Alien II coming soon
mi...@hpfcla.uucp
ALIEN, of course. Does it star Siguorney Weaver? Does her cat "Jones"
bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original? Who else
stars in the sequel?
Michael Bishop
hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b
Roger J. Noe
> bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original? Who else
> stars in the sequel?
>
> Michael Bishop
> hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b
Where do you get the idea of this foreshadowing?
--
Roger Noe ihnp4!riccb!rjnoe
Trevor Flory
--
*****
Trevor K. Flory
Develcon Electronics Ltd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!alberta!sask!zaphod!flory
rei...@ucla-cs.uucp
>Does anyone know anything about the upcoming ALIEN II, the sequel to
>ALIEN, of course. Does it star Siguorney Weaver? Does her cat "Jones"
>bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original? Who else
>stars in the sequel?
The sequel is to be called "Aliens". It will be written and directed by
James Cameron ("The Terminator"). Sigorney Weaver is set to star, but I
don't know about the rest of the cast, or the cat.
--
Peter Reiher
rei...@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
Patrick Stirling
>Who directed the original? Will s/he direct Alien II?
>
The original Alien was directed by Ridley Scott (who also did 'Blade Runner',
which I highly recommend). I didn't know that an Alien II was on the way,
so I can't help you there.
patrick
(Fortune Systems, Belmont CA)
ste...@ism70.uucp
Now filming in London:
ALIENS
Starring Sigourney Weaver, James Remar (48 Hrs.), Paul Reiser
(Diner), Lance Henriksen (Terminator) and William Paxton (Weird
Science).
Directed by James Cameron (Terminator). Written by James Cameron.
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd.
Photographed by Dick Bush (Crimes of Passion, Natty Gann).
Production Designed by Peter Lamont (A View to a Kill). Edited
by Ray Lovejoy (2001: A Space Odyssey).
From Twentieth Century Fox Pictures (1986).
May 1986 release. Multiple aliens. Sigourney goes on trial to
determine what happened to the original crew of the Nostromo.
06511039
Ridley Scott has also made "The Duellists" and two absolutely delightful
TV commercials for Chanel No. 5.
As far as I know "Legend", made few years ago, is still waiting for
the release.
mi...@hpfcla.uucp
> > bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original?
>
> --
> Roger Noe ihnp4!riccb!rjnoe
I have seen ALIEN several times and I know there is a scene near the end
where "Jones" is put into a cage, Ripley is tearing down a corridor with
the cat and cage trying to get to the shuttle when she runs into the
Alien. At this point she drops the cage and she runs off in the
opposite direction. We see the cat in the cage looking up at the Alien;
and see the Alien curiously studying the cat. Whether the cat was
impregnated, I don't know. I don't know why the director would spend
time on this scene if it wasn't somehow connected and important. Then
again, I'm sure that there's a good chance that I'm just
over-speculating. At any rate, I hope we don't have flamethrowers in
spaceships this time.
Michael Bishop
hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b
showard
The last I heard, Scott was still working on his fantasy film (with Tom Cruise?)called Legend.
I also heard that in an unrelated incident, Scott had set fire to/burned down
a studio in England. Anyone have more info on this?
--Mr. Blore, the DJ who would not die
--aka Steve Howard, ...udenva!showard
"The human brain is like an enormous fish. It is flat and slimy and
has gills through which it can see."
Doug Anderson
God! Speeaking of BAD MOVIES!!!! Why would anyone want to go
to a sequel of this dog after they have seen the first one??
I'm a SF/Horror fan and this movie failed on both. the stupid
characters made the movie almost a comedy rather then a Horror
film.
My favorite part was the gas comming out of the midevel space
suits. Sounds like fun in zero gee :-).
Doug Anderson
sh...@duts.uucp
Yes, Alien II is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Siguorney Weaver is in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It takes place 50 years after Alien when she wakes up from cryogenic
sleep to go back to The Planet (incidentally anybody know the name of
The Planet?).
Release is next summer I think.
and yeah, what do you mean foreshadowing, how???
Shiva, Amdahl
sh...@duts.uucp
The original was directed by Riddley Scott (he of Blade Runner fame).
Alien II will be directed by the same guy who did The Terminator.
Shiva, Amdahl
Charles Forsythe
>characters made the movie almost a comedy rather then a Horror
>film.
>
>My favorite part was the gas comming out of the midevel space
>suits. Sounds like fun in zero gee :-).
Get a clue, Doug. If you were on a planet with GRAVITY and a METHANE
atmosphere, the exhaust (what you exhale) from your space suit would
probably mist too (considering the temperature of frozen methane).
The science in this movie is actually very well done.
--
Charles Forsythe
CSDF@MIT-VAX
"I'm looking for the joke with a microscope."
