[No spoilers!]
I’m a big fan of the Alien film series. I have been hooked every since watching Alien 3 in the cinema as a teenager, and the original 1979 film is one of my all-time favourites. So I was excited to see Alien: Romulus, which is currently on general release. After several disappointing sequels and prequels (and the less said about the Alien versus Predator films the better) I was encouraged by the positive response to the new film from critics and fans alike.
I am not going to review the film here – suffice to say it’s one of the better ones – but watching the film got me thinking about the relationship between the Alien series and history.
If you have watched the films, you will know that they have created a huge and complex world, which engages with bigger questions about the nature of mankind and its place in the universe. There are 9 films and counting, with a TV series on the way, plus countless books, graphic novels and short films that flesh out the story.
This involves a very long timeline. The original Alien movie was set in 2122, and the last film in the chronology is Alien Resurrection which takes place over two centuries later. The ability to clone characters and the long distances involved in cryosleep space travel mean that the films are not limited by conventional human lifespans.
The prequels take place in the twenty-first century, as we learn about the origins of xenomorph creature and the Weyland Yutani corporation. But they also extend into prehistory, since they explore the popular theory that life on earth was seeded by an alien civilisation. All told, the Alien universe extends over millions of years.
To my mind, this journey into prehistory was a bit unnecessary. There is quite enough going on with regard to the human condition in the first four films, without trying to explain the origins of mankind. It also leans in to ‘ancient aliens’ conspiracy theories, which often give credit for complex ancient civilisations to extraterrestrial visitors, rather than to indigenous peoples themselves (with all the racism that this implies).
What interests me far more is the way that history informs the production design. The xenomorph creature and the alien craft and landscapes were famously designed by H. R. Giger, who created a nightmarish world replete with disturbing Freudian imagery, in keeping with the film’s theme of reproduction. As well as organic forms, Giger drew on gothic styles when creating cathedral-like interiors. This added to the otherworldly and spooky atmosphere of the films, and grounds the style of the alien worlds in the medieval period. (A nice nod to this is the ‘xenomorph’ gargoyle at Paisley Abbey.)
Gargoyle at Paisley Abbey: Wikimedia Commons.
This medieval aesthetic nearly came to its logical conclusion in the original designs for Alien 3, which was going to be set on a wooden planet populated by monks, before the production went in a more conventional direction.
Giger’s style was influenced by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, and his art often involved chaotic combinations of human and inhuman bodies engaging in dreadful acts. This also informed the design of later films where he was not involved. The space station in Romulus has the painting by Michel Serre depicting the plague in Marseille in 1720. It includes horrors such as a baby suckling on a dead mother, a reference to events later in the film.
Detail from Michel Serre, View of the Hôtel de Ville of Marseille during the Plague of 1720 (1721): Wikimedia Commons.
By contrast, the design of the humans’ world is grounded in the 1970s. The spacecraft Nostromo would have looked futuristic in 1979, but was also recognisably of the present. This was not a sleek, clean vision of the future like in Star Trek, but rather a ‘polluted future’ where things are grimy and don’t work. Nostromo is a mining vessel so the look and feel is very utilitarian.
The team behind Alien: Romulus have made a conscious effort to make it look like the original film. It is set in 2142, between the action of Alien and Aliens. The tech in the film has a very 1970s feel to it, with chunky keyboards, computer disks and glowing cathode ray tubes. A key reason why the production design was so effective in the original film was because the blocky human tech contrasted with the sinewy and gothic contours of the alien and its world, and Alien: Romulus continues this tradition.
It’s another reason why the prequels were incongruous, as they were set before the original film but had much more advanced tech, including touchscreens and holograms, and sleek sterile interiors. Alien films only really work when they have a sense of history.
Matthew McCormack
September 9, 2024
Alien and history – HISTORY AT NORTHAMPTON
maximios History
[No spoilers!]
I’m a big fan of the Alien film series. I have been hooked every since watching Alien 3 in the cinema as a teenager, and the original 1979 film is one of my all-time favourites. So I was excited to see Alien: Romulus, which is currently on general release. After several disappointing sequels and prequels (and the less said about the Alien versus Predator films the better) I was encouraged by the positive response to the new film from critics and fans alike.
I am not going to review the film here – suffice to say it’s one of the better ones – but watching the film got me thinking about the relationship between the Alien series and history.
If you have watched the films, you will know that they have created a huge and complex world, which engages with bigger questions about the nature of mankind and its place in the universe. There are 9 films and counting, with a TV series on the way, plus countless books, graphic novels and short films that flesh out the story.
This involves a very long timeline. The original Alien movie was set in 2122, and the last film in the chronology is Alien Resurrection which takes place over two centuries later. The ability to clone characters and the long distances involved in cryosleep space travel mean that the films are not limited by conventional human lifespans.
The prequels take place in the twenty-first century, as we learn about the origins of xenomorph creature and the Weyland Yutani corporation. But they also extend into prehistory, since they explore the popular theory that life on earth was seeded by an alien civilisation. All told, the Alien universe extends over millions of years.
To my mind, this journey into prehistory was a bit unnecessary. There is quite enough going on with regard to the human condition in the first four films, without trying to explain the origins of mankind. It also leans in to ‘ancient aliens’ conspiracy theories, which often give credit for complex ancient civilisations to extraterrestrial visitors, rather than to indigenous peoples themselves (with all the racism that this implies).
What interests me far more is the way that history informs the production design. The xenomorph creature and the alien craft and landscapes were famously designed by H. R. Giger, who created a nightmarish world replete with disturbing Freudian imagery, in keeping with the film’s theme of reproduction. As well as organic forms, Giger drew on gothic styles when creating cathedral-like interiors. This added to the otherworldly and spooky atmosphere of the films, and grounds the style of the alien worlds in the medieval period. (A nice nod to this is the ‘xenomorph’ gargoyle at Paisley Abbey.)
Gargoyle at Paisley Abbey: Wikimedia Commons.
This medieval aesthetic nearly came to its logical conclusion in the original designs for Alien 3, which was going to be set on a wooden planet populated by monks, before the production went in a more conventional direction.
Giger’s style was influenced by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, and his art often involved chaotic combinations of human and inhuman bodies engaging in dreadful acts. This also informed the design of later films where he was not involved. The space station in Romulus has the painting by Michel Serre depicting the plague in Marseille in 1720. It includes horrors such as a baby suckling on a dead mother, a reference to events later in the film.
Detail from Michel Serre, View of the Hôtel de Ville of Marseille during the Plague of 1720 (1721): Wikimedia Commons.
By contrast, the design of the humans’ world is grounded in the 1970s. The spacecraft Nostromo would have looked futuristic in 1979, but was also recognisably of the present. This was not a sleek, clean vision of the future like in Star Trek, but rather a ‘polluted future’ where things are grimy and don’t work. Nostromo is a mining vessel so the look and feel is very utilitarian.
The team behind Alien: Romulus have made a conscious effort to make it look like the original film. It is set in 2142, between the action of Alien and Aliens. The tech in the film has a very 1970s feel to it, with chunky keyboards, computer disks and glowing cathode ray tubes. A key reason why the production design was so effective in the original film was because the blocky human tech contrasted with the sinewy and gothic contours of the alien and its world, and Alien: Romulus continues this tradition.
It’s another reason why the prequels were incongruous, as they were set before the original film but had much more advanced tech, including touchscreens and holograms, and sleek sterile interiors. Alien films only really work when they have a sense of history.
Matthew McCormack