Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Alien (1979)
What makes a horror film truly terrifying? In our deep dive into Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece Alien, we discover it's what you don't see that haunts you most.
The slow-burning tension of the Nostromo's corridors, the cosmic horror of that derelict alien spacecraft, the shadow-cloaked xenomorph – Scott crafts an atmosphere of dread that feels as fresh today as it did over forty years ago. We explore how this film brilliantly balances restraint with shock, particularly in the infamous chestburster scene. Did you know the cast's horrified reactions were genuine? They had no idea what was about to erupt from John Hurt's chest, creating one of cinema's most authentically terrifying moments.
Beyond its surface scares, Alien harbors deeper themes about corporate exploitation. The ship's very name, Nostromo, references Joseph Conrad's novel about labor exploitation – a subtle nod to how these working-class crew members are mere pawns in a corporate game. Ian Holm's android Ash embodies this corporate callousness, placing "company orders" above human lives. We dissect his brilliant performance and the shocking milk-white reveal of his true nature.
For Rich, experiencing Alien for the first time led to fascinating discussions about expectations versus reality. While some of us grew up with action figures from the more combat-oriented sequels, the original's horror roots came as a welcome surprise. Dakota and Anthony share their childhood memories of encountering the franchise, from Mad Magazine parodies to that unforgettable "mouth within a mouth" design that continues to disturb.
Whether you're revisiting this classic or hearing about it for the first time, join us as we celebrate the film that birthed a franchise and forever changed science fiction horror. And stay tuned – next week we're continuing our Alien journey with James Cameron's action-packed sequel, Aliens!
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Welcome back to Project Geekology, the show where we can't hear if you scream. Basically, if you're screaming on the other side of this, I genuinely, literally cannot hear you, similar to how the poster for this movie that we're going to be covering today is in space. Nobody can hear you scream. I was actually listening to the audiobook like novelization of Alien 1979 at work this week and I kept thinking at work, no one can hear if I scream. But that's not actually true. There are other people there and if I did scream while I was listening to that audio book, it would have been a bad time. It would have been very confusing for others. But anyway, all that preamble out of the way. My name is Dakota. I am joined as always with and joining us, as always is rich was it?
Speaker 2:well, welcome back. You know, we uh, last week it was just rich and I, we, we covered the last of us, season one and the first video game. We kind of did a little bit of a you know, comparison and a contrast. So you know, now we're, now we got you back here to talk about the tall blue people the tall blue people, or am I talking about the? Wrong.
Speaker 2:Sigourney weaver movie I mean, there are aliens in that one and sigourney weaver is in it, so so technically I am right, it is alien but and j and James Cameron has touched this franchise.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we're talking Avatar people, Not Alien. We've switched it up on Rich.
Speaker 3:He hasn't seen Avatar either.
Speaker 1:No, we're talking Alien. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about Alien because this is a movie series that was I don't know if it was big in my household growing up, but it was one of those series. That's revered series, the original quadrilogy, but really the first two are the ones that were at least regularly spoken about or we used lines from the movies in our dialogue. Like I can remember, it's game over man, which is from the second movie. Rich has no idea what I'm talking about, but we will get there because, friends, we have a very special plan for the next couple weeks. Actually, it's a little more than a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:We're going to be covering each of the Alien movies and the TV series that's currently airing, in the order that they came out. So Alien, aliens, alien 3, and so on Resurrection, prometheus, covenant, romulus, and then Alien Earth. So we're not doing the AVP movies as they are not canon. Only really the first one is any good, I think. But anyway, before we jump into our discussion of Alien, I want to hear a little bit about how it went for you guys. Last week you said that you had that mini, or not a mini, so you had a full podcast to compare and contrast of the last of us, the first season, versus the first game. How did that go without me? I haven't listened to the episode yet.
Speaker 2:I think we're pretty good. I mean, you know, I've I've had a, I've had a couple episodes that were full episodes that I did without you with some other friends. So you know that that's. It's been a while now. Like you know, we've been back at it regularly. How did it feel, rich, without Dakota there? I mean, you know, you kind of came into the fold via Dakota and then you your first, you know, duo episode was with me and not Dakota.
Speaker 3:I had a great time. I mean, you know, obviously, dac, we missed you, uh, but I, you know, I I had been doing I think I mentioned earlier but I used to do, uh a podcast with a buddy of mine about wrestling. So I'm just I've kind of I think actually with you guys was one of the first times or that I consistently did a three-person podcast. I found, you know, I kind of fell back into the old habits of the two-on-two and I will say I proudly think that I managed to not really mention the second game or season which is, as listeners know, here I do have to share. I have been.
Speaker 3:There are sanctions placed upon me by my podcast brethren. Here, where I normally will, they'll say, hey, watch this, and then I watch all of it. But I've been told for the next couple of weeks I have to control myself and only watch one thing at a time. So it should be. I think that it'll be nice for the next couple weeks that nobody will be like, hey, why is this guy talking about the next one again? Uh, because I'll actually be focused on what we watch.
Speaker 2:I'll just watch them like five times yeah, yeah, no, no, like when we talked about the last of us. You know, we just said that. You know that there's stuff that was set up for like the next, the next game, or like the next, uh, the, the next season, or two, but yeah, no, we, um, we, we, we pretty much kept it straight in the, the first game in the first season. So, yeah, man, not not bad, but yes, we have put sanctions and embargoes on rich, you know we're just paying tariffs on it for for every, for every mistake.
Speaker 1:Uh, so, guys, uh, what have you been up to this this past week, anthony?
Speaker 2:we'll start with you well, yeah, man, while, while you're gone, we, you know, just like we spoke, we, we made the episode. You know, if you guys are fans of the the last of us, go and give that a listen. Yeah, man, like I've been, I've been playing overwatch again. I got the the new season just dropped. You know, so, so happy we got the beautiful you just dropped. You know, so, so happy we got the beautiful. You know, persona 5 collaboration that's coming out. You know, I had to let Dakota know that. You know, we, actually, I actually mentioned that in the last podcast. I was like, you know, I had to mess with Dakota on that, but yeah, I said, and then we also said that one of these days we're going to bring you into the fold, even though I don't know, has rich played? Have you played any of the games?
