Alien

0:23 Unknown Good evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.

0:26 Chris I'm Chris.

0:27 Adam Hey, I'm Adam.

0:30 Lee And we are here this evening for a friend and lovely of the show Claire for her birthday choice.

0:39 Lee she is not joining us she's not joining us this evening.

0:43 Lee But was very keen to see this film as she has now been welcomed to horror and has been desperate to see this.

0:50 Lee And I am I I I've got to admit in spite of what I may feel about this film, I'm surprised we've made it nearly 200 episodes and we haven't covered it yet.

1:01 Lee so we are here for 1979's Ridley Scott Alien.

1:08 Chris Yeah.

1:09 Adam Yes.

1:12 Lee And.

1:12 Adam So.

1:13 Chris It's a shock.

1:13 Adam Is a shock, isn't it?

1:14 Chris We can it's a shock we can get this far, but also a shock that someone can get this far without having seen Alien.

1:20 Chris Growing up in a sci-fi loving household, you know, so.

1:23 Lee Well, yeah.

1:24 Lee Yeah, but but again, for someone who was so very anti-horror, this film is like this film sits, I think, perfectly well in either camp sci-fi.

1:40 Adam Yes, yeah, yeah.

1:41 Chris Yeah, yeah, it really.

1:42 Lee Yeah.

1:42 Chris Yeah, really does.

1:43 Lee Yeah, it it fits both of them 100% and it's it's not often that you get a a film that isn't just a sci-fi film with some scary elements or a scary movie that is setting space.

1:51 Lee But but this I think is a that perfect amalgamation of the two.

1:56 Lee before we get into the movie, I would like to share with you a quick story if I may.

2:02 Lee linking back to our least haunted, but also linking into this evening's subject.

2:11 Lee So, as I was discussing with the guys, off of Mike earlier.

2:17 Lee I have just spent pretty much the last 60 hours in bed with the flu slash COVID.

2:22 Lee I mean, who knows because nobody tests anymore.

2:24 Lee I haven't got any.

2:27 Adam Who knows.

2:27 Lee Oh.

2:28 Adam Don't make your pain now.

2:29 Lee I'm not. No we spoilers and swearing.

2:31 Lee Just warn you.

2:32 Lee before I fucking forget, start getting into that.

2:35 Lee Anyway, so.

2:36 Adam After I say can't.

2:39 Lee so I have just yeah, slept for 60 hours.

2:44 Lee But I woke up at 5:00 this morning, for my obligatory every 8 hours waking up for a Pepsi Max and a piss.

2:57 Lee only since I've had the cold.

2:58 Lee Like that's not just how I live my general life.

3:02 Lee but yeah, so I came back from the bathroom and was admiring the moon because it was behind the clouds.

3:07 Lee And then I noticed.

3:09 Lee So my the back of my house, we have roads that run off at 90°, so my road runs parallel and it runs horizontal and the others run vertically against it as it were.

3:25 Lee And I can see behind my house two houses with two chimneys and between them, I can see a light.

3:33 Lee And it looks like it's a few miles away.

3:37 Lee And I just kind of noticed it.

3:40 Lee And every now and again it keeps blinking like super bright.

3:43 Lee And I was like.

3:45 Lee That's weird.

3:47 Lee So I thought, I'll sit and watch that.

3:49 Lee I've slept a lot, I can probably manage 10 minutes.

3:52 Lee And this light keeps blinking like so it's quite dull.

3:56 Lee And then every now and again it blinks like super brightly.

3:59 Lee And then it does a funny little figure of eight movement.

4:03 Lee Like super fast.

4:06 Lee And then it's just a dull light again.

4:08 Lee And then it's.

4:08 Lee And I was like, oh my god, this is it.

4:11 Lee This is this is the UFO.

4:13 Lee I've wanted to see all my life.

4:14 Lee And I ran downstairs and I got my phone and I came back up and I videoed it and it looked like dog shit as they always do when you film something like that.

4:21 Lee Miles away on your phone in the middle of the.

4:24 Lee So I must have watched this thing for about 15, 20 minutes.

4:27 Lee And I thought right.

4:28 Lee I'm going to go to bed and I'm going to get up in the morning.

4:32 Lee And I'm going to get my binoculars and I'm going to get up in the loft and I'm going to look at the skylight and I'm going to work out between those two chimneys roughly the direction I'm looking in.

4:45 Lee And I'm going to make sure that there's nothing I can see it's not like a crane or something that's got a light attached to it or whatever.

4:53 Lee And for some reason something's moving it or, you know, they're setting up a crane in the middle of the night.

4:56 Lee Who knows?

4:57 Chris That sounds like some good skeptical thinking you've got going on here.

5:00 Lee Yes.

5:01 Lee But but I was like but none of these things fit what I'm seeing.

5:04 Lee This is but I want to be 100.

5:05 Lee And I was like then I'll get Google Earth up and I'll look at a Google Maps, plot it out so I can make sure there's nothing in my eyeline.

5:12 Lee So I go back to sleep.

5:13 Lee And then I wake up this morning.

5:14 Lee And I woke up and I was like before you look, just lay there for a good 10 minutes and just allow your mind to remember exactly what you were seeing and exactly what it looked like.

5:22 Lee So I did all of that.

5:24 Lee And then I sat up and I looked out the window and I went, oh.

5:29 Lee It's a street light and the guts have fallen out of it.

5:32 Chris Oh.

5:34 Lee So it was the light hanging on the wire and assuming, I still couldn't see it, I could still only see the street light, but I could see the street light the top of it was exactly where it was.

5:43 Lee So obviously the light had fallen out and was pointing the other way, so I could only see the dim back of it and then when the wind blew it and it turned to me, that was when it was flashing and it's funny figure of eight was obviously when the wind blew it and it was blowing at the end of its cable.

