I just watched my cat curl up to sleep and it struck me how much like the Alien it was. She went into a ball and tucked her tail up over her face. Made me think of the Narcissus scene. I also know how much she hates when I interrupt that curled up ball. If her mum does it she hisses out of it just like the Alien. I wonder how this knits in with Jones but for me the Alien was the ultimate cat and mouse on Notromo
shareI've thought that the Alien is like a cat in the way that it would toy around with its victim before it killed it. Cats can be really sadistic in the slow and deliberate way that they go about killing something. For some reason it's the domestic cats that are like that. The big cats in Africa just go straight for the kill and don't waste time. The way that it slowly took out Brett and Lambert was something that hasn't been in any of the sequels.
shareBig cats don't mess around because if they don't get the kill, they don't eat.
I was watching a documentary (Tiger: A Spy In The Jungle) that followed a tigress who was raising four young cubs. When she went hunting, the entire jungle freaked out -- the monkey shrieks were also warning the ungulates, the smaller mammals, even other cats. A dozen different species raising the alarm all at once, "Tiger! Tiger! Run!"
And despite that, she still came away with a big, juicy gazelle-like creature to feed her cubs.
Domestic cats get meals without having to work for them. They get them regularly, on time, on a schedule -- anyone who has ever owned a cat knows they're creatures of habit and will annoy the living hell out of you if you don't feed them at their regular time.
In a lot of homes, they're also bored.
So for them, killing a rodent or a bird is more about something to do than it is about eating.
Anyway, cats and the Alien are both super-predators, they're both incredibly stealthy, and they're both capable of moving extremely quickly and silently. If not for the acid blood, I think a tiger would give an Alien a seriously tough time.
because the big cats are hungry so they do it to eat, domestic cats are fed so the prey is entertainment for them, their instinct.
shareJonesy watches the Alien with awe and doesn't warn Brett of the danger. So, yes, it's like Jonesy's found a bigger cat. I also regard Jonesy as being similar to Ash- a passive observer of horror.
shareXenomorphs are kinda like cats. Stealthy, smart & patient. But obviously not near as cute or likable.
Btw, I just got done watching a documentary about wildlife on Animal Planet & they showed a Bobcat that spent over 2 hrs trying to get one mole. He kept waiting & leaping & waiting some more. When he finally nabbed the mole, he didn't eat it right away. He played with it by tossing it up in the air for several minutes. Almost like he was celebrating that he finally caught one. Can't say i blame him though. Haha.
If you look closely you can find a few Egyptian motifs in both Alien and Prometheus.
Cats being one of them as they were held in high esteem in ancient Egypt.
I know my cat likes to watch Alien and other movies with me.
Cats cant be sadistic though - to do that you'd have to have a system of morals that tells you hurting or causing unnecessary suffering to another creature is wrong. A cat or any other animal doesn't think of things as good or evil, just what it's instinct says will help or harm it. On that subject, the reason they play with their food is to wear it down until they can apply the killer bite. It would make no sense for a predator to leave its prey alive longer than needed, as that gives it more chance to escape or fight back
shareSome have suggested, and I think I'm leaning towards agreeing, that any animal from the cat or feline family like lions, tigers, panthers, etc. if hungry simply kills and immediately eats.
While OTOH, if they have recently fed they play with their prey and eat them at their leisure. Arguably the Alien was full (Brett and Dallas in the TC) by the time he got to Lambert.
negativec07 "Cats can't be sadistic though", You've obviously never met any of MY cats. LOL One of my cats smacks me in the face when I'm sleeping if I don't get up and feed her at dawn. And that's after she bites me.
But seriously, yes I agree with you. We live so closely with our animals that we tend to attribute human emotions to them.
My cats are well fed but they occasionaly catch a mouse or a mole. Even after they kill it, they play with it, tossing it up in the air and batting it around and pouncing again and again.
I read somewhere that cats do somehow enjoy the hunt and they try to prolong the experience. They keep reenacting the kill over and over.
Either that or they're just ghouls. I read that too, not sure if the author was joking. But he said that cats are ghouls because they like to play with dead things.😁
My cats also play the same way with their toys. That whole hunting/pouncing activity is hardwired in them.
From Wikipedia (with citations):
Perhaps the best known element of cats' hunting behavior, which is commonly misunderstood and often appalls cat owners because it looks like torture, is that cats often appear to "play" with prey by releasing it after capture. This behavior is due to an instinctive imperative to ensure that the prey is weak enough to be killed without endangering the cat.