SPEAKER_02 0:04

All I know is that I was once visited by aliens and they cured my strep throat, so I'm cool.

SPEAKER_06 0:14

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Thanks for sticking around on this crazy journey. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_06 0:34

My name is Chris, and I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Hola, muchachos, the gore lover Alexis.

SPEAKER_06 0:43

Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Screaming Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_06 0:49

We're being timely this week, folks. We have a movie that is highlighting the dangers of violating your local quarantine policies. But before we get there, we do have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

We asked our friends on social media recently about the movie Candyman that we reviewed, and honestly, I'm actually really surprised by the results, you guys, because 20% of our followers gave Candyman a hack, which is one fifth, which is shocking. What? I know. But we do have a really great comment from one of our followers, Sarah. She said, It is a masterpiece. Tony Todd was born to be Candyman, and the new Candyman is a work of horror genius art for it to link back to the first one. It's freaking amazing. Till this day I don't say his name more than once. Neither do I.

SPEAKER_06 1:29

Alright, folks, the time has come and we have watched an Academy Award-winning horror film that is so prominent it was selected by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry. As we're recording this episode, it's actually Alien Day, so what better way to commemorate the occasion than by reviewing the film that gave Sigornia Weaver her first leading role? Yes, folks, you betcha. We're talking about the 1979 film Alien. Now, as this episode releases, we are just a few days shy of the 41st anniversary of this film's initial US release. This movie is certainly iconic, but it is not an episode of Hacker Slash unless at least one of us hasn't seen it. So let's hear it. Who here among us had not seen this movie prior to the episode? I feel like there's a bunch of us looking around, like for the people that are with us.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

We're like, mm-hooh.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Okay, I'll say it. I've never seen this movie, you guys.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Whoa. There it is.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

But for some reason I saw Alien vs. Predator in theaters. Don't remember a single thing that happens in it. So really a blank slate here.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

I I feel yeah. I feel like that's where I started watching the franchise. Similar to like Friday the 13th, when I watched that, I watched uh Freddy versus Jason. So it's crazy that I'm picking up all of these franchises later in and then being like, oh my god, why haven't I watched these beforehand? Nice.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

So I obviously had never seen Alien, but I want to credit myself here. I have seen Prometheus. Okay, okay. And I wasn't, I'm not gonna lie, not 100% sure that it was a part of the same franchise. I had to do some uh some research. I was like, this is like a very similar feeling. District 9 is not part of this franchise now. And then I have seen, I think either aliens or alien versus predator. I've seen something else, maybe not in full, but hadn't seen the original Alien. And here I am, professing my uh constant letting everyone down by never seeing it.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

No, that's okay. You are a fresh canvas uh with which to be painted. Mac, how about you? What is your history with Alien?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Oh goodness. Now you know I'm the Superfly space guy. So not only have I seen this like a million times, I used to own like a box set on VHS of both Alien, aliens, and then like a documentary thing about both. Yes. I don't even know if I watched that one, but yeah, I I've seen this so much, and I'm a major fan of the franchise. Was not the biggest fan of Prometheus, Alien Kevinant, feel a bit better about. But Alien and Aliens, I I don't know, I Alien is a classic. We've already mentioned that it belongs in the Library of Congress, but Aliens is also up there for me. So, you know, if you haven't seen that one yet, it's not really in the same genre. I would kind of classify it just sci-fi action or you know, just an action movie that happens to be set in space, but Alien for sci-fi horror, like I just I have seen this so many times, and I can't wait to dive in because there's so many moments of the movie that I find are great for sci-fi fans, and then so many moments that are great for for horror fans. And then if you're a fan of both like me, you get to benefit doubly.

SPEAKER_06 4:37

Like me over here.

unknown 4:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:39

So, Alexis, you started with Alien versus Predator, but when did you first see Alien?

SPEAKER_04 4:44

God, I can't even remember. Like, I I I I wish this was like a movie I saw with a boy lab. She's more of a slasher kind of girl, so I feel like I didn't watch it with her. Maybe possibly with my dad. He was definitely I feel like I watched Alien versus Predator with him, and he was like really into the Predator movies because they were like Rambo kind of style. And um, so probably watched it with him, but honestly, I can't remember. Like, I watched this so long ago, but clearly like when I was a teenager, like later in life.

SPEAKER_06 5:15

So I had not seen this movie until last year. Wow. Oh by last year, I mean 2019. For anybody, any future friends listening to this, my roommate sat me down one night on like gigantic TV. She's like, Look, the first movie you experienced on this TV is gonna be one of the most beautiful movies of all time. And so she picked Alien, and I've gotta say, I don't know what I had been expecting going into it, but I did get to re-watch this a couple nights ago with my girlfriend, and she had been unsure if she was watching it, and I was like, look, it's a slow burn, and that's about all you can that's about all you can go into this with. Uh I think it'd be a crime to go into it expecting anything else. But for Paris, Ryan, what did you guys expect?

SPEAKER_02 5:57

I'm gonna disappoint Mac right now, and I am not a big sci-fi person. I get confused easily by a lot of sci-fi. Um, it makes me feel like I'm unintelligent, which most of the time is not the case. So I was surprised, or I was expecting to not really enjoy this movie or not be able to keep up with it, even though I know it's like a classic, so I was like, eh, if everybody can get into it, I'm sure I'll be able to get into it. But I was also expecting a few scenes which I believe are pretty iconic in the alien universe. Um, and some of those weren't in this movie, so I think those might be from different films. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

I think for me, I expected a few things. I expect an older movie with some questionable effects. I expect some uh questionable relationships between characters, and that's pretty much it. That's really all I was going in with. I did not expect it to have so many alignments with uh Prometheus, which I'd seen relatively recently, like a couple years ago. And so as I was watching this, I was like, man, this has got a lot of like very similar lines going through it, and then obviously realized it was all you know it all comes together. I didn't expect that.

SPEAKER_06 7:06

You guys know how I love my 70s movies, how I love my 80s movies. You know that uh I can I can sit through something for a while and still be in it 100%. One thing that surprised me about my experience here is that I found myself keeping up with the story just fine, but being mostly bored throughout it. And I know that's that's probably sounds sacrilegious. I think it's because of how long it takes for things to really kind of kick off. This movie, this movie has really excellent moments and it builds a lot of tension, but for some reason that tension was lost on me. How did you guys feel?

SPEAKER_04 7:40

I mean, I could totally agree with that slow burn, but I think there's just so much in the beginning and so much what you're trying to figure out, especially like in the first scene. You're like, is this maybe because I've seen it before that I'm like, oh, I wonder if this is before or after some aftermath. But I don't know. I felt like, yeah, it took a while to get there, but I feel like there was so much about the ship, about the people that you were learning that to me it wasn't that it it was fine.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

While watching it, I actually commented on the pacing of it because I think that's why this movie is able to actually stick around in you know, halfway dipping its toes into horror versus the later movies in the Alien franchise because it takes its time, and so you're able to really kind of ingest some of those slower moments. Later movies, we take everything you know for granted. So, for instance, a a ship landing in one of the later movies is gonna take like two seconds, where in this one it's they're gonna take their time with it because you don't really know what to expect yet in the alien universe. So, yeah, it's it's paced a lot slower. But I I think it pays off because I I remember watching this and I'm watching that uh with my with my girlfriend, and she's kind of commenting, like, oh gosh, I hope they don't do this, oh gosh, I hope this doesn't happen. Like you've you could tell that like there was still some suspense going on, even though we weren't yet worried about the main antagonist of the film. Like, there's just moments of of tension kind of building up in general for for the crew. So yeah, I th I think it sustains some tension kind of all the way through.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

There was some definite uh like Star Wars vibes in the beginning that I wasn't expecting. What so while the story is progressing and it's a little bit slower at the beginning, you have this like weird moment of like, am I watching a horror movie, or did I accidentally turn on like a Star Wars that I forgot existed? Yeah, obviously they're in space, there's parallels to be drawn, but there is a lot, like you said, like there's a lot of those moments where it's like a pause and and drawn out scenes in in times where maybe you wouldn't expect it, but I didn't it didn't really take away from the movie for me. I didn't actually find myself thinking that this was a slow movie.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

For me, I definitely agree with you, Ryan. The film starts off as like just a science fiction movie, um, and then some of the characters make like horror movie quality decisions, and then it kind of builds up to what eventually becomes a full horror movie. The pacing for me was okay. Um yeah, I kind of agree with you too, Chris, though. It was a little there were times where I was kind of bored, kind of checking out. Um, there were also times where I felt like overstimulated by either like information or something on the screen. So I was kind of just like my brain was automatically just kind of the was that just me?

SPEAKER_04 10:17

So many buttons.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Just flick them all. So many buttons. Push them all. My favorite thing about uh the vision of the future from like the 1970s was like, okay, lights everywhere. We'll put hella lights all over the walls, and then maybe some switches. Nobody knows what the switches do, they're not labeled, there's just a lot of them. You can never do anything with one switch, you need like 15 switches. But all of our monitors will still look like a 1950s TV, but we'll put them behind plastic so they look fancy around the edges.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Oh, yep.

SPEAKER_06 10:49

Mm-hmm. And we'll all still be wearing tidy-whites. Where George Lucas figured out hey, there's no bras in space because you know, like you'll you'll get strangled. This movie goes, nah, everybody's wearing hanes. Bro, lace up hanes at that.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Chris, I have a question for you.

SPEAKER_06 11:04

Yeah, please.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Speaking of underwear, um, actually not speaking of underwear, but the awkward screen. In your time, uh, did you ever get to step into a sub?