Speaker 3:I've only. I only know about it because like I searched up the image, like I wrote the thing after there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have no idea one of these days one of these days y'all are going to join the fold, but yes, but yeah, I know that. And then just hopping kind of into world of warcraft, I want to. I'm trying to get myself one of those uh, in-game houses that you can get in retail. Now I'm trying to. I've been saving my money, so oh yeah, what is up with that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's like in-game housing you can get like. So there's like public, like neighborhoods where it's like a solo, like you get your house, and then there's like you know just kind of randoms. And then you could do private neighborhoods where it's like guilds or like friends can get them together and like have like houses like kind of next to each other. It's pretty cool. I want to like play with some friends so that we can do like a private neighborhood. That'd be awesome.
Speaker 1:How's the school zones in your neighborhood?
Speaker 2:Non-existent.
Speaker 1:Perfect.
Speaker 2:Just how I like them.
Speaker 1:Let's throw it over to you. What have you been up to this past week?
Speaker 3:Well, let's see, the school is in almost full swing, so we had to start go back.
Speaker 1:You're starting up, yeah.
Speaker 3:So we started Monday. We're recording on thursday. So I I'm the head coach of the cross-country uh track team, which is um absurd, because I don't like to run for distance. I don't really run, unless I'm running to the mets game because I'm running late. So, uh, this is new for me, uh, but I'm having a really good time, other than getting up at eight in the morning and doing that.
Speaker 1:And, hypothetically, if you were in the Nostromo, would you be running from the alien?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, no, no, I mean, that's different, like I'll. I mean, I'm actually going to get knee surgery in the next couple of months and my my doctor essentially said to me hey, well, I got to get both. I got to get both my acls reconstructed. Oh, man that stinks, so you know that stinks, but my mom just had knee surgery like two days ago.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it's I mean it's crazy because they did say it's an outpatient procedure, so I'll be like going in and coming home that day, uh, and then I'll just have a couple weeks off. Would not great for a track coach to uh be hobbled. But this is really what made me get the surgery, guys, and we'll move on from negative things. I said to myself if a zombie apocalypse happens right now, is your acl strong enough to not buckle when you need to get away from some of those fast fast walkers? And I realized my knee is in no shape to protect my family if there is a zombie apocalypse. So I need to get these. Uh, I need to get fixed up like six million dollar man, and then I will be. I don't know if that reference is too old for everybody, but I'll be good we got it we got it, we're not.
Speaker 1:We're not mental invalids um and how did uh?
Speaker 3:but I think you had a I mean my debbie downer week. I don't think I can compare to your week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, we like we essentially did nothing compared to you. Yeah, we're bearing the lead.
Speaker 1:You're the lead here I, I, uh, I went abroad. I was in iceland, the land of fire and ice. Maybe you've heard of it. Uh, they've filmed some stuff there, um, batman Begins, game of Thrones, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the list goes on. Sorry, I was just trying to figure out a couple of things that were just like were actually filmed in Iceland, but completely separate. Yeah, it's a beautiful country. It's a place I've been before I went in 2019. So this was me going back.
Speaker 2:Dude, you've gone so, so many times, I feel like I feel like you've gone at least like five times in your life to iceland.
Speaker 1:No, this is I remember you went when you were younger.
Speaker 2:I feel like you went like maybe set like several years later and then maybe like 2019 and I I feel like you've gone I've gone to europe a couple times. I remember you going to iceland like a few times. I do remember 2019. You've got. I mean, how many times would you say like it's been at least?
Speaker 1:it's definitely been at least three times I promise you, I've only been to iceland twice like I. That's a.
Speaker 2:It's a trip that I would not forget I feel like you went when, when you were younger. You know what happens.
Speaker 3:Do you remember? You don't remember this era of his life, Anthony. This is when he was given the red kryptonite. Oh, okay, so he can't remember, so he can't remember, yeah.
Speaker 1:You guys are gaslighting me into, like vacations I never took, and now I'm depressed because I don't got those memories. Did you hook? And now I'm depressed because I don't got those memories. Did you go to the lava? You just forgot them.
Speaker 1:I did not do the lava show. I thought about it and I I kind of wanted to. It did look kind of cool. I knew it wasn't like real lava, like they. It wasn't like lava like from the volcano, it's like just heated rock. So I was just like I will skip it for now, but I did do the Blue Lagoon. I did. We saw a lot of waterfalls. We did like a like an iceberg boat tour where, like we, we saw like the big glacier and it like as it slowly melts, basically it breaks up into huge icebergs that eventually like melt down into pocket-sized little handheld ice cubes, uh, or not. Well, they can be handheld, yeah, but like some of them are, um, you know, like man-sized, some of them are like just torso size. We, uh, we ended up grabbing, like me and my family, we found a really perfect piece of ice that had a little like crevice in the center. So we took like icelandic vodka and we were taking shots off of it.
Speaker 1:We were like holding the ice up so like ancient ancient ice, potentially thousands of years old, uh distilling our um you uh yeah, that was cool, you were chasing your alcohol with ancient water.
Speaker 3:I drove onto the glacier and we got a bottle of water when I was there, but you just trumped me there. You're like, I'm using it to cool the vodka. I'm like, man, that's a better trip than mine.
Speaker 1:To be fair, we weren't using it to cool the vodka. It was like a perfect little channel. So we were pouring shots onto the ice and just bringing yeah, it was an ice luge. Yeah, and it was. It was, uh, it was for the. Everyone had a good time, except for me, with that, um, because I I ended up getting a lot of like sand in my mouth, because this is it. These are ice, like ice chunks that wash up on the beach.