5:59 Lee But it looked.

6:00 Chris I can imagine that probably did look pretty good at night.

6:04 Lee Yeah, again, so it's back to the thing we said about, you know, when people say they see stuff and we go, we don't believe it.

6:12 Lee So we think they're just fucking liars.

6:15 Lee Like it definitely is very easy to be tricked.

6:19 Chris Yeah, when how many follow up like you did?

6:22 Lee Yeah, we again, it's only because I I looked out and immediately went, where's the fucking lamp post there.

6:30 Lee I couldn't see the frame of the lamp post in the dark because it was too dark, so I had no idea that this that the light had been hanging underneath.

6:36 Chris And you can do that because it's near your house.

6:39 Chris But if it had been, you know, some distance where you'd been somewhere else.

6:42 Lee Well, this is the thing.

6:42 Lee It looked.

6:43 Chris You couldn't necessarily have been able to.

6:44 Lee It looked like a massive light that was about two or three miles away.

6:48 Lee But it wasn't, it was a street light 300 yards away.

6:50 Chris Facing the wrong way.

6:50 Lee Just the bulb hanging in the.

6:52 Adam Yeah.

6:53 Adam It was a bulb dangling in the wind.

6:57 Lee Bastard.

6:58 Lee Anyway.

6:58 Lee So yes.

6:59 Adam Beautiful song.

7:01 Lee So it wasn't thankfully morphs and I'm still not a believer, but anyway, that's my my alien story for the so, Chris, I'm assuming.

7:15 Chris

7:17 Lee Being the massive sci-fi nerd that you are, this is not the first time you've seen Alien.

7:23 Chris It's not, but it's 1979 and I didn't see this for a very long time, and I have mentioned this before.

7:34 Chris But I saw Aliens and loved that that was like just one of the best teenage films that, you know, that we watched as teenagers, like it was just it was the perfect blend of action, sci-fi.

7:52 Chris But not much horror in Aliens as we've said, and then yeah, I I can't remember actually when I first saw Alien.

7:59 Chris I I this is this may be the third time now.

8:05 Chris and yeah, so so what I did want to check was both of your backgrounds as well.

8:12 Chris With regards to did you see Alien first?

8:19 Adam I saw.

8:21 Adam Actually, I saw it really ass about tech.

8:23 Adam I saw Alien, Alien 3 and then finally saw Aliens.

8:29 Chris Oh, that's interesting.

8:30 Chris Okay.

8:31 Adam But Aliens was for certainly for me and Leeds sort of generation.

8:37 Adam I think was the big one because that was the one that came out in the video shop.

8:41 Adam And it was.

8:42 Adam Everyone had seen it.

8:43 Adam So, I hadn't, but I knew pretty much everyone had seen Aliens.

8:48 Adam So, yeah, at that point it was so, yeah, I saw it completely ass about tech.

8:52 Adam Because I saw a pirate of Alien 3.

8:58 Adam just just before it came out the cinema, so like 92.

9:02 Chris What what was the quality like? Because it's quite a dark film.

9:05 Adam It.

9:05 Adam Believe me it was it was shonky as it was just it looked as.

9:11 Chris Is there more to it or?

9:15 Adam I I can't remember to be honest all I do remember is my mate showed it to me.

9:19 Adam And fast forwarded through the credits so that all the explanation of how the fuck she's on the prison planet didn't actually make any sense.

9:31 Chris Yeah, could have.

9:32 Adam And then he had to spend the next 10 minutes keep interrupting all the action in the film to tell me what he could have what I could have believed by having seen it.

9:39 Adam Could have, yeah.

9:42 Adam Just without someone fast forwarding through the fucking opening.

9:45 Lee Without knowing who this was, what a pillock.

9:47 Adam Yeah.

9:50 Adam You do know yes, it was a bloody stupid thing, but but there we go.

9:55 Adam And yeah.

9:56 Adam So I saw Alien, Alien 3 then Aliens.

10:00 Adam Pretty much.

10:02 Adam After I saw basically it was like Alien 3, someone's got it around their house, let's all go and watch it.

10:08 Adam And then it's like I seen Aliens yet.

10:10 Adam So I then watched Aliens.

10:11 Adam But yeah, that was that was the way around I did it.

10:14 Chris I don't.

10:14 Chris Yeah, I don't think you necessarily needed to, but but yeah.

10:17 Chris Like so Lee.

10:18 Chris What what was your order of screening?

10:20 Lee Now, this is showing my cards early.

10:23 Lee so I saw Alien and went.

10:29 Chris Okay.

10:31 Lee And then that was it.

10:32 Chris I mean, you did you did give us that.

10:33 Chris Hint, which I was I was like, oh, this I'm shocked, but fair enough.

10:36 Chris Let's let's get into that when we do.

10:38 Lee When I watched it.

10:40 Lee I think I saw Aliens.

10:42 Lee Once.

10:43 Lee No.

10:43 Lee Did I?

10:47 Lee Yes, I think I did.

10:49 Lee And again, went and walked away and never came back.

10:53 Lee And then literally about five years ago.

10:55 Lee I had this conversation with my brother and we were like, yeah.

10:58 Lee I've watched them both once.

11:01 Lee like they were fine.

11:03 Lee Don't think I ever really need to go back and watch them again.

11:08 Lee Because I don't think I could give a shit.

11:09 Chris And and what was his response?

11:11 Lee His response was right.

11:13 Lee For Christmas, he bought me the Blu-ray box set of the anthologynology and he was like, you need to go back and rewatch them.

11:20 Chris Nice work Dean, fully on board with that.

11:22 Lee I've made a mistake.

