ALIENS; AN ESOTERIC ALLEGORICAL Film ANALYSIS PT.1
- by Brandon Martin
Aliens has been one of my favorite movies since my very early years. I grew up watching movies like aliens Terminator, Dune, Equilibrium, and Blade Runner, etc. I was very inspired and intrigued by the symbolic and psychological aspects of these types of films. They have always held a deep connection to me personally and I found that all of these films were taking a deeper look at the in-depth complexity and simplicity of the human psyche and also a look at the potential despotic future. Alien is obviously a much better film when it comes to cinematography and its intensity for bringing out an emotional response to the viewer. And in the future, I will be breaking down the film Alien in-depth but for now, I'm just going to stick with aliens because this one resonated with me as a child more so than the first film. Now that I've grown more mature, I recognize that the first film is by far the better film in certain aspects.
Today we are going to chronologically move through the film together and take a deeper look at the symbolic and allegorical essence of each scene. We're going to take a look at the subliminal imagery that invokes parts of the collective subconscious aspects of our psyche and the esoteric and exoteric messages and philosophy of this terrifying world. I would like to make it clear that some of what I bring to the table in this film analysis may not directly be affiliated with the original ideas and creative direction of the director’s etc... though a lot of it will pertain to the original ideas of the creators, just like any art we find that there is a vast amount of meaning that comes forward from the deepest caverns of our subconscious mind without the creator’s intent.
Aliens was directed by James Cameron which is a different director than the original Alien which was directed by Ridley Scott, both are phenomenal directors and have their own take on the franchise. They both have done amazing films such as Avatar, Terminator, Blade Runner ETC... The art design is mainly inspired by H.R. Giger’s phenomenal dark artwork. His artwork often dabbles in a lot of Freudian styles and sexual psychology and once you see his artwork there is no doubt that it will imprint into your psyche because of how profoundly symbolic and unique the artwork is. This is not to say that there is not a lot of Jungian psychology within his artwork, I feel that Jungian psychology is of a higher form of intelligence than that of what Freud's premises were. One way we may say this is that Freud's ideas could be looked at as exoteric psychology, whereas Jung’s could be looked at as esoteric psychology.
Alien starts out with the title coming into focus with a horizontal line effect in the color blue of text, the color blue being associated with receptivity and the sacred feminine energy which is in my point of view in correlation to Ripley as a mother archetype, but also it could be looked at as the hue of the planet LV 426 itself. The letter I itself is also two words; I as in the individual, or eye as in the eye or sight. This letter/word starts taking on a female vaginal shape, but this is almost as if we the viewers are in the womb itself, considering the blackness of the background and the light that emanates from this vaginal slit as if we ourselves are being birthed into this universe. Esoterically this can be seen as the first alchemical transmutation coming out of darkness into light. I also find it symbolic to be associated with the third eye considering that it is a photoreceptor. As the light fades, we see the scene of the universal sky, these wide shots of the universe in movies like 2001 a space Odyssey, or the first alien movie give us the sense of how small we truly are.
The camera focuses on the phallic escape ship from the mothership spaceship called "Narcissus" where Ellen Ripley has been adrift since the last movie. It is important to note the aspects of the symbolic nature that the universe is looked at as a feminine archetypal symbol of the womb/tomb, and the objects within the universe are looked at as the masculine active archetypal symbols. The ship's name "Narcissus" is from Greek mythology; Narcissus was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty. According to Tzetzes, he was a Laconian hunter who loved everything beautiful. Narcissus was excessively proud of his own handsomeness, rejecting others' advances because he thought only someone as beautiful as himself should pursue him, causing some to take their own lives to prove their devotion to his striking beauty. The goddess Nemesis caused Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool. Gazing endlessly at the image, he slowly pined away and was transformed by the nymphs into a narcissus flower. The name Narcissus is of Latin origin meaning "numbness, or sleep." I find this interesting because later on Ripley is referred to as "snow-white" which is the "sleeping beauty." And she is sleeping within a frozen spot in time never aging. Narcissus is generally used as a boy's name which gives credibility to my assertion that the ship is masculine and phallic, this is also where we get our word Narcissist from, it makes a lot of sense that most men are perceived as a narcissist because of this mythology that has been manifested from our subconscious. Even know that there is plenty of female narcissists out there just like for a time, men were the only ones that had ego now of course we come to understand that that is completely untrue.
Schneewittchen; Darstellung von Alexander Zick (1845 - 1907)
Snow White in her glass “coffin.’
We get a view of the interior of this phallic spacecraft, the vessel which could be said to be primarily masculine but also it has feminine attributes such as a carrier of the seed for the next generation, this all plays into the hero/heroine mythos. But for an example of this, we can look at ships that were always named after a female goddess and usually had a feminine sculpture at the bough of the ship which carried the seamen or semen that was to be deposited at the berth or birth. The interior of the vessel is dark, mechanical, and is covered in a layer of frost alluding to the type of universe that we have just entered into in this film but also that it has been frozen in time. Obviously scientifically this is due to the extreme temperatures of space, but we are here to look deeper than just the physicalities of these scenes we are taking a deeper look at the symbolic metaphorical nature of the esoteric meaning behind this film.
