Alien

This paper is a discussion of the ways in which the extraterrestrial creatures in Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction classic Alien are similar to and different from insects. Designed by H. R. Giger to be fearsome and horrific monsters, the creatures combine the characteristics of many different Earth-bound organisms, with fictional elements added to make them harder to kill and more terrifying to movie audiences. Examining the insect-like elements of these creatures provides a fascinating means of understanding what defines insects and separates them from other types of creatures, however similar. The monsters of Alien are a distinct breed, yet their morphology is insect-like in a number of very interesting ways.

Scott's film, using a screenplay written by Dan O'Bannon, introduces an alien life form that has now survived through four successful movies. Although each film has added additional information about these unnamed creatures, the original script lays out the basic characteristics of a ferocious predator, "a perfect organism" whose "structural perfection is matched only by its hostility" (Scott).

A starship, returning to Earth after a successful mining operation far from home, finds its journey interrupted when the ship's computers intercept a signal that the computers interpret as a distress call. Investigating the signal, one of the crew, Kane, finds a huge collection of what he considers to be eggs, a cache of leathery objects protected by a layer of blui

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room, and a long, bumpy tail. It does not have obvious eyes or ears, though small protrusions on either side of its head may represent sense organs. The creature grows very fast, shedding at least one skin in the process. Within a very brief time, the alien stands larger than any of the crew and has grown arms with claw-like hands. What appears to be a rigid tongue, crenelated like its tail and equipped with its own set of sharp teeth, can quickly protrude from the mouth and knock out an unsuspecting victim. The head of the full-grown alien is distinct from the body, though still very smooth, and the whole figure is a dark, metallic gray color. Gregory B. Richards describes the creature as "lizard-like" (63), with "the terrifying ability to reproduce by entering the bodies of living organisms" (62), though the ways in which the aliens compare to insects are especially illuminating. Michael Tweedie points out that insects are distinct from other anthropods "most obviously in having three pairs of legs. No typical anthropod has less and almost all . . . have more" (14). In this respect, the face-sucking beasts within the eggs are like many anthropods but have two legs too many to qualify as insects, while the alien creatur

Category: Film - A