11:23 Lee

11:25 Adam I I was fairly certain that that would have been D re action to be honest.

11:30 Chris Stop messing around Lee.

11:33 Lee And he was like, look, we can all be in a bad head space and make a mistake now and again.

11:40 Lee Let's not get caught up in it.

11:41 Lee But is the box set.

11:43 Lee Don't be a lemon or you liar.

11:45 Lee

11:46 Chris So we may find out some.

11:48 Lee So I rewatched all of them and I also wait.

11:56 Chris So all I'll go on.

11:58 Chris All five.

11:58 Lee All four.

12:00 Chris Four.

12:01 Chris Okay.

12:02 Lee And then went.

12:04 Lee And that was it.

12:06 Lee I went to the IMAX and watched Prometheus.

12:09 Chris Okay.

12:10 Lee But.

12:10 Lee Again, and this is the thing, I just I always yeah.

12:16 Lee It's it's not that I would say it's a shit film.

12:20 Lee I always go, oh, yeah.

12:21 Lee It's fine.

12:22 Lee But I never, I never owned it and it I never went, oh, I wish I could watch that now.

12:28 Lee And I've had it sitting on my shelf since Dean bought it for me.

12:31 Lee And I watched all of them in the space of about a week, pretty much night after night.

12:37 Lee And then put the box set away and have never given a shit again.

12:41 Lee And that's kind of.

12:42 Chris Oh.

12:42 Lee I I think it's Ridley Scott.

12:44 Lee If I'm honest.

12:46 Lee I I love like I love like there's so much behind the story.

12:52 Lee Sorry, I don't want to get all carried away.

12:54 Lee But I I wanna get.

12:55 Chris Yeah.

12:56 Lee Quickly.

12:57 Lee Like all the idea of the different stages of the xenomorph and the look of it and the feel of the spaceships and they're lived in and all of that is phenomenal.

13:08 Lee It's beyond question.

13:10 Lee The acting is amazing.

13:11 Lee The like everything is great.

13:15 Lee I can't I just can't stick his pacing.

13:17 Lee And you're going to hate me, but I'm the same with Blade Runner.

13:20 Chris Oh, yeah.

13:21 Lee I will say Blade Runner is amazing.

13:23 Lee I've still only seen it three fucking times.

13:26 Lee I own it four formats, but I've still only seen it three times.

13:30 Chris I do what I just just going to say.

13:33 Chris Quick side thing on that, right I heard someone say about Blade Runner, how impressed they were with Harrison Ford because he gave the best scene to.

13:40 Chris Rutger Hauer.

13:42 Chris And.

13:44 Chris I'd never thought of it that way, but it's like that is such an amazing scene.

13:48 Chris And yeah, Harrison Ford didn't get it, but yeah.

13:52 Adam But I think I think actually I mean, I'm I think it's I'm glad that it's very much it's not that you don't like it.

14:01 Adam It's just oh, it's a competently made film that passed the time as it were.

14:06 Adam You know what I mean?

14:07 Adam It's not like it's not something that has actively aggravated you.

14:11 Adam But I know what you mean.

14:12 Adam I think because the weird thing is is that because obviously it's Aliens like the horror film.

14:24 Adam Then Aliens is action.

14:26 Lee Yeah.

14:27 Adam Alien 3 is for a very specific depressed goth from the 90s.

14:30 Adam Which is me.

14:33 Adam and and I'm sorry, but vote Adam on art, but that man is wrong about Alan Alien 3.

14:40 Adam So just.

14:40 Chris He he yeah, I I remember the discussion.

14:42 Chris He he didn't like that.

14:44 Adam Didn't he.

14:44 Adam Yeah, but watch watch the assembly cut, that's the key with Alien 3.

14:50 Adam Watch the one that was kind of David Fincher's version.

14:52 Chris I mean, I remember enjoying it.

14:52 Chris I've only seen it the once when it came out, but.

14:55 Lee I am going to watch it.

14:56 Lee Because actually having watched this, I then started watching Aliens today and I've got about 20 minutes left of it.

15:01 Lee But I had to break away to come and watch this.

15:04 Lee And I've got to say, I I this is the thing, I picked for both of them, I picked the theatrical cut.

15:13 Lee And with Alien, I was like, come on mate.

15:18 Lee Like and that's the thing, like it's got some such incredibly focal scenes in it that are just, you know, that have just been mimicked on everything and everyone knows them.

15:27 Lee And they're they're.

15:29 Chris The John Hurt scene.

15:30 Lee Yeah.

15:31 Lee But he still manages to make that two-hour film drag to holy.

15:35 Lee Holy fuck.

15:35 Chris That is so funny, I do not find it drags at all.

15:38 Adam Give the director's cut a try.

15:41 Adam Because the director's cut has more scenes and is shorter.

15:44 Lee Oh, if I knew it was short, I'd have fucking watched that.

15:47 Lee I was like I I I know the original is two hours, I'm not watching a fucking two hour 45 minute dick Waggle where I have to sit through more dark spaces.

15:54 Adam It's about 15 minutes shorter, same as Blade Runner is the weird thing whenever Ridley Scott does a director's cut.

15:59 Adam He's almost like he's I think he follows actually your advice.

16:02 Adam He's very much, oh, I could have tightened that up a bit.

16:06 Chris But yeah, so what does he take out then? I mean, it must it can't be anything that gets in the way of the story, but.

16:12 Chris Is it is it just small bits here and there or?

16:14 Adam The director's there's some there's some more there's some more interaction between the crew, the main thing and this is this leads into one of the sort of.

16:24 Adam Not myths, but sort of things of Alien is towards the end when after when Ripley is going back to the shuttle.

16:33 Adam She finds Dallas intomed in the Aliens.

