Alien The Rewatchables
Alien poster
Alien

What’s Aged the Best?

Trailer; tactile future; Weaver; burial; collaborative craft; restraint; humor; company; Cartwright; franchise

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:52Read transcript
  • The trailer is praised as a model for later thriller and horror advertising, using cutting and sound to generate urgency despite a cast without major stars.
  • Spacesuited exploration and the concise opening information card have aged well, establishing mission and crew without an explanatory scene.
  • The tactile, worn spaceship and visibly tired crew make the future feel used and believable, contrasting with cleaner, brighter science-fiction settings.
  • Young Weaver is an aged-best selection.
  • The body's space burial is an aged-best selection.
  • Walter Hill’s contribution is praised alongside the indispensable work of Giger, O’Bannon, Weaver and Scott; the film’s success is collaborative rather than attributable to one person.
  • Scott’s principle of showing little of the monster and letting viewers’ imagination work is praised as enduring advice.
  • Scott’s later technology-heavy Alien films are said to violate that restraint, while some awkward staging of Lambert and Parker’s deaths exposes the original’s practical limitations.
  • The first-hour humor, Kane’s opening remark about feeling dead and biblical or creation imagery gain resonance through later films.
  • Ash’s corporate function recalls HAL, while the minimally explained company becomes a lasting theme; facehugger and chestburster are production terms adopted by audiences despite not being spoken in the film.
  • Cartwright's terrified reactions are an aged-best choice.
  • An unranked five-film list groups Alien, The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Witches of Eastwick and Inserts as Cartwright in an auteur's nightmare.
  • Inserts is corrected as involving Jessica Harper and Richard Dreyfuss rather than Margot Kidder; a Cartwright SVU appearance is also recalled.
  • The franchise and especially Aliens are enduring benefits; Aliens is considered more fun but sometimes too long, while Alien is scarier.
  • Concept artist Ron Cobb reportedly originated the alien's acid blood; the panel praises both the idea and the shot of acid burning through the ship.