The camera shot pans to the right and slowly shows the computers and the helmet which has a reflection of light within it is almost as if the glass shield of the helmet looks like the universe itself with the speckles of frost and lights reflecting representing planetary and celestial objects, one way that this can be interpreted is that you are a universe within yourself. As we come to the main protagonist Ripley who is played by (Sigourney Weaver), we find she is in a state of suspended animation/hyper-sleep. The next scene shows the phallic escape vessel being docked with a very feminine circular vessel that overpowers and completely obscures the universe behind it. It is important to note that the symbolic nature of docking corresponds to a sexual act. Just like when we plug our charger cord into the port on our phone, the cord itself represents a masculine aspect and the port represents the feminine womb. In the entire alien franchise, we see a lot of sexual and birthing symbolism. The sexual symbolism is directly related to the collective subconscious mind. I feel some of the sexual symbolism is manifested in these ways due to the sexual repression we have had from religious institutions and authoritarian ideas throughout history. Females are taught to fear sex from a very early age, rather than a true education of the sacred significance of a healthy sexual bond. This movie taps into that psychological fear and is manifested through the art style of H.R.G.
I like to also point out the name Ellen Ripley could be esoterically broken down to EL which in Hebrew means God, and rip which means rest in peace. The way that I would interpret this is that she is the God of death, possibly relating to the Hindu deity Shiva. Now obviously I'm not saying that is intentionally done I am saying that is Synchro mystically done through an unconscious manifestation of our subconscious archetype and possibly a channeling of what is called the Emerald language or green language. Though it is true one could look at this as the death of God which could be in reference to some of Nietzsche's work. This does this interpretation does hold some substantial evidence considering the later films of Prometheus and Alien Covenant. They bring in a lot of religious ideas in the later films. I will be breaking those down in a future essay.
This next scene, to me, looks as if we are seeing a C-section from the inside of the womb. The outer door of the spaceship is being cut open as if the stomach is being cut open to remove the inner being. The salvage party enters into the spaceship, their suits are a shade of yellow also with the power symbol on their chest. The power symbol is an alchemical sexual symbol the upper Crescent of the symbol represents the womb and the straight line going into that middle point of the crescent is the phallic or penis, the alchemical wedding, or the unification of duality.
It is important to note that, esoterically we find that the main protagonist Ripley is at the re-birth of her own journey and it starts with trauma, some say that the first trauma that is imprinted onto our minds is the process of birth but this is her re-birth, a resurrection if you will. I also find it interesting that she has a companion which is a kitty similar to that of the Fool card of the tarot. The Fool card is one of the 22 Major Arcana, sometimes numbered as 0 (the first) or XXII (the last) which is about the beginning and end of the journey of the Soul or commencement and recommencement of the cycle of the hero/heroine. It is possible that the name "fool" was ordinally the Soul though there is some debate amongst the historians about the true origins of the Tarot deck in general. I contend that it is rooted in Totemism and our most ancient origins. This card means that you are on a verge of an exciting, unexpected new adventure. Your new adventure will bring you along a path that will require you to take a leap of faith but you will grow as a result of this new experience. It also symbolism prudence in the face of taking a leap of faith.
“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” ~ T.S. Eliot
The salvage crew seems very disappointed that she happens to be alive, now this is going to be explained further with the crony capitalistic nature and materialistic worldview that the alien universe has where they value profit of human life as we go forward. The scene fades with Ripley's face becoming transparent overlapping the planet, which I feel is symbolic of her being a great mother like Gaia. Ripley awakens in what is known as the "gateway station," this is symbolic of the birthing aspects introduction into this world. Gateways, ports, doors, etc. are all forms of stepping out of one place into another, but with birthing, it is not of our own doing, we have no choice in the matter nor do we have any complete ability to recognize and reason what is happening to us. She wakes up in a fog not knowing where she is that similar to a baby coming into cognition not even knowing what its own limbs are. She is disoriented and confused, whenever we are in a state of mind like this are subconscious programming manifested itself including the traumatic experiences that are undealt within the subconscious mind and we will see this in the next scene.
We have an introduction with Carter Burke played by (Paul Reiser), he works for the Weyland Corporation as a "company man" and proceeds to say to not let that fool you I'm an okay guy. As we find out later in the film this is absolutely contrary to the truth. Burke proceeded to tell her that she's been adrift for 57 years. In Tim Lebbon's novel Alien: Out of the Shadows, we find out that – the artificial intelligence Ash that was one of the antagonists in the original film who had murdered and raped some of Ripley's previous crewmembers from Alien, had downloaded his consciousness into the computer who was titled, Mother. From this, he gains control of Narcissus and loses control he continues his mission which was given to him by company orders to bring back a specimen of the alien creature. He redirects the shuttle so that Ellen is not discovered by any other people in the hope to find more Xenomorph encounters which in this novel does happen. Not going to explain all this but I thought it is crucial to give a little background to why she is adrift for so long.
The knowledge that she has been adrift for 57 years and away from her daughter since her daughter's 11th birthday sends her into a form of shock and panic, it triggers her PTSD that often comes with those who have survived the consequences of battle. As I will touch on later this movie has a lot of allegorical references to the Vietnam era. As her heart begins to race the music intensifies and she breaks a glass of water which I feel is symbolic of the water breaking (birth reference). She lifts her shirt up and the alien creature begins to push through the abdomen area lower than that of the original birthing scene from the first alien movie more towards the belly area. I feel that this is a merging of three traumas;
- Her own first birth trauma
- The trauma of giving birth to her child Amanda
- The previous traumatic encounter with the alien creature.
She is in extreme pain which also correlates to our modern birthing. She wakes up from this nightmare and grabs the top of her chest which is not where the alien was protruding from but we could say she is having a panic attack. She also could be grabbing her heart area as a symbol of her broken heart but I feel that this is just reaching pun intended. Though this is the correct location for the chest-burster. I do not believe that this is a continuity error.