Speaker 1:So oh my gosh, that sounds terrible yeah, so I was, I was gagging, I was like why?
Speaker 2:why do I feel like it's it only happens to you? Like everybody else just gets it clear, like clear and free, but you're like the one that gets the mouthful of, I feel, like stuff like it happens to me a lot too, like whenever, like whenever I was with you and your family doing anything like everybody's always having a good time having something and I'm like the one that's just getting just the ridiculous things happening to me. Um but, yeah that, that uh did everybody go.
Speaker 1:Uh, it was, it was just me, me, jen, uh uh, and my parents and my aunt and her husband okay, that's cool, that's cool man so we're seeing fernando over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a good time. Uh, we spent a lot of time in reykjavik such a beautiful city, awesome people like. It's just so fun staying out late in in a city like that because it literally doesn't sleep. It's the weirdest thing. Like um, you see, you're like walking the streets during the day and it's really cool. Lots of, lots of cool shops. Obviously it's it's touristy, but it's touristy with like a really cool vibe, because you don't get touristy like that anywhere else in the world. But as soon as it's like after like 11 pm, um, the streets are somehow even more busy, but they're not tourists anymore. It's just like the actual iceland people and they're the nicest people to to hang out with. It's. It's a really, really fun place that's cool.
Speaker 1:That's cool man I have yet to go recommend it I have yet to go.
Speaker 2:It is on my list, along with new zealand uh, it's expensive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. That's the one thing that I want to. Uh, caution people listening. It is such an awesome trip. I cannot wait to go back. Um, I do think it's like one of the coolest places I've ever been. Uh, just because of the extremes, like the extreme jagged rocks, the, the low valleys, the black sand on the beach, the fact that there's glaciers, icebergs, volcanoes that are regularly erupting it's the most extreme environment that I've ever been to or ever heard of. But it's expensive. Like. I spent way more than I expected to. Like, even just like random stuff is just there. Our dollar does not go far at all. It's really, it's really bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they said that everything gets in. I mean, basically everything has to be imported the land, is not very agriable, right, so everything gets imported and the prices shoot up.
Speaker 3:It's a little. Yeah, I remember when I was there, one of the things I was trying to go to sleep so I put the Met game on. Obviously it was like the time difference, right, so it's like one, two in the morning. But when it's one two in the morning and it's dark outside and you're watching the Met game, you're like, okay, stop being a degenerate and go to sleep. But when it's light outside, you're like, well, this is allowed, because I was, you know, like my body. My body couldn't shut down because it wasn't dark.
Speaker 1:Oh, what time of year did you go?
Speaker 3:I went in August, okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, anthony, that was another weird thing Sunsets, at least when I was there around 9.30 pm, but because of the arc of like, where the sun has to go, it never gets fully dark, like it doesn't get like true astronomical dark, so you barely see the stars in the sky. It's fully dark Like it doesn't get like true astronomical dark, so we don't, you don't. You barely see the stars in the sky, and we were. I was fortunate enough that I did catch, like a week, aurora Borealis.
Speaker 3:Oh nice, we didn't catch that one.
Speaker 1:It was hard to see. Like at first we thought, oh, it's just clouds in the sky. But then you like look up at the clouds and they're like, wait, where did the clouds go? And then they're over there, and then they're over there and it's just like that's not how clouds work.
Speaker 1:We're looking at the aurora borealis, but it's it was so light out that we couldn't see the true colors flashing, basically like it needs to be really dark for that. But we get, like, if you I have uh like pictures, uh that you know, on the phone it it picks up the colors a little bit better because it takes a longer exposure. So it's green on my phone but it's white and wispy to the naked eye.
Speaker 3:But I can talk about Iceland forever. That's cool, yeah, but let's jump into Alien.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, no no, no, yeah, let's hop into it.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk a little bit about our experience with alien. I spoke a little bit about what um it was like in my household. Like we had the alien quadrility quadrilogy box set, the dvd box set that came out I think in the early 2000s or something. Um, it has the first alien, first four Alien movies and I remember watching them a couple times. I think I only saw the third and fourth maybe once in my life. The first two I've seen a bunch of times. I think the second one is just a little bit more fun. It's a little bit more of like a classic science fiction movie in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the second one is classified as an action movie, the first one is a horror movie yeah, so it's it.
Speaker 1:The the series bends genres quite often, um, and it kind of bounces around, uh, so that's something that should be exciting for you rich, um, because I think in the past you've mentioned that you're you're into horror.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually I'm glad to hear you say that because I've agreed to embark on the journey no matter what. But I'm not really a horror guy. So as I started to watch this, you know I was like, because you know you're building and building right, so you're an hour in and you're like whoa, what? Like you know there's no, I want to say it's like an hour 45 minutes before you really get what the threat is going to be. Yeah, it's a slow burn.
Speaker 3:You know, my my just kind of stay on that topic of like your first experience, I never saw any of the movies before I watched this one. I know I know of them, right, I've seen like clips of stuff. I've seen like I had seen like the alien, like like drooling over somebody type stuff. I think I may have seen like scenes of part two or of aliens, but not the first one. And I think my first exposure was actually this is a throwback mad magazine. I loved mad magazine and I think one of the first issues I bought was like an alien parody, so I learned about alien through that.
