Transcript

Alien: Romulus · Citizen Frame

0:00
I don't want I'll forget it I'm still carrying over the giggles from the Mad Max films,
0:08
yeah they were pretty bonkers podcasts but at the same time they're bonkers
0:13
films in the best possible way so it fits.
0:17
So what we decided to do here I didn't want to do this film this next one and,
0:23
I'm not talking about Mad Max Thunderdome we have done that one and it will
0:27
be getting released sadly Sadly, but no, I just doing new releases seems to be doing pretty well.
0:33
If we try to get them day of release or close to it, long legs is a perfect example.
0:38
Thank you for anyone who download, download the long legs. It's been a massive
0:41
success, a lot of compliments on that actually.
0:44
So we do appreciate the feedback and the downloads.
0:47
So we decided we're going to keep fueling that engine with new releases.
0:51
And they don't want to do this one because I want to do a retrospective of it,
0:54
but we've talked to alien.
0:56
We've talked to alien versus predator. editor so it's kind of sloppy at this
1:00
point so we might get to it in a few years time but,
1:04
i'm more i was more i wanted to deal with this one because i'm a big fan of fidi alvarez,
1:11
he's becoming just one of the i can't
1:14
one of the best directors out there he's three for three in my eyes with movies
1:17
like don't breathe evil dead and i kind of just gave all my cards on the table
1:21
saying three for three and his new film alien romulus so he's uh yeah you know
1:29
some concerns here and what was what i was concerned is was going into this film and the trailer.
1:37
Misled you a little bit so i don't know if that's going to hurt some of the box office numbers,
1:41
or if it is the trailer i thought it was a bunch of nerdy little fucking brat
1:46
pack breakfast physical sciences nerds who, like in Jason X,
1:51
who are all too smart for their own good,
1:53
find an alien specimen and get taken out. Yeah. Basic blah, blah, blah.
1:58
But guys, I am going to tell you now, it's not that film.
2:03
It is a complete 180.
2:06
It is, we'll dive into it. But we were pleasantly surprised that the film takes
2:12
a different direction. So before we go any further, I need to have to let you
2:18
know this, this will be spoiled filled.
2:21
So if you don't want to know all the tricks and the little nest eggs,
2:26
pardon the pun, that they have in this film, a little nod to the hats,
2:30
little winks of the older version of this franchise,
2:35
you do not want to listen.
2:37
If you do, good on you. Yeah, I would maybe advise you to watch the film first
2:43
and then come back and listen to our podcast if you don't like spoilers,
2:46
because there will be major spoilers here. Yep.
2:51
Plenty of them. Yep, absolutely. So the film kind of has me pretty quickly here.
2:58
And the one plus side about this film, it's like Alien, where it's a very minimal
3:07
cast, which I really like to see.
3:10
And the main characters are, quite frankly, Rain, Andy, Tyler,
3:15
Kay, Bjorn, Navarro, and Rook. Yes. That's it. That's your characters.
3:20
All the up-and-comers, besides the little cameo we'll be talking about here
3:24
in a second. And these up-and-comers are quite talented.
3:27
Fede Alvarez likes to work with new talent. He did it with Evil Dead,
3:31
and he did it with Don't Breathe.
3:35
So someone in his casting office knows what to look for or what his likes or dislikes are.
3:41
Because I will say this, you've got pretty much no names that I don't really
3:46
recognize besides a couple of them.
3:48
They they nail out of the park the acting here is
3:51
pretty but solid and just to back up what you said earlier a
3:54
concern of mine was that like the recent the most recent texas chainsaw massacre
3:59
film they were going to be like young sort of late teens early 20s characters
4:04
who were deeply annoying but you know to back up what you're saying that is
4:09
not the case and yeah yeah apparently I like a lot as well.
4:14
I've got the idea for these characters through a deleted scene from aliens where
4:21
it was a bunch of the kids in the colony and aliens running about.
4:25
And he thought, well, maybe we could have a, you know, a film or a story with
4:29
them growing up a bit and having to face down against xenomorphs.
4:33
Well, that's piggyback on that comment. That's exactly what it is.
4:36
I mean, I remember turning into a goal. Is this the same planet that the aliens took over in aliens?
4:43
And it isn't. We know that. But it does have that same planet feel.
4:50
Absolutely. They're both mining colonies.
4:53
They're both all family oriented. The only difference is this one,
4:56
this colony seems to be a little more aggressive with its colonists.
5:03
All these kids are orphans because their parents are dying in the mines.
5:07
Yeah. So now they have to take over for their parents left off and their contracts are being extended.
5:13
They're going to die obviously as well, you know, because it's like.
5:16
Yeah. Yeah. Like Victorian chimney sweeps almost, you know.
5:20
Yeah. I was waiting for Mary Poppins to come out.
5:24
Dick Van Dyke. That would be awesome. Top dancer. Dick Van Dyke comes out.
5:28
Chim-chim-chim-chim-chim-chim-chim.
5:31
Frist and his animal. That'd be awesome in an alien movie. Yeah.
5:34
That'd be fucking awesome. I just rewrote this. Yeah. You're welcome.
5:37
You're fucking welcome. Now, the opening scene had me pretty quickly.
5:41
And the reason I say that, it begins with a salvage ship, and it's going through
5:48
the universe, and it finds the wreckage, that's right, of our beloved Nostromo.
5:53
It's a really nice little scene, and they grab this artifact in space that looks
5:59
like it's petrified at this point. Don't really know what it is.
6:02
But they take it on board. Well, we know where we're going with this.
6:06
And that is the ship's, this is called the Romulus is what the ship is.
6:11
And this ship, that will be the ship's downfall. We don't see anything. We don't need to.
6:15
It cuts to the colony we're about to talk about. No, it's the,
6:18
yeah, no, it's the ship. Yeah, the ship is basically takes them to the space station.
6:24
The Romulus, the Romulus is a space station.
6:27
Oh, okay. It's not the Romulus. Okay. Yeah. The space station is already.
6:31
Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought for some reason this was, okay. Okay, there you go.
6:35
We saw this once, so we're going to have, give us a break.
6:38
Hopefully we can correct each
6:40
other. But yeah, that's hence the reason why it's called Romulus. Yes.
