It's all there in the original Alien film.
RIPLEY: Did you ship out with Ash before?
DALLAS: I shipped out five times with another science officer. They replaced him two days before we left Thedus with Ash.
RIPLEY: I don't trust him.
DALLAS: I don't trust anybody
So the company knew about the repeating beacon at some point BEFORE the Nostromo's return journey and recognized it as of alien origin. They then had the science officer aboard replaced with a robot, one which was under their control (Ash). We don't know where Thedus is located, but we do know from Dallas' dialog that Thedus was a location of departure. Hence, the crew was on a return trip from Thedus to Earth, hauling mineral ore back home as the movie describes. With their plant aboard the ship, the company reroutes the Nostromo to the planet in the hopes the crew will obtain an alien life form. The company doesn't know it's a xenomorph, they simply know the signal HAS to be alien and they want that alien for themselves before anyone else. They know the hauling crew is ill-suited and unqualified to handle recovery of an alien, but they don't care. Ash is there to look out for company interests, even at the expense of the crew.
I remember that set of dialogue, just didnt feel like it asnwered it for me, but see your point. The directive made it seem like they knew the alien(type or already experienced it) and ash's labratory work seemed like he was fawning and knew the situation.

thanks for insight GP.
2/11/1986
GamePlayer
Posts: 1156
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:38 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Alien prequel

Post by GamePlayer »

Trang wrote:
GamePlayer wrote:
Trang wrote:Im ok with a prequel, that alien ship was cool as shit for 1979. Finding out where it came from or if it was just an innocent victim or involved other wise. I just watched ALIEN on A&E the other day.. Maybe this has been asked before..

How the hell did the company know about the alien before the cargo ship even got there??

Or would this be answered in the prequel.

Guess have to go back and check.

Go Ridley!!
No need to watch other movies to answer that question. It's all there in the original Alien film.
RIPLEY: Did you ship out with Ash before?
DALLAS: I shipped out five times with another science officer. They replaced him two days before we left Thedus with Ash.
RIPLEY: I don't trust him.
DALLAS: I don't trust anybody
So the company knew about the repeating beacon at some point BEFORE the Nostromo's return journey and recognized it as of alien origin. They then had the science officer aboard replaced with a robot, one which was under their control (Ash). We don't know where Thedus is located, but we do know from Dallas' dialog that Thedus was a location of departure. Hence, the crew was on a return trip from Thedus to Earth, hauling mineral ore back home as the movie describes. With their plant aboard the ship, the company reroutes the Nostromo to the planet in the hopes the crew will obtain an alien life form. The company doesn't know it's a xenomorph, they simply know the signal HAS to be alien and they want that alien for themselves before anyone else. They know the hauling crew is ill-suited and unqualified to handle recovery of an alien, but they don't care. Ash is there to look out for company interests, even at the expense of the crew.
I remember that set of dialogue, just didnt feel like it asnwered it for me, but see your point. The directive made it seem like they knew the alien(type or already experienced it) and ash's labratory work seemed like he was fawning and knew the situation.

thanks for insight GP.
Well, keep in mind that Ian Holm's performance as Ash was meant to elicit from the audience the impression that he knew more than he was letting on. But to be honest, I never got the impression that either he or the company knew the alien was a xenomorph. How could they? And if we're using performance to interpret, Ash was surprised, if not awe struck, by the first images of the alien ship. He could have been lying when he said "I've never seen anything like it" but if we're using performance as determinant, it's clear Ash was genuinely surprised. Besides, if we accept the interpretation that Ash and the company knew everything, such an interpretation would introduce a logic flaw in the film. The film's internal consistency also demands no such interpretation.

There is also the fact that Ash and the company are abstracts within the fictional world of Alien. Interpreting Ash and the company so literally/specifically is both beyond the scope of film and beyond due consideration justifiable for the proportionally small detail attributed to these concepts within the script. Ash and the company are manifestations of broad themes meant to describe the struggle of the individual versus the system, not only for depth in the writing itself but also to facilitate engaging drama for the purposes of entertainment.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"

"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
User avatar
Freakzilla
Archivist
Posts: 3453
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Duluth, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Freakzilla »

The ship they found the alien eggs in was alien (different species), too, wasn't it?
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

~Leto II, God Emperor
User avatar
Rakis
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:07 pm
Location: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Rakis »

Freakzilla wrote:The ship they found the alien eggs in was alien (different species), too, wasn't it?
Yep, the space-jockey's ship...maybe we will have more input about that in the new movie?
Neutrinos watch alert !

Image
GamePlayer
Posts: 1156
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:38 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Alien prequel

Post by GamePlayer »

Indeed it was. I've read some refer to the alien pilot of the derelict spacecraft as the "Space Jockey" but I don't think it was ever given a name. Certainly nothing about it was ever mentioned in the film. Perhaps "Space Jockey" was the script name. Nevertheless, we never did find out who that creature was or where it came from. Not that we needed to know for story purposes, but it did serve to add mystery and austere to the film.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"

"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
User avatar
Freakzilla
Archivist
Posts: 3453
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Duluth, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Freakzilla »

They didn't show a pilot, they showed what looked to me like a gunner, sitting reclined with a huge cannon over him. He was like four times the size of a human and they remarked how it looked like his ribs had exploded from the inside-out.

He was very Geiger.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

~Leto II, God Emperor
GamePlayer
Posts: 1156
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:38 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Alien prequel

Post by GamePlayer »

With consideration, I'm not sure I follow that interpretation. Sure, you could mount a large cannon "inside" the spacecraft, but why would you want to do so? Further, what indication is there that the derelict ship was any kind of war vessel that would lead us to think it was a cannon the space jockey was seated within? The interior of the vessel appeared to be one large open bay filled with eggs covered by some sort of artificial stasis system. What few hints we were given about the ship indicated it was some kind of transport.

Looking at the script thematically, what is the point of having the crew stumble upon a dead gunner in a big cannon? The point of the scene where Dallas, Kane and Lambert find the space jockey is to explain to the audience that this ship was an alien craft operated by the space jockey (which the audience would later realize was a different species from the xenomorph, meaning the xenomorphs themselves did not pilot the craft that lead them to the planet). Wouldn't it make more sense to show the spacecraft's pilot than a gunner? I also seem to recall something of Ridley Scott mentioning the space jockey was a "pilot" in the audio commentary to the first Alien DVD release (not the subsequent release on two disks, which was also in the big boxed set).

Granted, this is all just personal interpretation (each interpretation as valid as any another), so I'm not debating the point, just questioning why. When I first saw the film many years ago I used to think that machine was a gun too, but later felt it was more likely navigation hardware and the scene made more sense if the space jockey was a pilot. Something like a telescope, which kinda made sense given the whole "observatory" feel of the set.

Anyway, it's fun to talk about the film regardless :)
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"

"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
Omphalos
Alien Overlord
Posts: 5680
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:24 pm
Location: The Mighty Central Valley of California
Contact:

Re: Alien prequel

Post by Omphalos »

I did not think it was a gunner. I actually thought it was just some weird ergonomics, which I would expect with an alien life form. Who knows what it was doing? But what did strike me was "that is the captain, who resigned himself to death and just sat down and waited for it." Kind of like a captain going down with his ship.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)



The Omphalos Umbrella Page
Post Reply

Return to “Genre TV and Movies”