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banned from Starbucks posted:why did they bother killing the one alien in the cage if they could just spit acid on the floor to escape instead? Why was there more than 1 alien per cage? Resurrection is a film about the folly of cutting military budgets.
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Feb 16, 2020 13:11
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Xenomrph posted:If Aliens isn’t an allegory for the Vietnam War (and lmao that we’re even seriously entertaining this conversation), then somebody forgot to tell James Cameron, who has been quoted repeatedly on the topic. Those quotes are all just Cameron talking about how he used motifs from Vietnam to ground the film in a set of experiences that the audience could recognise and therefore relate to, not that the film itself is supposed to be an allegory for the Vietnam war.
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May 2, 2020 21:09
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DeimosRising posted:I think you’re confused about what an allegory is I think you'll find that Star Trek 2009 is an allegory for Apple's dominance of the smartphone industry
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May 2, 2020 22:20
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Isn't Bishop a military android rather than a corporation one? (I mean, textually he's made by W-Y but he's owned and directives have been set by the marine corps) Bishop and Ash are both scientists, I've always interpreted Bishop as being 'this is who Ash would have been had he not been corrupted by corporate greed'.
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May 3, 2020 10:38
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One reading is that it's a subtle hint that W-Y knew about the distress beacon and way setting up a totally loyal asset to ensure recovery of anything valuable (if so, Aliens doesn't view this as true) but I think it's more a case of the story requiring the crew not to know that Ash is an android and working backwards from that to have him be a recent addition.
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May 3, 2020 17:13
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Joe Chill posted:The movie does frame Burke as a rogue agent though ("It was a bad call, Ripley"). Ripley doesn't even show any rage towards W-Y itself, just towards Burke (They are going to nail to the wall for this..."). The reason Burke goes rogue is because the company has a bonus incentive structure ('exclusive rights') that pushes him to do so. It's still about corporate greed. W-Y technically has rules in place but incentives its agents to go rogue. If it goes well then they take the advantages, if it goes badly then the corporation can wash its hands of any wrongdoing. Western companies do this all the time in the 3rd world.
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May 3, 2020 17:49
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Xenomrph posted:Correct - Ripley might not be that outwardly hostile towards the Company, but that changes over the course of the movie (“They can bill me!”) and she’s very openly hostile in the third movie because there’s an obvious pattern of behavior - whether it’s the Big Evil Company actively pursuing the Alien or it’s a never-ending string of “rogue actors” operating within an amoral organization, the Company is the problem and it’s not going to stop. Ripley is specifically pissed off at Burke in that scene, but the premise of the whole film is that she absolutely loathes the company and wants nothing to do it and only goes along with the mission because she's promised that the Marines will be in control.
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May 3, 2020 20:11
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:It's interesting what people will imagine. You are right, but I think that comes down to being pissed off at W-Y being something that can't overcome the necessity of having to work for it if you want opportunity in life. Everyone hates the company, everyone knows the company is evil. But the system requires that you work for it.
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May 3, 2020 20:37
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It's going to be a Weaver film, but revealing that Fassbender has been responsible for every time she gets cloned/frozen and wakes up and there are Aliens around. e: also she's a descendent of Shaw, which is why he toys with her
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Jun 22, 2020 23:00
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Alien Megathread: I didn't get to see Bill Paxton's bare rear end
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Sep 3, 2021 20:24
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Jonesy is actually the titular alien. Makes you think. PS. Absolutely jumping on the 'just lock the thread if you want people to stop talking about the aliens films, don't prob a whole page of people having a good conversation' train
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Sep 4, 2021 00:08
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SMG is right and that's why it's difficult to reconcile the qualities of the Ridley Scott 'the alien is a bioweapon' Alien with Cameron's 'it's a hive creature' Aliens. Incidentally I think the 'it's a bioweapon' version provides the neatest answer to 'how does it eat?' - it doesn't. The egg is like a seed and is produced through means unknown (maybe even factory line manufactured) with all of the biofuel the Alien needs for its lifetime already there. Incubating in a host is like planting a seed in soil and it activates the process of 'unlocking' that fuel energy. The Alien doesn't eat because it is designed to go on a murder rampage and then die.
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Sep 6, 2021 11:35
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I mostly agree with you, with the quibble that I think you have confused adaptation with needs there. Ash isn't implying that the creature adapts its needs to the environment, I think the more likely interpretation of what he is saying is that its nutritional needs are fixed and it's ability to function with those needs only partially fulfilled is what is exceptional. It's not changing what it breathes or can eat, it's a suped-up version of what happens to a person's lung capacity when they spend a year living on a mountaintop.