6:43
And I think it goes back to the whole sort of alien series of,
6:47
you know, where they based like ships and stuff on classic mythological characters,
6:52
like from ancient Greece, or in this case, ancient Rome.
6:56
Romulus and Remus were the mythological founders of Rome. The twins.
7:01
Like, wow, look at you being all in there. History lesson. Wow.
7:05
Wow. All the book learning. No, I remember doing it in school.
7:09
You read good in school? Is that what you just said? No, I remember doing Romulus and Remus in school.
7:15
You got reamed in school? What? Reamed? No, wow. I'm sorry, you're cutting out.
7:20
I'm cutting out. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Squirtle Cowboy? What?
7:23
Romulus and Remus. Ancient Roman mythology.
7:27
Okay. Yeah, I know what it is. Yeah, well, that's okay.
7:31
I can't spell mythology, but I know what it is. My son in class, the Titans.
7:36
Even better. Yep. Ray Harryhausen. Yeah. So this is the colony Jackson.
7:43
Yes. Colony Jackson star. The aliens colony was called Hadley's Hope.
7:48
Yeah. So like I said, it's a mining colony and we're introduced to a character.
7:54
This is probably, we talk about arcs a lot.
7:57
I kind of have my own arc in this film. Um, and it's around the character of Andy.
8:03
Now I knew right away, I turned, you remember the theater?
8:07
He's a little slow and he's coming off a little autistic almost.
8:12
And he likes to repeat really stupid puns. Yeah. Jokes. So I, yeah.
8:17
So I, I, I turned to you and I said, yeah, he's, he's an Android. Yes.
8:22
And straight off, he is an Android. He's our Android of this film.
8:26
And he has He's been malfunctioning But he's been.
8:31
With the gang, since she can remember.
8:36
Yeah. Rain. She basically rescued him off of Robbie's tip because he was malfunctioning
8:40
and she sort of adopted him as a brother.
8:44
Yeah, exactly. And so these two are going to be our main focal points, Rain and Andy.
8:51
And that's it. So she finds out she's going to be contracted longer.
8:56
They're not honoring her contract. She was supposed to be taken off the colony.
9:00
Not going to happen at this point Because we all know what we know about Whaling
9:04
industries they're a bunch of
9:06
They're a bunch of assholes yeah they're bastards Whaling Jutani Exactly.
9:12
So her ex-boyfriend Tyler And
9:16
the gang Kay Bjorn And Navarro ask her They really need Andy not her but She's
9:24
not going to go without him They want to take a salvage ship or a little ship
9:29
or a little shuttle ship go up to the romulus and go in there and pretty much,
9:36
take shit from it they want to steal the you know
9:39
the space sleep cryo pods because they
9:43
want to then take them on board the ship that they
9:46
have stolen and because they want to then go
9:49
into deep space sleep cryo sleep
9:52
and then you know they hope to reach this
9:55
planet that she's been dreaming because they've never seen a
9:58
sunrise because the mining colony
10:01
that they're on it it's constantly
10:04
night you know what i mean there's no sunrise but they want
10:07
to escape obviously for the work on all because of you know the hard work and
10:10
you know their lives are limited they want to escape this hellhole of a mining
10:14
planet and reach another presumably much nicer planet but to do this they They
10:20
have to get the cryopods from the space station, the Romulus,
10:26
take it onto their ship, go into deep space sleep before they have to travel
10:32
for like six years or whatever under space sleep. I think.
10:37
Yeah, sounds about right. Then they need Andy.
10:41
Yes. Because Andy is a robot, so he can go into. He can hack,
10:46
basically. He can hack. Yeah.
10:48
He can get them on board. the space station romulus and stuff and that's why they need him.
10:55
So they take off and there's a nice little, when they finally get to the,
10:58
inside the Romulus, there's a scene where the two guys, Tyler and Bjorn. Yeah.
11:07
Have to sneak into this, they have to get through these, this little vent.
11:13
Yeah. I guess you can say, to get, to open the main door, to get these, the rest of the gang in.
11:19
And so when they're doing this, what happens is the gravity is,
11:22
there's a switch isn't working.
11:25
So the gravity is coming and going.
11:28
So it's a nice element of claustrophobia. So when they're in there,
11:33
you're kind of claustrophobic yourself because you know how tight squeezed this
11:36
is. And they're skinny guys already.
11:38
But at the same time, they're being pushed up and down, pushed up and down,
11:43
consistently trying to get through this small vent.
11:47
Well, Alfieri knows his horror.
11:49
And this is, you know, that's claustrophobic scenes.
11:52
You know, it's, you know, it's very well done. by
11:55
him and what he does do well when he does these
11:58
scenes obviously it's you're in a dark area he
12:02
makes sure that the audience can clearly see what's happening
12:05
there's no like what's what's going on i can't really see it's dark
12:07
but it's not everything dark yeah everything's wonderfully lit or he'll give
12:12
the actors some kind of gear that they'll make them stand out and so it works
12:18
beautifully but it already builds to it i like when film is built to attention
12:22
tension that has nothing to do with the tension that's about to happen. Yeah.
12:26
You know, they give you more than just, oh, look, we're aliens.
12:28
And trust me, guys, like I said, spoiler filled, this movie,
12:33
you think ends, then it doesn't end, and then there's something else. Yes.
12:37
It is a really fun roller coaster ride of elements of what we just talked about.
12:45
So they get in, and guess who we meet? A character called Rook.
12:50
Now, Rook, you've never met him, but you've met his probably little brother.
12:56
I'm not sure what the time's. Our bigger brother. I know this is after Alien.
13:01
Yeah. So I'm assuming Ash, who is the villain in the first one,
13:07
and it's played again by a now past Ian Holm.
13:11
Now, I looked this up. They did, everything was altered, CGI'd,
13:15
and his, they do what he called the voice, the voice, AI, that kind of stuff,
13:22
took from old films that he did.
13:24
All the work that must go into that and put it into sentences and so forth.
13:29
It's similar to what they did with Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones and the Dial
13:33
of Destiny. You know, the opening scene?
13:36
Apparently, they used elements of previous Indiana Jones films when Harrison
13:40
Ford was much younger and they sort of did it with that, you know? Yeah.
