Fried Eggs?

[Dave]

I just watched Alien and Aliens again with my son on DVD, and I noticed something in Alien that I'd completely missed before. In the scene where Ash tries to kill Ripley by choking her with a girlie magazine, we see his personal locker room or wash-room. The wall is covered in pin-ups of naked women, but there is also inexplicably a picture of four fried eggs!

A little searching online and I found, as you might expect, that this is very old news. There is also a cherry pie placed over one model’s crotch, and it is all apparently part of the film's symbolism about reproductive and sexual politics.

The point I had intended to make was that surely anyone seeing that might have thought Ash was a little odd a lot sooner, or was it just a very good cover for him as a synthetic pretending to be human?

But, there is another point here, which is that you really need to see these films at the cinema the way they were intended. There are many things in these films that are never seen if you only ever watch the chopped up TV and DVD versions.

 

[Who?]

Also, if you look closely at the Alien as it's bursting out of John Hurt, you'll see that someone's drawn a c0ck on it. That's true that is.

 

[Dave]

According to Empire magazine the first design of the top of the eggs was blocked by the studio because they said it looked too much like a vagina. So, instead they altered the design of the entrance to the alien ship. Again, you have to look hard if you are watching on an 18 inch TV, but now that everyone has HDTV widescreen 50 inch TVs and can freeze frame!!!

 

[Toby Frost]

Perhaps Brett told Ash that it was customary to pin up pictures of hot naked chicks, and Ash's computerised brain interpreted this literally... and put up a fried egg.

I find the idea of what a non-human mind would find worth putting on the wall strangely interesting. It reminds me of the little run on the spot that Ash does when alone - presumably he's making sure that his joints aren't locking or something like that. Similarly, his expressionless face when various terrible things are happening is a great touch. And then there's that weird little giggle he emits when about to attack Ripley. Ian Holm is terrific and would have made a superb Hannibal Lecter.

Incidentally, during the boardroom scene in Aliens, pictures of the Nostromo crew appear on a computer screen, accompanied by (green!) text. I think I saw the text somewhere, and it did give background info on the crew. Does anyone know of a link to it?

 

[Judderman]

Apparently the crew and that text is included in more detail in a documentary on the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set.

 

[Dan Jones]

I always thought the little scene where he's running on the spot was very strange; it certainly does seem very incongruent, and I never really figured the scene out, although I vaguely recall the DVD commentary noting that it was included to show that Ash was a bit odd. Well, quite, but I thought it might carry slightly more significance (lord knows the rest of the film does).

Incidentally, during the boardroom scene in Aliens, pictures of the Nostromo crew appear on a computer screen, accompanied by (green!) text. I think I saw the text somewhere, and it did give background info on the crew. Does anyone know of a link to it?[/QUOTE]

@Judderman is right - it's in the Quadrilogy boxed set somewhere in the special features - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000VCZK2/?tag=brite-21 - if you do a search on the linked page you'll see a fan has written a VERY comprehensive review and references it.

 

[Toby Frost]

I did see a post on the internet somewhere of the green text a while ago - sorry, I can't remember where. It was quite disappointing, actually. It was the past histories of the crew (I don't know who had written it) and was wild and pretty ridiculous. If I remember, it consisted of some very tall tales including drug addiction, multiple sex changes and serial criminality, and was fairly silly. Assuming that the text I saw was correct...