I feel that this scene was not as well-done as the first birthing of the alien creature nor could you expect it to be, it is itself its own thing. Though it is still a powerful scene and maybe it's not as impacting as the original because we already know what to expect as a viewer if we watched the previous movie. I do think that the lack of the gory details of the birth of the parasitical xenomorph leaves it up to the viewer to imagine what has happened. This could all be attributed to how our dreams work we tend to wake up right before something really extreme happens this is not always true but from my experience whenever something happens in a nightmare for me, I tend to wake up right before the most extreme pinnacle of that act. With this in mind I think it does deserve credit because it is not that the scene is not well done but in comparison to the original is just not as impactful. The scene is well composed and the music is very well done, so I think James Cameron did a terrific job of bringing in the horrors of this process.
I find it interesting that in the background there are so many numbers all over the walls, I feel that this is symbolic of the mechanical and left brain/hemisphere bias of this world. It is all cold, calculated, masculine, and materialistic. The left brain is normally associated with the sacred masculine principle because it deals with things like logic, linear thinking, and reason, the right brain tends to deal with creativity, empathy, and emotions. We don't see any plants or any forms of nature only humans and their creations. Excluding the beautiful Kitty of course. This concept plays into the next scene where she is sitting on a bench in nature. We often find that we find the most tranquility and serenity in our healing process when we find peace and harmony with nature. Only to realize that the scene that we are experiencing is a façade, the aspects of nature are projected onto a screen and we do find some plants in this room to give us the illusion that we are in a natural habitat. I feel that this is symbolically associated with our separatist idea that nature must be kept separate from all of our clean mechanical ways of life. This whole world puts primacy on materialism as a balance between the two. Whenever we put materialism above spiritualism it creates a deficiency in the spiritual. To give a definition of what I mean by spiritualism we could simply define it as objective moralism. This type of separatist think can be connected back to this narcissistic worldview that we see in our current culture. It is also important to make a note here that she is in a medical facility that comes in later when she and Newt are trapped in one of the medical rooms with two face-huggers.
Next Burke comes into the lounge area and they proceed to talk about her daughter, she finds out that her daughter Amy has lived a life of 66 years before her passing. Her daughter actually has many encounters with the alien creature, they even made a video game called alien isolation that gives a lot of her background story. In the next scene, she is in a meeting or debriefing with the Weyland Corporation, including Feds and insurance people, etc... This scene starts to build her character strengths up for the viewers. These left-brain eggheads "company men" cannot find any substantial evidence to Ripley's claims from the previous experience she had in the first movie, they are very dismissive of her dissertation of an extraterrestrial event and only seem to be concerned about the monetary value of the items lost, even know that they have encountered other forms of life in this universe just not this type of creature, I will speak on this later. This shows the nature of the hierarchical structure which is exactly what we see in our world today people are so lack of their sacred feminine aspects of true care and are only concerned with monetary value and materialistic property rather than actual human life.
The first ship that she was on was name Nostromo, which I believe is in reference to the 1904 novel published by Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad's work has been very inspirational in many different movies such as Apocalypse now with his book the heart of darkness. I think we can find parallels with a lot of Joseph Conrad's work to films like this. I tried to find a good definition for the word Nostradamus only to come up with a wide variety of different ones one of which is boat Swan the other of which is our man. However, if we shorten the word to nostrum, we find that it means a scheme, theory, device, etc. especially to remedy social or political ills. I find this very profound because a part of this film is about showing the overarching patriarchal control system and ideological materialism that has blatantly encapsulated this world very similar to the world we live in today. Though it also means a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrated full value also known as quack medicine. So, could be looked at as snake oil. This is contrary to what I just said could be looked at that the Weyland Corporation is selling the snake oil. The snake oil is being sold as peace and order through their tyrannical corporate means, when in fact they are war-hungry psychopathic individuals that only seek to reproduce their ideologies throughout the universe.
The W is a symbol for energy or power similar to that of the power symbol I pointed out earlier. To me this looks like the alien teeth, I’m not sure if this is subliminal or not but I find it interesting.
Ripley continues to hold her stance that the company had sent them to the derelict craft and due to this she had to take extreme measures to the necessity of self-destructing the Nostromo's. I find it important to point out that she uses the proper terminology when talking about the creature being blown out of the airlock whereas a lot of people use it as being sucked out of the airlock which is incorrect. The company men continue to show Ripley disrespect for her anecdotical experiences and the claim of this highly dangerous parasitical extraterrestrial life form. Their rigid skepticism and business capitalistic mindset prevent them from seeing what the truth is. Also, we should note that since it is a hierarchical system these individuals may not be privy to the information that could be keeping this power differential going, or if they are privy to the information, they would not want such accountability falling onto them or their company. After being dismissed over and over by the company men Ripley finally shows a bit of her strong masculine energy by standing up and calling them out. It is very well known through the lore that the higher-ups in the company do know about the alien species and is interested in gathering as many specimens as possible for their R&D in hopes to militarize it. She is vehemently advocating for the use of prudence in the face of her experience but they don't want to hear it. She points out to them that all this bullshit that they think is so important will be gone if they do not heed her words. They deem her unfit to have a commercial flight license and require her to have six months of psychometric probation and psychiatric treatment because of course, you must be crazy, or at least they want to make her seem crazy so nobody starts to look into her claims. If that knowledge was released to the public then it would be widely known that there is a conspiracy going on within the company.