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Sep 6, 2021 14:16
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Someone needs to make an Aliens game where the player is on the side of the greedy corporation trying to capture one of the things and get it past quarantine.
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Sep 16, 2021 15:51
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The Marines in Aliens also get serious when they do the first sweep of the colony and realise something bad happened, and are extremely pissed when command sends them into the reactor undergunned (for a very good reason it turns out, but at that point in the story, before they've even seen an alien, they are taking the threat very seriously).
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Dec 20, 2021 10:29
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Owlbear Camus posted:I think the alien universe works best if humans are pretty much alone. Yeah it's best when it's future-Lovecraftian. Humans stumbling through the debris of long dead elder civilisations and occasionally awakening something that should have been left to sleep.
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Dec 21, 2021 23:30
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Xenomrph posted:A reminder to everyone in this thread that Prometheus is a Christmas movie. Its literally the story of Jesus's return to Earth isn't it?
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Dec 25, 2021 16:52
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Alien Megathread: a cautionary tale about bad egg and noodle
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Jan 10, 2022 11:13
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It's just the Poseidon Adventure with Aliens and the two scenes SMG mentioned. Even without the Whedonisms there wouldn't be much original or interesting about it.
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Mar 30, 2022 10:27
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I think the colonist scenes are fine, if unnecessary. They still leave the events of the fall of the colony up to the imagination.
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Apr 23, 2022 21:22
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Tankbuster posted:What do you guys think about Alien Isolation? I replayed that game recently and it threads the needle between Alien and Aliens really well while giving oodles of the "in space no one can hear you scream" feeling that the first movie had. It's really well made, nails the atmosphere, and I think makes the right choices with regards to pacing. Maybe a little bit too long. It has the problem inherent to being a video game that once you work out the logic of the Alien's AI then it is a lot less scary (but once you do that the game goes 'okay have a flamethrower' and knows it has to up the pace a bit). e: you could feel the plot being a bit constrained by 'nobody can live to tell the tale' and that being a bit of a straightjacket for the story.
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Apr 26, 2022 11:14
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX-xSQ-qO_s They're clearly on the planet, on some kind of artificial platform on the ground. Presumably they circle around until the Marines report the colony secure (maybe there's a line somewhere?) and then settle down while the trip to the processor takes place. e: oh midway through the clip it's clear they're just outside the colony gates
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May 1, 2022 21:14
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sigher posted:I'm still not sure why Spunkmeyer is outside of the Dropship though, like, if they're going to land I don't see any reason to even open the ramp to the outside especially since it doesn't look like Spunkmeyer is strapped at all. Also, why would one lone Xeno be outside of the colony close enough to stow away when the the other ones were all in sleep/hybernation mode in the lower levels and in the Queen's Chambers under the processor? It's a contrivance but a reasonable one to make the story happen. He goes out to stretch his legs. The really dirty sleight of hand with the script is how the dropship takes out the apc while crashing, which is what actually forces the surviving marines into the stronghold scenario. Of course at that moment you are so shocked by the alien being on the dropship that you give the film a pass on how convenient the crash is.
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May 2, 2022 00:01
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Neo Rasa posted:Yeah they were obviously aware she wasn't making poo poo up when they see the acid damage and the dead facehugger/etc., they just were over-confidant that they would steamroll whatever they ran into. They're not. The marines are all extremely pissed and nervous when they are told to give up their ammo before going into the processor because they correctly appreciate how dangerous it is. The experienced soldiers are sensible and make the right decisions all the way through. Its Gorman who fucks up, but even then the film does show that he was right about what a bad idea it would be for anyone to start shooting in the processor.
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May 6, 2022 12:41
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I mean if we assume Burke sends his message shortly after Ripley is debriefed (lets assume he waits for the official lets-do-nothing so that nobody else notices his message) and noting that the last colonist has probably been impregnated a few hours just before the marines arrive, that suggests the colony falls over the span of about two weeks.
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May 12, 2022 23:11
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https://twitter.com/Kabooski01/status/1561676365925007360?t=cmbDWIvzd5PFMVIapvblRw&s=19
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Aug 23, 2022 09:35
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CelticPredator posted:How can you scroll past anything when that’s what the whole page is. Personally I think it's amazing content when SMG posts an insightful and interesting analysis in the most infuriating way possible, and someone else gets so angry at it they invertedly go completely off the rails and prove them right. I only check in this thread every 3-400 unread posts to catch this cycle play out though, I recommend that.
