*Spoilers for Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant follow. However, we have done our best to avoid any spoilers for Alien: Romulus.*
Few films can truly be called a masterpiece, but Ridley Scott’s Foreigner (1979) deserves its name. The film tells the story of the doomed crew of the Weyland Yutani Corporation’s USCSS Nostromo, who stumble upon a mysterious distress signal. Their decision to investigate results in an alien life form, a “perfect organism” known as a Xenomorph, entering their ship. The scorpion-like facehugger they bring aboard uses one of their bodies as an incubator, from which eventually erupts a Xenomorph that quickly grows into the iconic intergalactic beast that would spawn four sequels, two prequels, and two crossover spinoffs, not to mention video games, board games, comics, and novels.
All in all, it is a true pop culture monster in which queer and transgender people can certainly find themselves, both in the subtext and ultimately on screen.
This week, Alien: Romulus is coming to cinemas and is expected to have a spectacular opening weekend with an expected box office of 40 million dollars in North America alone. The film is directed by Fede Alvarez, who has proven his horror qualities with the shockingly gruesome evil Dead Remake and the desperately nerve-wracking Don’t breatheIn short, he was just the right person to capture the sheer terror and tension of Foreigner and the gonzo action of the (Oscar-winning) sequel Aliens.
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Alien: Romulus begins in the timeline between Foreigner And Aliensi.e. after the destruction of the Nostromo, but before its sole human survivor, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), is discovered drifting through space in her hypersleep chamber capsule (with her cat Jonesy – cheers to the greatest of all sci-fi kitties).
Rather than focusing on a crew of would-be space truckers like the original film, this film begins on Earth, with a group of young space colonists trapped in a cycle of debt bondage on a Weyland Yutani mining planet. As in all the films before it, the anti-corporate themes are strong and ever-present. Our main characters are Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), the artificial human left to care for them by their parents who inevitably succumbed to the mine’s dangerous and toxic conditions. Dreaming of leaving the desolate planet – which literally never sees the light of day – behind, she sees her chance for escape in a daring heist of some cryosleep chambers she and her friends need for the long journey into space to another habitable planet.
However, when they reach the abandoned space station where the chambers await them, it quickly becomes clear that they are not alone. The Xenomorphs, or more precisely their former form, the Facehuggers, are waiting by the dozens to forcibly implant their embryos into the unsuspecting teenagers.
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What follows is a nerve-racking series of escape attempts while being hunted by creatures who see them as nothing more than breeding grounds and carnal resources. Alvarez manages to squeeze every ounce of tension and horror out of the scenario, aided by strong performances from Spaeny and especially Jonsson, whose own evolution and moral decline requires real nuance, charm and quiet menace.
Starring alongside these two are Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, who make up the rest of the friend group and the wannabe cryo-raiders. Each of them delivers a strong performance and makes the abject horror of the situation they find themselves in believable. However, it is a little odd to see a cast of young, gorgeous actors who could just as easily be in a horror project from MTV or The CW set in this world where we once followed space truckers, space marines, and space prisoners. There is something about it that clearly has nothing to do with the working class that somehow disrupts the believability of the previous entries. It makes the film feel more like a blockbuster and loses some of the uniqueness that was a trademark of the early films. Foreigner entries.
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Gone, too, are some of the deeper elements of the franchise that gave it so much bite. The first film was terrifying not just because of the monster and the isolation of space, but because of what it did, or more accurately, what it took from its victims: their bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom.
Foreigner hit the screen just a few years after the Roe v. Wade decision, fresh from a time when women were routinely forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Aliens turned that on its head, confronting the male body with the same dilemma and loss of reproductive choice. It was appropriately terrifying – and queer. Speaking of queerness, it’s worth noting that, according to director Scott, the entire crew was pan and made out with each other. He regrets not including the planned scene where Ripley and Lambert discuss it in the film – although it was restored in the novelization of the film.