SPEAKER_06 11:14

No, never.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Okay. So what I find interesting is like talking about like the set design and all the switches and stuff is you know, we we've seen all like modern like space movies where they're all futuristic, everything's really minimal. But I love that early spaceship designs in in movies really kind of mirrored like submarines and and naval ships to where if I were if honestly, I've seen pictures of ships, and that's what they look like to me. And like there's just hatches and buttons and like things running all throughout that I don't know what they do, but obviously they do something. But that it always reminds me of that when I see spaceships that are designed to look a bit more utilitarian. So I don't know if you can mirror that at all because you've actually been on a ship.

SPEAKER_06 11:57

Yeah, so the I've been on the bridge of several like different types of ships, never a submarine, but I can assure you that the bridge is for sure not a lit up room with a million buttons that is really just a place where you do bad Google searches. Like that was just a little bit funny to me.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

It was more Ask Jeeves than Google.

SPEAKER_06 12:15

Exactly. Yeah, you're right, you're right. I will say that the set in this movie in particular does look very lived in, and that's one of the things that it did very, very well. What makes it uh really disjointed for me is because like when you look at when you look at the ship, right? You're like out there, like all the exterior shots, the thing is gigantic. You have one little shuttle that they kind of detach from in some places. The ship is gigantic, but you only see a small part of it. So it's interesting to me that they have this gigantic vessel, but they still make you feel very claustrophobic. So I thought that was well done. It was disjointed in a good way, but I'm still a little confused by that.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

There is an answer for that because they're they're a cargo hauler, so the thing that they're flying around in is fairly small compared to the rest of the mass that you see from the outside to where all the rest of the stuff goes that they're hauling.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

Oh so that big part was just like something that they were like carrying. It wasn't actually like the livable part, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

So imagine like a tugboat or something, right? So it's it's fairly small in comparison to the thing that it's bringing along with it. So yeah, like they're they're living in a I mean, a pretty small the the ship is obviously large enough to run around and stuff in, but when you see like that outside shot, most of that's gonna be like cargo space.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Yeah, the guy these guys were like the truck drivers of space.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Oh yeah, super blue collar.

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Well, all I'm saying is they for that alien for sure had a lot more space to run in than like the two hallways that you might wound up in.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Oh yeah. He could, I mean, imagine if the alien it, I guess not he, but imagine that it broke into like the cargo part of the ship and just like got fat on whatever they were hauling.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Yeah, see, I can get behind that.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Whether it's I don't know, grain or rocks or something.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Chris, I agree with you, to be fair. There was some uh disjoint happening with that. And then I have a few other parts of the story where I was just like, these things don't quite work, but you can go along with it. Um, and I'll probably wait and share those, but I don't think you're wrong. I think that you have a point, even if it has an explanation, it just kind of threw you off when you like saw like when they would zoom out into space and you're like, this is a huge ship compared to the little tiny thing that they flew onto the planet with.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Yeah, but what Max says is like, now I get it.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it doesn't change how I felt in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

It's like it's like the cab of a of a truck.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, I I totally get what you're putting down, man. I picked it up, I'm holding it.

unknown 14:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Me and it are friends, but when I was watching the movie, it still was something where I had to just be like, oh, okay, sure, I guess.

SPEAKER_06 14:53

That was one of the elements that has surprised me, like how DeJounte felt while still being affected. But what about you guys? What stood out in a surprising way?

SPEAKER_02 15:00

I was surprised by a lot of things in this movie. First, how much Sigourney Weaver looks like my mom.

SPEAKER_05 15:06

Really?

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Never knew that before. Um, but she had recently sent me a picture of like when I was a full-on baby, and I was looking at the two of them side by side and I was like, is my mom Sigourney Weaver?

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Maybe that was like the style of like the 80s, 90s, right? That doesn't spend your strong bone structure.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Oh, yeah, I definitely don't get it from my dad. Um, but I was also surprised by the characters who made it to the end, or I guess like the characters that made it the farthest, uh, because it wasn't it challenged the typical tropes that you usually see in horror movies. I was also surprised just now when Chris said that this movie was nominated for an Academy Award or that it won an Academy Award. What was that for?

SPEAKER_06 15:45

For visual effects. Just a really quick point out, right? Because I think this is gonna be important for this was important for me. This movie was deemed because it you know was selected by the Library of Congress, culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. And this was happened in 2002. Huh. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

That's all I got. I'll say what surprised me the dialogue. I never paid attention to it. Wow when I watched it when I was younger. I just you know didn't really care about that kind of stuff, I guess, back then. But watching it now, especially in the beginning when we get a lot more dialogue between the characters, you know, kind of like Chris, you felt like the ship was really lived in. I felt like the team was really bonded very well. Oh, yeah. In the beginning of the movie, like you felt like these guys worked together for a while, and the way they spoke to each other was either like kind of familial or when they were, you know, getting work done. It was like talking to a coworker that you've been around for like three years. And it was just so well done.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

The coworkers that you like secretly hate, but you just have to be with them all the time, like in space.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I don't know, but you know, it's not it's not it's not a hatred necessarily.

SPEAKER_06 16:52

Some of you have never been trapped in a small confined space with someone you hate, but also depend on for your existence, and it shows.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

It's funny watching it a second time, and like you you know how Ryan and I feel about like practical effects in older movies. So as soon as this came on, I was like, okay, clearly you have the ship that's probably a life-size model going across the screen, very Star Wars-esque, I will say, for the earlier movies. But I never ever paid attention to the practical effects that they had. I think because I was just like blown at the idea of an alien when I first watched this, and I was like, oh my god, this is crazy. But it was so good, and like I I guess because of the the like newer series, like the newer uh movies in the franchise that I really, really enjoy, it it makes me feel like I'm like, they rely so much on CGI that I really appreciate it, and it surprised me that I actually loved the practical effects in this.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

So, in terms of effects, it is pretty crazy to think about what they were able to achieve um you know for that time because there's so many other movies that came out years later that don't get anywhere close to this. Yes, and this one looks so good, and it's surrounded by good company. I mean, Halloween was great. I mean, a year earlier than that, Star Wars, which is absolutely new, you know, that's just wild to me.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Yeah, no, it's crazy. And I think it just goes back. I mean, I'm almost finished with the saws. By the time this airs, I probably will be finished with them. But like I appreciate the practical effects effects, even in the original Saws versus a new one. I was like, you could totally just put someone's fake hand in that machine. You don't need CGI for that. Like, come on, stop being lazy. I think it's a filmmaker choice. I think it's a little lazy to do a lot of CGI now.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I think it's it's probably sometimes safer and sometimes cheaper.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Did you CGI? CGI. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Uncanny Valley effect, man. Like every time I see a modern sci-fi movie with CGI, it never looks real to me. I don't care what they do, it always looks fake. But when I go back and and watch movies from the 70s and 80s that did it well with practical effects, it always looks real. Even if you know it's a model floating across the screen, like it's a tangible thing, and you can tell the way that you know when the light hits it or something, even if you know it's a model, you still look at it and you're like, that looks great.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Just for fun here, Paris. I'm gonna ask you a quick yes or no question.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Rapid fire.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Were you impressed with this with the it with the practical effects?

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Yes and no.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

What? Okay, you threw me off there. I'm actually surprised.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Some of them I was like, wow, that's really good for the time. Other ones I laughed out loud.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Would you say that that progressed from a laugh out loud at the beginning to much better at the end?

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yes, I absolutely would.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Yeah, that's totally how I feel. Look, I'm not trying to say that the people that vote things into the Library of Congress are wrong. But um there was a half of this movie where I was like, this is a hilarious special effect that's happening here. Like, and and I and look, I'll be wrong if I'm just wrong and and I have no historical accuracy or whatever, or I I have no cooth because I don't appreciate the practical effects in this movie at the beginning. I'll be that if that's what it is. But I wasn't impressed at the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Some of it was definitely goofy.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

The first two instances that alien thingies appear, things happen regarding the alien. I was like, what are we doing here? This is ridiculous. But it gets so good at the end. At the end, I'm totally on board with you guys. Like, I loved it. The special effects were so cool. Shout out platinum teeth. Like platinum teeth, I know that that's a thing, but I didn't realize it was the alien thing when we first saw them. Like, Alexis didn't even realize it. Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, the alien's got a grill. Dude, he's got some grills. Oh shit. The very first time we see them in the movie, it's my least favorite practical effect scene. But then I see them teeth, and I was like, man, I love them teeth.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Like how it like it's like you could tell it's on a conveyor belt coming out of that head.

SPEAKER_06 20:52

So, in our tradition of watching movies that would have been better named as a different movie, would this have worked for teeth?

SPEAKER_03 20:58

This would have worked for teeth. To answer the question of what surprised me, and and this is gonna be really silly, but the thing that was surprising in this movie, the the surprising thing that happened at the end was the thing that surprised me. Like the character that was something other than what we expected him to be.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

That was surprised me so much. I was like, the whole time that was unfolding, I was like, what? What? You see, you think that was towards the end? It was like middle end.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Not at the end, it wasn't at the end. See, to me, that feels like the middle of the movie.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

It wasn't the end, and it was the prologue to the end.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

That's when the end began.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

It was the intro ending. See, that totally feels like now that I'm on like on board with what you're talking about, that feels like the middle of the movie to me. I think that's yeah. Okay, y'all were like, this is the end because this movie's so damn long.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Yeah, it wasn't the end, but it was so slow burn. It was the second half for sure. That was the thing, which hopefully, if our listeners have watched this, they know exactly what I'm talking about. The thing that surprised me the most, and I know that's right nail on the head, but I can't complain about it.

SPEAKER_06 22:05

One of the things that that also surprised me was how many times you could decipher the alien as like a prop and the alien as an actor. Yes, I did not like prop.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:18

I.e. the alien hug at one point. Like, hey! Like, I I really felt like I was gonna be embraced by an old friend at that point.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

But because he held that pose for like three seconds too long.

SPEAKER_06 22:30

Yeah, it would have been you could tell that was one of those things where like Ridley Scott was probably gonna just like cut it as soon as like the arms kind of go out, but then they just stood there.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

I'm like, what is this? It's like meh.

