Speaker 1: Welcome back to Project Geekology, the show
where we can't hear if you scream.
Basically, if you're screaming on the other side of this, I
genuinely, literally cannot hear you, similar to how the poster
for this movie that we're going to be covering today is in space
.
Nobody can hear you scream.
I was actually listening to the audiobook like novelization of
Alien 1979 at work this week and I kept thinking at work, no one
can hear if I scream.
But that's not actually true.
There are other people there and if I did scream while I was
listening to that audio book, it would have been a bad time.
It would have been very confusing for others.
But anyway, all that preamble out of the way.
My name is Dakota.
I am joined as always with and joining us, as always is rich
was it?
Speaker 2: well, welcome back.
You know, we uh, last week it was just rich and I, we, we
covered the last of us, season one and the first video game.
We kind of did a little bit of a you know, comparison and a
contrast.
So you know, now we're, now we got you back here to talk about
the tall blue people the tall blue people, or am I talking
about the?
Wrong.
Sigourney weaver movie I mean, there are aliens in that one and
sigourney weaver is in it, so so technically I am right, it is
alien but and j and James Cameron has touched this
franchise.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, we're talking Avatar people, Not Alien
.
We've switched it up on Rich.
Speaker 3: He hasn't seen Avatar either.
Speaker 1: No, we're talking Alien.
Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about Alien because this is
a movie series that was I don't know if it was big in my
household growing up, but it was one of those series.
That's revered series, the original quadrilogy, but really
the first two are the ones that were at least regularly spoken
about or we used lines from the movies in our dialogue.
Like I can remember, it's game over man, which is from the
second movie.
Rich has no idea what I'm talking about, but we will get
there because, friends, we have a very special plan for the next
couple weeks.
Actually, it's a little more than a couple weeks.
We're going to be covering each of the Alien movies and the TV
series that's currently airing, in the order that they came out.
So Alien, aliens, alien 3, and so on Resurrection, prometheus,
covenant, romulus, and then Alien Earth.
So we're not doing the AVP movies as they are not canon.
Only really the first one is any good, I think.
But anyway, before we jump into our discussion of Alien, I want
to hear a little bit about how it went for you guys.
Last week you said that you had that mini, or not a mini, so
you had a full podcast to compare and contrast of the last
of us, the first season, versus the first game.
How did that go without me?
I haven't listened to the episode yet.
Speaker 2: I think we're pretty good.
I mean, you know, I've I've had a, I've had a couple episodes
that were full episodes that I did without you with some other
friends.
So you know that that's.
It's been a while now.
Like you know, we've been back at it regularly.
How did it feel, rich, without Dakota there?
I mean, you know, you kind of came into the fold via Dakota
and then you your first, you know, duo episode was with me
and not Dakota.
Speaker 3: I had a great time.
I mean, you know, obviously, dac, we missed you, uh, but I,
you know, I I had been doing I think I mentioned earlier but I
used to do, uh a podcast with a buddy of mine about wrestling.
So I'm just I've kind of I think actually with you guys was
one of the first times or that I consistently did a
three-person podcast.
I found, you know, I kind of fell back into the old habits of
the two-on-two and I will say I proudly think that I managed to
not really mention the second game or season which is, as
listeners know, here I do have to share.
I have been.
There are sanctions placed upon me by my podcast brethren.
Here, where I normally will, they'll say, hey, watch this,
and then I watch all of it.
But I've been told for the next couple of weeks I have to
control myself and only watch one thing at a time.
So it should be.
I think that it'll be nice for the next couple weeks that
nobody will be like, hey, why is this guy talking about the next
one again?
Uh, because I'll actually be focused on what we watch.
Speaker 2: I'll just watch them like five times yeah, yeah, no,
no, like when we talked about the last of us.
You know, we just said that.
You know that there's stuff that was set up for like the
next, the next game, or like the next, uh, the, the next season,
or two, but yeah, no, we, um, we, we, we pretty much kept it
straight in the, the first game in the first season.
So, yeah, man, not not bad, but yes, we have put sanctions and
embargoes on rich, you know we're just paying tariffs on it
for for every, for every mistake .
Speaker 1: Uh, so, guys, uh, what have you been up to this
this past week, anthony?
Speaker 2: we'll start with you well, yeah, man, while, while
you're gone, we, you know, just like we spoke, we, we made the
episode.
You know, if you guys are fans of the the last of us, go and
give that a listen.
Yeah, man, like I've been, I've been playing overwatch again.
I got the the new season just dropped.
You know, so, so happy we got the beautiful you just dropped.
You know, so, so happy we got the beautiful.
You know, persona 5 collaboration that's coming out.
You know, I had to let Dakota know that.
You know, we, actually, I actually mentioned that in the
last podcast.
I was like, you know, I had to mess with Dakota on that, but
yeah, I said, and then we also said that one of these days
we're going to bring you into the fold, even though I don't
know, has rich played?
Have you played any of the games?
Speaker 3: I've only.
I only know about it because like I searched up the image,
like I wrote the thing after there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have no idea one of these days one of these
days y'all are going to join the fold, but yes, but yeah, I know
that.
And then just hopping kind of into world of warcraft, I want
to.
I'm trying to get myself one of those uh, in-game houses that
you can get in retail.
Now I'm trying to.
I've been saving my money, so oh yeah, what is up with that?
yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's like in-game housing you can get like.
So there's like public, like neighborhoods where it's like a
solo, like you get your house, and then there's like you know
just kind of randoms.
And then you could do private neighborhoods where it's like
guilds or like friends can get them together and like have like
houses like kind of next to each other.
It's pretty cool.
I want to like play with some friends so that we can do like a
private neighborhood.
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 1: How's the school zones in your neighborhood?
Speaker 2: Non-existent.
Speaker 1: Perfect.
Speaker 2: Just how I like them.
Speaker 1: Let's throw it over to you.
What have you been up to this past week?
Speaker 3: Well, let's see, the school is in almost full swing,
so we had to start go back.
