ALIEN and ALIENS Thread...

[abake]

I'm sure you Alien buffs in here have already checked out the bonus disc info for Alien 3, but I just bought it last week and it's interesting to see everything that was going wrong with the making of that film. It has it's highlights, but it's not as good as 1 & 2, but I look at it differently now that I see what it took to make it happen, and I wonder what could have been if everything had gone smoothly.

I actually got to thinking today too. Alien 3 introduces the notion that the Alien race takes on the traits of the host in which it grows, and it got me wondering, could there be such thing as the Alien planet with a race of them, or are they more like a galactic plague that doesn't persay have a home and just spreads from host to host infecting everything.

I've wondered about that as well.
What if there is no alien "species" as we understand it?
If they assume traits of their hosts, they could be endlessly mutating... there would have to be some kind of "security valve" to insure that the species remained viable somehow and that it's own DNA didn't get too diluted.

 

[MaulFan]

I think that elminating the smooth dome and having the more Giger styled heads on the ALIENS Alien Warriors aided in the blending of the creatures with the environement, the smooth dome does blend as shown in the other films, but with such a complex environement design plus a complex creature, really added to the shock value of seeing them come out of the walls to take out the marines. One thing about the SL3 scene, and Brent's death in Alien is the way the Alien almost seems to just flow up into the ceiling with no sign of arms, legs or tail propelling it, and granted it's a fantasy film, but for the most part, they stick with a realistic portrayal that it's a living thing bound by the limits of any living creature.

 

[FACEBOX]

One thing about the SL3 scene, and Brent's death in Alien is the way the Alien almost seems to just flow up into the ceiling with no sign of arms, legs or tail propelling it, and granted it's a fantasy film, but for the most part, they stick with a realistic portrayal that it's a living thing bound by the limits of any living creature.

I thought that's what the spines on the alien's back was for. Maybe it uses them just like a spider uses it's spinner. That could be where all the resin comes from in the Hive.

Note: The alien in the first move also does the same thing with Brett. (I forget if that's his name)

 

[Reinhardt]

I thought that's what the spines on the alien's back was for. Maybe it uses them just like a spider uses it's spinner. That could be where all the resin comes from in the Hive.

Note: The alien in the first move also does the same thing with Brett. (I forget if that's his name)

"Right!"

 

[dekadentdave]

In Aliens the Aliens are scaling ceilings and the sides of walls much like insects. It appears that the goo they secrete help them cling to the walls. As for the scene in Alien I believe there is a deleted scene on the DVD that shows more of the Alien just prior to it attacking Brett that shows it suspended invertedly from those chains that were dangling from the cooling shaft. Ridley cut it because he didn't want to show too much of the Alien and he made the right call.

 

[figuremasterles]

Cool discussion!
ALIENS are too cool to me anyway....so any discourse on what makes them tick is always interesting.

Side note...Anyone seen these:

ALIEN SERIES TRIBUTE SHORT

When you open it, note that there are shorts for each of the movies available too. AMAZING images and music! An ALIEN lovers dream!

Now, back to your discourse. I was enjoying it...

 

[FACEBOX]

That clip is my fave. I especially like the part where Vasquez is firing in the hive.
It gives me goosebumps!

 

[dekadentdave]

I've wondered about that as well.
What if there is no alien "species" as we understand it?
If they assume traits of their hosts, they could be endlessly mutating... there would have to be some kind of "security valve" to insure that the species remained viable somehow and that it's own DNA didn't get too diluted.

This would be more like The Thing where an alien micro-organism invades a host body and absorbs its genetic traits and imitates them by taking over their bodies. The Aliens obviously have an exoskeletal genetic structure including an elongated cranial structure and tail. They obviously must adapt and evolve to the host body during incubation which is why the "dog alien" in Alien3 was smaller and was a quadroped unlike most of the humanoid bipedal aliens. The Aliens genetic composition is adaptable to survival in almost any climate which is why it is one of the most adaptable species in the known universe and why the Company wants it for bio-weapons research. As Ash pointed out in his analysis that it has the ability to shed its cells and turn them into a silicon base that has the ability to be impervious to the most inhospitable environments that makes it a tough little S.O.B.

 

[DBoz]

I don't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall that the aliens were created as a form of biological warfare by the large space traveller's species from the first movie. That ship was a seeder ship that would drop eggs on a planet, which explains why there were so many on that ship in such an organized manner.

 

[Reinhardt]

I don't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall that the aliens were created as a form of biological warfare by the large space traveller's species from the first movie. That ship was a seeder ship that would drop eggs on a planet, which explains why there were so many on that ship in such an organized manner.

if that's the case, why would their beacon be a warning? (from when ripley re-analyzed it and noticed that it may be a warning instead of an SOS)

 

[pjam]

I don't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall that the aliens were created as a form of biological warfare by the large space traveller's species from the first movie. That ship was a seeder ship that would drop eggs on a planet, which explains why there were so many on that ship in such an organized manner.