SPEAKER_06 22:42

But no, like the the design of the alien is absolutely incredible. And for me, I think a few of those moments where it gets a little bit weird, like for me, the effects start really good, take a weird little dip when you can start like seeing like the jazz hands and all that, but then it gets really, really good again. Uh, they there's a couple scenes in this that we'll get to in the spoiler section that are absolutely iconic that I think were absolutely incredibly well done. But throughout all of this, despite the alien teeth and the grills and the platinums and all that, did anything in this movie scare you guys?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

I watched this movie with my boyfriend, um, and there is a certain jump scare that came about that really made him scream out loud in my ear. And it didn't scare me at all, but his reaction to it scared me. Um so for for me, I didn't find the movie to be very scary at all just because a lot of the effects were goofy. Uh, towards the end, it got a little closer to scaring me, but it didn't really cut it. But my boyfriend was definitely scared a few times.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

I'll admit I jumped at least twice in this movie. The first one was a very intentional jump scare, and it got me and it was great, and I enjoyed it. Were they was it like a crawl-level jump scare? It was pretty similar. I jumped pretty hard for for like laying on the couch like chilling. Uh, it was a pretty good jump out of me. I didn't scream, but I jumped. We need a measurement system for these jumps.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

How high?

SPEAKER_03 24:03

It would be difficult because when you're watching a movie in a theater, the jumps are much more easy to achieve.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

I probably definitely jumped when you guys jumped, if that's what we're talking about. But I don't know, it's weird. Like, I think uh when I watched this when it was younger, I was I was totally terrified um at this when I saw you know Alien versus Predator, definitely that. But I think now I just have like so much appreciation for the movie that I'm like, oh my god, this is interesting. He saw all these other facts that it really, I mean, I had those jump scares, but it wasn't like terrifying, like I'm not gonna stand in front of a mirror and say Candyman five times, you know, not that kind of terrifying, agreed.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

This had an effect, this had a couple jumps uh going on, not for me, but from a girlfriend when we watched it. So uh I can say that it it does scare people.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Is that your like uh scale?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

I can't answer for whether or not I'm scared because I'm never scared, but um even when watching this growing up, I was like so into sci-fi and stuff that this kind of stuff would do nothing for me. I just thought it was really cool. Like I always want to learn more, I want to see more, I want to see the alien, you know, in detail. I want to see them uh maybe living their lives on a normal basis. But uh no. In terms of in terms of me getting scared now, you know, my viewing partners, yes.

SPEAKER_06 25:16

I'm gonna go ahead and make a motion now that I will reveal the answer to um in the next half of the episode. But I'm gonna make a motion that we should change your name from the Supervise Base guy.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Oh gosh, what's about to happen?

SPEAKER_06 25:29

It's gonna come. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll take a vote, we'll take a vote, take a listener vote, see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

I do have to make an addendum to my answer. Um, there was a moment where a lot of tension was being built, and I watched this movie during a thunderstorm with the windows open because I like the sound of the rain. Um, and I was so focused on this movie that a crack of lightning or a crack of thunder actually made me jump out of my skin. So this movie definitely made me feel tense, but the film's jump scares didn't actually make me jump the way Mother Nature did.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

It just made you good soil for jumps.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Exactly. I was I was ripe for the jumping.

SPEAKER_06 26:03

That's totally fair. Um, this movie it didn't scare me at all. Even the jump scares weren't effective. But I that that being said, I don't jump at movies. So my test, similar to Max, was gonna be on FaceTime last night watching this with my girlfriend. And as soon as the scene came up, I just kind of like turned my head and she just laid there unmoving. I'm like, what the hell? Like, how do you not jump when this thing is like erupting? I didn't understand it. But I will say that this movie gave me vibes of so many other movies, and to be fair, it's movies that came before it. So, like, no, don't worry. I'm not like uh I'm not gonna throw it under the Vent Horizon bus or anything. Oh, it's funny.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

I was like, these definitely remind me of everything that came after it.

SPEAKER_06 26:44

Right. I mean, credit where credits do, right? This movie feels like a classic space adventure, and it does do something original with one of its main characters uh that I applauded it for when I first saw this. Then I went on like this whole rabbit hole of research like the last year, and I figured out why this character was done so well, and now I'm just pissed off about it. But what about you guys? Did you find anything original about this movie and its storytelling?

SPEAKER_01 27:10

It's like Jaws, but in space.

SPEAKER_06 27:12

Yeah. Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Only Mac has that appreciation of it.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

I didn't make that up.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

That's how it was pitched.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Yeah, this is how it was pitched. So on films, there's like somebody who like reads the script and then summarizes it, and so that's how they summarized it. It's like Jaws.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

Yeah, I could see why someone would say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Yeah. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't think it's it's super similar to Jaws. There's no, you know, get out of the water moment for me. But I I think it's original. I think its combination of storytelling, characters, and effects in my mind just makes it this just this monolith that affects so many other sci-fi movies afterwards that you can just probably just trace them all directly back to it. And it obviously takes some some influences from movies before it, but I think it's like it's this new starting point for this this tree that endlessly goes to other films.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Yeah, I totally agree. I feel like I've seen things that are like this, but only because it's came after this, like all the cloverfield um or cloverleaf cloverfield.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Clover-ish movies.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

The clover-ish movies. Uh the clover leaf, the four-leaf clover from Leprechaun. Yeah, don't worry, man. Leprechaun did go to space. That had a whole franchise on that one. You should have seen that. Uh yeah, I know, but everything that I recall seeing um that reminds me of this movie is always came after. So definitely original to me.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

I don't know if I'm really an authority here to be calling original or unoriginal on space movies. I can't like you know, I'm a fan of Star Wars and stuff like that, but I can say I've seen a ton of them. I would say this seems to be more original, but then also like how original can a story be with people on a ship and like a monster from space. So I don't know. I don't I I I would be happy to tell you guys that this is not my place to make that call.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

I'm glad you said that, Ryan, because I was thinking the same thing, and I can't even say that I'm a fan of Star Wars. I just like lack the sci-fi context to answer if this is original or not. I feel like as a horror movie, it's pretty original. It's it's hard to come up with something that utilizes aliens in such a bloody violent way, besides uh a quiet place off the top of my head. Um so it feels original in the context of horror, but sci-fi, no fucking clue.

SPEAKER_06 29:23

Look, all I'm gonna say is Plan 9 from Outer Space walked so this movie could run. That's all I'm gonna say. And if you guys aren't familiar, that is credited as one of the worst films ever made. You should go look at it. So I alluded to one of the one of the things that I think this movie did best was the way it treats a certain character. And uh I was I was satisfied to see that character's fate uh towards the end of the movie. Uh this movie didn't have as climactic of an ending as I expected. Things were certainly happening. I don't know what I was looking for, but I will say I was satisfied and I wasn't unhappy when it ended. But what about you guys?

SPEAKER_02 30:01

I feel like the ending was the best part of the movie. Um, like you said, Chris, I was satisfied by it. I think the thing you were looking for, because it's what I was looking for, was like a clear plan of action. Because there were a lot of plans in effect where I was, as a viewer, just kind of confused, like, what are you going for here? What are you what are you trying to do to get out of this pickle?

SPEAKER_01 30:22

We always talk about the multiple endings contained within an ending of a film, and this one legit has that, uh, because they had an original ending planned, and they tacked one on later, thankfully, that I think was a much better ending to it. So they didn't get rid of the original intended ending, they like added to it, and I think kind of close it off in a better way to where this film just could could completely stand on its own. But I'm so happy that the sequels happened and that the universe continued. Again, Aliens is fantastic, and it picks up much later than this film, but it it does it in a really cool way. Uh, you should definitely watch it, just saying.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

This makes is this making everyone want to go watch it right now? For sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

I'm I'm legit thinking of it right now. Game over, man. But no, the the ending of this one though, it I love an ending that could lead to other things, or it just could completely leave this movie on its own. And it's it's so much fun to watch. And I'm glad they added on the final ending scene because it really adds more to uh to to the main character of of the film, and you know, anytime I get to see more of the alien, I'm I'm super stoked as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

The scenes with the alien at the end were definitely my favorite, like just the whole image of it in that time was so good. Um I I like the ending. I I think it's like an important part, the fact that they added on to the end, which I can see where I think that happened. We can talk about that more later. I think that that was um probably a good choice. I think if it had ended a little sooner, it might have left us with a little like missing something. Um there was something specific that I really, really wanted to happen at the end, and it didn't. And I was so sad, which is it's gonna go very much against my brand here on the podcast. But um, I'll tell you guys about it later. Uh but yeah, uh the ending was good. I was satisfied. It was a good end to the long movie that we were through.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

I definitely enjoy the ending. I think it's like when I watch sci-fi movies, like you know, it's it's always like, and I it might be cliche, but it's always someone going off in the distance in their spaceship, and something either happens or doesn't happen. So I think I had this like context, but like I don't know, I'm always like satisfied with a better like, oh my gosh, they're making it home safe. Like, also, how long is it gonna take them to get home? Millions of years they'll probably be dead. But like, even like Armageddon, like movies like that, that I just want everyone to come back home safe because I feel like space is just this like this crazy thing that anything could happen. That I'm like, okay, do they have a clear course home? And that makes me feel good. Clearly, this rubbed a little bit differently, but not to say I didn't like the ending. How stressed were you when they were talking about 10 months to get home?

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Well, I was like, I feel like it should be longer. Oh, 10 months. Ugh. 10 months with yourself. I probably thought of them. I mean, granted, they were gonna, I was I actually was thinking 10 months of sleep sounds great.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

That's exactly what I need during this time.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Yeah, every time they said that, I was like, oh, please don't.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

And you get to sleep with your like a furry friend. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

I've been watching the show called Avenue 5 on HBO, and a major plot point of that, it's like a sitcom in space. Uh, but a major plot point is that they're basically on like a space cruise and it gets delayed and they're not going to be back for like six years. So I was like, ten months, not bad.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

It took me a while to get through the first episode FYI.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Oh, yeah? It gets better.