Speaker 1: You're starting up, yeah.
Speaker 3: So we started Monday.
We're recording on thursday.
So I I'm the head coach of the cross-country uh track team,
which is um absurd, because I don't like to run for distance.
I don't really run, unless I'm running to the mets game because
I'm running late.
So, uh, this is new for me, uh, but I'm having a really good
time, other than getting up at eight in the morning and doing
that.
Speaker 1: And, hypothetically, if you were in the Nostromo,
would you be running from the alien?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, no, I mean, that's different, like
I'll.
I mean, I'm actually going to get knee surgery in the next
couple of months and my my doctor essentially said to me
hey, well, I got to get both.
I got to get both my acls reconstructed.
Oh, man that stinks, so you know that stinks, but my mom
just had knee surgery like two days ago.
So yeah, it's I mean it's crazy because they did say it's an
outpatient procedure, so I'll be like going in and coming home
that day, uh, and then I'll just have a couple weeks off.
Would not great for a track coach to uh be hobbled.
But this is really what made me get the surgery, guys, and
we'll move on from negative things.
I said to myself if a zombie apocalypse happens right now, is
your acl strong enough to not buckle when you need to get away
from some of those fast fast walkers?
And I realized my knee is in no shape to protect my family if
there is a zombie apocalypse.
So I need to get these.
Uh, I need to get fixed up like six million dollar man, and
then I will be.
I don't know if that reference is too old for everybody, but
I'll be good we got it we got it , we're not.
Speaker 1: We're not mental invalids um and how did uh?
Speaker 3: but I think you had a I mean my debbie downer week.
I don't think I can compare to your week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, we like we essentially did nothing
compared to you.
Yeah, we're bearing the lead.
Speaker 1: You're the lead here I, I, uh, I went abroad.
I was in iceland, the land of fire and ice.
Maybe you've heard of it.
Uh, they've filmed some stuff there, um, batman Begins, game
of Thrones, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the list goes
on.
Sorry, I was just trying to figure out a couple of things
that were just like were actually filmed in Iceland, but
completely separate.
Yeah, it's a beautiful country.
It's a place I've been before I went in 2019.
So this was me going back.
Speaker 2: Dude, you've gone so, so many times, I feel like I
feel like you've gone at least like five times in your life to
iceland.
Speaker 1: No, this is I remember you went when you were
younger.
Speaker 2: I feel like you went like maybe set like several
years later and then maybe like 2019 and I I feel like you've
gone I've gone to europe a couple times.
I remember you going to iceland like a few times.
I do remember 2019.
You've got.
I mean, how many times would you say like it's been at least?
Speaker 1: it's definitely been at least three times I promise
you, I've only been to iceland twice like I.
That's a.
Speaker 2: It's a trip that I would not forget I feel like you
went when, when you were younger.
You know what happens.
Speaker 3: Do you remember?
You don't remember this era of his life, Anthony.
This is when he was given the red kryptonite.
Oh, okay, so he can't remember, so he can't remember, yeah.
Speaker 1: You guys are gaslighting me into, like
vacations I never took, and now I'm depressed because I don't
got those memories.
Did you hook?
And now I'm depressed because I don't got those memories.
Did you go to the lava?
You just forgot them.
I did not do the lava show.
I thought about it and I I kind of wanted to.
It did look kind of cool.
I knew it wasn't like real lava , like they.
It wasn't like lava like from the volcano, it's like just
heated rock.
So I was just like I will skip it for now, but I did do the
Blue Lagoon.
I did.
We saw a lot of waterfalls.
We did like a like an iceberg boat tour where, like we, we saw
like the big glacier and it like as it slowly melts,
basically it breaks up into huge icebergs that eventually like
melt down into pocket-sized little handheld ice cubes, uh,
or not.
Well, they can be handheld, yeah, but like some of them are,
um, you know, like man-sized, some of them are like just torso
size.
We, uh, we ended up grabbing, like me and my family, we found
a really perfect piece of ice that had a little like crevice
in the center.
So we took like icelandic vodka and we were taking shots off of
it.
We were like holding the ice up so like ancient ancient ice,
potentially thousands of years old, uh distilling our um you uh
yeah, that was cool, you were chasing your alcohol with
ancient water.
Speaker 3: I drove onto the glacier and we got a bottle of
water when I was there, but you just trumped me there.
You're like, I'm using it to cool the vodka.
I'm like, man, that's a better trip than mine.
Speaker 1: To be fair, we weren't using it to cool the
vodka.
It was like a perfect little channel.
So we were pouring shots onto the ice and just bringing yeah,
it was an ice luge.
Yeah, and it was.
It was, uh, it was for the.
Everyone had a good time, except for me, with that, um,
because I I ended up getting a lot of like sand in my mouth,
because this is it.
These are ice, like ice chunks that wash up on the beach.
So oh my gosh, that sounds terrible yeah, so I was, I was
gagging, I was like why?
Speaker 2: why do I feel like it's it only happens to you?
Like everybody else just gets it clear, like clear and free,
but you're like the one that gets the mouthful of, I feel,
like stuff like it happens to me a lot too, like whenever, like
whenever I was with you and your family doing anything like
everybody's always having a good time having something and I'm
like the one that's just getting just the ridiculous things
happening to me.
Um but, yeah that, that uh did everybody go.
Speaker 1: Uh, it was, it was just me, me, jen, uh uh, and my
parents and my aunt and her husband okay, that's cool,
that's cool man so we're seeing fernando over there.
Yeah, it was a good time.
Uh, we spent a lot of time in reykjavik such a beautiful city,
awesome people like.
It's just so fun staying out late in in a city like that
because it literally doesn't sleep.
It's the weirdest thing.
Like um, you see, you're like walking the streets during the
day and it's really cool.
Lots of, lots of cool shops.
Obviously it's it's touristy, but it's touristy with like a
really cool vibe, because you don't get touristy like that
anywhere else in the world.