-Iggy Pop
Barth Richards
>> ... Does it star Siguorney Weaver? Does her cat "Jones"
>> bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original? Who else
>> stars in the sequel?
>>
>> Michael Bishop
>
I think it was foreshadowed as well. At the end of ALIEN, the only ones left
from the mission were Siguorney and the cat. The last scene shows Siguorney
laying in the hibernation unit craddleing the cat, and though Siguorney is
asleep, the cat is awake. You would think that the cat, being smaller and
having a higher metabolism rate, would have been put under faster by whatever
it is that puts the hibernee into hibernation. Or maybe it wasn't just a cat.
Barth Richards
Tellabs, Inc.
Lisle, IL
Doug Anderson
> >suits. Sounds like fun in zero gee :-).
>
> Get a clue, Doug. If you were on a planet with GRAVITY and a METHANE
> atmosphere, the exhaust (what you exhale) from your space suit would
> probably mist too (considering the temperature of frozen methane).
> The science in this movie is actually very well done.
>
>
> --
> Charles Forsythe
> CSDF@MIT-VAX
Space Suits are fully contained. THEY DONT EXHAUST
GASSES! Besides, thats not the only weak point of the
movie. You have an alien runnung around in a space
ship. Simple solution:
1) EVERYONE gets into spacesuits ALONE
2) open ship to vacum (they finally did this
at the end of the movie)
3) wait 8 or more hours
4) get you trusty dusty flame thrower and fry
the body of the beasty.
Additionally, I seem to recall a scene of a corridor of
the ship with slime flowing down the walls. They must
not have maids.
This film attempted to be a Science Fiction film and
failed badly. It had the potential of being a classic
and all the tools were there the characters just
refused to use them.
One more and I'll get off my soapbox. Remember the
scene when the Captain died? They had the monster
located on a grid telling the direction and distance
from the Captain. Do they tell him though? NOOOO. he
could kill it then. make the movie real short.
My favorite part of the movie was the fun the group I
went with had laughing about all the stupid mistakes
the crew made. For G-d's sake when a monster is on
someones face and you KNOW that is has some kind of
appendage in side them, where is the first place you
look when it disappears? not in the ship. In the
person.
Sorry I got carried away, give me a good ACCURATE SF
movie anyday. Yeah, I know those are few and far
between.
Doug Anderson
sh...@duts.uucp
[ does the cat]
> >> bring the Alien(s) to earth as foreshadowed in the original?e
> >> Michael Bishop
> >Where do you get the idea of this foreshadowing?
>
[ The cat and Siguorney are in the hibernation unit, she sleeps, cat
doesn't ]
> You would think that the cat, being smaller and
> having a higher metabolism rate, would have been put under faster by whatever
> it is that puts the hibernee into hibernation. Or maybe it wasn't just a cat.
> Barth Richards
That is an unwarrented assumption. In fact the opposite would seem to
be true. A higher metabolism rate would take *longer* to be put to
sleep (more drugs for a longer time required?) But in any event this is
sheer speculation. Remember, The Alien flew off into space. There
was no thought of a sequal at the time Alien was made (at least I never
heard any such rumors) so foreshadowing seems to be a far out idea.
--
Shiva, Amdahl
Brad Templeton
times. Yes, SF, not just horror.
>
> Space Suits are fully contained. THEY DONT EXHAUST
> GASSES! Besides, thats not the only weak point of the
Space suits are also very expensive, and it is unlikely that they would
be used on a planet in an atmosphere. You would have atmosphere suits
that would probably vent. Get real yourself, do you think scuba divers
wear spacesuits in the ocean??
> movie. You have an alien runnung around in a space
> ship. Simple solution:
>
> 1) EVERYONE gets into spacesuits ALONE
>
> 2) open ship to vacum (they finally did this
> at the end of the movie)
>
> 3) wait 8 or more hours
>
> 4) get you trusty dusty flame thrower and fry
> the body of the beasty.
You didn't pay close attention to the movie. This beast was the great
survivor, and vacuum was no trouble for it. At the end, blasted into
space, it crawls back up the harpoon line and tries to re-enter the ship.
Only the full exhuast blast of the ship damages it.
>
> Additionally, I seem to recall a scene of a corridor of
> the ship with slime flowing down the walls. They must
> not have maids.
It was a mining ship. Most of the ship was refinery. Do they have
maids in a refinery?
>
> This film attempted to be a Science Fiction film and
> failed badly. It had the potential of being a classic
> and all the tools were there the characters just
> refused to use them.
>
> One more and I'll get off my soapbox. Remember the
> scene when the Captain died? They had the monster
> located on a grid telling the direction and distance
> from the Captain. Do they tell him though? NOOOO. he
> could kill it then. make the movie real short.
