| |
Dreaming
of Darkness: Allusions in the Alien Movies - Part I
Have
you ever wondered at the richness of the Alien saga? Have
you ever thought of how incredibly deep the movies are? How
much symbolism, how many themes and real-life connections
are scattered throughout each film? To be honest, it’s somewhat
ineffable; somewhat overbearing.
This article is very long and highly-detailed, yet I have
purposely overlooked many connections, preferring to limit
myself to allusions of other movies, works of literature,
and mythology. Freudian ideology, sexual innuendo, and, for
the second film, similarities to the Vietnam War are all alluded
to throughout the series -- yet I will not discuss them here.
To do that, I’d have to craft an essay so long, it would be
inhuman to read.
I started research for this project well over three months
ago, which should give you an idea of how incredibly deep
Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 are. I scoured my personal library
of books and the Internet to discover what I did not know,
thinking I already had a pretty good idea of which allusions
were used and what they mean. Well, I was right -- I knew
nothing. I still know very little in the great span of things.
But, after you complete this article, you’ll be inspired to
look a little more closely at the series the next time you
see one of the films on TV.
Before I finally get into the thick of it, I’ll tell you what
motivated me to write this. Way back in December, in my AP
English IV class, I read a little book, titled, Heart of
Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Any of you who like Apocalypse
Now should definitely take a look at this book, which
was the inspiration for that film. Anyway, one day, as I innocently
thumbed through the book, I came to the last page, which contained
a list of Joseph Conrad’s complete literary works. As I scanned
down the page, I was shocked to come across two very familiar
titles: Nostromo and The Nigger of the Narcissus.
Filled with jubilation, I decided I had to investigate this,
as it couldn’t merely be a coincidence.
That’s how I got the idea for this article. So, without further
adieu, let’s get on with it!
Mythological
Allusions
Here’s something from Alien Resurrection: the USM ship
that most of the movie takes place in was called the Auriga.
Auriga was a God, also known as Erechtheus, son of Hephaestus,
and was commonly known by the Romans as “Vulcan.” Auriga
was often portrayed as a charioteer carrying three children
on his arm and was often credited with creating the chariot.
Auriga may also represent the Greek sea God, Poseidon, on
his sea horse-drawn chariot. Poseidon, apparently, had a
deep rivalry with the Goddess of war, Athena, and competed
with her for control over the city of Athens. Poseidon had
several abilities, most notably the powers of earthquakes,
water, and horses.
The planet LV-426 was also known as “Acheron” in the Alien
script, comic for the film, and the Alan Dean Foster novelization.
In Greek mythology, Acheron is one of the rivers of the
Underworld in which the infamous hero, Odysseus, dug a trench
to pour blood into, so that he could summon the ghosts of
the dead. In order to cross into the underworld, Hades,
one must cross Acheron, which is also the name of an actual
river in Greece.
Literature
Many
HP Lovecraft fans like to tout connections between the “Lovecraftian
Story” and Alien, Alien 3, and, to a lesser extent, Aliens
and Alien Resurrection. The creators of the series probably
weren’t specifically aiming to fit the basic format of a
Lovecraftian Story, but all the Alien films, in many ways,
seem to fit the general guidelines: a group of people are
confined to a small, inescapable area and something begins
to kill them, one-by-one.
Ever seen Starship Troopers? I’ve heard a lot of
people claim that it’s a rip-off of Aliens, especially when
it comes to similarities between the Mobile Infantry and
Colonial Marines. But many of people do not know that Starship
Troopers originally was a novella published way back
in 1959, which is why it has a certain air of those crummy
‘50s sci-fi alien movies about it. James Cameron actually
had the actors playing the Colonial Marines in Aliens read
Starship Troopers to prepare them for their roles
as space-roaming soldiers fighting bugs similar to those
in ST (albeit incredibly intelligent, and smaller,
bugs).
Many of you know that Alien 3 was based on the best of several
scripts written by many different people. The one script
they decided to go with circled around Ripley’s exploits
in a space monastery filled with monks. I remember one scene
from the script had an alien attacking one of the monks
as he sat on the toilet; through the toilet. Well, one of
the allusions within this script was, strangely enough,
to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - with the monks
representing the dwarves and Ripley representing Snow White.
Eventually, the best of this script was carried on through
to the final Alien 3 script and the above-mentioned crap
was tossed out; so we need not worry ourselves with it.