But as soon as it's like after like 11 pm, um, the streets are
somehow even more busy, but they're not tourists anymore.
It's just like the actual iceland people and they're the
nicest people to to hang out with.
It's.
It's a really, really fun place that's cool.
That's cool man I have yet to go recommend it I have yet to go.
Speaker 2: It is on my list, along with new zealand uh, it's
expensive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's.
That's the one thing that I want to.
Uh, caution people listening.
It is such an awesome trip.
I cannot wait to go back.
Um, I do think it's like one of the coolest places I've ever
been.
Uh, just because of the extremes, like the extreme
jagged rocks, the, the low valleys, the black sand on the
beach, the fact that there's glaciers, icebergs, volcanoes
that are regularly erupting it's the most extreme environment
that I've ever been to or ever heard of.
But it's expensive.
Like.
I spent way more than I expected to.
Like, even just like random stuff is just there.
Our dollar does not go far at all.
It's really, it's really bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they said that everything gets in.
I mean, basically everything has to be imported the land, is
not very agriable, right, so everything gets imported and the
prices shoot up.
It's a little.
Yeah, I remember when I was there, one of the things I was
trying to go to sleep so I put the Met game on.
Obviously it was like the time difference, right, so it's like
one, two in the morning.
But when it's one two in the morning and it's dark outside
and you're watching the Met game , you're like, okay, stop being
a degenerate and go to sleep.
But when it's light outside, you're like, well, this is
allowed, because I was, you know , like my body.
My body couldn't shut down because it wasn't dark.
Speaker 1: Oh, what time of year did you go?
Speaker 3: I went in August, okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, anthony, that was another weird thing
Sunsets, at least when I was there around 9.30 pm, but
because of the arc of like, where the sun has to go, it
never gets fully dark, like it doesn't get like true
astronomical dark, so you barely see the stars in the sky.
It's fully dark Like it doesn't get like true astronomical dark
, so we don't, you don't.
You barely see the stars in the sky, and we were.
I was fortunate enough that I did catch, like a week, aurora
Borealis.
Speaker 3: Oh nice, we didn't catch that one.
Speaker 1: It was hard to see.
Like at first we thought, oh, it's just clouds in the sky.
But then you like look up at the clouds and they're like,
wait, where did the clouds go?
And then they're over there, and then they're over there and
it's just like that's not how clouds work.
We're looking at the aurora borealis, but it's it was so
light out that we couldn't see the true colors flashing,
basically like it needs to be really dark for that.
But we get, like, if you I have uh like pictures, uh that you
know, on the phone it it picks up the colors a little bit
better because it takes a longer exposure.
So it's green on my phone but it's white and wispy to the
naked eye.
Speaker 3: But I can talk about Iceland forever.
That's cool, yeah, but let's jump into Alien.
Speaker 2: Oh sorry, no no, no, yeah, let's hop into it.
Speaker 1: All right, so let's talk a little bit about our
experience with alien.
I spoke a little bit about what um it was like in my household.
Like we had the alien quadrility quadrilogy box set,
the dvd box set that came out I think in the early 2000s or
something.
Um, it has the first alien, first four Alien movies and I
remember watching them a couple times.
I think I only saw the third and fourth maybe once in my life
.
The first two I've seen a bunch of times.
I think the second one is just a little bit more fun.
It's a little bit more of like a classic science fiction movie
in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the second one is classified as an action movie
, the first one is a horror movie yeah, so it's it.
Speaker 1: The the series bends genres quite often, um, and it
kind of bounces around, uh, so that's something that should be
exciting for you rich, um, because I think in the past
you've mentioned that you're you're into horror.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually I'm glad to hear you say that
because I've agreed to embark on the journey no matter what.
But I'm not really a horror guy .
So as I started to watch this, you know I was like, because you
know you're building and building right, so you're an
hour in and you're like whoa, what?
Like you know there's no, I want to say it's like an hour 45
minutes before you really get what the threat is going to be.
Yeah, it's a slow burn.
You know, my my just kind of stay on that topic of like your
first experience, I never saw any of the movies before I
watched this one.
I know I know of them, right, I've seen like clips of stuff.
I've seen like I had seen like the alien, like like drooling
over somebody type stuff.
I think I may have seen like scenes of part two or of aliens,
but not the first one.
And I think my first exposure was actually this is a throwback
mad magazine.
I loved mad magazine and I think one of the first issues I
bought was like an alien parody, so I learned about alien
through that.
And then my second exposure was space balls oh, naturally yeah
because at the end of space balls, so like there's the
chestburster scene, yeah, I, I don't.
I I assume that most people go into this movie maybe not
knowing that scene, right.
So I, I I was like, oh no, oh no, I know it's gonna.
I saw space balls.
I'm like don't, don't get near him.
Uh, so those were my, those were like actually my only
interaction.
I mean, I knew sigurd niviver was in it, right, like that much
, and I did expect it to be more action.
I was kind of surprised, so like that's what happened, like
48 minutes in whatever I'm going , hey, uh, there's not a lot of
action here.
This is a horror movie.
Speaker 1: I'm like this is a slow introduction of the villain
, you know, or of the monster and even even like the first
five minutes is just shots of like within the ship and
nobody's woken up yet but it's just it's.
It's ridley scott literally aura farming as he turns on the
lights in the ship.
You know, it's just like, yeah, this is a cool shot, film it.
Yeah, this is a cool shot film it and it's five minutes of that
and I get.
I gotta give it to him because a lot of the shots are like
gorgeous.
You know, like the I I would never think to show a computer
screen from the reflection of an unused helmet or like an unworn
helmet, like it's it.
That's like one of the first shots we see and I'm just like
that's, that's cool.
Speaker 2: Like I wouldn't, I would have never thought to do
that you know, like I like that you say that because I mean you
think that this movie was was made in 1979.
You know it came out in 1979.
Like, what they were able to accomplish, you know, with shots
like that and with the, the effects, just it blows my mind
was what they were able to accomplish.
