Alien, 1979 (Dir:
Ridley Scott)
| Dallas: the leader, cowboy |  |
| Ash: the Science officer |  |
| Ripley: 3rd officer |  |
| Kane: what role? |  |
| Lambert: pilot/ navigator? |  |
| Parker: mechanic |  |
| Brett: mechanic |  |
| Jones: the cat | |
| the alien |    |
| Mother: the computer that dispenses life-preserving information |  |
|
the Nostromo: the ship (from Moby Dick): what happened to it? |
 |
| Narrative Action | |
| Beginning premise | the Nostromo, a towing ship for a mining company, is stopped in deep space in the middle of its long fight home to earth; the company wants a mysterious beacon investigated |
| Action | the encounter with an alien species unfolds as a game or contest |
| Goal | to live |
| Players | humans || machines || animal (cat) || cyborg || alien life-form |
| Survival in the hostile environment of deep space takes a certain visual, architectural and biological form | find a safe enclosure (the ship, the egg, the human body
as host) to hold you until release you into a non-hostile environment: hatching becomes a moment of birth and/or death: key issue: who/what is the guest, who/what the host? |
| The Nostromo as an information field |
power in the game comes from having more information than your opponent, and using it effectively |
| Reading the film: |
| What are the goals and agendas of a) the crew, b) machines, c) the cat, d) the cyborg, e) the Company, f) the alien? How does the action look from each of these perspectives? |