I’m happy to report, Roy and I survived our encounter with “Aliens” (1986), James Cameron’s testosterone-soaked sequel to Ridley Scott’s haunted-house-in-space original. It’s interesting that the women – one of them a child – are all tougher than the men, even the Space Marines. But the “Alien” franchise has always been full of fascinating inversions. At the core of the mythos are anxiety and revulsion at the biological process of birth. Or maybe the films are just metaphors for a really nasty cold. Either way, the men aren’t equipped to handle it. We may love our explosions and our military hardware, but give us an impacted toenail and we start shopping for gravesites. Roy and I do our best to put on a brave face, but I’ve got my handkerchief with me, just in case.
Next week, we’ll hang on to our grim determination when mining “Outland” (1981), which to me always seems to occupy the same universe as “Alien.” “Blade Runner” too, for that matter. There’s certainly plenty of corporate greed and corruption to revile as workers are put in peril on a mining colony located on one of the moons of Jupiter. Sean Connery plays the righteous marshal who won’t look the other way.
It was not lost on critics and some audience members at the time that the film owes a fair amount to “High Noon.” It’s yet another example of how, after “Star Wars,” all the good westerns moved to space. We’ll be looking to deputize you in the comments section on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. I’ll be riding shotgun when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., next Friday evening at 7:30 EST!
