Quentin Tarantino on Alien

[@Stratboy999]

What made Alien work so well is that you pretty much don't see the Adult alien at all until almost the end. The malevolent darkness pervading the ship lets the imagination run riot, that and the growing sense of panic amongst the crew. It really is a perfect horror film and builds suspense marvellously.

[@crabapples1995]

Not only that, but the alien (xenemorph) is absolutely terrifying and more than holds up still. The space jockey reveal still gives me goose bumps.

[@KareemHarper]

What's wild is that when Ripley gets into the shuttle during the finale of Alien, you can see the xenomorph in plain sight in almost all of the shots, but it blends so well into the architecture of the shuttle you don't notice it. Even though I know where to spot it, it still shocks me how I can sometimes still miss it.

[@spoonman44]

A perfect horror film, and a perfect science-fiction.

[@kevinh1792]

Also, no CGI... Looks more realistic to me

[@dougdougw]

Yeah, we know.

[@mogznwaz]

Alien is a truly perfect film. Nearly 50 years old and STILL holds up on all levels

[@TimeBomb014X]

The perfect film. Ita structural perfection is matched only by its craftsmanship

[@chadanderson9872]

Just rewatched it after nearly a decade. Smoked a joint and tried to forget everything I knew about the franchise and watch it for the “first time” again. It truly is perfect. The way it unravels and escalates and leaves the audience doubtful that anyone is going to survive this as the leading men keep getting killed off. A true masterpiece.

[@glenmale1748]

It was close to perfect... but studios just milked it and milked it until we ended up with a six-part pile of extraterrestrial excrement. Greed is the enemy of art.

[@leerobbo92]

@@glenmale1748 Meh, I feel you can separate films from a series quite easily. Nobody here's considering the sequels. I recommend trying it. I also do it with the Matrix, which I'm also convinced is an absolutely perfect standalone movie brought down by the sequels. That said, Aliens is great, and I've a soft spot for Alien 3 which I also think is better than people give it credit for. Romulus is genuinely very good, too.

[@fkingshame7537]

Alien 3 Assembly Cut is fantastic, only slightly let down by some CGI.

[@SmokeDog1871]

I like how Tarantino gives us more info about the production than any of the making of docs I've seen

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

That's probably because you don't really watch the good ones.

[@jamesowendesign]

All of this information is on Wikipedia. Tarantino’s got lots of the timeline wrong too

[@VonWenk]

There's one on KZbin that actually tells you who some of the directors who turned it down were.

[@KellicTiger]

Check out memory: the origins of alien.

[@trhansen3244]

There are some great documentaries and they include these stories. I would stake Kamala Harris' open borders on it!

[@alexwecamps]

Tarantino should have his own 2hours podcast weekly just talking about movies

[@DaCarnival]

... he does.

[@johngrayatkinson1214]

Video Archives

[@robertplant2059]

Tarentino ia complete Douche, he is taped on Stern calling Polanski's victim a party girl. MAYBE POLANSKI SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ADULT IN THE ROOM WITH THE 13 YEAR OLD. SORRY THE HOT TUB, WHERE HE PLIED HER WITH QUALUDES. THANKS HOLLYWOOD, OH AND THIS WAS AT JACK NICHOLSON'S HOUSE.

[@1hitwoon99]

@@DaCarnival he does? holy f...

[@richt-1]

Would he make more than ten episodes?

[@MorsDengse]

19 years old, I was accidentally in Copenhagen, and walked by a cinema which had just premiered Alien "In space no one can hear you scream". Only knowing that it apparently was some kind of space horror movie, a friend of mine and I walked in. The rest is history. The movie completely blew me away, and sparked a life long interest in movies. Thanks Ridley.

[@MagnusWissler]

Accidentally in Copenhagen. ROFL

[@Beunibster]

@@MagnusWissler He was probably exploring Malmö and suddenly crossed the bridge. It's a tragedy far too common.

[@YouOnlyIiveTwice]

Tarantino could narrate his grocery shopping for an hour and I'd still be fully invested in everything he says.

[@TheCaptainSlappy]

But do you know what a shaved orangutan looks like? I don't. But I bet it would be freaky!

[@garwynrosser8907]

Do you have any idea what a shaved orange would look like !?! I don't know... Because I'm not a freak. I peel oranges like a normal person.

[@SFBenjaminK]

the NEW Alien: Romulus ,saw the Pre-show is really damn good , Loved it & i knew it great people behind this new one 🤘👍🙌

[@NinoPurple]

tarantino sucks

[@theessentials450]

Nah he rambles too much.... most of the time he's correct.

[@roquefortfiles]

The way Ridley shot the creature was fabulous. All lighting and angles.

[@angelsjoker8190]

Man, seeing those clips shows how superior practical effects from 40 years ago are to most CGI from today. Everything looks so much more realistic.

[@mamster233]

@angelsjoker8190 the human eye can discern it's CGI and not real. I think this is why you say it's "more realistic"

[@alanhoffar7770]

The xenomorph looks and feels like a living breathing thing, every thing today looks like an expensive cartoon

[@jinxysaberk]

Romulus literally looks better LMFAO your argument is baffling when we have a way better looking alien movie that JUST came out you make yourself seem like an idiot

[@angelsjoker8190]

@@alanhoffar7770 Yep. Look at The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the Orcs played by life actors with silicone masks being f*ing believably scary vs The Hobbit where the Orcs were computer generated.

[@2112sonoflife]

I'm old school, I love practical effects. CGI will never take it's place. Now at the CGI of Romulus, it was amazing at the end

[@Dellaluna13]

Tarantino: “Alien? Classic. Five out of five toes.”

[@navelpicker]

Ha!!!