16:39 Adam And stuff.

16:40 Chris Oh.

16:40 Lee Yeah.

16:41 Lee Okay.

16:42 Adam Yes.

16:42 Lee Oh.

16:43 Lee Okay.

16:44 Adam You know how they find Yeah, you know how they find the the colonists in Aliens it's like that.

16:52 Adam And it's meant to be I think Brett's in the corner dead, but he's turning into an egg and Dallas basically says kill me and he's about to have the an alien burst out of his chest.

17:03 Chris Yeah.

17:04 Lee Now this is another thing that I made a note of, but I only made a note of it, I watched the entire film and made next to no notes and then after it, I went, was there a score in that?

17:19 Lee And then suddenly went.

17:20 Lee Hang on a minute, apart from the chest burster, nobody fucking dies, you don't see anybody die.

17:29 Lee People people see the alien and then you don't hear from them again.

17:31 Lee I was like, we never see anybody actually get murdered.

17:34 Lee And there's never any blood or anything.

17:37 Lee And I was like.

17:38 Lee Hang on a fucking.

17:39 Chris Do you not.

17:39 Lee I don't.

17:40 Chris What the Brett scene, in my head, the Brett scene, you see him die.

17:43 Chris But.

17:44 Adam Brett, you you see Brett get attacked and dragged up into the ceiling, you definitely see Parker get his head smashed in with the little the inner mouth.

17:53 Lee Oh.

17:53 Lee Yeah.

17:54 Lee yeah.

17:55 Adam It punches through his skull.

17:56 Adam so there are a couple and.

17:59 Adam It's not the alien who kills him, but you see Ash die.

18:02 Chris Well, I was going to say.

18:03 Chris Yeah.

18:04 Chris Yeah, I mean that that that is so that's one of the big things for me is the whole bringing in the Android I and that to me is a big horror aspect of this film as well.

18:15 Chris The way he one is meant to be bringing back the Alien and so and then it brings in the idea of the corporation caring about getting a weapon over people.

18:23 Chris But then the way Ash messes up as well is quite significant, I think.

18:28 Adam It is and it's also a weird thing.

18:31 Adam Going through because I was going through and in my head, Ian Holm is quite a sort of.

18:37 Adam Oh.

18:37 Adam He's that cuddly of an uncle.

18:40 Adam And I think it's literally because he plays fucking Bilbo Baggins and because of the Fifth Element.

18:46 Chris Yeah.

18:47 Chris Yeah, he he can play quite a dark.

18:50 Adam But when you actually go back through his fucking roles before Alien, he played more fucking Nazis than Mr. Bronson.

18:58 Lee See now I only from Alien.

19:00 Lee And from.

19:01 Lee And both of them he's fucking Satan.

19:04 Chris Yeah.

19:04 Adam He is.

19:05 Adam He does play a lot of evil bastards in my head.

19:08 Adam I'm like, oh, it's cuddly and home, I sort of bracket him with like Richard Bryers or something.

19:13 Adam It's like, actually, no.

19:15 Adam When I think about it, he is always a shit and film.

19:17 Adam Oh.

19:17 Lee Yeah.

19:18 Lee But you're always but you're always playing a surprising shit.

19:20 Lee He always plays who's really nice.

19:22 Lee Yeah, no, I trust him every time and he's always an asshole.

19:25 Adam Yeah, it's.

19:27 Adam It's Brazil's the other thing where he's just like like a hapless office manager in Brazil who's kind of like just out of his depth.

19:37 Adam But other than that, yeah, he's always bastards.

19:41 Adam So it's just a weird thing.

19:42 Adam But that's one because obviously like we we were talking about, but that's one of the things that deviated from the original script was because the Ash's role was going to be fulfilled by mother, like the onboard computer.

19:59 Chris Oh, even that.

20:00 Chris That's what I said like that.

20:02 Chris The way when Ripley is communicating with the with mother and the way that Ash is communicating with mother, like that that is such a good element throughout.

20:08 Chris I thought.

20:09 Adam Yeah.

20:09 Chris Yeah, sorry.

20:10 Chris Go on.

20:11 Adam Go on.

20:11 Adam And and it's that but it's that plainness as well.

20:14 Adam But they kind of the original script had six six members of the crew.

20:22 Adam And then they brought in Ash as basically as a sort of double agent sort of figure.

20:28 Adam And then while they were this was during rewrites, not Dan O' Bannon's like other people rewrites.

20:32 Adam And they made Ash like a sort of double agent figure.

20:37 Adam And then actually the twist about him being a robot was literally because.

20:42 Adam One of the guys was like, right, so we get to this point where they're confronting him.

20:45 Adam And what happens?

20:46 Adam And he said, they punch his head off.

20:48 Lee Oh.

20:49 Adam And then like, oh, so he's a robot.

20:51 Adam Yeah.

20:52 Adam And I don't think he'd just said they punch his head off, but you know.

20:55 Adam He's like.

20:56 Lee And they just yes, ended it.

20:57 Lee But.

20:58 Adam Yeah.

20:58 Lee But the problem is this creates the biggest fucking plot holes for me in this entire movie.

21:04 Lee Which.

21:05 Chris You're going.

21:05 Lee Again, it's funny because I saw you getting very frustrated earlier when I said the word Prometheus and it looked like you looked like you were going to try and punch the phone.

21:12 Lee And I know a lot of alien like serious fans are the same and they're like, oh, that film's so full of plot holes.

21:18 Lee And I'm like, hang on a minute.

21:20 Chris They all are.

21:22 Lee This film is exactly the same.

21:24 Lee So the plan was.

21:25 Lee So they sent this entire group out there knowing they were sending this alien, this this alien.