Speaker 3:And then my second exposure was space balls oh, naturally yeah because at the end of space balls, so like there's the chestburster scene, yeah, I, I don't. I I assume that most people go into this movie maybe not knowing that scene, right. So I, I I was like, oh no, oh no, I know it's gonna. I saw space balls. I'm like don't, don't get near him. Uh, so those were my, those were like actually my only interaction. I mean, I knew sigurd niviver was in it, right, like that much, and I did expect it to be more action. I was kind of surprised, so like that's what happened, like 48 minutes in whatever I'm going, hey, uh, there's not a lot of action here. This is a horror movie.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is a slow introduction of the villain, you know, or of the monster and even even like the first five minutes is just shots of like within the ship and nobody's woken up yet but it's just it's. It's ridley scott literally aura farming as he turns on the lights in the ship. You know, it's just like, yeah, this is a cool shot, film it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a cool shot film it and it's five minutes of that and I get. I gotta give it to him because a lot of the shots are like gorgeous. You know, like the I I would never think to show a computer screen from the reflection of an unused helmet or like an unworn helmet, like it's it. That's like one of the first shots we see and I'm just like that's, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Like I wouldn't, I would have never thought to do that you know, like I like that you say that because I mean you think that this movie was was made in 1979. You know it came out in 1979. Like, what they were able to accomplish, you know, with shots like that and with the, the effects, just it blows my mind was what they were able to accomplish. Like you know, this was what a couple of years after Star Wars, and I still, and I feel like there were a lot more impressive visuals with this one than, like you know, maybe Star Wars Right, but this one is this, it's a, it's a different movie, so they're trying to accomplish something else, but they do a really good job at like putting you into outer space and somewhere that's away from Earth. It's believable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anthony, what is your first memories of the Alien franchise?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember seeing it years ago. I don't remember it being one of those. It wasn't like a household thing for me, but it was definitely one of those movies that my dad grew up with and so, like a lot of these movies that he grew up with, you know, star wars, alien, uh, you know just indiana jones, all that stuff. You know I, he, like you know I watched it and yeah, I remember watching alien. I remember it being, you know I, yeah, I remember, like you know, as a kid, you know it's a, the first one's a little bit more boring because there's a lot of talking, but then, like, once you get to that towards the end, where the, where the, the is is like being shown a little bit more than than that's where, like you know the edge, you know like you're on the edge of your seat.
Speaker 2:It's, you know, I remember, yeah, that memory kind of being a little bit um, a little bit of afraid because it looks so weird. You know, like you don't see any eyes. I specifically remember the mouth within the mouth. That's always a visual that I'll remember, you know, of the alien, you know, like, when it opens its mouth, there's like another mouth on the inside. I'll never forget that and I remember that as a kid, that visual of like the mouth, like just shooting into, you know, buddy's face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know buddy's face. Yeah, with alien, uh, I've kind of gone like back and forth and back and forth as far as, like, do I even like this movie? Not that I don't respect it, I I do, I definitely do. And I remember like being kind of scared of it when I was a kid, but it wasn't like a terrifying movie, um, but as an adult I think I experienced the existential dread more than I did when I was a kid.
Speaker 1:The monster itself was scary, yes, but the impending doom that you're feeling throughout the entire film is really impressive.
Speaker 1:It's almost like Lovecraftian. You know, like, uh, there's a certain ominous uh tone that, um, as soon as they basically land on that planet, or like when they get the distress call, or when they, um, enter that alien ship, and it's just a vast cavern of like bones on the wall and it's just, it's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen. Which, by the way, coolest sets ever. I don't know how they did that. Those are sets, you know, like some of it is matte paintings and everything. But like there are like crazy, crazy sets that they built for this and I'm just like, how did they even think of this? But yeah, that that cosmic horror, like, almost like a mental, like your mind's trying to wrap its head around something that's much bigger than you can imagine, and that's the kind of like Lovecraftian thing that Ridley Scott was trying to. I'm assuming that Ridley Scott was trying to like latch onto, because, yeah, you feel so helpless watching it yeah, I agree, I know I said the respect.
Speaker 3:You're not sure if you like it, but you respect it. Like I can see the craft, the craft and acknowledge the level of difficulty and the the I mean ridley scott here is the best of his craft. Like he right, like at the time period with lack of cgi and everything, like he did a great job of creating he world build. Like he spent a lot of time world building before we got to see anything you know, and that doom builds, so the pacing is great. You know, like he does a really great job with that. The shots are inventive, um, but I don't know if I love it, but I can.
Speaker 3:Yeah but I do like I hate the characters in great gatsby, I teach it every year almost well, I used to teach it every year. I I hate read it almost, but it's meticulously crafted and I can acknowledge how good, how well it's done while you can explain.
Speaker 1:You can understand that this is actually an amazing story or an amazing uh work of art, while also hating the insides of it um yeah, no, I, I totally get that, and so what I what I was trying to say earlier is I've had this like wow, I really love this movie.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's not actually as good, or it's overblown, you know, or it's not actually that scary. But coming at it as a, you know, early 30s person who hasn't seen it in a long time, I appreciate it so much more because I'm just I'm I'm just here trying to understand the artistic intent of like what is being uh shown to me, and I think I, you know, I'm in a position where I can see that now I can pick up, uh, what release god is putting down. And he's putting down a lot of like uh, just existential dread and and I, I love how they, how he handled that. And you mentioned, rich, that there are like 45 minutes before we even like get to see the like the face hugger, you know, and that's our first like real uh glimpse of the alien. Then there's the chest bursar scene and the actual like xenomorph that's actually they never call it a xenomorph in this movie do you guys have an understanding of the life cycle of this species from this movie?
Speaker 3:I was trying to understand that personally, because the latcher right you go like we get the latcher, who presumably now like implants a seed right, but like when the burster comes out, I would think the burster would go to latch mode and it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Right, I don't have a solid answer, but the way that I understand it is if the face hugger, If the facehugger like the latcher that you said, if that latched onto, say, a primate, a gorilla, the chestburster and eventual alien would look different, because it's taking our DNA Xenomorph. Okay, it's in the name. Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. So we do see variations. I don't want to like spoil too much, but we do see variations of the Xenomorph in future films.
Speaker 3:Would you compare this to the brood almost from X-Men then when, like the, I'm sorry, maybe I'm going too deep in X-Men comic book stuff.