I find a very interesting correlation between the way that this company works to colonize planets which are also very similar to the way that the aliens colonize and assimilate different environments and habitats. There is a ubiquitous nature between the way the insect-xenomorphs conduct their "business" with the way that the Weyland Corporation conducts their "business." The Xenomorph colonies are like a beehive with the Queen Xenomorph as the matriarchal pinnacle of the hierarchical system, in contrast, we have the same thing going on with the Weyland Corporation but instead of a matriarchy, it is patriarchy with Weyland at the pinnacle. It is very obvious that this Corporation even controls the government facets going on. I believe that the idea here is to show the dichotomy between these two forms of imbalances and how similar they actually are whether it be a male patriarchal system or a female matriarchal system, which also correlates back to the left and right brain imbalances that we find. This is known as a dialectical manipulation, but in this case, it's a hypothetical dialectical inquiry so that we can come to a true understanding of the fallacies by falling into one extreme or the other. Both the system led to nothing but more war and tyrannical control that limits the liberties of the individuals underneath the systems.
Before we continue on, I just like to make a side note that I am not antimarket, I think that we should have a free market will we have the ability to compete with each Corporation and the primary power goes to the consumer to make their own decisions about which companies they would like to voluntarily engage with. But this is completely dependent upon the ability to know what these corporations are doing especially when it comes to morality.
In the next scene, we have another pan right over the terrain of LV-426 the original location of the derelict craft and the current location of the colonists, to me, the background looks like a bones graveyard we find this in many scenes including the first alien movie when they come across the derelict alien spacecraft. This bone-like rocky terrain has a very phallic symbol likeness in some of the strange bone-like terrain of LV-426. I feel that a lot of these scenes are to allude that this is a planet of death. In the extended version of the film, one of the extra scenes shows a bug like mechanical six-wheeled vehicle that drives into Hadley’s hope. This vehicle resembles an insect and also reminds me of the insects from the movie Starship Troopers. There is a lot of parallels here with the film Starship Troopers, Starship Troopers came out many years after this movie and I feel that it could have been a parody of the alien’s movie at some level. Obviously, starship troopers were definitely mocking Authoritarianism and Fascism in many ways especially the militarized society through many of its satirical forms of propaganda. In that movie, we see a lot of parallels between the military forces and the insects just like we see many parallels in this film with the Weyland Corporation and the insects. In the future, I will be breaking that movie down also.
HRG himself admitted to taking inspiration from insects to help his creativity in designing the xenomorphs, we can many similarities between the functions and the aesthetics for example the huge buggy eyes and the thick hard shell-like elongated head. It is said that the top of the head was supposed to be transparent where you could see a human skull behind this transparent layer, and we do find this in is the case when we look at some of the design behind the seen pictures of the costumes. I also think is that the elongated head could be in reference to some of the elongated skulls found around the world.
In this extended scene, we also find out that Newt's parents were the ones who first rediscovered the derelict spaceship which also came down through company orders from Burke. We are to get back to this later. Newt’s parents discover the derelict alien spacecraft which very much looks like a giant biomechanical craft. To me, this also has a symbolic resemblance to the Ouroboros or the snake eating its own tail. The outer layer of the ship has a very insect look to it but also very mechanical. We see all these ribs and troughs where parts of it extrude and creates this exoskeleton like a shell. In this extended cut, Newt's parents returned from exploring the inner of the spacecraft and he has a face hugger attached to do him. This is the first time that we get to see a face-hugger in this film. I can see why they took it out of the theatrical version because it doesn't have as much impact on the viewing audience the way that they did it here. They do not show how the face-hugger got onto him, they do not show the birthing process out of the egg, they leave it all up to the viewer because of its ambiguity. Though one could say this adds to the horror and mysterious element of the plot. From my point of view, it doesn't really add too much to the story, but I still appreciate this being added into the extended cut so that we get more background as to what Newt's experience was like, and the infestation breakout. Another thing that I think why they cut it out is because it gives too much detail too soon and it takes away from the impact of the later scenes with the Marines.
The face-hugger itself looks very bony with its long limbs looking like the bones of fingers wrapping over the skull and its long tail looking like a spinal cord slowly merging into a snake-like tail that wraps around the throat. This I feel is a combination of insect and reptilian symbolism being correlated, which is playing on our subconscious primal fears of these creatures. The whole process of face-huggers is a very sexual act being that it is a form of oral rape to impregnate the host with the egg. We do though have to question how his wife was capable of carrying him back to their space rover. This may be one of the other reasons why they pulled the scene from the film.
We see lots of similarities between the face hugger and the original humanoid alien being in the first movie that is on the same derelict spacecraft. In the first alien movie, they find the cockpit which is called the "cockpit" by HRG himself in his artwork notes, and the pun is very much intended. In the center of the room which is a circular room representing a womb, there is a large phallic like telescope, which looks like a penis/cock facing directly at the humanoid alien who is integrated and fused with the mechanics of the spaceship. This pilot looks like he was grown into that seat itself. But also, it's like he is the ejaculated sperm from this phallic like device in the center of this room. His exoskeleton also is very similar to that of the face-hugger. Which could have been foreshadowing in that movie. HRG's work has a distinctive characteristic to it when it comes to this style when it comes to exoskeleton artwork. There is a lot of parallels here and I will explain this in my future work when analyzing that film. but It's as if the insides of the being have been turned outward.
It is interesting to note that our fear of parasites, reptiles, and insects plays into the psychological horror aspects of why this series stands out to us so much. The impregnation into the host is a very parasitical act, it is an invasion into your body which also relates back to our psychological fear of being raped. It is an act that violates our own well-being and our liberties to live healthy, is an act that takes our free will away from us, our right to sexually choose which partner that we wish to sexually engage with. The entire Alien franchise has this signature process of birthing these aliens which are tapping into our subconscious fears of being impregnated through rape and that is especially true for females. This also analogously correlates to the reptilian part of our brain anatomy, which is known as the are complex or the cerebellum. It is a direct warning against falling into this base aspect of our triune brain functionality called the R-complex which prevents us from accessing the higher levels of the Neo-cortex that gives us our ability to intellectually and intuitively understand a correct a right action from a wrong action. Rooting us in survival mode only rather than that of holistic intelligence.