[@mackychloe]

lol

[@BruceWayne-zj1kw]

Wow a Tarantino foot joke, brilliant

[@patrickwheeler5701]

should of said 'six out of six' 'cause of the xenomorph fingers

[@Dellaluna13]

It’s my sole foot joke, I swear.

[@dcanmore]

Alien finished filming in October of 1978, Empire Strikes Back began shooting in March 1979.

[@barryschwarz]

Yeah, Tarantino is passionate, but not perfectly accurate about stuff. You can't understand his oeuvre without understanding his swag comes before facts.

[@joncarroll2040]

He also doesn't mention how alot of the people involved came out of the failure of Jodorowsky's Dune.

[@ck2352]

That what I thought. I was like, huh?

[@stevenmackay8053]

Thank you. I thought, huh?

[@gordons-alive4940]

@@barryschwarz he talks a lot about movies. He's bound to get a detail wrong once in a while.

[@claykeough7898]

I wish Tarantino would get weird and give us a sci-fi horror of some kind. I think it would be gold!!

He's said he wants to do sci-fi. That's why he hired Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) to write a Star Trek script for him to direct. Still boggles my mind that Paramount turned it down.

[@1sepriani]

It would be the greatest sci-fi ever

[@icestationzebraassociates2460]

"Is there a sign over my docking bay that says dead alien storage?"

[@WalterWild-uu1td]

If you pick up a copy of the July, 1939 issue of "Astounding" magazine, it contains a short story by A. E. Van Vogt titled "Black Destroyer" where a spacecraft lands on an isolated planet and an almost supernatural killing animal gets aboard and starts killing every crew member. The creature is the last survivor of a predator species that has pretty much wiped out its primary food source. The parallels with "Alien" are very apparent. (That issue of "Astounding" also included Isaac Asimov's first story "Treads." The next issue included Robert E. Heinlein's first story, "Life-Lines," and the next issue Theodore Sturgeon's story "Ether Breather." This run of classic science fiction "first stories" by some of the most iconic writers of the genre is sometimes described as the beginning to science fiction's "Golden Age.")

[@FanaticFilmsINC]

This comment is way too intelligent for this comments section. We're here to talk about shaving orangutans bro...

[@henrykujawa4427]

It's been said that ALIENS borrowed from (RIPPED OFF) as many sources as STAR WARS. I'm sure that's true! As always, it's how you do it that counts.

[@indigodoctor77]

@@henrykujawa4427not everything is “ripped off”. This is the problem now and the reason why we don’t have any good stand alone sci-fi. Everyone sees similarities and starts screaming about rip-offs and as a result, EVERY new sci-fi story now has to be set in the Star Wars or Marvel universe so the average person isn’t confused. It’s sad. The Creator was a love letter to science fiction novels and films but a lot of people just see a “rip off”. Inspiration is allowed.

[@euchrid2006]

It is the Ixtl creature in the “Discord in Scarlet” story which is similar to the Xenomorph from Alien. So similar that Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox, and got an out of court settlement. The Black Destroyer creature was the inspiration for the Displacer Beast in Dungeons & Dragons. I have no idea why Van Vogt failed to sue Gary Gygax over that one.

[@rambidee4184]

Top comment!

[@happydude2163]

Why on earth would you not have the rest of this interview? It just got to the good part !!!!!

[@FanaticFilmsINC]

I know! I was on the vinegar strokes bruh!

[@Anwarl2022]

The enthusiasm Tarantino has talking about ‘Alien’ here sorta makes me wonder how he’d direct a sci-fi movie 💭

[@swapnilrana2206]

Also a horror.

[@Sad_Kitty_]

@@swapnilrana2206 badly...he would directed it badly. Everyone knows their lane he's done lot of movies he could've done one by now. He knows its not skill set. He's good at creating the fast talking, slick, witty, cool protagonist stuff

[@tFighterPilot]

@@chrismoiser6477 Depends on your definition of scary. He's the master of tense scenes, especially in Inglorious Bastards.

[@bruceholroyd7063]

As if every film he's ever done isn't fictional enough.....

[@MALoadedDiaper]

The cast and the surroundings were BELIEVABLE.

[@josephgarcia6256]

My Mom was pregnant with me at the time. My parents saw this movie in the theaters and it freaked her out so much she was shocked she didn't go into labor.

[@Wagoo]

Did you burst out of her chest or choose the more traditional exit point?

[@josephgarcia6256]

@@Wagoo The exit point lol

[@sherifmourad79]

ur lucky she didn't get an abortion afterwards

[@icestationzebraassociates2460]

That had to add another element to they body horror aspect for her.

[@grizzlywhisker]

I'm not even the hugest Quentin Tarantino fan, but I would love if he did a show talking about movies because he's got a lot of good stories and other knowledge about the film industry that I've never heard before and I think a lot of people would be interested in.

[@bucknasty69]

If you like to hear Tarantino talking about movies, check out his book Cinema Speculation. He writes about all the movies he watched growing up that were influential to him. It’s a great read, I highly recommend it!

[@mabonman]

Its called 'video archives podcast with QT and Robert Avery'

[@hoover728]

It should be called ‘A Grain of Salt’ because as in this clip he plays loose with facts in favour of a good story.

[@yonikperez3110]

He gets information wrong though

[@grizzlywhisker]

@@yonikperez3110 Like what? I’m genuinely curious.

[@theimp5901]

All elements of this movie were spectacular but let's not forget Jerry Goldsmiths incredible score . He also won the Academy Award for The Omen.

[@qcdoomqc]

So happy to see this comment :) Thank you for giving credit to Goldsmith. People often forget how incredible the soundtrack is such an important part of Alien because the acting, script, directing and design are so timeless, but Goldsmith’s score elevates Alien to a more 'classy' and sophisticated level.

