# I just watched "Alien" for the first time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921 "2015-01-26T14:11:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/21 "2015-01-26T17:22:35Z")
I’ll stand with **Bienville** in liking the third episode more than the second. Alien: Really tense horror movie Aliens: Big dumb action movie, one of my least favorite genres Alien3: Returns to the heightened tension of the 1st movie, but with more psychological horror and character exploration than jump-out-at-you screaming. I loved the themes of Alien3 - the horror at the idea that you are becoming what you have fought against, the metaphor of Alien-as-cancer (or maybe Alien-as-unwanted-pregnancy?). The fact that I saw them all in a row over the course of I think 3 days may have had something to do with not having the repulsion that most folks apparently have at Alien 3. I _didn’t_ watch Aliens over and over and over, I wasn’t invested in the parental relationship between Ripley & Newt - Newt dying before Alien 3 opened is one of the main things I see people criticizing it for. Aliens was just boring to me. But again, I don’t like the genre. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/22 "2015-01-26T17:32:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This is deliberate, and something that most people who saw the movie later missed out on. At the time it was released, everyone in the cast except Weaver was an established star, which led people to believe that she’d be the red shirt who was just there to die first, and that the Last Man Standing (and of course there would be only one) would be one of the bigger names. So when each of the bigger names got picked off, one by one, it heightened the drama. Nowadays, though, most people know that Weaver was the star, and have forgotten the rest of the cast, so we expect her to be the survivor. Yeah. The script clearly teases the audience making us think that Tom Skerrit is the main character, and Sigourney Weaver the heartless bureaucrat who won’t let him in because of regulations… and then it hits you making her the main character in the middle of the movie. Really well written. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/23 "2015-01-26T17:36:01Z")
**Maggie:** you may not care for big-budget action movies, and I’ll grant you that there’s plenty of good reason and good examples of why not to, but _Aliens_ is far from “dumb,” and is rather one of the better examples of the action-movie genre. It may not be your cup o’ tea, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/24 "2015-01-26T17:47:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, the movie that changed space travel from sleek and antiseptic to grimy and lived-in was **Dark Star**. You could argue that the film wasn’t widely released and had no big effect, but then **Star Wars** came along in 1977 and bulldozed the genre, giving us a lived-in future with beat-up hovervehicles and “piece of junk” spaceships. Alien came out two years later. **Dark Star** was written by Dan O’Bannon, who wrote Alien… ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/25 "2015-01-26T17:48:40Z")
True 'nuff. I also realized that the fact that I _love_ downer endings may have something to do with my preferences in terms of the trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/26 "2015-01-26T18:00:58Z")
Aliens did have better quotes, this board is the perfect example of that, I’m actually surprised more of them haven’t popped up here by now but I guess they mostly come at night. I saw it when I was a teenager in the theater and I slept with the lights on and the closet door closed for weeks after. I also made sure to check the closet carefully before I went to bed. I didn’t see the other movies until they were on TV or video so I could watch them at home, with the lights on. ETA: I guess we’re not quoting so we don’t spoil Leaffan, so Leaf hurry up and watch Aliens and then find the old Alien quote thread. It’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/27 "2015-01-26T18:05:20Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > **Dark Star** was written by Dan O’Bannon, who wrote Alien… …and starred him, too, as “Pinback”. Actually, _Alien_ had the plot that I thought (from the trailers) that \*Dark Star \* had – an alien loose aboard a spaceship. _Dark Star_ did, in fact, have that, but only as a subplot. _Dark Star_ started life as a student film, and they had to pad it out to get the running length up, so they filmed the extra scenes with O’Bannon as Pinback chasing the comical alien “Beachball” all over the ship. And, just to complete the trifecta, O’Bannon also did special effects work on the first **Star Wars** movie. The targetiung computer shot on the Rebel Base moon at the end is his work. O’Bannon ended up doing FX work, writing, producing, acting, and directing before he died. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/28 "2015-01-26T18:07:30Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > …ETA: I guess we’re not quoting so we don’t spoil Leaffan, so Leaf hurry up and watch Aliens and then find the old Alien quote thread. It’s hilarious. I have them thanks to my son. Next weekend! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/29 "2015-01-26T18:32:34Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Smoking on a space ship? Why not? Smoking would be banned and/or passe by then. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/30 "2015-01-26T18:35:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Smoking would be banned and/or passe by then. Why would you think that? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/31 "2015-01-26T18:41:38Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Why would you think that? It’s on it way out\* today\*. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/32 "2015-01-26T18:51:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It’s on it way out\* today\*. It is here in the US. Lots of people still smoke though. It remains a very popular habit in other parts of the world. People cling to all kinds of habits that aren’t good for them. If we really want to think about it, cancer may be so curable as to be a non-issue in the Alien universe…or the cigarettes may no deliver all the harmful chemicals that the ones in use today do. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/33 "2015-01-26T19:03:50Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > It is here in the US. Lots of people still smoke though. It remains a very popular habit in other parts of the world. People cling to all kinds of habits that aren’t good for them. If we really want to think about it, cancer may be so curable as to be a non-issue in the Alien universe…or the cigarettes may no deliver all the harmful chemicals that the ones in use today do. Well, they spoke American English on the ship. And the rest is a fanwank. Not to mention, even if it wasn’t cancer causing, smoke irritates people, and causes problems to delicate electronics. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/34 "2015-01-26T19:04:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, they spoke American English on the ship. And the rest is a fanwank. Not to mention, even if it wasn’t cancer causing, smoke irritates people, and causes problems to delicate electronics. Got it. You don’t like smoking. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/35 "2015-01-26T19:10:29Z")
Leaffan, let me know if you want the link to the thread. I decided not to link it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/36 "2015-01-26T19:14:13Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Leaffan, let me know if you want the link to the thread. I decided not to link it. Next Monday. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/37 "2015-01-26T19:26:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, they spoke American English on the ship. And the rest is a fanwank. Not to mention, even if it wasn’t cancer causing, smoke irritates people, and causes problems to delicate electronics. Point of order: Sir Ian and Sir John most definitely did _not_ speak American English; they spoke the Queen’s. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/38 "2015-01-26T20:20:01Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Smoking on a space ship? Really? People used to smoke all over in submarines; the Russians still do I understand. And submarines are the nearest modern equivalent to a spacecraft like\* Nostromo.\* ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/39 "2015-01-26T20:34:38Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > People used to smoke all over in submarines; the Russians still do I understand. And submarines are the nearest modern equivalent to a spacecraft like\* Nostromo.\* Briefly, in Nuke subs. The US Navy did allow it _at certain times_ for a few decades. However, it was banned since it was shown it was a health hazard. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921/40 "2015-01-26T20:38:06Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > However, it was banned since it was shown it was a health hazard. And if there’s one thing that’s been consistently shown in the Alien franchise, it’s the deep, passionate concern of Weyland-Yutani corp for the health and well-being of their employees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-alien-for-the-first-time/710921.md?page=3)