13:46
Yeah, I mean, that I kind of get, but it's more about the voice. Yes.
13:50
To be able to, I mean, I understand if it's a cameo.
13:54
They did it, quite frankly, really nicely with Donald Pleasance,
13:57
Dr. Loomis' character in the last Halloween we talked about.
14:02
And it's the voice that throws me off because how did they do that?
14:05
Obviously, they had an actor who knew how to talk like Loomis,
14:09
which is fine because he's only in it for about 30 seconds.
14:13
But the real character, guys, is in the whole film. Yes.
14:16
So they went into a database and got word after word after word that was said
14:21
by the late Ian Holm and put it into this character.
14:26
Pretty fucking impressive stuff. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's cutting edge.
14:30
You know, obviously there would have been enhancements with the likes of AI
14:33
and stuff, possibly even an actor maybe saying some lines, you know,
14:38
an actor who's good at doing impressions of Ian Holm, basically.
14:42
Basically, but together, it does work 100%.
14:46
And I'm not a fan of CGI generally.
14:49
Well, yeah. I mean, I am a fan of CGI when it's done like this.
14:52
I mean, CGI is a necessity.
14:55
Yeah. I mean, Indiana Jones, we talked about the CGI is wonderful.
14:59
But in this, it's beautiful. Yeah. There's some shots coming up that make you
15:05
just go, Jesus, I get CGI.
15:07
It's when CGI is replacing everything. Yes, exactly.
15:11
I don't have a problem with it. But I'll tell you what, guys,
15:13
the aliens in this are costumed. They're animatronic.
15:18
There's no CGI aliens in this one. Made of monster suits. And that could,
15:21
yeah, it's old school and new school without CGI enhancements.
15:27
And it's just beautiful.
15:29
I mean, it's just gorgeous. This is the thing. I have no, you know,
15:33
per se, I have no real issue with, you know, CGI and AI, you know, in theory, you know.
15:40
But it's whenever there's an overindulgence with them that that pisses
15:43
me off and yes they they are needed in science fiction and fantasy less
15:46
so horror but whenever it's something like this um the best way is to use them
15:51
only when you really have to and alvarez certainly seems to have done that here
15:55
what what alvarez does is he takes the greatest hits of all the aliens films Yes.
16:05
Let's say that right now. He does. Period. He does it. Yeah.
16:08
But I always say, do what you want.
16:11
Make it, you know, do what you want with a recall or a sequel,
16:15
whatever you're doing, but always be true to the source material.
16:19
Yes. And what he has done is he's been true to alien aliens.
16:26
Period and just nodding at the cap now
16:29
aliens hasn't happened yet technically but he does
16:32
a little nod to some of the some of the scenes where yeah where where rain is
16:38
being trained how to use the gun that's pretty much a mirror image of hicks
16:43
and ripley yeah you know as he's training with the pot because the pulse rifle
16:47
is is in this there are even some direct lines,
16:51
reused from both films the famous one get away
16:54
from her you bitch but there's other ones from alien like whenever
16:57
ripley signs off at the very end of the first one and that
17:01
happens at the end of this film and also rook also says a line that is basically
17:06
word for word for the final line that i say along the lines of i won't lie about
17:10
your chances of survival you know yeah i mean it does if you're a fan of the
17:16
original work, you'll catch it.
17:18
It might take a couple times to see it. I missed some stuff that Trevor saw,
17:22
and then I saw some stuff.
17:24
It's one of those things that you just gotta be on the ball.
17:26
Yeah. It's definitely worth revisiting if you're a fanboy of the franchise. I would say as well.
17:32
There is also references to Prometheus and Alien Covenant.
17:37
I mean, they're part of the story, essentially. So it ties in with all of them.
17:41
Well, you gotta emphasize, people, you want to But guys, keep in mind,
17:46
Prometheus and Alien Covenant are actually the first films.
17:50
Yes. Then it's Alien and then it's this one.
17:53
So keep that in mind. So when we do mention the references coming up with Prometheus
17:57
and the Covenant, they happen first, technically. Yes.
18:01
Chronologically, they happen first. Yes. Yes. From the Alien timeline.
18:05
Yeah. Now, going back to what I was saying, what Alvarez does here is he takes
18:09
all the elements from them and he just fucking reloads them.
18:12
So we've always been peppered in With the facehugger
18:16
you know we've always Known about it and there's always
18:18
One coming to get you well this one There's a fucking 12 of them Yeah not If
18:24
not more and they use Them consistently now you think oh it's Facehugger I've
18:29
got to blow it out of the water but when you've got Like 30 of them coming at
18:31
you It is so fucking fun It's like being attacked by giant spiders,
18:37
They're awful Yeah and this one really does,
18:40
detail what they do in your throat and really show you the, the impact of what these things can do.
18:49
We already know, of course, and they've done it well in all of them,
18:51
to be honest with you, but this one just seemed a little more raw and,
18:55
and how it treats its, its spectator or host, I guess you could say. Yep. Yeah.
19:00
Now, the water scene I really enjoyed. This is when the facehuggers full come at them.
19:05
They're in the water, and these facehuggers are underneath, and they're just
19:09
coming at them full blast.
19:11
Just such, I mean, you never know how they're going to get out of something.
19:15
And they do. And the great thing about it that they're smart guys,
19:18
they're smart kids. Well, they're probably teens at this point or early 20s.
19:22
And then the little diamond
19:26
in the rough here is that this might
19:29
not have been capable if the boy
19:32
i couldn't stand andy now i talked about
19:35
arc my own personal arc in this film and it's with andy i
19:39
went from hating this character i couldn't stand him i
19:41
thought the jokes were stupid i'm like oh jesus here's the goofy robot that
19:46
we're gonna have to fucking protect and save he's like my brother i'm like oh
19:50
fuck here we go this is gonna suck this is gonna suck and what they do here
19:55
is that he needs to he doesn't have full access that they thought he He would tell the ship shit.
20:00
So they take the chip out of Rook, who is the head honcho, and they take it
20:07
out of him and put it into Andy, causing Andy to become a sophisticated, more advanced android.
20:14
And also, in a more sinister manner, he is
20:17
now more or less taken over by Rook to carry
20:20
out the mission of the original guys who were on the space station with the
20:26
original alien Ian from the Nostramo to basically clone these things and you
20:31
know for the company essentially so basically Andy becomes evil Andy yeah,
20:39
he's a complete opposite character but the character at some point.