[@sacredcoww]

Thank you for editing out Eli Roth.

[@genodian]

Is he like, really obnoxious or something? Ngl seeing the source I was about to go check out the podcast this came from but if he's that unbearable i won't waste my time lmfao

[@aerthreepwood8021]

​@@genodianhe's alright. Much like Tarentino, he's a huge movie geek and really loves this stuff.

[@aerthreepwood8021]

I mean, he sucks shit for other reasons but in isolation, he's fine.

[@scatmancrothers]

​@@aerthreepwood8021he cant direct for shit, thats for sure.

[@Olie986]

​@@genodianHe's fine on it, check it out.

[@MrG77]

Quentin is an encyclopedia of film. I heard RZA from Wu Tang saying that he was telling Quentin about all the rare Kung Fu movies he had trying to impress him. Quentin answered back by saying he had the first cuts and the original film reels from the movies he was talking about ,and then Quentin went on for the rest of the night talking about his collection which RZA got to see . Rza thought he had a really good rare collection but said his was nothing compared to what Quentin had. Brilliant. 🙏

[@robertoseveno]

Best interview ever. Please give the full version. Top ten greatest films. Still looks beautiful & devastating.

[@cleonRIP]

Dude, Walter Hill doesn't get enough props. Dudes a titan.

[@baronvonraschke77]

Legit, he is a titan and does not get enough respect or mentions these days.

[@michaelcruz8312]

I was looking forward to Dead For A Dollar, hoping it would resurrect the old Friday night pleasures of something like Last Man Standing. Sadly, not to be…

[@thunderstruck5484]

Has directed or produced or been involved with so many great movies, I like to say he makes movies for guys who love movies! So low key you never hear about him

[@charliebronson1274]

Streets of Fire for life!!!!

Tarantino has sung his praises for Walter Hill many a time.

[@medalion1390]

Just out of curiosity I googled "Shaved Orangutan". I ended up finding a news article with the headline: "Orangutan was shaved, made to wear jewellery and used as a prostitute"

[@reggieziet]

bruh wtf !!!!! no for real wtfff , I thought i heard it all, but the internet wins again

[@KHowlett1981]

But enough about MTG lolololol

[@clinteastwood14896]

I read that whole article. And that... was the most disturbing thing I've read in years. People actually do that?!

[@vguyver2]

@@clinteastwood14896 People have done worse. Man died tried to have sex with a male horse in 2005. I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising, Homo Sapiens are an Amalgamation from interspecies sex. Our ancestors mated with at least 3 Hominid species and 4th has been found more recently that we suspect is part of our gene pool. And those species in turn were likely doing the same.

[@dratz50]

And now has a lawsuit against Donald Trump for not paying the promised hush money.

[@Gingercornet]

Listening to Tarentino, his excitement and enthusiasm for movies oozes out at every stage. Good man.

[@Darkwaterrebellion]

Actually, it seems Tarantino wasn't aware of this, but the art for Alien wasn't just Giger's art, but it was his art for the epic space opera that never came to be; Jodorowsky's DUNE.

[@MitchellPorter2025]

Really?! Jodorowsky's Dune might be one of the greatest movies never made...

[@YudaHnK]

@@MitchellPorter2025yeah bro, actually that sounds liek a pretty good title too…

[@bonglesnodkins329]

@@MitchellPorter2025 Yep, a lot of the conceptual art was an adaptation of concept art for Geidi Prime (the Harkonnen homeworld). O'Bannon had worked alongside Giger on that project, and was the one who suggested Giger to Ridley Scott.

[@Dellaluna13]

Jean “Moebius” Giraud created concept art for both DUNE and ALIEN too (and later worked on some Jordorowsky graphic novels). He left ALIEN because he felt he wasn’t getting enough pay. Moebius’ spacesuit design was fortunately used in the movie.

[@KetoR2592]

The derelict space craft was partially based on Giger's designs for Dune, but the design for the Alien itself was from an unrelated work (Necronom IV) that he had published three years prior

[@AlanBerry]

This channel should be called “Tarantino on…”

[@bagggers9796]

Tarantino tends to talk way more in-depth about movies than most creators. It's no surprise that the majority of this channel's content is him.. If there was more actual interesting material from other filmmakers then I'm sure they'd be featured more often.

[@panathatube]

​@@bagggers9796 exactly plus his take is always interesting

[@heldinahtmlhell]

@@bagggers9796 Tarantino tends to talk way more

[@dfolz1101]

But what about james and his bake sale?

[@postmodernrecycler]

"And Sometimes Bill Burr"

[@ilhwang4080]

Recognizing Alien's potential even without Giger's aesthetics is just amazing. Also at the time being described they haven't added an android yet either. They really had the eyes.

[@navelpicker]

After it became a hit, they all declared themselves worthy of having seen the potential. Don't believe a word of it. That's why they tried to inhibit Scott.

[@obsidiancrow450]

giger was like the final piece that made it all work. honestly it kind of makes a ton of sense because everything was locked and loaded for ripley to hit it out of the park.

[@catalinamelo9932]

Also people keep calling him "Guy-Gur"which is so weird xD

[@peterkent5153]

@@catalinamelo9932 How is it pronounced???

[@mcscorn]

@@peterkent5153 Gee-gur not Guy-Gur

[@tonyhill1264]

I live in Manhattan Beach where he worked at Video Archives. I walked in and asked him about movies. He knew we everything about films. Simply an incredible person.

[@SoulStylistJukeBox]

Nice to hear someone mention Walter Hill’s enormous contribution to this film. Hill’s rewrites to the O’Bannon’s original script were substantial.

[@baddi25]

H.R Giger made Alien weird and cool

[@im3phirebird81]

*Alien made H.R. Giger weird and cool

[@volvos70t51]

And Tarantino pronounced Giger wrong, Sigouney never did.