Speaker 1:But the brood, basically, were like the Xenomorphs and when they took over the X x-men, like it, looked like wolverine, but a xenomorph. You know? Yeah, no, I know what you're talking about. Um, yeah, I guess that would be the comic book comparison. Okay, anthony, we haven't heard from you in a while. What's what's going through your mind right now?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I was kind of dancing around the name because they they actually't say Xenomorph in this one, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, do they ever mention it in future films?
Speaker 2:Yes, they must Second one, they must Second movie yeah, so yeah, no, I agree, it's also like coming into this movie knowing that you're watching it to discuss. It also changes the lens of how you watch it too. And so, yeah, like you do notice a little bit more of like the minor details, like you. You talked about the sets. The sets were very impressive, even. Even I was even impressed with what they were able to do with the xenomorph and I was actually analyzing it because you know it has like spines out of the back and like I kind of look at it and be like you know, what did they use to to make that right?
Speaker 2:You know, I try to analyze to see if I can notice any, any like you know, maybe household item that they might have used right, like some tubing from, from a vacuum cleaner or whatever, but it's, it all looks impressive. It doesn't look cheap. You know they really do put a lot of money into this, but you know, kind of you know, and we've been talking about you know really like what they've accomplished in a little bit of like the future stuff. But you know, this film has a pretty like solid group of like like a casting, you know. I mean you know it's helmed by sigourney weaver, which you know she was 29 years old in that movie. Isn't that crazy like thinking that, like she was 29 years old in this movie.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, and like she looks it she actually looks young like.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'll I'll like look back at old films and I'll look to see how old they were and they'll they'll be like, yeah, there were, there were 25 in this movie, but they look like they were almost 40, you know. But she actually looked young.
Speaker 1:You know, I was actually surprised it's crazy how young john hurt looked in this yes, yeah, because most of the john hurt performances that I've seen have been a much older john hurt right but yeah, he, there's a number of really, really incredible actors in this movie.
Speaker 2:Um, I'd say, ian home looked maybe a little younger than he did in fellowship, like maybe a lot a lot younger yeah, I know no but he still looked older, though, though.
Speaker 1:No, he definitely was older.
Speaker 2:You could tell he was maybe touching 50. He was definitely middle-aged, so yeah. I mean you could tell he was definitely older. I mean obviously he didn't look as old as Fellowship, but he was getting there. You could tell he was getting up there in age john hurt.
Speaker 3:I mean oh yeah, john hurt, actually surprised me and I know him best as the voice of the dragon in merlin. So I I was like, wait, is that the merlin guy? Uh, that was exciting. And then, um, I don't know the actor's name, I forget the character. Uh, so it's the other dark haired gentleman. He was in the show big love. He played like a very sleazy, basically like the head of the mormons uh out there in uh utah.
Speaker 1:He plays the character brett. Yes, um.
Speaker 3:So I he's, I don't know his name, yeah he's kind of not a great guy, you know, in the movie and yeah, I could buy it like it's just like he, he's like a character actor, I think, who like just plays like kind of a a not great guy all the time and he does it well. So I was excited by the casting. I I honestly, when they all were on screen I was like, hey, I know almost all these actors you know, so that was actually a really cool thing to see and see, uh, one of their earlier works yeah, um, everyone did fantastically.
Speaker 1:Jen even commented like I don't understand. People don't look like this anymore. Like you're looking at some of the cast and uh, so the other female lambert she was specifically talking about her and she's just like I've never seen anyone who looks like that and, it's true, like they just look like they're from the seventies. You know it's it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a really bizarre thing that, uh, I think everyone just has, I um, like iPhone faces now, where everyone's used to looking at a screen, so our faces are just a little bit different. It's the blue light morphing us, the blue light, yeah, oh, what I? What I? I understand what I was trying to say earlier. Basically, it's the, the, the use of the actual villain takes a while and they do that to kind of put you at a state of unease, because if they show you their hands at the beginning, the villain is no longer scary by the end. You know they want that build-up, they want you to emotionally feel uneasy when you're going into. You know when you're finally seeing the face on it, when you're finally seeing the, the chest burster and then finally it's. You know final form, um, and they knew their limitations. You know, like, this is a guy in a rubber suit, but they didn't want it to look like doctor who you know, like they, they wanted it to or god.
Speaker 2:They wanted it to look like a.
Speaker 1:They didn't want it to look like godzilla, so they they kept the creature in shadows and only showed very sparse glimpses at it, just enough to freak you the heck out. And they do a pretty good job of it for a 1979 film yeah, yeah, I like the, the utilization of darkness, it it definitely it.
Speaker 2:it definitely works well with this type of movie and I mean honestly that they have a game called alien isolation and it kind of uses like the similar you know you've got the xenomorph, you're trying to avoid it and it's, you know it'll pop up on you at any time pretty much like this one. You know you're not guns blazing, you know, like some of the later ones, but yeah, this one is this one. They did well because, I mean, you're right, you said that they knew their limitations and they slotted well into that. You know, and even though they did show, like you know, a full body xenomorph, it with the camera work, it didn't look corny no, it doesn't, and and they're only showing.
Speaker 1:I love the extreme close-ups too. There's a lot of extreme close-ups on people's faces in this movie, um, to show either fear or just to like, give you a unique glimpse at the person or character.
Speaker 1:And uh, they do a lot of extreme close-ups of like the, the sleek shine, of like the dome on the xenomorph's head, or just like it's slowly opening its mouth and like strobe lighting to like, because strobe lighting is uneasy to look at. You know like it's hard to. You know see movement. And when you eliminate movement with a strobe light, that also helps heighten, like the, the unease of everything.
Speaker 3:So the only thing I thought and and this is probably my space balls, this is my, my space balls like background when the z, when the chestburster comes out, I just the way it kind of like skitters off screen it it just reminded me of in Spaceballs when the chestburster jumps into song and dance on the diner top. So I giggled when I saw him skitter because I was like I just in my head heard like hello my baby, hello my darling, you know, like that same exact scene from Spaceballs.