Like you know, this was what a couple of years after Star Wars,
and I still, and I feel like there were a lot more impressive
visuals with this one than, like you know, maybe Star Wars
Right, but this one is this, it's a, it's a different movie,
so they're trying to accomplish something else, but they do a
really good job at like putting you into outer space and
somewhere that's away from Earth .
It's believable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anthony, what is your first memories of the
Alien franchise?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember seeing it years ago.
I don't remember it being one of those.
It wasn't like a household thing for me, but it was
definitely one of those movies that my dad grew up with and so,
like a lot of these movies that he grew up with, you know, star
wars, alien, uh, you know just indiana jones, all that stuff.
You know I, he, like you know I watched it and yeah, I remember
watching alien.
I remember it being, you know I , yeah, I remember, like you
know, as a kid, you know it's a, the first one's a little bit
more boring because there's a lot of talking, but then, like,
once you get to that towards the end, where the, where the, the
is is like being shown a little bit more than than that's where,
like you know the edge, you know like you're on the edge of
your seat.
It's, you know, I remember, yeah , that memory kind of being a
little bit um, a little bit of afraid because it looks so weird
.
You know, like you don't see any eyes.
I specifically remember the mouth within the mouth.
That's always a visual that I'll remember, you know, of the
alien, you know, like, when it opens its mouth, there's like
another mouth on the inside.
I'll never forget that and I remember that as a kid, that
visual of like the mouth, like just shooting into, you know,
buddy's face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know buddy's face.
Yeah, with alien, uh, I've kind of gone like back and forth and
back and forth as far as, like, do I even like this movie?
Not that I don't respect it, I I do, I definitely do.
And I remember like being kind of scared of it when I was a kid
, but it wasn't like a terrifying movie, um, but as an
adult I think I experienced the existential dread more than I
did when I was a kid.
The monster itself was scary, yes, but the impending doom that
you're feeling throughout the entire film is really impressive
.
It's almost like Lovecraftian.
You know, like, uh, there's a certain ominous uh tone that, um
, as soon as they basically land on that planet, or like when
they get the distress call, or when they, um, enter that alien
ship, and it's just a vast cavern of like bones on the wall
and it's just, it's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen.
Which, by the way, coolest sets ever.
I don't know how they did that.
Those are sets, you know, like some of it is matte paintings
and everything.
But like there are like crazy, crazy sets that they built for
this and I'm just like, how did they even think of this?
But yeah, that that cosmic horror, like, almost like a
mental, like your mind's trying to wrap its head around
something that's much bigger than you can imagine, and that's
the kind of like Lovecraftian thing that Ridley Scott was
trying to.
I'm assuming that Ridley Scott was trying to like latch onto,
because, yeah, you feel so helpless watching it yeah, I
agree, I know I said the respect .
Speaker 3: You're not sure if you like it, but you respect it.
Like I can see the craft, the craft and acknowledge the level
of difficulty and the the I mean ridley scott here is the best
of his craft.
Like he right, like at the time period with lack of cgi and
everything, like he did a great job of creating he world build.
Like he spent a lot of time world building before we got to
see anything you know, and that doom builds, so the pacing is
great.
You know, like he does a really great job with that.
The shots are inventive, um, but I don't know if I love it,
but I can.
Yeah but I do like I hate the characters in great gatsby, I
teach it every year almost well, I used to teach it every year.
I I hate read it almost, but it's meticulously crafted and I
can acknowledge how good, how well it's done while you can
explain.
Speaker 1: You can understand that this is actually an amazing
story or an amazing uh work of art, while also hating the
insides of it um yeah, no, I, I totally get that, and so what I
what I was trying to say earlier is I've had this like wow, I
really love this movie.
Wow, it's not actually as good, or it's overblown, you know, or
it's not actually that scary.
But coming at it as a, you know , early 30s person who hasn't
seen it in a long time, I appreciate it so much more
because I'm just I'm I'm just here trying to understand the
artistic intent of like what is being uh shown to me, and I
think I, you know, I'm in a position where I can see that
now I can pick up, uh, what release god is putting down.
And he's putting down a lot of like uh, just existential dread
and and I, I love how they, how he handled that.
And you mentioned, rich, that there are like 45 minutes before
we even like get to see the like the face hugger, you know,
and that's our first like real uh glimpse of the alien.
Then there's the chest bursar scene and the actual like
xenomorph that's actually they never call it a xenomorph in
this movie do you guys have an understanding of the life cycle
of this species from this movie?
Speaker 3: I was trying to understand that personally,
because the latcher right you go like we get the latcher, who
presumably now like implants a seed right, but like when the
burster comes out, I would think the burster would go to latch
mode and it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Right, I don't have a solid answer, but the way that
I understand it is if the face hugger, If the facehugger like
the latcher that you said, if that latched onto, say, a
primate, a gorilla, the chestburster and eventual alien
would look different, because it's taking our DNA Xenomorph.
Okay, it's in the name.
Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
So we do see variations.
I don't want to like spoil too much, but we do see variations
of the Xenomorph in future films .
Speaker 3: Would you compare this to the brood almost from
X-Men then when, like the, I'm sorry, maybe I'm going too deep
in X-Men comic book stuff.
Speaker 1: But the brood, basically, were like the
Xenomorphs and when they took over the X x-men, like it,
looked like wolverine, but a xenomorph.
You know?
Yeah, no, I know what you're talking about.
Um, yeah, I guess that would be the comic book comparison.
Okay, anthony, we haven't heard from you in a while.
What's what's going through your mind right now?
Speaker 2: yeah, so I was kind of dancing around the name
because they they actually't say Xenomorph in this one, but yeah
.
Speaker 1: Yes, do they ever mention it in future films?
Speaker 2: Yes, they must Second one, they must Second movie
yeah, so yeah, no, I agree, it's also like coming into this
movie knowing that you're watching it to discuss.
It also changes the lens of how you watch it too.
And so, yeah, like you do notice a little bit more of like
the minor details, like you.
You talked about the sets.
