Should You Celebrate Alien Day with Alien or Aliens?
In space no one can hear you celebrate Alien Day
Alien Day is this Friday! What’s Alien Day? It’s one of the most important holidays of the year. Every April 26, the classic film franchise is celebrated because the dreaded Xenomorph was discovered on a moon named LV-426 in the film Alien (1979). Get it? 4/26? The subsequent film (1986’s Aliens) also takes place mostly on LV-426. The critical and commercial success of those two films has led to Alien becoming one of the most successful franchises in the world. There have been eight films released (with a ninth being released in August from director Fede Álvarez), numerous comic book adaptations (Marvel announced while I was writing this that an Aliens vs. Avengers comic by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic will be published this July), a line of action figures, and there is even a television series from Noah Hawley (best known for the Fargo and Legion television series) coming sometime in 2025. The original Alien is even going back into cinemas this Alien Day to celebrate its 45th anniversary.
So let’s say you want to partake in the festivities on Friday, but there isn’t a cinema near you showing Alien. You have just enough time to squeeze in one movie while camped out on your couch for the evening. Which movie out of the eight that have currently been released should you watch? Assuming you want to watch a movie that’s actually good, that should narrow down your choices to either Alien or Aliens. Both the Ridley Scott original and James Cameron sequel are masterpieces. They are two of my favorite movies of all time, and they are both excellent choices if you’re looking for some quality entertainment. That said, they are two very different types of films that fall into different genres. One could be more in line with what you’re looking for than the other. With that in mind, let’s breakdown each of these classics and see which one best suits your tastes. Is this ultimately just an excuse for me to rewatch two of my favorite movies and write about them? Yes. But that won’t stop me from framing it as a service I’m providing to my readership. Also, I will only be discussing the theatrical versions of each film. I personally think they are better than the director’s cuts and are the versions most people have seen.
Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott
The most important thing to understand about Alien is that it is a horror film first and foremost. Obviously any movie set in outer space in the far future is going to fall under the category of science fiction, but the chief aim for the filmmakers with this film is to terrify the audience. As such, this is a slow burn of a nightmare that steadily ratchets up the tension until exploding into its pulse pounding conclusion. The screenplay was written by the late great Dan O’Bannon coming on the heels of writing the screenplay for the science fiction horror-comedy Dark Star (1974) that was directed by John Carpenter. O’Bannon has previously stated that he was inspired by a host of different science fiction and horror films like The Thing from Another World (1951), Forbidden Planet (1956), and Planet of the Vampires (1965). When pitching the film to various studios, he would frequently describe it as “Jaws in space.” 20th Century Fox picked up the script and brought on Ridley Scott to direct. The creature and set designs were done by Swiss artist H.R. Giger (whom O’Bannon had met while working on the ill-fated Dune adaptation with Alejandro Jodorowsky). The creature design in particular was lifted directly from a painting Giger had done in 1976 called Necronom IV.
The world of the movie itself feels very lived in. Its protagonists are a group of working class men and women (led by Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley) who operate a mining vessel. It’s easy to sympathize with their plight because they feel like ordinary people thrust into an extraordinary situation. The film is also unique in that its portrayal of futuristic technology has the grimy and realistic feel of a 1970s automotive plant more so than the typical glitz and glamor that is commonplace in most science fiction films.
The movie itself is a nightmare. It feels like a cross between two films released earlier in the decade that enjoyed significant success: Jaws and Halloween. The Jaws similarity is due to the “less is more” approach to showing the creature. Rarely do you get a clear view of the monster. It’s usually bathed in shadow and leaping out of various nooks and corridors before its human victims have time to react. The Halloween similarities stem from the way creature behaves similarly to the masked slasher from the John Carpenter classic. It slowly picks off the cast of characters one by one until only one remains.
The world building is also a tremendous strength of the film. The entire lifecycle of the eponymous alien is mapped out and used as a source for the scares that litter the film. That original lifecycle pays dividends when it leads to one of the most shocking and infamously gruesome scenes in cinematic history. There are also some excellent twists and turns that highlight the immorality of gigantic profit driven corporations.
Ultimately, Alien is a movie aimed at horror aficionados. If your idea of a fun time is getting the bejeezus scared out of you by a terrifying monster as it brutally kills the human characters in increasingly violent and gruesome ways, then this is the movie for you.
Aliens (1986) directed by James Cameron
If anecdotal stories are to be believed, James Cameron pitched his idea for an Alien sequel by writing the word “Alien” on a whiteboard and adding a “$” to the end of it. The meaning behind it was simple: if a movie about one alien was a hit, a movie about numerous aliens would be an even bigger hit. Whether or not that story is true, 20th Century Fox must have liked whatever the pitch had been because they ended up green lighting Aliens as the sequel to the 1979 classic.
James Cameron wrote and directed the sequel with Sigourney Weaver returning as the lead. Cameron made the bold choice to downplay the horror elements of the original in favor of a more action-oriented sequel. Cameron reportedly likened the original to a haunted house while comparing Aliens to a rollercoaster. Both are meant to induce thrills, but they go about it in very different ways. While Alien was confined almost exclusively to one location aboard a spaceship, Aliens would take place on the campus of a settlement on the moon where the creature was first discovered. Instead of the protagonists being a group of everyday workers, the sequel would follow a team of Colonial Marines armed with the best weapons money can buy and trained to be the deadliest fighters in the galaxy. The tagline on the poster perfectly captures the change in tone. Gone is “In space no one can hear you scream.” Now it’s “This time it’s war.”
With a single alien hidden in shadows now replaced with an army of them for all to see, the budget would have to grow to accommodate the increased cost of the special effects. The legendary Stan Winston was brought in to handle the creature effects, and he does a masterful job. The costumes, puppets, and animatronics are all top notch. They also look great when they are ripped apart by the automatic weapons fire from the Colonial Marines.
Aliens is a movie full of bombastic action sequences, quippy one liners, and its fair share of gore. If your idea of a good time is a frenetic action thriller, then this is the movie for you.
My own personal preference is the original Alien as a horror addict, but both films are excellent. I’ll be celebrating this Alien Day at the cinema watching the 1979 classic on the big screen for the very first time. It should be quite the experience. Hopefully all of you get the opportunity to celebrate too.