>
> My favorite part of the movie was the fun the group I
> went with had laughing about all the stupid mistakes
> the crew made. For G-d's sake when a monster is on
> someones face and you KNOW that is has some kind of
> appendage in side them, where is the first place you
> look when it disappears? not in the ship. In the
> person.
>
Mistakes by the crew do not make bad SF. Mistakes by writers and
producers do. In this case, your crew mistakes are explained by the
one major SF flaw in the movie, namely the android scientist. He was leading
them away at all times from destroying the creature. He was fully aware
of the creature in John Hurt's stomach.
>
> Doug Anderson
--
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
steve shiue
Regarding Doug Anderson's comments on "Alien"
(didn't read the original article but excerpts posted by
Brad Templeton): Has this man ever heard of the "willing
suspension of disbelief"? I realize that some poorly
written and filmed sci-fi films are so ludicrous that it is
impossible for anyone with ANY science background to enjoy
them because they spend too much of the time cringing.
However, I don't think that "Alien" comes remotely close to
falling in this category. And besides, for me, the gothic
horror elements of the story are the real active
ingredients. I don't think this movie "tries to be a sci-fi
film and fails miserably" at all. I think that the sci-fi
elements provide a vehicle for the story, much as the sci-fi
trappings in "Dune" (THE NOVEL) are a setting that provides
Frank Herbert freedom to create a geopolitical and religious
messiah epic.
-Steve Shiue
"The only thing that worried me was the ether. There is
nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a
man in the depths of an ether binge..."
-Hunter S. Thompson
d.l.skran
I've had it with this discussion on so-called "bad movies."
It reveals far more about the variety of personal
taste than anything else. Many very bad movies do exist.
However, no movie seems to be so good that at least one
soul can't be found to declare that it is "bad." When Zileg
and The Return of Martin G.(one of the best films I've ever seen, period!)
are described as "totally bad" I hardly know how to respond.
Streets of Fire while not "great" is at least average, and
clearly has many fans, yet it has been flamed into itty bitty pieces.
Now someone is suggesting that Alien was a "bad film."
I suggest that this discussion is driven
by ignorance on the part of some of the participants. Yes,
I know the Peter R. and Mark L. and others know all about bad films, but
I suspect that some of you rarely see really bad films, and as
a result tend to flame as "really bad" films that rank between
(-2) and (+2).
[If you have seen Creeping Terror, the Wrestling Women and
the Aztec Mummy, Horror Planet, and so on, you have something
to judge by. If the worst film you've seen is Alien, read on.]
I recall that Alien made it onto my hometown newspaper's "Ten
Worst of the Year" list. This is absurd. That film critic
probably hadn't seen even one (-3) or (-4) movie all year. I can
debate about placing Alien anywhere from (-2) to (+2), but those
who call it one of the worst films of the year, or one of the
worst they have ever seen probably have seen very few bad films.
Note that it is quite possible to truthfully say "Alien is the
worst film I saw all year" if you saw ten very good movies
that year. This does not make Alien or any other film a "bad
movie."
Why don't we get on to reviewing movies, new and old, good
and bad, and halt this fruitless discussion.
Dale
BTW: SEE AFTER HOURS. I had a cold last week and saw five
movies. It was by far the best, a clear (+3).
Craig Stanfill
that the cat was going to bring the Alien back to earth. As
it happens, several years ago (at Unicon 5 in Washington,
DC) I talked with Linda Shusette, wife of the producer of
Alien (Ron Shussette), and the topic of the cat came up.
She said that the cat was intended as a sympathetic
character, that they hoped the audience would identify with
the cat and want the cat to live. As it worked out, the
audience does not identify with the cat, but irrationally
fears it and wants the crew to space it. The result is that
the cat became a sort of red-herring, serving only as yet
one more thing for the audience to be afraid of.
As to what the purported makers of Alien II might do, your
guess is as good as mine. They might well have the cat
transport the alien back to earth, but this was never
intended in the original movie.
Craig Stanfill
about the accuracy of Alien. The science it contains is more accurate
than he might think.
> Space Suits are fully contained. THEY DONT EXHAUST
> GASSES!
Not necessarily true. You are constantly exhaling carbon dioxide and
water vapor into your suit. These byproducts have to go somewhere.
Into the atmosphere seems a good place.
> You have an alien runnung around in a space
> ship. Simple solution:
>
> 1) EVERYONE gets into spacesuits ALONE
>
> 2) open ship to vacum (they finally did this
> at the end of the movie)
>
> 3) wait 8 or more hours
>
> 4) get you trusty dusty flame thrower and fry
> the body of the beasty.
Three problems with this. First, it doesn't particularly mind vacuum.
Second, it is resistant to fire. Remember that the alien didn't seem to
be so much killed by the exhaust of the escape ship as shaken loose by
the blast. Third (this is most important) the alien has corrosive
blood. If they killed it or shot it full of holes or whatever, its
blood eats through the hull. As it happens the hull ended up with a
few holes in it anyway, so they might well have been better off blowing
it away and taking their chances, but they goofed.