The sets were very impressive, even.
Even I was even impressed with what they were able to do with
the xenomorph and I was actually analyzing it because you know
it has like spines out of the back and like I kind of look at
it and be like you know, what did they use to to make that
right?
You know, I try to analyze to see if I can notice any, any
like you know, maybe household item that they might have used
right, like some tubing from, from a vacuum cleaner or
whatever, but it's, it all looks impressive.
It doesn't look cheap.
You know they really do put a lot of money into this, but you
know, kind of you know, and we've been talking about you
know really like what they've accomplished in a little bit of
like the future stuff.
But you know, this film has a pretty like solid group of like
like a casting, you know.
I mean you know it's helmed by sigourney weaver, which you know
she was 29 years old in that movie.
Isn't that crazy like thinking that, like she was 29 years old
in this movie.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, and like she looks it she actually looks
young like.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'll I'll like look back at old films and
I'll look to see how old they were and they'll they'll be like
, yeah, there were, there were 25 in this movie, but they look
like they were almost 40, you know.
But she actually looked young.
Speaker 1: You know, I was actually surprised it's crazy
how young john hurt looked in this yes, yeah, because most of
the john hurt performances that I've seen have been a much older
john hurt right but yeah, he, there's a number of really,
really incredible actors in this movie.
Speaker 2: Um, I'd say, ian home looked maybe a little younger
than he did in fellowship, like maybe a lot a lot younger yeah,
I know no but he still looked older, though, though.
Speaker 1: No, he definitely was older.
Speaker 2: You could tell he was maybe touching 50.
He was definitely middle-aged, so yeah.
I mean you could tell he was definitely older.
I mean obviously he didn't look as old as Fellowship, but he
was getting there.
You could tell he was getting up there in age john hurt.
Speaker 3: I mean oh yeah, john hurt, actually surprised me and
I know him best as the voice of the dragon in merlin.
So I I was like, wait, is that the merlin guy?
Uh, that was exciting.
And then, um, I don't know the actor's name, I forget the
character.
Uh, so it's the other dark haired gentleman.
He was in the show big love.
He played like a very sleazy, basically like the head of the
mormons uh out there in uh utah.
Speaker 1: He plays the character brett.
Yes, um.
Speaker 3: So I he's, I don't know his name, yeah he's kind of
not a great guy, you know, in the movie and yeah, I could buy
it like it's just like he, he's like a character actor, I think,
who like just plays like kind of a a not great guy all the
time and he does it well.
So I was excited by the casting .
I I honestly, when they all were on screen I was like, hey,
I know almost all these actors you know, so that was actually a
really cool thing to see and see, uh, one of their earlier
works yeah, um, everyone did fantastically.
Speaker 1: Jen even commented like I don't understand.
People don't look like this anymore.
Like you're looking at some of the cast and uh, so the other
female lambert she was specifically talking about her
and she's just like I've never seen anyone who looks like that
and, it's true, like they just look like they're from the
seventies.
You know it's it's a.
It's a really bizarre thing that , uh, I think everyone just has,
I um, like iPhone faces now, where everyone's used to looking
at a screen, so our faces are just a little bit different.
It's the blue light morphing us , the blue light, yeah, oh, what
I?
What I?
I understand what I was trying to say earlier.
Basically, it's the, the, the use of the actual villain takes
a while and they do that to kind of put you at a state of unease
, because if they show you their hands at the beginning, the
villain is no longer scary by the end.
You know they want that build-up, they want you to
emotionally feel uneasy when you're going into.
You know when you're finally seeing the face on it, when
you're finally seeing the, the chest burster and then finally
it's.
You know final form, um, and they knew their limitations.
You know, like, this is a guy in a rubber suit, but they
didn't want it to look like doctor who you know, like they,
they wanted it to or god.
Speaker 2: They wanted it to look like a.
Speaker 1: They didn't want it to look like godzilla, so they
they kept the creature in shadows and only showed very
sparse glimpses at it, just enough to freak you the heck out
.
And they do a pretty good job of it for a 1979 film yeah, yeah
, I like the, the utilization of darkness, it it definitely it.
Speaker 2: it definitely works well with this type of movie and
I mean honestly that they have a game called alien isolation
and it kind of uses like the similar you know you've got the
xenomorph, you're trying to avoid it and it's, you know
it'll pop up on you at any time pretty much like this one.
You know you're not guns blazing, you know, like some of
the later ones, but yeah, this one is this one.
They did well because, I mean, you're right, you said that they
knew their limitations and they slotted well into that.
You know, and even though they did show, like you know, a full
body xenomorph, it with the camera work, it didn't look
corny no, it doesn't, and and they're only showing.
Speaker 1: I love the extreme close-ups too.
There's a lot of extreme close-ups on people's faces in
this movie, um, to show either fear or just to like, give you a
unique glimpse at the person or character.
And uh, they do a lot of extreme close-ups of like the, the
sleek shine, of like the dome on the xenomorph's head, or just
like it's slowly opening its mouth and like strobe lighting
to like, because strobe lighting is uneasy to look at.
You know like it's hard to.
You know see movement.
And when you eliminate movement with a strobe light, that also
helps heighten, like the, the unease of everything.
Speaker 3: So the only thing I thought and and this is probably
my space balls, this is my, my space balls like background when
the z, when the chestburster comes out, I just the way it
kind of like skitters off screen it it just reminded me of in
Spaceballs when the chestburster jumps into song and dance on
the diner top.
So I giggled when I saw him skitter because I was like I
just in my head heard like hello my baby, hello my darling, you
know, like that same exact scene from Spaceballs.
Speaker 2: So that's the only time that I felt like the
xenomorph took me out of it, like just that little skittering
you know, thinking back like to the 1970s and like kind of what
they did with like horror films back then, you know it was
really hard to make like a serious one that didn't look
corny, you know, and like the acting wasn't like over the top,
like you know, like, know, like oh you know, like.