Speaker 2:So that's the only time that I felt like the xenomorph took me out of it, like just that little skittering you know, thinking back like to the 1970s and like kind of what they did with like horror films back then, you know it was really hard to make like a serious one that didn't look corny, you know, and like the acting wasn't like over the top, like you know, like, know, like oh you know, like.
Speaker 2:It didn't look corny Like, but this movie they didn't show fear in a way that looked corny, it looked genuine. And so like I really have to like put it up to like the actors for really like acting very well and making, making a film that just set off this whole series, that we're still getting stuff today yeah, yeah, um, and it's, it's kind of bigger than ever right now because, uh, we just had a very successful alien movie in theaters, um, and it was a very good one like I was.
Speaker 1:I'm blown away by how well um romulus was and I've heard very good things about the first. I think there's four episodes now of alien earth, so I'm excited to to dive into that soon and I'm hoping to to start making like timeline content with you know, I want to make individual short uh video content for the alien series. Um, slowly working my way up to something a little bit bigger, but yeah, so you mentioned anthony that uh, you were like were you specifically talking about the chestburster scene that everyone was like super, you could tell like the fear was like real or not, not specifically the the chestburster scene, but like there's that, and then the build up to when the xenomorph um this scene right here yes, so behind anthony, uh it's.
Speaker 2:It's a scene where, uh, lambert the, the other female, is confronted by the xenomorph and she's unable to get around it or do anything and she and she's crying, but like, like it looks genuine, like it doesn't look fake, like I don't know, know, like I've seen some of, like you know, older horror movies that are from around the same era and a lot of them are, like, really corny, but like this one, I felt like it broke through like some stereotypes when it came to horror.
Speaker 2:I mean it was also partly a sci-fi movie but I mean, like, I mean the main element of it is horror. You know, they're building up, like you said, there's that existential dread that builds up throughout the film until you get to the climax. And yeah, man, dude, it's. It might not be the one that most people talk about. A lot of people talk about the second one. That's the one that, like you probably saw most clips of rich was the second one, but I like, like dakota said you, you have to respect it, you have to appreciate what this film did can dakota?
Speaker 3:you're a timeline guy. When did aliens come out, like year wise? Yeah, because I'm trying to figure out like I remember seeing the toys so like. That's essentially why I thought this was an action franchise, because I remember like the action figures of like riley and like the xenomorphs and stuff were a big deal in toy stores when I was younger so it um, it took a quite a quite a while for a sequel to come out.
Speaker 1:It came out in 1986, this one came out in 79.
Speaker 3:So uh like so maybe seven, eight, eight years later, so maybe it was three, three when three came out. I think that's when I saw that. I remember seeing the toys in stores that would make sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the three, I think was 91 that makes more sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I would have been. I would have been nine okay.
Speaker 1:So I want to go back to the chestburster scene, uh, because that has, uh, a pretty iconic piece of like filming lore behind it. Basically, the cast knew something was going to happen, but they did not know what. And they they understood that, like, basically they were told all right, just just eat your food, have a good time. And something's going to happen to John Hurt's character. John Hurt obviously knew what needed to happen. You know, he acted his heart out with that. It was a disgusting performance of him, like just coughing up his food and shoving food in his face. But everyone else had no idea that there was going to be an alien that bursts out of John Hurt's chest, that's so cool which is such an insane thing to commit to doing.
Speaker 1:That's amazing and also to put onto your cast. But they all, it was perfect, they kept in character. Because I'm trying to think like if I was present, obviously I would know that this is a film and that we're doing special effects, but I would be like wait what.
Speaker 1:Like because you could see the moment there's like blood spurting out of his chest before the chestburster even pops up. You see Sigourney weaver just like kind of like take a step back, like what you know, like she didn't realize that there was something underneath his, you know, underneath his shirt or whatever.
Speaker 1:So I think that that's such a cool uh bit of uh like filmmaking lore, because I like it when you do that it colors the whole, the whole filmmaking behind it and, like the, it makes it actually really scary, because these are people actually terrified because they have no idea what's coming yeah, yeah, I, I love it when they do stuff like that, when they withhold like certain pieces of information from from.
Speaker 2:Like you know, you're trying to get like a good scene and I feel, I feel like that scene was perfect for nobody else to know what's going to happen, except for you know the subject, that that happened. You know john hurt. So, yeah, yeah, I remember that. Actually I didn't it. That's been a piece of information. I sat in the back of my mind until when, until you actually brought it up, I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that dude. Yeah, that's awesome yeah yeah, I completely, I man.
Speaker 1:Now I kind of want to go back and watch that scene, like now that I remember this yeah, because if you, if you watch it now, that you know that these people didn't know what was happening, you could tell, tell genuine surprise is on their face. It's really cool Going into Spaceballs a couple years later. When was Spaceballs? I think it was the same year or the year after Return of the Jedi.
Speaker 3:I think it's 83.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the same year as Return of the Jedi. And there's this scene at the end where I think it's 83. Okay, so same year as return of the jedi. And there's the scene at the end where I think it's john hurt in a diner yes and, and he's just, you know, he's having a good time, they're having a laugh and all of a sudden, he, he's doing the same exact thing again. He's, and he's actually saying not again, not again.
Speaker 3:It's it. You know what. I'm so glad you said it was john hurt, because when I see it happening right, I'm going. Man, like this is not just like kind of familiar, like it looks like the same guy and I now I just love mel brooks, by the way. I'll. I'll correct before our audience does. Space balls was actually 87 87.
Speaker 1:Okay, very good, thank you for checking that. What did we think of ian home as the android like and and like his? Because you can argue that he's actually the villain of the movie, because it's. It becomes apparent that this wasn't a random stop that they made on their trip. You know, someone programmed them to go here, uh, and he very, very much, you know, nurtured the aliens growth throughout the entire film until, you know, to a point where, like, obviously, like he was trying to keep the alien alive, like he was trying to, you know, bring it back to earth. What? At what point, rich, did you realize that ian holm was the bad guy or a bad guy?
