“I ADMIRE ITS PURITY”

As Alien: Romulus hits cinemas, Roger Crow addresses a 45-year obsession with the acidspitting saga; recalls chats with cast members about their respective movies, and highlights some of the franchise’s best spin-offs...

Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott in a behind-thescenes shot from Alien (1979)

Whenever a screen character says: “You still don’t understand…”, alarm bells start ringing; it’s usually the writer(s) projecting their own insecurities about a muddled screenplay. Unlike some of the follow-ups, there was nothing muddled about Alien, and when Ash gave his speech to the surviving Nostromo crew about what they WERE dealing with, it was a reminder of what newcomers had soon realised: this creature was the perfect killing machine which got under the viewer’s skin as well as the crew’s.

Sigourney and Jonesy the cat

The crew of the NostromoIan Holm, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton

You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

Ash, Alien, 1979

John Hurt, Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright make a startling discovery

In case you are a newcomer to the saga, or have been in hypersleep since 1979, let’s go back to the beginning…

THE CONCEPT AND THE LOOK

The mid-1970s, and writer/actor/effects guru Dan O’Bannon, exhausted after Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film version of Dune collapses, crashes on screenwriter mate Ronald Shusett’s couch. They help with each others’ unfinished screenplays. Dan’s Star Beast becomes you know what, and Ron’s project, reworked from Philip K Dick’s story ‘We Can Remember It for You Wholesale’, eventually morphs into Total Recall.