But take a look at this short excerpt from a May 1992 Premiere
Magazine interview with David Fincher:
“Premiere
Mag: One of the earlier stages of the Alien 3 script
received a lot of heat.
“David Fincher: ...Back in New York, Hill
saw The Navigator: An Odyssey Across Time - a stunning,
but esoteric art film by an obscure New Zealand director
named Vincent Ward. But Ward said he didn't like Twohy's
script. No problem,
he got word. So, [Ward] hopped on an airplane and during
the flight, [he] had an idea that was totally different:
Sigourney would land in a community of monks in outer
space and not be accepted by them. The monks would live
on a wooden planet that looked like something out of Hieronymus
Bosch, with furnaces and windmills -- and no weapons….
“In the draft Larry [Ferguson] was writing, she [Ripley]
was going to be this woman who had fallen from the stars.
In the end, she dies and there are seven of the monks
left -- seven dwarves.
“Premiere Mag: You're kidding?
“David Fincher: Seriously. I swear to God.
She was like -- what's her name in Peter Pan? She was
like Wendy. And she would make up these stories. And,
in the end, there were these seven [dwarves] left, where
there was this f*cking tube they put her in and they were
waiting for Prince Charming to come wake her up. So, that
was one of the endings we had for this movie. You can
imagine what Joe Roth said when he heard this: "What?!
What are they doing over there?! What the f*ck is going
on?!"
Back to
novellas! AE van Vogt, a writer, actually won a settlement
in a lawsuit in which he accused the creators of Alien of
stealing ideas from a novella he wrote, Discord in Scarlet.
In this novella, an alien remarkably similar to the xenomorph
actually lays eggs within human hosts!
Finally, I make my way to HR Giger and his wonderfully repulsive
Necronomicon, which takes its name from one of HP
Lovecraft’s books. Giger’s Necronomicon is filled
with artwork, but Lovecraft’s is a horror story surrounding
the mentioned Necronomicon - an ancient “Book of
the Dead.”
Those of you who like the Evil Dead movies should
be familiar with the Necronomicon, which Ash must
retrieve in Army of Darkness so he can go back to
his time.
Films
Ever
see the movie It! The Terror from Beyond Space, directed
by Edward L. Cahn? Well, if you have, you should notice
a few very subtle similarities between that 1958 science
fiction/horror film and Alien, which was supposedly, in
part, inspired by It! Although the creators of Alien
deny that It! served as an inspiration, their basic
premises are similar in a few ways.
In It!, a rescue party is sent to Mars to retrieve
the sole survivor of the very first manned-mission to that
planet, who is thought to have killed his crew in order
to keep alive on the limited supplies remaining. Although
the man tries to warn the rescue party that an alien killed
his crew, no one believes him until the rescuers are slowly
killed, one-by-one.
We know that, in Alien, the Nostromo receives a distress
signal emitted from the derelict spacecraft. When they investigate
it, they find only one space jockey, though, and it had
died long ago. That sounds vaguely similar to It!,
but I personally doubt that the movie was an actual inspiration.
The similarities are probably just coincidental.
Dan O’Bannon, writer and producer for Alien, worked with
John Carpenter on the little-known film, Dark Star,
mostly as a script-writer. Dan’s script revolved around
a concept he concocted a few years before starting work
on said movie. Basically, its primary theme was little gremlin-like
creatures stowing away on a B-17 Flying Fortress during
World War II and decimating the crew.
Here’s where his idea relates to Alien.
These gremlin-monsters, apparently, came from an alien embryo
that was found in pyramidal ruins on a distant planet. As
a matter of fact, HR Giger designed several pyramids that
were to house the alien eggs for Alien, but the producers
opted for the derelict Pilot ship instead.
Dan O’Bannon’s Dark Star script is in the bonus material
of the laserdisc set of Alien.
This is my favorite Easter egg, even though it isn’t found
in any of the Alien films. Mel Brooks’ parody-movie, SpaceBalls,
has received a cult-like following that few movies ever
do. John Hurt, the man who played Kane in Alien and was
unfortunate enough to claim victim to a chestburster, appeared
in a scene near the end of SpaceBalls. Basically,
they’re at a diner floating in space enjoying their meal,
when, suddenly, John begins to choke and he collapses on
the table. Then a chestburster tears out of his chest and
John says, “Oh, no, not again.” After looking around for
a bit, the alien dons on a top-hat and dances along the
bar table while singing “Hello, My Baby.”
By ::GenoDice::
Comments?
Flames? Praise? Mail
feedback!
|
RSS Feeds