Ripley is approached by Lieut. Gorman and Burke about losing contact with the colony of LV 426 I happened to notice a circle and an X which looks like it is either drawn or spray-painted behind Gorman I am unsure if this is meant to mean that he will be the target or to some other symbolism. While Burke is sitting in Ripley's room trying to convince her to go on this mission, he ends up fondling some of her clothing which handset some form of sexual perversion. Burke himself suffered from extreme parental abuse and abandonment issues; this is not made known in the film but in the graphic novel it is directly dealt with. (Think on this more) A conversation takes between Lieut. Gorman company man Burke and Ripley. Ripley herself dressed in a white robe symbolically can be looked at as purity also it is in reference to the snow-white motif. There are both trying to reassure Ripley of her "guaranteed" safety when in fact we see that the Marines are the ones who need protection from these aliens and the only way they get that protection is with Ripley's help. She blatantly states that they do not need her that she is a soldier, she is obviously still dealing with a lot of her trauma from the horrific past experience with the alien lifeforms and definitely does not want to back into as she puts it the wolf's den.
Burke continues to try to persuade Ripley to me he seems very anxious and desperate to get her to go back. She asks him why he's interested in this and he responds with a very vague and cliché company man response about how his company has co-funded this terraforming activity and how it's part of his work. When in fact we find out that he is going there to collect specimens for his personal gain, and the Weyland Corporation. Burke proceeds to mock Ripley's occupation choice of her running loaders and forklifts not knowing that the skill will come in handy especially at the end of the movie when she battles the queen alien. He's trying to play psychological manipulation on her by pretty much saying her life doesn't have meaning and that she will only find meaning by re-approaching the situation and at some level he is not wrong she needs to face her fear when it comes to this. He also tries to bribe her by saying that he can get her reinstated as a flight officer. She is repetitively having these dreams waking up every night with sweats and panic attacks. We see mere symbolism take place after this waking process from this nightmare, she wipes her face down with cold water and stares into her own eyes and the mere into respecting on the fact that Burke may be right that she does need to go and face this demon so that she may heal from this trauma. Just like any trauma that stored in the subconscious by ignoring it only gets worse and continues to wreak havoc upon our everyday lives sometimes in the most indirect ways but it is still there guiding our every emotion and action influencing our own thoughts and how we feel about certain situations and whether we will or will not do things. After waking up from this most recent nightmare she proceeds to call Burke and is completely set on going in to only destroy these creatures, not to study but to only wipe them out, there can be no other way of handling them. She wants to make sure that nobody else experiences the harm that she and her crew experienced and rightfully so. I don't think that she has any type of interest in vengeance but more so an act of prudence and care.
In the next scene, we see a very phallic spaceship but it also looks to me like a giant space rifle, so I do wonder whether this craft has the ability to fire a giant projectile or laser beam from its tip. The spaceships of the Weyland Corporation are definitely correlated to phallic symbolism whereas the spaceships of the alien creatures are based on curvature which is to represent the opposite side of this dialectic, the feminine aspect. Straight lines are seen as a masculine archetype whereas curves are seen as a feminine archetype.
In the extended cut, we see another pan right which seems to be a very signature move for James Cameron so far in this film, we see the lockers and military equipment of the Marines, this reminds me of the very powerful first seen in the first alien movie, where it doesn't seem like there is any lifeforms but yet one of the locker doors is clearly moving. Also, to note here the music is very well done. In the locker, we see a poster of a female though which I find pretty accurate for the personality types of the Marines. We also see the forklift military gear and the military spacecraft. The color yellow is very prominent which is a signature color of the Weyland white Corporation. It also is a color of caution and can be correlated to the solar plexus chakra. Yet again we have another pan right across the hypersleep chambers which all look like insect cocoons or biomechanical sleep stasis cocoons for the Marines. This also has biomechanical references and parallels to the cocooning of the host for the alien reproductive process.
As the biomechanical cocoons open, we hear the pressure release which to me sounds like the hiss of the alien. This is also the same as in the first alien movie when they are going down the halls, we hear this gust of wind which makes no sense because they're in a ship which also sounds like the hiss of the alien. It's interesting because this is the first time that we see Ripley not waking up from a nightmare she seems to have found some type of tranquility sleeping in these chambers, she doesn't wake up screaming or in a panic.
This is the first time we get to see all the Marines that were going to be dealing with, and we see a lot of similarities with many Vietnam films and stories being injected into this lifestyle of the Marines. The Vietnam War was a long and devastating war that shook America to its core culture and ways still felt to this day. Okay, yellow slip that up as they all wake Drake is the first one to say something which comes with a snide joke from his female companion. He says they aren’t paying us enough for this man. And she responds not enough to have to wake up to your face Drake. This is when we start to see the kind of contrast between the masculine figures and the feminine figures very blatantly though we have already been seeing this between Ripley and a lot of the other characters this scene really stands out to show the differences.
The 80s was an amazing time and brought in critically acclaimed films dealing with the war and its consequences. Many films like Apocalypse now and full metal jacket came out in this era. Some have argued that James Cameron's 1986 film aliens also deserves mention as an allegorical film through a sci-fi lens of Vietnam even know it was not a direct depiction of the Vietnam war. James Cameron did addressee the claims about the Vietnam connections on many and a few interviews and has provided insight into the role Vietnam played in inspiring the story of aliens. The 2003 audio commentary of the film Cameron explains the reasoning behind the connection and the corporate's military relationships within the alien universe and how it is a reflection of the real world.
