R Rating Ep12 - Alien (1979)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Mongoolie's movie madness. [00:00:03] Speaker B: It's a sight to behold. Mongoolie's passion for films never close up. From classics to new releases. He's in the no Mongoolies movies. Let's start the show foreign. [00:00:35] Speaker C: And welcome back to our rating the show where I get together with a couple of my friends, we take a movie franchise, break it down by piece, give it an overall rating, and throw it up on the board to see where it lands compared to the other movie franchises. I'm joined today by my friends Will and Brian. Brian, how are you doing today? [00:00:50] Speaker B: I'm fantastic. I'm fantastic. [00:00:53] Speaker C: Excellent. And Will, how are you doing? [00:00:55] Speaker A: I'm tired. [00:00:56] Speaker C: That's tired. All right, let's jump into the synopsis and talk about Alien, the 1979 classic from Ridley Scott. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Alien, 1979 follows the freighter crew of the Nostromo intercepting a distress call which delays their trip home as they pick up a hitchhiker with a deadly appetite. [00:01:18] Speaker C: Oh, you weren't kidding. That was incredibly small. [00:01:20] Speaker A: Okay, I told you this. [00:01:23] Speaker C: Okay, so 1979's alien. This is a movie that I've seen multiple times, not too often. It's one of the ones I like to watch maybe every five years or so. But I've been watching this probably for the last, like, probably saw this when I was a teenager for the first time. What about you, Will? You said you had a bit of a hard time getting through this one. Is this one you've seen before? What's your history with this movie? [00:01:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I've seen. I've seen this and Aliens multiple times. The others, not so many times, if at all. This movie. Yeah, I enjoy. I fell asleep watching it for this five times because my whole family's sick and got me sick and I can't stay awake for the life of me. But that is not going to be reflective. Too much in the score itself, I believe. [00:02:07] Speaker C: That's good. And what about you, Brian? What's your history with the Alien movie? [00:02:11] Speaker B: Absolutely a huge fan of the entire franchise. I've been chomping at the bit to get all the way through this so that I can rent or buy, probably buy Romulus and see the new one. I'm excited because they've greenlighted more films to come, so hopefully we'll be circling back around to this and. And doing some more adjustments to this franchise as it grows. But I'm a huge fan of the Alien as a creature, as a franchise and. And all of its movies. [00:02:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I've Got to agree. This is one of the franchises where I'm actually really excited for it because I know there's incredible high highs with this franchise. I know there's also some pretty low lows, but there's also some of the movies in this franchise I haven't seen yet. And Romulus comes out on streaming in like two, three weeks, something like that, from the time of this recording. And I'm super excited to see that one. I don't think I'm going to be able to get through all the movies in time before I get to that one, but I'll probably watch it as soon as it's available and then rewatch it in time for when we record that episode. So I. I'm just. I'm so pumped for this franchise, more so than I've been for any other franchise we've done so far on our rating. [00:03:23] Speaker A: About time you're excited for something. [00:03:25] Speaker C: I. Yeah. Okay. October was a long month of death. All right. But we're past that now. We can move on. [00:03:35] Speaker A: I love how you say that. And then you immediately put in Alien, which is pretty much a slasher film. [00:03:41] Speaker C: Well, okay. So that's one of the things I wanted to talk about is when I was watching this movie, I was a little surprised. And maybe it's because we just went through the entire month, the entire Evil Dead franchise, as well as the entire Predator franchise. But the deaths in this movie, for the most part, seem to happen either off screen or like in the shadows, as opposed to Predator and Evil Dead, where the entire points of the movie seem to be what is the coolest way we can kill somebody. This movie was based way more on the tension than the actual kills. Which. Would you agree with that, Brian? [00:04:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. There's. There's a lot of tense moments. They build stuff with scenery, with what you can't see, with acting, with scoring. And of course, the special effects and practical effects were kind of stretched to what they could do at the time. I know some of the behind the scenes stuff. They had to redo a lot of things because they tried it and they wanted to do it certain ways and it never really worked out. And they did have to hide a lot of stuff. And I think that might be part of the reason why we don't see a lot of the kills. [00:04:45] Speaker C: I feel like that works very much to the movie's benefit, though, kind of in the same way that, like the shark in Jaws does, where they couldn't get it to work exactly how they wanted it to, so they showed A lot less of it. And so the movie has a lot more tension as you're building up this monster in your mind, as opposed to just seeing it every 10 seconds. And I think that actually works really, really well for this movie's benefit. I think there's few scenes where you see, like, some pipes or chains moving in the background. You're kind of like, wait, is there. Is there something back there I'm supposed to be able to see? I think that's a really, really cool element to this movie because they have the Nostromo, this ship that somehow manages to feel lived in and empty at the exact same time. And it's this really claustrophobic setting to host, like, a monster movie of this kind. [00:05:30] Speaker B: You mentioned the Nostromo. Did you guys feel like you had trouble understanding the size of the ship, like, the scale of the ship? They would show the big pictures of it, and it was like a model that they were filming. Right. And I couldn't really understand, like, is that a tiny, teeny, tiny, like, walkway over there, or is that, like a crack on a really large wall? Like, I couldn't really get a feel for it. Later in the film, you finally see through the windows and you can see one of the people in the ship, and you finally get a grasp of how ginormous it was. But I think they were trying to make it look big and didn't quite land with their effects on. On that point. Because, I mean, it was a huge ship. But I just couldn't quite grasp it until the end. When you saw, I think, Ripley walking around behind one window. [00:06:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I. It's a mining ship. Right? That's what they're doing. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Well, I feel like they were. They're, like, hauling a whole refinery. [00:06:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:25] Speaker A: And so I feel like the. The quarters of the ship that are used for the movie is quite small in comparison to the giant kind of mining operation that they're just kind of towing behind them. So I think that might be why some of it's like, oh, interior wise, it feels like a small ship. Exterior wise, it feels like a large ship. And I think you get a little bit of that feel like when you. They pop out the shuttle and you're like, okay, the shuttle's this big in comparison, so it kind of makes it feel a little better, maybe. I don't know. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And did, correct me if I'm wrong, we had, like, the whole mining apparatus, and then you had the Nostromo, which was kind of like the tug ship, and then you had the Lifeboat of the Nostromo, which she ends up in at the end of the movie. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Correct. [00:07:11] Speaker B: Is that. Is that. Or was the Nostromo the whole mining operation? [00:07:14] Speaker C: I thought the Nostromo was the entire mining operation. Like, I thought it was this. Basically this giant oil rig in space that kind of just went to planets as needed. And then there was like a exploration thing is. Which they used to get down to the alien planet in the first place. And then they had. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Like, what I thought the Nostromo was, was the ship that landed down on the planet and came back up. I thought that was it. Because, Dan, you and I are playing alien isolation right now on our streams links in the description below or whatever. But. And in that video game in the very beginning, Ripley's daughter Amanda is on board a ship. And they say, hey, this is a great ship. It looks a lot like the Nostromo. And they're like, yeah, it's a. It's similar model and design to the Nostromo, but we see the outside of that ship and it looks nothing like the mining ship that. That they're at. And so my thinking was that the Nostromo was the ship that went down to the Earth or not the Earth, the planet in the movie. But I don't. I just don't quite know. It was a little unclear if that is the case. [00:08:11] Speaker C: I actually like that a lot, but I don't feel like they really explained that that well in the movie. You know, you're. You're right. Now you're saying it. I can picture what you're talking about from isolation, which is technically in canon, so that kind of does make sense. But every time I've thought of the Nostromo, I've thought of the entire model. So that's an interesting point you bring up. I'm not. I don't. I don't know the answer to that question. [00:08:29] Speaker B: And again, in isolation, they visit a offbeat. This. I forget the name of the. The place that they go to right in the beginning that looks a lot like the big mining apparatus that the Nostromo attaches to. And that's why I was thinking it was like kind of like three different things that they work with in the movie. Again, they didn't do a great job of explaining that. If we're having trouble understanding it, and I was having trouble understanding the scale, that's to the movie's detriment. [00:08:54] Speaker C: I feel they made the movie. I'm not entirely sure they cared. You know what I mean? Like in 1979, I don't think they knew there's gonna be a franchise. It's not the point. What the Nostromo is. That's a forgettable detail that becomes more important as there are seven movies now in this franchise. But at the time, I think the entire point was just, no, here's seven. Eight. However many characters. Here is the grizzly end for most of them. Here is the, you know, survivor. Like, like that's all that really matters. All you're supposed to take away from this. Sorry, Will, I cut you off there? [00:09:20] Speaker A: No, no, I, I was gonna say something completely rude and uncalled for, so it's better that you did, but to me, I do. [00:09:27] Speaker B: Come on. Okay. [00:09:28] Speaker A: It sounds like a couple of nerds talking about spacecrafts in their fantasy Sci Fi Land and that. That's not what this movie's about at all. To me, this is a movie. It's a horror thriller based in a spaceship. Because it's close quarters, you can't get away. And it's a similar feel to Evil Dead when you're stuck in a cabin in the woods and you can't get away. And that's what this movie is to me. It happens to be set in space so that, you know they can't get away. And their only option is maybe getting on the escape pod without an alien on it. Spoiler alert. They don't. They do eventually, but not without an alien on it. [00:10:16] Speaker C: Yes, they do at the very end. There's no alien on that, Bishop. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, they do a great job. And I'm going to switch my background because I'm so jealous of Will's amazing Nostromo esque background over there. And I had something kind of similar to it that I was going to use. And so I'm going to switch my background to it. There we go. That's my, that's my, my aliens background. A little too. Too new. I like Will's a lot better. I like how you place those, those bulkheads to cut out to crop your screen too. [00:10:43] Speaker A: Well, what can I say? [00:10:45] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a pro. The aesthetics of the ship, like the, the, the sphinctering of the little hole, the, the tubes that they would climb through. Oh, that's isolation. Sorry. The video gave a lot. Yeah. The aesthetics of their ship are also. In isolation, they, they carry a lot over. But the aesthetics of the ship lend a lot of. To the scariness of the film. Everything's dark. Everything's moist and wet and dripping and steaming and hot and like everything looks sharp and dangerous. And uncomfortable and raw. And it just builds that tension. That environment, even the planet's surface builds that tension with the aesthetics of everything. And, of course, HR Giger designing the aliens. Aesthetics fit right into all of this. And I think that's really a creep factor. That's a high point in this movie. [00:11:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I had a really weird feeling while watching this movie. Not quite deja vu. Now, obviously, this is the first movie in the franchise, comes way before Covenant did. But as they're landing on the planet and, like, you see the alien spaceship, I. I got this weird feeling like, oh, man, that's exactly like the ship in Covenant. They did such a good job of doing that. It's like, no more on. They made Covenant after this. They just made it fit as they were making Covenant, they obviously just made it make sense. But, like, I just kept going over my brain and this movie, like, oh, they're doing such a good job. They're nailing all the parts that they're supposed to nail. It's like, no, the other movie did a good job. This movie started it. The other one is the one that did a good job. It's so. It was just a stupid feeling that I could knock it out of my head as I was watching it. So I had to share that, even though it just makes me look like an idiot. [00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah, you're great. [00:12:18] Speaker B: There's a distinctly unique scene in the movie which is about this alien ship. They're going down into the ship and they're exploring it, and you see what the ship is made of and how its design is, and it's kind of. It's very exotic and foreign. And of course, we see what later in the franchise will discover is the engineers and they come down into the eggs and they see, like, that laser field over it with the mist and all these eggs and the. The vines growing off of the eggs and this very creepy environment. We don't see that environment again in the movie. We will later in the franchise. But it was a really cool scene. What did you guys think about that when he's coming down on that wire? I kind of want to get Will's perspective on this. Specifically when he's coming down on that wire and he's entering into that field and walking around. What did you. What do you think about that? [00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I enjoyed that scene. I enjoyed all of the alien planet and the ship and everything. The only thing I didn't understand, and that's mainly maybe because of doing research after, is like, the. The planet itself is where the aliens the egged aliens reside and the ship that was there was a different alien species that happened to come and then get destroyed by the aliens. Right. So it seemed odd that the hole in the ship led to what looked like part of the ship with alien eggs all throughout it. It looked great and I love the look of all of it, but I just. I was confused because it seemed like, why would this alien ship house all these aliens if the aliens are taking it over and that whole thing? So it would just. That was like the confusing bit for me in this movie. Not that it took away from any of the enjoyable suspense and thrills, but. [00:14:16] Speaker C: Now maybe some of them quite some time. But I feel like that's going to get answered later on in the franchise. Is that right? [00:14:22] Speaker B: That's. [00:14:22] Speaker A: That's fine. But here's the problem. It shouldn't have to be answered later in the franchise. It should be. We should be talking about this movie and what we see because it's the first. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:14:32] Speaker C: Totally fair. Totally fair. [00:14:34] Speaker B: It. It didn't make any sense that there's acid burns in the floor for them to crawl down through the hole to get to these eggs. And so there is a big mystery to it. Yes, they do kind of discuss some of that and explain some of that in the David trilogy. I'm sorry, it's the David. Well, it's two movies, whatever we call that. Sorry, it's two movies, but they did green light Ridley Scott to do a third one and finish up the David trilogy, which I'm hoping they will. And they explained some of that in there. But. But I. I agree there's kind of. There's like a lot of unanswered questions, but for me, going through that sequence, it made a story, this unknown stuff, and why. And I'm curious. They didn't bother answering it in this one and I'm okay with that. It just made me feel like, oh, there's more to this, but there just. [00:15:23] Speaker A: Isn'T for us to tell. Leave a bad taste in my mouth. It was more just like, oh, this doesn't quite add up, but. But again, it's all for an alien mumbo jumbo. So it doesn't have to. It's just because it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make mean. It doesn't make sense to their society and their ways and whatever. Right. I just felt off a little bit. For me, that's fair. [00:15:46] Speaker C: I think that it's a mystery on purpose and you don't necessarily need it or want it to be fully explained, because that kind of leads to the question mark of what is the alien? And where did it come from? And all that other stuff. Like, you see the. I think they're called engineers, although we don't know that yet. But, like, the giant engineer sitting in the chair that's had, like, his chest bursted out, right? Yeah. So clearly the alien has infected him. It's hibernated inside of him. It's burst its way out. Maybe some of the other crew members, the other engineers or whatever killed it. We know they bleed acid. The acid drips down, goes through the floorboards. The real question is if I don't think. Well, we're getting really way too in the weeds. We can talk about this more in the seconds episode, which goes into, like, queens and biology and all that other stuff. Exactly. Yeah. [00:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:28] Speaker C: Right here, right now. I. There's a lot of unanswered questions in this movie, but it doesn't bother me because their questions they wouldn't reasonably know because even if they found, like, a log from these engineers, it would be worse for me if they could understand what the engineers were saying than that they just wouldn't understand what happened here. [00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:16:46] Speaker B: I don't. I hate when a movie over explains things I'd rather not know than. Or try and figure it out for myself, come up with my own fan theories. And we talk about them going to the spaceship, finding the eggs. Of course, they get attached with the facehugger, and it brought. And it's brought onto the ship a little bit of some movie trivia. The writers didn't really know. They wanted to have a monster movie in space, but they didn't know how to get the alien onto the spacecraft. And so they said, let's impregnate somebody on the planet. Well, how are we gonna do that? Well, they. They actually wanted to impregnate someone, but they didn't want to have like a love scene with an alien or anything as controversial as a female being or anything like that. So they. [00:17:32] Speaker A: They warnings. [00:17:34] Speaker B: They invented the face hugger to implant and ingest. To ingest whatever into someone. And they specifically chose a male character so it wouldn't be a cliche, but they did want it to have that kind of almost sexual aspect and really, really horrific kind of, you know, being violated. And so that's how the facehugger came to be. Just. They just created that because they wanted it to get onto the spaceship. Which then leads us to one of the most iconic scenes in cinema, which is the chest Bursting scene. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. I asked earlier, before we started recording if we wanted to put trigger warnings in here and guess who Dan said for what? There's nothing for trigger warnings in this movie. It's alien. [00:18:23] Speaker B: Sorry guys. [00:18:24] Speaker A: And then obviously Brian knows what I'm talking about. [00:18:28] Speaker C: Okay, explain to me why you want a trigger warning for this episode but not for the vine scene in Evil Dead. Just explain that to me and make it make sense. [00:18:38] Speaker A: It's not that I didn't want it. I thought you would put it there, obviously. Whereas I didn't know if we would actually talk about this here. We're in two different areas of this movie. One, the face hugger and two, the rolled up porno mag are obvious references to or forced sexual, you know, implied sexuality there. And, and, but we didn't have to talk about that here. In Evil Dead it's pretty well known and I would assume you would just put a trigger warning in. So that's why I asked prior to this one. [00:19:16] Speaker C: I guess. I don't know. Maybe this is saying more about me than it should. Porno magazines don't make me think of or forced sexuality in any way, shape or form. I mean you kind of got to go down that road pretty hard. This is all going to get cut in the edited version. You got to go down that road pretty hard to want that one. I, I mean, I guess I get what you're saying. Like it's, it's effectively sticking its down their throat but like it's until literally. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Impregnation that that's not what what is. It's not like he bought him a. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Bought him a meal first specifically wanted this kind of thing. The same thing with the world of porno mag. They, they wanted that sexual tension in the film. And I, I, I think it's worth noting. But, but yeah, we're trying to stay away from some of these words, but we're getting into these graphically like a horror movie and then of course the Aliens franchise. So maybe we'll have to trim and cut or Dan will have to trim and cut some stuff. [00:20:15] Speaker C: We. Yeah, yeah. I can't wait for you to start helping out. Will Brian me wants to pay us well. [00:20:23] Speaker B: He's like, I want you guys to start doing the editing. [00:20:27] Speaker C: Quick. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Anyway, in my mind, yes, I, I feel like specifically a man being incubated first with the face hugger was to take away the power of man. Men had hold this power being like we're the ones that can impregnate people. We hold the power of that, and, and doing that to a man specifically, not a woman. One thwarts the cliche and two kind of demasculates men a little bit, which makes it scary that, oh, shit, something could just do that to me. And I am the, the host of the. Of the pregnancy, which is like crazy and scary to think about for men, I feel. And women are over there laughing. Be like, now you know how it feels. You son of a. And I, I kind of enjoy that. I really like the way that the movie did that and kind of flow. Flip things on men specifically. Not that this is like a feminist piece at all, obviously. Although, that being said, I did enjoy that the writers specifically made the. All the characters in the, in the script unisex when they wrote it. They said. And they had a clause in their script saying, like, we have named them all and gave them all names and referred to them as he's in the script. But they're all unisex. You can change the names, you can change the genders of all of the characters, which they did, obviously, for a couple of them, which was awesome. I found. I found that very great. [00:22:00] Speaker B: And we do see throughout the entire franchise these subtle tones of sexual themes. Giger himself has a lot of art that is very provocative in that. And they do have a little bit of this subtle feminist undertones. I've said time and time again that Ellen Ripley is probably the most powerful female lead I've ever seen in all the cinema. I love her in this franchise in almost all of them. I think she's amazing. I don't think it feels like a forced agenda in this movie. I think it makes it very scary as a man to watch this. And also empowering having a strong female lead where it's. It's not about the gender, it's just people being badass. And you drop all this, well, is it a male, is it a female or anything? Like you said, with them doing these neutral roles, it could be anybody. Everybody talks, you know their last name. You know, it's Ripley, not Ellen. Everybody calls her Ripley. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:23:07] Speaker B: And so I really enjoy that about this movie. And when people say, oh, there were no strong leads in the 80s and 90s, I go, no, no, no, no, no, no. Alien just took the crown of all time for this. And, and you're, you're going to see more of these, more of that subtlety with feminism throughout the franchise. A lot of different things, especially in Alien 2 when, when you have mother, daughter, you have the queen with her eggs and things like that. And we'll get into that next time. But there is the foundation of that all starts here with Alien. And I think that's important to point out that, that they really wanted to make this somewhat neutral and, and really scary for men especially and not be cliche at all. [00:23:51] Speaker C: That's a very fair point. They. Even one of the other things they. To. To add to your point, I guess, more so than going a different direction. Even the, the main computer, what they rely on to do, all of their communications with the outside world, all their processing, all that stuff is. He's called Mother. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Right. [00:24:08] Speaker C: So like, just to add to the. [00:24:10] Speaker A: There's. There's so many references to it and I, I believe there was a great job done by Ridley Scott at the beginning of the movie. You see all the characters being birthed from their pods and it's very white, it's peaceful, it's serene. It's. [00:24:27] Speaker B: The pods are arranged in a flower. Yeah. [00:24:29] Speaker A: They wake up very peacefully. It's like idealistic birthing. And then it just adds to the terror and horror of the alien birthing scene later. That is messy and full of blood and just chaos. And, And I just love that. Just, just a position there. It's. It's super fun. And they do that. He does that multiple times. Like even the first meal scene that they have is light hearted. They're chatting, they're joking, they're having a good time. Which lulls you into this false sense of security for the second meal. That shit hits the fan or blood hits the wall, I guess in this case. And so I love, I love that the setup to get to hit home that scene and just catch the audience off guard. It's just superbly done. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Speaking of that scene, Dan, when you first saw this, everybody kind of remembers the first time they saw the chest burster scene. Do you remember, like the first time you saw this scene and how it made you feel? Was it. Was it as impactful to you as it was for me and I assume Will as well? [00:25:36] Speaker C: I don't know that. I do remember the first time that I saw this scene because it's a little too. It's a little too old. In the same way where like Darth Vader revealing that he's Luke's father or the Terminator in Terminator 2 becoming a good guy. Like, they're so played up in pop culture, by the time that I actually got time to see. See this movie, I already had seen that scene. I already knew about it. You know what I mean? [00:26:00] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:00] Speaker C: And it doesn't have the same impact. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Before they got to this one. [00:26:04] Speaker C: Exactly right. So I don't know that I remember this scene having that big of an impact the very, very first time you saw it. But that's not to say it doesn't have an impact even now when you watch it. Like, it's. It's so incredibly well done. And the fact that the Chess bro shoot, like, they had to do this scene a couple of times because it wasn't powerful enough to break through the shirt. And then they used that scene as part of it so that it just made it more violent as opposed to just appearing. It had to actually, like, try to get through. [00:26:34] Speaker B: They had 40 minutes of footage of that thing banging through the chest. [00:26:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And it just kind of added to how horrific this was. Like, it's not a quick death. Like, he died slow for a while. And I thought that's disgusting and horrible, but also, like, really cool and well done. The practical effects on this one, I mean, you know, we've talked about this before in other movies. All of us are big fans of practical effects. They hold up really, really well. It's a little bit goofy, but it's a whole lot cooler than, like, some CG thing that looks horrendous would have been. You know what I mean? Like, it. It lives for real in that world. Silly as it might look, it lives there and it's cool. [00:27:12] Speaker A: I agree with that. [00:27:13] Speaker C: The. [00:27:14] Speaker A: The chest burster alien probably looks the cheesiest, but the Face Hugger stands up. [00:27:22] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:27:23] Speaker A: The Face Hugger is just a thing of beauty. [00:27:27] Speaker B: It's on the poster of Romulus because it is such a vivid image and so scary, it's become iconic. It's a giant spider with a tail that grabs you by the face. Like, it's horrifying. Yeah. [00:27:40] Speaker A: Or hands. [00:27:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Like you can see its fingers. Right. Like so it gives it that almost human quality, but still being very much an alien, unknown species that you have no idea what it's capable of. But you know what a strong grip it's going to have because of those long fingers and the tail around the neck, all amazing. And then when they open it up underneath and they use real animal parts, intestines, hearts, oysters, all kinds of things to make it look like there's no other way to make it look that real. It looks so real because it is real pieces of animal. Right. So I. I just can't say enough good things about the practical effects on the Face Hugger. Not so much. The other two hold up but overall, the effects in this movie hold up really well. [00:28:37] Speaker C: Yeah. I thought the alien itself looked pretty decent until the little, like, mouth alien started coming out. That looked a little bit silly to me. But the actual alien suit, I thought, looked okay. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:49] Speaker A: And you said it before, Dan. They. They give it the Jaws treatment. Right. There's only about four minutes of Alien in this movie, and that's to its benefit because it is a guy in a suit. And Scott wanted to get away from that. He's like, I don't want a guy in a suit alien. So they purposely. [00:29:06] Speaker B: They wanted imagination or something. Right. And they ended up finding some guy who is 6 foot 10 and super duper skinny. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker B: And they. They. He couldn't sit down. They made a special harness for him to lay in because he couldn't sit down and he needed to take a break, so he would, like, swing in this harness laying on his chest. It was. It was really interesting. I. I think the practical effects, what they did were really solid. Yeah. The. The little alien running away wasn't amazing. [00:29:40] Speaker C: It's also so short. Who cares? [00:29:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. But. But the bursting of the chest up until the moment when it actually pops out and looks around and it's like, on a little swivel stick, and it kind of looks a little dumb, but the. The. The. [00:29:52] Speaker A: The. [00:29:52] Speaker B: Oh, everything leading up to it's just so horrifying. And then, you know, all those scenes of that guy laying. Sir Edmund. Whatever his name was, laying on the. The table with the face hugger on his face. Just. You just. It's just scary, man. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Very, very good. [00:30:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Now, what did you think about the. Jerry. I think it's Jerry Goldsmith did the sound for this movie. I personally, I was listening to the soundtrack at work just to, like, remind myself, and I was like, this is. Is pretty solid even without the rest of the movie there. Like, the ten speeds are tense. The lighter pieces are. Are beautiful. It's. It. It does a great job of adding to the claustrophobia of this movie. And the sound in the movie, the sound, like the dripping water constantly, the chains rattling, just enough noise to give you deniability that you wouldn't be able to hear something crawling up behind you. I think they did a really, really good job with this. They. They really did make it feel like a natural environment, despite the fact that nothing around you is natural in the space station. [00:30:56] Speaker A: I agree. I mean, I'm not as honed in on sound, I think, as Dan is with these things, but. [00:31:03] Speaker C: Which is why I had to Go back and listen to the soundtrack. [00:31:05] Speaker A: So no, no, that's fine. And more power to you. Like sound, it does play an important part. And especially in horror movies like this. Like, the sound can either bring you closer in or can completely take you out. And I agree that the soundscape in this movie is great, 100%. [00:31:21] Speaker B: I think it was very well done. I wouldn't say masterfully done, but it was above average. It helped. It helped in a lot of ways. I've seen things done better, but it was. It was really, really good. I don't really have any complaints about it. I think there were a couple of times when they have to edit some dialogue into a scene, you know, where. Where they'll show a person's back and they add some words that they didn't really say in that scene because they need to. To cut something out, but they still need to know why it have. Or whatever. There are a few of those and you can hear the audio difference because they didn't have the skills, the equipment to make it sound just right. And I wouldn't know that if I didn't do sound audio editing to my own videos and stuff like that. Nowadays when I watch reality television and stuff, I see when they do all these weird cuts and edits and it takes me out of the programming so much. And so I do notice that in movies now, but I don't think the average viewer would catch many of those things. As to some of the sound effects, they have some iconic sound effects that they started in Alien, and you hear some of those effects being reused throughout the entire franchise. And it's because they're good. They're good sound effects. And so they do try and reuse them a lot. And I think for the most part that's pretty good. There are a couple of sounds in later, later movies that they play a few too many times, but that's later movies. For this one, yeah. Solid scores on. On all the scoring and sound effects. [00:32:52] Speaker C: I think the. There's a couple of times where the voices are coming through the radios that are incredibly hard to hear, or at least I found them really hard to hear. And you could ding that for the movies to the movies. Negative. But I think that kind of adds to. I. I can't just. Like this is the word of the day, but the claustrophobia of the movie, right? Like you can't. You can communicate with other people, but it's not great communication. And like, I don't get the impression you could whisper over that. So if you are Being stalked or you think something is near you, you couldn't try and like communicate quietly. Like it is kind of an all or nothing communication system. But that wasn't really what I was thinking about. I was thinking more about the actual music itself. I think he does a really good job with sort of a less is more style in this. Like, it would have been so easy to rip you out of this movie by putting in a bombastic soundtrack. And instead it's always kind of like quiet, subtle in the background. I. I really do. Like, this isn't a soundtrack. Like I said, I was listening to it today at work, literally just to remind myself this is not an Indiana Jones or a Jurassic park or a Star wars that like, stays with you. [00:33:49] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:33:49] Speaker C: But I think for what this movie is and what they're trying to accomplish, having this style of soundtrack really does do it a better favor than having like all the aliens soundtrack would have done. You know, I mean, like, if there was a legit, like, like if there was a song when the alien came on screen or when the alien was nearby, that would have been horrendous. [00:34:08] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:34:10] Speaker C: Yep. [00:34:12] Speaker B: I think if anything, those, those sound systems that you talk about, how they're talking over the radio or like in the beginning when Ash is watching them on the monitors as they go into the alien ship and everything keeps breaking up and no one can see or hear, understand what's going on, including the viewer, which. Right, that's. That's why they do it. They want you to not be able to see stuff. So you're like squinting and really into it and you're really paying attention because you want to grasp everything. But that kind of falls apart on the does it hold up Question. Because we're talking about the future here. And like I've got those monitors, cell reception than they have on their super duper futuristic spaceship. So it's kind of, it's kind of frustrating. [00:34:52] Speaker C: I guarantee you this thing right here is way smarter than Mother or any technology. [00:34:59] Speaker B: Of computer banks. Oh, and there's something I wanted to bring up. Speaking of mother, why is it in every room they go into in this, there are sheets of just perfectly rode out lighting up buttons that are flashing in weird patterns that don't have any names or numbers by them at all? It's so annoying. That was kind of a thing they did in the 80s with like, you know, what was that show? Danger Will Robinson. You know, all those old. Right. Lots of space. All those old ones, they had those weird like banks and rows of Flashing lights that just, just kind of, that really kind of took me out of it. Thankfully in isolation. The video game, they do away with a lot of that. They still have the same aesthetic, but they like tone down all those weird stupid flashing lights. And so that, that kind of bothered me as I was watching this movie this time recently. And I'm kind of really paying attention to things. I'm like, those are so cheesy and fake and they do not hold up very well at all. [00:35:55] Speaker C: I agree with you. But at the same time, the sound equipment, the computers, the, the dashboards, like all of it does feel like it comes from the same universe. Like if the computers they were using were that broken ass and then like their sound system was perfect, that might feel a little bit weird. Right? [00:36:13] Speaker A: Like, Right. [00:36:13] Speaker C: This movie, more so than a lot of the sci fi that was coming out at this time, 1979, feels like a realistic version of the future. Yeah. Right. Whereas like Star wars, they are traveling at light speed everywhere they go. Star Trek, they're traveling like 10 times light speed everywhere they go. This one they're like, okay, we're gonna get there eventually, but we're gonna freeze ourselves so we can actually, you know, be alive by the time we get where we're going. Like, it felt like it took what we know of. Of science. Yeah, great way of putting it. And I like that about it. I like that quite a bit about it. It felt more like a realistic word even what they're doing, like they're going somewhere to mine the planet and they're talking like the one guy, Parker, I think his name is, like most of his dialect is just, are we getting paid for this? We gotta be okay. We better get paid for this. I ain't doing this if we ain't getting paid. Like, I work with those people. That makes sense to me versus like Star Trek is so. I love Star Trek, don't get me wrong. But it's so whitewashed. Not whitewashed, that's racial. [00:37:17] Speaker B: But like, don't worry about paychecks. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. [00:37:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:21] Speaker C: And it's like that doesn't feel like humanity will ever get there. [00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:25] Speaker C: I mean, whereas this feels like. Yeah, I could see humanity doing that. Yeah. Going somewhere and stealing the resources. Sounds about right. Just fly the British flag, we're good to go. [00:37:34] Speaker A: Well, this was kind of deemed as like truckers in space. Right. Like I, I feel like they did a great job of making these characters your kind of blue collar everyday people so that we could relate to, even though they're Space travelers. Right. Again, it grounds it. It makes it plausible. We can understand that. And here's something I always do with older movies. 1979, what have you that are based in the future. As I'm always in my mind, I have to do this just as a rule of thumb. It might not be our future. Their technology advancements in different ways than our technology will advance, giving them different looking technology that might be. Hey, they focus hard on space travel, so their ships are able to go through space and, you know, go through meteor belts and whatever it is, asteroid belts. But maybe they got small ass monitors and not the best communication system. So I just feel like that's how I like to go into movies that are dated, but try to paint a future that obviously doesn't hold up nowadays. And it lets me, like, you know, believe it a little bit more. [00:38:50] Speaker B: I'm just recently getting into that same mind frame now because I'm watching things that are intentionally alternative futures or alternative pasts. And I've never really let myself get into those kind of things. But now with shows like Fallout or something where it's in the future, but it's definitely not. Not our future. And my brain is now training to. [00:39:11] Speaker A: To. [00:39:12] Speaker B: To. To make those intuitive leaps in cinema, and so I can enjoy that. And that's probably something I should attempt to do more often. [00:39:20] Speaker C: Fair. Now, as far as the actual idea of this movie goes, we talked a lot during the Predator franchise about just like, oh, it's just one alien versus a bunch of people. He's getting cool kills. You could arguably say this is the same, but this has a very different aesthetic to it. This feels much more like a cl. There's that word again. Like a horror movie as opposed to like an action movie. Right. There's no. As much as Ripley is a strong character, she's not an Arnold Schwarzenegger character just grabbing a machine gun. Not yet, at least. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:39:46] Speaker C: And just ripping the aliens apart. As far as the plot of this movie goes, does it hold up for you guys? Well, like, basically just here's an alien in space. We don't know much about it. It's gonna ruin the crew. Go like, there's. There's not much to this movie. Despite how much I like about this movie and despite how much this movie says sets up a future franchise that I'm not entirely convinced they thought they were doing when they were making this movie. But at its barest of bones, this is just monster movie in space. Does that work for you guys? Is that something you're Looking for. Is that fun for you? [00:40:15] Speaker A: I. [00:40:16] Speaker B: At its barest bones, it is a monster movie in space. But I believe that this was a very well thought out plot. They went through it and said, hey, how come, you know, we don't want to have this invincible monster that can't be destroyed? So how do we make it that they don't just shoot the thing? Oh, let's give it acid for blood. Which makes it just amazing. It's just huge. How are we going to get this thing on the ship? How are we going to get this thing out of the ship? All these different things and different aspects of. Of. Of ideas that they wanted to implement in this. A lot of subtlety in here. And I think that, yeah, at its barest bones, it's a monster movie in space. But I think that the plot is so well done in the direction so well thought out that it's a winner for me. I really like the plot in here and I like that they have relatable characters. I like that Sigourney Weaver isn't an Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's badass because she's intelligent and hardworking. [00:41:20] Speaker A: She's. [00:41:20] Speaker B: She's flawed, she's scared. She's trying her best, but she's a great character and she's amazing to follow in this film. [00:41:29] Speaker C: What do you, Will? [00:41:30] Speaker B: I agree. [00:41:31] Speaker A: I feel this plot, because of its simplicity, holds up better than the Predator. And I believe Sigourney Weaver's character of Ripley is a better character than Arnold Schwarzenegger because she is more relatable. She's. She's smart, she's strong willed, she has fear throughout. And she doesn't, you know, she doesn't get to stand up and take control because of a tiered system of who's next in line to be captain. And I think that all added greatly to the character arc. And I feel like this movie does stand up better than, like, a Predator movie because of its simplicity. But Brian is completely accurate as well, that they had so much backstory that wasn't presented and so many details just in the scene settings, in the props and the costumes. Everything had a reason to be there. There was reasons for everything in this movie, and the writing backed it. And that's what made this a very well put together movie and one that has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. [00:42:45] Speaker B: Correct me if I'm wrong, Will, but didn't the original cut of this movie have, like, almost four hours long? Long or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker A: They had to edit it. Down. And Dan mentioned earlier that there's not a lot of blood and things like that. I believe they cut a lot of that. There was lots of blood and in the kills, but they cut a lot to not get an X rating or an unrated rating. They wanted to keep an R rating as well. So there's multiple reasons why they cut the film down. And I think to the benefit, I do too. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:14] Speaker C: Funnily enough, I was watching this, and after I was watching, I was like, I've seen, I think gory or PG13 movies, and this is for rated R. But I wasn't. I'm not really good at paying attention to the language, as you probably heard. I swear a lot. So maybe that's what it is. Like, I know you can only have so many F bombs before you. You have to go rated R. So maybe that's what gave it its R rating. [00:43:34] Speaker A: But also some different standards right from now, present day to 1979. So that also has some effects. [00:43:42] Speaker B: It's horrifying. It's scary as shit. It builds tension and makes you go away going, you know, and they didn't need a ton of blood to do it. They did it through execution of great storytelling, good character building, and amazing ideas and fundamentals. [00:44:00] Speaker C: The shadows are scarier than the blood will ever be. [00:44:03] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:44:03] Speaker B: 100%. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Knowing it's out there without seeing it, it's. Yeah, it's great. Can I talk about my favorite character in this movie? [00:44:12] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:44:13] Speaker C: Absolutely. Why do you love Jonesy so much? [00:44:16] Speaker A: I love Ash so much. The Android is second to Ripley. Ripley's amazing. But I just love this Android in the movie. I love when you're first watching it, you have no idea. And then it comes and you're like, wow, what a. What a cool integration into this movie. And it all. It hits all the marks. And then on re watches, you get to really watch him and you get to see him processing things differently than other people. And it. It allows for reviewings of this movie just to watch him and see what he's actually thinking. In the scenes where you're like, oh, everybody's on the same page here, but he's like three steps ahead. And it's so cool to me how they executed that. And it really pays off for the character. I feel. [00:45:06] Speaker B: I'm with Will 100% on that. I think Ash's character, especially the rewatch, that's. It's. It's fun to rewatch and see. And he is definitely looking at things different than the rest of the characters. You don't really catch it