[@rocksparadox]

@@volvos70t51 Tarantinto only understands Murican culture and has trouble acknowledging actual artists.

[@SirContent]

it is weird that is why love it, same reason that i love dumb ppl

[@marcd1981]

It's getting more and more difficult to believe stories you hear or read online, mainly because it is so much easier to verify things online. His one big error here is when he said the set / studio for Alien was basically set up already because The Empire Strikes Back had just finished filming. The problem is that Alien finished filming in 1978, and The Empire Strikes Back started filming in 1979. That's a little more than forgetting a date, that's getting the story wrong. Or it is embellishing his story.

[@aldunlop4622]

I think when he said Empire, he was misremembering that it was actually A New Hope, when it was still just called Star Wars.

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

O'Bannon and Shusett didn't write "Alien" for Corman: they simply sent the script to his studio because they were knocking on all the doors they could knock on and, at some point, they almost signed on with him.

[@doscojones6404]

Tarantino has a lot of his facts completely wrong. E.g., it was Scott who hired Weaver and turned Ripley from a male to a female character.

[@Vinylgeekdom1980]

Additionally, the director of Empire Strikes Back visited Yaphet Kotto on the set of Alien to offer him the part of Lando!! So, Quentin was wrong in that Pinewood had already been utilized for that movie.

[@warlockofwordschannel7901]

​@doscojones6404 in the script, it had a line early on saying, "any of these characters could be played by men or women".

[@michaelcruz8312]

QT has brains, but he has passion more than anything else. Please let The Movie Critic or whatever the hell that final movie from him is going to be, send him out with a bang. I don’t want to remember his work as long-winded, bloated and pointless because RD, PF and JB still hold up.

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

@@michaelcruz8312 WTF?

[@demoncleanersmith9403]

"Made Ripley a female" best move ever, Sorry "bloke in mind" but Sigourney smashed it ♥

[@asimplepie2279]

Sigourney was a perfect casting fo Ripley idk who could’ve done it better tbh

[@CharlieQuartz]

As far as I know, the original script didn’t specify the gender of any of the crew members

[@TheErockaustin]

@@CharlieQuartzCorrect. They hadn’t fleshed out the characters, and decided they would refer to each other by their last names, and never wrote first names or genders for any of them.

[@bradmenpes809]

I love how Tarantino is, first and foremost, totally in love with films! Obviously he is a magnificent director, but his genuine passion and interest in everything to do with films makes him the world's ultimate film geek!!

[@azohundred1353]

"It's a gorilla in a Haunted House movie, in space" -Pauline Kael I don't even see this as a negative like she intended. Cult classics like The Gorilla (1939) and earlier ones that set the standard like The Monster (1925), The Bat (1926), The Old Dark House (1932), and later House On Haunted Hill (1959) are all great films with a similar concept. By her logic, putting a sci-fi spin on this sounds fantastic to me. Though I do know that Dan O'Bannon was inspired by the sci-fi cult film It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) and Ridley was partly inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). At the end of the day, "Haunted House with Monster" movies are alright with me, outer space or otherwise. Alien is a masterpiece.

[@halfvader8015]

Yep the only thing actually new about it was Giger's aesthetic. But boy oh boy...

[@timmarshall2491]

BTW, Alien was filmed between July 5th and October 21st 1978 so the period Quentin is talking about was literally right after Star Wars (May/June 1977) hit it big. It took that long to get the script nailed down, and find the director and the cast.

[@jsimonlarochelle]

Someone on the team had read A. E. Van Vogt "Voyage of the Space Beagle" fixup novel. The similarities to one of the stories in that book are obvious. 1) The crew "stumbles" on the creature 2) The creature is unstoppable (almost invincible) 3) It puts its eggs in the body of crew members 4) It is a genetically engineered creature (we learn this is a sequel of the movie) I guess after the out of court settlement they felt safe to add number (4) in a sequel There are subtle differences. The original creature (named something like Ixtle) has the power to manipulate the atomic structure of matter and can go through wall. Alien has acid blood that can burn through any wall (has seen in a sequel) It is well worth reading the original. It is a golden age novel so you get atomic cannons (vibrators I think they are called) firing inside the spaceship. Great stuff ...

[@edhoughton2609]

some interesting ideas here, but Alien is actually a re-write of Dark Star, which Dan O'Bannon wrote and starred in, continuing such concepts as space as a boring place of work, and reversing the idea of an alien hunting humans. Van Vogt is a great writer, though - would love to see the movie version of Earth's Last Fortress.

[@jsimonlarochelle]

@@edhoughton2609 There was an out of court settlement with Van Vogt so at least he got some money out of the Alien movie.

[@J_Braz_]

I was watching Alien on Blu-ray the other day. For being made in 1979 it looks incredible.

[@76ToneCrome]

Jack Gold directed The Medusa Touch: an underrated gem.

[@lmaololroflcopter]

It’s my favourite film of all time. The world Ridley and designers created, the acting, the pacing and the rhythm of the thing… Impeccable. My only complaint is that Ridley should have used the original pieces Goldsmith composed for the end crawl and the vent sequence.

He should have fixed that awful cut from real Ash head to fake Ash head too. All it needs is a quick 2 second insert of one of the other characters so the transition isn't so damned jarring.

[@MatthewTait237]

Ridley screwed Jerry Goldsmith over both times they worked together. First with Alien & then again on Legend. Legend being the worst offender. I know Goldsmith was mad about the vent scene, but at least it was still Goldsmith’s music. Also kind of funny with how in Covenant Ridley had a new composer use the very same music cue that Goldsmith wrote for Alien end credits throughout the whole movie. I’m sure Goldsmith wouldn’t have been happy about that. Especially after what Ridley had done to his score.

