Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)

This is where Ridley screwed up in Prometheus. This Engineer dude is about 16 feet tall.

 

I never really thought about it, but I would imagine that the Engineers were all different heights, like humans.

 

The ones in Prom were around 7 feet tall, meaning they were less than half of this dude. In human terms, for full grown males, that is not logical. Just another Ridley goof.

 

One of the many places Ridley screwed up in Prometheus. That and covenant were almost as bad as the Star Wars prequels, IMHO.

 

Maybe that one is another breed of Engineers, a taller and stronger breed that went there as a last resort to stop the Xenomorphs. Just my silly 0.02 $.

 

Nothing was that bad, except maybe the last Indiana Jones.

 

I liked this movie more then alien. the sequels aliens aliensss then alienssssss never held my interest like the original.

 

Dated least.

 

Why do all the engineers have to be the same height?

I still haven't seen the scene that states they are all identical siblings.

Put the ruler down, turn off the lights, and enjoy the movie.

 

+1. What is so interesting is the entirely different tenor of its sequel, but that it is also an entirely worthy sequel...one of the best popcorn action films ever done.

 

Except for the computer screens. They had that look in the late 1970's, but not in the late 2070's.
Check out the computer screens on the Prom, which was built around 2090, and compare them to the Nostro in Alien, which was built much, much later.

Of course this time I cannot really fault Ripley, he went with what was new and cool at the time, not knowing what they would look like in the future, and probably not sure (or unable) of how to modernize the screens and still make them look real.

Unlike Hud above, I take my favorite movies seriously, maybe too seriously.

 

I've come to think the dated look actually fits in nicely with the company's "eh, if they don't like it, tough s**t" callousness. Weyland-Yutani didn't really give a for Nostromo's human crew, so why should they care about SOTA tech if older warehoused junk can be refurbished back to functionality?

Ash didn't even suggest Kane's body still might be of use to the science division (the implication being he already knew everything that was required for his full report) so they just threw him away.

Familiarity and fascination can make us forget it's a very cold-blooded story about power.

 

I want my AVP!

“On October 28, 2010, io9 published an exclusive interview with the Brothers Strause in which they revealed that Alien vs. Predator 3 would have led directly into Alien. Greg Strause stated that, "The original ending for AVPR, that we pitched them, ended up on the Alien homeward, and actually going from the Predator gun, that you see at the end, it was going to transition from that gun to a logo of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship that was heading to an alien planet. And then we were actually going to cut down to the surface [of the alien planet] and you were going to see a hunt going on. It was going to be a whole tribe of predators going against this creature that we called "King Alien." It's this huge giant winged alien thing. And that was going to be the lead-in, to show that the fact that the Predator gun [at the end of AVPR] is the impetus of all the technological advancements that allowed humans to travel in space. Which leads up to the Alien timeline."

When asked about the ending sequence of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, that the Predator-weapon handed to Ms. Yutani would lead to us humans developing advanced space travel technology, Greg stated, "That was the idea. They never got any of the equipment from the first Predators. It's the first time they ever received any intact working technology left over. So they could take that and reverse engineer, figure out what the power source was – all of those things. And in theory, that would enable that company [Weyland-Yutani] to make massive advancements in technology and dominate the space industry. That was the whole idea, was to literally continue from Ms. Yutani getting the gun – and then cut to 50 years in the future, and there's spaceships now. We've made a quantum leap in space travel. That was going to set up the ending, which would then set up what AVP was going to be, which would take place 100 years in the future."

 

This sounds very cool, too bad it didn't happen. At least not yet.

 

Yes, interesting when we as viewers reflect that the brutal, inhuman environment the Nostromo's crew members live and work in is the environment pushed on them by W-Y; that inhospitable place is, by design, there to reinforce that the humans are expendable, even before they encounter the alien. The Paul Reiser character in the second movie embodies that ethic; getting a "percentage" is the greatest good, and all other considerations are distant, secondary ones.

 

Considering how the original movie has become part of a more action-oriented franchise the above AVP storyline makes sense.

But at the time of the original movie, thanks especially to Giger's really creepy aesthetic, the whole background of the story was a mystery. Two alien species, one dead for unknown ages, one still alive and patiently waiting for new prey to arrive. No indication of how they were fated to finally intersect on a lifeless planetoid.*

Without the sequels or prequels, this open-endedness is what makes the original movie so compelling. The subsequent tie-ins and 'explanations' have often been fun to read or watch, but none have caught the unsettling sense of a mysterious and hostile universe that has spared us only through its statistical immensity and our sheer dumb luck.

For me the whole directed evolution stuff of the engineers and demented androids doesn't compare.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*As possible background that ignores the prequels:

Weyland-Yutani's Special Order 937 may have been a standard feature for all W-Y company ships. And they may have been in a SETI race with other companies. Since crews were in hypersleep, a variety of uncharted routes could be used to maximize coverage. If the Nostromo was following a regular route the distress signal should have been caught already.