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This is underlined in the second film, directed by James Cameron, in which it is revealed that Joan Lambert, the Nostromo’s navigator, was transgender – a pretty bold move for a film released in 1986. Aliens also leaned heavily on the evils of capitalism and its juxtaposition with the military-industrial complex. It also flipped the script, with a radical take on the power and desire of motherhood, while also eschewing perceived gender representation by putting an even more androgynous Ripley in a power suit and, of course, including the first butch character I ever saw on screen, Lt. Vasquez, played (as is now recognized as problematic) by Jenette Goldstein and still very dear to me and many baby lesbians who find them.
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Aliens 3directed by David Fincher, the action is moved to the prison planet Fury 161 (probably a reference to the statistics that 1 in 6 gay and bisexual men would become infected with HIV at the time) is full of queer subtexts. Released in 2015, before there were effective HIV treatments, Aliens 3 uses metaphors to examine the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Aliens saw how Ripley went from loneliness to starting a family, Alien 3 rips it all away from her in an instant. Instead, Ripley is left alone with the realization that there is no redemption in sight and that her body has been turned against her by the perfect killer: literally an evolving xenomorph and figuratively HIV.
HIV activist Matthew Hodson reveals everything in his powerful X-Thread about the film. “Ripley must stand up against the authority that denies and disguises the threat. With horror, she realizes that the monster is also inside her. There is no cure, no treatment. She grieves, but accepts it,” he writes.
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When the credits roll, Ripley has already died, only to be brought back into Alien: Rebirthperhaps the strangest series ever. It was published in 1997 and written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and written by Joss Whedon. Ripley was brought back to life by cloning 200 years after the events of Aliens 3. Listen, this one is very strange, but the homoerotic vibes between Weaver’s Ripley and Winona Ryder’s Annalee Call make it noteworthy. Oh, and that Weaver actually sank thisBasketball throw over the shoulder.
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It would take several years until Aliens would return to the screen (for the purposes of this review we will not go into detail Alien vs Predator or AVP: Requiem) with two prequels, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), both of which saw Scott return to the director’s chair.
While Prometheus might be the least queer installment in the franchise so far, but with its unflinching, terrifying, and ultimately thrilling self-abortion scene, it’s also the most outspoken proponent of choice, showing that the only way to combat the horrors of unwanted pregnancy is to reclaim your own reproductive autonomy, by force if necessary.
Queerness was completely textual in Alien: Covenant by not only giving the franchise its first openly gay couple, Lope (Demián Bichir) and Hallett (Nathaniel Dean), although their kissing scene – caution – ended up on the cutting room floor. One that did However, a kiss between David and Walter, both androids, both played by Michael Fassbender, made it to the screen. No complaints.
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This brings us back to Alien: Romulus. It is an incredibly scary rollercoaster ride, full of the classic Foreigner Iconography (though the film inexplicably avoids much of the HR Geiger-inspired set design, which is, well, confusing and more than a little disappointing), crackling tension, and explosively bloody murders. While it lacks the thematic and metaphorical punch of its predecessors, it introduces Rain and Andy, who prove to be worthy characters who could potentially move the franchise forward, should they survive long enough to do so. And it ends with a huge, mind-blowing bang of a final act that had me fidgeting in my seat.
The film pays homage to the entire franchise, including the prequels, and it feels a bit like Alvarez is playing the greatest hits. It’s fun, but also eye-rolling at times – the fan service lines are extremely embarrassing – but nonetheless, this is one of the most entertaining entries in the series and certainly the best Foreigner film for a very long time.
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
But is it queer? No, not really. Unfortunately, Alvarez favors a relentless pace, scares and twists, leaving little room for thematic and subliminal depth. This is certainly a thrilling ride and a crowd-pleaser, no doubt about it. Did we have fun watching it? Oh, absolutely. But we can’t help but hope that, should this film do as well at the box office as it seems to be doing, the inevitable sequel will slow down a little and hark back to some of the deep and, well, human Elements that made the first film an unprecedented work of art.
Alien: Romulus hits theaters today. Watch the trailer below.