20:45
Isn't necessarily evil i would say i think he's
20:49
he's still doing the right thing because a is
20:52
what he's programmed to do at this point now but also because he he
20:56
knows this thing right see in the second one bishop talks
20:59
about how the models that rook is you know
21:02
the way at first ripley um doesn't like bishop because of
21:06
ice essentially and aliens well basically
21:09
bishop explains how those models had glitches
21:12
as he describes them where they will
21:15
they have no problem at all basically hurting
21:18
or even killing humans if it means to complete the
21:21
mission because don't forget the robots they're completely logical you
21:25
know what i mean they will always use logic and andy does it
21:27
as well you know well there's scenes where you know
21:30
he doesn't save the pregnant girl because
21:34
he would be putting them all at risk including her you
21:37
know against the aliens you know the door so that makes complete sense
21:40
but from a human point of view they're bastards
21:44
but at the same time it makes sense and
21:47
i get it you know it's like spock and star trek i mean you know when yeah the
21:53
pregnant girl will come up near the end there but if if he did what he was supposed
21:58
to do they wouldn't you know rain wouldn't have the situation she'd be at the
22:02
end of the movie yeah Yeah, but his ultimate goal.
22:05
Rook's ultimate goal, and later whenever Andy basically becomes possessed by
22:09
Rook, is to complete the mission of cloning these Animorphs and getting them
22:16
for the company, the Weyland-Yutani company.
22:19
Well, they want that saved DNA, whatever it is.
22:23
Yes, that as well. The Geno, basically the engineers from Prometheus, that comes from them.
22:30
And they mix, they blend it with the alien. Yes. See,
22:33
what we find out, and this is another fun tidbit,
22:39
where the artifact they found near Nostromo in the beginning of the film was
22:46
actually the alien featured in Alien. Yes, and we'll see it's hanging body.
22:52
Yeah, and there's a shot where I was like, wait a minute, what the hell?
22:55
And it's really nice. You have to catch it, guys.
22:59
Apparently. There's an alien and he's kind of like on display and he's hanging
23:04
there and it's decayed. It's just fucking freaky looking.
23:08
And we find out that that is our boy, the original alien from the 70s.
23:15
Apparently, I just read up on this. I didn't catch it when we watched it.
23:18
But apparently, if you look close, he has a harpoon sticking out of him,
23:21
the Ripley stuck in him on the Nostromo.
23:24
Yeah, see, that's stuff you got to really. Oh, attention. Yeah.
23:28
You got to find, but that's my point.
23:30
This guy crosses his T's and dots his I's.
23:35
Now Navarro gets it. Now Navarro gets it with the chest buster and her whole
23:39
sequence is pretty, and it's elongated.
23:42
It's not like, oh, let's do a face hugger. Okay, done. No, we focus on this
23:47
attack quite long when she gets it.
23:50
And then when they have this really cool little machine, it's
23:54
an x-ray machine that you can hold up to your behind your
23:57
arm or something and you can see right through your body and
24:00
this is how she finds something in her in her in
24:03
her chest and obviously she gets her
24:06
comeuppance yep still still good kill oh yeah i'm
24:08
still good yeah yeah just you know jumps out of her and yeah but
24:12
there are other aliens on board as well in this nest thing so they are and also
24:17
yeah so it's worth noting a little we've already referenced it that one of the
24:21
female characters confirms pretty much near the beginning that she's pregnant
24:26
because she has morning sickness that'll come into play later on.
24:30
So, yeah, so what happens is you've got the facehuggers coming after him.
24:36
You got Navarro, who's their pilot, I believe is dead. Yes. You've got a pregnant woman on board.
24:43
You've got now a nice little Andy who's now a rogue. Yep. Android.
24:48
You've got Rook who's not helping any. And then to make matters worse,
24:52
Kay and Bjorn, and this doesn't even start when the aliens kick in.
24:58
Then to make matters worse, they have to take their Corbelon.
25:01
I think it's called the Corbelon. It's the ship they use to get up there. Yes.
25:04
They jump into it and they're going to leave?
25:09
Yes. Yeah, they're going to leave them behind. There's nothing they can do for them.
25:14
So they get on, but they're reckless about it. And they end up crashing into
25:19
another sector of the Romulus hangar.
25:21
But what that does now is it takes the station and shifts it.
25:26
Yes. and now it's moving toward the Jackson's Planetary Rings and it's going
25:33
to be engulfed in this huge asteroid belt.
25:36
It's a different planet. It's not the colony planet at this point,
25:39
I don't think. It all could be wrong. Yeah, it is.
25:41
We're still the same planet, right? Okay. Still planet, same planet. Okay, yeah. Wow.
25:46
Someone didn't do their homework. No, no, I mean, I've only watched this once. I did. Shut the fuck up.
25:51
I did. Pure legend here. Pure legend, everybody.
25:55
It's like a keeping you right babysitting you You know like Mad Max Babysits
25:59
the kids and put you on Thunderdome But anyway we'll get to that Yeah So now they have like an hour.
26:06
Now we're talking about this after the movie It gets a pass,
26:11
There's a countdown You got an hour You got 20 minutes You got 10 minutes We all know in movie time,
26:18
You add it by
26:21
another 40 minutes just before we started
26:24
this podcast i was doing a bit of homework on this according to
26:27
imdb the internet so take it
26:30
take this with a pinch of salt apparently the countdown
26:34
is correct in real time and the
26:37
basically the final act of the film is in real time and
26:40
it is correct it just feels like
26:43
they're taking the piss or at least it did with us
26:46
because we felt that it was like the longest 20 minute countdown
26:49
in film history but according to the internet so
26:52
again take it with a pinch of salt it is correct in real time alright so when
26:58
Kay and Bjorn crash the Romulus and the Romulus says we have one hour before
27:05
impact that is an hour left in the film apparently so.
27:10
And the rest of the film is in real time, like an episode of 24.
27:15
I guess it kind of worked because when you watch it, yes, the hour's up,
27:22
but the ship slowly gets devoured by the rings.
27:25
So they're still fighting when the ship's going into the belt.