21:30 Lee Fucking hell.

21:32 Lee This robot as a like as a a mole because the whole thing was to just get this alien thing and bring it back.

21:39 Lee Right, one, why did they take the whole ship full of people?

21:42 Lee Why don't they just put a robot on a fucking ship and send it to get it and then bring it back.

21:48 Lee He could have done that.

21:50 Lee Or two, they could have not woken the whole crew up.

21:52 Lee They were all in stasis.

21:54 Chris And just left.

21:55 Lee Just get the robot up, park the ship, put it in a box, put it in a fucking cat carrier, that cat carrier thing that she puts Jones in, stick it somewhere, bring it back to earth and then just hang the over.

22:08 Lee Oh, no, I just said to say well, I've never said that on this podcast, I'm going to have to bleep that now.

22:12 Lee Anyway, right.

22:14 Lee Again, so the whole film is entirely negated, none of those people need to die, they could have just sent a fucking robot like a man with a van.

22:23 Lee And none of this needed to have happened.

22:26 Adam The point is that you know when they say about do you know anything about about Ash and Dallas says, I've had the same science officer and then on this time they changed him they changed.

22:37 Chris Yeah, yeah.

22:38 Adam Yeah.

22:39 Adam That's because the company have received the noticed the signal.

22:41 Chris Yeah.

22:42 Adam And so they send him on board as a thing to like basically let's go and check this out because it might be aliens.

22:48 Adam But we want we don't know what it is.

22:52 Lee Yeah, but this is my point, so just put a robot in a spaceship and send.

22:56 Lee You don't have to take all the that that cost all those people and that ship.

22:59 Chris What.

23:00 Lee Just put a robot in a shuttle and send them there.

23:03 Chris I'm wondering, did they need did they need a human to trigger the eggs?

23:06 Lee We don't know that.

23:08 Lee They don't know.

23:09 Adam We don't know.

23:10 Adam That's why they literally as an exploratory thing.

23:12 Lee And even if they did know that, what they're going to end up with is a Xenomorph.

23:15 Lee What they want is a face hugger, so they can learn the whole thing.

23:18 Chris So you're viewing this as a plot hole from the corporation's perspective.

23:22 Chris As in they could have just done this completely.

23:27 Chris But.

23:28 Chris But let's say.

23:29 Adam The the the from a from a company point of view, you send someone out and find out.

23:36 Adam It's just this is just a random beacon that's been left there, you get them on their way.

23:36 Chris That's that's a massive mission for nothing.

23:41 Adam You send that's why they're not that's why they don't send Marines.

23:44 Adam They send a bunch of space like.

23:47 Lee Okay.

23:48 Lee So if that's the case, so they have sent this this robot with them.

23:53 Lee And they've done this massive, they've gone off, they've picked up their hole.

23:57 Lee They've come back, they've now woken them all up out of stasis.

24:01 Lee You're talking about days, weeks in between.

24:03 Lee They wake up within about 20 minutes, Ripley has gone, this isn't an SOS, this is a warning.

24:08 Lee So, how come the corporation didn't work this out.

24:10 Lee Before they substituted the medical officer for a robot and go, it's a warning.

24:16 Lee There's something out there.

24:18 Lee This definitely isn't an SOS, we need to investigate this.

24:21 Lee More thoroughly.

24:23 Lee Before sending loads of people.

24:24 Adam You investigate by sending a bunch of pa in and see what happens.

24:27 Adam If they don't come back.

24:28 Lee No, no.

24:29 Lee If she'd have finished deciphering the message, if she deciphered half of the message in 20 minutes.

24:33 Lee Just put the fucking launch off by an hour and a half and you'd have the full fucking message.

24:36 Lee Warning.

24:37 Lee Big exploding motherfuckers.

24:39 Lee They're going to pop out your chest.

24:41 Lee They start off like fucking squids.

24:43 Lee Then they're going to pop out your chest.

24:45 Lee And then you've got a big skull headed penis thing, right?

24:49 Lee Just read the message, it's fine, you can manage that.

24:55 Lee Are you not a fan of.

24:56 Chris Of Geer's artwork either.

24:58 Lee Oh, I fucking love Geer.

24:59 Lee And that's the thing.

25:00 Lee That's I think that's why I find it.

25:02 Chris He does he does have a few more big big penises in his actual artwork, doesn't he?

25:09 Lee He does have.

25:10 Adam He does a lot of penises.

25:12 Chris But.

25:13 Adam It's a lot of penises.

25:14 Adam It's it's a a penis what I would describe as a penis jamboree.

25:19 Chris But a very twisted.

25:22 Lee The other thing.

25:23 Lee Again, not to point out a plot point.

25:24 Lee But it's.

25:25 Lee Fucking lucky that Xenomorph looked exactly like the inside of a shuttle, otherwise that thing would have been fucked if it had tried to come out.

25:32 Adam It they do look a lot like pipes on a lot of different planets, it has to be said.

25:39 Adam That's.

25:39 Lee Okay.

25:40 Lee If the escape pod had looked like the room that they all sat and had lunch in, it'd have been fucked because there's no way it'd have hidden in that big white Star Wars looking room.

25:48 Lee It'd have had it they'd have got him in no time.

25:52 Lee But luckily for him, it was a very dark penis shaped.

25:58 Adam A very dark penis shape room.

26:00 Adam And that's that's.

26:01 Adam And that is the that that's what the company wanted.

26:03 Adam They were specific.

26:05 Adam They were like, right, we want to send truckers to make sure they get fucked up.

26:09 Adam Because we want because that's the thing is you don't send anyone important.

26:13 Adam You send a group of people who if this lot really fuck up, doesn't matter if they don't come back.

26:20 Adam And actually.