SPEAKER_04 33:58

I don't I couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

And then it kind of gets worse, but then it ends well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Mr. I hate sci-fi.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

I was actually just thinking about this. I was like, maybe I only like sci-fi in like a comedic context.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

That's a weird contradiction you have here.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Because also Spaceballs is a fun movie.

SPEAKER_06 34:12

I mean, interestingly enough, Paris, I do think like certain people have different little buckets they like for their sci-fi. You know, I can attest to this like I liked Event Horizon. It was a really, really, really good movie, but it did make me realize that I don't really like sci-fi in horror and put together, and that was like an exception. I like like cheesy sci-fi horror, like Jason goes to space, leprechaun goes to space because it's so absurd. But I love my sci-fi and I love my horror. And like also a movie has to be an exception, like Event Horizon, for me to really like get into it and be feeling it 100%. I don't know why. It's so weird. I love I have a Star Wars tattoo and I have a horror movie tattoo. I don't know why I don't like those two things mixed, but then again, when I'm eating on a plate, I do eat all my things in order without mixing them. I don't want to. You're a psychopath. Sorry. I just believe in order. That's all.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

So I mean, talking about sci-fi movies and endings specifically, I always look at, especially like space sci-fi, as either analogs to westerns or to movies about like naval exploration. So like people, you know, colonizing new new territories around the world. And obviously, Star Wars, we can talk about westerns. But you know, movies where space is still really vast and unknown. I just imagine being on a ship, like not knowing that there's another continent that you're headed to, and like you don't even know how long it's gonna take to get there because you don't even know it exists yet.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

And that's scary.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

That's yeah, obviously like scary because you're just like, I don't even know where we're going, let alone how long it's gonna take to get there. But multiplied times a bazillion because space is endless.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

I think that's the terrifying part, it's endless.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah. And you don't know if you're just gonna like I don't know, get evaporated or something by some kind of solar discharge.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

I feel like a poll for our uh listeners should be like, who believes in aliens? Because I definitely do.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Oh, aliens are for sure real.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

Oh, hell yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_06 36:12

And then that's gonna get into the belief in ancient aliens.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

But they could be real, maybe they were real.

SPEAKER_06 36:17

Do you believe in aliens?

SPEAKER_01 36:19

So here's I I I think statistically, other species of intelligent life around the universe have to exist, but I think the timeline is so great that they don't have to exist right now. Like maybe they've they could have come and gone. Hey, man. Maybe we're the first ones and then we'll be gone by the time that another one springs up.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

I'm just saying, if we're going down that rabbit hole, we can start talking about the world being flat. Where do we want to take their own?

SPEAKER_01 36:42

It's not the same kind of rabbit hole. I'm not talking about on this planet, I'm talking about in other planets throughout this endless universe. There could have been um, I mean, the the the time that we've been here is is already so great that another species could have come and could have gone. And by the time another one gets to our point of intelligence, we might be gone.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

Right now.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

All I know is that I was once visited by aliens and they cured my strep throat, so I'm cool.

SPEAKER_04 37:04

Paris, you have a story for everything. What time did they come get you? What time did they get you?

SPEAKER_02 37:10

It was in a dream, and then I fully woke up with zero symptoms, even though I had been like fully dying. It was great.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

So it was really all in your head.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yeah, I guess so.

SPEAKER_06 37:19

Mac, you were talking about like looking at equating this movie either to a Western or like naval exploration. I will say there was one moment in this film that felt so familiar to me, and that was when they all wake up and you're realizing, like, oh wait, no, we're not halfway home. The plot of the movie is happening and we're being redirected. And the Parker had a look on his face that made it reminded me of the look of all the faces I saw when we were on the mess decks eating, uh, it was surf and turf night, and they only bring out surf and turf when it's bad news. So you're sitting there eating your chow, just hoping that you'll finish your meal before the captain comes on the one MC to say, by the way, we're gonna be out here a lot longer. And that was probably one of the best moments of the movie for me. But that being said, do you guys think this is anything you're gonna watch ever again?

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Yes, always.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

For sure. Gonna watch number two sometime soon. Same for me.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

I'm actually excited to watch Alien 2.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

It's called Aliens with the I'm excited to re-watch Aliens.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

There you go. I'm excited to maybe see Aliens for the first time. Who knows? Alien 2 on Earth is very different.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

I'm gonna pass on re-watching this one, but I am open to watching the sequel. Specifically because there's a scene I was expecting to happen in this one that did not happen, and it kind of gave me a little bit of like blue balls.

SPEAKER_06 38:36

I will say that I I enjoyed, I think, the sequel better than this movie, but that's because it's less horror and again more into that like even mix of like this is sci-fi. So maybe that's just me.

SPEAKER_03 38:48

Can I tell you guys what I thought about so much in Scream 2 when they're talking about sequels and they're like, they basically say that Alien has one of the only sequels that's better than the first one? I thought about that so much, and that's one of the reasons why I'm like I have to continue the series.

SPEAKER_06 39:03

Well, we know how you guys feel about watching the sequel, but let's figure out how you felt about the first one. Now, before we get to our ratings, Alexis, how many people died in this movie?

SPEAKER_04 39:12

I have to admit, for this being a small enclosed place, five does seem like a lot for me. So our body count is five.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

It's a good number. And what about the animal report? We're good on the animal report this week. There's some uh there was some uncertainty throughout some close calls. There's some close calls. But came out clean.

SPEAKER_06 39:30

All right, folks, let's go ahead and get into it then. Alien from 1979. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

It's a major slash. It belongs in the Library of Congress, it belongs in your library of movies. When watching this, I realized I don't have a digital copy of it. And so when I get to this screen in Apple TV, I was like, do I rent this or do I just go ahead and buy this?

SPEAKER_04 39:53

Please tell me you bought it.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

I just did the rental because I'm not sure if I can get a better deal somewhere else and link it to it with movies anywhere. If if I can do that, I will. But yeah, this is a this is a major slash. If you enjoy sci-fi at all, you should 100% watch this movie. If you're not sure whether or not you enjoy sci-fi, just want to get a little taste, watch this movie. And I I think as you watch other movies set in space, you'll see so many things that that borrow from this, even TV shows. Um, there's moments of the expanse that I'm a huge fan of. The expanse is absolutely amazing, but there's moments of that I think borrow from this. There's visuals from other shows and from movies, and probably things in books that are heavily influenced by the people who saw this movie when it came out and then continued to create afterwards. But yeah, you you should you should watch this movie. Major slash, I love it. I think everyone else should love it. If they don't, it's a bummer, but it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

This was hard for me, being somebody who does not like sci-fi and really struggles with sci-fi, just in general. There were a lot of times where I was disoriented and like confused about plot points that didn't seem to make sense to me, but my boyfriend was like, oh, they already said that, like it's this, and like blah blah blah duh. And I was like, Oh, I mean, hearing you say it makes sense, but watching it on my own, I would not have put those pieces together. Um, so I'm actually gonna have to give this movie a hack. I did not enjoy it, but of yeah, of course, you guys saw this coming. Of all the hacks I've given, this one's more of like a like if I was breaking up with this movie, it's definitely a it's not you, it's me kind of a hack. So if you're somebody who listens to this podcast and you're like, oh, I tend to agree with Paris and like his perspective on things, consider giving this movie a pass. Um, I almost wanted to say that it's worth watching just once, just for like the cultural significance of it all, but I don't feel like I really gained anything from watching it this one time. And for that I apologize to everybody else that loves this movie.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

No need to apologize. You do you. So uh this movie is obviously older. There are some practical effects that I enjoyed, some that I didn't. There are some parts of the story that I think had some holes in it, some things that I had issue with where I was just like, this kind of doesn't make sense. Um, some of the context for different situations didn't really add up for me. Um with all that being said, I think this is a really good movie and it's an enjoyable watch. Uh there is a part of me which I really hadn't even considered until we sat down to record tonight. Like, I don't know how much I identify this movie with horror. Um, personally, it's like I I can understand why it would be scary and everything, you know, obviously it's not an unscary movie. Like, I jumped from it, it's definitely stressful. Um, but there is some there's some unique quality to it, uh, to put it on, you know, us reviewing it on this podcast. So if you're looking for like a certain type of horror movie, this definitely isn't gonna be it. But this is a good movie, and I disagree with Paris. I think it added something to my life when I watched it. So um that is my slash for Alien.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Going on that train and giving this a total slash. Yes. I love this movie just as much as Mac probably does. He probably has a little bit more of an appreciation for it than I do, but I think this is like a this definitely a movie that I saw like a long time ago. I saw like a newer version. You guys have heard me on the podcast. Like, I don't like practical things. If I've seen a newer version of the franchise, I'm not necessarily a fan of the newer um versions, like Friday the 13th. But this one, like I totally looked back and I was like, holy crap! Everything I ever watched past this is came from this movie. And it's so original, it keeps me on the edge of your seat. And it honestly, this is like one of the movies that it made me like want to go out and like research more. Like, oh my god, I want to see like behind the scenes, I want to see this, I want to see that. And typically I'm just like, yeah, I'm fine. I'm gonna keep the mystery behind it. But I loved like on YouTube, they just get and then. And this, and I was like, all right, now I'm in a like black hole, speaking of space. But yeah, totally slash.

SPEAKER_06 44:06

Right on. Alright. So so far we have three slashes and one hack. And I will say that Paris and I do not agree often. But when we do, we agree a lot. 80% of the time, we disagree every time.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

Ah, the suspense.