[@b0tterman]

Dan O’Banaon , the original writer of the script that apparently sucked, knew Geiger from his work on Jadowarski’s Dune. It was he that brought on Geiger.O’ Banon previously co-wrote John Caroenter’s great sci- fi comedy Dark Star. Give him his due.

[@tracyb64]

Well it’s not entirely that simple that O’Bannon ‘brought on Giger’. He brought Giger’s book to Ridley Scott. Scott thumbed through it and found Necronom IV, which is essentially what’s now known as the grown Big Chap, given changes here or there. It was then Scott who convinced Giger to work on the movie and sold him and his concepts to the others.

[@b0tterman]

@@tracyb64true. I just didn’t want to get too far into the weeds. I just hate that everyone dumps on O’Banon. I’m a fan of Dark Star.

[@henrykujawa4427]

@@b0tterman "Sgt. Pinback, it's time to feed the alien." "Aww, WHY DO I have to do it?"

[@b0tterman]

@@henrykujawa4427 LOL

O'Bannon also wrote and directed the wonderfully cheesy Return of the Living Dead.

[@barbaralee7385]

Like many kids at the time I went through my “space madness” phase during the late 70’s. Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and of course Alien. The one that has stayed with me is Alien. I appreciate it more now than I did years ago. So many have tried to imitate it and they can’t come close. It really was ahead of its time and is a touchstone film for similar stories. I hate the concept of having a “favorite” film because I have seen so many good movies, but if I have to choose one it would be Alien.

[@jasonjerusalem]

"Do you know what an orangutan without hair would look like?!" Looks like I'm about to find out

[@Theomite]

Hill and Giler got the script because Giler and O'Bannon had a mutual friend named Mark Haggard. Haggard read the script when visiting O'Bannon one day and begged Shusett and O'Bannon to hold off on signing with Corman because he thought he could get it better backing. Gordon Carrol--Hill's partner at Brandywine--was sitting in the office when Haggard came by with the script to show them. Carrol read it first and then told Giler to read it. Giler, Hill, and Carrol rewrote it repeatedly and made it worse, but they did add the android spy and the corporate evil angle to it. And this was in 1976 probably because O'Bannon mentioned that the script didn't get much traction at Fox until STAR WARS hit it big. After that, ALIEN was the only major sci-fi script with any development that they had, so they had to have had it processed before STAR WARS came out, which was summer of '77.

[@batman.darthmaul]

O'Bannon later commented on how he hated that Walter Hill added the "evil corporation" political messaging. O'Bannon said that wasn't his intent.

[@Theomite]

@@batman.darthmaul Ron Shusett, however, feels differently. Weyland-Yutani is one of the all-time great Faceless Evils of human creativity.

[@batman.darthmaul]

​@@Theomite I enjoy that angle myself and I think it organically fits alongside the other themes, but at the same time I understand O'Bannon's resentment at someone just stepping in and changing his intentions.

[@stringlocker]

This guy is so entertaining and he knows what everybody likes. Many people will not admit to liking what's in his mind but they really do

[@sanghoonlee5171]

This helps me understand why Prometheus felt so very different from the original Alien (1979)... Ridley Scott directed Alien but he had nothing to do with its story concept or writing; he was a hired hand who got the job because other directors turned it down. But both Prometheus and Covenant were 100% Ridley Scott projects from the beginning, and he used them to to explore his favorite existential and religious themes that he treats in his other films like Kingdom of Heaven, Noah, and Exodus: Gods and Kings. Ellen Ripley in the original Alien was just a woman trapped on a ship with a monster trying to kill her. But both Elizabeth Shaw and David the android are on religious quests to find out the purpose of their existence. Unfortunately, this philosophical turn ruined the Alien franchise, I think. It moved the franchise away from the horror genre and closer to sci-fi epics. I know Scott is good with epics but he should have kept this franchise strictly as a horror series. I think he understands that now. That's why he passed the baton to a new director who returned the franchise to its horror root in Alien Romulus.

[@aldunlop4622]

Agreed.

[@icestationzebraassociates2460]

I didn't think Romulus was nearly as scary - perhaps that's because we really know what to expect and Alvarez didn't deviate much from that. There were a few things in it that were ridiculous. The engineer/baby thing was akin to the newborn from resurrection - more silly than frightening. The cocoon stage was also maybe a bit silly and didn't add much to the film, aside from 30 seconds or so of suspense while the alien emerged. I liked it - not bad and some pretty good acting. David Jonsson did a great job, I thought. That said, I'd rather have seen David massacre 2000 colonists on Origae 6. I didn't see his "quest" as religious - just vengeful. I know people didn't appreciate the exploratory nature of Prometheus and Covenant or where Scott went with those stories, and I understand why. I do, however, think Scott may have had his reasons for taking this story in the "dark epic" direction. Look at the last two Alien films. 3 was plagued with problems and ended up being perhaps the worst of the films. Resurrection - while it wasn't nearly as stinky as 3, ruined any serious furthering of the franchise with the newborn. The horror aspect just isn't going to accomplish much we haven't already seen and felt - nothing we can't accomplish by just watching the first two films. I liked the deeper look into where the xenos came from. Just personal opinion.

[@spiffhedge]

That whole clip was worth it to hear Tarintino talk about a hairless ape. Awesome!

[@pigmeatmarkham898]

“Hello Mr. Aldrich. You have a call from someone named P.E.T.A. on line 2.” ☎️😂

[@bsvenss2]

and from "Planet of the Apes" on line 3. 😁

[@ctvxl]

IMO Alien is the greatest monster movie ever made. Better than any of the classics, etc.

[@bluest1524]

Best movie ever.

