# A speculative (and possibly unanswerable) Lovecraft/ALIENS question (spoilers, baby) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589 "2004-12-07T18:48:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/1 "2004-12-07T18:48:24Z")
I was emailing a friend today (the incomparable **Sampiro** of this very board,) and while I was prating on about Lovecraft’s _terrifying_ [Brown Jenkin](http://www.unreart.net/oil_brown_jenkin.htm) character from “Dreams of the Witch House,” it briefly occurred to me that the hideous final scene in the story, in which Brown Jenkin devours Gilman’s heart while he lies in bed, then bursts through his chest, was awfully similar to the notorious chest-bursting scene from “Alien.” Now, I’m willing to accept that it could be gruesome coincidence, but a part of me wonders, knowing how very, very Lovecraftian the Alien mythos is (they could easily be a servitor race taken straight out of a Lovecraft story,) if maybe, _just maybe_, the Brown Jenkin incident might have served as inspiration. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/2 "2004-12-07T20:15:30Z")
Don’t know, but here’s more dope: > **[Alien (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(movie))** > > Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who encounter the eponymous Alien, an aggressive and deadly extraterrestrial set loose on the ship. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill ... > [@](#): > > The original script for the film was written by Dan O’Bannon, who had worked with John Carpenter on Dark Star. O’Bannon’s original script was titled Star Beast, and was a revision of an idea O’Bannon had had years before, about gremlins getting loose aboard a World War II bomber and wreaking havoc with the crew. [http://www.hplfilmfestival.com/features.htm](http://www.hplfilmfestival.com/features.htm) > [@](#): > > “H.P. Lovecraft scared the crap out of me when I was twelve. I read ‘The Colour Out of Space.’ It made a definite impression on me. As an adult, I think of the challenge to finding a cinematic equivalent.” > — Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/3 "2004-12-07T21:44:15Z")
The concept of a chestbursting alien may have originated with HR Giger, though. I’m sure I have the truth of that speculation on DVD - I could check, but I’m just off to work… ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/4 "2004-12-08T01:49:29Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > The concept of a chestbursting alien may have originated with HR Giger, though. > > I’m sure I have the truth of that speculation on DVD - I could check, but I’m just off to work… Nope, O’Bannon had an alien burst out of the victim’s chest in his original “Starbeast” script: [http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien\_early.html](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien_early.html) > [@](#): > > BROUSSARD > (incoherent shriek) > OhmygooaaAAAHHHHH!!! > > ``` > A RED SMEAR OF BLOOD BLOSSOMS ON THE CHEST OF BROUSSARD'S TUNIC. > > THEIR EYES ARE ALL RIVETTED TO BROUSSARD'S CHEST AS THE FABRIC OF HIS > TUNIC IS RIPPED OPEN, AND A HORRIBLE NASTY LITTLE HEAD THE SIZE OF A > MAN'S FIST PUSHES OUT. > > Everybody SCREAMS and leaps back from the table. The cat spits and > bolts. > > The disgusting little head lunges, comes spurting out of Broussard's > chest trailing a thick, wormlike tail -- splattering fluids and blood > -- lands in the middle of the dishes and food on the table -- and > scurries away while the men are stampeding for safe ground. > > When they finally regain control of themselves, it has escaped. > Broussard lies slumped in his chair, a huge hole in his chest, > spouting blood. The dishes are scattered and the food is covered with > blood and slime. > > ``` …although Giger’s visual designs of the actual chestburster, eggs, facehugger, cocoon, adult, etc. apparently were the definitive ones. Here’s the answer to the OP, btw: [http://www.eofftv.com/notes/a/alien\_1979\_notes.htm](http://www.eofftv.com/notes/a/alien_1979_notes.htm) > [@](#): > > The bizarre, parasitic nature of the alien came about after O’Bannon read about the ichneumonid, or spider wasp, which reproduces by laying its eggs inside the abdomen of spiders, eggs which then hatch and the young wasps eat their way out of their hosts. The nightmarish image haunted Dan O’Bannon and he thought it suitably macabre for the creature he had dreamed up. Lots of other great info. at that link. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/5 "2004-12-08T02:34:33Z")
On the director’s commentary, Ridley states the same thing as **toadspittle** ’s link. Interestingly enough, Scott’s idea was that the alien spaceship Ripley & co. stumbled upon in the movie was actually a troopship for an invasion force. The idea being that they’d drop the eggs on a planet that they wanted to invade, the aliens would go to work wiping out the local population, and then their masters would show up, kill them somehow, and take control of the planet. It’s too bad no one followed up on that idea, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-speculative-and-possibly-unanswerable-lovecraft-aliens-question-spoilers-baby/278589/6 "2004-12-08T02:40:35Z")
Wow. Super cool. Thanks a lot, guys. Here I am an ecologist, and the natural explanation didn’t occur to me. :smack: Ah well, another pet theory shot down.