SPEAKER_06 44:21

So looking at this movie, while I wasn't sure what to expect from it the first time I watched it, I knew how iconic it was. I knew how prominent it was. And again, just to remind you, this movie was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. So much so that it is preserved among the greatest films of our lifetime, right? I don't get that. I just I don't the the visual effects are incredible, but I don't see how they are so much more incredible than anything else that I've seen that it's deemed to be the best thing ever. Uh the sound design is startling and really, you know, it really does well to really create a lot of the atmosphere. So Gordon Weaver as Ripley was probably one of the best female leads that I've seen in the movie ever. But this movie for me is 100% overrated. And I'm really glad that I didn't see it earlier in my life because I think I would have been even more disappointed. That being said, this movie is a good movie. And it's a good movie because it's a good movie, not because it's for me culturally significant, because it shaped the whole genre. Sci-fi is sci-fi for me, horror is horror for me, and this movie was kind of eh both. Uh, there are some really good moments in there. The characters, and honestly, Sigornia Weaver probably single-handedly saved this with the design of the alien. So this movie gets a slash, but this isn't like a iconic slash. This is a it's decent, definitely not in the top slashes I've ever given.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Well, there we go.

SPEAKER_06 45:55

Well, there you have it, folks. Alien has managed to come out scathed by only one hack, but honestly, it almost got two. But here we are. Uh, you can find this movie streaming with HBO, or you can rent it, or you can purchase it. Enough of us think you should, so there you go. Uh, check it out and then join us in the second half so we can break down the spoilers and figure out what Max's new name should be. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

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SPEAKER_06 46:52

Alright, welcome back, Alien from 1979. One of the most iconic films in the genre has earned one hack in four slashes. Before we get into why we rated this movie the way we did, before we start nitpicking, etc., Alexis, what's up with the gore?

SPEAKER_04 47:08

So before the break, I mentioned, like, yeah, there's five kills in this. Um, so I guess we could go all around and do our typical, like, hey, like, what's your favorite death? And I'm pretty sure everyone's gonna say the same thing, or somewhere close. But um, I really want to talk about two things during this sort of um discussion about the gore and the deaths in this movie. One, I want to talk about Kane's death, which I think um, and that's where Ryan quoted uh the puppet going across the room. And I want to talk about um Alien, because I think there's a lot to like talk about and discuss, and that being an actual actor, which I think is super cool. You have people like um the guy who does like Slender Man, Doug, and he's like this really cool, like I mean, these tall people like they they get faked in sports, they get faked in movies, like tall people culture.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Man, these tall people, they do things.

SPEAKER_04 48:01

Like, what the hell? What the hell? Yeah, so I just want to know like what you guys thought about Kane. Like, I just love that iconic scene. Um, to me, I mean, it could have looked fake, it could have looked real. Like, I don't know what you guys thought about that.

SPEAKER_06 48:13

I have one little comment on that, and it trips me up every time. First of all, I love it, it's great. Every time that alien bursts out of his chest, I imagine with a little top hat on saying, Hello, my baby, hello my darling, hello, my right tongue.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Because that was in Space Balls.

SPEAKER_06 48:28

That's what it was. It was Space Balls. All right, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

It would fit with the same actor.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Yeah, that happened in Space Balls, and I saw that before seeing this movie, so it definitely removed a lot of the impact.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

I think when it popped out, I was definitely like, it is so cute. It is like adorable, but like terrifying at the same time, and then it runs off, and I was like, damn, these people are never gonna find this shit ever again.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Yeah, it definitely was really cute until it grows 15 times in size.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Yes, it in in very small amount of amounts of time. There was a large growth spurt that happened here. Um, it was super cute, and I know I already said this, but I cannot say enough. My favorite part of this movie is the freaking grills. Like it's so cool. And you that's the first time you see it is when he like pops out of his stomach, and then you just see these little tiny pointy teeth. And I was like, please keep that going. And obviously they do. Um, and that's just so like it was such a just a little interesting, little cute character that is frightening and will rip you apart and murder you and can withstand any environment you put him in.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

I need to revise a statement I made earlier that there was no get off the beach uh moment in this movie, and this was that moment when so in Jaws. Oh yeah, and and they're back at they're back on the beach, right? And they're just I was so lost.

SPEAKER_06 49:42

Beach in space.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Beach in space, and they're and they're just watching everyone's out there playing and enjoying the water, and they're just gonna watch in for the shark, and they think it's gonna be okay, right? And then suddenly, like a kid spurts like blood, and because the shark is eating him and everything in the background, but it's so like just mixed into all the goodness, and and this is that moment. I think a lot of chaos in it, too. Yeah, because like they're thinking everything's back to normal. He's awake, he's up, he's moving, he's eating a crap ton of food, which should have been the like the first sign something was really bad. He's like shoveling all that bad space spaghetti onto his plate.

SPEAKER_06 50:15

Your boy's pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

This is eating and eating for two. It seems normal, but then like when he starts to look unwell, that's when you know something's wrong. And if this is your first time watching the movie, you're probably just like, oh, what's about to happen? He's about to birth an alien through his mouth or something. And no, it's just like suddenly, like he's go, he goes from normal to chest burst or like really fast. And what I love about it is they even though the actors had seen the puppet before this, you know, before the filming, and they kind of knew scriptwise what was going to happen, they weren't exactly informed on what was what's about to go down. So their like look of of shock is pretty darn genuine. So I love that they kept a lot of things hidden, even from you know the actors during the filming of this, because it's it's so genuine. I think when this first came out, I don't know if anyone actually expected that to happen, especially in the way that it did. But it's just so like sudden and violent, and and that's it, that's game over for him, which is kind of a bummer because he seems like a really cool dude.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

Yeah, that seems kind of too iconic for its own good, just because everyone has seen it, even if you haven't seen this movie. So by the time you see a guy laying on his back on a table, you know what's gonna happen. But Mac, you said something very specific just now in that when he started to look unwell, uh, from where I was watching, the from the time that he got that thing off of his face to the time that he died, he never looked well. I was very confused as to like why they were having dinner with him and like why everyone was so casual when like clearly he was not okay.

SPEAKER_06 51:44

To be clear, he did not look well when he first woke up.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

True. You know why? Because John Hurt is an amazing actor. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

I I'm not gonna go into this right now because I want Alexis to finish talking about the deaths and everything, but this scene brings up a very significant point in this movie that annoyed me to death, which is like their lack of reaction to things. Um, I'm gonna pause on that for right now. The other thing I want to say is that the puppet was my uh least favorite practical effect because this literally just like a puppet skirting across the bottom of the screen. It really wasn't the head that was talking. It was the puppet drove me crazy. I was like, what in the world is this? But I get it, I get it. It's practical effects. It was just eh, yeah, but in the Library of Congress. It looks real in the stomach. I loved it in the moment. As soon as it left the scene and like flew across the room like someone just kicked it. I hated that. I was super cool with it when it popped out. I loved the way it looked. The look of the puppet is great. The the action of the puppet is what drove me crazy.

SPEAKER_04 52:52

Yeah. So little, like I don't know what we're calling him, not gizmo, but little grills, little Nelly. Yeah, it was called Nelly. Nelly Nelly Nelly grows up really quick and becomes this great, like iconic monster. Iconic, super iconic. He was so pretty. Very pretty, very glowy. So when I was doing all my you know, black hole stuff after this, I mean I didn't, I I don't know what kind of practical or I mean I clearly saw what kind of practical effects they had, but I didn't realize until I saw this. It it's it's a quick four-minute movie. Uh we can link it in the show notes if you want, but um it's this sh quick video four-minute of the actor Boulehe Badejo is the actor in this, and they tell this cool story about how like they were gonna use animatronics and all this sort of stuff, and then they randomly found this guy, oh not random, well, randomly found this guy at a bar, and he has this whole backstory. They put him in the suit, and just the way like they have like screen, like all these like you know, test shots, and it's amazing to see what this guy can do. Now, I know you guys are hating on the jazz hands, but I don't remember that. I don't remember, I remember this looks so daunting. I don't either.

SPEAKER_06 54:11

It's all I can remember now.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

It happens when when Captain Dallas is down looking for him. That was terrifying. Yeah, so they're they're cordoning off like different sections of the air ducts, and they're like, Oh, he's so close to you, you gotta get out of there. And he like turns, and you can clearly see the alien just like straight on, and his hands just go out like he's gonna give you a big old hug.

SPEAKER_06 54:36

Oh, is it kind of like they're not even out like that? It's more like the T-Rex arm out, like, hey, yeah, Babadoo cans, yeah, Baba Doo cans.

SPEAKER_04 54:44

Baba Doo cans, okay. Same energy, except even less scary than that.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

It was held for I think far too, far too long. We kind of we kind of laughed a little bit at it at that one moment.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

Yeah, it was crazy though, because they talk about how like it was a full costume, and then they actually had the retractable, like you know, inner little like alien mouth. Yeah, girls 2.0 and he had to wear this all day. And they said how great he was as an actor and just as a person that he never once complained and was just awesome and I I don't know, you know. I need a movie where someone looks short and not leprechaun, but someone is short and daunting. What about Chucky? Besides a kid, Chuck, okay. Someone that's okay, is different.

SPEAKER_06 55:29

So not a fictional creature or a doll. Got it. Okay, yeah. Give me another one.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

Is there a movie that in which Tom Cruise is kind of scary?

SPEAKER_06 55:37

Orphan.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 55:39

Yeah, but so how did you guys feel? Was this like a very was it realistic to you? Was it scary? Was it effective?

SPEAKER_03 55:46

Oh, I loved Alien. I think if the monster in this was less uh enticing, less attractive, less uh talented as far as you know getting away from them and smart and everything, this movie would be trash, honestly. Like it wouldn't be it would be nothing without the quality of the alien in this movie. And and it's so good.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

So that's kind of funny because Sigorni Weaver, while reading the script, imagines like a giant green alien chasing after them this whole time.