[@gamble777888]

The 4k transfer is the most impressive piece of physical media I own. Showed it to my 14 year old and he was blown away.

[@robertsutton1295]

"Shave an Orangutang?" Imaging showing up to work, being handed a pack of disposable razors, a can of shave cream, and being told to go shave an orangutang. That worthy of a Brett-level "Wait...whut?"

[@halfvader8015]

You mean "right, right..." 😉

[@ldfjlas]

man quentin is good at talking about movies. something i have learned by watching a lot of youtube is that really smart people are almost always very good at talking.

[@nedmerrill6228]

Greatest sci-fi movie ever made.

[@lupus7194]

Behind 2001.

[@MD97531]

Yes and Blade runner is up there too and Aliens as well.

[@MD97531]

Also the first ghost in the shell movie imo

[@Lionheart831]

IMO, John Carpenter's The Thing is the greatest sci-fi horror movie, follow by Predator, The Blob '88, and then Alien "79.

[@bramcurtis6900]

I saw the world premier of this movie. It opened simultaniously in LA, NY and Toronto. Am in Toronto. I saw it at what was the time the best theatre in the city, the University. It had a screen 30% larger than most theatres and it had quadriphonic sound. The speakers were Altec Lansing the Voice of the Theatre"...there were 4 of them. Each one the size of a double refrigerator. . Stood in line for 4 hours. I came home and my dad asked well...was it any good? I said "Dad...just go...and believe." What an experience.

[@CipherSerpico]

0:35 - That might be the Greatest, and most terrifying shot-in the history of the Genre.

[@ThebourbonsAreback-kb5go]

Wrong but OK nerd

[@CipherSerpico]

@@ThebourbonsAreback-kb5go Lick my face.

[@blipblop9094]

this is the first time i'm hearing about this. thank you for uploading it.

[@GizmoBeach]

If Tarantino had directed Alien, it would’ve been 2-1/2 hours long, and casual conversations like the one the crew has which introduced them to the audience would’ve happened twice more and taken up 1/2 the runtime. Anyone not around in 1979 when Scott’s 2nd feature film hit the big screen has NO idea how huge that landmark film was; sci-fi and horror and a thriller, game changer galore.

[@ColinFox]

I think you're doing Tarantino serious disservice. He does great dialog - punchy, memorable, believable. If Tarantino had done Alien the dialog between the actors would have been much more memorable than what we got. I don't know if that would be better than what we got, since what we got was very believable as regular shmoes doing work, as opposed to flashy, iconic and memorable dialog. Either would work. He also doesn't make overlong movies. I have never watched a Tarantino movie and checked my watch.

[@ryandavis2464]

Django was 100% too long

[@010101110100]

Hey, Dallas, you know what they call a Wayland-Yutani Noodle Burger on Titan?

[@MarcoGosatti43]

What makes Alien scarey is the horror you dont see. Thats how to make the audience scared. You had people leaving the Cinema in 1979 whilst watching the film. The trick worked. I seen Alien way to young when i was about 11 in 1993. It done it's job to scare the hell out of me.

[@forbiddencolor]

A shaved Orangutan in low light would actually look fucking terrifying. It was a really great idea tbh.

[@Progbassist]

Yea, I think they could have make it work somehow. I guess the only trouble would have been to make the orangutan to act like a terrifying monster lol.

[@yaboydolphin]

I wish this happened instead of giger

[@rara58524]

The moment you hear Quentin speak, you know you are up for some pulpy spicy story and not a second will be squandered without keeping you on the edge of the seat waiting to hear what happens next. This guy is a supernatural born story teller. I think he could narrate the phone book in such a fun way that you would give up movies and turn to audiobooks just from this experience.

[@NoirFan84]

Ridley Scott's prime years his work was amazing, the last 20 years or so not so much. Feels like Scott lost the passion & his intense strive for perfection & detail that he had in his early years, the quality of his work hasn't been of the same level. A number of filmmakers who were masters in the age of practical filmmaking fell off in this digital age, I feel that played a part in the decline in the quality of their work too.

[@K.Straughan]

After Thelma and Louise things changed.

[@damazywlodarczyk]

It's the times that got worse. The screenplays got worse, the producers got more lazy, making movies is a team effort, and the director just executes.

[@robbo_96]

Nah you look at the like of Spielberg and Scorsese to see their almost effortless transition to the modern age, and how modern directors like Nolan and Villeneuve has used the digital era as a masterful tool, it's literally that Scott has gotten lazy and is just smashing out by-the-numbers production line work to fit a deadline now, ironically becoming more like a Robert Aldrich type

[@NoirFan84]

​@robbo_96 Well, there's an argument Scorsese has fallen off too tbh. His films are still good but I wouldn't say they've been great in a long time. Barring Silence, I think Silence is outstanding. Carpenter, Cronenberg, De Palma, Coppola etc., are certainly not what they were.

[@robbo_96]

@NoirFan84 hm? Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon is an amazing run, like it's night and day with what Scott is producing right now; I don't like all those 4 movies equally but there's no doubting his prowess is as strong as ever and adapted to modern cinema

[@marybedward9381]

Still one of the most terrifying films.

[@williamshaw9047]

The Star Wars movies weren't shot at Pinewood, they were shot at Elstree and Shepperton. Alien was partially shot at Shepperton. And HR Giger's last name is pronounced "Gee-ger."

[@postmodernrecycler]

Ah, so rhymes with "wiener." All is right with the world now.

[@shanerjedi1138]

They also shot TESB AFTER Alien was shot not before. I think Quentin is off on his timeline here a bit too.

[@ADB696]

Agreed@@shanerjedi1138 ALIEN also came out before The Empire Strikes Back.

