I first watched Alien: Resurrection before I saw Alien: Romulus. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s messy, maligned film is now my second favorite in the sci-fi series.
In the run-up to Alien: Romulus, many sci-fi horror fans have been planning to rewatch every installment in the long-running franchise, from the legendary 1979 original to 2017’s Alien: Covenant. I’m built differently, though, so I decided to just watch the one film in the series that I hadn’t seen yet, Alien: Resurrection, and well, it was quite the experience.
I am not here to tell you that Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s offer perfect definitely, or to blindly defend the efforts of controversial writer Joss Whedon; it’s a bit like Frankenstein’s mishmash of different themes and ideas. But after literally decades of people telling me how awful it is, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the flick. “No one could ever accuse it of being boring,” I thought to myself, grinning from ear to ear as I watched Sigourney Weaver dunk a basketball into a net behind her and bat her eyelashes at a Xenomorph, or a slimy alien with tits and a elf nose being sucked piece by piece out of a hole in the window of a spaceship.
As a diehard Chucky fan, I loved watching Brad Dourif’s sinister scientist Dr. Gediman breed Xenomorphs and stare glassy-eyed at them during their training sessions. In short, Alien: Resurrection is wacky fun – but it’s also super also twisted, which I appreciated since all but the original are so action-focused. Although the franchise has always been described as sci-fi horror, I was left with my jaw dropped when Ripley 8, a clone of the now-deceased Nostromo officer, stumbled upon Gediman’s failed experiments and was begged by a particularly grotesque being to end his suffering. The idea of humans trying to pet Xenomorphs at the expense of their own kind is also terrifying in itself – a theme that Ridley Scott took up in Alien: Covenant through Michael Fassbender’s character David.
Double the fun
That Ripley in Resurrection is an alien-human hybrid who is more confused and colder than the character we know from the previous films is actually pretty ingenious, considering how hesitant Weaver was about making a fourth film. “They said they were going to write this script and I was frankly stunned. One of the reasons I died was to rid the series of Ripley because I didn’t want her to keep waking up and thinking, ‘Oh God, there’s a monster…'” Weaver, who later co-produced the film, once said. “I heard there was going to be a fight between Alien and Predator or something horrible, I wanted out.” Ripley 8 gave Weaver a chance to offer something new (and wear iconic dark green fake nails) for starters, but since Ripley famously died at the end of David Fincher’s Alien 3 when she sacrificed herself to stop the alien queen, the hybrid stuff also feels like a bold, veiled commentary on Weaver’s relationship with the series and how she’s become so symbiotic with it. Could the scientists even be a stand-in for 20th Century Fox executives? That’s not too far-fetched a theory.
And then there’s how deliciously queer-coded it is. Among the mercenaries riding along on the Auriga is Call, played by Winona Ryder, a next-generation android who disguises herself as a human to take out Ripley, who she’s learned is being used to weaponize Xenomorphs. Call’s first encounter with Ripley is full of sexual tension; all cheek stroking, sly smirks, and throat grabs as Call decides not to kill her victim. And the undertones never really let up, as the two continue to express genuine concern and save each other multiple times. (Let’s face it, Jeunet wasn’t exactly subtle when he inexplicably lets Ripley stick her fingers into Call’s oozing wound in the third act).
It’s pretty brave of the French filmmaker to sexualize the film so heavily, albeit not explicitly, considering the franchise has always dealt with the issue of consent and how many see it as an allegory for assault. “Who do I have to sleep with to get out of here?” Ripley quips to the Betty crew as things go awry. Later, she seems to show some attraction to the Xenomorphs. But to me, it’s a pretty interesting way of subverting expectations and Ripley’s characterization. She’s in control this time and it’s clear Weaver enjoyed playing with that.
Underwater rated
Now I realize that all of the above Me – a horror-obsessed, Cronenberg-loving lesbian – specifically, but Alien: Resurrection also features moments that are just undeniably cool, like the underwater chase. With no other way through the ship, Ripley, Call, and co. must swim through a flooded kitchen. Since all the characters are underwater, there’s no room for dialogue, which is a nice twist on Alien’s tagline “in space, no one can hear you scream” and makes it even more suspenseful. The Xenomorphs move like sharks, deftly swaying from side to side as they relentlessly pursue the increasingly disoriented group. Trying to evade an alien is scary enough; having to do so while holding your breath is a nightmare.
Although Alien: Resurrection often comes in last place in people’s alien movie rankings, it’s worth noting that it currently has a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is higher than Alien 3 (44%), Alien vs. Predator (22%), and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (12%). In short, I’m far from the only one who got something out of it. Still, I’d say it’s better than Alien: Covenant and rivals Prometheus as well.
Based on the trailer, Fede Alvarez’s upcoming Alien: Romulus seems to take inspiration from Resurrection and will feature a similarly new scene, this time in zero gravity. “Often thrilling and tangible, sometimes mean and majestic, Romulus loads its less spectacular pleasures with too much franchise material, which becomes frustrating,” writes Kevin Harley in our review of Alien: Romulus, giving it three out of five stars. I can’t wait to see how it lives up to my new second favorite Alien film.
Alien: Resurrection is available now on Disney Plus. Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16. For more, check out our guide to watching the Alien movies in order or our roundup of the most exciting new movies coming our way.