27:28
Yeah, I think it's just because of the way it's sort of, you know,
27:33
you're jumping between, you know, the ship, you know, slowly crashing into the rings.
27:37
And then they're fighting the aliens and stuff. off and then you know you think
27:41
it's over but then there's the big final part which we'll get to but apparently
27:45
it is it's basically an episode of 24 but in space where no one can hear you
27:49
scream you know i might see it again because i would like to say now that i'm,
27:54
no yeah go yeah um no but not even that not even that just because of cat there's
28:00
so much stuff to catch guys it's it's it's a fan film and you know it's like
28:05
the guys who did halloween at least 2018 the ones we all liked, was 2018,
28:10
he peppered it everything that everyone wants to see.
28:14
And he does it so well. And right there, he's a master of his craft.
28:19
If he actually gave us, there's an hour left, this is it.
28:23
And so that's true. That's cool. I mean, it just goes to the professionalism of our boy.
28:30
I would obviously have to check it on rewatch, but apparently so. Apparently it is.
28:36
Now, like, the Bjorn character is kind of a dick, we all know.
28:39
He's kind of annoying, actually.
28:41
He's, like, briganded against them, aren't he? Because he's a robot?
28:44
Because he's a synthetic robot?
28:46
Yeah, but that was because his parents were killed by one.
28:50
Yes. At the end, it's a case of the one who killed his parents thought it was
28:55
logical, you know, for the greater good, or else everyone would have died, you know?
28:59
So that's why he has a chip on his shoulder about synthetics, basically.
29:04
But Bjorn was with Kay after they crashed the ship, and he's trying to help
29:10
her, and they're obviously now under attack.
29:14
And, but they're by themselves and there's no, really no escape.
29:17
But he, he tells her to run. He's not going anywhere.
29:20
He's pretty much fucked because the acid from one of the aliens had hit his
29:24
leg and crippled him almost pretty much.
29:27
And he tells her run. And then this aliens, the goo from the acid is just dripping
29:34
on him bit by bit and eating and just tearing into him. It's a horrible death.
29:38
But again, he's taken what works. He shows you the real gratuitous of what face Skugga does.
29:47
He really shows you in this what the acid, how powerful it is.
29:50
The acid is actually key. Actually, the acid is key in this film.
29:53
He takes everything that is used against the humans by the aliens.
29:59
And he just shows you in detail of how powerful this really is,
30:04
all the stuff that they use.
30:06
And it's so wonderfully done. And here's death and you hate the character,
30:10
but But when you see him get it, you're like, fuck.
30:13
I think he's just a well-rounded character. I wouldn't say he.
30:15
I don't know. He's just a bit of a dick. A bit of a young dick.
30:18
I thought he was a dick. He was kind of annoying.
30:22
But again, you felt sorry for him when he got it. So the actor did something
30:26
right. Oh, the actor's hair is spot on, all of them.
30:30
I have nothing at all. I have nothing against any of them. Yes.
30:35
So my favorite scene, there's a couple of them here.
30:40
And at this point, we start the boyfriend, Tyler, well, the ex-boyfriend.
30:49
He's there. They got two pulse rifles. And they pretty much each have one round.
30:54
Well, one set of rounds, whatever. A magazine. A magazine, correct.
31:01
And the boyfriend quickly gets it as he's gotten the tail.
31:08
Yes. You know, the famous tail death gets it through his chest and he's lifted all the way up.
31:14
And this alien looks at him and he goes out in a blaze of glory.
31:18
He starts shooting all these, he sees all these aliens coming at him.
31:21
This is where we see the whole nest starting to come at everyone now.
31:27
And finally we get a real shot of what these fucking things with his teeth come
31:32
in and penetrate their skull.
31:33
Yeah. We got glimpses here and there, but this will show it. It quickly cuts.
31:38
It quickly cuts, it gets in the forehead.
31:43
Yeah, it's, it sucks, but.
31:46
Tough shit. We want to see our gore. And in Alien Fulham, I want to see gore
31:50
and horror science fiction gore by Xenomorphs. And we'll get it. We'll do get it here.
31:57
Now it's just her and Andy at this point, right? Yes. Yes. No.
32:01
No, no, sorry. Because they don't have. Pregnant.
32:03
Kay's back. Yes. They find her in the nest.
32:06
They rescue her from the nest. Yes. That's right. Because she just disappears.
32:10
Because she gets locked in. in and before because that's her brother that's
32:15
tyler's k and tyler a brother sister tyler yes and and that's where andy won't let her out,
32:24
earlier they basically they want to go in and rescue her from the room with
32:30
the xenomorph but andy says no if we open this door this is when andy's under
32:34
the control of luke says no and he's much smarter and logical says if we open
32:39
the door it It will kill us all.
32:41
And they're pissed off. And she slaps, Rhian slaps Andy, you know,
32:44
for the first time, you know, but he's actually right.
32:47
I know he's a synthetic, but he's actually right in his decision.
32:51
Is it better off one of them, Dan, or all of them, Dan, including her?
32:56
Well, that's my, I mean, I think that's my point because the brother handles it quite well.
33:00
Yeah, he's crying, pissed off, but there's a part of him I think he understood what Andy was saying.
33:08
It's Spock from Star Trek, Pure logic. Non-biased logic.
33:14
So, let's talk about Star Trek.
33:18
So, there's a scene where it's just her and Andy now. Yes.
33:24
And I forgot where Kay was at this point.
33:27
I think, was she? No, she was put into the, like, the cyro chamber,
33:32
you know, the deep sleep chamber, I believe at this point. Yeah.
33:36
Yes and they have to go back and they also give
33:39
her the you know you know from um well sorry
33:42
she takes it herself she takes herself that's right she takes who's up to no
33:47
good yeah she takes it it's she's in so much pain she takes this because she's
33:52
still hurt not even from the from the baby she's just been oh yeah you know
33:56
roughed up by a few xenomorphs roughed up yeah so she gives she injects herself with the DNA.
34:02
And yeah, because Rook advises her to do it, but obviously he knows what's happening.
34:08
Well, there's going to mess with our baby.
34:10
I don't think, I don't know if Rook knew that. Oh, he did.
34:14
Oh, he did. Well, Andy didn't. Not Andy, because. No, but Rook did.