26:21 Adam That's one of the best I think that's one of the best things about Aliens is the very start where it's basically Ripley has a has a tribunal with a fucking insurance company about.

26:29 Adam Well.

26:30 Adam You've said about an alien, all we know is that you a big spaceship of ours got lost.

26:33 Adam You're like.

26:34 Lee Yeah.

26:34 Adam Yeah, which according to you was 60 fucking years ago, if you've not written that off you fucking shit houses, you fucking need to ask yourself some accounting questions.

26:43 Lee Okay.

26:43 Lee Yeah.

26:45 Adam But that.

26:46 Lee It is it's like the.

26:47 Lee Red Wolf thing where he's left the light on and they send him the the

26:52 Lee Yeah.

26:52 Adam Yeah.

26:52 Lee Yeah.

26:53 Lee Yeah.

26:54 Lee But that's the other thing I kept getting with this, yeah, was Red Wolf like the outside shots and the music is exactly the same.

27:02 Lee I was like, is the opening of fucking Red Wolf.

27:03 Lee Every time.

27:05 Adam Well, even even the bit towards the end after they set off the self-destruct button.

27:11 Adam Which again, cars do not have self-destruct buttons.

27:16 Adam Ships do not have self-destruct buttons, planes do not have self-destruct buttons.

27:20 Adam Why the.

27:21 Adam Fucking spaceships always have self-destruct buttons, I can understand military vehicles.

27:27 Adam But like, you know, a bloke hauling petrol, well, he doesn't need a self-destruct button, all he needs is a cigarette lighter and a fucking a bit of imagination.

27:36 Adam Do you know what I mean, it's I've always queried self-destruct buttons in science fiction.

27:40 Adam So.

27:41 Lee It isn't it isn't the guffin that's just always been there.

27:45 Lee And and that's the problem because it's always been there, you never question it and then you just go, oh, yeah.

27:50 Lee Why does nothing in real life have a self-destruct?

27:52 Lee Because you'd never need it.

27:53 Adam Exactly.

27:53 Lee You wouldn't.

27:54 Adam Exactly.

27:55 Adam But it's but when she's running and they've got like those yellow hazard lights on and stuff, that is purely ripped off in Red Dwarf from fucking series.

28:03 Adam That's why.

28:04 Lee Yeah.

28:04 Adam Series 3 onwards.

28:06 Adam That that scene is pretty much in every other episode of Red Dwarf.

28:08 Adam And if you watch the director's cut.

28:09 Adam Of Aliens, it features the captain, Captain Hollister from Red Dwarf.

28:13 Adam Is one of the colonists.

28:14 Adam MacDonald because he's one of the three Americans who lives in England that always ends up in these things.

28:19 Lee Like William Hootkins.

28:20 Lee From Star Wars and Batman.

28:22 Lee You know, he's just one of those guys is just always in these things.

28:25 Adam But actually, speaking of Red Wolf, one of the things that I'm as I'm watching it with Claire is there's the bit where you first see when Brett first sees the alien.

28:32 Adam And it's just slobbering and the mouth open.

28:35 Adam And Claire did in her best Norman Love it voice, I can see right down your gob.

28:39 Lee Oh.

28:40 Lee Wow.

28:41 Adam For Red Dwarf and that yeah, that that that that got it.

28:45 Adam But it was.

28:47 Adam But no, I I I think I'll be I'll be honest.

28:51 Adam I so I decided I was going to watch it, so I wanted to watch Aliens as well.

28:57 Adam Because it turns out Claire had only seen Prometheus.

28:59 Adam And at that point, I was like, oh, that explains why you've never bothered to watch any of the others.

29:01 Chris So I watched for you.

29:01 Chris For this.

29:02 Chris And.

29:03 Chris Did you?

29:03 Chris It I thought it was okay.

29:05 Chris I didn't I didn't hate it.

29:08 Chris But I had no real expectation at all.

29:10 Chris It was like.

29:12 Lee I need to rewatch it.

29:13 Chris I I just don't know.

29:15 Chris It's more Aliens.

29:17 Chris It's good.

29:17 Chris It's it's a bit like it's a bit like more Star Wars, it could be absolutely rubbish.

29:21 Chris I'd still be kind of happy to watch it.

29:23 Adam I think that's my problem with it is because I care too much about it.

29:27 Adam Although weirdly enough, on this rewatch, Alien, stone cold, fucking love it, can't can't complain about it.

29:35 Adam Aliens, good.

29:38 Adam Alien 3, I love it, but I have I admit I've got emotional problems, so, you know.

29:45 Adam And there's nothing that works for you.

29:47 Adam It combines two things I like which is a cruel universe and lots of British character actors.

29:53 Adam So I'm very happy.

29:56 Adam And I must admit, I got to like Thursday night and then it was like, should I watch Alien Resurrection?

30:01 Adam And then I thought, no, fuck it.

30:03 Adam I can't be assed and started rewatching Sapphire and Steel because David Mcm was dead.

30:07 Lee So, RIP David Mcm.

30:12 Adam RIP.

30:13 Adam But so I was like, they'll watch Alien 3 and then Alien 4 rather, Alien Resurrection, and then I just thought, nah, because then I'll probably have to watch Prometheus.

30:21 Adam And I've still not seen Alien Covenant, I'll be honest.

30:23 Chris I I did want to watch that as well after watching for me, but I didn't quite manage it in time.

30:26 Chris But I I will do now.

30:27 Chris I'm going to do them all.

30:28 Adam I'm I'm sort of defining it as the Ripley trilogy now because technically in Alien Resurrection, it's not Ripley.

30:33 Adam It's a clone of Ripley half alien and at that point, I was like, it's the first alien film.