the first time through, but watching it again, you can see that this, this actor put the work in. I remember the first time I saw it when he first hits his head and he's bleeding the white Android blood milk or whatever. Yeah. And I haven't. I have no idea what's going on. I'm like, did she hit him with a jug of milk? Like, what is that? You know? And I. And. And then. And then, like, they knock his head off. And I was like, these are terrible special effects. Why'd that guy's head fall off? And why is his blood white? I was so confused, you know, and after re. Watches, I'm just like, oh, wow. That's why he's so twitchy and that's why he looks, you know, cross at this scene. And that's. Oh, wow. I didn't notice all this stuff. It's a. It's a great time going back and rewatching it. I also like, who's the other female character in it? Not Ripley, but Lambert. Yeah, Lambert. Thank you, Lambert. I think Lambert does an excellent job of being afraid and just like, let's just get the hell out of here. [00:46:13] Speaker A: Speaking her mind. [00:46:14] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I thought she did an excellent performance. Performance. I, I don't have a problem with any of the acting from any of the characters in this film, but I thought Lambert did a really good job of just being that. That. That voice. That's batshit crazy. And I, I hesitate to say that female. That's batshit crazy because they did do the gender neutral ideas when they wrote the script. And so each of them freak out in their own ways. You know, Ash is the only one who doesn't actually freak out. He's just acting really weird and you don't know why until later. [00:46:44] Speaker C: Well, because he's not worried about self preservation and he's got his own mission going on. [00:46:47] Speaker B: 100. And he knows what's going on because he's been sent word from the company of why they're waking up early, why they're off course, why they went to this signal. He knows all of it. He knows the special order that came in. And so. And by the way, that special order is. Is going to be an interesting topic as we go through the franchise. [00:47:07] Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting to me, like, because. Because Ripley is such a strong, smart character and realistically all she's doing is her job properly. Like, if they'd actually just listened to her, Kane dies and that's it. Everybody else is totally fine. And they leave. But because the Android has its missions, its own mission that nobody else knows about, that's what really sets this mission, the. The whole crew off down to die, essentially. Like, yeah, Kane's exploring an egg, which is weird all on its own. We didn't really touch on that. But, like, why? He's just like, oh, let me look closer at this alien face first into. [00:47:41] Speaker A: It was a little weird, but, you know, plausible. You know, you're like, super into it. You're just interested. This thing just opens up like you're curious. Why not? [00:47:50] Speaker C: I mean, it was more believable to me than kids picking up a book of the dead and going up and reading it in Latin for the very first time. Like, it's like, okay, I can understand being curious about an egg. I. But that's fine. Whatever. Yeah. [00:48:02] Speaker B: And it would make sense to have Ash go down there and really want to go find the eggs, but then he wouldn't be impregnated, because they can't impregnate. You know, it has to be a living material, a living host. And so they had to have Kane go do it. Now, Kane isn't the science officer, but he does show a lot of interest in the ship and in some of the scenes that they took out. He seems very excited and like, hey, this is a monumental find and I'm in. I want to go. I want to see it to its fullest. We can't stop now. We got to keep going. Kind of attitude that really carries him through it. There were a couple of scenes that they removed that I wish they would have kept that added to it. But of all the deleted scenes that I've. I've seen, most of them didn't really add much, and some of them took away from the story a lot. [00:48:44] Speaker C: I gotta say, them on the alien planet, though, when they're walking up to that ship, you just kind of see it in the distance and it's like. I don't say it's great, but like, there's a lot of wind and like, stuff like, something about that shot just hit me on such a primal level. I'm just like, man, I wish I was born 500 years ago. I want to get excited, explore. Stuff like that is so freaking cool. I. I know it ends poorly for them all, but I'm still just like, oh, I'd love to be a part of that. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Oh, well, Dan wants to be a pioneer. You could go deep sea diving. I guess there's still lots down there we don't know about. [00:49:18] Speaker B: SpaceX, baby. Maybe you can get to Mars. We'll see. [00:49:21] Speaker C: We'll see. All right, that's our look at Alien. We're gonna go over the final scores. Will, what is your overall score? Or Alien? [00:49:28] Speaker A: Alien final score for me is a straight 90. It's a great horror movie that has sci fi in it. Regrettably, I'm not a sci fi guy, but the two cohorts here are, so I'm sure they love this movie more than I do. But I cannot give it not, I can't not give it high marks. It's got great suspense. It's got great horror. It's got great story, most importantly, great acting, most importantly. And it holds up great because of those things. This movie. If you haven't seen this movie, go see this movie immediately. And we ruined it completely for you here. But it is still worth watching a hundred times over. That's all I have. [00:50:11] Speaker C: Was. Was that a score? You didn't give a number. [00:50:14] Speaker A: I gave it a number at the start right off. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Solid 90. Oh, sure, Dan. [00:50:20] Speaker A: Who's got to edit this now? Dan? [00:50:22] Speaker C: I have to edit a lot. All right, calm down. [00:50:24] Speaker A: I give this a 90, Dan, if you want to put it at the end, this is a solid 90 for me. It hits all, all the marks. I like it. I like it a lot. A lot. I like it a lot. Is that better? Should I quote other movies while rating this? [00:50:42] Speaker C: Please, dear. Guts up. All right, Brian, what do you got? [00:50:47] Speaker A: Please go there. [00:50:48] Speaker C: Have some more. [00:50:49] Speaker A: More Alien. [00:50:50] Speaker B: I, I actually, since. Since Will said he fell asleep five times during this movie, I was a little worried his numbers were going to come in way low. But actually, I'm coming in under Will. I'm giving this an 82. The reason I'm not as high up on the score as, as Will is on this one is because I wasn't as excited about the music, especially as Dan, and I didn't think it held up quite as well as Will says. It holds up some of the aesthetics. Like I said, the lights and stuff didn't. Didn't kind of took me out of it and really kind of jolted me. Some of the music was a little bit too intense at times, and some of the special effects sounds didn't line up as well as I wanted them to. That's not to say that they are bad by any means. They are still amazing and, and really, really above the average. And this is a fantastic movie in my book. I'm a huge fan of the franchise, obviously. And this is where it all Starts. There are other movies in the franchise that I enjoy more. This one has a few slow parts. Parts where I'm kind of like, okay, come on, get to it. For me, that. That kind of held it back a little bit. But I'm. I mean, I'm really just saying there's kind of some rough edges is all. And this movie coming out way before its time, pushing the boundaries of science fiction, horror as scaring the crap out of people while they're in space. I think it's a fantastic movie, but my. My final score comes in at 82 for Alien. [00:52:27] Speaker C: That's really interesting on both of your parts. I'm a little. I'm a little shocked on both of you, but I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. [00:52:34] Speaker A: Why? Oh, give yours. [00:52:35] Speaker C: And then. Well, let me. Let me get. Let me do this the right way, and then we'll get into all that nonsense. [00:52:40] Speaker A: We're far beyond