Episode 85: The Alien Sequels

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, everyone. Logan from the Future back again to let you know that in our alien sequels episode, which we had a blast recording during the ten to twelve minute mark early on in the episode, there seems to be some moments where the audio dropped out for random reasons. I've tried to cut around it a little bit so the conversation doesn't get lost and it doesn't get lost in the dropouts, but it is a little jumpy here and there. For about two minutes after minute twelve, though, it's smooth sailing all the way through. So again, with that said, thank you so much for listening to this episode and enjoy. Hello, everyone, and welcome to odd trilogies with Logan and Andy. I'm Logan Sowas. [00:00:58] Speaker B: And I'm Andy Carr. [00:00:58] Speaker A: And on odd trilogies we take a trio of films where they're tied by cast and crew, thematic elements, numerical order, and we talked about the good, the bad and the weird surrounding each entry. And today, in honor of the newly released alien Romulus, by the time this comes out. Yes, we are talking about every single alien sequel, prequel, Interquill. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:23] Speaker A: Reboot, quote, unquote. We're going to be talking about the alien films that have to basically go, how do you go from Alien from 1979 to a hit franchise? [00:01:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:01:37] Speaker A: Or how do you attempt to do that? [00:01:38] Speaker B: We're exploring the entire course of the franchise. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Yes. We are taking a franchise that is nearly 50 years old, which is wild. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:49] Speaker A: But surprisingly, what's even more wild for being as old as it is only has about seven, eight total. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Depends on if you want to count the crossovers. [00:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So it's like nine. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:05] Speaker A: But really just depends on your bread and butter if you count those or not. But because of that, our first trilogy, we are doing the count cap off August is going to be the original alien sequels. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:17] Speaker A: You know, what basically is after 1979, you wonder what could you do to either top or either just continue a story that feels so well contained. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah. After you've got such a scrappy little Sci-Fi horror hit that kind of changes the game. Where do you go from there? [00:02:38] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:38] Speaker B: Especially as the film industry changes, as these movies happen over multiple decades. You know, it's a many answers to one question. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you've been listening to us for a bit, you know that we've done this before with other franchises, mainly the Matrix is the one that I think of. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah. The Matrix, the Batman, Batman. Although those are not like. As they're not hard sequels. [00:02:59] Speaker A: No, no, no. [00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:02] Speaker A: But yeah, we have done this in the past where we really like the idea of talking about as a trilogy, basically a trilogy of either trying to one up the last film or either try to make it interesting enough that it doesn't matter that it's not as bigger or more bombastic than the last one. [00:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Just trying to answer that question of where do we go from here? [00:03:23] Speaker A: Because, again, it is wild, especially because this is. I've seen every one of these films at least two times. I would say maybe three. So, like, I think, hilariously enough, I think Covenant was the one I've seen the least. I think it was covenant in alien three for some reason. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Because alien three. I used to be an alien three hater. And after rewatching it now, there's a little bit of a newfound spoiler alert. There's a little bit of a newfound love rewatching this. Don't love the film entirely, but there. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Is a pretty good mire. [00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's kind of one of the most fascinating parts about alien as a franchise is the original film in 1979. Again, we're not gonna really go deep into that one because it is alien from 1979. [00:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah. We'll keep referring back to it, of course, but we're not deep diving it. Yeah. [00:04:14] Speaker A: It is the. I would say the film where Sigourney Weaver is the star. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Even though the film only makes her basically a secret star by the halfway point, it is Ridley Scott's second film, which is just fucking insane. Every time I think of the fact that this man had, like, the duelists under his belt and then did this, and then the film was made on $11 million in the late seventies and made about 188 million total, which is wild. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:46] Speaker A: And you would think with that kind of return on a film that, you know, there would be a sequel two years after, three years after. Well, a common theme with the alien franchise is that in between each entry there is a bit of a development hell, purgatory phase. [00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker A: That really is, interestingly enough, whether it's creative, whether it's financial, whether it's. Sometimes it's even talent being interested. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:15] Speaker A: It really is fascinating to think that the film that, you know, follows up Alien, which is our first film in a trilogy today, it's a little indie film. You might have heard of it, a James Cameron's aliens from 1986. It was a film that now looking back at it, is considered to be almost as good, if not better, to some people than the original alien. But the thing of the fact that, like, it took seven years to get that film off the, off the boat in some way shape and form. And the fact that not only they were able to do that, but to have it be almost one of the most iconic eighties sequels as well as eighties films, especially in the latter half of the eighties, and also be able to do something that a lot of other franchises have tried and have succeeded. But it is a very bold choice, which is almost change genres. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, hard shift. Yeah. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Where it's like the original alien is just slow burn horror thriller if anything. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean it's like a, you know, there's a monster in the house type thing. Yes. Very, yeah. Very slow and procedural, spooky, tension filled. [00:06:32] Speaker A: And of course, how do you top a film that is titled Alien that is so successful? The easiest answer is you put an s at the end. You either go alien two or you just do multiple aliens. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:06:47] Speaker A: And in this film, um, it. I mean, again, it's. We are kind of flubbing it when it comes to this trilogy, the most out of our other sequel trilogies because aliens at this point is almost as iconic alien in its own right, if as iconic. And so especially when it comes to talking about the director and creator surrounding this film, which is James Cameron. Because even though Cameron by this point had already worked with Lucasfilm and, like, ilm as well as, like, already had the original Terminator under his belt. [00:07:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:21] Speaker A: Aliens is basically the film that cements James Cameron as the James Cameron. They would ultimately go on to do t two and then go on to do Titan. [00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. The bombastic action blockbuster director. Yeah. [00:07:35] Speaker A: And even though the budget for this one, I think is like 1520. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not huge. [00:07:41] Speaker A: It's not huge, but like a big jump from the first, you really couldn't tell they really make it. They played up so much more in terms of sets, in terms of the environments. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, alien 79 is a gorgeous movie. Yes. You know, credit to Scott and his crew for, for all of that. But, yeah, Cameron brings something to this, a different kind of special effects savvy that just makes this so, I don't know, I guess state of the art for the time and, like, in a way that holds up really well today. Yeah. So it's. It's a different approach to the visuals because it's not as, like, claustrophobic and steep, steeped in darkness and stuff. It's no less or in fact, potentially even more, like, spectacular. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a sequel that is not, it's not betraying the original film's intention or betraying the intent in terms of what the alien is supposed to stand for or how it approaches the, you know, this story, the universe. In fact, what's fascinating about it is that while the original alien prefers to keep the audience in const. In a constant state of lack of noise, lack of sound, sometimes lack of a score, depending on certain scenes. Aliens, I think, is probably some of the most iconic in a passive sense. In terms of its sound design. It's. I mean, it's just noises. [00:09:17] Speaker B: Like, oh, yeah, it's just full to the brim with stimulation. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Compared to like the first film. Like the first film, I think the xenomorph makes maybe three or four noises. [00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:31] Speaker A: Like. Like, in terms of, like genuinely makes a noise out of its own mouth. [00:09:35] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:35] Speaker A: While, as in aliens, I think you. Every time a gun is shot there is an alien. The pulse rifle, which has a beautiful sound design attached to it. It sounds like you're revving up a lawnmower almost. And yet every alien that shows up in this again, it's a film that is fascinating to see how well it still works 30 plus years later. Because it's like, it is wild that this film does the thing that you think shouldn't work, which is not only we're gonna have like a fuck ton of more aliens in this film, they also are gonna, like, drop like flies. [00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:15] Speaker A: They're gonna be so much of them. The scary part. [00:10:18] Speaker B: Scary? [00:10:19] Speaker A: Yeah. The scary part of them is the fact that, yeah, now we know what their tactics are. That really doesn't matter because there's like. [00:10:24] Speaker B: 30, 40 still not equipped to deal with them. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, it's a. This is a like kind of a wild swing of a movie just in concept. Like about how many other sequels, especially first sequels, are such hard 180 genre shifts. I mean, obviously there's still a major horror element to this but it's a full on action blockbuster as opposed to the first film, which is very tiny, plodding, slow burn suspense thriller. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Well, even in the era when aliens is coming out, another big sequel around this time is Beverly Hills cop two, which is, I think, a three to four, maybe five year gap between the first one. So like maybe 85, 86, 87, maybe even 88. But like Beverly Hills cop two there, its entire design is just do it again. But with Tony Scott as the director. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Like it basically is like at that time if you had a popular. Do it again. [00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah. You just do it again and amp it up or something. [00:11:29] Speaker A: And Cameron being the man, that will just not say I don't know. Let's try this. I think this would be a good idea. You have. You have a film that I would have notice in his career where he is kind of butted heads with production and producing. I would have no doubt the camera is. As well as the fact that it's like, I mean, the. The most surprising part about aliens, even though there is a seven year gap between the. The release of Alien as well as this one, is the fact that aliens takes place 57 after the first film. Because in case, you know, even though we're not going to go in depth in the first film, in case you forget the last, the first film ends with Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, being our lone survivor with keep thinking his goose. But that's the cap from Captain Marvel. [00:12:18] Speaker B: I don't remember. [00:12:18] Speaker A: But it's basically Ellen Jones. Jones. Yeah, I think it's Jonesy. Is it Jonesy? Basically, Ellen and Jones basically go into a sleep pod, like a hyperbolic chamber, basically, and go to sleep. She wakes up, she gets found by a bunch of scrappers, I think, but just a bunch of scrappers that are looking just to make cheap money off junk, which I think has one of the best, like, opening lines in terms of, like, welp, I guess we're not getting any money off of this ship. It's like class. Like, honestly, if that fits that line alone, even though I completely hadn't even remembered that line until this last few, that is a line that just goes, yep. This is the same world in terms of the feel, because, like, another thing, too, about. Because I think, again, with how alien is perceived now, because of the. The last 15 years of alien films have been Prometheus and covenant. Right. The first film is basically space truckers who are working for a giant corporation. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:22] Speaker A: And find out halfway through the film that the corporation basically doesn't care if they all died, just as long as the xenomorph makes it back. [00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:30] Speaker A: And so to basically have the first line, like, one of the first lines of our sequel to be a bunch of randos going like, oh, there's a woman there. I guess we're not getting any money off of this really shows the cynical, just Sci-Fi that we're gonna get in terms of, like, the world and the feel of it. [00:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's dystopian for sure, but still. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Being fun when it gets to. Actually needs to being fun because, like, once we actually get into the meat and potatoes of the film and it's just like, oh, this is this is an easy. This should be an easy home run, and it pretty much is for a lot of the choices, except for one, which we can get into now. But I think, you know, going into aliens, I think the one thing that I always kind of thought was iffy, and I still honestly think it's probably the only thing I have an issue with, with the movie, is the Paul Reiser of it all. I think he's great in the movie. I think he's delightful. I just think it's funny that Ellen Ripley woman who finds out at the end of the first film that the corporation that she's working for basically is willing to sacrifice her life to make sure that an alien gets back to them so they can basically repurpose it for military purposes. She is genuinely shocked in aliens when she finds out that the one guy who's a part of the team that is a part of Weyland Yutani is doing the exact same thing that was happening in the first film and is almost, like, surprised when it. When it gets to that point where he locks the door with all the face huggers, with newt. And it's all. It's just always funny when it gets to that point where it's like, who did this to you? And it's like, it was him. And it's like, yeah, no shit, right? Like, by that point in the film, they had already basically said, like, we're gonna. We're gonna drag you. You're not gonna have any corp, because, like, you find out later in the film that the planet that they go to to fight the aliens is literally the planet that the space truckers go on in the first one. It's just, since it's been 57 years, there's now a settlement community there. [00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that was that. [00:15:32] Speaker A: We find out later in the film. The reveal is that community was put on there by Paul Reiser's part of the company solely to try and bait more xenomorphs to kind of pop up, right? And when they find this out, instead of putting him in a locked room, instead of, like, being like, hey, no weapons, no access to anything, we don't trust you. They just go, we're gonna bury you. Yeah, just wait till we get off this planet. And then he just tries to sabotage, and they're shocked. That's, like, literally the only thing in the film where it's like, guys, come on. [00:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess they're right. I guess they're, you know, some might say accurate to the nature of marines to just be like, yeah, let's just kill shit. We're too busy focused on that. [00:16:21] Speaker A: No, I mean, and that's not even, like, really a bad part of the movie. It's not even a bad part of the movie. It's just, like, one of the weakest angles. Because, again, it's like, Paul Reiser is great in the movie. He's the inciting incident of basically getting Ripley back into the fray because he basically goes, hey, to LV 426. Yeah, they haven't heard anything from the community. If you do this, I'll reinstate your captain's license. Because that's, again, to add to the cynical world. Even though Ripley did the right thing by getting rid of the xenomorph and making sure that nothing bad could happen to anybody else, she basically gets reprimanded for being a good person by the company she's working for and then basically has to become a forklift certified alien killer. Alien Killer. And then basically goes, hey, do you want to go back to being a captain? It's like, yeah, sure, whatever. [00:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:17] Speaker A: And then it's. It is so effortless. Like, again, these are one of those films where it's, like, it is effortless to. It's effortless if you're just looking for a good time. But if you sit there and you're just, like, looking at the sets, looking at the models, just, like, really paying attention to the edits, you're just like, fuck. This must have been probably stressful, trying to, like, think about the way to get this. [00:17:42] Speaker B: To get, like, some of the shots they pull off in this movie are kind of mind blowing. To think that they were done in 1986. [00:17:49] Speaker A: And to also think of the fact that, like, you know, not even 30, almost 30 years after this film, like, films like Jurassic World would basically take, like, the pulse, like, the heart monitor, kind of like. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:02] Speaker A: The idea of, like, we see all the marines on the screen. You have their face. You have their name. You see their body cams, which is, again, seeing body cam, like, kind of, quote unquote body cam footage in, like, a film in 1986. Yeah, it's kind of rad and wild to think about. And it's done incredibly well. And it's also the fact that it's, like, now that now that we've, you know, most people who know about this film, or if you're going into this, not even seeing it before, and it's your first time, probably by the 30 minutes mark, you're like, okay, so this is a big budget blockbuster. It's not it's not trying to be scary like the original film. It'll have some scary moments if you're younger or like, you know. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's. Yeah, you know, there's monsters on screen. So in that sense, it's kind of scary. [00:18:50] Speaker A: So you're thinking like, okay, so now I know what an action Sci-Fi blockbuster looks like, because at that point, the original trilogy of Star wars has already happened. There have already been clones of that. There have already been other Sci-Fi blockbusters. At that point in the eighties, you would think in your brain, oh, I know what's gonna happen. She's probably, Rippley's gonna probably have a love interest. There's probably gonna be some quips here. This is where it's gonna go. This and that and, yeah, they're quips. Sure, there are fun characters. I mean, Bill Paxton is fucking insane in this movie, and he's an delight. [00:19:21] Speaker B: And I mean, if I understand right, this is kind of the movie that put him on a lot of people's radar. Yeah. In terms of, like, as a big screen presence. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Because I think right before this, or even maybe around the time he was. Around the time this comes out, I think his other big film is, like, weird science. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah, but weird science is aliens. [00:19:42] Speaker A: No, no. That's the thing, though. It's like, by that point, I think in his career, if he was in movies, he was like a douchebag older brother or just a shithead. And then I. [00:19:50] Speaker B: And here he's a douchebag in a. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Much bigger film, but he's also a douchebag that seems like the only one. Just saying out loud, isn't this fucking crazy? [00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Isn't this just unfortunately just the worst situation possible that we could be in? Yeah, game over, man. [00:20:05] Speaker B: He's got so many good lines in this. [00:20:08] Speaker A: And it's funny because I would even say his best line is not even an actual line. It is when Bishop is playing. What's it called? The game. [00:20:17] Speaker B: Bleaf fingers, like knife dancing. [00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, knife dancing. When he's knife dancing with Paxton, he's going, oh, he has his light up eyes. That is, in my head, that's the most iconic hicks. Like, that's the most iconic Paxton moment in the film. [00:20:31] Speaker B: I like. I don't know if you're up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked. [00:20:36] Speaker A: It's also good. Again, I've honestly, I think it's also because a few weeks ago, for in honor of Twisters, I'd finally watch Twister. It's yeah, I fucking Miss Bill Paxton. Mandev. He has such a presence in a way that it's just like, I want more of a guy like that. Yeah, that's such a good line. And it's. Again, it's one of those things, too, where it's like, you think, okay, this character's not gonna last, but he'll probably get, like a heroic death or something like that. Or this and that. And honestly, it's like. Is fascinating, again, to be late eighties, a big budget sequel to a pretty popular Sci-Fi film to have a pretty popular cat. I mean, a pretty stacked cast of that time. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah. You got Lance Hendricks and Paul Reiser. [00:21:25] Speaker A: Michael Bean, Bill Paxton. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Michael Bean. Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker A: And then, of course, it's. You get into it, and then it's like, hicks, play by Michael Bean, who I fucking love. I love. Again, love Michael Bean. No surprise that they bring back Kyle. James Cameron brings Kyle Reese into the alien franchise's Hicks. And when he shows up, and it's the fact that it's like, again, it's not like an immediate. When they see each other. It's a love at first sight thing. It's not anything like that. In fact, what's so great about the tension between Ripley and Hicks is that it might just be entirely, like, just a chemistry sex. Like a sexual chemistry connection where it's like, hicks is just a badass, buff, sweaty dude that is just, like, been. [00:22:14] Speaker B: On a spaceship for a while. Yeah. [00:22:16] Speaker A: He's been working for a corpo for a long ass time. And it's just a badass but not a douchebag. And Ripley just shows up and is. Has this energy of, I don't give a fuck. I don't take any. Among a bunch of marines who clearly just, like, initially, like, who the fuck is this woman? She's wearing, like, a fucking jumpsuit and pretends like she knows what she's talking about. And then they were like, oh, shit. She's the most capable out of all of us because she's the only person to survive. [00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:43] Speaker A: Fighting this thing. And then on top of that, you have. Yeah. With Hicks, you have, you know, Paxton's character. You have. I mean, you have. [00:22:52] Speaker B: Hudson. [00:22:53] Speaker A: Hudson, yeah, Hudson. There's also. Is it Rodriguez who's. [00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:58] Speaker A: Who's played. Bye. Not a Latino. Karen. Latino actress. Because I don't. [00:23:05] Speaker B: Vasquez. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Vasquez. Yes, I said Rodriguez. Because when she shows up on screen, I gotta say that is like a. Wow, that is the era. Yeah, because, I mean, again, she might I don't remember if she could be. I don't know. I just remember, like, when I. When she shows up again in a Cameron film because she is John Carter's surrogate mom or adopted mom. She looks nothing like Vascia. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:33] Speaker A: And so it's, um. But Vasquez is fun, because, again, the. The way that, um, her gun is built is fucking radish with, like, the gimbal arm. [00:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:23:45] Speaker A: And then there's also a flamethrower situation in. [00:23:48] Speaker B: Well, they. Yeah, they have to, uh. They basically can only use flamethrowers because they're inside this, like, nuclear reactor, which is such. We can't shoot bullets around, which is great. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Phenomenal premise. And the fact that it's not even. Is that, like, when that builds in, you're like, oh, that's such a cool premise. The fact that Vasquez. And is it gray, it's like, her, like, close, like, right hand man, who's another, like, flamethrower guy. Yeah, but you know who I'm talking. You know what I'm talking about? Like, that guy. Like, they still. They both go, fuck that. We're gonna hold on to our weapon. And it's so great to be like, the fact that there's, like, yeah, why would any. Why would all of them listen? Like, as people, especially with what you've seen so far, especially when there's, like, the dynamic between the lead marine and the actual team is like, the lead marine is not. He has never been in a combat situation. So when that comes into fray, it's very clearly the team is like, I don't trust that this man's gonna do us justice if we figure this out. And what a surprise. Really doesn't. But he tries his best again. He is just. Everyone who is in this film is in over their head. Even Ripley, who was very well aware of how the xenomorph works, because, again, when it comes to the alien in aliens, mainly it moves. It does exactly how it reacts in the first film. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:14] Speaker A: It's just a little bit more aggressive. [00:25:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's a lot more of them. [00:25:17] Speaker A: There is a lot more of them as well. And the big thing that is about aliens, which has been, I would. I would assume at this point, it's not controversial anymore, but when, you know, Ridley Scott talks about aliens, you know, a lot of. When a lot of people talk about aliens, especially when it comes to as a franchise and it's aka lore, the alien queen is a fascinating addition to aliens because I think even Scott said, like, in an interview that they thought that was dumb as shit. Which, again, I think the alien queen is rips in terms of just, like, design in its approach, how it runs around. But I will say it is funny how if this being, like, I think the fourth time I've seen aliens, like, there is moments where the scale is. [00:26:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the scale changes all the time. [00:26:09] Speaker A: Where it's like the first time you see the alien queen. [00:26:11] Speaker B: Enormous. [00:26:12] Speaker A: Enormous. And then when Ripley is running away with newt, it's, like, almost shrunk down to get into the little nooks and crannies. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:20] Speaker A: And that's just like, oh, that's fair. But it's also, I think, the other thing, I probably think the silliest part of the story is the fact that the alien queen fits on the ship without any indication. [00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:33] Speaker A: Weight distribution being different or the fact that, like, the hole it would have snuck up in. [00:26:39] Speaker B: Well, it's like. It's like, kind of like in the landing gear or something. Or, like, in a crack crevice in the, like, wing or something. It's like, how did it squirrel away in there? [00:26:49] Speaker A: Like, how did it sneak into what basically is, like, the wheel on an airplane that gets sucked in. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, the landing gear. [00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just like, it just like, it just gets in the landing gear. Look how fucking big it is. [00:27:00] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:27:00] Speaker A: What time does it have? Because again, in that scene, too, it's like a ticking time bomb situation. [00:27:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I had never actually. I had never seen this movie. Oh, all the way. I'd seen some of the iconic clips. And so, like, I knew kind of where it goes at the end. Like, I knew the, you know, the. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Get away from her, you labor. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Labor machine versus the. Yeah, get away from. You, bitch. [00:27:23] Speaker A: Love that thing. [00:27:24] Speaker B: And so, like, when they're. The sequence where Bishop is, like, picking up Ripley and new, as from the, like, did I. The exploding terraforming facility. You know, he's picking them up with the ship and they're getting out of there. I'm watching that. I'm like, wait. Yeah, so how do we. How do we still get the forklift fight? Yeah, yeah, that fucking. They pull that out of their ass. Oh, it was in the landing gear or whatever. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Say what you will about Cameron, the man does have a comedic timing because I still love the whole, like, if they come up one elevator and then, like, the other elevator that clearly has the alien cleaning, it slowly comes up right after. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:05] Speaker A: So this thing is a rabid animal that is clearly running after them because it killed their babies, but it knows how to work an elevator. [00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:14] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's just funny. That's just funny. I love that little bit. And, yeah, it's, I didn't know you hadn't seen it all the way through. [00:28:23] Speaker B: I hadn't seen most of the movie. [00:28:24] Speaker A: So how did you, so what with my Paul Reiser complaint. Do you agree? Are you kind of. [00:28:29] Speaker B: I didn't think. I didn't think about it. I mean, your point makes sense. I, you know, he's, he's a lot of fun. And that's as far as it went for me. It was like, okay, he's a fun little shit eating villain. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And he gets, he gets his comeuppance in a nice way. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I was. The more Cameron, like, the further back I go in Cameron's filmography and watch his older stuff, it's always funny, like, watching one of his older blockbusters just being like, oh, yeah, he's just been doing Avatar this whole time. Yeah, like Avatar. You know, like that. There are so many parallels on the, like, Avatar soldier team to the aliens team, Vasquez and things like that and all the different, you know, so many set pieces kind of done over in different ways. [00:29:19] Speaker A: I mean, again, yeah, he is a man. [00:29:21] Speaker B: Kind of sticks to, in terms of action. He sticks to, to sticks to a specific area. [00:29:27] Speaker A: He goes, hey, if it ain't broke. And then it's just like, now it's. And then it's that point. It's 2009 and he still does. Yeah. The team. And, yeah, it shows. Again, another thing that's fascinating, again, about this franchise, and we'll get to the other two films in this trilogy, is the fact that the first film was directed by young Ridley Scott very early on in its career. And the sequel, aliens, is directed by a young James Cameron very early in his career. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:54] Speaker A: And after Terminator, which, again, I think. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Both, neither of them ever returned to the franchise. [00:30:03] Speaker A: Cameron. Oh, sorry. I thought. I was thinking of, I was thinking of everything past title. I was thinking about, like, hold on. No, no, no, he does. Okay. Okay. Yes. And then they never come back. And they never, I mean, one of them doesn't take 30 years to. Nearly 30 years to come back. But, yeah, it is, it is. Again, with Cameron at that point just having, like, Terminator, which when I think of Terminator now, and I think I've only seen the original all the way through once. [00:30:33] Speaker B: I've only seen it once. [00:30:35] Speaker A: But I, when I think of that movie, I just, it is the first thought in my brain is aesthetic. And then watching aliens, it is like, that is the second or third word in my head. The first is probably just like. It is. It's the Sci-Fi it's just like how the fact that the way it does the Sci-Fi feels so unique at that time. [00:30:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:56] Speaker A: In terms of like the nastiness kind of like. [00:30:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a really. [00:30:59] Speaker A: It kind of feels rusty in a way. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it's interesting because aesthetically I get so slick and well oiled and, yes, quickly and it feels very, you know, sweeping blockbuster. But, yeah, these nasty little fucking aliens with this grime everywhere. There's people getting impaled and like, you know. Yeah, it's an interesting blend of the kind of, I don't know about body horror but like, well, I guess kind of body horror of the first film and the more like slick and polished. [00:31:36] Speaker A: Action because I think the first film has already has a term in terms of its type as Sci-Fi now in a retro sense, which I think is like low tech Sci-Fi sure. And I think with like rewatching Alien just to prep for all these sequels again. Just like how pristine everything is in that first film in terms of just like the. The common room. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Sure. [00:31:58] Speaker A: The. The mothers. The mother room. And then you get to aliens and everything feels grimy but lived in and feels very tactile, which the first one does. But I think the first one's tactile kind of feel comes from like the sound and like the feel of just like the clicking of keys. When I think of that first film, I think of the fact that it's like the, like the smallest computer screens known to man and the clicking of keys and like the noise the computer makes when it's like responding to things which that noise I think at this point is probably gonna show up in Romulus even though like the tech is gonna be a little bit different. [00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm kind of hoping Romulus does like, you know, kind of goes back to some of that, like retro tech. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Knowing, because that is something about this franchise is like after like a, after, like Alien three it all starts to look feel very kind of dislike, you know, incongruous. [00:32:59] Speaker A: No. For it's honestly why a lot of people who have played the media outside of the film franchise really love alien isolation because, like that is a game that, like, understands like, oh, oh, I don't know why I missed this. But, like that computer's so clunky and it just has, you can't even do shit on it, but it looks really cool in the whole. That's right. It would be like. It would be still low tech. [00:33:24] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a vision of the future from the 70s. [00:33:27] Speaker A: It doesn't think about the fact that, you know, where Prometheus takes place. It doesn't make any sense that we. [00:33:31] Speaker B: Need this holograms and shit. [00:33:33] Speaker A: But that's besides the point. It is. Yeah, it is. Again, everything about aliens, when you say it out loud in terms of just aesthetically, it's different, but it at least keeps the vibe of the world. A lot of the blockbuster energy that you think is going to be lead to the classic tropes of a blockbuster aren't really there. Yeah. [00:33:56] Speaker B: And, you know, or it's inventing tropes. Yeah. [00:33:59] Speaker A: But there's still spectacle. There's still comedy in a good way. There's still a rhythm that is, you know, it's in the original film has that rhythm, but it's not as fast, which is fine. It's not meant to be. It's supposed to be much. Yeah, it's supposed to be a low. It's supposed to be. The film itself is running at a low bpm while you watching is at a high bpm. And then with aliens, it's just like, no going. It's. It's like. I think Aliens is the longest film in the franchise by like a few minutes, at least theatrically, because there's probably longer. I think there's longer cuts like alien three and this and that, but cuz I think it's like, yet 215 to 20. And like, you know, we get game over, man. I'm pretty sure an hour and 15. So there's a. There's another hour of content. Content after that. And so it's like another 30 minutes and then it's like, okay, now we're gonna do the finale and it's like, you still got like 30 minutes, dude. [00:34:57] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:34:57] Speaker A: What are we doing? And then it's like, oh, there's two climaxes, but they're fun. [00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:01] Speaker A: And then aliens ends. Hilariously enough, even though the film has its own personality and its identity, for the most part, it ends very much like the first film. [00:35:13] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Get back in the pod. [00:35:15] Speaker A: The team gets back in the pods. [00:35:18] Speaker B: I do like what they do with Bishop. Bishop, yeah, just. He's like a kind of a contrast to in Holmes character in the first film where he's like, ooh, the sinister synthetic person. And then in this one, he's like, you're kind of wary of him at first, and then he turns out to be a very helpful thing. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I would probably say the big lore. The big lore moments and aliens that are really fun is the time jump. Yeah, it is. The fact that LV 426, which was completely barren in the first film, now has a community on it. [00:35:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:58] Speaker A: Which helps with that time jump. And the third big lore dump is, in fact, the fact that in the first film, Ash, played by Ian Holmes, reveal of being an Android is a complete surprise. [00:36:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:08] Speaker A: And then in aliens, it is like, oh, yeah, that model had some malfunctions. We not only have an Android on the team, we all know he's an Android, and he's probably, like, the smartest and most reliable on the team. [00:36:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:21] Speaker A: And the film, again, I will give Cameron credit, too, because I don't. I didn't even think about it until this viewing. But he does do a little moments here and there where it's like, oh, what's Bishop doing there? [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yeah, what's bishop. [00:36:33] Speaker A: He's. He's playing with that. [00:36:34] Speaker B: He's playing on your expectation of him to be evil or whatever, and then. [00:36:39] Speaker A: At the very end, it's just like, yeah, you're. You're good, Bishop. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Like, nice. [00:36:43] Speaker B: It's like, hell, yeah. Ripped in half and. Yeah, saves the day. [00:36:47] Speaker A: And I also. I think there is a director's cut. [00:36:50] Speaker B: For his head ripped off. No, that's David. [00:36:53] Speaker A: He gets stabbed. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, the rebuke was. We'll talk about that. But at this point, you know, there's worse. There are bigger spoilers of Prometheus than that. Yeah, he gets stabbed in the. He gets stabbed in the abdomen, and then he gets ripped. His legs get ripped off because he's. He's just the top. He's the top half. And. Yeah, I think. I swear aliens has a director's cut because I'm pretty sure there was a cut scene because in my brain, I think the first time I'd ever seen this all the way through, there is a scene, I'm pretty sure that was shot where Ripley visits her elderly daughter. Or, like, I just are like, maybe like. Because I think your daughter's probably in her early teens, so, like, she's in her sixties, but, like, still, it's like. It is Ellen. Ellen's, like, in her late thirties, early forties, and her daughter is, like, in her sixties because I swear, I always remembered for some reason, going into aliens, that Ripley had maybe not a husband anymore, but at least had a daughter. So like a family of some kind. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker A: And I think in going into this being like, huh. There's. I thought there was a scene like that. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, there's like, it looks like. Yeah, there was an extended cut. [00:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Released on Laserdisc. [00:38:08] Speaker A: Oh, well, I might have seen it on television or maybe just like it was on streaming at one point, to be honest, I would totally find it. I think it's better that the scene is cut because in all honesty, it going the newt. I think the reason why it was cut is because of Newt. Because they were like, you get that surrogate mother. Why do we need to have actual maternal mother with her older. With her elderly daughter? Right. [00:38:33] Speaker B: Right. When we. [00:38:34] Speaker A: As well as the surrogate, which Newt is great. [00:38:36] Speaker B: Yeah. We should talk about the nude of it all. I like that they introduce new and it makes Ripley A, like a badass feminine character, like, in another way, in a new. With a new layer to that where she has that protective instinct. And also I like that it kind of changes her role because in the first movie, she's just trying to survive. [00:39:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:09] Speaker B: And in this movie, she's trying to survive, but she's also trying to protect the. This thing that can't protect itself. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Considering how big Sigourney Weaver is in the franchise. And it gets to a point where by the time we get to the last film in our trilogy, she is literally getting, like a dump truck worth of money just to come back. It's funny to think about the first film that she's basically the surprise protagonist because the film constantly is pushing Tom Skerritt's Dallas because he's the captain. Of course, the captain has to be the lead, but the captain doesn't survive. It is Ripley. And also, Ripley is the most interesting of the crew in that first film because it's like she's the only one who is like, listen, I don't want John hurt to die, but like, protocol says, if you have. If he's acting funny and we were just on an alien planet and you just. Something's on his fucking face, I don't know what that's gonna lead to. She is the she. If they had listened to her, they would have been fine. And, yeah, and I think it's just like in that first film, you see her as intelligent but also very stern. And then, yeah, with aliens, you see the softer, more maternal side in a way that is like, oh, that's exactly why she's here in a way, because it's like she can talk to normal people. It's not because she can talk to children. It is just like with a bunch of marines in corporate. [00:40:31] Speaker B: She was a trucker. Like, she. She is a, you know, salt of the earth person. