4 If Alfred Hitchcock were to you have the ingredients of a combat it. SCENE: “Close Encounterswas desolation as the factory-ship make a suspense-thriller about unique motion picture. And all Suffice it to say that Alien is a about contact between human Nostromo rockets silently thr­ the future, the result might well that is not even to mention some story and a motion picture that beings and nice aliens. This is ough the trackless cosmic void be more than a little like Alien. of the most remarkable special you could never imagine in your about contact between human The ship's controls are quided by As one of 1979’s most effects yet seen on film. wildest dreams. Or nightmares. beings and aliens that are not a programmed computer; the anxiously awaited films, Alien Alien is elemental in its Presented by Twentieth Cen­ nice. As a matter of fact, they’re entire crew is in hyper-sleep for combines the elements of concept, but staggering in its tury-Fox, the same company that downright disgusting. They’re their long-distance journey. suspense and shock-thrills in a realization. It is a film that can struck gold with Star Wars, Alien semi-humanoid, but quite un­ Then, in the middle of science fiction motif with be described only partially, since is a breakthrough level science- usual. They look more bizarre nowhere, at a place which galactic settings and miraculous to tell all would be telling too fiction film of chilling terror, than you can imagine, than should contain nothing, a (but authentic) technological much. It is a tension-filled starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney anyone can imagine, except for distress signal sounds, alerting starships and accompanying shocker about seven astronauts Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Giger, the artist who designed the crew and automatically hardware. Add lashings of —five men and two women— Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, and built the one for our film.” halting the ship’s trajectory horror, death and disaster, and working on a battered commer­ Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. Much of Alien’s power comes through the galaxy. The emer­ mix in seven very different cial starship far away in space Dan O’Bannon, the writer of from the imagery of the eternal gency call which perhaps has people working within the and time, who encounter an both the original story and the loneliness and isolation evoked sounded for a thousand years, claustrophobic confines of a awesome galactic horror, and of screenplay described the basic by deep-space. In fact, the film is being broadcast from a large workaday factory spacecraft, and their desperate attempts to concept behind Alien for MEDIA- begins with a foreboding air of asteroid, upon which appears to © 1979 Twentieth Century-Fox 5 AMONG THE STARS THEY FOUND COSMIC TERROR ALIEN AWAKENED PART ONE: THE ACTION AND THE ACTORS be the ruins of an incredibly The first quarter of the film blow of a sledgehammer. is laden with noir traits of without warning of any kind, ancient space colony. takes place on the deadly Directed by Ridley Scott, Alien overwhelming odds, emotional jolting the viewer with the Disembarking, they find a asteroid where the groundwork is is a paranoid's delight of and physical isolation, and a unexpectedness of its appear­ massive derelict spaceship layed for the terror to come. And skin-crawling assaults on the hard-bitten portrayal of violence ance and ferocity. crashed on the asteroid's for­ little by little it does, as the rational mind. Scott has ap­ as a necessary element for Part of this impact is achieved bidding surface. Exploring the Nostromo continues its journey proached the project with a survival. by the fact that nobody in the bizarre hull, the crew discovers homeward. The seven crew stylish techinque that combines Alien sustains itself primarily film or the audience will know the skeletal remains of a ten-foot members gradually realize that classic horror and the impres­ through the building of su­ exactly what the alien looks like tall, insect-like "space-jockey," they are not alone. sionistic look of the great 40's spense, and is admittedly at any given time. It constantly long dead at the console of an Suddenly, unexpectedly, the thrillers. Unlike those, however, striving for comparison in film changes and evolves throughout immensely powerful cannon, his alien is among them, taking a Alien is shot in color, with an territory pioneered by Lang, the film. claw-like appendages still frozen terrible toll in an environment on emphasis on dramatic lighting Siodmak and Hitchcock. Unlike And, while there are clues on the firing grips. Exactly what which there is no place to and hard-edged contrasts that most Hitchcock films, however, given concerning the alien's killed the gunner and