Paradise Salvage : Ridley Scotts Alien Trilogy

Ridley Scotts return to  Alien

When Prometheus was released In 2012, director Ridley Scott returned to the universe he created back in 1979 with his original cinematic masterpiece “Alien”.May 2017 presents audiences with his third entry into the series  Alien: Covenant starring  Katherine Waterson, Danny McBride, and Micheal Fassbender. Sir Ridley, who is 79 years old is bringing a lifetime of experience to this his 27th film to date. So what is it about Alien that keeps drawing him back to series for 38 years.

Alien : 1979

"The thing about the sequels is nobody asked the question about that guy sitting in the chair, The one who was flying the spaceship carrying all those eggs. Who was he?  Where was he going? Was it some sort of battleship? where the eggs some sort of biological weapon and if it was then for what purpose?" - Sir Ridley Scott

The original Alien begins with a mystery. The Crew of the Nostromo is awakened by the ship's computer (Mother), After receiving a distress signal from an uncharted world.The crew's captain leads an expedition to the planet surface where they discover that the signal is coming from a derelict Alien spacecraft.

Inside they discover the fossilized remains of a biomechanical giant merged into his pilot seat. Further inspection reveals that something has burst out from his chest.The crew inspect the vessels lower hull and discover a cargo hold containing thousands of large eggs.

For those of you reading this and who have never seen Alien,  I won't spoil any more of the story. The reason I mention this in detail is because it happens to be the premise for Scotts Reboot of the series after three sequels which focused on the story of the protagonist of the original film Ellen Ripley , portrayed by Sigourney Weaver.

In 2012 Ridley Scott returned to franchise with Prometheus which aimed to take the franchise in another direction from the previous installments by focusing on the giant Biomech beings from the original movie. Prometheus follows a scientific expedition to another uncharted world after discovering ancient pictograms across earth showing a star map leading to star system light years away from our own. The film's protagonist Ellie Shaw, portrayed by Noomi Rapace, believes that Ancient Aliens have been in contact with humans for hundreds of millennia until recently. She also believes that they intended that we use the star chart to follow them to their world. She intends to go there and meet her makers whom she calls "Engineers".

To the crews surprise they find an abandoned alien structure with hundreds of dead "engineers" that died after an outbreak of some kind contaminated the facility. Instead of eggs this time the crew  finds thousands of Vials that contain A black liquid that mutates any living thing that comes into contact with it. The expeditions A.I Android "David" portrayed by Micheal Fassbender finds an alien archive that informs him that the engineers were planning to attack earth with the black liquid 2000 years ago before the outbreak happened.

A modern Prometheus

Alien was greenlighted by Fox studios after the success of Star wars in 1977.Ridley was also inspired by star wars , its grandiose world building ,its aesthetics of a lived-in universe and its own rich mythology.With Alien he merged an original screenplay from Dan Obannon and Ronald shusset and monsters from H.G Gigers  Necronomicon and révisioned them into dark new mythology set in the not so distant future.

 One of many themes that tie both Prometheus and Alien together is mankind's dangerous pursuit of scientific knowledge.In Alien, the company who own the Nostromo want the alien technology discovered for themselves and are willing to push sacrifice the crew in order to do so.The Nostromo's science officer Ash describes the newly created lifeform unleashed on the ship as the perfect organism.In Prometheus, the financier of the expedition Peter Weyland wants to meet the "Engineers" because he believes that their advanced technology can save him from death.

Both films owe a great debt to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Published in 1818 it recounts how Doctor Victor Frankenstein uses science in his quest for immortality and creates a creature from dead body parts using chemistry and electricity. He rejects and abandons the monster only for it to pursue him across the world in a murderous quest for revenge.

Mary Shelly herself was inspired by Classic greek creation myths, which recounts the battle between the pantheon of greek gods and giants called Titans. It also recounts The creation of man by the titan Prometheus and of him giving them fire and knowledge.The story is similar to the Christian myth of Adam and Eve who are tempted to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge and are punished by god for doing so. Mary Shelly was also inspired by the epic poem Paradise lost by John Milton and she references it many times in her story.It is this largely forgotten poem that is the blueprint for Ridley Scott's mythology of Alien.

Milton's story has two narrative arcs, one about Satan and the other following Adam and Eve. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and banished to Hell. Satan employs his rhetorical skill to organize his followers and At the end of the debate, Satan volunteers to poison the newly created earth and God's new and most favored creation, Mankind.