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah. She literally was making money, going to sleep in a pod, waking up, being like, oh, we got five months to drop this load. [00:40:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:42] Speaker A: And then they drop the load, and then they just come back home. [00:40:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. Yeah. That's a great scene of just, like, the head marine being like, we can't get anything out of her. She won't talk to us. And then, like, Ripley talks to her for five minutes just as a person. [00:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:58] Speaker A: Instead of it being, like, a cop talking to a child, like, listen, I am just trying to figure out how we can help you. And it's just like, oh, you're a person. You're nice. I'm. And I also love to the fact that, like, they have newt's actual name, but Newt's just like, nope, I like to be called Newt. And there's no real reason as to why she wants to be called. It's just I. Whether she likes the name or because it was just a. I think it might. If anything, it was probably like a. Like a. Like a pet name or just something like, whether kid, like, her family would call her. Yeah, just a silly name. But, like, Newt, Hicks, Bishop, and Ripley, being the survivors are, like, as much as the cast, I think is on par all the way through, and I think do a really great job, even with my issues with, like, risers character. Again, like you said, he's a lot of fun, and he's definitely a worthwhile addition to this film. And I love it. The fact that, like, I think when Paul Reiser talks about aliens, he talks about how even his mother wanted him to die when she saw the film for the first time. [00:42:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:01] Speaker A: Like, people hated his ass in this movie and just shows how good of an actor he is, how he plays that character. [00:42:08] Speaker B: I also like that his character puts a face to the, like, Weyland Yutani stuff because, like, you know, they're the villains of this whole franchise, basically. And it's so rare that we actually get, like, a lot of direct interfacing between, like, the main characters and anybody who actually has anything to do with. [00:42:32] Speaker A: Them, especially in this. Especially in this trilogy of the sequels, where it's, like, in the third film, we get the face of Weyland Yutani to a degree, and it's very confusing. [00:42:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:42:43] Speaker A: And then in resurrection, we basically get a company that bought out. Weyland Yutani, and they're just a bunch of little freaks. Yeah, it doesn't really matter. Well, yeah, and this is just like, yeah, he's just one of those guys. He. [00:42:55] Speaker B: He's a pencil pusher. He's a bottom line guy. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Yeah, he. He gives off. He really wants to have youth pastor. Hey, kids, I'm one of you. [00:43:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker A: And he is clearly a corporate slime ball. Just because he wears a vest doesn't mean he's not a corporate slime ball, but plays it with charisma. And honestly, when it gets to the end of this film, it's like, damn, you know, I can't wait for alien three, if that's what it's called, to be out in two years. Well, here's the thing. Like I said, a common franchise thing with Alia, the common trope of alien is if you're gonna have a sequel or a follow up or a reboot or whatever, it's not gonna take two years. Actually, three would be generous. In fact, what happens again is in between aliens and alien three is kind of a whole situation of Cameron maybe having an idea of wanting to do something, but of course they pass on that. Yeah, I think it was like, in terms of the production, in terms of just, like, what he wanted to do is probably not what the producers really wanted to do as much. One of the most iconic bits of alien three, purgatory hell is the fact that one of the original treatments before the writers strike at the time happened, was written by William Gibson, who was mainly known for Neuromancer, basically the godfather, grandfather of cyberpunk as we know it. It's also fascinating is that treatment is currently listenable now, because in prep for this episode, I found out that audible actually did the original treatment that William S. Gibson did with Michael Bean and Lance Henriksen reprising their roles. Because the thing about Gibson's script, another reason why this film is in purgatory for years, until 90, 91 when they shoot, is the fact through this, Sigourney Weaver is like, I don't know if I'm coming back act or if I am. I don't know if she doesn't want to be the lead is, I think, a big thing about Sigourney at the time. At that point, she'd already done Ghostbusters. She's on the verge of doing Ghostbusters two. Like, if that's what she wants to do. I mean, sure. Then let's write a script where Hicks is the protagonist, which is basically what the alien three script is where Bishop has a decently prominent role, but Hicks is the returning character that basically is the ripley of telling all these people, hey, you don't want to fuck with things you don't understand. [00:45:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:27] Speaker A: That treatment as an audio drama was a lot of fun to listen to. It's just. It's just over 2 hours, maybe two and a half. But I will say its version of, like, how to, like, how do you evolve the alien, the xenomorph, in some way, shape or form the way it does it is the most, honestly, if it had actually been made the most of abstract thing, because literally the way that they describe it is in his treatment. It is an airborne pathogen. That is basically the reveal, as Bishop says at one point in that audio drama that the xenomorph is such a dangerous creature because even in an environment where there isn't animal around it to like or like mammals to basically, you know, attach its face onto and turn into this or that, it will become airborne in a way and just get into already existing creatures and then just basically, without having to face hug and put in the usual shtick of, like, the chest popping, it will just. It will just mutate them immediately, which. [00:46:33] Speaker B: Is interesting because that kind of ends up being, to some degree, used in Scott's return to the franchise later and how he explores the proto xenomorphs, which we'll talk about next time. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And another thing about these sequels and which we also will talk, we will definitely talk about in Scott's return in the rebook wools. It's just the fact that, like, the answer to. Well, the first film introduces us to the Xenomorph, which, in case you don't know, is designed by HR Giger and is, you know, horrifying when you don't think about the fact that it's a very slender man in a suit. And they do that incredibly well in that first film where they hide him a lot of the time. They give him a. They give him a rad little tail. [00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:20] Speaker A: He also plays peekaboo with Dallas at one point in the original film, but that's fine. And then, of course, in aliens, you get around that by basically being like, you're not really gonna think about that. It could be a man in a suit. Cause there's 40 men in a suit coming right at you, thousands of them. [00:47:33] Speaker B: Crawling around like spiders and also an alien queen. [00:47:35] Speaker A: And it's like, oh, well, shit, I. Well, how do you go from here? And then with three. No surprise. With Gibson's script, like, while it's a cool idea, I don't honest. I think people would have definitely been pissed. And they seen alien three and been. [00:47:49] Speaker B: Like, became an airborne pathogen. Yeah. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Cause, like, in the way that the drama, like, you hear, like, they do the whole transformations. Like, it's basically like anything in the room catches a virus and then becomes not even a xenomorph. Just becomes like a hybridization. They call them hybrids in that. [00:48:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:06] Speaker A: And it's basically a. Basically a treatment that is very cold war heavy notes to it while also having basically one or two actual xenomorphs. [00:48:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:19] Speaker A: But with most of the monsters being just, like, humans malformed and hybridized into, like, just a fucking goop monster. Almost like an Akira kind of, like, mess. [00:48:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:32] Speaker A: And after that, treatment doesn't really go far. And then, of course, it goes into hiatus for a while. Other treatments come in and there and gets to a point where, like, oh, shit, maybe we can get Sigourney to come back. Sigourney comes back and tells him again, listen, I would like to not be the lead in this, but I mean. But I would come back for a bigger role than in Gibson's. Because in Gibson's script, Ripley's in a coma the entire time. [00:48:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:48:59] Speaker A: And Gibson, the. The way that. What is what happens to Ripley in alien three? She's in a coma. Hicks puts her in a pod, says, oh, hopefully I'll see you again, and puts her away. That's all. That's it. That's it. Because again, they were at the time thinking, like, we. If we're gonna get Sigourney, we're gonna probably only get her for, like, maybe a mamma mia. Two's worth of, like, a week, like, of, like, maybe shooting. So, like, let's just, like, make it as small as possible. Newt has a bigger role in three. And Newt also is, like, basically, hicks puts her on a pod. [00:49:31] Speaker B: Sure. [00:49:33] Speaker A: And to be honest, while I don't think it would have been the best version of Alien three, what we do end up getting is. Well, I don't know what the. Honestly, what the best version of this would be. [00:49:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. [00:49:51] Speaker A: Because in case you don't know, again, with Ridley Scott doing the first film, a young Ridley Scott, a young James Cameron doing aliens, you have a young up and coming, literally, directorial debut. David fucking Fincher. [00:50:04] Speaker B: Yeah. A young music video director at the. [00:50:07] Speaker A: Time, primarily getting plucked out of, again, another iLm, you know, alum, basically because he worked on return of the Jedi and worked on the effects. Lot of effects. A guy that really was waiting to jump into directing films, and they said, hey, this guy is green, but he's got a lot of talent attached to him. [00:50:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:26] Speaker A: And I think he'd be really good for this. And so in the nineties, they found somewhat a script. They got Fincher on board and they went ahead with it. And what we get as a final piece, and I will say, I don't think he really needs to feel like this anymore. [00:50:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:44] Speaker A: But David Fincher, when he talks about Alien three, talks about it like it is the most, like, the biggest, most embarrassing mistake anyone has ever made in their life. [00:50:54] Speaker B: Pretty well disowned the film. Yeah. [00:50:57] Speaker A: Because to be honest, like, the real David Fincher, directorial debut that we know of with David Fincher is seven. [00:51:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:04] Speaker A: Which is like, three years after this. And. But even though there is a lot of the early. You see a lot of Fincher in Alien three is clearly also cut out and around because of the reshoots as well. [00:51:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Rewrites and reshoots and. Yeah. I think I get it, though. I don't think this is an atrocious movie. [00:51:27] Speaker A: No, it isn't. It isn't. [00:51:29] Speaker B: But I do. I can totally see from the, you know, the filmmaker, the auteur's point of view of, like. Yeah. This is so far off from, like, how I want to express myself as a filmmaker, because this is kind of a mess. [00:51:45] Speaker A: It is. [00:51:46] Speaker B: And it's. It's kind of like trying to be two different movies. [00:51:49] Speaker A: It is more of a mess as it goes on. It starts off, I would really strong in terms of the eye, the promise. [00:51:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, what it is, we can. We can get right into it. I would say the very opening. Okay, well, that not so great. [00:52:05] Speaker A: No, no. [00:52:05] Speaker B: But once it gets kind of into its premise. Yeah, I was actually pretty into this, but, yeah, it opens up with a little bit of a. Kind of a rug pull because, you know, aliens ends with. With Hicks and Ripley and Newt going into the pod, hicks being damaged, but. [00:52:25] Speaker A: Like, still alive, and newt just being, like, the happiest she has been just because they're done. [00:52:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Have to worry about anything. And Bishop. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Bishop being, you know, he survived despite being dismembered. [00:52:35] Speaker A: They basically put him on a coat hanger. [00:52:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:38] Speaker A: And said, like, let us know when something happens. [00:52:40] Speaker B: And so it's this nice, kind of like, you know, slightly little optimistic, triumphant finale. And then in the opening of this, everything goes wrong in their little escape pod. There's a fire and facehugger gets in there and I then, yeah, basically, newt and Hicks both die in the escape pod. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So a big thing about the start of three, which is, honestly, I think very understandably for a lot of people, including younger me, who watched this film for the first time, is where they start to hate this movie out the gate, because, again, I understand it is a. It's a five year gap. So of course you're not going to have the same actress for Newt. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:27] Speaker A: You're not going to. You know, Michael Bean has gotten more popular over the years. Maybe he's a little bit more busy. [00:53:31] Speaker B: Other stuff to do. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Turns out he was never asked. So, like, he was basically, when Michael Bean talks about this film, he says, everyone can fuck right off. They fucked it up. [00:53:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:42] Speaker A: He was not a fan of not being a part of alien three. So, of course being like, oh, yeah, the greatest. You know, this great cast of characters that'd be really cool to really build their relationship more. Two out of four of them are dead. [00:53:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:57] Speaker A: And the one that is technically still alive is basically on the verge of death because he has been dripping Android milk. [00:54:06] Speaker B: Android juice. Android milk. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Basic. Because it was funny, too, because not only do they have to put. They basically have to put Bishop in a suit cover because he doesn't want to, he'll lose all of his juice. And so, like, his juices all just seeping at the bottom of the bag as he's sitting there. And then Bishop does make a little bit of an appearance later on, but it is a small. [00:54:28] Speaker B: It's a, like a one scene, one scene of cameo. [00:54:30] Speaker A: But Lance Henriksen has shows up more than once. [00:54:34] Speaker B: That's true. [00:54:35] Speaker A: Which is wild, but. [00:54:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:37] Speaker A: Yeah. The alien three's premise is that it's not been 57 years again, thank God. But they, um. There is so it turns out the alien queen who is, you know, we have. [00:54:48] Speaker B: Chasing them at the end. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Chasing them at the end is a constant shapeshifter of her own size. And the process between when she gets out of the ship and then, like, towards the death of the alien queen, she pumps out, even though she wasn't attached to her egg sack. [00:55:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Ova ovipositor, whatever they call it. [00:55:10] Speaker A: She pops out one last egg, fights Ripley dies, and then no one checks to see if there are any eggs. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And apparently, yeah, the egg was left on the ship. Yeah. [00:55:22] Speaker A: And so basically the egg tries to get Newt, tries to get Hicks. Doesn't work. I think Hicks is the one that goes up in flames. Right. [00:55:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Hicks catches on fire and, um, Newt dies because her thing breaks. Right. Her cryogenic bed shatters because, again, a character. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Again, one of the things, too, that I think has led to a lot of people. Yeah. She. One of the things that leads people to also dislike this film is the fact that Ellen Ripley as a character doesn't get a lot of achievement or recognition or basically any kind of success in all three of her films in terms of, like, the original Ripley, which we'll fucking get into with resurrection. But, like, Ripley as a character is literally. She is a very good professional trucker who literally works for a company. That is fine if she fucking dies. Yeah, she's badass enough to get rid of that alien. Goes to sleep, her pod fucks up. She wakes up 57 years later, it's basically forced to go back, fuck up a bunch other aliens and then kill an alien queen. And then alien three is basically, guess what? This, you know, ragtag group of people you could have considered like a found family. They're basically all dead. You're on a planet with murderers and rapists and psychopaths who are not really that psychotic. [00:56:50] Speaker B: No. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Yeah, they're just like, they're not played as such. It's almost like these are the baddest motherfuckers on this planet. And they are all. They're all mainly white, bald british dudes. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a weirdly, like, singular demographic. [00:57:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And what ultimately happens is, like, she basically does, again, similar to aliens, where it's, like, not fully letting loose everything about what happened in the first one, but, like, trying to give enough of a hint that, hey, maybe we should check Newt's dead body to make sure there's no excess, anything. And then leads to just a heroine scene where Ellen Ripley has to watch her surrogate daughter basically get cut open by Tywin Lannister, only to find out that she just died of suffocation, like, he told her, and she watched it all. And it's like, Ripley doesn't need to go. [00:57:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just a lot of suffering right after the. [00:57:52] Speaker A: And then you're saying. And then I know some of you are saying out there, but at least Ripley got laid, Logan. Well, she got laid, but at the same time she got laid by someone that immediately after she had sex with him, almost like a day later, fucking gets annihilated. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Because there's. And then there's also the fact that this film's version of the xenomorph, the majority of it, is a dog xenomorph. [00:58:18] Speaker B: Yeah. An interesting choice. [00:58:20] Speaker A: Well, do you know why it's a dog? Because this is fascinating. [00:58:23] Speaker B: Specifically a dog. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Now, in the producer cut or the original cut idea, it was supposed to be a livestock. It was supposed to be cow. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:58:32] Speaker A: Supposed to be a cow. They even shot the scene, apparently, is even Gorier than the dog scene. The problem was, is that the cow slash, I could have been a cow or a bull. But, like, the cow slash bull was such a bad actor in terms like being able to train, keep them in bay, and be able to shoot anything. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:51] Speaker A: That when they got to the reshoot part of it or when they need to pick up, do pickups, they couldn't get anything of the bull. So when they reshot the film, they recut it as if it was a dog. [00:59:02] Speaker B: And Stoke. Okay. [00:59:03] Speaker A: And so that's where the dog comes in. But, yeah, we go from classic xenomorph a shit to the xenomorphs to dog Xenomorph. Yeah. [00:59:14] Speaker B: Which I don't blame the, like, let's scale down approach. No, not at all. I actually think that's pretty smart. And I think also is, you know, kind of goes into what we were hinting at that, like, first half of this movie. Not that bad. And honestly, a lot of interesting ideas introduced because once you get past kind of that rug, pull that gut punch of, oh, sorry, Newt and hicks are dead. Ripley will be miserable forever. [00:59:46] Speaker A: Oops. [00:59:49] Speaker B: We find ourselves in this really bleak, weird prison environment. Everything's kind of hopeless. And I don't know, I think they get to kind of play around with some interesting ideas. We're not on a, you know, a spaceship on a mission again, we're literally in, like, the armpit of the galaxy. Nobody's coming here. Nobody cares about what happens here. [01:00:15] Speaker A: Probably the coolest part about alien three is the lore surrounding the planet, because the place that they're at used to be a Weyland Yutani prison. [01:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:25] Speaker A: That basically was shut down. And the prisoners that stayed behind are ones that are reformed and are basically now working. What's the remainder of the prison? [01:00:37] Speaker B: Yeah, they kind of took up. Took it upon themselves to, like, maintain control over this place. [01:00:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And then they have. There's a faction that's kind of like a born again christian kind of cult. [01:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Which is fascinating. And then there is just the one guy who is not an inmate, but is still pretty bold and pretty british. And it is. Yeah. Because, like, the. The lead kind of prisoners or, like, the leads on this planet that they're kind of introduced to Ripley. There's, like, there's Tywin Lannister's Charles dance, who I think is pretty damn good in this movie. [01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, kind of. Is he the, like, science direct? Like, is he the medic of the. I don't exactly know what his role is, but. [01:01:27] Speaker A: Doctor basic. [01:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah, he's the physician. Yeah. [01:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And then there is not the leader of the cult, but there's, like, one of the more prominent members being, like, the only. Not only the only black prisoner. [01:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:42] Speaker A: In our group, but also one of the only Americans. [01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:45] Speaker A: Because he doesn't have a british accent and he is considered. Believe he's a. I think he is a convicted rapist, or at least the way he sees. [01:01:53] Speaker B: Oh, is he? [01:01:53] Speaker A: He is. [01:01:54] Speaker B: I might have missed either a murderer or a rapist. Yeah. [01:01:57] Speaker A: It is, like, early on, he basically outright says to Ripley, like, this is why I'm here. [01:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:03] Speaker A: And then it's supposed to make you as an audience member go, oh, God, should we really trust him? And then literally, he is only doing, like, nice things. But what makes him very interested is while he's doing nice things for Ripley and while he is pre. Pretty decently, like, being the most stand up guy of most the prisoners, he doesn't brag about that. He constantly is basically, like, that doesn't atone for my sins. That's just. [01:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's. [01:02:29] Speaker A: I need to do that. [01:02:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm kind of the, you know, I deserve to be here. Like, I'm paying my dues. [01:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:36] Speaker B: And I will always be atoning for what I've done. [01:02:39] Speaker A: Again, he's perfect for a horror throwback, at least for this franchise, to have a character that is basically like, I'm. I'm willing to die if it means we get to get this thing. Like, his death, I think, is pretty damn fun in terms of just, like, being able just to be, like, corn, get cornered by the xenomorph just to trick it. [01:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:00] Speaker A: And just to be like, come on, you motherfucker, come at me. And then just, like, sacrifice yourself to get it. But I. Yeah, it is. It is a. It is a premise where it is, you know, you find out why everyone is bald, where it's like. It's like a big lice issue. [01:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:16] Speaker A: And so that's why everyone has, you know, everyone's bald. And then, Sir Ripley becomes bald. [01:03:22] Speaker B: Yeah. She shaves. [01:03:23] Speaker A: She shaves. Which is why, if you have rewatched Deadpool for Deadpool and Wolverine, that's why they say negasonic teenage warhead is Ripley from alien three. Yeah, because literally, this is only film where Ripley doesn't have full head of hair. Full head of hair. And, yeah, like, in, like, we've said, like, the first part, like, similar. Honestly, what's so funny about the first four films in this franchise is that all four of them spend an hour just building world. [01:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:54] Speaker A: Just building what the premise is in terms of just, like, this is where the new planet is. This is how Ripley is basically feeling like she's. She can't trust anybody, not because she's on a planet full of prisoners, but she's in, like, a Weyland Yutani prison and is aware that, like, there may be a facehugger on the planet now that she had brought with her on accident. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:17] Speaker A: And then the premise of, like, watching the facehugger work slowly on the dog as well as the dog xenomorph, then at that point, basically picking people off one by one. And, you know, it's just fascinating with this franchise that, like, I think one through resurrection, the big reveal to the whole. To the team or the cast in the. In the world, the big reveal of the xenomorph is at an hour in each one of. Because I think in the first film, the. The chest bursting scenes. About an hour. [01:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:49] Speaker A: And aliens, the big reveal of the nest is an hour in. [01:04:55] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. [01:04:56] Speaker A: And then in this one, the tie, Charles dance dying, as well as the prisoner, the warden dying from, like, the alien popping from the ceiling. [01:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:06] Speaker A: Eating him and pulling him in. That's all. An hour in. [01:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:09] Speaker A: And so, like, then in resurrection, like, similar. Like, that's when the shit starts to hit the fan. And resurrection is usually when that alien. The alien start to fuck around people. [01:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:19] Speaker A: But in alien three, like, when that happens, it's like, oh, shit. Yeah. Dog Xenomorph is actually being seen. That's a lot of blue screen on that dog xenomorph. That's fine. Oh, that's cool. They're just not going to hide the fact that, like, you know, the xenomorph's here, because at a certain point, when the xenomorph introduces itself to Ripley, it also introduces an idea that I don't like, which we'll get into later in terms of just, like, why it doesn't attack Ripley. Oh, yeah. But the fact is, when you see that xenomorph, the majority of the film at this point has been like, there's been no monster all these people have just died on accident. And so, like, after the dog xenomorphism, you think you're gonna have another 20 minutes maybe, of people being like, ripley, you're crazy. You killed Charles dance. But as soon as she pops up and the warden says, shut the fuck up, the warden dies playing as day by the alien. And so they all just believe her, right? And then the next hour and some change because I think this is just a little over 2 hours at least the theatrical cut is just them trying. [01:06:21] Speaker B: To figure out, like, how are we gonna kill this thing? [01:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Hilariously enough, it's Ripley with a much bigger team that she has in aliens at that point in the film. [01:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Just being like, this is how we're gonna pull it out. And what follows after that? Again, the film at this point is still okay. It's still going, it's still fine. The premise ends up being that there is a trying to. Again, I saw these recently. I mean, but the way to describe it is so all around the place, because one of the biggest issues with alien three is the longer the film goes, the more problems pop up. [01:06:59] Speaker B: More problems pop up, the less interesting it gets. Because, I mean, part of the problem is like, you're basically your second lead or what feels like is going to be your second lead. Charles dance dies halfway into the movie. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:13] Speaker B: And then you're left with Ripley and a bunch of people she doesn't know. And yes, there's Charles Dutton's character. And, you know, he's a. Seems like a decent person, but, like, he is not nearly as developed as Clemens. [01:07:27] Speaker A: They talk shop, basically in terms of, like, how do we do this and that? And like an hour in the next 30 minutes is them basically trying to bait the dog xenomorph into a tunnel system where they can basically lead it into. Basically just lead it into a room where it can't break out. [01:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:47] Speaker A: And spoiler alert, it doesn't work. But to get to that point, it is a lot of pov shots of the alien. It is. Which, hilariously enough, doesn't happen again until Covenant. [01:08:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:08:03] Speaker A: But it's the first time in the franchise where you actually see the aliens perspective. And again, it's a dog xenomorph. So it literally is just like dog height watching it just run around and run after bald dudes in a tunnel. There's also Peter Postowait, the late great who is. He's good in the movie as well, but again, he's not given a lot to do, smaller character, a lot of, again, a lot of talented actors in this movie, and unlike aliens, where even the smaller talented characters, I think, at least get a line or two of fun. An alien. Three. There's not a lot of fun that the characters are happy, and so it is just like, well, okay, I guess we're just gonna have to fight this, find this thing and get it. And at a certain point in the dog chasing down the tunnel scene, you get to a certain point where geography in your head, you just lose track of, like, how many tunnels there are. How do you get to that? And the fact that, like, losing track, you would think in your brain, oh, well, at least if it works. It doesn't matter if I lose track. As long as it works. It immediately goes to shit, and it doesn't work. And then it ends up going where they go. Okay, new plan. We're gonna lead it through another tunnel. [01:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:20] Speaker A: That leads right through a refinery. And then we're just gonna pour, like, molten hot metal and lava on top of it. Because the prison used to be a place where they would make parts, I believe, for Waylo Dutani ships or just, like, kind of, like, appliances and stuff for, like, vehicles and so toasters. And basically goes, we're gonna do a shorter version of what we just did it, right? And then they just do that. And in the process of all this going on, there's like, you know, there's one character that is like, you know, oh, Weylo Dutani said they'll be here in, like, 8 hours. All we have to do is just not do anything. Maybe the xenomorph will leave us alone. And then everyone else goes, okay, we won. This thing shouldn't fucking exist. And if it gets off this planet, wherever it goes, we're so fucked. And two, are you kidding me? Listen, this is the third time I've had to deal with Weyla Teutani when it comes to this alien. I guarantee you this is not gonna go well. [01:10:18] Speaker B: They are not here to help us. [01:10:19] Speaker A: So while all this is fucking happening already, with this enough stuff, you would think, like, oh, there's no way they would try to complicate this more, because it already is having difficulty trying to do the simplest thing of, like, leading a dog down a tunnel to kill it. [01:10:34] Speaker B: Taking forever just to do that. [01:10:36] Speaker A: Then the film pulls something out of its bag that I would argue is probably the second worst part about this movie, which is the reveal that the facehugger that they, you know, you see early in alien, three, they were basically, you know, there was. There were two facehuggers. [01:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:52] Speaker A: One of them got Ripley. So, even though we have seen these aliens pop out of chess pretty fast after they hit their hosts, Ripley has just been the lucky one. In fact, that is taking a really long time like this to come out. [01:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:11] Speaker A: And so, once she finds out that she has an alien inside her, she now has more, and she has more of an inclination to just go full hellfire. Brimstone. [01:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:22] Speaker A: Scorch Earth. Let's just destroy this thing. [01:11:25] Speaker B: To kill me, including me. [01:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah, because a big thing, too, is, like, some hilariously, like, aliens. There are two climaxes, per se. Neither one are that great. But, like, the first climax is, of course, getting the dog xenomorph to go down into the metal shoot. They shoot it with metal. And lo and behold, for some reason, the xenomorph is resistant to hot metal lava. [01:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah. It gets encased in metal and then just becomes a metal xenomorph. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Charles Dutton's death means nothing, which is a bummer. And then when that happens is when Ripley goes, okay, it's my turn. [01:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:59] Speaker A: And before all that happens, as she's thinking about how she's going to jump into this hot lava, in comes Lance Hedrickson, I believe, as the head of wetland Yutani. [01:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, like, he's not. He's not an Android. It is. It is implying, canonically, that the bishop androids are. Are modeled after the head of Huela Dutani. [01:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:22] Speaker A: And Weyla Dutani shows up and says, hey, don't worry, we will totally get rid of that alien in your chest and won't do anything for military purposes with it. [01:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:34] Speaker A: And then, of course, as soon as she threatens it enough, they just are like, no, no, we want it. [01:12:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:39] Speaker A: And so she jumps in to the lava, does her little Christ, and you would think again. Well, okay, I don't know. I'm a big fan of Ripley dying, like them. But you know what? At least there's some finality to the fact that she is getting to choose her own death, and now she'll be able to, you know, go off and, you know, maybe if she believes in heaven, she can see hicks, she can see newt. I don't know. They couldn't ruin the scene. Halfway down. Halfway down. And this is something I found out later and is no surprise. This was a studio note. They really wanted the alien to pop out of Ripley's chest. So halfway down to the lava bath. [01:13:26] Speaker B: She'S about mid air. [01:13:27] Speaker A: Mid air, the alien pops out of her chest. And here's the thing. The alien popping out of her chest at that point doesn't really matter because where is it going to go other than the hot water? But to make it even worse, as the thing is popping out of the chest, again, there is a being going through your rib cage, basically just destroying your ribs and fucking up everything in. [01:13:51] Speaker B: There, in your chest, your lungs, everything. [01:13:52] Speaker A: She still has the capacity to grab it with both hands like a. Just like a hot dog that's about to slip out of the packaging and hold on to it as a. No wonder Fincher didn't do movies for another three years, because, yeah, and again, this is. I would even argue that, like, this movie is still. Even with all of that, it is still solid enough. [01:14:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I still think it manages to be an okay movie, especially when it. [01:14:24] Speaker A: Comes to the fact that, like, even all that stupid shit I just said is arguably not even the dumbest shit in this franchise. No, it is. Again, there is a mood, there is still an aesthetic to this film, and there is a premise that is intriguing all the way up until the climaxes. And I would say that Sigourney Weaver is doing a pretty damn good job as someone who did not want to be the lead in a movie where she is the lead, a strong ensemble cast that is given very little to do in this. And arguably, you know, it is, it is, it is a take that is not the worst take. You can take the Alien series, which is basically, I mean, some franchises have done this already. We even talked about some of these franchises on the show, which is kind of almost going back to its roots in terms of being more, you know, slow burn horror based, you know, not about the spectacle as much as aliens Washington almost take it back to its roots or try to take it back. [01:15:27] Speaker B: To what the roots are. [01:15:28] Speaker A: It's not. Because again, it is not like the first alien. [01:15:31] Speaker B: No. But in terms of scale, it's kind of going back to that. [01:15:36] Speaker A: And at its core, alien three has its moments, but arguably is just, if you're a completionist, give it a watch. But if you're just like, I don't know, like, if you. If you're one of those people that, like, watched alien, loved it, watched aliens, also loved it, and was like, oh, alien three's got to be. And then someone said, listen, man, you don't have to watch alien three. And then you just never watched it. That's also fine. I mean, technically it's all still canon, but that's like, doesn't matter because, like, they're not. They're not doing right now in the universe. They're not doing anything in that timeframe. [01:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:17] Speaker A: So alien three comes out. It had a forced release in terms of, like, it had to be done by, I believe, the end of 91. So they can have it out by like, summer of 92. It comes out. There was a lot of talk about the production hell surrounding it, and a lot of people were not very happy. Even on a surface level. I don't think a lot of people were happy because it just wasn't aliens to. To a degree, sure. I think a lot of people were also kind of annoyed that it just was, like, not really scary. It's not really that scary of a horror film, even though it tries to go back to its roots. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah. It's more just depressing. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think other people just were mad because it's not that good. [01:16:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:16:56] Speaker A: It's mid. [01:16:58] Speaker B: It's fine. [01:17:00] Speaker A: And so at that point, the alien franchise is in the weirdest spot it's ever been and goes into another purgatory state and now has to figure out, well, our lead is dead. What do we go from here? And I will also say, just to clarify to everybody listening to this, we are touching almost like, just some of the highlights about the productions of each one of these. [01:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, there's endless stories. [01:17:27] Speaker A: You could fucking film novels about just one of these films. Productions. [01:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And there would be no way to unearth all of it in a single episode. [01:17:37] Speaker A: There's even a cut of alien three that's called the producers cut. And I think there's even assembly cut. An assembly cut? Yes. Where it's technically better, but it's also. [01:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah, the assembly cut is the one that I hear everybody be like, oh, this turns it into a five star movie. And I just don't believe them. But, you know, it has its fans. [01:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I don't think Fincher was involved in assembly. [01:17:58] Speaker B: No, he was not. [01:17:58] Speaker A: So, like, I. That's the thing that makes me go, eh. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:01] Speaker A: If he wasn't involved. I don't want to do that. Come on. I'm not going to say, release the Fincher cut of Alien three because that's what we got. [01:18:08] Speaker B: Fincher would be pissed. [01:18:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And also because, like, he was forced to basically make the version we got. [01:18:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:14] Speaker A: And so going from alien three to what we're going to finish our trilogy on there is. I don't think there's anything to really prepare any of you for what the last film in this trilogy is, because. [01:18:26] Speaker B: What is the premise? [01:18:28] Speaker A: The premise, because the thing about Alien as a franchise that is so fascinating is that even if you still consider it a horror franchise, despite the fact that aliens really isn't that horror based in, like, you know, the later films are more Sci-Fi than it is horror, which is fine. [01:18:45] Speaker B: It has more drama. The franchise, like, has the violence of horror, but that's about it. [01:18:50] Speaker A: It's surprising to think that as an overall franchise, there is genuinely, for nearly being 50 years, only one, in my opinion, schlocky. So bad. It's good entry. [01:19:02] Speaker B: Sure. [01:19:02] Speaker A: To the point where it's like, I cannot believe this is tied to anything else in this series. And that is alien Resurrection in 1997, a film that answers the question, well, how do you do an alien film without Ripley, if she's dead and goes, I don't know, clone her, and then you think that's gonna be another question? It goes, no, no, wait, hold on. Clone her. But she has alien xenomorph DNA, so she's got xenomorph blood. [01:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:31] Speaker A: And also, it's 200 years in the future, so it's like the biggest time jump the entire series has ever had. Also, Waylon Yutani doesn't exist anymore, also. And then, like, the film adds itself, it's like, as the audience's eyes are widening, being like, what the fuck is going on? It is just getting like, oh, yeah. Then there's, like, a ragtag group of mercenaries, and one of them is in a wheelchair, and Ron Perlman's there. Everything is green. [01:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:03] Speaker A: The thing about alien is even though Alien's poster is very green, the original alien is, I would say, probably no green. Yeah. It's very colorful in terms of just, like, it's muted, but it still has a lot of a pretty diverse color palette compared to aliens and alien three. [01:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:18] Speaker A: Where aliens, I think, is blue. [01:20:19] Speaker B: Aliens blue. [01:20:20] Speaker A: Very blue. Purple. Blue and purple. And then alien three is gray and sad and brown. [01:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:26] Speaker A: And then alien resurrection is posters green. Film is green. Everything they're sitting on is green. The basketball court is green. And when it's not green, space is kind of green. [01:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And when it's not green, it's like piss yellow. [01:20:39] Speaker A: Yes. It's my favorite combo, pea green and mountain dew green. And piss yellow is, like, the color palette of redem alien resurrection. But, yeah, alien resurrection supreme is just to be as fast as possible. And Andy can stop me at any point if I'm doing this wrong. 