--Planet AvP | Articles | Dreaming of Darkness: Allusions in the Alien Movies - Part V

Dreaming of Darkness: Allusions in the Alien Movies - Part V One more thing before I movie on! The shuttle that Ripley escapes from the Nostromo on is called the Narcissus; a reference to another Conrad book. The name of the shuttle, Narcissus, was taken from the Conrad’s The Nigger of the Narcissus. The plot revolves around a black sailor who brings death on board a ship with him. Sounds strangely like the plot of Alien, only a xenomorph, not a black sailor, brings death to the crew. Conrad was trying to play on another human flaw -- racism -- with his novel. Racism results from the natural human habit of fearing, and sometimes hating, the unknown, the different, and the alien. The creators of Alien played on this very same habit when they hoped we would naturally be repulsed by their creature, which is very alien to us, with its oddly-shaped, phallic head; long fingers and tail; odd protrusions of the back; and horrendously violent temperament. Looking at the connections to The Nigger of the Narcissus from a purely philological standpoint, different connotations are found. Narcissism is a Hellenic word defined as “love for one’s self” or “egoism.” If you are a narcissist, then you are probably arrogant, self-absorbed, and you’d probably betray every friend you have just to save your own behind. From this definition, it’s easy to see that the company (Weyland-Yutani) is narcissistic; they are willing to betray their employees for their own gain regardless of the consequences. There are less allusions in Aliens, but there’s still plenty to pick up on. Yet again, greed is what detaches the company from its humanity, but this time an entire colony of people and a squadron of Colonial Marines are doomed in its name. But do you remember the name of the Colonial Marines’ ship? It was called the Sulaco, which was taken from, again, Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo. Sulaco was the name of the town in which much of Nostromo takes place. The people who lived in Sulaco the town were just as motley as the marines who called Sulaco the ship their home in the second film. Stretching what I said earlier in regards to narcissism, it’s easy to see that Burk is a narcissist. This can be said for many of the company executives throughout all of the films, though, so I will neglect to further mention it. Unfortunately, that is all I could find in relation to Aliens. I’ll definitely keep on searching for more allusions, but I doubt I’ll uncover many more. Basically, many of the themes are the same as in Alien. Alien 3 brings about, in a strong way, many more references to Conrad’s works. To discover these connections, it’s necessary to extend our search into the expanded universe of the series, though. In Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien 3, the rescue ship that Bishop II arrived in was called the Patna, from the novel Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad. This novel begins with the hopeless voyage of a ship, the Patna, which the main character, Jim -- also the first mate -- and much of the crew abandon with its passengers still on board. Jim allows himself to neglect his duty and be guided by the sheer fear of the moment and the desire to keep alive, rather than the fact that he shares a common humanity with the doomed passengers on board. Thus, Jim is discharged from his service and he continues to make the same mistake, allowing himself to neglect his humanity by discarding and forgetting his identity. Eventually, Jim gets a second chance when he goes to Patusan, an exotic region. Jim regains his character and identity and saves the region from neglect and disorder, but the arrival of a mysterious and deceitful individual puts Patusan, and Jim’s newly-found ideals and peace, in danger. Eventually, Jim is faced with the same predicament from earlier on in the novel: either flee and leave the people he is bound by duty to care for, or stay and share their mutual fate. Okay, although that was a lot, you should see that, this time, Ripley’s character, not Ash’s or the alien’s, is the key to the connection. Ripley does not act in cowardice in any of the films, but she is still torn apart by the fact that she was unable to save Hicks, Bishop, and Newt. She feels, like Jim did, that she let them down; whether or not she did so willingly has nothing at all to do with it. Ripley is given a second chance, though. As the alien menace ravages the Fiorina, she rises up to restore peace and order, avenge her fallen friends, and finally make peace with her fate -- a fate that, as we find out at the end, is, like Jim’s, mutual with the people she feels bound by duty to help save (the inmates). When Ripley plunges herself into the molten lead, head peacefully tilted back and arms folded in a Christ-like posture, she makes the ultimate sacrifice, but follows her sense of duty and common humanity. As I said earlier, Alien Resurrection does not continue the established tradition of providing allusions and deep-running connections with Joseph Conrad’s works. I was quite disappointed, but not surprised at all, to find this out. If any of you readers are inspired by this article, though, I encourage you to look for anything I may have overlooked. In Conclusion… -- Summing Up the Connections Conrad’s characters exhibit many dangerous possibilities for isolation and moral deterioration in our modern civilization. This isolation from humanity and deterioration of morality causes them to lose touch with their fellow man. This always leads to tragedy. In the Alien