Interesting Topics

               

Darryl Owens

9 March 2011

 

  Futuristic Concepts

What makes for a good science fiction film anyway?  A great cast, creative dialogue, and amazing special effects would obviously make just about any type of movie a good one, however it doesn’t quite make for a good “science fiction” film.  Ultimately, science fiction could be defined as the literary fantasy involving the imaginary impact of science on society.  With this in mind, artificial humanoids, extraterrestrials, and atmospheric processors with the ability to make a planet habitable, are perfect examples of what science fiction is all about.  In other words, futuristic concepts define science fiction, which make Aliens the epitome of the genre.

Before I explain the above, here is a quick summary of Aliens in order to make what follows transparently comprehensive.  Directly after the colony on planet LV-426 was ordered to investigate the construction site’s surrounding areas, all communication was suddenly lost from the engineering colony.   Because of this, the “Company” sent out a team of elite marines, led by Sigourney Weaver, also known as Ripley, to the partially terraformed and now disconnected planet.  Once on LV-426, the marines were unexpectedly ambushed. Realizing they stood no chance against the terrifying creatures nesting under the atmospheric processor, they instead sought to nuke the planet from orbit.  The only problem was that their drop-ship was destroyed which forced them to find a different way off the planet.  To add to the calamity, the previous, necessary gunfire from the marines that took place beneath the atmospheric processor disrupted the cells.  This fact indicated an approximate four hours to reach minimum safe distance before the nuclear blast went off, demolishing everything within a thirty-kilometer radius.   This is when Bishop comes into play.

Bishop happens to be my favorite example, as he represents exactly what a science fiction movie truly is.  Bishop was an android; this enabled him to display a variety of incredible features that humans would naturally have found themselves incapable of doing.  For example, he slowly slithered and scraped through a two-mile long tunnel.  A tunnel that any normal man, when attempting to do so, would have ran out of energy, if not oxygen, then panicked from claustrophobia.   At length, he was successful in reaching the complex containing the only control panel on LV-426 capable of transmitting signal.  Everyone in the unit lacked the necessary equipment to connect to this particular control panel.  That is to say, Bishop was the only person capable of accessing the panel mainframe.  Additionally, he was also the only one qualified to manually maneuver a military drop-ship anyway due to the fact that he was already programmed for such procedures.

                        “I may be synthetic, but I’m not stupid.” (Aliens 1986) 

            Those were Bishops last words that he said to Ripley.  Shortly after that, he embarked on his tedious journey through the pipeline and the mouth, from which he had previously entered, was arc welded shut by paranoid marines as precaution.  Clearly and without a doubt, Bishop’s abilities obviously weren’t the only thing futuristically advanced about this biological functioning, flesh bearing robot. 

Secondly, near the climactic end of the film, Bishop fell victim to injury by getting brutally impaled from the razor sharp tail of the ten-foot tall alien queen.  His milky white blood gushed everywhere, as the alien used her hands to split him in two.  Later and after a normal man would have already bled out, Bishop continued to remain conscious and aware.  Additionally and regardless of his “split personalities”, he managed to save a refugee from the planet; he used one hand’s fingers to grip around the grated metal floor and the other to clasp hands, so she wouldn’t get sucked out of the airlock.  In short, the concept of Bishop was surely all the film actually needed for its classification as a science fiction film making Bishop a future concept in a nutshell.  Keeping that in mind, he also was an essential part to the production of a great film all around. 

The next contribution to science fiction is initially what pops into mind when the movie Aliens is spoken of.  This mean, scary, as well as brilliant, extraterrestrial race loudly speaks for its place in blockbuster films in 1986.  These aliens demonstrate unusual tactics and odd forms of communication in the form of telepathy.  Additionally they hand down memories from their ancestors in the same way a grandmother would hand down a family ring.  As a result this made them somewhat of historians as well as quick learners.  On top of everything else they have acid for blood, which can eat through thick metal, plus the way they procreate by planting a seed in the esophagus of a host to only later burst out of the chest is revoltingly out of this world.  In conclusion, from exoskeleton skin to acid for blood, these nasty creatures portray the mean side of a fantastic genre. 

All in all, the reason I chose this film was because of the trend it started.  Aliens quite literally became the template for many films after its debut and even videogames. For example, Halo (Xbox), which brought face huggers, similar looking drop-ships, and other questionable copyrighted material to its platform, has failed to circumvent the marvelous ideas demonstrated in the film.  This only proves the ideas in the film to be worth recreating.  Bottom line, you can’t have a science fiction film without any futuristic concepts in the content while creativity is what brings variety and originality to the movie itself.