SPEAKER_03 56:15

And it would have been so bad. I would have tapped out so early on that.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

But the xenomorph is truly beautiful and it looks like a thing of nature, which is what I love about it. They pulled elements from life on Earth, like the two sets of jaws, like the retractable jaws that comes from real being on this planet, which is crazy. And I it just comes together in this beautiful, deadly package that happens to also be really shiny. I don't know why. I don't know why it's so shiny. It looks so beautiful. I like the high gloss. Yeah, it's got that high gloss effect. It's like uh the iPhone 7. Is that the one I'm thinking of with the jet black? Jet black, yes.

SPEAKER_04 56:53

Although when it was hiding in like the tubes, no kidding, I was like, hmm, I don't think that's an alien because there's like a dot in the middle, it might be a bolt.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

Dude, when it was hanging out on the side of that spaceship. That bitch was just taking a nap. Yeah, when he was just tucked in there, he was like, Man, I'm just trying to chill. Like, and she she's like doing all the stuff, and he's like, yo, I just want to lay over here. I'm trying to take a nap right now. It was I loved I loved when he was tucked up.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

So not threatening.

SPEAKER_04 57:15

I know. I was wondering what it was doing it in the corner. I was like, still hiding, napping, chilling.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Oh there's there's reasons for that too, interestingly enough. So initially, I think the idea was to end with the the alien dying. So it's at the end of its life cycle, and at the end it would turn into another egg. Thankfully, that's not how things went, because we would have missed out on the queen. Um, you guys need to keep watching alien movies to get to that point. But yes. Ryan and Paris specifically. But the because the queen is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 57:44

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

You just you have to keep watching. Like go home tonight and watch it.

SPEAKER_03 57:48

I'm on board. I've already committed.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

Yep. I'm open to it, but I might not. If Alien wasn't for you, you know, as a horror, go into aliens expecting an action movie, and I do not think you will be disappointed. And Ripley continues to be an amazing character through the first three movies. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah. Yeah, I would ignore the fourth one. Um it's not my favorite, but uh, I just I don't know, I love the way that that the xenomorph looks and how it acts and how it moves. It reminds me of just literal deadly beings on this planet, like spiders and snakes and stuff, how it's able to move. And even even the way its like skin looks reminds me of of when you see like a really really dangerous-looking spider. Like a beetle, or like a beetle, yeah, beetle. You know, when they're when they're like kind of just chilling, and then you move up on them and they start to move fast, and you can see all the details coming at you, and you're just like, nope, just noping out, burning the place down.

SPEAKER_04 58:44

Which they try to do.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Mec, in regards to what you're saying about how it reminded you of like like predators and like awful creatures on here that can kill us, like on our planet, I actually got a lot of lamprey vibes from this alien, specifically just because like there's a lot of use of slime and like goop. Um, and I feel like that's why it was so glossy, because it was like constantly secreting a slime, like a like a hagfish or a lamprey, um, which are some of my favorite animals. So I appreciated that little bit of influence there. But yeah, I feel like as far as creature movies go, this is definitely one of the better designed uh antagonists.

SPEAKER_06 59:20

You like wet animals? Fantastic. So we have politics adjacent with Mac, medical adjacent with Ryan, and now marine biology adjacent with Paris. And it sucks blood, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Uh yeah, so they're pre- they're um parasitic and they cause a lot of problems in like the Great Lakes specifically because they'll just like kill everything and they're so disgusting to eat that they don't really have any predators.

SPEAKER_06 59:39

Some Midwest shit. Got it.

SPEAKER_02 59:40

No, literally some Midwest shit.

SPEAKER_06 59:42

So, as great as the chest burst was, my favorite death was by far Brett, because that was the first time that we actually get to like really see the alien, and I think that moment had the most tension for me in the whole movie. And it's it's silly because like you know it's gonna happen the whole time. There's no, you know, it's no surprise that he's gonna go wandering off for this cat like an idiot, separating from the rest of the pack. Um, but that move that kill for me, as quick as it was, I think had the most payoff besides the shock of the first death that we see. Lambert was the character I wanted to die immediately from the get-go. She was so annoying, but I was a little underwhelmed that we didn't get to really see her death in great detail.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:27

Yeah, a lot of them were like indirect, you know. That's it, always left me wanting more. But then I think as I seen the like the franchise that I'm like, oh, it does pay off later.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

I always like to, in this type of movie, like make a bet to see who's gonna die first, especially when I'm watching the movie with somebody else. So um, I definitely was correct in this one. It was like you knew it was coming. He's definitely like like Chris said, gonna go off and try to find the cat. But it was very satisfying. I I did enjoy that one, and like you said, just because it's the first time you get the full alien effect, it's really good.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:59

I did hurt for Parker because I feel like he could have easily survived had he just ditched Lambert, but he still tried and kept telling her like, get out of the way, get out of the way, and that fucking idiot wouldn't get out of the goddamn way.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

She was literally standing in the center of that spotlight, too. She wasn't even trying to hide.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:16

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:16

Like banging all those canisters, drawing as much attention to herself as possible. So they like got a transmission that there was something on that planet, right? So then they land on that planet because I guess they like have to prioritize that if there's life on that planet, and then they all go out and just like wander this planet, find a ship, check that out, and then like literally go spelunking into a dark, wet butthole where they find these eggs. Am I correct in understanding that that was the progression of events?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:46

Yep. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

So kind of okay. But then why did they have to do that?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:51

They were under the uh impression that it was an SOS signal. Oh so like they thought someone was under some kind of duress. That's why it was significant that Ripley gave it a shot, like decoding the message. She figured out it was a warning, not a distress signal.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:06

Okay, they thought that they had to help somebody. Got it. That makes so much more sense because I was like, every choice you're making right now leads you to a death that you deserve.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

Yeah, I don't know if they really should have been going as deep as they did.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

Also, like, do they have GPS? Because they would have gotten so lost.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:22

That's actually funny because this in Prometheus uh is is a major failing of the script to where a character does get lost who shouldn't get lost, and it's absolutely ridiculous. And there's I don't know if it's Prometheus or Alien Covenant where another character sees not the xenomorph, but another form of alien life and like you know bothers it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:47

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

And it's like I know it's why do they keep showing us stupid characters that want to die? But you you know, because they're looking at it. They have to, yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:56

It was like the whole egg scene.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

Yeah, they've gone so deep into this that anything that happens to them is truly self-defense. Right. They're just breaking and entering on so many levels.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:05

I did find it kind of confusing that they went on to that ship and were not totally frightened by the fucking dead alien they found. Like, is that normal? Is that is that to be expected?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:18

Okay. Can I bring up my my major issue with this movie here? Please. They did not react to anything in this movie. So, like, the feeling that you should have in these characters, and I mean, maybe they're just supposed to be used to it or something, I don't know. It does it just doesn't make sense. They don't react to the gigantic dead alien that appears to be a part of the gun, right? And then they don't react to like I mean, the guy finds the eggs and everything, and he's just like, oh, there's life, like no sense of caution or anything. And then their reactions when he's in the ship with the face hugger are okay. And then once it's taken off, first off, the fact that they walked into the room, let me let me tell you guys, I lost some brain cells over this. I'm my blood pressure was really high. They walked into this room where a man had an animal on his face that they couldn't remove and has acid for blood. Suddenly, the animal is no longer on his face, and it took two minutes for her to close the door behind her. Two minutes to close the door. It drove me crazy. And then they're like looking around the room, so they find it, whatever. I understand one of the characters has some uh ulterior motive, so I understand why his concern would be so very low. But like the fact that they sit at dinner with the guy that was in a coma for the past three days or whatever, and nobody knows what's going on. They don't treat this animal like it's an alien life form or anything, and then they treat this guy like everything's cool. He's he's like choking, he appears to be choking at first. They're like, Oh, what's wrong? I'm like, he was dying a minute ago. That's what's wrong. Like, what's wrong with you people?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:00

Yeah, you need to be way more cautious on the all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:03

And then it was like, as soon as the alien's gone somewhere, it wasn't like, hey, let's seal off some sexual, like, there was no like intelligent decisions about what to do. It was goofy.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:13

That's because it was all a series, an unfortunate series of just mansplaining the whole way through. This movie was don't listen to this one competent woman here.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:22

Let's listen to the one that's annoying, who just parrots back vapidly. Their reactions or lack of reactions to like realistic, stressful situations in this movie were I think the number one thing that I was like, why? Like, was this on purpose, or is this just what acting was like at this time? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

The the lack of reactions can also be explained by the era in which these people live. So they mention something about the signal when they receive it about whether or not it's like like human. So they've been traveling out in space long enough to encounter non-human species. So seeing an alien thing is like not abnormal. It's like going to another country and meeting a new kind of tick, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:08

But that being said, they should have been far more worried than they were.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

So not to go on a rant here, but this brings up my second issue. Uh the context of what the world is like in the times in the in the setting of this movie is unclear. So, you know, we can talk about the robot and everything. We get this surprise of a robot person that's clearly pulled off being a person for a long time. And there's never any context said that that's normal. Like they're not freaked out about that either. And so those types of things, like even at the beginning when they first wake up, I wasn't sure if they are just getting to space, if they're waking up. Obvious, obviously, I figured it out eventually that they were waking up after trying to be on the way home. They've been out there for a long time. But a lot of the like setting context I didn't get because they didn't explain it. So there was no way for me to know that they're used to this. But why did you need it? Because I I wanted them to freak out when they saw an alien and they didn't. But if it's normal, I need to know that it's normal. It's like, oh, we you know, have addressed these before. I yeah, there was like one line, but it it it just really and then like again the reactions when an a when a a robot is in the person that you've been on this this feeling, oh shit, it's another robot. Yeah. They're just like, okay, he's got a lot of white stuff in him. What would you do if you found out somebody was a robot? Like if I was a robot here with you on this podcast.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:37

I'd be grossed out if milk came out of it. Like, what the fuck? Do they fucking milk their ants?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Thick congealed milk. It reminded me of Westworld with all the milky stuff too. I was like, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:50