"I am a child of the 60s says Cameron and the prevailing myth at the time was that the Vietnam War was all about protecting American business interests in Southeast Asia, of course, we wanted you to have an evil Corporation here, the idea is that the Corporation has the contract to establish colonies much in the sense that the Dutch East India Company might've controlled that whole area of the world and that colonial Marines don't work directly for them but are called in as a security force whenever the interests of the parent country of Weyland Yutaini is although it's probably a multinational given the name I never really got to that relationship, although I think your model for that is colonial America or the Caribbean back then where military attachments were sent as security for the major corporations were bring back the resources and wealth to the parent countries, it's probably some kind of very entangled relationship. I don't think the Marines report directly to the company and you can see there is a separate chain of command when they are on a mission, they don't take orders from Burke but Burke certainly makes a very strong recommendation to them."
In a 2001 interview Cameron explains;
"The sense of the dramatic relationships from these 1940s and 1950s war films which sort of portrayed the common soldier was more what I was looking for, the dialogue itself the idiom is pretty much Vietnam era it's the most contemporary American combat "war speak' that I have access to. I studied how soldiers talk to Vietnam in certain specific bits of terminology in a general sense of how they express themselves and I used that for the dialogue to try to make it seem like a realistic sort of military expedition as opposed to a high-tech futuristic one. I wanted to create more of a sense of realism rather than that of an interesting future."
James Cameron elaborated more on this Vietnam allegory and the attitude of the soldiers in his audio commentary track for the film.
"I knew nothing about the US Marine Corps at the time though curiously while I was making the film my youngest brother joined the Marines and was in for six years. I now know an awful lot more about the Marines and they are much more disciplined than these people, I would like to apologize for any Marines you might be listening we did not get that part of it right. These guys are definitely Vietnam-era regular army toward the end of their tour motif. The film is obviously informed by a lot of the imagery from Vietnam the idea that they paint flowers on their helmets things like that and there was a real discipline problem. Of course, that was also amongst a lot of draftees at that so were kind of mixing our metaphors here."
In the documentary Superior Firepower; the making of alien’s designer Ron Cobb explains
"the national psyche was still full of Vietnam so I think that because Jim was going to do it all with colonial police that there should be some kind of subliminal Vietnam look. Certainly, the dropship because it's purposefully meant to look like a phantom jet and a little like Healy helicopter that was all touched on by Jim and myself this course all amounts to the strongest allegorical elements of all superior firepower of the soldiers to less technologically advanced but an unwavering enemy."
Cameron goes on to state in one of his audio tracks
"one of the themes of the film is that these technologically advanced soldiers succumb to a technologically inferior but much more determined enemy they don't know how to fight which is really kind of Vietnam metaphors were basically US forces which is really kind of Vietnam metaphor where basically US forces got their butts kicked by barefoot guys running jungle because they didn't understand how to fight that war, they didn't understand their enemy determination that enemy."
Also, want to Cameron's interview explains the PTSD issues with Ripley which gives my explanation a lot more credibility at the beginning of this essay. He goes on to say;
"I think some people missed the point; they think she goes because she'll get her job back but that's not the case there's no amount of money that can do it. One of my biggest problems writing the film was coming up with a reason why she goes back, it had to be psychological, one of the things that interested me is that there are a lot of soldiers from Vietnam who've been in intense combat situations who reenlisted to go back again because they had the psychological problems that they had to work out it's like an inner demon to be exercised that was a good metaphor for character."
Okay continuing on, this idea of the Vietnam allegory can really be seen in these next few scenes and the rest of the movie as we get to understand the dynamic relationships between the soldiers one example of this is the distractions that we find very often in military structures which are directly influenced from the Vietnam style soldier motif. With people making fun of each other with any chance that they get poking and prodding each other to get any type of rise for amusement. Their blatant disregard for authority where they can get away with it. Trying to bend the rules as much as possible to be able to show their sovereignty and express their freedom. Stanley Kubrick's Apocalypse Now depicts this the best, Kurtz points out that you have the soldiers going in murdering innocent people bombing women and children but yet the soldiers can't write profanity on their military equipment.
We see a contrast here between two of the strongest female characters who last the longest in the film Vasquez and Ripley, Vas doing pull-ups as Ripley walks by I feel this is very important to note because Ripley ends up being the dominant character even though Vass does survive very long. The other female characters do not last nearly as long and are shown as much weaker archetypes. Find it interesting that Vass calls Ripley snow white as the girl who wakes from the dream from a kiss from the prints. As if she is some delicate housewife that has never seen any true battle. Just like the corporate company men they dismiss the strength that Ripley has not seen and only seeing the exoteric version of her.
The soldiers are complaining about how cold it is yet again alluding to this cold environment and type of life that they live. You have to be coldhearted to be a Marine you also have to be coldhearted to be into these forms of hierarchical capitalism. As coldhearted as the alien creatures that they seek to battle against. It's almost as if they're saying that they are one and the same.
We now come to the scene where all the Marines and Burke including Ripley are at the mess hall. Lots of sex talk shooting back and forth, one of which being highly strange to me, considering that the only female colonist left alive which obviously they had no idea at this point is literally a young girl who is a virgin I'm not sure if this is to imply some sort of pedophilia or not, I really can't see how it is considering this doesn't happen and there are no sexual advancements later on but I do find that connection very strange. Ripley obviously gets a little irritated but does not play the victim role here, in fact, she does not play the victim role throughout the entire movie never blaming her situation on her gender and I find that highly honorable and important when it comes to creating a strong female lead.