Speaker 3:I'm not saying he is the bad guy, but yeah well, it's funny because so when he, when he breaks the protocol to, you know, let the guy come on. I think probably, you know, obviously probably a little problematic for me is that going into it. I knew that, like, the aliens are bad, right.
Speaker 1:So when I see like oh, let's get it Not fun aliens yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, let's get him on the ship. I'm thinking like, what are you doing? Like I forget protocol, like how about survival? Like you guys don't really seem to be a cohesive team, right, they don't like seem to have real, true, like love and care for each other. So, no, I'm like what are you doing? Like scientifically, like as a you know why would you do that? So I didn't figure it out, I didn't get it until sigourney weaver gets it that he's bad, right.
Speaker 3:And then, yeah, the, the what I'll call is the milk teardrop, right, is like forming and I'm looking and I'm going that's a really weird effect. I'm like, why is it white? And I thought that it just was me, like I, it's such a maze, it's such an amazing scene, because I ignored it away until, like he splits open and I think, like my dog had come into the room or something. So I'm like, wait, what? And I had to like rewind and I was like, what? He's a robot. Uh, that blew my mind. Uh, I won't lie, like I had no idea, didn't see it coming at all.
Speaker 2:And then I was like, oh, so that's why he's the worst, you know, that's why he's so cold and calculating and you know like there's just something nasty about like that milky substance that was like pulling out, like I feel like if it was like like oily, like if it was black, it wouldn't, it would have been like whatever, but like that white substance just made it look worse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's something inherently I think kind of off putting about that and I was thinking about it. I was like, if he's a robot, why isn't it oil or grease? You know why isn't it dark about it? I was like, if he's a robot, why isn't it oil or grease? You know why isn't it dark? And I and now that you say that, I think I would have been like it would have been a clue that I would have picked up on too quickly. But because it was that milky, you know substance, you're like what is that? And it's that's enough to hold you off for a couple more minutes, like that's brilliant to me. That was brilliant. His hair gel's dripping oh no, he's he. He accidentally booked a uh uh speech at the wrong place and now he's oh, man, oh, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:It was really very well done. I yeah kudos to like I didn't see it coming and then when you go back, I think the best types of surprises. The foreshadowing was right there, but you miss it, you know, and he, it was so good did you get an opportunity to watch this like a second time, or you just?
Speaker 1:it was just the one?
Speaker 3:time, I watched it twice okay the second time.
Speaker 1:Did you see all of the instances where he was purposely yes, um like, instead of keeping them outside for quarantine?
Speaker 3:he's just like nope, it's like yeah it was like, oh my, like it was that it feels rewarding, almost, to watch it and see it again and see how well it's done and and you could see, like you know, yeah, like on that that second watch, like every instance that he was like going against the grain of the crew.
Speaker 2:You know, at that point you're like hmm, like why? Like what? What? What's this guy like why? Why does he care? You know, and then you you see that you know he, he got those orders from the company he kept saying we haven't finished collating, and I'm just like, yeah, that's a very normal thing for a person to say.
Speaker 2:Like nobody on that ship would say anything like that but him. But yeah, no, and you know it is. I think it was such a smart move Because you go into the movie and I'm pretty sure, like this was rich, you go into the movie knowing that there's going to be this alien creature right in there, but you're not expecting there to be like a secondary antagonist, right Did not see that coming.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, like he, pretty much yeah, and Dakota Dakota's right in a way, like you could say that he is the villain of the story because he made it so this creature was able to fully form and almost kill everybody.
Speaker 1:So, rich, you mentioned earlier that nobody had any love for each other, and that's, that's on purpose. You know, these are just people doing a job. They're, they're tasked to ship or from one planet to another. You know they're going back to earth at this point.
Speaker 1:But the actual ship name, nostromo, has some actual meaning, um, and when you take that into consideration, the whole plot makes a lot more sense. So the the nostromo is named after, uh, there's a book by joseph conrad from like the early 19th century or sorry, the early 20th century, it was early 1900s where it's the name of the ship and that ship in that book, or yeah, in that book, it basically signifies like it's a story of exploitation of labor force. And that's exactly what the company because they don't really call it wayland yutani in this movie, they, they just call it the company. They are exploiting the, the labor force, for whatever reason to, so that they can gain access to the secrets of this alien. So that's that's whyley Scott names their ship the Nostromo, because it puts the emphasis on corporate capitalist greed and each of the crew members has moments of thinking for themselves, not necessarily in the movie, in the original drafts of this movie and the novelization, which fleshes out the characters quite a bit more.
Speaker 1:You see a lot of the selfishness of each of the cast. You see a little bit of it when Parker's like we should get a bonus, we need a full share. But there's a lot more of that in the novel, or the novelization of it, from pretty much everyone. I don't. I think Ripley isn't really included in that, she's the only one just trying to do her job, but I just think that's kind of like a cool little background. Detail is the Nostromo is named after a Joseph Conrad book from like the early 1900s and it means corporate greed basically, and that's what we we see happening throughout this whole movie. This whole, this whole adventure is stemmed by corporate greed. It's really that's.
Speaker 3:That's a really like nice easter egg there that I didn't um pick up on, but, um, you got me, you got me searching it now and I'm just, uh, I'm gonna have to go read some more joseph conrad. I mean, I thought heart of darkness was it, but I think, uh, they wouldn't have to dive in here heart of darkness is not where joseph conrad ends.