The point to note is that Paradise lost was inspired by the greek creation myths and that Frankenstein, "the mother of science fiction" was inspired by the greek myths and paradise lost. Ridley Scott seems to be inspired by all three and explores the same themes with his Alien mythology. With Paradise lost John Milton adapted Zeus war with the titans into Gods war against Satan.Ridley  Scott is reimaging Paradise lost as sci-fi epic set in the future.I could be wrong but when you consider that Prometheus was originally titled Paradise and Alien: covenant was titled Alien: Paradise lost. Why I find this all so interesting is that the themes that Alien explore are as epic as any found in Star wars or The Lord of the rings, but what is the mythology of Alien?

Eternal war

In this universe ancient aliens scientifically created us and our world billions of years ago. The giant introduced in Alien known before as the space jockey is actually a  being anatomically similar to humans. These giants have already colonized our galaxy and have the technology to terraform worlds and create life. The series is set in future space age where humans have begun to explore space and have begun to terraform the solar system. Humans have also created artificial intelligence and androids that that indistinguishable from real people. Scott vision of Alien is set in a time when creations have evolved to become creators themselves but can't control their own creations.

In Prometheus it is suggested that the engineers have created humans but in Alien they have also created something else, the iconic face hugger.

The very stuff  of nightmares, the face hugger is a terrorfyingly believable creature. A large parasite which erupts from an egg and attaches itself to the first host it can catch.It was the scene with the face hugger that got the original Alien script (titled Starbeast) greenlit.I will leave out the exact details but it then lays an embryo inside the host's body which grows into The xenomorph!!!!!

In the history of cinema that hasn't been another alien as iconic as the xenomorph. Larger, faster and agiler than any human.Intelligent, with a deadly spear-shaped tail and a tough exoskeleton for armor, the Xenomorph seems designed for one specific purpose. Battle!

In  Scott's Alien universe we only see brief glimpses of the xenomorph but in the scenes, we do see it, we learn that it grows into a mature adult in very short space of time.
 This beast can adapt quickly to its environment and blend in with its surroundings.It is also extremely aggressive and makes short work of the crew trying to destroy it.

So in short what we learn from the first film is that the space jockey race was flying a battlecruiser carrying thousands of eggs to an unknown destination.

In Prometheus we learn that a similar battlecruiser was heading to earth with thousands of vials that contain a black goo substance that mutates those that come into contact with it into creatures similar to the ones we saw in alien.

From both films, we learn that the vials and eggs are weapons. It is also suggested in both films that the Engineers were destroyed by their creations.

It is also suggested in both films that humans enjoy a similar fractious relationship with their own creations the Androids. One of the most interesting parts of this side of the story is the similarity between the androids and xenomorph themselves.

 The android is both physically and mentally superior to their creators in almost every way but its level of self-awareness left more ambiguous. We never really know if the androids in these films are following orders of their own personal objectives.But just like Frankenstein and paradise lost, the androids and xenomorphs both turn against  their creators.

It is also interesting to point out that in both films the aliens are outwitted by the two female leads. Women as a species could be regarded as the definitive perfect organism. She has the ability to create life herself and adapt to her environment using her intelligence and defend herself in hostile situations.

So we know something happened on both planets to the engineers. What exactly remains up to know unclear but by looking at Frankenstein and Paradise lost and the greek creation myths I think we can get a clear understanding of what kind of story Ridley Scott is telling us.

1. Five billion years ago The engineers  Created the earth and seeded life on the planet.
2. There was at one time in the past a Galactic war between ancient alien civilizations.
3. The xenomorph was developed as a weapon used to fight in this war.
4.  At some point, one of the sides was defeated and took refuge in the deep uncharted space of our galaxy, where they made plans and preparations to launch a fresh offensive.
5. Shortly After this war, one faction of engineers created early humans.
6.  For strategic reasons, the other faction visited earth and corrupted the human beings by mutating them to be more intelligent sowing the seeds of conflict between the creators and their creations.
7. Around two thousand years ago The rebel faction developed the black goo to mutate the humans into xenomorphs and thus destroy their rivals creation completely.
8. It's not clear which side developed the black goo as a weapon first. We see in the opening scene an engineer sacrifice himself by drinking the black goo which kicks starts life on the planet. There are other visual clues in Prometheus that suggest that the black goo is intended to create a xenomorph-like creature either directly by being exposed to the goo or through the various types of face hugger presented in both movies that evolve from it.
9. Mankind has evolved to explore space and create different types of life, particularly artificial intelligence.
10. In many cases, in films, the creations have the potential to supplant and destroy their creators.
11. The films depicts the various forms of life in our galaxy engaged in violent cosmic cycle of creation and destruction

As well showing my affection for the series I have tried to illustrate what the series is about and justify my reasons for thinking why I believe the story is a modern Prometheus and a retelling of the old creation myths.