34:19
There's a, Rook might have, I suppose, but there's a video showing a rat dead or in pain.
34:25
They give it the xenomorph DNA, whatever it is, and then it comes back to life.
34:30
But as they walk away from the video it explodes it
34:33
explodes i would say about andy as well though andy
34:36
although he's a lot of them is under the control of rick he's still they're
34:40
still like good andy battling with like bad andy so he's conflicted which again
34:45
it's great you know for the character you know so there's like good andy trapped
34:49
in there with rick andy yeah and you kind of see that a bit when.
34:56
Piggyback on the Star Trek thing I was talking about. One of my favorite Star
34:58
Treks is Undiscovered Country. Yeah.
35:00
And there's an assassination scene in that film where somebody turns off the
35:05
gravity of a Vulcan ship and they walk into these metal boots and obviously
35:09
magnet boots, I guess you'd call them.
35:11
And they're stuck to the floor and they assassinate all these Klingons.
35:14
And you see the purple blood floating all around.
35:19
Well, this almost pays homage to that a little bit. Maybe he's a fan of it.
35:22
But keep in mind, their blood is acid. The alien blood. Again,
35:27
focusing on other elements besides the teeth.
35:31
Because quite frankly, most of the damage that's done is by a facehugger,
35:39
or it's done to themselves, or it's done by the acid. Yeah.
35:44
And so, long story short, they got the pulsing, which is homage to the classic aliens pulsing.
35:51
But it's just a person shooting it's not automatic weapons
35:54
and she is blowing the shit and
35:57
there's this cool automatic weapon scope where automatically targets
36:00
you know it's it's it's it's target
36:03
and blood is flying everywhere but she's turned off the gravity so now that
36:09
blood is floating so that way because there's a great there's another thing
36:13
again paying i don't well maybe it is paying a little tribute to aliens where
36:18
they're trapped on in this nuclear fucking Barry or whatever it is, right?
36:21
And they says, we can't use our weapons. And obviously Hudson says,
36:25
well, we're supposed to use harsh language.
36:28
That is playing this scene because they're told, do not let the acid touch the floor.
36:34
Why? Because this is the bottom of the ship. And blow a hole in it.
36:37
And the spear. It will blow a hole in it and we'll be all sucked out.
36:42
So that's why she's using the, she's shooting them and using the gravity as
36:47
it's, so the blood there's just floating at this point, but she's got to wave
36:51
her way through it, float through it without touching any of it.
36:53
Really neat. And then there's one set, and it's really fun because you're rooting for her.
36:58
You got this fucking pile of acid come right in your face and she uses the pulsar
37:03
gun and it's, and it's, and she shoots it to the ground.
37:07
Or out of the way or blew it out of the way. It blows her out of the way. Yeah.
37:12
And it's very clever and very intense and just very fun.
37:16
And all these little traps that they get themselves into, they do find a way
37:23
out, and it's a smart way out.
37:25
You mentioned about how I messed it, but the facehuggers, they're in the water.
37:31
It's something about the coolness.
37:33
Yes, it's to basically, Andy advises them basically to,
37:38
well he does it to basically change the temperature
37:41
of the room so that basically because
37:44
the face huggers are blind and they can
37:47
only sense humans to jump on through their
37:50
body heat so he changes the this is when he's good aren't they well we sort
37:55
of jumping back and forward but so he changes the temperature of the room so
37:59
that it confuses the face huggers and they don't detect them but But he also
38:03
warns them that basically if you get excited or you break into a sweat or whatever,
38:09
they'll detect you and therefore that creates tension.
38:13
Yeah. And I didn't know that about the Facehuggers. Maybe it was explained in another one.
38:18
I don't think it's ever been openly explained in a film. Maybe in something like one of the games.
38:24
But apparently it is part of the canon. So, yeah.
38:28
Obviously, Alvarez has done his homework and done some. So when he's played on this aspect of it.
38:34
You ever notice that in the Alien films, the androids are the bad guys?
38:40
Because I'll give you an example. Let me, I'll go through it.
38:43
You got, all right, so first you got Ash from Alien, right?
38:47
Who's a bastard. You got, well, you had the good guy, Bishop.
38:51
Yes, I was just going to say Bishop.
38:52
But in this one, you had Burke was the one. He was human, obviously.
38:57
Then you had Evil Bishop in Alien 3. No, he's not evil. No, no, no.
39:02
That's a human, an Alien 3, which I just watched, actually.
39:06
I know, but he's still evil.
39:10
All right. He's still evil, and he's Bishop's creator, so we'll call him Evil Bishop.
39:16
What the fuck, man? So then you got Dr. Giedemann, who's played by Brad Dourif.
39:24
He's not an android? I believe that's Alien. Okay, I'm just saying,
39:28
there's always... Can I finish, please? Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.
39:32
Okay. Maybe I misspoke when I said they're all androids.
39:37
Rat bastard. You had David from Prometheus and Alien Covenant.
39:41
Wait, you want to write her as? They all, would you, oh, there you go.
39:45
There you go. Just really, really interrupt me again. I had a good climax for
39:48
this. Go ahead, go ahead. Now it's ruined. Now it's completely ruined.
39:51
Funny shit. Well, you know, what's the point? Funny shit. Anyways,
39:53
long story short, there's always somebody from the Wayland Industries there
39:59
to be there to make sure something gets out that they can bring back and test on. Yeah.
40:07
Yes they are happy there's always a company man or robot you know what I mean
40:11
with Paul Reiser and aliens as well you know yeah I said that Burke I know I'm
40:17
agreeing with you why would you say that again because I'm agreeing with you
40:20
but you can't agree with me yeah that's true you don't have to so even when
40:24
I agree with you you still have a problem with,
40:27
no it's not but you said Paul Reiser but I just said that I was back on what
40:31
you were saying plus it was confirming that yeah he's a bad guy and not Bishop and the second one,
40:36
I said I did that you know what let's move on resurrection Winona Ryder she's pretty nice no it's Dr.
40:43
Geideman no he's the bad guy yes he's the bad guy Brad Dourifan there's a couple
40:48
of other ones there's a crew of them but Winona Ryder's the android.