200 years in the future, I doubt. [01:20:59] Speaker B: I'll remember any 200 years in the. [01:21:01] Speaker A: Future, Ripley has been cloned by a company that basically bought out Weyland Yutani. And not only was she cloned, since she was cloned at a point where the alien was strong enough in her body that it was basically changing her DNA. It is not, of course, the Ripley we know. It is a Ripley that has been basically combined with the xenomorph enough that it has changed her personality. [01:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's, like, presumed that it was taken from her, like, at some point, like, during the events of Alien three or something, because it was like, after she had been, quote unquote impregnated. [01:21:41] Speaker A: Knowing that film, it's when she scratched herself on a. Or something like that, where it's like, just a little bit of blood is what leads to Xenomorph Clone Ripley. And also. Yeah, her personality is the. Just nothing like the other three films. [01:21:57] Speaker B: Right. [01:21:57] Speaker A: Because this film, if Aliens is Sigourney Weaver being like, okay, this is a good enough script. I'm back for this. Alien three is basically Sigourney Weaver being forced to be a lead when she didn't want to be alien resurrection. Is the studio going, here is a Ford focus full of. Actually, it's a Ford Taurus full of cash. We will give you more money if you will sign on and just do this movie. [01:22:21] Speaker B: And she goes, yeah, whatever, fine. [01:22:24] Speaker A: And she does it. And she hits a fucking basket shot. That is rad. And she did it in real time. And I love hearing them all talk about it. And she said it was one of the best moments of her life. [01:22:36] Speaker B: She scores a backwards half court shot. No, look. Half court shine. [01:22:40] Speaker A: And they literally thought they weren't able to use it because five. [01:22:44] Speaker B: Perlman lost his shit. [01:22:46] Speaker A: He goes, oh, fuck. [01:22:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:22:49] Speaker A: They cut it right before he turns where he has, like, that wojack face because he's like, I can't believe I just saw that. But, um, even though she is nothing like the other Ripley, once, you're just once, just to give you the. Once you're on board with resurrection in terms of being like, oh, it doesn't really matter what this is doing in terms of, like, lore canon or Ripley as a character. The Ripley, you know, at this point, is dead. Yeah, the Ripley. And also, it's 200 years in the future. So it does this thing where it's like, it doesn't even matter what happened in the last three films. [01:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Nothing is really connected at all. If anything, if we were purely operating on the cultural knowledge of what the alien is, like, what xenomorphs are who Ripley is. [01:23:35] Speaker A: Like, if it wasn't for the fact that, like, this is clearly alien, for this is clearly trying to just see if they can even milk more money out of this franchise in some way, shape, or form, you could technically call this in some way a reboot quote in its own right. Yeah, but it's not. It is just because it doesn't really. [01:23:54] Speaker B: Have those ambitions and also because of. [01:23:56] Speaker A: The sigourney of it all trying to really pull people back in where it's just like, oh, look, she's back. [01:24:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:03] Speaker A: And also, when known a writer's here. [01:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:05] Speaker A: As an Android. Yeah, there it is. [01:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:09] Speaker A: Like, there's a one point she gets. It's funny, too, because the way. [01:24:13] Speaker B: I guess that's. That's the movie's twist, isn't it? [01:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Because when on a writer gets, like. [01:24:17] Speaker B: The only reveal of the thing about. [01:24:19] Speaker A: Winona Ryder's character is that she hates Ripley from the get go for no reason. [01:24:24] Speaker B: Yes. [01:24:25] Speaker A: It is pretty clear that the reason why she hates Ripley is probably the Android in her can identify the fact that she is not fully human. She is probably. She is an alien as well. She's a hybrid, and she is, I believe, also a part of a resistance group, or at least is very. [01:24:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:43] Speaker A: You know, likes of the resistance group enough that she's willing to nearly kill all of, like, get all of her friends killed to try and stop Ripley. [01:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:53] Speaker A: But, yeah, halfway through the film, or, like, a little bit after the halfway, Winona Ryder gets shot, I believe she falls into a pit of water, and then she ends up higher up than the rest of the crew, even though you didn't see her climb up there. And when that happens, you go, this is alien resurrection, baby. [01:25:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:16] Speaker A: Written by Joss Whedon. [01:25:17] Speaker B: Jossen. [01:25:18] Speaker A: We might sound like that sounds like it's false, but it's true, considering how many producers. [01:25:24] Speaker B: That might sound like a believable but made up fun fact, but in fact, it's just a real fun fact, and. [01:25:29] Speaker A: It'S not really that fun. It is just a truth that, like, of all three of these sequels, alien resurrection, I think, has the only one that has one writer. Yeah, and it's fucking Jocelyn. [01:25:43] Speaker B: One writer, but apparently, like, five different versions of the story. Oh, I believe none of which are the final version you see in the movie. Again, with Alien, I think he wrote, like, five or six different finales, like, final act climaxes, and none of them are in the movie. [01:26:00] Speaker A: Alien Andy, if that's not an alien sequel production. I don't know what is. [01:26:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:04] Speaker A: Because Alien three basically started shooting without a finished script, which is why the ending's the way it is. [01:26:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:09] Speaker A: And with resurrection, everything about it feels unfinished. But it's so. But it's fun. Like, it's fun. It's still. It's still boring. Like, it's. It's the worst of the alien films. It is the worst. But I would. [01:26:22] Speaker B: It does clip by. [01:26:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:25] Speaker B: Like, it clips by at a decent pace. [01:26:27] Speaker A: I think it's like an hour 45. [01:26:29] Speaker B: Yeah, but it moves quickly. It knows, you know, to move from one set piece to the next. It's not really bringing any interesting ideas to the lore of it, but it's like, hey, we're just using the alien universe as, like, a playground. [01:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:48] Speaker B: And in that. On that level, it is, you know, there's some fun to be had. I don't think this is a horrendous movie by any stretch. [01:26:55] Speaker A: No, but, yeah, but at this point in Alien fandom, if you can call it that, in terms of just like, you know, with video games at the time or just, you know, multimedia properties outside of it where it's like, there's probably. There's got to be not an EU's worth of alien novels that were happening around the time, but at least a couple stories. Sure. [01:27:14] Speaker B: I mean, this was, you know, this was pre Star wars prequels. I mean, Star wars was huge already, of course, but like. And it had its own, you know, set of crop, like, multimedia lore. But like, you know, this was. This was a franchise that a lot of people attached themselves to, like, oh, yeah. In a way that we would now liken to. To like Marvel or Star wars. [01:27:37] Speaker A: It was literally an eight. It's nearly hitting its 20th anniversary, and this is what fans get. Yeah, yeah, that's what I get. [01:27:45] Speaker B: And what probably similar to people walking into the opening screenings of phantom menace felt. [01:27:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:27:52] Speaker B: Or walking out, rather. [01:27:53] Speaker A: But yeah, it's one of those things where, like, the alien franchise in general is like, you know, hindsight is 2020. Like, this film understandably gets lambasted when it fucking comes out. It is like people are shitting on it and has every right to, because again, if you were hoping that this is going to bring back any love for alien, I have news for you. This movie is going to make you somewhat embarrassed to be an alien fan. Unless you just like schlock. If you like schlock, you couldn't give half a fuck. You're just gonna be like, I mean, now it's. It's. It's so much more of a fun film now just because, you know, at least we all know that, like, the. [01:28:27] Speaker B: Cultural stakes are lower. [01:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, this is the most forgettable film in the franchise. And because of that, it almost has an endearing schlockiness fun to it because, I mean, this is the only one where, like, sigourney Weaver is, like, charismatic. Only because she's Sigourney Weaver, not because she's Alan Ripley. [01:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:48] Speaker A: Where it's like, literally she's just here. [01:28:50] Speaker B: To be Sigourney Weaver. [01:28:51] Speaker A: She literally. One of her lines. It's one of the funniest fucking lines in the whole film, as she is barely with Ron Perlman and Winona Ryers crew for the majority of the first part of the film. But when she finally shows up in the team, she is not saying, hey, let me join. She goes, who do I have to fuck to get off this planet? Or like, something like that. Which guy do I have to fuck to get off this? [01:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:29:13] Speaker A: And it's like she says it with a shitty grin. And everyone has this look of her being like, who the. What the? And it just. It is. It is a funny. It's a funny movie. It's just very silly to watch. And it's funny to also think that, again, in a series that is filled with auteurs in their very first. Whether it's their actual very first film or just their early films, this is another case of that because this film is direct. It's the american debut of Jean Pierre Junot, who at the time had done delicatessen is a. I mean, he's a. He was getting it up. He's an up and coming french director at that time who did delicatessen as well as the island of City of lost. City of lost children, which. Everything I've seen of that film looks awesome. [01:30:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I've never seen it before. [01:30:04] Speaker A: And Ron Perlman's in it, so clearly that's where the relationship with Jean Pierce starts. Yeah, but most people would know Jean Pierce, you know, because after alien resurrection in the early two thousands, she makes every. He makes basically every keynote, circle jerks favorite film in existence, which is a good film. I mean, Amelie. [01:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:23] Speaker A: Which is, like an iconic artist, like an artist film and is, like, very much considered to be one of the best films in the early two thousands. [01:30:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:31] Speaker A: And so again, to have another auteur, part of this fucking franchise, to have his first american debut film, and I think probably is the only one to be, this is a forkl. It's on brand. It really is on brand in a way that it's just like a fun. And it is, again, it's also like, this is a film that has Brad Dourif mimicking a xenomorph as if it wants to become. He wants to become a xenomorph. [01:30:58] Speaker B: God. I. Yeah, yeah. [01:30:59] Speaker A: You have forgotten. You have known freak Brad Dourif or known to play freaks Brad Dourif at the time, who is the voice of Chucky, in case you don't know. Being in this film, just being an absolute menace, being the creepiest scientist ever put to screen at that point. [01:31:15] Speaker B: And then also, Brad Dwarf, also previously covered on this podcast for exorcist three. [01:31:21] Speaker A: Yes, he was a phenomenal in exorcist three, but Brad Dourif is at a certain point when nearly everyone on the base dies except for our main crew. Brad Dwarf is the only one of the scientists who is left alive because he's enough of a freak to give the introduction to our evolved version of our alien. In this version, which I will give resurrection credit, I guess. I guess that means I'm giving Joss Whedon credit, but at least I will give it credit. It swings hard in terms of, like, how do we evolve the xenomorph? [01:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [01:31:58] Speaker A: In a way that is like, it is funny to think that a good chunk of resurrection is literally a company almost trying to figure out, in a way, in an. In a. In a meta way, how to bring the Xeno back Xenomorph back into relevance. [01:32:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:12] Speaker A: Where it's like, oh, now we figured out how we can clone them. How do we. What do we do? It's just like, it's funny to think that it's a film that's trying to figure out how do we even do alien in the nineties now after alien three? And then, like, the way they find it is to make, oh, the most dated alien film in the entire franchise. Because this film feels very much like, oh, this is gonna be really cool when it releases in 1997 because there's, like, there's some shots in here that are clearly here because it's like that. It's kind of cool. [01:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:45] Speaker A: Like the shot where they're going up the ladder and the. The guy, the disabled guy. It's like, holding on and it's. [01:32:53] Speaker B: Does the back. Like Ron Perlman. [01:32:55] Speaker A: Ron Perlman does the back. [01:32:56] Speaker B: He's holding on the legs, down by his ankles. [01:32:59] Speaker A: This is fucking rad. Again, not only two years from Phantom Menace, two years from the Matrix. [01:33:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:33:04] Speaker A: It's like this time in the nineties where you're like, well, I don't know how the nineties are really gonna cap off films at this point, other than films like this. [01:33:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So some honestly pretty impressive effects work on the aliens. Absolutely. And not. I don't necessarily mean, like, the digital effects, like, all the swimming and stuff, which, you know, those are kind of what I see a lot from weakest. Yeah, probably the weakest. But, like, the practical effects on the aliens, especially early on in the film, are really cool, like, when they're experimenting on them and stuff. This might be. [01:33:38] Speaker A: I think it's the biggest budget. [01:33:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I think it's the biggest budget, but it's also. Might be the best xenomorphs look like. Just as a believable practical effect. [01:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:33:51] Speaker B: Not necessarily in terms of how they're used or anything like that, but just as a purely a pure special effect, they look great. [01:33:58] Speaker A: I would say it's hilariously the only one of the sequels that is not afraid that they're gonna look