Ripley gets highly upset when she fully recognizes that there is an android or synthetic human onboard the symbolism of the synthetic human is very strange indeed one correlation of their blood looking very much like white seamen which most people would probably overlook, I have no doubt is very intentional. In the first movie their android malfunction and there was an attempt of sexual assault and rape from the android. As a Marines or debrief by the Lieut. Hudson asked the question that this will be a standup fight or another bug? When in fact he will be getting the bug hunt of his life where the bugs are hunting him.
In one of the next scenes when they are loading and prepping for liftoff, we see one of the exoskeleton suits loading or inserting a rocket into a port of the dropship. I don't want to become too repetitive with this but there is a lot of sexual symbolism going on within this film, so bear with me as I point them out. There is foreshadowing going on with these scenes that have the yellow Weyland exo-loader suits in them.
The Marine ship or vessel that they arrive and is named "bug stomper" again alluding to the fact that these aliens are symbolically associated with insects. This also has significance to the statement that Marines made earlier about whether or not this was going to be another bug hunt. After doing some thorough research on this we find that the history of these Marines is that they have encountered insect-like creatures in their previous missions, not the aliens that they encounter in this movie but in one instance they had encountered flying creatures that they had to exterminate which gives a lot more credibility to them adding this statement and title to their aircraft. Meaning that the directors and writers were definitely pretty versed and some of the history and were not just making this stuff up off the top of their head.
There is a parallel between the oily wet substance on the aliens and the rain which the Marines first encounter as they land at the colony. Each Marine covered in rain looking similar to the wet aliens. This also reminds me of the Vietnam movies and depictions of the harsh environments the soldiers endured. I feel that the emphasis on the Marines connection to their armor and weapons also parallels with the biomechanical aspect of HRG's vision in this film, we can really see this with Drake and Vas with their weapons being directly attached to them.
The Marines enter the base only to find that it has been ravaged by small arms and seismic explosive activity. They noticed some movement on their motion sensor and come across a cage of mice scurrying around through tunnels. This is corresponding to them within the base itself at this point, saying that they are the mice trapped in the tunnels. I find this eye-opening to the fact that they are also victims of the Wayland Corporation, being sent on this mission knowing full well with the dangers might entail.
They enter into the medical lab only to find a bunch of face-huggers and study chambers. The face ever itself seems to be hermaphroditic with its long phallic like shaft which impregnates the individual by shoving it down the host throat. We see a really good up-close image of this as Bert comes close to one of the cylinders and we notice that it definitely resembles the anatomy of the vagina, with this penis like shaft emerging from it. We do know that we all start out as females before we begin to become male.
Right after the scene in the med-bay, they have the first contact with Newt, new proceeds to scurry off underneath the floor and Ripley shows her courage and motherly protective traits by immediately grabbing the flashlight and diving into the air duct to follow Newt. The child's nickname is Newt, which is a reference to the small amphibian salamander in her behavior seems to be similar which correlates to her scurrying away in small spaces and quickly getting through little cubbies. A small animal that has a long and thin body and tail and short legs and lives both on land and water. The Ripley find a deep motherly connection with Newt right of the bat. She shows her strong motherly style when dealing with Newt and she starts to respond positively towards Ripley eventually building a deep trust with her. Gorman tries to pry information out of her like a military father figure but fails it is only Ripley’s Compassion that gets Newt to open up and start talking. Since Ripley lost her daughter Newt has become a replacement for her trauma giving her some semblance of hope in this nightmare.
The digital map layout of the colony is very similar to the biomechanical symbolism throughout the whole film. It's really hard to make sense of when you’re first viewing it, corridors in levels that seem to overlap without any real definitive obvious ways of decoding. It reminds me of a labyrinth or like the mice trapped in the cage. At this point, we get our first scene of the converted inner chambers of the colony that has been turned into what looks like to be in an organic living mechanical system. It has spines and ribs and holes all through it which obviously makes for a very good hiding place for the aliens but also it is questionable whether this hive that they have built is actually alive or not. Some have theorized that the hive is part of the living system of the aliens since it is so similar to their own makeup, it also is a very good adaptation of HRG's artwork.
The aliens have colonized right under the primary heat exchange due to the facilities fusion reactor the Marines end up needing to relinquish their pulse rifle ammunition due to the fact that they may set off an explosion. I find it interesting that they are underneath the heat exchange and they're about to have the heat exchanged metaphorically.
During the segment is the first time we get to see the face-huggers egg’s open, when it is closed it has a cross at the top, now it is said that the original designs which you can find in HRG's book had a single slit to represent the womb, but he was asked to change it for fear that it was too sexual and would scare off a Christian audience which I find very hilarious because this entire film is extremely sexual. So, he intentionally changed it to a cross instead to get one over them and make it pertain to Christianity’s prime astrotheological symbol even more. It seems that these eggs are a form of a virgin birth, only having the Queen Alien for the reproductive cycle of the species.
The entire labyrinth style of these corridors is very hypnotic and has a chameleon effect for the aliens. They blend right into the background's scenery which not only gives a sense of unknowingness and adds to the suspense of the film it taps into our primal collective subconscious fears but it adds extreme depth to the entire concept of the aliens being insectoid. It looks as if we are seeing the inner bones of a being. These were not apart of the first film so this is completely new to Ripley and this gives our protagonist a new challenge to overcome which plays out later in the film. This scene is a parallel with the mice in the cage I pointed out earlier.