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Mar 20, 2023 08:36
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I view the crude oil like alien goo as basically being crude oil: there are lots of different kinds of crude oil and they're useful for a vast array of different things, but unless you actually have the fundamental understanding and technology to analyse and refine it then its all just sticky black stuff that catches fire to you.
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Mar 20, 2023 19:07
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It is so weird that that game is almost 10 years old. I perpetually think of it as 'a couple of years old'. Also that it's from Creative Assembly , using their proprietary engine that was used for a hack-and-slash Vikings game, and despite being one of the top games of the last decade was a commercial failure.
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Mar 21, 2023 00:22
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FastestGunAlive posted:New dark descent trailer with gameplay https://youtu.be/YilVs3-B42k I'm getting a bit of a 'we made Republic Commando into a top-down RPG' vibe. e: okay I have a strong suspicion there isn't much game there. This is going to be a Fireteam style 'play through once for the story and a reasonably fun experience and then never touch again' thing. Alchenar fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Mar 21, 2023 |
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Mar 21, 2023 18:25
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Splicer posted:We have very different opinions of fireteam. I mean I was sure someone in this thread would love it. The problem with Fireteam is that it's perfectly fine to play through once at a middling difficulty level and have fun, but higher difficulties are just an extremely tiresome damage/hp escalator that isn't fun and not worth grinding for.
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Mar 22, 2023 20:47
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That Wikipedia article basically backs up SMG's point in a less interesting way. Lovecraftian horror is about knowledge and what it might do to you, not the monster.
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Mar 22, 2023 22:43
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Anyway my prediction is that Dark Descent won't be terrible, but you will play through it and come back to this thread and there won't be a single moment from the game you can recall or want to post about.
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Mar 22, 2023 23:50
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Pull up thread. Two points: 1) Aliens is the reference point for space travel speeds in this Universe. It take roughly a week to get from Earth to LV-426. The touchstone for us is that travelling around the universe is like getting on a boat in the 1700's. It'll take a few weeks depending on how far you want to go, there are a few places nobody's bothered to go yet, and there's a reasonable chance something might go wrong on the way. 2) In Alien the eggs are have a 'blue mist stasis field'. I have always interpreted this to mean that on some level the ship is still functional and turned on.
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Mar 26, 2023 10:51
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Payndz posted:Well, 17 days. The Nostromo is a big container ship, the Sulaco is a frigate. Just assume you were to get on one of those ships right now crossing the Atlantic/Pacific to go somewhere. That's the frame of reference for how mature/accessible space travel is in the Alien universe.
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Mar 26, 2023 11:42
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In the movie the guy referring to the cave as some sort of cave has no idea what he is looking at.
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Mar 26, 2023 15:07
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Neo Rasa posted:I feel like a professional deep space mining team would know what a cave or an old rock/fossil is. They're not a mining team, they're tug operators. Their job is to move heavy cargo around space and deliver it without damaging the multi billion dollar asset. They have a science expert because they are high end tug operators in space but they are way, way out of their depth from the very beginning and that's part of the story.
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Mar 26, 2023 17:16
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Space Jam posted:TBF if the Alien novelization stating the egg room was on the ship is considered canon, then human-to-egg morphing would have to be as well. For the record, in the film I think the egg room is on the ship. If a later film had said 'actually it's a chamber beneath the ship that was part of a structure the ship had landed on' I wouldn't scowl and say that's inconsistent with what I saw in Alien, but I agree I think it's a chamber on the ship. The chestbursted pilot and the acid hole through the deck is direct foreboding of what's going to happen.
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Mar 26, 2023 18:41
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I rewatched Covenant last night because I'm reading this thread again and I was reminded of how much I dislike the ending. I don't like the version of horror films where the characters that have 'earned' their survival have a horrible end anyway. To the extent that I care about franchises I am a bit disappointed that we'll never see the presumptive third part of the trilogy where most of the colonists end up as eggs in a cave beneath a derelict Engineer ship, with the last colonist sacrificing themselves to kill David and stop his insane evil android scheme.
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Mar 28, 2023 11:32
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I actually saw this in a youtube comment when checking out the scene the other day: the 'engineers' David kills don't actually look quite like the Engineer in Prometheus - they're smaller and have slightly different cranial structure. If you assume that's deliberate, then David just murdered another humanity-like seed species who hadn't killed Jesus and who just thought they were getting another visit from their progenitors.
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Mar 28, 2023 23:21
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