30:38 Adam I saw at the cinema and in 1998, I was perfectly prepared to think that's a cool idea.

30:44 Adam In 2023, I'm like, that is the most clicheed load of old shit, excuse to get Weaver back in after they killed her off.

30:51 Adam And yeah, I just can't be.

30:53 Adam Asked.

30:53 Adam So I'm I'm I'm definitely I'm still Alien.

30:57 Adam I'm still very much in.

30:58 Adam But for me, I'm now I'm going to do like Terminator.

31:00 Adam Where there's only two Terminator films and don't listen to anyone else who tells you that there's anything more.

31:03 Adam And much the same as far as I'm concerned, this three alien films and everything else is just.

31:08 Adam In the wild imaginings of other people who don't know how reality works.

31:12 Adam So.

31:15 Adam Well.

31:16 Adam I'll I'll I'll give you Claire's notes.

31:18 Adam

31:18 Chris

31:20 Adam From of so first of all, passes the back test.

31:24 Adam and she's put here I think that's how it's spelled, which is the same as checking.

31:28 Adam So we she's doing doing sterling work there.

31:31 Adam So obviously the beckle test or the beckle Wallace test, which is a tool that is like a critical used in critical studies to see how whether a film passes master in terms of its representation of women.

31:43 Adam In that do two women talk about anything other than a man.

31:47 Adam Within the.

31:48 Adam So this passes because.

31:50 Adam obviously you've got Veronica Cartright and Weaver, they talk about the alien.

31:59 Adam They talk about the navigation.

32:01 Adam They talk.

32:02 Chris They play significant critical yeah roles.

32:05 Adam Yeah.

32:06 Adam You know, so passes that test in the sense of actually and the next point was no one listens to fucking no one.

32:13 Adam And fucking is in the fucking no one is in capital.

32:21 Adam which is very true.

32:24 Adam Because.

32:25 Adam Yeah, there is a lot of especially the one thing that is a a running thing.

32:28 Adam Through all the alien film, certainly all the three that I watched, which is when you find a weird membrane on the floor, do tell people.

32:37 Lee Yeah.

32:39 Adam Especially if you're aware there's like Alien and Aliens, definitely you should.

32:44 Adam Hey guys, I've just found a like weird skin on the floor.

32:49 Adam You know, maybe we want to talk about this.

32:51 Adam But no.

32:52 Adam the word God damn is used so often, it starts to feel like a made-up word.

32:56 Adam So.

32:58 Adam Is there a tiny stasis pod for Jonesy?

32:59 Adam I'd like to think there is.

33:01 Adam it looks amazing.

33:02 Adam The models look better than Star Wars in places.

33:04 Lee Better than Aliens.

33:05 Adam Yeah.

33:06 Adam Oh, fuck me.

33:07 Adam I I'll give him their due, I think that because this one is all in space, it's got nothing to go against.

33:16 Adam But as soon as you start having like through clouds and pass buildings and stuff.

33:20 Lee Yeah.

33:21 Adam It does start looking shonky in Aliens.

33:23 Adam It's it's not great.

33:25 Adam

33:27 Adam where are we.

33:28 Adam never would have seen the droid twist coming.

33:31 Adam Loved it.

33:32 Adam Which is great because again, it was a bit like psycho where the Exorcist for Claire.

33:37 Adam Where it's like, oh, I know Alien because I know the chest and it is a it is a big sequence, it is quite a it's a dramatic bit and but it's been parodied so much.

33:49 Adam That that element has actually been kind of left out of the sort of.

33:54 Chris I completely agree, that's what I was saying earlier, like for me, that really adds a lot to it.

33:58 Chris I think that is one of the things that does make me like this film a lot more.

34:03 Adam Dan O'Bannon hated it.

34:03 Adam He said it was well acted, well directed, but I think he was just.

34:07 Adam From what I gather, Dan O'Bannon who wrote the original scripts, which was called Star Beast before it was called Alien, so that could have been slightly shitter.

34:17 Lee Yes.

34:18 Adam Then it.

34:18 Adam It would have been because then the second film would have been Star Beasts and, you know, it's sort of yeah.

34:23 Adam But anyway.

34:24 Adam from but from what I gather in the end, I think Dan O'Bannon was like, you don't like literally any changes that were made to your script whatsoever.

34:32 Adam Do you?

34:33 Adam And, you know, that's kind of I think script writers kind of have to acknowledge that.

34:38 Adam You pass it over to someone who will probably either, you know, I can't remember who it was, but someone said, oh.

34:43 Adam Writing is great because it's like handing someone your children and they send them back disfigured.

34:48 Chris Yeah.

34:49 Chris Or mutilate, you know.

34:50 Chris I'm going to come back come back to that point later when we discuss.

34:54 Adam She also.

34:54 Lee I am going to go on record now and this is going to bring a lot of hate down, I'm sure.

35:01 Lee There have been some terrible things done in the history of the human race.

35:08 Lee Some real terrible atrocities.

35:12 Lee I don't think any of them can equal the fact that that film was never made.

35:18 Adam Oh, mate, tell me about it.

35:20 Adam I mean.

35:21 Lee Like.

35:22 Adam It's yeah.

35:24 Chris Okay.

35:25 Chris Right, so.

35:26 Chris So I I completely I mean, I completely agree, like so I'd never heard of this at all until Adam posted it in the WhatsApp group the other day and yeah, like it's amazing to watch the documentary.

35:40 Chris Until the bit where he said and then the planet takes on Paul's consciousness.

35:45 Chris And flies around the universe.

35:47 Chris Converting other planets.

35:48 Chris Oh, and and it's all about raping.

35:51 Chris I was like, okay.

35:52 Chris You lost me.

35:54 Chris I'll I'll I'll rewrite that bit of the script because that's mental.

