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How to tame an Alien. Alien History (Topic)

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How to tame an Alien. Alien History

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Today, Alien is not just a classic, but the founder of an entire media franchise that has long existed not only on movie screens, but in comics, books, and of course, games. Since the 80s, many games have been released in this universe. Honestly, there are few good ones, but the very cult of "Alien" deserves to be taken apart. We will analyze who and how invented Aliens through the prism of gaming.

Empty pockets push to the great

The story of Alien began in 1974, when screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, after working on the film "Dark Star", which was then still filmed by John Carpenter, decided to work on the long-suffering film adaptation of the novel "Dune" and accidentally met Ridley Scott and Hans on the set Giger. Then they still did not think about making their own project, but they got along.

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After the failure of Dune, O'Bannon returned to the US from Italy [where the shooting took place] penniless. He had to live for some time with his producer friend Ronald Schusett. Dan understood that he needed to get out of this terrible state and urgently write a script for a film that he could sell. He remembered how he and Shusett had once discussed the idea of a film, how astronauts got stuck in a spaceship that was captured by an unknown life form.

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So he wrote the script for the movie called "Star Thing". Walter Hill later joined O'Bannon and Shucett, and together they began to storm the office of 20th Century Fox. However, their idea was not appreciated there, putting the film in the category of "middling at one time." The script was passed from one director to another, and after going from hand to hand, it ended up on the table with Ridley Scott, who said: "This will be the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but in a sci-fi setting!" undertook to film the project. It was soon renamed "Alien".

The Road to Space

Work on the film began to boil, the script was added and diluted with new plot details. During this time, Ron Cobb and Chris Foss were working on the design of the Nostromo ship, and Jean Girok [future designer of the Fifth Element] was creating the costumes. However, the film lacked one small detail - the most stellar creature, which was conventionally called the Alien. Then Dan remembered about Giger and his album of works "Necronomicon", released in 1977.

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Ridley Scott leafed through this work until he came across an illustration of Necronom IV, where he was waiting for the concept of an ideal space monster. However, the image itself was a little knocked out of the general mood of the film, since the illustration was rather grotesque and pornographic in nature. Therefore, the appearance of the uninvited passenger had to be slightly tweaked so that he evoked the right feelings in the onlookers. In 1978, a collaboration contract was signed with Giger, and he completely took over the creation of monsters.

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O'Bennon also came up with a small detail with the birth of the Alien, so that he would logically get on the ship. When he was in Paris, he saw in one comic strip an image of an incomprehensible creature emerging from the body of an astronaut. It is important to note that during that period the screenwriter had stomach problems, and he constantly felt pain, as if someone was tearing him from the inside. He remembered that image from the comic book, superimposed it on his personal experience, and so, according to the film's lore, the Alien parasite tore his victim from the inside and pulled out through the chest.

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Giger sold out in earnest, he created the scenery for the wrecked ship of jockeys, and all stages of the development of the Alien were five months. At the same time, Fox management did not like this, and they constantly demanded that he reduce the size of the scenery and the hall where the team finds the corpse of the ship's captain. Giger turned his head flatly, since, according to his plan, people should have seemed insignificant compared to the size of the ship.

Ridley Scott came up with a cunning plan to please both sides. The decoration of the spacecraft was reduced, and the role of the astronauts with the Nostromo in spacesuits was played by children, two of whom were children of Scott himself.

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If we talk about the cast of actors, then there was one change during its recruitment. Ripley was originally a man. In the process of rewriting the script, it was decided to make all the heroes unisex like themselves, in order to choose the best caste without being tied to gender. Therefore, when Sigourney Weaver came to audition, Ridley Scott saw in her the perfect Ripley. Prior to that, actress Veronica Cartwright was approved for this role, but after Weaver's debut she was given the role of Lambert.

Scott noticed the main actor for the role of Alien at the bar. It was difficult to pass by a guy with a height of 2, 18 meters. It was Bolazhi Bodezhio - a native of the Masai tribe. He shared this role with stuntman Eddie Powell.

However, the work on the film was not easy. So Weaver was found to be allergic to cats, because of the humidity and high temperature, the decorations had to be repainted almost every day. Also, the management put pressure on the film crew due to the timing and excessive cruelty, which could scare off part of the audience. So, Fox cut the ending, making it less violent. Rumor has it that the original ending looked like this: we see Ripley's face, the camera moves away, and we realize that this is her severed head, which is held in the clutches of an Alien.

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In any case, the film came out as it is. Today it features several sequels and prequels, Predator spin-offs, and tons of game adaptations.

Alien Aftertaste

After the release of the picture, several interesting cases happened. Now it's hard to believe, but then the news wrote that during the screenings of the film, many people felt sick during the Alien birth scene. Allegedly, some cinemas were so tired of rubbing off the "turned back popcorn" that they arbitrarily cut out this scene. True or not - who knows. However, we can definitely say that for the actors the scene itself was a surprise, because only the director, screenwriter and the actor himself knew about it, who became an incubator according to the script. The rest did not know how the birth of the alien would look like. The shot was shot from the first take.

The work of Giger also gained considerable fame after the film. He became one of the most popular surrealist painters of the time, in whose works the motives of Aleister Crowley and Govarad Lavrquat were mixed. The main source of his inspiration can be called the nightmares that the artist had due to sleep disorders. The game Scorn is being developed on the basis of his work. You can also see his motives in SOMA and Dead Space.

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The best games in the Alien universe

As mentioned earlier, there are quite a few games released for this franchise, but not all of them are worthy of your attention. Here is a small selection of the best Alien games. So to speak, a must have for dating.

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Alien Trilogy

Today you can find emulators of this 1996 work. At one time, she became a kind of Doom with other monsters. But this is not surprising, since it was released by id Software. Despite the fact that it differed from the plot of the film trilogy, it had such advantages as atmosphere, recognizability and intense gameplay. Compared to other arcades, the game looked like a significant step forward, so we do not recommend skipping it.

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Alien vs Predator 2

If the movie crossover is still a rather controversial work, then its game adaptation came out quite good. It is noteworthy that the game showed us the conflict from three sides at once, and we played as an Alien, a Predator and a human. Only after going through all three plot companies could you see the story in full. Surprisingly, the developers managed to make all three companies exciting, and we immediately got a horror shooter, horror stealth and a kind of monster simulator.

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Alien: Isolation

To say that this is the best game about Aliens is to say nothing. This is a stunning horror movie that perfectly captures the main idea of the first film. The game is incredibly interesting, variable in the passage [you will spend at least 20 hours on it exactly], and most importantly, very high quality and dynamic. Alien: Isolation is like the classic horror games from Capcom, because the game is quite hardcore and does not lisp with the player. Alien: Isolation looks, plays and feels like the original film, so it can be called completely authentic. After all, we are playing as Ripley's daughter. The game is rightfully considered one of the best in 2014.

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For heaven's sake and non-sacred sake, never play Alien Colonial Marine.

This was the story of the making of Alien, and the best representatives of the franchise in games.

The Topic of Article: How to tame an Alien. Alien History.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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