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Crew somewhat underwhelmed by the discovery of first Alien Life form

posted 8 years ago by simonhicks23
19 replies | jump to latest

Just re-watched Alien after a number of years and noticed something which was slightly odd in that when Kane, Dallas and Lambert first discover the space jockey they seem slightly underwhelmed. Dallas says in a very matter of fact manner 'Alien life form, obviously been dead a long time, fossilised, looks like its grown out of the chair' which seems underplayed if this is the very first discovery of advanced alien life in known human history.

Whilst humans may have discovered microbial life by that point in the future there is no indication that any advanced alien life has ever been discovered. Kane seems the most amazed and excited by the discover. Perhaps they were all in shock as to their discovery and it hadn't quite sunk in yet, but surely they knew they were discovering something no other human had laid eyes on before and would go down in history as the first humans to discover advanced alien life, with all the riches and fame that would no doubt come with it.

At least the rest of the movie's portrayal of the crew has near documentary style realism unlike the terrible prometheus prequel with all the over acting, adolescent dialogue and over the top set pieces.

Minor quibble with what still is possibly the greatest serious sci-fi and horror movie ever made. The rest of the movie is like a big budget art movie by todays standards with the slow build up, attention to detail, starring mostly gritty middle aged actors, classical score, realistic sets and tone etc.

[–] Tanu Tuva 8 years ago

They knew they were about to encounter an intelligent alien from the moment they saw the ship in the distance. They had some time to mentally prepare so it wasn't a surprise.

I love the subtle yet consistent characterizations, especially of Kane. He is literally the first to get out of bed, the one who says two kilometers is merely walking distance, the one who says "we must go on", and the one who goes down into the chasm. He is terrified when the egg opens and he jumps back, but his determination to explore leads him to place his head right over it.

I'm not sure but I think he has a gun in his right hand when he approaches the open egg. His hand is just at the edge of the frame.

[–] sevenlilxenos 8 years ago

Dallas states "We better break out the weapons".

You can see Kane holding his gun in either the director's cut or the theater release, but not in both.

It was one of the few editing changes SRS made when he released the DC along with Lambert b/tch slapping Ripley and the flight crew listening to the sound of the SJ's distress signal.

Of course the main difference in the DC was the scene where Ripley finds Dallas and Brett gooed up and she incinerates both to put them out of their misery.

[–] Tanu Tuva 8 years ago

I noticed the gun the first time I saw the director's cut.

[–] stonekeeper_ever 8 years ago

I thought that too!

Excuse my English, I am French-Canadian

[–] triplegrim 8 years ago

It is not mentioned if it is the first alien life form they have met. They indicate they may have met insectlike alien life forms in the sequel (for what thats worth).

If one know alien life forms exist, then finding a derelict might not be THAT insane.

A last option is that mankind have found archeological remains of extra terrestial life, like in civilizations that have existed millions of years before us. So to find the derelict would be to be told to check out some pyramids in Egypt or something.