With Alien: Romulus hitting theaters soon, I figured now would be as good a time as any to revisit the seminal first two films in the franchise, Alien and Aliens. While the series has had its ups and downs over the years, these first two are still highly regarded as some of the best works of science-fiction and horror cinema, or action cinema in the case of Aliens, with Romulus aiming to win back longtime fans by evoking both.
But do these two films still hold up? Decades after their original release and with one disappointing sequel after another, are Alien and Aliens still as truly great as they were once thought to be? The short answer is yes, but to understand why, we’ll need to dig a little deeper.
Also Read: “Thank God it was deleted from the film”: Ridley Scott Smartly Deleted an Alien Scene That Would Have Turned Xenomorph into an Absolute Joke
Alien (1979)
After being suddenly awakened from hypersleep during a return trip to Earth, the crew of a commercial mining ship called the Nostromo picks up a distress signal from a nearby planet and lands there as, per the orders of their corporate overlords, they are required to investigate any potential signs of intelligent life. The crew sends a three-man team to investigate and finds a mysterious hive full of eggs. After touching one, crew member Kane, played by John Hurt, is attacked by a spider-like creature that audiences would later come to know as a facehugger.
Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, insists that he not be let back onto the ship per quarantine protocol, but science officer Ash, played by Ian Holm, lets them on anyway. All seems to be normal until dinner when Kane suddenly starts violently wretching until an alien creature bursts out of his chest. The creature soon evolves into a terrifying beast that slowly picks off the crew of the Nostromo one by one until only Ripley remains. She manages to escape in a shuttle, only to realize the alien is with her; jettisoning it out of an airlock before sending her and her cat into stasis for the journey home.
I know I usually tend to go a bit more in-depth in terms of plot synopsis and breakdown for these revisited articles, but Alien is a film that is much more concerned with character and tension building than it is about plot mechanics or minutiae and it’s better for it. Even the opening credits are deliberately paced to build tension, slowly revealing the Alien title amidst a black backdrop and ominous music.
The character dynamics are top-notch, with each member of the Nostromo feeling like a three-dimensional, living, breathing person thanks to incredible performances, a killer screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, and the directing talents of Ridley Scott bringing everything together. Every character death means something not just because of the spectacular practical effects used for the kills, but because we got to know each character over the course of the story.
And those practical effects genuinely still hold up today, masterful puppetry and model work aided by the truly iconic designs by H.R. Giger for the alien that are immensely admirable in terms of technical craft and some of the scariest things you’ll ever see in your life as an audience member. Though not to the same degree, Alien uses the creature in a similar manner to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, creating fear and tension from what we don’t see just as much as what we do see. Our imagination builds up the horror in our minds so when the creature does show up and it’s as terrifying as it is, it’s that much more impactful.
Aliens (1986)
After being found by a salvage team, Ripley (and her cat) are awakened from hypersleep onboard a space station only to discover that fifty-seven years have passed since the events of Alien. Not only that, but the planet where they discovered the creature, LV-426, has since been colonized, with approximately sixty to seventy families living on the planet. And with Weyland-Yutani recently losing contact with the colony, Ripley insists they send soldiers there to rescue the civilians and deal with the creature or creatures.
The company agrees only on the condition that Ripley accompany them as an advisor, which she agrees to provided that the company eradicates the creatures entirely and makes no attempt to study or weaponize them. Ripley is then joined by a ragtag group of space marines that land on the seemingly desolate LV-426 to discover two things. One, a lone survivor in the form of a little girl named Newt and two, an entire nest of fully grown Xenomorphs.
The Xenomorphs slaughter most of the marines, with the remaining group agreeing that the best possible course of action would be to “nuke the entire site from orbit.” As they make their escape, the team is pursued by more Xenomorphs and eventually the Alien Queen herself; who attempts to infect Newt after Ripley annihilated the rest of her eggs. However, using the power loader from earlier in the film, Ripley shoves the Queen out of the airlock; allowing her, Newt, and Hicks to enter hypersleep where they all definitely go on to live peaceful lives and definitely don’t get unceremoniously killed off screen at the beginning of the third movie that we don’t talk about.
20th Century Fox executives were initially hesitant to greenlight an Alien sequel given the way it ended as well as how long it had been since its release. Supposedly, as part of his pitch for the film, writer/director James Cameron, who took over from Dan O’Bannon and Ridley Scott respectively, simply wrote the word “Alien” on a whiteboard, added an “s” at the end, and then turned the “s” into a dollar sign. And if that is true, he was demonstrably correct.
Aliens is everything a great sequel should be. It expands on what worked in the original movie quite literally given that there’s more than one alien this time. It thoughtfully explores Ripley’s PTSD from the first movie while also giving her a fresh new arc through her relationship with Newt. And like the first film, it creates a strong ensemble of compelling characters at the beginning so when the alien, or aliens in this case, start killing them, it means something.
Aliens is usually said to be more sci-fi/action than the sci-fi/horror of its predecessor and while that assessment isn’t entirely wrong, I don’t think Aliens gets enough credit for how scary it often is. Despite the fact that our ensemble are trained soldiers this time, the kills are still just as scary. The fact that our heroes are able to get a few good shots in at the Xenomorphs never undermines how truly terrifying they are, especially in such huge numbers.
But what especially elevates Aliens is Newt, played masterfully by Carrie Henn. She absolutely sells both the trauma thrust upon and the resilience required to be a child under these circumstances and framing so much of the Xenomorph action through the eyes of a child makes the creatures that much scarier. Plus, her and Ripley’s dynamic is extremely charming and helps reinforces the film’s themes of motherhood and surviving abuse; both of which were also present in Alien but are much more defined here.
In Conclusion
The Alien franchise has certainly had a rocky history since these first two installments. Alien 3 was deeply polarizing at best and clearly not want director David Fincher wanted the film to be, Alien: Resurrection was a dumpster fire that nearly killed the franchise entirely, Alien vs. Predator was a decent-enough distraction ruined by its own truly awful sequel, and the Ridley Scott prequel movies were definitely things that existed.
The newest installment, Alien: Romulus, looks like it could give the franchise a long-overdue win, thanks to its aesthetic and tonal sensibilities leaning so heavily into the first two, as well as a proven director in Fede Alvarez. But regardless of how Romulus turns out, these first two entries are still incredible films that undeniably changed the game for science-fiction and horror and absolutely still hold up today.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for more entertainment coverage