 

Very good point! THAT reminds me of the Mill Falcon leaving Mos Eisley and being caught by the Death Star. The Falcon had been travelling at hyper speed but the (radio?) transmission from Mos had reached the Death Star before the ship got there. That's a fast signal!

According to the Fandom website:

"Thedus is a planet in the Outer Rim Territories that is rich with natural resources. The Weyland-Yutani corporation mined Thedus extensively throughout the twenty-second century. Before 2122, the USCSS Nostromo traveled here to retrieve an orbital refinery, which was processing 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore. Two days before the Nostromo left the planet, its original science officer was replaced with Ash"

According to the above, the company had mined this planet many times. The space jockey is already a skeleton so he has been dead for some time. How come they never picked up or investigated the signal before hand? Are we to imagine that somehow the frequency will change over time, or did the humans change their monitoring to a different setting, suddenly hearing something they never heard before? Like using radio waves and hearing nothing and then one day switching to microwave and suddenly hearing something they never noticed before?

 

How many years is Prometheus supposed to take place before Alien?

I am now thinking about all this too much.

 

The 16' navigator from Alien really is something different than the Prometheus giants, look at the skull for cryin' out loud. Ridley is just not that concerned with ultimate continuity.
I really like Ridley's work but one thing that always bothers me is the lights inside the helmet thing, these lights are purely for viewer effect and would only hinder the vision of someone inside a suit like that.
Really? .. a halo of lights around your face glowing harsh into your peripheral vision, come on.
Kubrick would laugh at this and explain to him why it just might be better to have it all as it would in reality, find something else to visually stimulate the viewer into following the story.
Sorry, I just saw The Martian and there's ol' boy with his theater lit face helmet agin, I just think his next sci fi deal should go for complete and utter realism as far as what things would really be like.

 

No, all the engineers are with the same height in Prometheus. They just cheesed out. That bugged me to. The hugeness of the Alien navigator was cool.

 

Six short films coming out soon.

'Alien' Celebrating 40th Anniversary With 6 Short Films

The new movies will launch at Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle this weekend.

As the Alien franchise approaches its 40th anniversary, the legacy of Ellen Ripley continues to evolve and expand, with 20th Century Fox inviting a new generation of filmmakers to play with xenomorphs and other Weyland-Yutani Corporation intellectual property for a series of six online short films.

The six shorts were creators in partnership with Tongal, the online platform connecting brands, studios and networks with online filmmakers to crowdsource new content. More than 550 submissions were received from creators looking for the chance to add to the mythology launched by Ridley Scott’s original movie about the doomed Nostromo mission, leading to six final projects offered the keys to the franchise.

The official descriptions of the six shorts, provided by 20th Century Fox, is:

Alien: Alone — Hope, an abandoned crew member aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto, has spent a year trying to keep her ship and herself alive as both slowly fall apart. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life. Written and directed by Noah Miller.

Alien: Containment — Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship’s destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected. Written and directed by Chris Reading.

Alien: Harvest — The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along. directed by Benjamin Howdeshell.

Alien: Night Shift: — When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker’s condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands. Written and directed by Aidan Breznick.

Alien: Ore — As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family. Written and directed by the Spear Sisters.

Alien: Specimen — It’s the night shift in a colony greenhouse, and Julie, a botanist, does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have triggered her sensitive lab dog. Despite her best efforts the lab unexpectedly goes into full shutdown and she is trapped inside. Little does she know, an Alien specimen has escaped the mysterious cargo, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the creature searches for a host. Written and directed by Kelsey Taylor.

"This partnership with Fox is really reflective of Tongal’s mission to bring creative opportunities to the next generation of talent," Tongal Co-Founder and CEO James DeJulio said in a statement. "Being able to give filmmakers everywhere the chance to make their mark on an iconic franchise and extend the Alien narrative was really special for us and everyone involved. And the superfans delivered in a big way. We can’t wait for the fans to see what they’ve created—because at the end of the day, it was made for them."

The shorts will be released weekly online by the entertainment site IGN beginning March 29, before being added to AlienUniverse.com and the @AlienAnthology social media channels alongside exclusive behind-the-scenes content starting May 5. However, the official debut of the project comes at this week’s Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, Washington, where a selection of material from the project will be screened on March 15, with an additional screening at C2E2 in Chicago March 23 and WonderCon in Anaheim, California on March 30.

 

I was expecting animation cartoons. Those previews actually look official.

 

Teaser for upcoming shorts series.

 

Found this short film a few months ago while watching YouTube on my tv. I found it to be intense and well done.

 

Alien: Specimen short film