saga, Weyland-Yutani falls victim to the very same flaws that Conrad’s characters demonstrate. What happens because of it? Death, and more importantly, a loss of humanity. Both Conrad’s works and the Alien saga have a combined moral: do not allow your dreams -- most notably dreams of wealth and prosperity, signified by greed -- to deceive you into taking actions that will detach you from your fellow man, for that is the worst possible blunder you can make. Worse, as Jim and Ripley find out, than dying. This is why Ripley committed suicide. She, unlike the company, was in touch with her fellow man. She knew the xenomorph would ravage humanity and this was far graver than her death. Forsaking your humanity, in fact, will contribute to the degradation of civilization. For you see, the only thing that keeps us united, in some twisted form of natural harmony, is that bonding factor -- our common humanity. If you lose that, you lose civilization; if you sacrifice that for greed or progress or some other vice, you tear apart the only thing that links us and our fate, whether we are American, British, Australian, Iraqi, Ethiopian, or Eskimo; whether we are communist, socialist, or capitalist; whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, or agnostic. Advertisement Most notably, I find that the relationship between Ripley and the alien creature demonstrates a conspicuous connection to Conrad’s works. Take the following quote from Ash, the synthetic human from Alien, for example: "I admire its purity. A survivor -- unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality…. I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies." I hope you’re ahead of me on this one. As a matter of fact, think about all that I have said, all that I’ve shown you so far, and try to figure this one out on your own. Go ahead; read the quote a few more times and think about Conrad’s lessons, then come back here once you think you have the allusion figured out. Simply put, the alien is what we, as people, become when we allow ourselves to follow its example; when we allow ourselves to become “unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.” Conscience, remorse, and morality are all things that Ripley has in spades. She is a counterexample; she is who we become when we allow ourselves to follow these three “restraints.” When we ignore our conscience, shun remorse, turn away from morality, we become the xenomorph; when we become the xenomorph, we lose our touch with humanity; when we lose our touch with humanity, death, misery, and havoc ensue in our society. This, I think, is something Conrad, who always talked about restraint, would say if he ever saw Alien. In Heart of Darkness, for example, the character Kurtz loses his restraint; he forgets entirely what morality or remorse or humanity means. He goes out into the Belgian Congo to civilize the natives; but in leaving society, he leaves what enforces these restraints -- mostly the government, police, and people who gossip about everyone else’s problems. Because of this, he loses his restraint and turns wicked. The main character, Marlow, is sent out to retrieve Kurtz and eventually learns from him and realizes the necessity of restraint. The company, Burk, Ash… especially Ash, have lost their restraint and doomed their common humanity. Ash never had it to begin with; he only had vague notions of it instilled within his inner computer, which can never compare to basic human instinct, no matter how complex the hardware or technology is (after all, nature is the greatest inventor). Yet, even Ash falls short of the alien. The alien is us, is you, the reader, without your humanity. That is you out there, ravaging innocents; that is you, mercilessly pursuing your masochistic and immoral desires, following your vices unrestrained. The xenomorph is the reality of our race; Ripley is the archetype, the ideal of our race. The only reason we do not completely follow the alien’s sadistic, immoral path is because we have two things it does not have: restraint and a common bonding humanity. But I still have neglected one final question: what, exactly, brought the creators of Alien to the realization of these associations between their work and Conrad’s? What, exactly, was the inspiration for including allusions to Conrad’s various novels? I know the answer. Simply put, through a glaring example of chance, Ridley Scott, the director of Alien, had just finished production of The Duelists before starting work on Alien. The film, The Duelists, was based on Conrad's story The Duel. How extraordinarily lucky…. I will give Joseph Conrad the final word before I conclude this essay. "All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind." (From A Personal Record, 1912.) Sadly, we now come to the end. I hope I have piqued your interest in the film and literary allusions throughout the Alien saga; I certainly wish that this article encourages you to look for what I have inexorably missed. Above all, I hope this essay has been “intellectually stimulating” for you. I think, if I have done by job, if I have followed my “duty,” then I will inspire you a little; then I will cause a few eyebrows to raise and cause a few people to say, “Wow… I never thought of that.” As a matter of fact, if you are still intrigued by all of the references I’ve provided, keep in mind there are tons more. As a matter of fact, a long-forgotten Planet AvP hosted site, Alien Movies Resource, is entirely devoted to searching for references to the series and by the series. I urge you to give it a look. By ::GenoDice:: Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!