Alien and Aliens 'identical movies?'

[Sabby]

Well... he's not wrong.

[426Buddy]

A tale as old as time.

[Pvt. Himmel]

A tale as old as time.

Song as old as rhyme.

[Scorpio]

That's why the scenes on Gateway are the best.  It's the prologue, but that's the only part that isn't a remake.

They could have just set the whole movie on Gateway.  Have the alien come out of Jones the cat.

[426Buddy]

[Sabby]

Why facepalm? That's actually a neat idea.

[426Buddy]

Why facepalm? That's actually a neat idea.

The facepalm was mainly over Scorpio saying that the only part of Aliens that isnt a remake is the part with gateway station. Which is silly and hyperbolic, Aliens does plenty to establish itself as a valid sequel. Such as developing ripley's character, progressing the story, and showing plenty of new situations for the characters and creatures even though it hit many similar notes as its predecessor.

Its an ancient topic as old as the films themselves. By this point it's well known that Aliens hits many of the same general plot beats as Alien, but presents them in a way that feels fresh and very different. It's actually one of the things that makes it great, at least for me.

And for me, having the creature come from Jonesy on Gateway Station would have been a terrible idea. It would be worse than the magic egg on the sulaco. But hey different strokes yah know?

[Scorpio]

Alien is a remake as well, of It!  The Terror From Outer Space and Planet of the Vampires.  Many sequels are remakes as well.  A successful sequel (like Aliens) will take what's great about the original and expand upon it.

[426Buddy]

So you just have really loose criteria for what makes a movie a remake? i can dig it.

[Scorpio]

'Remake' isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Xenomrph]

Alien is a remake as well, of It!  The Terror From Outer Space and Planet of the Vampires.  Many sequels are remakes as well.  A successful sequel (like Aliens) will take what's great about the original and expand upon it.

Terminator 2 is largely a remake of 'The Terminator', but that was pretty intentional and meant to thematically tie into the cyclical nature of time and time-travel.

So you just have really loose criteria for what makes a movie a remake? i can dig it.

Well movies can be straight-up plot for plot remakes, but they can also be thematic remakes. Carpenter's 'Assault on Precinct 13' is basically a remake of 'Rio Bravo', and Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' is a thematic remake of Carpenter's 'The Thing'.

[HuDaFuK]

While there are definitely similarities throughout, they only become really obvious in the final act, which is pretty much the final act of Alien replayed verbatim - fleeing a huge explosion in the nick of time, finding the beast is still with you when you think you're safe, facing it with rudimentary tools, flushing it into space.

Whether that replaying is savvy or lazy is up to the individual viewer.

[SM]

Stephen Mulhall details some similarities in his book On Film, which he refers to as 're-enactment'.

- Strategy and weapons evaluation after the first Alien incursion, complete with disparagement of the android
- Ripley encountering a facehugger from the ceiling in med lab, throwing herself backwards, then men throwing themselves in to protect her
- Prowling around the Sulaco while the crew sleeps
- The use of flamethrowers, TV monitors, trackers, airducts, flashing lights, hanging chains...

He also talks about how Cameron scatters the number 2 around the place - O2 on the wall next to Newt's bed, the number on the second dropship, the lift gates in the AP station (27 and 28), the number of the loading lock Ripley chucks the queen out.  And B for Bishop being the second letter of the alphabet.  (Plus some he missed like the M22 on the door where the power loaders are stored, the lift in the AP goes to sub level 2, the locator reads 22.8 when Ripley looks at it, 2D painted on the front of the APC, number 2 in the background in ops during early colony scenes, Simpson and Lydecker have a chat in front of big signs that have Level 2 on them).

[markweatherill]

I think RLM should do this with Prometheus and AvP next.

Then Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2!

Then, why every piece of classical music is a remake of every other piece!

[Hudson]

"The donut ship."