Speaker 1:My friend, I love this movie. I, I think, coming back to it now with fresh eyes and just eager to you know, experience the whole series instead of just bite-sized portions of it, because each of the films is fairly separate in uh, in tone and story, because you have the, the original four, with Sigourney Weaver in it, but then the. There's two prequels that don't have Sigourney Weaver in it at all, and they're more. I don't even know how to describe it. It's more like an explanation of, like, the origins of uh, faith and the universe and everything, and it's like uh, have you seen Prometheus Anthony?
Speaker 1:long time ago yeah, I mean I'm excited to get to that one, because I think a lot of people wrote it off as being like, uh, trying way too hard, but I think it's probably the smartest film in the series. Um, I think it's just. I think it's really good we're coming up on an hour. We can keep going for a little bit more yeah, yeah, we can.
Speaker 2:We can, uh, go back to the good old days.
Speaker 1:You know, hit a two-hour podcast, two and a half so another thing that I thought was interesting is, um, the. The film is very vague on a bunch of stuff and it's purposely vague on a bunch of stuff. Uh, we mentioned they didn't give a name to the, the alien species in this movie. That's something that comes later in the series. They didn't even give Ripley. They didn't give Sigourney Weaver a first name in this movie. She's just Ripley.
Speaker 1:Everyone in this movie only has a last name Kane, parker, lambert, brett, dallas, ripley. They all have only a last name and a designation on the ship. So it's basically like everything is stripped down to its base stuff that you need to know basically what they do on this ship, why they're here and what they're going to call each other. So I think that's pretty cool. We don't learn that her name is Ellen Ripley until later. But yeah, and the same with the company.
Speaker 1:They don't name the company by verbiage in this movie. It's on some background, easter. There's some Easter eggs of the name of the company, weyland-yutani in the background. So there's a lot of it. You don't even know what time period, uh, this film takes place and it doesn't give you a date. You only learn like when this movie takes place in future movies because they can backdate it. It's, it's the whole idea of give them as little as possible but just enough so that they understand, uh, their setting. Basically, and it just, it, just it's meant to disorient you and I think they did a good job because I'm I haven't been right.
Speaker 2:Ever since I watched this, I've been disoriented because I was like I need to continue so that I can get on the timeline. We know, we know that you're timeline obsessed and so this movie, with a lack of its time, is just throwing you through a loop man it really?
Speaker 1:yeah, no, but it's, it's. I think it's an easy ish timeline once they start like actually giving you dates. It's just no dates in this one. But, um, guys, I think we shall call it here, let's. Let's give some last thoughts on Alien and get all riled up for Aliens. Right, riley Next week.
Speaker 3:Riley, ripley, ripley, sorry.
Speaker 1:That's OK, Rich. What did you? What are your final thoughts on this first Alien film?
Speaker 3:So I think I went in with expectations of Alien 3 and got a very different experience. I as usual my first watch I was, like you know, this is a horror movie. The end of the movie is what I really liked, as it started to ramp up, probably from from chest bursting on, like I was, I was invested. I'm really excited to explore the rest of the franchise and if this is a building block that I needed to digest in order to enjoy the franchise as it evolves, then I'm happy I engaged in it.
Speaker 3:If this was a standalone movie, just this and nothing else was after it, I'd say it was good. It was really well done. I can acknowledge the craft, but it's not my type of movie. So I'm you know, I'm a little like I know about the alien versus predator movies and, like man, I love predator, like that guy. So I was expecting kind of like predator-ish stuff with sigourney weaver and that's not what I got here. But that's my own fault. So definitely recommended to watch something that was exceptionally well done in a time with limited resources um, before I hand it over to Anthony.
Speaker 1:Uh, I, I like what you said there. Specifically, this is a building block to what comes next. I think you need this movie to feel any sort of weight for the character of ripley um and a fear of the alien, you know so. So keep that moving forward, because it is an important film, not just for like film history, but in this franchise, like it's, it is the. It is a new hope for this series. Um, anthony, go ahead yeah, man it.
Speaker 2:It'd been a long time since I had seen this movie. I would say that I've seen aliens more than I've seen the original alien, but I have seen the first two more than I've seen, uh, three and four, so it was nice to go back to this. I always like it when, when we pick something, that kind of has me go back to it because I don't know if I would have gone back to this movie anytime soon. Not because I hate it, just because you know, just like I really. You know it hasn't been on my radar, you know, to watch the first alien movie, but I'm glad that we did and I really do feel like coming into this. I I did notice a bit more and I did feel a lot more of an appreciation for it, for the time period that it came out and for what they were able to accomplish. And, yeah, that the fact that this is it came out and for what they were able to accomplish, and, yeah, that the the fact that this is one of the foundations for what we have today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really liked this movie. I I'm happy that we like like Anthony said, revisited it because I'm able to appreciate it with a new eyes and a new like perspective on art and everything and filmmaking. So that's awesome and I'm excited to jump into future films in this franchise. Uh, next week yes, next week.
Speaker 1:Aliens sounds good episode 132 aliens with an s at the end. Uh guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 131st episode of Project Geekology. We appreciate all the screams that we couldn't hear, but we know it was scary at times listening to three white men. But I'm going to end this now, I'm just going to ramble. Guys, if you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click into our show notes down below and click something. You'll find something new. Have a good one.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and don't forget to give us Dakota. It's your turn. There's something that we require of our listeners.
Speaker 1:Not require, but we ask of, we ask, uh, we ask with the flamethrower to the back of you, um now, uh, yeah, so there's something that we we usually like uh receiving here on this podcast, a, a favor of sorts. It's kind of like a it's a five-star juicy review, specifically, I didn't know where the favor was going.
Speaker 3:I was like whoa it's just a review.
Speaker 1:Five stars make it juicy like ian holmes. Uh like milky, milky innards yeah, I was looking at that same exact thing, or perfect, you know crunchy or or crunchy, like, like the, the shell of the alien and the chestburster, you know, the exoskeleton, everything it's. It's a. It's one of those movies you get, you get a little juice, you get a little crunch. Give us a five star review, people. That's, that's what we're trying to beg for you.