35:58 Lee Yeah.

35:58 Adam Yeah.

35:59 Lee Last bit.

36:00 Adam But.

36:00 Lee But like the like the whole lead up to that was just.

36:03 Chris Yeah.

36:04 Lee Like could could not be more.

36:05 Lee And absolutely the way they show that it was essentially became a gold mine for so many other films and scripts.

36:12 Lee Like yeah.

36:14 Lee It's fascinating.

36:15 Lee But is it is it just that he he all of the things that he put together.

36:18 Lee Was and maybe at the time just a bit too much, whereas taking taking parts of it out.

36:25 Lee It really works in other films in a in a in a more popular way.

36:28 Adam I.

36:28 Adam I think also Chris because I think if they'd have made it.

36:31 Adam The one group of people.

36:32 Adam Who wouldn't have liked it are Dune fans.

36:34 Adam Because he was.

36:35 Chris Yeah.

36:36 Chris Oh, no.

36:36 Lee I don't know the story of June.

36:38 Lee I've seen the first movie of the new ones, I couldn't even make it through that fucking David Lynch monstrosity.

36:42 Lee And I started reading the book and I loved, I really loved it.

36:46 Lee For the first three chapters and then didn't read it for three days and then was like, yeah, I don't think I need to go back to that.

36:50 Lee And I don't know why.

36:51 Lee But.

36:52 Lee Sorry.

36:52 Lee Anyway.

36:53 Lee Yeah.

36:54 Adam But I think that definitely, I mean, maybe maybe we'll mini episode something about Jed's June in comparison to other Junes or something like that, but you know, it's no, it has to be said it's just a fucking tragedy that it didn't get made.

37:06 Adam But also you know why it didn't get made.

37:10 Adam Because of the amount of times that you'd clearly went into Hollywood finance and just said.

37:15 Adam Fuck you, I am making spiritual warriors and I'm trying to emancipate the Xton that like, you know, changing people's minds and giving them an LSD trip without having to take LSD.

37:23 Adam And at that point, I know that a lot of the Hollywood producers maybe just thought we're going to lose some money here, aren't we?

37:29 Chris Yeah.

37:30 Lee It's not just that.

37:31 Lee It's we're going to take the man who cooks for the best restaurant in Paris and have him the exclusive chef for Orson Wells for the duration of the filming.

37:39 Adam Just to get Orson Wells in.

37:41 Adam Or or the fact that it was.

37:43 Adam Like the thing with Dolly.

37:44 Lee Yeah.

37:44 Adam Where it's like.

37:46 Lee Yeah.

37:46 Lee Oh, yeah.

37:47 Adam You want to.

37:48 Lee 100,000.

37:48 Chris Yeah.

37:49 Lee Yeah, exactly.

37:50 Lee But what a fucking clever way of doing it.

37:51 Lee So you're going to pay me $100,000 for every minute I'm on on set, yeah.

37:58 Lee So what he does is.

38:00 Chris So he's happy with that title.

38:01 Lee Yeah.

38:03 Lee So he has a robot made who replaces him, so we only have to have three minutes of him.

38:08 Lee And the rest of him is a robot, which which loads of films.

38:12 Lee The fucking Star Wars did it.

38:13 Lee Later on with

38:15 Lee Yeah, exactly.

38:16 Lee No, it wasn't a robot.

38:17 Adam You had many clones of the fucking Emperor.

38:20 Lee Yeah.

38:20 Lee Yeah.

38:21 Adam And and technically, I suppose it ends up as being Ash, you know, is that same thing.

38:26 Adam Where you know.

38:27 Lee Yeah.

38:28 Adam It's.

38:28 Lee Oh, it's just, it's I know Adam was.

38:31 Adam Oh, yeah, but but coming back to to how it relates to Alien.

38:35 Adam So obviously Dan O'Bannon was.

38:37 Adam who who'd written this.

38:39 Adam Who also wrote Dark Star.

38:40 Lee Now we talked.

38:41 Lee We talked about.

38:42 Lee We talked a lot.

38:42 Lee About this on.

38:43 Lee On.

38:43 Chris I remember yeah.

38:44 Chris Yeah.

38:45 Adam We did for return of the living dead.

38:48 Chris That was the John.

38:49 Adam Directed.

38:51 Adam Yeah.

38:52 Adam But John Carpenter from Dark Star is basically Alien the comedy and it's so it's kind of like when people say about Red Wolf.

39:01 Adam They do mention Dark Star because it's that same thing.

39:03 Adam Of basically it is Alien.

39:05 Adam Because it's a crew of bickering workers who are just more annoyed with the food and their bonuses.

39:12 Adam Yeah.

39:13 Adam Than about space exploration and they do have an alien on board.

39:18 Adam But in Dark Star, it's played by a beach ball and a set of comedy monster hands.

39:22 Lee Oh, yeah.

39:23 Lee Sorry.

39:24 Lee You're quite right.

39:25 Lee We should have point that the reason Adam told us to watch Dursky's June is because the team who resembled.

39:31 Lee For Dursky's June, a lot of them came together a couple of years later and made Alien because Dan O'Bannon was brought in.

39:38 Lee Sorry.

39:38 Lee We should have mentioned that.

39:38 Lee Because to anybody who just went, they were talking about alien and then they fucked off and talked about Dursky for 15 minutes for no reason whatsoever.

39:50 Chris That's right.

39:51 Chris There's no plot holes in this episode.

39:53 Adam Is.

39:54 Chris No, no, no, no.

39:55 Lee Oh, no.

39:56 Lee And you know they're not been told for 15 years and then they'll be pissed off at the sequel.

40:00 Lee Apparently.

40:02 Lee Thanks very much.