Ridley Scott’s Alien, released in 1979, is one of the great all time science fiction horror films, and it still holds up after almost 40 years. The plot is a fairly straight forward slasher movie, with the titular alien standing in for the crazed murderer, and the spaceship replacing the eerie house/ suburban/ rural setting. Where Alien sets itself apart from standard horror fare is in vision and execution. The presentation of the the characters, the world they inhabit, and the creature that preys on them all have a very real feel to them that allows the audience to invest in the movie in a more meaningful way. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in particular is an interesting character because she is one of the first portrayals of a strong female protagonist in a Science fiction movie.
The earliest shots of the movie, both of the vast desolate exteriors of space and the very lived in, run down interiors of the starship Nostromo, establish both the world the plot takes place in and the mood for the entire movie. It is a very quiet and isolated world that this crew inhabits, they are in the middle of nowhere and there is no backup for them anywhere in the vicinity. They are truly alone out in the frontier of space. Another element that helps establish this feeling of isolation from the earliest establishing shots, straight through until the credits roll is the score of the movie. Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Alien is a very minimalist affair, quiet and subtle. Set against the backdrop of the Nostromo slowly drifting through space and the empty interior of the ship before the crew is awoken from their hypersleep chambers, really lends itself to the overall mood of loneliness and isolation. All of this allows the filmmakers to establish just how alone the crew is, without having to mention it in a single line of dialogue.
The crew of the starship Nostromo fit very well into this established desolate lonely world. This is a travel weary crew of space truckers who’s concerns and motivations mostly center around getting home and getting paid. They are a perfect match for the well traveled, lived in setting of the Nostromo herself. This isn’t the glamorous interstellar travel portrayed in other science fiction stories, they are just out there trying to make a living. There’s an interesting dynamic about the crew where they actually feel like a team of people that have to work together in a shared work space. They have disagreements about whether to do things or how to do things and how to solve problems as they arise, but are able to follow the chain of command and work together towards their common goals.
Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley is the main protagonist of the movie, seeing as she is the only one able to survive the encounter with the alien. Ripley is real badass, and is one of the first strong female leads in an action or science fiction film, as well as in film history in general. She is the second officer of the Nostromo, which is to say that she is the third in command behind the captain and first officer. She is portrayed as an intelligent, resourceful officer who has no problem taking command and making hard decisions when the situation calls for it. She is an attractive woman, but that is very much beside the point of the character, and it is not what the audiences attention is called to. Ripley isn’t there to be anyone’s damsel in distress or anyone’s eye candy. She represented a significant step forward in the film industry, that they main protagonist could be a woman who was competent in her job, resourceful, and the only character cunning enough to survive the encounter with the alien.
The presentation of the alien creature itself, is also extremely effective in the movie as a science fiction stand it for the classic horror movie slasher character. The dark, lived in setting of the Nostromo, alone out in the deep vastness of space is the perfect setting for the alien to spring out of the shadows to attack the crew. The dimly lit cargo areas and vast ventilation tunnels of the Nostromo to roam freely and conceal itself until the perfect moment to attack a crew member. The effectiveness of the alien is doubled because we hardly see the alien for more than a few seconds at a time. In contrast to more recent thrillers with alien creatures rendered with computer generated images, we are never really allowed to get a long glimpse of the alien, which is more frightening from a psychological standpoint. We are always more afraid of what we cannot see. In this case less is most decidedly more.
Alien is still one of the great scary movies out there, and one of the ones that can still make the viewer jump, even if they’ve seen it before. The dark, isolated setting of the starship Nostromo, alone in the vastness of space is the perfect setting for a science fiction slasher movie, as there is no help and no escape anywhere in the vicinity. The crew feels particularly real because they are just a weary bunch of space truckers out there doing a job so they can get paid. Ellen Ripley represents a milestone in film history, being the first female protagonist who was portrayed as strong, intelligent, resourceful and damned good at her job. She was the only member of the crew of the Nostromo that was able to outwit and ultimately vanquish the alien intruder.