40:52
In resurrection call oh that movie was shit anyway so I don't care has its moments
40:58
I don't care on the subject of alien resurrection erection, there is a huge
41:04
reference to it coming up here in Romulus.
41:08
Well, let me, do you just want to ruin it for everybody now or you just want
41:12
me to just, so as I was leading in to what I just said, yes,
41:18
there is a pregnancy coming up because she has injected herself,
41:23
Kay, with this xenomorph Prometheus engineer goo that.
41:30
The baby is altered and grown faster.
41:34
So when she gets to her, she is given birth.
41:40
She's still alive and everything. And she pops out the child and she rips it open, Rain.
41:45
And it's in some kind of sarcophagus or cocoon.
41:49
And we see it as a little baby engineer primarily.
41:54
But just like the alien, it grows really fucking fast. Kills its mother.
42:00
And as we know from Prometheus, the engineer, the xenomorph is created by human
42:07
blood, by the engineer blood.
42:10
Right? I think so. I think that's
42:12
right. Yeah, that's human blood and then engineer blood create the alien.
42:19
But this is a right sort of version of. That's my. Yeah.
42:24
Yeah, because you have her DNA, a xenomorph DNA, and you have the engineer DNA.
42:32
And that's what this creates. It's like a three-way hybrid. Right? Yes.
42:37
And when this happened, guys, I'm telling you right now, I was like,
42:40
fuck me. Movie's going to suck dick.
42:42
That's it. I said, I'm not watching this. This is going to be terrible.
42:45
I hate births in films. What the fuck?
42:48
Then she screamed, like, fuck off. Come on, number or something, right?
42:54
Well, if you'd just given birth to a fucking nine-foot alien,
42:57
you'd be in fucking pain.
43:00
Give her a break. Give her a break. Give me a break. So anyways.
43:04
Just giving birth to the spawn of Cthulhu.
43:08
So it disappears, and Rain's got to go after it. Kay's dead at this point. It's killed her.
43:16
Yeah, but you don't see much. You should have saw something. Sick bastard.
43:21
Oh, yeah. It is an alien film, actually, you know. Yeah, exactly.
43:27
So anyways, yeah, well, no offense after giving birth to fucking Chewbacca between
43:31
your eggs. You're going to be dead anyway. You're not going to survive that.
43:34
He's kind of small at first, but he grew really big in a short period of time.
43:38
Yeah. So when she finds him, we find him at his age. And guys, it's so fucking creepy.
43:44
And it's practical. It is, it's animatronics with some close-up headshots,
43:50
probably somebody in there. But it's tall.
43:53
He's got the tall, he's like a tall slender man with the face of the engineer,
43:57
the tail of an alien in human skin.
44:00
It's so fucking creepy. It's very real though.
44:03
And this is what I was talking about where you got the aliens,
44:08
you've got the face huggers, you've got, you got, what's his his name, Rook.
44:13
You've got the belt that they're crashing into as this is all happening,
44:19
as the ship's being devoured.
44:21
You have Andy, who's become a rogue.
44:24
You've lost your main ship because of Kay, and you've got his name, Bjorn.
44:31
All these elements, and acid, all these elements have come into play,
44:36
and you think she's made it.
44:40
So, and And of course, as they talked about, the hull with the acid,
44:47
that finally comes through. Mm-hmm.
44:49
Was that happening with the acid, didn't it? Didn't it finally hit that?
44:52
Or was that just them hitting the belt?
44:54
No, I think it's a bit of both. But as far as I know, it's actually a bit of
44:58
acid that drops from- Yes, the acid.
45:01
Yeah, because, no, because they have to bring the gravity back on. Mm-hmm.
45:05
So in order to put the gravity back on, they have to put the gravity back on,
45:10
And they have to make it out of there real quick.
45:12
Because once they put the gravity back on the, the acid hits the floor.
45:17
Yes. So now they're in a time.
45:20
And this is where she's fighting this fucking creepy thing.
45:23
She's then sucked out. I was, oh, there's a big hole eaten and she gets sucked
45:29
up, but she's hung and hanging on by some, I would say space rope or whatever
45:32
the fuck they got over there and it's such a fun, uh,
45:36
It's just, it's just such fun escapism. And it's, it, and then you see,
45:40
and once she successfully removes the beast, there's a shot and it's her dangling
45:46
underneath the ship on this, on this rope that she's on.
45:49
She's wearing a space suit, by the way. So, you know, again,
45:51
another reference to Ripley in the original.
45:54
Yeah. No, she's. And her space, and the helmet of her space suit is cracking
45:59
as well. So that's another layer of tension.
46:01
Yes. Layer of tension. It's pretty fun because when she's trying to get this
46:04
fucking thing off, you know, the Zetamore fucking banging on the mask and it's cracking.
46:09
So she finally gets, she finally gets him off and she's hanging anyway.
46:15
And you can see from a distance, the ship being slowly devoured and the whitest, grayest ring.
46:24
It is so gorgeous. And this is when I was talking about CGI and when it's beautifully done.
46:31
Well, I mean, this shot should be on a poster. It's so beautiful.
46:36
Obviously she gets back up and you know saves the day yep yep and then she gets
46:43
her final log you know and then the style of ripley in the original this is rain signing off yeah.
46:52
Andy's badly injured but you say she'll repair him oh and also andy just earlier
46:57
on in the finale delivered the line get away from her you bitch you know he
47:02
does it in a slightly different yeah Yeah,
47:04
because there's a nice scene where they kind of copy Hollow Man a bit.
47:07
We talked about that with the elevator sequence where his conscience starts
47:10
coming back a little bit.
47:12
The real Andy where he saves her life in the elevator scene,
47:16
which is pretty effective.
47:18
And she also says the line to him, I have a new command for you.
47:25
And it was, what was it? Was it something like be yourself? Save everyone or.
47:31
Or look out for yourself or something.
47:33
No, it was look out for. Look out for Andy. Yeah, his first one was look out
47:38
for Andy. Yeah. No, his first one.
47:41
He's always looking out for her and other people whenever he's good on them.
47:45
Yeah, look out. Yes. No, no. Yeah. Look out for rain. Yes. That was his command the whole time.
