Last Updated on October 12, 2021
With this year being the 40th anniversary of Ridley Scott's ALIEN and this Friday, 4/26, being the official "Alien Day", this week's Face-Off had to have something to do with the ALIEN franchise. We've had some ALIEN Face-Offs before, but this time Scott's classic is facing some stiff competition. The time its opponent is another classic sci-fi horror film about a group of people dealing with an alien intruder in an isolated setting. John Carpenter's 1982 film THE THING. Both of these are fan favorites, both are a lot of people's #1 favorite movie. So when they do battle, which will come out the victor?
ALIEN was sold on the hopeless situation it dropped its characters into, the tagline proclaiming that "in space, no one can hear you scream". Deep space is the setting, with the action taking place on the commercial towing vehicle Nostromo during a long trip back to Earth. There are no other ships around, there's nowhere else to go, no one's going to be flying in for a rescue when things fall apart on the Nostromo. And if things on the ship fall apart too much, there's a danger of being sucked out into space. You can't get much more isolated and trapped than this. Eventually a character hopes just to have the luck of being noticed after drifting through space alone for six weeks. That's not a great hope to have.
THE THING is set at U.S. National Science Institute Station 4 (a.k.a. U.S. Outpost #31) in Antarctica. The large, snow-coated continent is occupied by a few thousand researchers at any given time and there is a Norwegian outpost the U.S. team can fly over to in their helicopter. But everyone from the Norwegian camp is dead, the place is destroyed, and it has been weeks since the U.S. radio operator has been able to make contact with anyone in the outside world. The men who work at the outpost are very much alone, with harsh weather conditions keeping them stuck right where they are. I wouldn't want to hang out in this place on a good day, but when you add in the alien threat it truly becomes a nightmarish setting.
This film is noted for the fact that it's a futuristic sci-fi movie with relatable characters who come off as being blue collar types. The seven characters may be a space ship crew, but most of them are basically truck drivers and the Nostromo is a vehicle designed to haul mineral ore back to Earth. These people enjoy their coffee, get frustrated with the terms of their employment, and want to make sure they'll be getting paid what they're owed. Crew member Ellen Ripley emerges as the heroine because she's the one who makes the most sensible decisions – although she is undermined by a co-worker who is secretly working to make sure the alien life form can be delivered to the company they're employed by, even if keeping the alien alive means sacrificing everyone on board the Nostromo.
Helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, who'll destroy a computer if he loses a game of chess and keeps getting Norwegians and Swedes mixed up, is an unlikely hero, but he becomes one here because he's the only person at the outpost who can keep their wits about them as the alien moves among them. Others are overwhelmed, have complete mental breakdowns, are too paranoid or high-strung to think clearly, or get picked off by the alien before they can be any good to anyone else. There are twelve people at the outpost, so some have much more to do than others, but each character has their own unique and memorable traits that make them standout in their own way. If you're going to be in Antarctica, this isn't a bad bunch to spend time with… But most of them aren't great at dealing with an alien infiltrator.
From a slimy, hatching egg to a full-grown adult brought to life by a man in a costume, we see every stage of the xenomorph alien's life cycle in this film. The egg expels a "facehugger" creature that latches on to a person's face and inserts a tube down their throat to implant an embryo in their chest. After a quick gestation period, that embryo comes bursting through the host's chest and runs off to quickly grow to a size larger than the average human. Designed by H.R. Giger, the xenomorph is a fascinating, disgusting, disturbing, and deadly monster. The prey that just gets killed by it is lucky. Unlucky ones end up cocooned with an egg hatching in their face.
The concept of THE THING is terrifying. This creature assimilates and replicates every life form it comes across, enabling it to blend in among a group so it can pick off and replicate others. If this thing were to make it to civilization, the entire world would be infected within 27,000 hours. It can look just like a person, then when threatened it can mutate to protect itself, using parts of other things it has absorbed over time. A giant mouth can open up in a person's torso, a head can sprout legs and tear itself free of a body, etc. It's very gross and troubling, and the alien's abilities are shown through the use of incredible special effects.
Xenomorphs aren't the most indestructible creatures, bullets blow them apart just fine. The problem with having one on your space ship is the powerful acid they have for blood; one splash of that in the wrong direction and the ship is toast. So the crew of the Nostromo has to be careful not to damage this creature that's picking them off. The initial idea is to use cattle prods and flamethrowers to drive it to an airlock so they can blast it out into space. When that proves too complicated, the decision is made to escape in a shuttle and blow up the entire ship. That plan doesn't go smoothly, either.
Flamethrowers prove to be the #1 weapon to use when facing the alien life form in this film, because every bit of the thing is a living being. The bodies of the creatures have to be incinerated, otherwise part of them might crawl away and live on. The biggest challenge is figuring out who in the group is already a thing, and this leads to the awesome scene in which characters are tied up and forced to take part in a "blood test". The thing can't be allowed to reach civilization no matter what, and eventually this means the entire outpost will have to go up in flames… Even though the survivors will likely freeze to death.
There are only six deaths in ALIEN and most of them are off screen, but several still have memorable aspects – the image of the xenomorph attacking one character from above, or lunging out of the darkness of a cramped air shaft at another. There's the sight of an android flailing and spewing a milk-like substance when it's damaged. Of course, the death that stands out most is the blood-splattered scene in which we see the "birth" of the chestburster.
THE THING's body count reaches double digits, and there are horrific sights along the way. Not only do a lot of people die in this, but several of them die in nasty ways. Multiple screeching alien beings are set on fire, a man's arms are bitten off by a mouth that opens in another man's torso, a head splits in half and turns into a mouth that latches on to another person's head. If the thing doesn't get a character, a bullet fired by a paranoid pal might.
ALIEN and THE THING are equally matched in several ways, but even though we're celebrating ALIEN this year I just couldn't give it the win in this Face-Off. While it's a great film and features one of the coolest monsters in movie history, I find Carpenter's film to be slightly better and more entertaining overall. I like the characters more in THE THING, and the creature and gore effects created by Rob Bottin are awe-inspiring.
Do you agree with the outcome of this Face-Off, or do you think a win should have been part of ALIEN's 40th anniversary celebration? Share your thoughts on these films in the comments section below. If you have suggestions for future Face-Off articles, you can send them to [email protected].
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