One of my favorite horror films is the original 1979 film Alien.  I suspect most people out there know of this film, if only because this summer we’ve had the release of Alien: Covenant, the third sequel original director Ridley Scott made of his first film (the second being Prometheus).

I love, love, love Alien.  There is almost nothing about it that was wrong, including the excellent -and super-creepy- theatrical trailer…

As much as I loved Alien, and also loved the first sequel to the film, James Cameron’s Aliens, unfortunately the films that have followed, including Prometheus, have left me wanting.  In fact, so bummed out was I by Prometheus that I was hesitant to see Mr. Scott’s Alien: Covenant.  After reading what he does to the character of Elizabeth Shaw, the protagonist of Prometheus, I have very little desire to see the film indeed.

However, this post is about writing and rather than dwell on the negatives of the more recent Alien films, I wanted to focus on the first and what a clever bit of writing the movie presented.

I’ll be getting into SPOILERS here, but I suspect most people by now have seen the film or know what its about.

Still, SPOILERS FOLLOW…

So in Alien, a group of “space truckers” carry their latest load to its destination.  The ship they’re in is massive but the crew of the ship consists of only seven, plus one cat.

The crew are asleep for the long trip, in hyperbolic chambers, but are awoken well before their destination when the ship’s computer receives a strange signal coming from a planet they are flying by.

The crew is awoken and a decision is made to investigate the strange signal.  When the landing party arrives planet side, they discover an eerie, massive spacecraft and a large, mummified occupant.  They also, tragically, discover that within the ship’s cargo bay are hundreds of eggs.

One of the crew is attacked by the thing inside one of the eggs.  It melts through his space suit’s face mask and entwines itself around the crew-member’s face.  However, he’s still alive and the others bring him back to the shuttle.

It is at this point that I think the most brilliant bit of writing within the film occurs.  What makes it so brilliant is that its a wonderful bit of misdirection, making us feel one way when we should have felt another.  It lays out so much and we realize this only in retrospect, when the film is done.

Basically, the ship’s Captain, Dallas (Tom Skerritt) tries to bring the stricken officer, Kane (John Hurt), along with the rest of the exploration crew, back into the shuttle.  Kane is still alive and he needs immediate medical help and orders those within the shuttle to let them in.

However, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), noting that Kane has been infected by an alien presence and therefore may well be a danger to the entire crew, refuses to allow the landing party back in.  She notes that protocol dictates that Kane cannot be allowed back into the ship until he is deemed “safe” from any alien infection.  To allow him in at this point, she states, could endanger everyone.

Meanwhile, science officer/medic Ash (Ian Holm), who is within the shuttle, can barely contain himself.  He is anxious to see/deal with Kane and, realizing the stand-off between Ripley and Dallas will remain, breaks protocol and allows the crew, including the infected Kane, back into the shuttle.

The scene, as played out, makes audiences root for both Dallas and Ash and boo Ripley.  While she is following protocol, it seems incredibly cold and inhuman for her to have the crew out there in the cold.  Especially when it seems at least possible that Kane can be treated and saved rather than being left outside to die.

Yet that scene is beautifully realized because it is only in retrospect that we realize there’s far more going on than it appears.

First off, Dallas, we find, is a very weak leader.  He’s one of those “good guy” bosses who wants everyone to like him and is too lax in following protocol.  Ripley, it turns out, is the no-nonsense firm one.  She knows protocol and, though her actions may be outwardly cold, she’s right while those who are following their emotions are wrong.  Finally Ash, who appeared in that sequence to be following his emotions and choosing to “save” Kane, is revealed to be not interested in him at all.  His actions carry their own dark motivations.

I point this sequence out because it is so (pardon my french) fucking brilliant.

We’re given three characters and their three reactions to this highly stressful situation.  We’re presented with the very human emotion of trying to save a fellow from a fate that seems worse than death.  We’re presented with a cold, too-regulated person who doesn’t seem to understand we’re dealing with human lives here.  Then we have the third person, the one on the fence -we think- who decides for being “human” and saving the stricken officer.

And it turns out all our assumptions of that scene are wrong.

Dallas, while certainly wanting to save Kane, may also be wanting to save his own skin.  He purposely ignores protocol and orders Ripley to let everyone into the shuttle even though this may well endanger everyone else.

Ripley, seemingly an automaton beholden to protocol and therefore a cold-hearted person audiences root against, turns out to be completely correct in her assessment of the situation.  Yes, she may not approach this situation emotionally, but if Kane had been kept from returning to the shuttle as she wanted, none of what followed would have happened.

And Ash, who we thought was anxiously weighing both sides before ultimately siding with Dallas and hoping to save Kane, was doing anything but that.  When it is later revealed who/what Ash is and how he already knew of the alien creature, audiences can’t help but think back to that earlier scene and realize whatever anxiety Ash showed was not because he wanted to save Kane.  Kane, and the rest of the crew of the ship, were eminently expendable to Ash.  What he wanted was the alien creature, to bring it back to his masters so they may use it for their own dark goals.

As I said before, this is a post regarding writing and in that sequence within the film, the writing is terrific, all the more so when the rest of the film plays out.

Too bad the same couldn’t be said of the writing of Prometheus.