> Remember the
> scene when the Captain died? They had the monster
> located on a grid telling the direction and distance
> from the Captain. Do they tell him though? NOOOO. he
> could kill it then. make the movie real short.
I think you have been reading too much SF with too many heroic
characters. Alien was a movie about the working man in space; the crew
was not trained in warfare. They had to improvise a good bit, and maybe
they made some mistakes.
Sorry for the length of the reply, but I DO think Alien is a classic
both of SF and of Horror.
Roger J. Noe
> that the cat was going to bring the Alien back to earth. As
> it happens, several years ago (at Unicon 5 in Washington,
> DC) I talked with Linda Shusette, wife of the producer of
> Alien (Ron Shussette), and the topic of the cat came up.
> She said that the cat was intended as a sympathetic
> character, that they hoped the audience would identify with
> the cat and want the cat to live. As it worked out, the
> audience does not identify with the cat, but irrationally
> fears it and wants the crew to space it. The result is that
> the cat became a sort of red-herring, serving only as yet
> one more thing for the audience to be afraid of.
That's the first I've heard that! Jones was at least as sympathetic a
character as were any of the human beings. It knew what it was doing and
was probably the only living thing capable of killing the title character
outright (although probably not in its full-grown state, if that WAS a
full-grown state). I also think only the cat could easily have avoided
getting eaten by the alien. Cats are extraordinarily evolved to be excellent
hunters and killers while avoiding being killed themselves, the same kind of
thing the alien was supposed to be. Jones' senses of smell, sight, and hearing
as well as its agility and speed made it the only logical candidate for
survival aboard the Nostromo except for the alien. (Ash doesn't count, of
course.) All human strategies failed until one of them got lucky at the end.
I identified with the cat. When it hissed at the alien I wanted to shout,
"Kill it, Jones!" I sure didn't identify with the idiots aboard the Nostromo,
and that includes all the fatalities.
This is not to say that I didn't enjoy having the cat jump out at a very tense
moment when we were expecting to see the alien pop up. An old artifice, but
quite effective.
> As to what the purported makers of Alien II might do, your
> guess is as good as mine. They might well have the cat
> transport the alien back to earth, but this was never
> intended in the original movie.
I agree. There's not a shred of evidence in "Alien" to support the notion
that it was foreshadowed that Jones would bring the alien back to Earth.
--
"In space no one can hear you meow."
Roger Noe ihnp4!riccb!rjnoe
Byron C. Howes
>that it was foreshadowed that Jones would bring the alien back to Earth.
Not so. I remember distinctly what made me think that Jones was harboring
an alien egg. There is a brief shot over Jones' head from the rear from
inside the cage showing the Alien looking in from the outside licking his
metallic prehensile chops. Next thing we see is Sigourney Weaver retrieving
Jones still inside his cage.
My assumption was that it was a Hitchcockian red herring to keep you on edge
as Jones' turns out not to be harboring an alien. There certainly is evidence,
however.
----
The thing that bothered me about Alien I (and doubtless will bother me about
Alien II) is that the Aliens physique and habits were those of a highly
evolved prey, not a predator. Most of its activities revolved around breeding
and its defenses (acid blood, prehensile throat, etc.) were passive.
What the h*ll did it evolve to run *from.*!!!
--
Byron C. Howes
...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch
stephanie da silva
> Three problems with this. First, it doesn't particularly mind vacuum.
> Second, it is resistant to fire. Remember that the alien didn't seem to
> be so much killed by the exhaust of the escape ship as shaken loose by
> the blast. Third (this is most important) the alien has corrosive
> blood. If they killed it or shot it full of holes or whatever, its
> blood eats through the hull. As it happens the hull ended up with a
> few holes in it anyway, so they might well have been better off blowing
> it away and taking their chances, but they goofed.
>
I remember someone commenting to me how stupid the movie was because the
people kept going where the alien was. I told her it was the exact opposite--
the alien went where the *people* were.
Also, one thing that the ship's science officer brought up was that the
creature was essentially nothing more than a survival machine--which
more or less swung things in it's favor.
I honestly can't see how anyone would think this was a terrible movie. It had
beautiful sets, excellent script, plot & screenplay, excellent editing,
it was well cast and the acting was top-notch (with special lauds going to
Sigourney Weaver).
Will Martin
>Another factor in the alien's favor is that is was an intelligent life form.
Are we sure about this? I got the impression that it could have been
just an animal, or have relatively low intelligence. It wasn't the same
species as the pilot of the alien ship, right? It was a parasite or
infestation of THAT ship, too, which is why that one crashed.
(Of course I have been known to be wrong... Let's see, when was that?...:-)
Will