47:51
But she goes, I have another command for you. look out
47:54
for everybody or all humans or something
47:57
like that i don't know something yeah what's your
47:59
overall thoughts of it yeah you know
48:03
pretty fucking good i would
48:06
say very entertaining at the time it is greatest hits album as you know we've
48:12
discussed i think it's the best alien film since alien 3 there is the argument
48:18
of course that was it really necessary and in 10 years time what was still be talking about it?
48:24
Will it be as memorable as certainly the first three?
48:27
Time will tell. But certainly at the time, entertaining.
48:31
Greatest hits album of the Alien series.
48:34
Yeah, I'm gonna fight you on that one. I think it's a lot better than the greatest
48:39
hits album, as I mentioned during the podcast. Alvira?
48:41
No, don't. Let me finish. I know. Let me finish, please.
48:45
You've already torn the movie apart and you said it was a piece of shit.
48:47
So now it's my turn. Go ahead.
48:50
It is the greatest hits. So you're gonna agree He exploits the,
48:55
I said it during the podcast, so you stole it from me, play trust.
48:59
So he's like, fuck me. Can I just finish this, please?
49:04
I'm listening to the audience like, fuck me, shut the fuck up.
49:08
Yeah, do you? Both of you. Yeah, well, I'll admit it. I'll admit it.
49:12
No, but listen, yeah, it is Greatest Hits, but he makes the Greatest Hits his
49:16
own. I mentioned that with the Acid Blood and the Facehuggers.
49:19
He shows you the real damage that these things can really, really do.
49:24
And in detail, in graphic detail, they all play big parts.
49:29
All the elements that make an alien play big parts in this, not just the alien itself.
49:34
You have great characters in this, minimal characters, which works.
49:38
The gore is there when you need it. The visual effects are stunning There's
49:43
no CGI There's no CGI that takes away from the film It's all practical monsters I mean The score.
49:53
Whistleworthers, I can't remember his name But it was wonderful It blended all
49:56
the old scores together nicely Also accommodating his own style It's a Beautiful package,
50:05
And I'll tell you what I said this before Rogue One is a perfect fucking example
50:09
if you're gonna do a film all right and
50:12
you're gonna put it in the middle or before a fucking
50:15
classic franchise you better fucking hold it
50:18
up and you better you better own it
50:21
and you better be true to the original well they did that with rogue one i swear
50:25
by rogue one you have rogue one star wars empire strikes back and return of
50:29
the jedi four fucking i even put solo on there because i actually enjoyed solo
50:33
might get to it someday though those films tell a fucking good story.
50:38
I'm happy with them. Fuck the others. All right.
50:42
Now, Alien, all the aliens are actually quite good. I don't think I have a problem
50:46
with any of the aliens films.
50:47
I'm happy with the entire franchise, to be fair. I'm not a big fan of Resurrection,
50:50
but it's got some cool stuff.
50:53
So as all complete package, but you put this right after Alien and right before
50:58
you hit the big boy aliens.
51:00
So does it, is a nice little introduction to aliens and that's what we need
51:05
to be answering ourselves.
51:06
And I think it fucking does. I really think it holds up.
51:10
It plants the seed perfectly for aliens to come in. So you can watch Alien...
51:17
Alien Romulus and Aliens and Aliens and Alien 3 and even Alien Resurrection,
51:24
as bad as it is, and enjoy the entire franchise.
51:27
And then you obviously got Prometheus and Covenant, which are underrated.
51:30
The whole franchise is really good.
51:32
But to put this between Alien and Aliens, that's a ballsy move.
51:36
Ballsy move, because those two are fucking classics.
51:39
Aliens is the greatest sci-fi horror.
51:43
Second, I think it is. I think The Thing is my favorite.
51:46
But you know you know i'm saying i think it this
51:49
it works very well and alvarez he certainly
51:52
knows how to do horror and he certainly
51:55
knows the alien franchise inside out my concern would be that that will it be
52:01
as memorable in like five ten years time i don't know we'll have to find out
52:05
when we get there but i certainly on this first time viewing in the cinema i
52:10
certainly enjoyed it and And it is very exciting.
52:13
And, you know, especially with Rook, basically, you know, Aisha's twin,
52:17
you know, there's a lot to enjoy there, especially if you're a fan of the series.
52:22
Well, there you go, people. Go ahead and check it out for yourselves and see what you think.
52:26
Trevor hates it. Clearly made that point out. That's unfortunate.
52:30
But he liked to stop her mom's shoot. So fuck him.
52:34
Now, guys, check it out. I can't wait to see what he does next.
52:37
I'm so always looking forward to it. It's always nice to have a director like
52:40
Ty West and Fidi Alvarez, you know. There's a lot of good talent. Neil Marshall.
52:45
Yeah. All these guys out there that look forward to see what they can do next.
52:50
And I hope he hits another home run because this was a pleasant, pleasant surprise.
52:55
It would have been a fucking train wreck.
52:58
There you go. All right, guys, we're going to wrap this one up.
53:00
This was a long one. I do apologize for that.
53:03
But when you're trying to, it's tough when you take notes right after a film
53:06
and then you don't really have anything to reference it. You kind of got to research it a bit.
53:11
And you don't like looking at cheats because sometimes those cheats can be misleading,
53:15
but it kind of refreshes the memory of what you saw.
53:18
But the great thing about something like Alien is it's so well done. It's memorable.
53:23
So you kind of do remember everything you saw. oh, a film that was okay,
53:28
you kind of black it out after the next day.
53:32
Yeah, this one, you know, holds its own.
53:36
Kudos to the marketing team. They won. It just seems, you know,
53:40
it's a well-packaged product.
53:42
So there you go. All right, guys, listen, give us a shout at citizenframe underscore
53:46
podcast on Instagram and, of course, Facebook.
53:49
If you have any shouts, you want to yell at Trevor for something, I'm cool with that.
53:52
Thanks for, you know, sort of burning with me. while I remain patient and babysit Kieran.
53:58
So, you know, I keep him right.
54:01
That's how it goes. That's how it goes. Piece of shit. Oh!
54:05
Guys, it's all good fun and banter. Yes, of course. Until you work with Trevor.
54:12
Until somebody gets some alien acid blood on them. It's all fun and games.
54:17
Alright guys, thanks for joining us. Take care of yourselves. Have a good night.