It didn't look corny Like, but this movie they didn't show fear
in a way that looked corny, it looked genuine.
And so like I really have to like put it up to like the
actors for really like acting very well and making, making a
film that just set off this whole series, that we're still
getting stuff today yeah, yeah, um, and it's, it's kind of
bigger than ever right now because, uh, we just had a very
successful alien movie in theaters, um, and it was a very
good one like I was.
Speaker 1: I'm blown away by how well um romulus was and I've
heard very good things about the first.
I think there's four episodes now of alien earth, so I'm
excited to to dive into that soon and I'm hoping to to start
making like timeline content with you know, I want to make
individual short uh video content for the alien series.
Um, slowly working my way up to something a little bit bigger,
but yeah, so you mentioned anthony that uh, you were like
were you specifically talking about the chestburster scene
that everyone was like super, you could tell like the fear was
like real or not, not specifically the the
chestburster scene, but like there's that, and then the build
up to when the xenomorph um this scene right here yes, so
behind anthony, uh it's.
Speaker 2: It's a scene where, uh, lambert the, the other
female, is confronted by the xenomorph and she's unable to
get around it or do anything and she and she's crying, but like,
like it looks genuine, like it doesn't look fake, like I don't
know, know, like I've seen some of, like you know, older horror
movies that are from around the same era and a lot of them are,
like, really corny, but like this one, I felt like it broke
through like some stereotypes when it came to horror.
I mean it was also partly a sci-fi movie but I mean, like, I
mean the main element of it is horror.
You know, they're building up, like you said, there's that
existential dread that builds up throughout the film until you
get to the climax.
And yeah, man, dude, it's.
It might not be the one that most people talk about.
A lot of people talk about the second one.
That's the one that, like you probably saw most clips of rich
was the second one, but I like, like dakota said you, you have
to respect it, you have to appreciate what this film did
can dakota?
Speaker 3: you're a timeline guy .
When did aliens come out, like year wise?
Yeah, because I'm trying to figure out like I remember
seeing the toys so like.
That's essentially why I thought this was an action
franchise, because I remember like the action figures of like
riley and like the xenomorphs and stuff were a big deal in toy
stores when I was younger so it um, it took a quite a quite a
while for a sequel to come out.
Speaker 1: It came out in 1986, this one came out in 79.
Speaker 3: So uh like so maybe seven, eight, eight years later,
so maybe it was three, three when three came out.
I think that's when I saw that.
I remember seeing the toys in stores that would make sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the three, I think was 91 that makes more
sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I would have been.
I would have been nine okay.
Speaker 1: So I want to go back to the chestburster scene, uh,
because that has, uh, a pretty iconic piece of like filming
lore behind it.
Basically, the cast knew something was going to happen,
but they did not know what.
And they they understood that, like, basically they were told
all right, just just eat your food, have a good time.
And something's going to happen to John Hurt's character.
John Hurt obviously knew what needed to happen.
You know, he acted his heart out with that.
It was a disgusting performance of him, like just coughing up
his food and shoving food in his face.
But everyone else had no idea that there was going to be an
alien that bursts out of John Hurt's chest, that's so cool
which is such an insane thing to commit to doing.
That's amazing and also to put onto your cast.
But they all, it was perfect, they kept in character.
Because I'm trying to think like if I was present, obviously
I would know that this is a film and that we're doing
special effects, but I would be like wait what.
Like because you could see the moment there's like blood
spurting out of his chest before the chestburster even pops up.
You see Sigourney weaver just like kind of like take a step
back, like what you know, like she didn't realize that there
was something underneath his, you know, underneath his shirt
or whatever.
So I think that that's such a cool uh bit of uh like
filmmaking lore, because I like it when you do that it colors
the whole, the whole filmmaking behind it and, like the, it
makes it actually really scary, because these are people
actually terrified because they have no idea what's coming yeah,
yeah, I, I love it when they do stuff like that, when they
withhold like certain pieces of information from from.
Speaker 2: Like you know, you're trying to get like a good scene
and I feel, I feel like that scene was perfect for nobody
else to know what's going to happen, except for you know the
subject, that that happened.
You know john hurt.
So, yeah, yeah, I remember that .
Actually I didn't it.
That's been a piece of information.
I sat in the back of my mind until when, until you actually
brought it up, I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that dude.
Yeah, that's awesome yeah yeah, I completely, I man.
Speaker 1: Now I kind of want to go back and watch that scene,
like now that I remember this yeah, because if you, if you
watch it now, that you know that these people didn't know what
was happening, you could tell, tell genuine surprise is on
their face.
It's really cool Going into Spaceballs a couple years later.
When was Spaceballs?
I think it was the same year or the year after Return of the
Jedi.
Speaker 3: I think it's 83.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the same year as Return of the Jedi.
And there's this scene at the end where I think it's 83.
Okay, so same year as return of the jedi.
And there's the scene at the end where I think it's john hurt
in a diner yes and, and he's just, you know, he's having a
good time, they're having a laugh and all of a sudden, he,
he's doing the same exact thing again.
He's, and he's actually saying not again, not again.
Speaker 3: It's it.
You know what.
I'm so glad you said it was john hurt, because when I see it
happening right, I'm going.
Man, like this is not just like kind of familiar, like it looks
like the same guy and I now I just love mel brooks, by the way
.
I'll.
I'll correct before our audience does.
Space balls was actually 87 87.
Speaker 1: Okay, very good, thank you for checking that.
What did we think of ian home as the android like and and like
his?
Because you can argue that he's actually the villain of the
movie, because it's.
It becomes apparent that this wasn't a random stop that they
made on their trip.
You know, someone programmed them to go here, uh, and he very
, very much, you know, nurtured the aliens growth throughout the
entire film until, you know, to a point where, like, obviously,
like he was trying to keep the alien alive, like he was trying
to, you know, bring it back to earth.
What?
At what point, rich, did you realize that ian holm was the
bad guy or a bad guy?
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he is the bad guy, but yeah well, it's
funny because so when he, when he breaks the protocol to, you
know, let the guy come on.
