The Alien franchise, but particularly the first two films, Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens, are about a lot of things: sex; gender; the danger of bringing a cat to space. But to Noah Hawley, it’s largely about capitalism.
The Fargo creator is working on an Alien show for FX that won’t feature Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, but will tell “a story about inequality,” as he explained to Vanity Fair. “You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically Waiting for Godot. They’re like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.” Hawley continued:
In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, “I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.”
The Alien films, like 95 percent of science fiction, is heavily political, but this is apparently news to Dave Rubin. After Hawley’s interview was published, the host of The Rubin Report, “the largest talk show about free speech and big ideas on YouTube,” tweeted, “I’ve been saying for years that Wokeism is a parasite that fully infects the host and then eventually bursts forth like in the movie Alien. The circle is now complete…”
In space, no one can hear you scream. But on Twitter, everyone can make fun of your bad take.
https://twitter.com/iboudreau/status/1410945390011195392
An Alien movie discussing wealth inequality? What will they think of next https://t.co/6cIRXVeEUl
— mr fella (@prolezone) July 2, 2021
I can’t believe the franchise that started with blue collar workers complaining about pay while employed by an evil corporation that intentionally betrays them got woke https://t.co/B1bWWginLX
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) July 2, 2021
Alien Movie Franchiser Understander has Logged On https://t.co/mvrJUTUlH3
— bekka supp (@valhallabckgirl) July 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/vampirebuggie/status/1410957801208254471
Imagine not realizing that Alien is about a corporation that exploits its crew for profit 🥴🥴🥴🥴 https://t.co/P5fpt522J5
— Tyler Benson (@tylosaurus_rex) July 2, 2021
Oh no, they made his corportation-sends-space-truckers-to-be-infected-by-a-bio-weapon movie about how corporations exploit people! Clutch your pearls, Dave! https://t.co/5T5GEe3NMo
— Da7e Gonzales (@Da7e) July 2, 2021
a genuinely incredible take, breathless and impressive even by Dave Rubin standards https://t.co/JYGlRDvmW0
— Patrick Klepek 🎃 (@patrickklepek) July 2, 2021
That scene was a conscious effort to transpose onto men a woman's experience of being sexually assaulted and forced to give birth. Said screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, "I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men."
How's that for "wokeism?" https://t.co/uCriIExa0j
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) July 2, 2021
This dude is really complaining about the new Alien flick being “woke” like the original series didn’t have The Company actively throwing away their employees lives for the sake of their own gain. https://t.co/Lwn2920NQD
— Paul Bearer (@GavSuperbowl) July 2, 2021
They're ruining science fiction with wokeism by giving it allegorical stories and themes. Science fiction is supposed to be about good guys fighting bad aliens and that's it pic.twitter.com/KlNkeLxDan
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) July 2, 2021
alien was a perfectly fine story about a group of underpaid workers getting screwed over by a corporation & then they ruined it with all those alien scenes
— Shaun (shaunvids on bsky) (@shaun_vids) July 2, 2021
Have they watched any of them?
I am always befuddled by how right-wingers can just miss the point of the stories they love ENTIRELY. Starship Troopers is played straight in their heads, Star Trek had no politics, Aliens is just "monster go blam". https://t.co/UkH2Io794m— Against the Palestinian Genocide (@chrisiousity) July 2, 2021
At least RoboCop is about a cop who is also a robot, and NOTHING MORE.