This next scene is when the Marines are under attack by the aliens after they incinerate a chest burst or with a flamethrower. This is when we get to see Ripley's true leadership skills come to manifestation. In the face of absolute panic from the Marines getting overwhelmed and annihilated by the alien creatures, Ripley demands to the Lieut. Gorman to do something and since he is locked in a state of fear and is not an authentic masculine figure he freezes which she recognizes and takes the initiative to jump in the driver seat to take responsibility for what is going on even at the risk of putting Newt and the others in the military vehicle at risk barges directly into the colony penetrating the walls and giving an escape route for the remaining Marines. Earlier we see Ripley being kind of jumpy about little things like in the med bay she gets startled by an object falling over near her but now she is fully embraced her responsibility and role and takes command quickly. Hick points out that he has a shotgun for “close encounters” this is a reference to alien contact but is for shadowing him putting the shotgun in the mouth of an alien.
Ripley’s character in this movie is one of the best feminist protagonists that has ever been done in other directors and writers should take heed of these qualities that she has. She is not only realistic in her attributes rather than some pampered looking Hollywood doll that is unbelievable to be battling these creatures she is also intuitive and intellect when it comes to problem-solving with a clear vision of what needs to be done and has a Can do it attitude about the situation. She is willing to face the reality whereas love the other Marines go through a stage of denial other than Cpl. Hicks. This is why she recognizes his authentic masculine characteristics and they each aid each other and benefit each other's character arch as they go forward.
I find the scene where Cpl. Hicks throws his shotgun into the mouth of the alien creature as a trying to pry the doors of the military vehicle open a reverse signature move which is almost like getting payback on these aliens for them using their phallic tongue like an extra set of teeth to kill their prey. I find it very relevant and symbolic that Ripley is the one who busts down the barriers which could be in reference to her being able to break down the barriers of the situation to get to the solution where others would be hindered by this obstacle, she has no hesitation to ram right through it without fear or maybe it is about her breaking her own barriers that are holding her back from taking the initiative earlier on.
In the next scene, we see Hudson, and his true colors are shown in the face of this bug hunt. After all his macho posturing during the earlier scenes now he is completely locked in denial and his erratic emotions have taken control of him which puts him in a weakened state. This is to give contrast and strength to the character Hicks by showing an authentic verse an inauthentic masculine figure. Hicks throughout this has been very composed and does not allow his emotions to get the better of him, yes, he does get emotional but not to the extreme where it hinders his ability to act his emotions are balanced by his Sacred Masculine aspect of consciousness.
Ripley asserts to nuke the entire facility Burke gets agitated about this idea focusing mainly on the monetary value of the facility and of course his alternative agenda to make sure to preserve these alien specimens also for his monetary profit. It shows exactly this type of erroneous and corrupt dogmatic system of the Whalen Corporation. Command has now fallen down to Cpl. Hicks and he agrees with Ripley that they should nuke the entire facility.
In the next scene we run across the character Spunk Meyer loading up into the APC aircraft to come and pick up the Marines, I find it very interesting that his name is spunk Myer and he runs across some sticky white goo on the latter going up into the craft. Obviously, this is intended to show that there is an alien but also it has reference and relevance to some form of ejaculation and masturbation. The craft itself which is called bug stopper ends up getting stomped by the bug and crashes which further pursue grasses the tension of the story arc leaving the Marines stranded on LV 426 with no way to contact or send a beacon for help and they lose their nuclear weapon capabilities.
It's interesting to see the symbolism on Cpl. Hicks is armor where he has a painted heart with a latch and lock over the top of it symbolizing that his heart is locked up, this is mainly due to the fact that Hicks was previously married to a marine named Rachel, this information is not given in the movie and one has to do research into the actual comics or graphic novels of aliens to find this out specifically who was believed to have died battling the alien in the series of "bug hunt." Ripley ends up having the key to that heart. Later in the film, we see that she unlocks his armor and saves him, thus progressing their romantic interest in each other. It is very well known that during wartime soldiers would often paint profanity or different type of signature phrases either on their own armor or the missiles that they launch or military equipment.
They return back to the facility in order to isolate themselves and protect themselves until rescue can arrive which I find out would take 17 days I find that this is esoteric in the numerology seven being the end of a cycle in the one being the continuation of the next cycle the commencement and recommencement, but in this situation, they don't have time to wait for that natural cycle they have to force their way out of the situation quicker than the natural cycle would unfold.
As Hudson continues to show his inauthentic masculinity through his pessimistic worldview, Ripley points out that Newt has survived this whole time without weapons and without training. This symbolically correlates to the importance of the sacred feminine figures in this movie, and their adaptability to the situation at hand. This whole movie has a sense of self-empowerment to female figures and emphasizes the important roles of the female archetypes symbolism and expressions that are needed to deal with extreme problem-based scenarios.
Ripley shows more of her command and leadership skills she gives in order to Hudson to make sure to find all the blueprints and schematics of the facility so that they can properly set up a defensive perimeter for the aliens which will be coming. Now here I believe it is due to Hudson's erratic emotions that he overlooks one of the most crucial parts of the schematics even though Ripley later states that it must not have been in the schematics implying that she looked over them too but I find that it is just too unlikely to overlook the fact that there are ventilation systems above the rooms considering that they had found Newt in ventilation below the floor I know for me I personally would have been making sure the check above and below these rooms. Whether this is a continuity error or just a way to advance the plot which is most likely so because if they would have sound defensive capabilities in the aliens would not be able to advance on them and drive them further back into the facility.
In the extended version of the film, we see a crucial part that shows that they have four automated turrets that they set up in the hallways to help defend against the horde of aliens which gives a more realistic approach to dealing with these overwhelming numbers. I really wish they would've left the scene in the theatrical cut because it does add substance to the realism and adds a sense of hope for the Marines. This entire film goes back and forth between having hope and then having it ripped away and what do you do in the face of that hope being ripped away from you. Do you cower or do you face the fear and hit the enemy head-on?
End of Pt. 1