Fun fact literally milk.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:52

Oh, really? Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

With a mixture of delicious other ingredients.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Like spaghetti.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:58

And something thicker. I was gonna say it had to be like flour or something to thicken it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

I I don't know if they use thickening agents, but they use spaghetti, they use some caviar. I forget what else they they threw in there.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:09

Yeah, thickening agents is an uncomfortable thing to say. Yes, it is. So I'd like to make my motion, guys. I'd like to to make my pitch here. Ash in this whole movie, right, is an android that we don't realize until like the prologue to the ending. But when you go back and look at it, he's actually very calculating and he is looking at other people to uh to to kind of determine how he should be feeling or emoting or not emoting or trying to figure out how he can logistically pull things off. And I think based on Mac's horror test, his scare test, I think Mac's a fucking android. Oh, is this his new name? Android Mac? I don't know, but I mean there it is. I think he's a fucking android.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Well, Mac, what say you?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:00

Um I will answer half that point and say that you can see him watching other characters when you think something's developing. For instance, when the alien chestburster is is growing, you can see him not surprised by the fact that it happens. You can see him looking at something in the little science lab and then just hiding the fact that he knew what was actually there. He's like, I don't know, but we're still finding out. Um so yeah, super calculating, very much a psychopath, honestly, if you're if you were to be a human being. And um that's what I'll say about that. But uh, in terms of me being an Android, I can neither you know, I I can't confirm that, can't deny.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:36

He does look at us, you use a lot of Apple products though.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:39

I use a lot of data sorts of products. I've used Androids.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:43

Do you know he he looks at us all the time during the podcast?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

Yeah, you look at me during the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

So how dare you look at each other?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:52

I'm able to emote like anyone else. I unfortunately don't react the same as everyone else.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

You actually don't react at all to anything ever, literally.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:01

Look, here's the thing. Ryan, Ryan knows this very well, all right? That when you edit audio, you get a feel for different people's voices visually. Ooh, ooh, Mac is the only person in my lifetime of doing this that has perfectly symmetrical laugh waveforms every time is always four. And it's always the same volume, it doesn't get higher, it doesn't get lower.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:30

Listen, listen, you know when you're like four, you psycho.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:35

Wow, I can't unhear this.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:37

You know when you're texting someone and they reply and they put ha ha ha, but with the spaces, and you're like, wow, this person's a psychopath. That's max waveforms.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

Thanks. I I appreciate you guys catching me on the lie that I was human.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:54

It may not be 2037, but we're on to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:57

Maybe this is why I I love Star Trek because of the Vulcans and how Android-like they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:02

Your fucking data is what you are.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:04

Even I'm missing references.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:07

That's what I am.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Data is an Android, uh, featured in Star Trek uh the next generation series of TV shows and movies.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:13

Noted. Don't write it now. I don't actually watch Star Trek, but I know that one reference. TLDR.

unknown 1:11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:20

And and Data also has to try to laugh like a like a human being, very hard.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:26

You know C3PO from Star Wars? Imagine that with human skin.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

Ew.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:31

Obviously fucked up, right? I do want to know because Ash was a a really complex, shallow, hollow shell of a character. Um, and that was a performance that looking back a second time and knowing then that he was an android, I found a lot of value in his performance. So he kind of climbed the ranks for me. The best performance overall for me though was Sigourney Weaver. She was the one that made this movie worth watching. And it was amazing to me that she was just another character. She wasn't just a woman who was on the ship and they obviously played into her feminine energy, anything like that. And I thought, man, how fucking progressive. This is fantastic. She's not a woman, she's just another character. And then I learned that they fucking wrote that as a man, they wrote Ripley's character completely as a male, and then at the last second cast her. And they just didn't, they happen to not change anything. And then it was even difficult to write her character in the sequel because they obviously know now that Ripley's a woman. So that frustrated me. But I'd love to know what you guys think about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

I could definitely see that being true just because of how well written she was as a character, and typically movies of that age write women very specifically. Um Lambert. And yeah. I hated her. Um, but like I wouldn't say Sigorni Weaver made this movie worth watching because I don't really recommend it. But she was the best part of this movie in a lot of ways. She was like the only reasonable person on the fucking ship. Like the part that really made me fall in love with her was when they all came back from being outside, and she says, You have to be in quarantine, and they're like, No, let us in. And she's like, This is literally protocol. Like, you could put all of our lives at risk if I let you in right now. The answer is no. And they're like, he's gonna die if you don't. She's like, we could all die if I do. So, like, there's reason we have these rules in place. I'm looking out for all of us. This is like truly the right call. And then Wats's face is just like, oh yeah, let him in. Let's fuck everything up for everybody. It made me think about the quarantine that we're living in right now, and how if you're not gonna follow this, you're putting everybody's lives at risk. So I really appreciated Segorney Weaver as a character in this, and she was really the only one I could relate to.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:50

So I have a question, just based on curiosity, okay?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:55

Wouldn't it be isn't it, isn't it better that the role was written for a man and then they decided to cast a woman? And it wasn't specifically intended to be a woman in this role?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

Totally.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:07

So from a sort of certain point of view, sure. Except they didn't intentionally just do that, right? They didn't intentionally just write blank slate characters and then just cast whoever they wanted. It was one happy accident for them. And so, like, it gives the it creates this illusion that they're progressive thinkers when really they fall flat with Lambert and then they continue to fall flat in movies in the future. So it's just it's it's problematic for me. It's one thing if they're like intentionally going and doing that, but no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

Chris is not gonna love everything I have to say here, but it is what it is. So when we first get that scene where she's say, like when she approaches our robot friend and she's like, Hey, that's not how we handle things, that's strictly out of protocol. Um I love that scene, and I think that was like one of her shining moments. And I'm gonna be honest with you, throughout the entire movie, I'm I don't think that she had such a shining role that it made me love her as a character the whole way through. Like back to that, like you know, keeping him quarantined in that whole protocol. That scene I really, really loved from her, and then after that it kind of was okay for me. And I think that not knowing that it uh was cast that way, I can tell now. And um I think she's still like one of the best parts of the movie, but she didn't like it wasn't a home run.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:34

I agree. I don't think it was definitely like she just stood out completely. I think it was just a mix of everything for this movie for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:41

But we did, of course, it's Chris. Something that I do think is funny is that uh we have uh script written for a man, and of course we have to end up with like her butt crack on screen.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:52

Yep, naturally. There it is. How is that gonna end if it was a man?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:56

Uh yeah, exactly. Would we get a man's butt crack? No.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:00

No, you definitely would have. That's the only part of a man that they ever do show. Yeah, but do we do we want that?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:07

Not really.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:08

But I will say I have never seen such a lack of butt in my life.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:14

Oh, yeah, it's is it's uh it was an experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:18

I was surprised by how tiny those undies were for this movie being from the 70s, and then I was like, well, I guess they knew that in the future underwear would get skimpier.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:27

When we were watching this, I was just thinking, is this the people that they design underwear for? Because sometimes maybe this is too much conversation here. Sometimes underwear don't fit the right way. And I'm a more shapely woman and I'm always like, what is this? Who is this for? And I realized it's for her.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:42

Yeah, because I can't. They did not fit her, but it's not it's not for her, it's ill-fitting. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:47

It's it's for like a shorter version of her. To be honest, you can't wear those. No, I'll be honest. You got a button, I got a button. My ass would eat that thing. It's songs only, you know the deal. Songs are like string bikinis. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:02

Yep. This is the content our listeners are here for. Exactly. She's never had that issue. And on the ship, she was never worried. Oh man, the space suit, this spacesuit's really gonna go up my butt. No, she never had that trouble.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:14

They don't carry petite, though. I'm kind of worried. No petite spacesuits. One size fits all. My favorite thing about this movie though would have to be um just the spaceship um interior. I don't know. There's something about like I just love about space movies. I loved it about Event Horizon, I love it. I mean, just in any space movie, you have all these like nooks and cranny, and I think about it, I'm like, who the hell made this? Because they have such a great imagination that there's just so many, like everything has a reason why it's there. You might not see it in the movie, but so I thought it was so cool just seeing this blank ship and you just getting to see everything before there's this chaos coming. And I think that was the greatest part. I'm like, what does that button do? Probably nothing, but like, but there's just a lot of like there's just a lot going on about the ship that I'm like, oh my god, this is so great.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:07

Can I ask one more rain on the parade question over here? I know I'm uh negative Nancy. Why can't the walls just be like straight up and down and then like a straight ceiling? Like, why we always gotta have a hexagon-shaped hallway or circular in spaceships. Yeah, it's always you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_06 1:18:25

Modern design.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:26

Yeah, it's always the modern design of like, oh no, no, no. Not only are we gonna have a hallway, we're gonna have a hexagon hallway. Bro, 90 degrees, shoot, get out of here.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:35

Dust gets caught in. No, no, they don't need no dust in a spaceship. Actually, kind of a good point.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

They they do it because it looks cool, yeah, and because it sets it apart from modern life. Could you imagine this spaceship with just like a regular hallway with like drywall and popcorn ceilings? And popcorn ceilings, and cheesy like airport carpeting. Definitely not.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:56

I would love it. But so here's the thing. I think the reality is like when we get to the point of having spaceships and stuff like this, where it's gonna have airport carpet and popcorn ceilings. Like, you know what? Like, like look at airplanes. You would think airplanes have come along. All they've done is all they've done is squish in more seats. They haven't made it look any better. Every once in a while, I mean, you know, you go first class or something, you get anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:20

No, I'm saying they're getting a little bit more spacious on American, the new new ones.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:23

But that carpet is still trash. Them seats are still trash. It is brown. They're economic, is what they are. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:31

Airplanes want to look a bit more luxurious, though. You don't care about luxury when you're on basically a floating oil rig, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:39

Oh, but I think the ship looks way more luxurious than an airplane.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:42

