Ahead of Alien: Romulus, many sci-fi horror fans have taken it upon themselves to revisit every entry in the long-running franchise, from the iconic 1979 original to 2017's Alien: Covenant. I'm built different, though, so I decided just to watch the only film of the bunch I'd not seen before, Alien: Resurrection, in the run-up, and well, it was quite the experience.
Now, I'm not here to tell you that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's offering is perfect by any means, or to blindly defend the efforts of controversial writer Joss Whedon; it's a bit of Frankenstein mish-mash of several themes and ideas. But after literal decades of people telling me how awful it is, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the flick. "No one could ever accuse this of being boring," I thought to myself, as I grinned from ear-to-ear watching Sigourney Weaver sink a basketball into a net behind her and flutter her eyelashes at a xenomorph, or a slimy extraterrestrial with boobs and a pixie nose get sucked chunk-by-chunk out of a hole in the window of a spaceship.
As a diehard Chucky fan, I loved seeing Brad Dourif's sinister scientist Dr. Gediman breed xenomorphs, and gaze at them all gooey-eyed during their training sessions. In short, Alien: Resurrection is oddball fun – but it's also super twisted too, which was something I really appreciated when all but the original lean so heavily into action. Despite the franchise always being described as sci-fi horror, my mouth fell open when Ripley 8, a clone of the now-deceased Nostromo officer, stumbled across Gediman's failed experiments and was begged by a particularly grotesque one to end its suffering. The idea of humans trying to make xenomorphs their pets at the expense of their own kind is chilling in itself, too – and something Ridley Scott returned to in Alien: Covenant through Michael Fassbender's character David.
Double the fun
Resurrection's Ripley being an alien-human hybrid, who's confused and colder than the character we knew from the previous films, is pretty inspired, really, when you consider how reluctant Weaver was to do a fourth movie. "They said they were writing this script and I was stunned, frankly. One of the reasons I died was to liberate the series from Ripley, because I didn't want her to keep waking up, you know, 'Oh god, there's a monster…'" Weaver, who went on to co-produce the movie, once said. "I heard there was gonna be an Alien versus Predator, or something awful, I wanted out." Ripley 8 gave Weaver the opportunity to offer up something new (and wear iconic, dark green false nails), for starters, but with Ripley having famously dying at the end of David Fincher's Alien 3, sacrificing herself to stop the alien queen, the hybrid stuff also feels like a daring, veiled comment on Weaver's relationship with the series, and how she'd become so symbiotic with it. Might the scientists even be a stand-in for 20th Century Fox executives? It's not too far-fetched of a theory.
Then there's how deliciously queer-coded it is. Among the mercenaries that hitch a ride on the Auriga, is Winona Ryder's Call, a next-gen android who's masquerading as a human in order to take out Ripley, whom she'd learned was being used to weaponize xenomorphs. An early encounter between Call and Ripley is dripping with sexual tension; all cheek caresses, sly smirks, and throat grabs as the former chooses not to kill her target. And the undertones never really let up, as the pair go on to express genuine concern and save one another on several occasions. (Let's face it, Jeunet wasn't exactly being subtle when he has Ripley inexplicably stick her fingers in Call's oozing wound in the third act).
It's pretty bold of the French filmmaker to sexualize the movie so much, albeit not explicitly, given that the franchise has always been concerned with themes of consent and how, for many, it's regarded as allegory for assault. "Who do I have to fuck to get a ride out of here?" Ripley quips to the Betty crew when things start to go south. Later, she looks to exhibit some level of attraction to the xenomorphs. But to me, it's a pretty interesting way to subvert expectations and Ripley's characterization. She's in control this time round, and it's clear Weaver enjoyed playing with that.
Under(water)rated
Now, I realize that all of the above caters to me – a horror-obsessed, Cronenberg-loving lesbian – very specifically, but Alien: Resurrection also boasts moments that are just undeniably cool, like the underwater chase sequence. With no other way through the ship, Ripley, Call, and co find themselves having to swim through a flooded kitchen. With all of the characters submerged, there's no room for dialogue, which makes for a cute spin on Alien's tagline "in space, no one can hear you scream" and makes it all the more suspenseful. The xenomorphs move like sharks, deftly swaying from side to side as they relentlessly pursue the increasingly disorientated group. Trying to evade an alien is scary enough; having to do so while holding your breath is nightmarish.
While Alien: Resurrection is frequently ranked last in people's Alien movie rankings, it's worth noting that it currently has a 55% score 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. That said, I'd argue that it's better than Alien: Covenant, and gives Prometheus a run for its money, too.
From its trailer, Fede Alvarez's upcoming instalment Alien: Romulus looks to have taken a leaf out of Resurrection's book and will feature a similarly franchise-fresh set piece; this time involving zero gravity. "Often tense and tangible, sometimes mean and majestic, Romulus also freights its leaner pleasures with excess franchise matter to frustrating effect," Kevin Harley writes in our Alien: Romulus review, as he awards it three out of five stars. I can't wait to see how it lives up to my newfound second-favorite Alien movie.
Alien: Resurrection is streaming now on Disney Plus. Alien: Romulus releases in cinemas on August 16. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Alien movies in order, or our breakdown of the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.
