The Movie, Alien: Who is the adversary?

Sometimes the things you come to know and love may not act in your favour. Do you choose to accept your misfortune or fight back against the odds?

By Funmbi Adeagbo

The 1979 Sci-Fi horror film ‘Alien’ is a masterpiece of its time, attaining a cult status in popular fiction. It, and the subsequent franchise, explores the theme of the clash between humanity and other invasive entities. In the original film, the plot follows a group of astronauts on their return journey to earth, when their ship detects an unknown distress signal and they are ordered to investigate. They inadvertently pick up an unwanted guest and bring it onto their ship. Soon after, a fight for survival begins on the ship as the spawn of this creature proves deadly.

Bio mechanical

There is some research that suggests humans instinctively find forms that are closely related to ourselves but different repulsive. It is for this reason one might find extremely life-like dolls creepy whereas the more abstract toys are regarded as cute. The film ‘Alien’ draws on similar principles to incite fear in its audience; the distortion of the familiar. The lead Concept Artist, H.R Giger uses human anatomy as precedence in creating the setting for the horror. Spines, ribs and genitalia form the bases of both the alien beings and their architecture.

By drawing on these principles, the artists and set designers are able play on the audience’s primal emotions.

warmth and the darker, colder areas are left for the lower beings. In the films, we are subjected to the contrary. Our self-made machines turn against us and become the dark cave where we meet our imminent demise by the ‘Other’.

The absence of light…

Throughout the entirety of the franchise, we are presented with the consistent scenario where our victims are trapped in sealed vessels at the onset of the epidemic. The claustrophobic nature of tight and confined spaces combined with hard mechanical finishes of the majority of the ship create an atmosphere akin to that of a cage. Historically, man enjoys spaces bathed in light and

Indifference of technology

On board the ship, there are much less apparent aliens; the ones we create. The ship’s AI ‘Mother’ and the one of the crew members are synthetic entities. Although they are both created to protect and assist the team, they become ‘instigators’ who interfere and hamper the crews’ chances of survival.

The irony within the plot is that, we as human beings are inadvertently destroyed by our own curiosity and creations.

We create spaces and systems to protect us. However, these may eventually set the scene for an unknown terror.

It begs the question; what is the purpose of our creations? We give up certain rights as we implement artificial intelligence into our environment but at what point are we submitting our very lives to these systems?

As we walk towards a future where more of our daily lives become automated in one form or the other, there are greater things at stake. This lack of manual operability may have catastrophic consequences for the users. The debate is how far do we go before an unforeseen situation arises and we loss control.