three questions about Men in Black

okay, here they are

no particular order, folks.

  1. How did the little alien in the head of the guy who owned Orion the cat die? The bug guy Donofrio stabbed the humanoid thing in the neck. But the alien lived in the head, and didn’t seem to have been injured in any way. Nor was the inside of the head. Why did he die? That’s like someone shooting my car and me dying.

  2. The very first alien you see, right, the thing with the eyes on stalks that was dressed as the pudgy mexican? Well, his cover’s blown, he’s cooperating with the MiB, and all of a sudden he sees the INS guy with one o his peepers,and goes buck wild. He’s gonna kill the guy, stopped only by being blown to gooey smithereens (no “That would be such a good band name” jokes). What got him so riled up? Why risk life to eat some schlub?

  3. any good web resources on the special effects for that movie? In-depth stuff? I eat that shit up like yesterday’s crumb cake. Movie Magic doesn’t seem to be on anymore. Fangoria I never understood and never liked. Never really read, I should add. But I love that special effects shit! Some of the scenes (big bug fighting Will Smith at very end) were flawless, and the switching between cg and real was seamless. I wanna know more.
    that’s it. Thanks in advance.
    jb

Here’s my theories:

  1. Maybe the spike thru the neck severed the power to the body and life support system in the head. They could survive Earth conditions just long enough to make it to the morgue and make the death bed pronoucement.

  2. Mikey had gotten out of prison, but had violated treaties by trying to cross the border. The MIBs where trying to re-arrest him. Going after the INS guy would cause enough confusion for them to deal with that he could escape.

  3. No idea here.

Alternate answers to 1 & 2: Its just a flippin’ movie, it doesn’t have to make sense.

Your best bet is to probably wait until the Directors Cut comes out, I wouldn’t be suprised if they just cut scenes which might have elaborated some of that stuff. From what i recall the movie was pretty good about offering some explanation, however comical and outlandish, for most of the alien stuff.

I only really have a guess for the first one, but mine would be that the human body and the alien had some type of sybiotic relationship. Perhaps the body was a machine which lived on oxygen, food, and water like a human, and in the process created an atmosphere which the alien could exist in. When the body was killed, the environment within the head slowly began to degrade and slowly killing the alien until it was finally opened, releasing the last of the atmosphere, but allowing for the final death bed utterance.

  1. Yes, I figured the body served also as a life support system.

  2. I think Mikey just had a little emotional problem. Interstellar AD/HD or something. He probably just had mean Klingon tendencies that made him go buck wild every now and then. This is probably why he was a criminal in the first place. Or like any animal, he probably just got spooked by the guy coming up behind him.

Of course it has to make sense, at least within its own context.

That sort of attitude is the lame excuse that bad moviemakers use when they can’t be bothered to take the time to do things right.

As far as the effects work, the “Special Edition” DVD 2-disc set contains a plethora of material on the effects work, allowing you to isolate several scenes and view them from storyboard to final scene.

Part of the reason the plot feels a little pieces together is that it was changed at the last minute. The two aliens who meet in the diner and are killed by Edgar were originally supposed to be from different races, and were having a peace summit when they were killed. Afterwards, there should have been two warships from their respective races threatening the Earth over recovery of the Galaxy. The filmmakers decided to simplify the plot, and since the diner scene had been done in alien languages, they could subtitle whatever they wanted.

Everyone else has answered number 1 pretty well. Regarding number 2, remember that part of the deal with the MIB allowing the aliens to immigrate to Earth was that they had to remain undetected. When the border patrol guy saw Mikey talking to J and D, Mikey’s instinct for self-preservation and wish not to be deported probably kicked into overdrive.

[sub][eyeing jb_farley suspiciously][/sub]

I want a list of all the ‘aliens’ being monitored.

[sub][/not quite ready to quit eyeing jb suspiciously][/sub]

Plug around on http://www.vfxpro.com there should be something for ya. And if you REALLY care you may be able to pick up a back issue of cinefex magazine. http://www.cinefex.com

If they don’t offer it…try e-bay.

Hope this helps.