goofy. [01:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:05] Speaker A: Because we get a lot of body shots. We get a lot of headshots of these aliens. We get more than just one or two. Like, we get. At least. There's at least four. And then it grows from there. Yeah, like, it just, like, it kind of like. Because they start. Because the. The new company that bought out Weyland Yutani that does this is, like, basically is now doing the thing that Weyland Yutani wanted, weaponizing the xenomorphs by basically bringing more people to get into facehugger position and just yada, yada. It is. I mean, again, it. It is something where it's like, resurrection is nothing. It's not really that much of a boring film idea wise. It is swinging for the fences really hard all the way until the fucking end, which is, like, the weirdest thing. [01:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:51] Speaker A: The fact that resurrection is technically the only one of the alien films, at least in the early years, that we actually see Earth more so than just, like, Ripley's apartment, is wild. To think that, like, that's the first one where you actually see Earth in space, and it's like, oh, what a shithole. And that's all we really get, lore wise, of Earth now. And, I mean, the big thing about resurrection that I think is the most notorious aspect other than the clone, Ripley is the big, bad xenomorph that is the creation of this movie, which is. Yeah, hol, I don't know what its actual term. There's got to be a fucking fan term, but it basically is like a hollow skull xenomorph. It is basically like a xenomorph that is mainly half human, half alien. It's like a demi morph. [01:35:53] Speaker B: It's, I guess just the. It's just called the alien human hybrid. [01:35:58] Speaker A: That's so boring. [01:36:00] Speaker B: The hybrid xenomorph. [01:36:01] Speaker A: But I mean, it's. Yeah, so, yeah, I guess we'll just call it the hybrid, but, like. Yeah, the hybrid is, honest to God, even though he has a snout and these, like, very sunken eye holes. Yeah, he's really. He looks good. Like. Yeah, the practical effect of it is, like, really nice. [01:36:21] Speaker B: He looks good. He looks kind of. Or is it. Is it he or she? I don't know. Looks kind of out of place. [01:36:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:36:30] Speaker B: In the aesthetic of alien. Oh, absolutely. Of the previous aliens and stuff. [01:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I do think that the worst part of his of their design is the fact that they look like they're melted cookie dough skin. Yeah, they have, like, melted cookie dough kind of skin viscosity to it that is like. I know what you're trying to do. I don't think it works well. [01:36:51] Speaker B: And the, like, the kind of, like, grinning, toothy human skull look just looks very, like eighties horror comedy. He's got, like, ghostbusters, frighteners, poltergeist. I don't know. It just doesn't look very, like Sci-Fi. [01:37:08] Speaker A: Alien got, like, a cartoon fox snout, and I. It's a very interesting choice in there. And you would think that's the most interesting part about the hybrid. But honestly, the most interesting part about the hybrid is how he dies. How it dies. [01:37:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Because again, it's the final destination. Swimming pool treatment. [01:37:27] Speaker A: Yeah, but I was even worse, at least looks even worse. But, yeah, basically, in the human hybrid, the hybrid fight with Winona Ryder and Ripley, which at this point, it's the fourth film, it's the second film to have a sto. It's the third film to have a stowaway xenomorph. At this point, it doesn't even matter that no one paid attention enough that human, the hybrid, got onto the fucking ship. Yeah, but they fight on the cargo ship that they get to get out of the space station the film takes place in. They fight the hybrid. The hybrid sees Sigourney weaver, and Sigourney Weaver sees the hybrid as basically mother daughter son, mother child relationship. [01:38:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:12] Speaker A: Yet Ripley cares now about humanity clone Ripley cares. So she shoots a bullet hole through a piece of glass, and instead of the glass breaking entirely, it keeps that hole. It sucks the hybrid into the hole. And then the very tiny hole just sucks the hybrid. It just sucks the hybrid, sucks it. [01:38:36] Speaker B: Out bit by bit, bit by bit. [01:38:39] Speaker A: In beautiful, goopy fashion. [01:38:41] Speaker B: Like, clearly screams of viscera that he just. [01:38:46] Speaker A: It is yelling. [01:38:47] Speaker B: It is shaking, screaming. [01:38:49] Speaker A: It's doing like, that 90. It had. It's. This movie is so fucking nineties. [01:38:54] Speaker B: It's very much of a tara, I swear. [01:38:57] Speaker A: There's just a close up shot of the hybrid movement of ten. Like, so funny. Just like, oh, my God, this is what it's at now. [01:39:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:06] Speaker A: And I know, no surprise that people that saw this film in theaters at that time probably went, well, I guess that's the end of the alien franchise. [01:39:14] Speaker B: And it was for a long time. [01:39:16] Speaker A: It was for seven years, and then it was a crossover, and I was like, well, I guess it's back. [01:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah, kind of. [01:39:22] Speaker A: And then it wasn't. Yeah. [01:39:23] Speaker B: Like kind of a Jason versus. Or Freddy versus Jason style. [01:39:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:29] Speaker B: Event. [01:39:31] Speaker A: But with resurrection, it is. Again, while it is the worst alien. [01:39:36] Speaker B: Film, it is not kind of fun. [01:39:38] Speaker A: It's. I definitely enjoy it more than you do, and that's fair. [01:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:42] Speaker A: But I think it's also the fact that it's like, I don't know, after something like alien three or less. You would also prefer to call it alien cubed. [01:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:50] Speaker A: Because the way that they. [01:39:52] Speaker B: Every super script, the three. [01:39:53] Speaker A: Yeah, the superscript, the three. Even letterbox does that, which I think is funny as shit. But the fact that it's just like, after Alien three, where that film is drab. [01:40:02] Speaker B: It's bleak, bleak, pressing. [01:40:04] Speaker A: Just a lot of stone everywhere. It's very rough and rocky in terms of the look and the feel of it. To go to resurrection, which is just all green, all piss yellow, weird, goofy. [01:40:19] Speaker B: Just creepy characters are silly action goofy character models. [01:40:24] Speaker A: I mean, there's just, like. [01:40:25] Speaker B: There's. [01:40:25] Speaker A: There's french actors that are here because, of course, they probably have worked with. I mean, the. The hand, the wheelchair guy, he. Yeah, he was in all of his previous films time. This also wild because I think Alien Resurrection is the first solo directed film from John Pierce Chanel, because I believe he co directed. [01:40:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:46] Speaker A: So it's not only his american debut, it solo, which is, again, just fascinating to think about, but it is. It is. I think this would be the type of schlock we're like if this had, like, a midnight viewing screening, even though I don't really need to ever see this movie again. But, like, if it's like, oh, you know, our local theater is doing, like, a 12:00 a.m. show. It's on a midnight showing of it. It's nearly sold out. That's, like, the perfect crowd to watch with people who are all like, we know what we're getting into, too. [01:41:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:41:17] Speaker A: Like, the worst. The worst way to watch this film is what's gonna happen, regardless is not knowing anything. Like, if you're just, like, an alien fan and you're new and you're like, I want to know what this is before I go see Romulus and you watch resurrection and realize it's gonna waste your time in terms of actual content. [01:41:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:41:35] Speaker A: Once you get around that and you're just like, oh, let's just take the entertainment aspect of it. Good time. It's a good time. It's a schlocky time. It's not a good movie, but movie the. [01:41:47] Speaker B: Well, I guess we didn't. We didn't talk about it, but the. There's a scene where Clone Ripley goes and finds a room full of failed Clone Ripley's, and even there's one that's still alive, and it's sigourney Weaver in, like, prosthetic makeup, flailing on a medical table, and she begs Ripley eight to kill her. Is this the origin of that, like, meme of the, like, disfigured, malformed creation saying, kill me? [01:42:17] Speaker A: Probably. I mean, you know, because you see. [01:42:19] Speaker B: That in, like, so many things, I. [01:42:21] Speaker A: Would probably argue that that scene is the only scene in this movie that has some weight to it in a good way. Sure. And honestly has the best scene for Sigourney Weaver. It's also, I believe, if I'm correct, the only scene at that point in alien franchise that had nudity. [01:42:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:42:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:42:39] Speaker B: Tits out. [01:42:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Clone. Fucked up Clone Ripley is naked on the slab because she's basically a puddle of goop. [01:42:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:42:47] Speaker A: From the chest down. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's I. Yeah. [01:42:50] Speaker B: She begs the Ripley eight to. She says, kill me. [01:42:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:42:55] Speaker B: And I just, like, when I heard that, I was like, I've heard that so many times and other things, probably. [01:43:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:43:01] Speaker B: And it's always some, you know, mouth. It's like the terrible abominations. I can kill me. [01:43:05] Speaker A: It's the only genuine thing out of this movie where it's like, that's pretty good. [01:43:09] Speaker B: So, of course, it got memed. [01:43:10] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. Because it's like, well, I don't need anyone else either. You want to trick people into being like, oh, maybe there's more scenes like that and there's nothing like that. But, yeah. For the original Alien sequels, it is a fascinating trip that I think, you know, I think it's better on multiple rewatches. But it's also like, you don't have to do that. Like, it's. I have. I have done that because I am who I am and I just, like, anytime, like one Prometheus was announced, I was like, I just kind of want to finally watch all of them. I think that's when I finally watched all of them in full was like when Prometheus was coming out. And then maybe for Covenant, you know, I maybe rewatched to one or two or just watched Prometheus again because I couldn't remember what the fuck happens in that movie. But, like, yeah, it is, it is a franchise that, like, in most franchises that have been around for quite a while, it is peaks and valleys, to say the least. And it is, again, that I think if you go in with the expectations, knowing that if you like alien or aliens for these specific things, don't expect the next film to have those exact things. Because if anything you can give credit to the alien franchise is that every one of the sequels is very unique in their own way. They stand out in their own way sometimes like a sore thumb. [01:44:39] Speaker B: They have their own very special and unique answer to what do we do now? [01:44:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun when we talk about the modern equivalent of that. [01:44:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Because there's a little more coherence to it, but no less, no less, no shortage of surprise as to where things go from here for the franchise. [01:45:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And so that's the original alien sequels. We both recommend aliens. Yep, that's it. I mean, unless you're morbidly curious. [01:45:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:13] Speaker A: All these, all these films, hilariously enough, are on Disney Hulu. So, like, I rewatched all, even though I own, I think, most of these films, I rewatched all of them on Disney because I thought it was very funny watching Alien resurrection on Disney plus. But if you're morbidly curious, all those films are on Disney and on streaming and rentable. But we would only recommend as an actual great film, aliens. [01:45:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:39] Speaker A: And of course the original alien, but that was pretty much kind of in, you know, kind of, you know, implied. [01:45:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:45] Speaker A: But, yeah. Now that we have talked about the original alien sequels, we're going into September. We are not done yet. [01:45:52] Speaker B: We're not done. [01:45:53] Speaker A: We are going to be talking about the modern day equivalent in terms of the question, how do you do alien? But instead of it being how do you do alien, you know, how do you build upon classic? [01:46:08] Speaker B: How do you continue the story? [01:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah. How do you build upon a classic in real time, one going from, like, you know, in the eighties, and then how do you keep this going even as it goes into the nineties? Now there is a genuinely decent gap between resurrection and our first film in the next trilogy. So now the question is, how do you reignite the flame that is the alien franchise. [01:46:31] Speaker B: Yeah. In the 2010s, how do you reignite interest? How do you bring it back into the fold? [01:46:37] Speaker A: And because of that, in case you don't know, our next trilogy, the Alien reboot quilts, as we call them, because we are going to be talking about Ridley Scott's prequel films, which are 20 twelve's prometheus and 20 seventeen's alien Covenant. And then we will also be talking about, which I believe is a real word, Fayde Alvarez's interquel. [01:47:00] Speaker B: Interquel, yes. [01:47:01] Speaker A: Which is basically his film, which comes out as of this recording, will already be out in theaters. Alien Romulus, which takes place between alien and aliens and discussing how those three films, in their own way, try to basically take the alien formula and try their best to push the original sequels under the rug and try to reinvigorate the franchise. That interest. [01:47:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:47:31] Speaker A: And that'll be September 7 7th. So tune in on September 7 when we talk about the alien reboot Quills. But until then, I'm Logan Soosh. [01:47:42] Speaker B: And I'm Andy Carr. [01:47:43] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening. Bye.