That is an interesting question.
If Ash had an agenda the whole movie. BUT, think deeper on that with me. If that was so, it would mean that "the company" already knew about the Alien, wouldn't it? So, at some point in the past, some spaceship, or any kind with some crew would have heard the beacon and reported it, at the very, very least. No?
So, if there was "that ship" before the Nostromo, it would have notified the company, or Earth or whatever the governmental structure of the universe is at this point, of the existence of the SOS, or Warning, or whatever, and the company would have had time to research it. At that point, wouldn't it be more logical to have a special mission sent to check it out, than make a lot of assumptions about the Nostromo and crew and what was out there? How would they know it was a "weapon"?
By the way, these Aliens so not seem like a very good weapon to me. How would you deploy them other than dropping them on a planet where you want to kill everyone? But, if you do that you are left having to clean them up. So, like most weapons that are made by every military, there would be built in safeguards in place so that friendlies would not be affected, or if they ran into them could either be ignored or easily disarm them. Like some virus maybe that would kill the Aliens immediately or have them turn on each other while they were dying.
So, having Ash, or any other synthetic ready on board every freighter ready to put it in harms way for any unknown would not seem to be very good corporate strategy. Another thing is that in these movies the corporations are just dead stupid. But really in fact, the military and corporations, anything were a lot of wealth and power resides are generally pretty damn smart and looking after their own bests interests.
I just feel like some scenario like you mentioned though would have been the natural starting point for a prequel, instead of the moronic Prometheus and its universally idiotic crew - even more so than the Nostromo. You could set up some previous trip and what happened that made steering the Nostromo to the planet.
Anyway, interesting thought.
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wearsalan (5554)
4 years ago
There was a back story to this ^^^^
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brux (14666)
4 years ago
yeah, well ....
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wearsalan (5554)
4 years ago
The novelization expands a little on what the company knew (very little), and the beacon was picked up by an unmanned company probe surveying that part of the cosmos. Remember the Nostromo was diverted to pick up the signal seeing as it couldn't be picked up along the normal shipping lanes. Rather than send an expensive expedition which could well have proven to be fruitless, they send in the truckers. Another much discussed point across the years is did the company actually act on this or was it someone acting alone without company authority.
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brux (14666)
4 years ago
OK. For me, anything not in the movie is just fan's enthusiasm, and not something I subscribe to. But. even so, I imagine that if I read some novelization I am sure there would be just as many holes in it as the movie ... maybe slightly less.
I hear these conversations all over the chat rooms talking about what Ridley said here, or what Ridley said there, and they invariably differ.
What I find funny is that there are anachronisms in the original movie that we never thought of, or I never thought of when I watched it when it first came out. Like the cathode ray tube monitors in the bridge/control room. Now sci-fi movies know enough to animate these 3-D holographic displays and flip them around with snappy hand movements.
Well, the ideas of what happens in a corporation in the distant future I think is also an anachronism. I think the people who run corporations would have safeguards in place to avoid people making hugely expensive moves on the company's dime. Look at the level of surveillance we are under today, and then imagine how that is going to change in hundreds of years.
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wearsalan (5554)
4 years ago
OK. For me, anything not in the movie is just fan's enthusiasm, and not something I subscribe to. But. even so, I imagine that if I read some novelization I am sure there would be just as many holes in it as the movie ... maybe slightly less.
Not necessarily. Often as not things are not in the movie for a number of reasons (ie) slows the movie down, or don't want to force feed the audience. Even not thinking it matters that much. Then years later someone comes on a discussion board and tries to poke holes in the movie.
I hear these conversations all over the chat rooms talking about what Ridley said here, or what Ridley said there, and they invariably differ.
What Ridley DID say can be looked up in his many interviews. What he may have said is neither here nor there really.
What I find funny is that there are anachronisms in the original movie that we never thought of, or I never thought of when I watched it when it first came out. Like the cathode ray tube monitors in the bridge/control room. Now sci-fi movies know enough to animate these 3-D holographic displays and flip them around with snappy hand movements.
Aren't all pre cgi movies guilty of this?
Well, the ideas of what happens in a corporation in the distant future I think is also an anachronism. I think the people who run corporations would have safeguards in place to avoid people making hugely expensive moves on the company's dime. Look at the level of surveillance we are under today, and then imagine how that is going to change in hundreds of years.
Would they?
Even if they did, then surely said future opportunists would have found ways to circumnavigate those safeguards. It happens now with security systems today. There is always a way to beat these systems.
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brux (14666)
4 years ago
I think you need a little more imagination to look at these questions.
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wearsalan (5554)
4 years ago
Really?
Guess you need a little less cynicism when watching a 40 year old movie.
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brux (14666)
4 years ago
The older and presumably the wiser and more intelligent I get the higher my criticality of movies and media gets, and the less I get out of it.
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jekporkins (1924)
4 years ago
I don't think they were specifically looking for alien life. I think Ash was programmed to capture and protect any alien they accidentally came across. I mean, the crew didn't even know he was a robot. The corporation kept a lot from the crew.
If you could somehow contain a few of those aliens and, as you said, drop them into a city they would absolutely butcher the population. I always said the only Alien movie would pay to see again is one where they finally came to this future earth. That should have been Alien 3.
I'm glad to see another Prometheus anti-fan. I had never been more pissed off than when I walked out of that theater. I thought I was going to see Scott come back for decades away to finally bring the franchise some class and respectability. I was so pumped for anything but what I got.
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