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

@@postmodernrecycler No, it rhymes with "peeper" - it's pronounced "Gee-Gr"

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

@@shanerjedi1138 Yeah - people think QT knows everything about every movie ever made, but in truth his knowledge is superficial and full of holes at best.

[@andrewcollier3495]

It's great to see so many classics coming out of Pinewood Studios London 👍

[@sepsism138]

"It still holds up!" you don't say.

[@johntechwriter]

The approval of the director who helped replace Hollywood schlock with very profitable indies like Pulp Fiction is more than Ridley Scott could have hoped for. But there it is, praise from Caesar. And every word of deserved. What Tarantino understood from his apprenticeship under Roger Corman was, you can have special effects up the wazooo but they don’t amount to a hill o’ beans if there’s no story behind them. A story populated by characters you find interesting is the starting place for ANY kind of movie worth watching. But in science fiction, where budgets are tight and the audience is not made up of deep thinkers, corners can be cut and not missed provided the popcorn shoots up into the air at the right moment. If it does, most viewers will understand they got what they came for. t This movie forever after lifted SF out of the exploitation category into a rethought remaking of the genre. At heart, Alien is a haunted house story. Placing it into a well-rendered future provided the adrenalin SF supplies like nothing else. And so, Ridley Scott was able to tip his hat to Stanley Kubrick as he sailed on by to confirm his genius was no fluke. Stanley took special effects into the stratosphere, but as somebody what 2001 was about and get ready for hemming and hawing. Or ask that same person to name a character. For me to understand the storyline of 2001,I had to buy the book. I’m glad I did, because Arthur C. Clarke was one hell of a writer as well,as a story teller. And let me tell you on the sly, that movie wasn’t about Hal. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Blade Runner, was faithful writer Richard K. Dick’s theme: Will the atomization of future life, where relationships are more often than not transmitted not in real time by media, where we have no connection with our planet, where what we do for a living carries with it not a sense of engagement but a lingering sadness as we play our role as mere assistants in the process of keeping the population delusional. Ridley Scott has no equal in proving to the movie snobs out there that the form of science fiction is at least the equal of drama in presenting a depiction of the human condition that viewers to become aware of possibilities they had not previously foreseen.

[@judsongaiden9878]

3:44 (orangutan)

[@swemx7403]

One thing I allways thought about ALien is how much better it looks compared to newer Sci fi movies like 5 years ahead. I mean compare the effects and the overall design to Alien to DUNE from 1984. In my opinion that's night and day.

[@redpillnibbler4423]

Different styles of film making I suppose.

[@artofsam]

The only disappointing thing I always felt about the Alien lifecycle is that it ceases to no longer be interesting one the alien is fully matured and it’s especially boring when Cameron made the Aliens into a bug hive. I always felt that in a similar way to the Thing the Alien should be constantly adapting to its environment and we keep seeing new and strange ways in its evolution. To me the most frightening thing about the original Alien is that you can’t understand how the creature works, it’s completely unpredictable that and the fact its defence mechanism makes it extremely hard to kill. It’s such a shame that the sequels really scrapped with the mystery of the Alien because to me that is why it was frightening, you should never have all the answers when it comes to that creature.

[@azohundred1353]

Good point, I do find The Thing more effective when it comes to that. The less-is-more aspect when it comes to explanations really works better for these sci-fi monsters. All these years later, we still don't know a lot about the alien species from John Carpenter's The Thing(not counting other media like comics or video games that feel too far removed from the John Carpenter movie, in my opinion), and that's what makes it even more effective as a horror film today.

[@robbo_96]

You wouldn't have a franchise if you didn't expand on the creature AT ALL. Aliens didn't ruin a thing imo; we still knew nothing of their homeworld or how they arrived on the planet or their evolutionary history. Cameron just allowed us to see more of how they operated as a species and used that as strength in the context of the story and character development and stakes.

[@artofsam]

@@robbo_96 I don’t mean to sound like I am being too harsh on Aliens as I also love that movie and Cameron is an incredible director but it was just one minor criticism of mine that yes he maintained the mystery of where they came from but in terms of expanding on how they operate all he did was design a Queen Alien which by proxy immediately associates the Aliens with more earth like creatures such as insects which to me defeats the purpose of it feeling “Alien” what Giger and Ridley did with the original was that they give the creature an almost supernatural aura about it, everything about that creature and the way it operated was telling the audience “you have no idea what you are dealing with here” and that what makes it frightening. Soon as Cameron turned them into bug like creatures that can be killed with a few shots from a pulse rifle he inadvertently stripped away some of the threat.

[@azohundred1353]

@@artofsam I agree, and it's worth noting that James Cameron was heavily inspired by Them! (1954), with the giant ants in it basically being the precursors to the xenomorphs and the hive aspect with the queen and flamethrowers used as well. There's interesting frame by frame comparison videos of the two movies, actually.

[@Heller103085]

You know whats funny…the aliens toy line had an interesting concept….the aliens would become a version of whatever animal they came from ala gorilla Alien, snake alien, panther alien…i always thought that would have been a cool idea

[@Wotanraven]

According to the docs of Alien, what really got the attention of David Giler was the chestburster idea.

[@felyxmillicent6538]

The first two Aliens are unmatched in the franchise. I loved Resurrection tho for what it was.

[@mikebasil4832]

Even after 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, Alien most profoundly proved how the darker areas of SF films set in the space age could make even stronger headway.

[@Bale4Bond]

Tarantino is excruciating to listen to. Yes, he is passionate, but he is also close to overwhelming.

[@maximusprime3459]

😂So true. Once you get him going, he's the guy at the party who holds court til the host says: "alright its getting kinda late and I got work in the morning!"

[@xaviervega468]

Tarantino's love of film comes through every time.