Nothing in ALIEN indicated that. A Derelict ship with distress beacon is all that was revealed. You might have read that somewhere but it is not in the shooting script or the Movie. It also makes no sense based on that film and Aliens, no-one knew about them, not even Burke at the time. No one even believed Ripley's Account of the Nostromo and if they did, why build Atmosphere Processors to create an new Colony Environment on LV 426. Makes no sense IMO.

 

[MaulFan]

pjam, I'm stunned, you who knows so many intimate details on these films missed on the planet name :eek , LV-426.

 

[abake]

This would be more like The Thing where an alien micro-organism invades a host body and absorbs its genetic traits and imitates them by taking over their bodies. The Aliens obviously have an exoskeletal genetic structure including an elongated cranial structure and tail. They obviously must adapt and evolve to the host body during incubation which is why the "dog alien" in Alien3 was smaller and was a quadroped unlike most of the humanoid bipedal aliens. The Aliens genetic composition is adaptable to survival in almost any climate which is why it is one of the most adaptable species in the known universe and why the Company wants it for bio-weapons research. As Ash pointed out in his analysis that it has the ability to shed its cells and turn them into a silicon base that has the ability to be impervious to the most inhospitable environments that makes it a tough little S.O.B.

But think about it: if a queen was incubated in a dog, would it share the dog's traits? And would she pass those down to the next generation of warriors/drones? And if then one of those came upon a new species, what then? Would it continue to mutate? How long before you start losing limbs? Or the tail? Even the cranium has changed shape and size...

Now, talking about the derelict's cargo...
Were the eggs really the cargo? Or did they suffer an infestation that destroyed the crew (turned into eggs)? If so, where were the warriors? Were was the queen? And if those eggs had space jockey DNA, did it get recombined with human DNA?

(As side note, Giger envisioned the original alien as a bastardization of the human form, hence the overall human shape and the skull under the dome. And then the quadruped stance of the Fiorina alien (as a bastardization of the dog shape). I think the later designs of the alien have lost a bit of the idea, turning them into "simple" monsters.)

Back on topic:
If the derelict was a cargo ship, and the space jockey its only fatality, we could assume the eggs were a "pure" strain.
If not, I think (this was a theory put forward by someone at the gamegossip forums a long time ago) the aliens acquire traits of their hosts only in the first generation, i.e. the queen would not acquire any traits from its host, thus ensuring the eggs are "pure" alien DNA.

 

[King Darkness]

Well that just leaves the question , what came first , the Queen or the egg??

 

[pjam]

pjam, I'm stunned, you who knows so many intimate details on these films missed on the planet name :eek , LV-426.

Typo. Thanks for pointing it out so quickly. Aliens 101...

Btw, the reason there weren't any domes on the Aliens Warriors is because JC felt they wouldn't hold up in battle scenes and he ordered them removed.

 

[FACEBOX]

It [...] makes no sense based on that film and Aliens, no-one knew about them, not even Burke at the time. No one even believed Ripley's Account of the Nostromo and if they did, why build Atmosphere Processors to create an new Colony Environment on LV 426. Makes no sense IMO.

That's another reason why I hate AVP.
No one encountered Xenomorph's before ALIEN, so why are they *ON EARTH* in 2004?!

 

[abake]

I think I'll just see them as too separate universes, with no continuity between them...

 

[The ill Jedi]

I think I'll just see them as too separate universes, with no continuity between them...

I found this Aliens Timeline. It also has some Predator history mixed in, pretty interesting. I thought you guys might like this too.

 

[FACEBOX]

Abake.That's best.

 

[MaulFan]

Well, AVP defies a lot of logical things, for instance, being on an ice berg that is remote and freezing and dangerous, and the girl runs around on the surface with no jacket or hat or anything and stands around like she's on the beach or something, where in reality, she'd have died from frost bite long before getting back to the boat, so in theory, you could always write her off that way and then there would be no evidence of the Aliens or Predators, so for them to be unknown in Alien could work. I think it was on the A3 dvd bonus materials, someone mentioned doing a film that leads up to the derelict ship crashing on LV-426, which I think could be interesting and being the world of sci-fi, you could work humans into the story for the sake of a film audience, and make it work, but it'd be interesting to see someone's take on how that all got setup. There is value in the mystery of that ship, but at the same time, that mystery begs for answers and I'd like to discover them, like how an entire chamber is filled with eggs and no sign of a queen anywhere and a very organized layout of the eggs, and just how and where did the ship come to get one of the Aliens on board of pick up a face hugger from. It's too bad these films are a more cult type that doesn't have the support to make the big wigs in film studios want to carry their stories on, there is so much that could be explored with creatures like these.