doing it the right way. [00:52:42] Speaker C: Shut up, Will. Everything's going exactly according to plan. It's fine. This is perfect. It's. It's all good. [00:52:48] Speaker B: Everything's fine here. [00:52:50] Speaker C: Everything's fine. It's all fine. How are you doing? Oh, it was a boring conversation anyways. That's a Star wars quote. I'm having a great time. Calm down. All right. So for me, I really did enjoy this movie. I think the soundtrack's actually really strong. It's not perfect by any means. It's. There's nothing really memorable about the soundtrack, but I also feel like that kind of does work to its benefit because you don't necessarily want to have a theme every time the aliens pops out. It's kind of nice that it just adds to the atmosphere of this movie. I think a lot of sound effect works really well. Even the sound that is, quote, unquote, bad, like some of the radios, I still think adds to the overall feel of this movie. This movie is a very dirty movie, and I feel like that kind of works for it. As far as the cinematography goes, we have a couple of scenes, stuff like that, like where the alien's little mouth doesn't look quite right. The. The little jumping out of the chest looks amazing, but then skidding across the floor looks weird. But so much. This movie does hold up. Even the models in space on a 4K television little. Look a little kooky, but I like it. It looks better than bad CGI from 1979 would look. And I'm kind of happy they never went back and did like the Star wars special edition. Thing and try to change things and clean it up. It has a certain cinematic feel to it that I really do appreciate. The cast and crew in this one is damn near perfect. I think they're all just doing fantastic jobs. I like that none of them are super famous actors that take you out of it. Nobody's got a catchphrase or a line or anything like that. It. It feels like they legitimately feel like a crew. You know what I mean? I don't get the feeling these people are like best friends or family members, but they're all like co workers. They get along well enough, you know what I mean? It. It has a good. They passed the vibe check for if that even makes sense. I don't know. Young generation stuff. The plot of this movie is very, very basic, but it works so perfectly for what it is. It is just a monster movie in space. It does spin into bigger topics down the road. Like this does branch into a large franchise. But for what it is for this movie, and this could have been the only one, and I think it still would have been an absolute classic that we would still go back and watch to this day. There's unanswered questions, but they doesn't really matter. It kind of adds to the overall feel of this movie. If we never found out who that engineer was at the very beginning, I don't think any of us would have a problem with that. It would still just be a really cool cinematic set piece that we discovered this alien spacecraft. As far as my overall enjoyment of this movie, it is a little bit slow coming in from 1979. It does kind of have that Jaws feeling where you love it because it has that slow build up to this monster you don't get to see for most of the movie. But also watching this in 2024, you are used to things happening so much faster. And it does kind of feel like they're trickling important information to you over the first hour or so. I think the face hugger scene is like 50 minutes into this movie. Like it takes a long time before you see anything truly alien happen. And then when it does, you're kind of in terror mode for the rest of the movie. So the enjoyment of this one was mildly lower than, say, some of the films are coming in the near future. But I still did really, really like it. I do think this is an absolute classic. And even if you're not really big into alien horrors, I still think this is one you should see just so you know what people are talking about, because it really is worth it. I gave this an 84, which I thought was actually pretty high, and turns out it's almost the lowest score here. Will coming in, the most negative person rocking a score of 90, bringing our first ever episode of our rating of Alien in with a score of 85 for the franchise so far. Now it's only one movie. It'll change as more come out. How do you feel about that score so far, guys? Brian, what about you? Do you think that's a little low, a little high? How do you feel about it? It's only one movie in. [00:56:35] Speaker B: But still, you know what? I, I'm happy with that. I, I'm very critical of Alien because I'm such a fanboy for the entire franchise that I didn't want to be seen as giving this too many points. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Just because, oh my God, it's Alien. [00:56:52] Speaker B: But, like, I'm happy with my score. I'm a little surprised Will came in as high as he did, but I believe him. And your score as well, Dan? I'm happy with 85. I think it's a great place to start. And I do believe that we're gonna see some other solid scores and I think we're gonna have a lot of good, solid scoring for this franchise. So I'm not worried about it. I am kind of hoping that Alien will take the top slot as a franchise. [00:57:20] Speaker C: I was just about to ask, like, I've not seen Prometheus. I've not seen Romulus. I've. I think I've seen three in Resurrection, although I don't really remember. [00:57:29] Speaker B: Have you. You've not seen Covenant either? [00:57:31] Speaker C: I have seen Covenant once. [00:57:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:57:33] Speaker C: And I've seen Alien and Aliens quite a few times. Do you think this has, overall, as an entire franchise, the. The possibility to take the top space, Brian? [00:57:43] Speaker B: I, I definitely believe so. I definitely believe it has the ability to take the top space over. Mad Max is our number one slot right there. [00:57:51] Speaker C: I believe Mad Max and Predator are both tied currently. [00:57:54] Speaker B: Okay. And, and I'm, I'm, I'm great with those. Those are great franchises. I'm happy with all our scores so far. I, I do think that this franchise has the chops to carry. Mad Max had a single film that really pulled that entire franchise upwards. Whereas I think Alien has a lot of solid movies that are almost as good as that one in. In Mad Max. So what do you think? Hopeful. [00:58:19] Speaker A: I can't even believe you two really, like, you're the sci fi geeks. You love your little space travel and yet you're downing a perfectly amazing mov. No reason. So I don't know what to think anymore, to tell you the truth. I don't feel I've only seen. Let's be honest. I think I've only seen three of the Alien movies. [00:58:43] Speaker C: The first three. [00:58:44] Speaker A: I don't feel it's gonna hold up down the line with the newer ones, but maybe I'll be surprised. I feel like a lot of the times we're gonna fall in this, like, mid-70s to mid-70s range overall in a franchise because. Because you just naturally get the highs and lows, and it's gonna be driving Dan crazy forever. [00:59:03] Speaker C: I do to legitimately hate that we've got a tie for first place already. [00:59:07] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, we can rectify that by reviewing the newest Furiosa at some point. [00:59:12] Speaker C: We absolutely will. Just to finish that franchise off, get rid of that asterisk. But anyways, let's wrap this one up and we'll move on. We got a little movie quiz coming up. All right, that is our rating of Alien. Come back next week if you want to see what our rating is going to be of Aliens. And we'll go from there. Eventually, we'll have the entire franchise done. We'll have it scored up and on the leaderboard. What do you think of our review of Alien? Way too generous. Not generous enough. Let us know in the comments down below. We record this live over at Twitch tv, the Mongoolie Show. So head over there and hit the follow button if you want to hang out with us and talk to us while we're trying to have this conversation live. Or if you enjoyed this content, hit that like button. It does help out the channel quite a bit. And hit subscribe so you know where more great content like this drops. Until next time, have a great night, everybody.