[@RoverIAC]

not so smart there QT. Aliens was made before Empire Strikes Back. (1:18)

[@Quadzilla99]

*Alien ....but you're right

[@RoverIAC]

@@Quadzilla99 oops... your right.

[@masterofnone4161]

he just mixed up the titles. he probably thinking of A New Hope, Fox greenlit Alien when they saw how well Star wars did.

[@yurinator4411]

1:19 "Filmed from March to September 1979 in Finse, Norway, and at Elstree Studios in England, The Empire Strikes Back faced production difficulties, including actor injuries, illnesses, fires, and problems securing additional financing as costs rose." It was released on May 21, 1980 "Alien was filmed over 14 weeks from July 5 to October 21, 1978. Principal photography took place at Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios near London, while model and miniature filming was done at Bray Studios in Water Oakley, Berkshire" It was released May 25, 1979 So Alien was released before The Empire Strikes Back (by a year) and The Empire strikes back was not filmed at Pinewood studios but Alien was.

[@jlobiafra]

An orangatang without hair would look like Trump.

[@kingorbit]

Two Iconic horror movies from two very different Hollywood eras , The Birds and Alien and Veronica Cartwright had good roles in both of them. what a career

[@Alex-kh8np]

The shaved orangutan idea was later used to create the female cast of sex and the city

[@dennisjansson6239]

Awsome video, saw this & Tarantino on Jaws too some minutes ago. Jaws & Alien are 2 of the MOST ultimate Monster-movies EVER! Hope we need Peter Jackson on Thunderbirds, Peter Jackson on Doctor Who, Peter Jackson on Jurassic Park & Peter Jackson on King Kong too, we need those videos too. 💙

[@1TakoyakiStore]

I love this stuff. Reminds me of that old science fiction film documentary called Watch The Skies. Just a bunch of famous directors talking about their favorite movies.

[@aldunlop4622]

Bring back directors with VISION, TALENT, and BALLS! That's all I have to say...

[@LukeHolland-f9v]

I was born in 79, i come from liberal parents, my mother worked in sainsburys, and my old man was a professional model painter, i was very lucky to watch THE THING Alien and Aliens then wake up and play skale-etrics with my father, our track went through the hallway and into the front room and quickly back to the kitchen, my childhood was about as great as it could possibly be, my dad left not to long after and i will never know why, i hope he is ok, i am 45 on the 29th. I might go watch PREDATOR. Edit: i was named luke for a reason, and on my life met david prowse in full costume in a toyshop named WINKWORTHS, i must of been about 4, so you bet i was scared, he put me on his shoulder and my dad was chuffed, i honestly remember it like yesterday.

[@redpillnibbler4423]

Scalextric - now that takes me back!

[@derrellstaten948]

I am glad he mentioned that that others writers actually rewrote the script!!

[@theobster]

I didn’t know about the Orangutan, I’d just taken a mouthful of tea when Quentin mentioned shaving it………….. I’ve just finished wiping tea of my ipad👍🏼

[@peadaroboyle6771]

Me 2.. unreal the information you pick up

[@redpillnibbler4423]

I’d watch that film!

[@Theteesideninja666]

Dusk till dawn in the cinema without any idea of what's to come was a cinema experience ill never forget it, plus the old lady on the bed scene was again something ill never forget

[@fjb425]

Alien is one of a handful of movies that I wish I could watch for the first time all over again.

[@MOSMASTERING]

In my head, I always think its an 80s movie.. but no. The fact that it came out in 1979 just adds even more points to the overall score breaking excellentness of the movie Alien.. Everything about it...its JUST SO DAMN GOOD!!! Story, EFFECTS, suspense, acting, kick ass hero chick, dystopian future, weapons, Ai/Robots, Space & Spaceships, quotable as hell ... And, Bill Paxton.

[@santafucker1945]

My brother in christ, Bill Paxton was in Alien 2(1986), not in Alien (1979)

[@rolandmeyer3729]

Friend, Bill Paxton was in Aliens 1986, but not Alien 1979. Also, don't forget the visceral (pun intended) impact of the music composed by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, giants in their own right. 🖤

[@BobMills-wz5gg]

We don't need anyone let alone Quentin what's his name how good these films are 😢

[@edhoughton2609]

Intriguing - an interview with a respected director about a classic movie that makes no point whatsoever and fails to mention Dark Star.... I didn't think that was possible.

[@redpillnibbler4423]

🏀

[@loneventhorizon]

I imagine Tarantino would hate it. But I love the idea of the idea of a movie flowing through different minds, like it's travelling through alternate minds looking for it's final form.

[@ummagumma00]

Now we just need the Death by Orangutan movie👍

[@talcy]

Love QT but his dates and locations are all over the place. Filmed at Shepperton, not Pinewood, in 1978, and a year before Empire. O'Bannon wanted Giger's design from the outset. But he;s bang on about the quality of the original screenplay (it's pretty poor), and Hill and Giler's reaction to *that* scene being the spark to it all.

[@pixiniarts]

I'm guessing the 'shaved orangutang' idea might have comes from E.A Poe's story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'. If you read the script for Alien, I can see it popping in to someone's head, Alien dragging Brett into the ceiling vs the Orangutang in Rue Morgue shoving a victim up a chimney...

[@TristanLowePT]

Alien is in my all time top 5 movies, alongside TESB, Scarface, Godfather 2, Bladerunner

[@roymacD]

Alien was actually filmed at Shepperton with FX shot at Bray (the old Hammer studio), it was Aliens that was shot at Pinewood

[@racenturtlez]

love this, feels good to finally have another new alien in romulus that makes the original even better

[@Caspeaon]

I really want his last movie to be a sci-fi film. It would be so cool to see his spin on the genre

[@Judgedredd95]

In the end, the actor on Alien suit is the same actor on Predator suit.