What does “Nostromo” (the name of the ship in the first “Alien” movie) mean? Is it named after some historical or fictional ship?
The ship names (Nostromo, Sulaco, Narcissus) are all taken from Joseph Conrad stories.
Alright, so it’s from Conrad’s book of the same name. But what does the name mean, and is there any particular reason why they should have picked that name?
There’s a Joseph Conrad novel (the title of which perennially escapes me) in which a cruel nabob and his men pillage an African village. One man, whose family they have slaughtered, stows away on their ship for the return voyage.
He creeps out each night and picks off the entire crew, one by one.
Maybe I’m a little slow, Larry, but can you tie it together for me? How does “Nostromo” fit in?
They mostly come at night.
…mostly.
Well, ‘Narcissus’ is a greek mythos character who loved himself a little TOO much.
And it was probably due to lack of coffee. I overlooked the link in the second post, which pretty much explains it.
Sorry…
Nostromo is a character in the Conrad novel of the same name. A small ship/boat loaded with silver and manned by him is significant in the plot, but I don’t think the name in Alien is any direct reference to this.
It’s presumably more relevant that Ridley Scott’s first feature as a director was The Duellists, a cracking version of a short story by Conrad. I’ve always assumed that it’s just a gratuitous nod to Scott’s previous film.
Nostromo (silver ship) is not as well-known as Conrad’s another classic Heart of Darkness, but it’s one of the best books of that age and definitely worth reading. The book is set in the coasts of a fictional Latin American country and in the city of Sulaco, centering around an Italian who’s called Nostromo by his captain. In Italian “nostromo” can mean sailor or boatsman, and also “nostro uomo” which is “our man”, meaning he’s well-trusted. And he sure enjoys being trusted and famed, hence the Narcissus reference.
Interestingly, before H.R. Giger came on board, other folks were doing conceptual sketches for the film. In one of those the landing craft wasn’t the Nostromo, but the Snark. Different implications – the Snark (before it was a missile) was the creature in Lewis Carroll’s poem The Hunting of the Snark that a boatful of misfits tried to hunt down, only to have it hunt them down instead.
I hereby note for the record that in the early stages of the script development, the ship was to be named “The Snark.” Heh.