THE CINEMA BEHIND STAR WARS: ALIENS  


LEARN HOW ONE CLASSIC MOVIE MONSTER INSPIRED A FRIGHTENING STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS VILLAIN AND MORE.                                   

With scary movies on my mind lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of my favorite scary movies, James Cameron’s Aliens, from 1986. It’s the action-movie sequel to Ridley Scott’s utterly brilliant Alien from 1979, and tells the tale of Ellen Ripley and a squad of Colonial Marines as they investigate LV-426 and the alien threat there.    


It’s easy to look at Attack of the Clones and see the design of the creature fromAliens echoed in the Geonosians, as well as the hallways full of them sleeping and moving, but the inspiration expands in magnitude when you look at a number of episodes of The Clone Wars. The first major instance would be the seventh and eighth episodes of Season Two, “Legacy of Terror”and “Brain Invaders.”      


In “Legacy of Terror,”Anakin and Obi-Wan descend into the Geonosian catacombs looking for the long rumored Geonosian Queen. As they lead their clone troops down, further into the tunnels, the episode resembles, quite consistently, the suspense-filled action sequences of Aliens, with the clone troopers filling in for the Colonial Marines. When they finally find the Geonosian Queen, she looks very much like the queen alien that Ripley does battle with at the end of the film. That original puppet was a masterpiece of cinema built by Stan Winston studios, and the film went on to win an Academy Award for Visual Effects         


In that next episode, “Brain Invaders,”Ahsoka is traveling with Bariss Offee to deliver medical supplies when the offspring of the Geonosian Queen affect her crew. She’s trapped in the spaceship, fighting for her life, as each member of her crew, including fellow padawan Barris Offee succumbs to the evil aboard the ship. Eventually, like Ellen Ripley in the first Alien film, Ahsoka manages to be the lone force able to defeat the threat that has her trapped.      


Perhaps my favorite bit of homage to Aliens from The Clone Wars, however, comes from the fifth season episode “Eminence.” This episode opens in almost the exact same way as Aliens. In both instances, the ship of our protagonist is left adrift until a salvage team cuts open the door to find any survivors. In both cases, a twinkling of blue dust covers everything and the passengers are asleep. Visually, the opening to Aliens and the opening to “Eminence” match beautifully and it’s touches like these that make The Clone Wars one of my favorite television shows of all time.     


It’s also important to note that the Alien movies might not well be what we know them to be today had it not been for Star Wars in the first place. Ridley Scott said in The Force is With Them: The Legacy of Star Wars featurette, “[Star Wars] influenced me when I did Alien. I thought I better push it a lot further, make [the aesthetic] feel a lot like truck driving. It turned me around 180 degrees as to what I felt I ought to be doing and what’s interesting is that the next film I made [after seeing Star Wars] was Alien.”    


And where the aesthetic of Star Wars inspired Ridley Scott to make the world of Alien more like truck driving, it inspired James Cameron to quit that very profession. Cameron remarked in that same featurette, “I got really energized byStar Wars, in fact I quit my job as a truck driver and said, if I’m gonna do this, I better get going. It gave me a big kick up the back side to get going as a filmmaker.”     


It’s hard to imagine what the landscape of cinema would look like today had Ridley Scott not made Alien and James Cameron not entered film at all. Thanks toStar Wars, we’ve been given a whole new world of amazing films. 

     

For those interested in watching Alien and Aliens, it’s important to remember that they are both rated R for monster violence and language. I watched both of them with my kids, though, and while it could be frightening at times, it was definitely a wonderful experience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
BACK FROM THE DRAWING BOARD, PART 2: REPURPOSED STAR WARS TECHNOLOGY JAWAS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES TO SEE VALUE IN OLD DROIDS. LEARN HOW STAR WARS CREATORS HAVE REUSED FORGOTTEN CONCEPTS FOR FILM AND TV! The previous installment of Back from the Drawing Board discussed the various aliens that were recycled from unused concept art. This time we will look at droids and starships that were originally designed for the movies, but ended up in other sources. Bring in the Droids, Again Some of the most obvious examples can be found in Star Wars Rebels, which draws heavily from the unused concept art of Ralph McQuarrie. One of the main characters, Chopper (1), finds his origin in conceptual designs from our other favorite astromech, R2-D2. A different design was used directly in West End Games’ Cynabar’s Fantastic Technology to depict the P2 astromech droid (3). Another iconic design by McQuarrie, the one intended for C-3PO, also ended up in Rebels in the form of the RQ pro
Read more
Image
MEET THE GEONOSIS JEDI GET TO KNOW THE JEDI WARRIORS WHO WERE THE FIRST TO FIGHT THE CLONE WARS! When Obi-Wan Kenobi got captured on Geonosis by the powerhouses of the Secessionist Movement, Mace Windu decided to lead a task force of 200 Jedi. Meanwhile, Yoda left for the Kamino system where the Republic would make use of the mysterious clone army that had been ordered about a decade ago by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. The participation of the Jedi on Geonosis would prove to be an omen of what the Clone Wars would bring for the guardians of peace and justice. The battle showed what the Jedi were and also what they weren’t. The Jedi were compassionate beings who didn’t hesitate to rescue a fellow Jedi in need and who did anything they could to protect the Galactic Republic. But the Jedi had evolved into diplomats and keepers of the peace instead of hardened battlefield commanders. The outcome of the Battle of Geonosis would be disastrous for the Jedi Order, as about 170 of the 200 Jedi
Read more

RON HOWARD DISCUSSES THE FORCES THAT SHAPE HAN IN SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY ON THE STAR WARS SHOW

Han Solo has been a fan favorite since we first met him and his walking carpet of a copilot inside the wretched hive that is the Mos Eisley cantina.  And when Director Ron  swtor credits   Howard takes us back to Solo’s earlier days in Solo: A Star Wars Story later this month, he promises to examine some the scoundrel’s multifaceted personality and explore what — and who — shaped him into the hero we already know and love. This week on The Star Wars Show, Howard sits down to talk about Han’s enduring appeal, which all comes down to the character’s  swtor credits   duality. “He’s a great guy and he hates that about himself!” Howard says. “The idea that he’s out for himself, he’s got an outlaw spirit and code on one hand, but he can’t quite live it and walk it (because) he doesn’t entirely feel it.” Bonus: The good-natured director didn’t just talk business while he was here. Check out the video below to see  swtor credits  Howard as he tries his luck playing our original game “
Read more