I think probably, you know, obviously probably a little
problematic for me is that going into it.
I knew that, like, the aliens are bad, right.
Speaker 1: So when I see like oh , let's get it Not fun aliens
yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, let's get him on the ship.
I'm thinking like, what are you doing?
Like I forget protocol, like how about survival?
Like you guys don't really seem to be a cohesive team, right,
they don't like seem to have real, true, like love and care
for each other.
So, no, I'm like what are you doing?
Like scientifically, like as a you know why would you do that?
So I didn't figure it out, I didn't get it until sigourney
weaver gets it that he's bad, right.
And then, yeah, the, the what I'll call is the milk teardrop,
right, is like forming and I'm looking and I'm going that's a
really weird effect.
I'm like, why is it white?
And I thought that it just was me, like I, it's such a maze,
it's such an amazing scene, because I ignored it away until,
like he splits open and I think , like my dog had come into the
room or something.
So I'm like, wait, what?
And I had to like rewind and I was like, what?
He's a robot.
Uh, that blew my mind.
Uh, I won't lie, like I had no idea, didn't see it coming at
all.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, oh, so that's why he's the worst
, you know, that's why he's so cold and calculating and you
know like there's just something nasty about like that milky
substance that was like pulling out, like I feel like if it was
like like oily, like if it was black, it wouldn't, it would
have been like whatever, but like that white substance just
made it look worse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's something inherently I think
kind of off putting about that and I was thinking about it.
I was like, if he's a robot, why isn't it oil or grease?
You know why isn't it dark about it?
I was like, if he's a robot, why isn't it oil or grease?
You know why isn't it dark?
And I and now that you say that , I think I would have been like
it would have been a clue that I would have picked up on too
quickly.
But because it was that milky, you know substance, you're like
what is that?
And it's that's enough to hold you off for a couple more
minutes, like that's brilliant to me.
That was brilliant.
His hair gel's dripping oh no, he's he.
He accidentally booked a uh uh speech at the wrong place and
now he's oh, man, oh, but yeah, it was.
It was really very well done.
I yeah kudos to like I didn't see it coming and then when you
go back, I think the best types of surprises.
The foreshadowing was right there, but you miss it, you know
, and he, it was so good did you get an opportunity to watch
this like a second time, or you just?
Speaker 1: it was just the one?
Speaker 3: time, I watched it twice okay the second time.
Speaker 1: Did you see all of the instances where he was
purposely yes, um like, instead of keeping them outside for
quarantine?
Speaker 3: he's just like nope, it's like yeah it was like, oh
my, like it was that it feels rewarding, almost, to watch it
and see it again and see how well it's done and and you could
see, like you know, yeah, like on that that second watch, like
every instance that he was like going against the grain of the
crew.
Speaker 2: You know, at that point you're like hmm, like why?
Like what?
What?
What's this guy like why?
Why does he care?
You know, and then you you see that you know he, he got those
orders from the company he kept saying we haven't finished
collating, and I'm just like, yeah, that's a very normal thing
for a person to say.
Like nobody on that ship would say anything like that but him.
But yeah, no, and you know it is.
I think it was such a smart move Because you go into the
movie and I'm pretty sure, like this was rich, you go into the
movie knowing that there's going to be this alien creature right
in there, but you're not expecting there to be like a
secondary antagonist, right Did not see that coming.
You know, yeah, like he, pretty much yeah, and Dakota Dakota's
right in a way, like you could say that he is the villain of
the story because he made it so this creature was able to fully
form and almost kill everybody.
Speaker 1: So, rich, you mentioned earlier that nobody
had any love for each other, and that's, that's on purpose.
You know, these are just people doing a job.
They're, they're tasked to ship or from one planet to another.
You know they're going back to earth at this point.
But the actual ship name, nostromo, has some actual
meaning, um, and when you take that into consideration, the
whole plot makes a lot more sense.
So the the nostromo is named after, uh, there's a book by
joseph conrad from like the early 19th century or sorry, the
early 20th century, it was early 1900s where it's the name
of the ship and that ship in that book, or yeah, in that book
, it basically signifies like it's a story of exploitation of
labor force.
And that's exactly what the company because they don't
really call it wayland yutani in this movie, they, they just
call it the company.
They are exploiting the, the labor force, for whatever reason
to, so that they can gain access to the secrets of this
alien.
So that's that's whyley Scott names their ship the Nostromo,
because it puts the emphasis on corporate capitalist greed and
each of the crew members has moments of thinking for
themselves, not necessarily in the movie, in the original
drafts of this movie and the novelization, which fleshes out
the characters quite a bit more.
You see a lot of the selfishness of each of the cast.
You see a little bit of it when Parker's like we should get a
bonus, we need a full share.
But there's a lot more of that in the novel, or the
novelization of it, from pretty much everyone.
I don't.
I think Ripley isn't really included in that, she's the only
one just trying to do her job, but I just think that's kind of
like a cool little background.
Detail is the Nostromo is named after a Joseph Conrad book from
like the early 1900s and it means corporate greed basically,
and that's what we we see happening throughout this whole
movie.
This whole, this whole adventure is stemmed by
corporate greed.
It's really that's.
Speaker 3: That's a really like nice easter egg there that I
didn't um pick up on, but, um, you got me, you got me searching
it now and I'm just, uh, I'm gonna have to go read some more
joseph conrad.
I mean, I thought heart of darkness was it, but I think, uh
, they wouldn't have to dive in here heart of darkness is not
where joseph conrad ends.
Speaker 1: My friend, I love this movie.
I, I think, coming back to it now with fresh eyes and just
eager to you know, experience the whole series instead of just
bite-sized portions of it, because each of the films is
fairly separate in uh, in tone and story, because you have the,
the original four, with Sigourney Weaver in it, but then
the.
There's two prequels that don't have Sigourney Weaver in it at
all, and they're more.
I don't even know how to describe it.