what he escape. The crew, and the enhance the claustrophobic set Alien does not foreshadow its actions and characteristics, the was trying to destroy remains a audience, never know when the designs. shocks by letting the audience in film's point of view is mostly mystery, but the solitude of the alien in their midst will strike, A pervasive air of menace on upcoming danger in advance. subjective to the crew, so that silent ruins is shrouded by an but when it does, the impact is lurking around every corner is It is more in the vein of Psycho the information comes in small eerie, evil presence. as jolting to the senses as the maintained, and the story itself and Jaws in that the alien strikes segments which must be put 6 together to make sense—and, editor/special-effects creator/star a suit, but overall it's gonna be putting it all together during the of the sci-fi comedy Dark bits and pieces of different film will be taxing to even the Star, special effects consultant techniques. There’ll be some most seasoned viewer. for Star Wars, and pre-produc­ mechanicals, some marionettes. Though the basic plot bears a tion advisor for the abandoned I wish I could say something fundamental resemblence to The Dune film. When MEDIASCENE clean and neat like, ‘we built a Thing and It, The Terror from asked O’Bannon to recall the robot that does everything.’ What Beyond Space,the handling and events leading up to Alien, he it is, is a mixture of techniques, construction of Alien elevates it recalled its genesis vividly: but no stop motion animation, to an entirely different level. “When Dune fell through I because they decided that the There are five major shock came back from Paris broke, and strobe effect would be too sequences, each shatteringly only survived by living on Ronnie phony.” unexpected, and always opening Shussette’s sofa. That was in the From the first appearance of the door to even greater terror. spring of 1976, and we wrote the Nostromo to the last shot of Every scene and action of Alien on his sofa until he and his the escape ship Narcissus, Alien Alien was meticulously choreo­wife got tired of having me remains a powerful, absorbing graphed through the extensive around and threw me out. film of survival, brought into use of storyboards, which Scott “Soon after, Gary Kurtz called sharp focus by Scott’s singular followed scrupulously duringme to work on Star Wars’ visual approach, and fleshed out shooting. Coordinating the act­ animated computer printouts by the cast of comfortably ors with the post-production until about February 1977. By familiar faces. Despite its title special effects required a thor­ that time, we had made a deal and overwhelming emphasis on ough knowledge of every move­with Fox on Alien. Then I was ment before and after the actors’ immediately stricken with a THE ALIEN STORYBOARDS re­ filming was undertaken. debilitating stomach disease, produced on these pages were As an example of the level of still undiagnosed, and spent drawn by the film’s director, perfection sought for Alien, most of ’77 in the hospital, Ridley Scott. They represent Scott held extensive rehearsals making decisions by phone. So I scenes 50-63, the disembarking with his seven actors several was feeling really miserable and sequence, and have been con­ weeks before filming was sched­ in intense pain when Gordon densed here for narrative pur­ uled to begin. Yaphet Kotto Carroll called up and says 'We’re poses. (1) Interior of the commented on this: “Alien was Nostromo: Ash enters the only the second film I’ve ever ship’s observation blister, and worked on that held preparatory seats himself on the moniter rehearsals. Lines were rewritten chair. (2) Interior of the airlock: and characterizations tightened- in the glow of the flashing up so that we functioned like a landing light, three suited crew that has been traveling astronauts prepare to exit from together in space for a long, long the ship; the airlock opens time.” (lighting change) and they In addition, the actors were emerge into the asteroid's assigned NASA literature to oppressive wind and gasous study so that they could atmosphere. (3) Exterior of the familiarize themselves with the Nostromo: gas fills the airlock as technical slang and equipment the trio step forward into the functions. Every character was hydrolic lift. (4) Exterior: the also given a complete back­ three figures (articulated dum­ ground of previous jobs, home- mies) are lowered to the life and childhood to embellish surface—model shot. (5) Exterior the depth and motivations of of landing leg of the Nostromo: their actions. As a consequence, the spacemen emerge through Alien is as much an actors’ the planet’s eerie mist (see the showcase as it is a director’s previous two pages for the actual playground and special-effects scene from the film).