That's true, there's a lot more room.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:44

Yeah. I like the hexagon hallways. I know I'm talking trash, but they're very elegant.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:48

Can we talk about the scene where the robot tries to choke Sigorny Weaver with a magazine?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:55

I was like, how does this work?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:57

Because that was very confusing to me. Is that what he was trying to do? My boyfriend was like, he's trying to like make a funnel to like put eggs in her. And I was like, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:05

I was like, hey man, uh, I don't know if you know this, but you can breathe through your nose. It's crazy. It's like a new invention. It's insane.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:13

I admire your boyfriend's desire to give this movie more credit than it deserves. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:18

Oh, he gave it a slash. He loved it. Good. Good, good, good. It deserves it, in my humble opinion.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:24

But yeah, that whole scene with uh just like shoving a magazine down her throat, and then there's a conflict, and then he's like spewing all this white stuff, and then there's spaghetti. I was very confused and disoriented for like that solid five minutes, and I just didn't know what I was looking at.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:37

Yeah, for sure. The whole time I was like, What? What is this what we're doing? This man is a robot. Is that what's happening here? Is this normal? Is this okay? Is this something that happens on Earth in this place? Whatever you want it to be. And it's kind of true.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:50

Yeah, when his head came off, I was like, that head was not held on by anything whatsoever. But I thought it was just bad special effects. I didn't realize that he was.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:57

Wait, wait, wait, but how about when the head reanimated on the ground and went from clearly a prop head to clearly a man's head with some cardboard around his neck looking like he was coming out the ground and then went back to the prop again? It was a great moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:12

Very well put together.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:14

I think if you keep watching, you're going to enjoy uh the character of Bishop. So can continue to watch the sequels. You're gonna enjoy uh some some interesting characters to come and some some cooler effects as well. Um I'm not spoiling anything for Bishop because it's mentioned early on what he is. I I love the added element of having an Android, a secret Android, at that. Because I think when you when you when you make it through and you're just like, what why is there a robot? I don't understand what's happening, and then you look back, you can like clearly place that there's this like a corporate element always in play. And that really works well with the alien universe because it's something that's heavily relied upon, and you'll get to learn more about like how the you know this large corporation or other corporations um kind of handle these things, but clearly he was there to to achieve a mission, and I I think he was a great foil to Ripley. You know, I I think we're we're sitting here you know hating on the alien for doing its animal thing and wanting to eat and and you know do what large scary animals do.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:27

But I'm not hating on the animal.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:29

Well, yeah, but I mean like inherently you're like you don't I want them to kill it, I want them to get rid of it. It's kind of like when you see a spider, you just want to kill the spider. I try to move them outside. But I can't help it. I don't want it to die necessarily. Classic Mac. I know.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:42

This reminds me of that quote from Stewie Griffin on Family Guy. It's not so much that I want to kill Lois, I just want her not to be alive anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:51

Right. And that's how most of us feel about spiders and snakes in our yard, and then when when we see this alien on screen, that's how we've kind of how we feel inherently. But you know, having this this evil android in play the entire time without us knowing is the is the real danger because none of this would have happened had he not had this mission from the beginning to bring them there and bring back the alien life form with you know at the expense of the crew. So he's honestly the real villain of the of the film.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:23

Yeah, and I appreciate that kind of part. It's like there's two plot lines. You have this like mystery, like sort of plot line, like, okay, what's going on? What are they supposed to be doing? They're not, they're not you can't have certain, you know, expense this at any cost you can, like that you're supposed to get this. You're like, okay, well, I want to know more about that. And then you're like, oh shit, but I really need to be paying attention to like this alien that's on board. So I love the like two, like two plot lines that you have going simultaneously. And I love, love, love, like you mentioned, Mac, that how it transfers throughout the entire franchise.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:58

This feels like this conflict has been reduced to the alien being a cockroach, but Ash being like an abusive husband, you're trying to escape.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

Oh my gosh. Can I say the thing that I learned from this movie is not to trust any technology that requires you to call it mother?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:14

Yeah, that was odd.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:15

It's it's so futuristic, and I'm like, but in the most like least futuristic.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:21

You know, because it's the motherboard, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:24

The motherboard I've I feel you, but I ain't trying to call nothing mother, and there's a reason, and this movie proves it because there's always something behind something that needs to be called mother.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:33

Did anybody else laugh when they had to eject the guy's dead body into space and they like shot it out like a cannon?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:40

Bro, that was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:41

I was expecting something a little more like gentle and respectful, but they were like, Phew!

SPEAKER_06 1:24:46

So burials at sea in the Navy are a very like sombre process. This is just like for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:52

And then they're like, Does anyone want to say any words? Nope.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:56

All right, march.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:58

Well, that was the only point in this movie that my girlfriend had any like visible response to because she started cracking up laughing. This movie has 41 years of history, all right, and there's a lot more to learn about it. Uh, there's even a lot of vibes in this movie about uh like male sexual assault, right? And like just what would it be like if a man was impregnated uh against his will and things of that nature. So there are a lot of nuggets here in which we can dive deeper in. But Mac, what do you have for our fact or fiction?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:29

Let's jump in and find out. Let's talk about that alien that impregnates things.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:33

I'm so excited to see what you have for this, knowing how much you love this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:37

I don't I don't know, you know what, I don't have a lot because when I gloss over some of those details, I just assume that everyone knows them. So I probably missed a lot of things I then everyone doesn't know. But let's go back to the facehugger because originally it was supposed to be green.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:51

I could totally see that, so fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:54

I feel like they went out of their way to make the aliens not green, so fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:58

I'm gonna go fiction. I'd also like to add this was my first uh facehugger experience, and I was unsure if it was a face hugger, and I was very excited. It was quite lovely.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:07

So the facehugger was indeed originally supposed to be green, but when you see it, when you look at it, you can see why when they looked at it in its in its form, they were like, no, we gotta keep it because it looks like human skin tone. So perfect.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:22

Thank god.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:23

Thank goodness that they kept it that disgusting.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:26

Nothing's grosser than the flesh color.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:28

Exactly, exactly. For for you know, where it doesn't belong. Like if if you grabbed Yeah, if you grabbed a book and the book, like the cover of it was like flesh covered, yeah. That would be really but if it was bright green, you'd be like, oh, I'm cool with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:46

What's happening here?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:48

Speaking of variants, um so this Yeah, well, you know, now everyone's gonna pull up the waveform and look at my laughs, and they're gonna see that I'm in fact inhuman. But let's talk about the slime on that alien. Because that alien was slimy, and we we were watching it, and yes, just like Alexis' mouth, it looked like lube. Yeah. Because it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:14

Fact. Is that the fact or fiction question?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:17

I fucked it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:18

No, it's lube. Fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:21

It's not lube, it was well, it depends. It's jelly. There's so many jelly, but there's so many. You can have gelatin as lube.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

So so fact or fiction has been answered by Alexis. It was it was indeed a personal lubricant. Yeah, it would go fact anyway. Did they sponsor it? I don't think they sponsored it, but but yeah, they used some KY. Alright, let's continue on to another portion of Alien. The chestburster. So the chestburster scene was inspired by Crohn's disease.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:53

In what way?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:54

Fiction. Yeah, because in what way?

SPEAKER_06 1:27:56

I'll say fact for shits and giggles. Yeah. That's a funny thing to say. When we're talking about Crohn's disease.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:03

Oh man. I'm gonna go fact just because I don't know where else you would get that from, but I don't understand how.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:09

It's a fact. Because imagine the effect feeling the um, you know, being waiting to explode from you. Uh if you will.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:18

I don't know. I know people that my grandmother has really bad Crohn's disease, and I don't know if she would relate to this, but we'll go with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:25

Next one up here. The original title of this movie was Starbeast. I hope not. Fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:31

No. Fiction. Fiction. You guys all went fiction, so I have to say fact.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:36

It is a fact.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:38

Aren't you glad that it wasn't called Starbeast, including Green Aliens? What a different world we would be in.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:45

Starbeast versus Predator.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:48

I mean, talk about great band names. Starbeast.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:52

I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:53

Okay, last one I got for you. Harrison Ford was considered for Captain Dallas, and Meryl Streep was considered for Ripley.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:59

Fact. I feel like you lied on one of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:01

Fact.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:02

Fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:02

Yeah, it's a fact. Both of them were considered. Um they didn't reach out and formally invite Meryl Streep, I think, in the end, because she had just had a boyfriend who had died recently, and they didn't want to be in a feature surrounded by everyone dying.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:15

You're an actress, like they have feelings too.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:19

They're not androids like me.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:21

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:22

But also, wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:23

When they say they've when they say they've considered someone for a role, sometimes it just means the director goes, Man, I'd really like if Mac played this. Yeah. And so, like, it doesn't really mean anything. So it's very loose. It's loosey-goosey.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:36

Right. Anyway, that's all I have for fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:40

What an enlightening experience. Man. It's like you're like this nice little database of knowledge. Thank you so much, Android. This has been quite the time. Alien from 1979 is considered a high an iconic film, but two of us found it unimpressive. And while one of us was bold enough to give it a hack, it did manage to squeak by with four slashes. Now, keep in mind that the conversation obviously doesn't end here. There are a lot of people out there that love this movie, and there are still some who are on Paris' side of things, so we want to hear your voice. Keep in mind that there is a ton of ways you can reach out to us. First at our website, hackerslash.com. And on our social Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:18

You could also hit us up at the Hackerslash Hotline, especially if you agree with the ridiculous things that happen in this movie. You can text us, call us, leave us a voicemail, or an audio message. The number is 757-606-0128.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:31

And if you currently have an alien growing inside your abdomen and just want to let us know, you can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:38

If you've enjoyed listening to our podcast, consider becoming one of our patrons. Check out patreon.com slash hacker slash where you can earn cool perks for as low as one dollar a month.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:48

We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:49

Bye.