It's more like an explanation of, like, the origins of uh,
faith and the universe and everything, and it's like uh,
have you seen Prometheus Anthony ?
long time ago yeah, I mean I'm excited to get to that one,
because I think a lot of people wrote it off as being like, uh,
trying way too hard, but I think it's probably the smartest film
in the series.
Um, I think it's just.
I think it's really good we're coming up on an hour.
We can keep going for a little bit more yeah, yeah, we can.
Speaker 2: We can, uh, go back to the good old days.
Speaker 1: You know, hit a two-hour podcast, two and a half
so another thing that I thought was interesting is, um, the.
The film is very vague on a bunch of stuff and it's
purposely vague on a bunch of stuff.
Uh, we mentioned they didn't give a name to the, the alien
species in this movie.
That's something that comes later in the series.
They didn't even give Ripley.
They didn't give Sigourney Weaver a first name in this
movie.
She's just Ripley.
Everyone in this movie only has a last name Kane, parker,
lambert, brett, dallas, ripley.
They all have only a last name and a designation on the ship.
So it's basically like everything is stripped down to
its base stuff that you need to know basically what they do on
this ship, why they're here and what they're going to call each
other.
So I think that's pretty cool.
We don't learn that her name is Ellen Ripley until later.
But yeah, and the same with the company.
They don't name the company by verbiage in this movie.
It's on some background, easter .
There's some Easter eggs of the name of the company,
weyland-yutani in the background .
So there's a lot of it.
You don't even know what time period, uh, this film takes
place and it doesn't give you a date.
You only learn like when this movie takes place in future
movies because they can backdate it.
It's, it's the whole idea of give them as little as possible
but just enough so that they understand, uh, their setting.
Basically, and it just, it, just it's meant to disorient you
and I think they did a good job because I'm I haven't been
right.
Speaker 2: Ever since I watched this, I've been disoriented
because I was like I need to continue so that I can get on
the timeline.
We know, we know that you're timeline obsessed and so this
movie, with a lack of its time, is just throwing you through a
loop man it really?
Speaker 1: yeah, no, but it's, it's.
I think it's an easy ish timeline once they start like
actually giving you dates.
It's just no dates in this one.
But, um, guys, I think we shall call it here, let's.
Let's give some last thoughts on Alien and get all riled up
for Aliens.
Right, riley Next week.
Speaker 3: Riley, ripley, ripley , sorry.
Speaker 1: That's OK, Rich.
What did you?
What are your final thoughts on this first Alien film?
Speaker 3: So I think I went in with expectations of Alien 3 and
got a very different experience .
I as usual my first watch I was , like you know, this is a
horror movie.
The end of the movie is what I really liked, as it started to
ramp up, probably from from chest bursting on, like I was, I
was invested.
I'm really excited to explore the rest of the franchise and if
this is a building block that I needed to digest in order to
enjoy the franchise as it evolves, then I'm happy I
engaged in it.
If this was a standalone movie, just this and nothing else was
after it, I'd say it was good.
It was really well done.
I can acknowledge the craft, but it's not my type of movie.
So I'm you know, I'm a little like I know about the alien
versus predator movies and, like man, I love predator, like that
guy.
So I was expecting kind of like predator-ish stuff with
sigourney weaver and that's not what I got here.
But that's my own fault.
So definitely recommended to watch something that was
exceptionally well done in a time with limited resources um,
before I hand it over to Anthony .
Speaker 1: Uh, I, I like what you said there.
Specifically, this is a building block to what comes
next.
I think you need this movie to feel any sort of weight for the
character of ripley um and a fear of the alien, you know so.
So keep that moving forward, because it is an important film,
not just for like film history, but in this franchise, like
it's, it is the.
It is a new hope for this series.
Um, anthony, go ahead yeah, man it.
Speaker 2: It'd been a long time since I had seen this movie.
I would say that I've seen aliens more than I've seen the
original alien, but I have seen the first two more than I've
seen, uh, three and four, so it was nice to go back to this.
I always like it when, when we pick something, that kind of has
me go back to it because I don't know if I would have gone
back to this movie anytime soon.
Not because I hate it, just because you know, just like I
really.
You know it hasn't been on my radar, you know, to watch the
first alien movie, but I'm glad that we did and I really do feel
like coming into this.
I I did notice a bit more and I did feel a lot more of an
appreciation for it, for the time period that it came out and
for what they were able to accomplish.
And, yeah, that the fact that this is it came out and for what
they were able to accomplish, and, yeah, that the the fact
that this is one of the foundations for what we have
today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really liked this movie.
I I'm happy that we like like Anthony said, revisited it
because I'm able to appreciate it with a new eyes and a new
like perspective on art and everything and filmmaking.
So that's awesome and I'm excited to jump into future
films in this franchise.
Uh, next week yes, next week.
Aliens sounds good episode 132 aliens with an s at the end.
Uh guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our
131st episode of Project Geekology.
We appreciate all the screams that we couldn't hear, but we
know it was scary at times listening to three white men.
But I'm going to end this now, I'm just going to ramble.
Guys, if you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to
click into our show notes down below and click something.
You'll find something new.
Have a good one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and don't forget to give us Dakota.
It's your turn.
There's something that we require of our listeners.
Speaker 1: Not require, but we ask of, we ask, uh, we ask with
the flamethrower to the back of you, um now, uh, yeah, so
there's something that we we usually like uh receiving here
on this podcast, a, a favor of sorts.
It's kind of like a it's a five-star juicy review,
specifically, I didn't know where the favor was going.
Speaker 3: I was like whoa it's just a review.
Speaker 1: Five stars make it juicy like ian holmes.
Uh like milky, milky innards yeah, I was looking at that same
exact thing, or perfect, you know crunchy or or crunchy, like
, like the, the shell of the alien and the chestburster, you
know, the exoskeleton, everything it's.
It's a.
It's one of those movies you get, you get a little juice, you
get a little crunch.
Give us a five star review, people.
That's, that's what we're trying to beg for you.