Blog #11 - Aliens

            What do they mean by production quality/value?  It’s about the little awards they mention at the Oscars saying they were given out at an earlier time.  They are talking about critical people who do things like set design, production design, and other background things.  Together they form the production quality which is just another way of saying how attentive the production team was to the little details that go into making the movie.  Just think of the world of Blade Runner.

            Ridley Scott is a master of pulling together the right team to make something incredible.  Blade Runner isn’t just a sci-fi setting of future earth.  It’s the creation of a deep and complex world of the future where people don’t build anything anymore, but rather retro-fit modern items in a decaying over crowded city it what can only be described as a bleak struggling world.  Everything the characters touch is either some form of bastardized old gear rigged to something futuristic or just plain bland in appearance.  It’s the production team that through meetings and sketches created the decrepit world of the future where a cop can be an executioner. 

            Ridley Scott is important this week because he is famous for breaking into the biz with one of the most memorable and misunderstood movies of all time.  Alien was a sci-fi not a horror movie that was so detailed audiences were amazed, and it did not go unnoticed by the Academy.  So the question this week is; can you make a crappy movie with incredible production value and squeak it past the public.  The answer is yes.  Read on to find out who did it, and how he continues to do it to this day.

Aliens (1986)

Director	James Cameron
The Main Players
Sigourney Weaver	Ellen Ripley
Michael Biehn	Cpl. Dwayne Hicks
Bill Paxton	Pvt. Hudson

Synopsis: 

            After successfully escaping from the doomed Commercial Cargo Ship Nostromo, Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley is rescued from her escape pod enduring a 57 year hyper-sleep.  After telling her frightening tale of meeting a deadly alien she learns the planet of origin in now colonized.  Contact with the colony is lost and she is asked to join a military expedition force to learn the fate of the colony.

Review:

            I want to make this clear right off at the start.  I love this movie and it’s one of my favourites, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid.  There are some serious plot holes in this movie.  We’re talking about holes you can drive a bus through, turn around, and then come back.  We can start by taking a look at the most important character in the movie, Ellen Ripley.  The thing that made Ripley stand out so much in Alien was her incredible sense of survival.  In reality the movie Die Hard was made ten years before Bruce Willis wowed us with his do anything to survive determination.  Ripley had it first and that’s what she was; a survivor, not a warrior.

            James Cameron wanted Ripley to be as important and influential to the outcome of the plot he had to take some drastic measures.  Like what you might ask?  Oh…Lets say, having all of the highly trained Colonial Marines forget every single thing they learned in basic training.  We will look at three glaring, obvious, and smack you right in the face mistakes in the plot that are best described as contrived.  Dumb crap stuck in to make things work out the way he wants, and I can say that because he wrote this crap as well.  Let’s go.

            Number one starts with the drop ship arriving on the planet to insert the marines.  Done very well and right by the book; the ship hits the ground and releases their little APC.  After getting a good ass kicking by the Aliens they escape to call in “Dust Off (emergency pickup)” from the drop ship that’s been hanging around and during that an Alien got on board killing the crew; it crashes and they’re upset.  Here’s the secret in this.  Whoever controls the air controls the battlefield.  Your fancy plane is useless if it’s sitting on the ground.  And, even if you do decide to land, it is such an important asset that it’s guarded at all times.  Just think about it, these guys seriously need this thing just to get off the planet.

            Number two is even more basic.  One of the first things soldiers learn is fire control and how to conserve ammunition.  The marines have fantastic guns that fire explosive tipped armour piercing rounds coupled with a grenade launcher, but it seems to be stuck on automatic.  Every time they get an alien in their sights they instinctively pump about 30 rounds into it when 1 or 2 would have done the trick.  Trigger happy doesn’t even begin to describe how fast they go through the ammo.  One could argue that they are panicking, but they know they have limited supplies and their life sort of depends on it. 

            Number three is the best one of all.  After the drop ship crashes and they have minimal supplies, they need to come up with an action plan.  What do they do?  They go right back to the place where the colonists lost the battle thinking that they might be able to barricade themselves in better.  The aliens are such formidable opponents because they can crawl through things and blend in with machinery and stuff like that.  The best thing to do in a case like this is to take away their ability to sneak up.  You find some high ground with clear fields of view and fire and wait for them to come crawling or however they move.  Bang!  One shot, one kill and you can do it from 600 metres away.  Not to mention a few well placed grenade booby traps and anything else you can get out of the Space Marine Handbook.  I’m sure if they had one it wouldn’t say, “Don’t worry about it.  Ripley will take care of it.”

Lessons Learned:

• Space Marines complain a lot – must be the regular marine connection.
• Aliens are not that bright but then neither are the humans they run into.
• It’s good to hug someone when you blow yourself up – do terrorists know that?
• Greed gets you stuff you don’t deserve, absolute greed gets you eaten by a big mean alien.