Quote from: Stitch on Jul 18, 2023, 01:38:51 AMQuote from: ralfy on Jul 17, 2023, 11:16:45 PMQuote from: Stitch on Jul 17, 2023, 03:48:04 AMYou're saying a lot of 'would have', without anything to back it up, and inferring things that I, and most others, evidently, are not.
Not saying your interpretation of the film isn't valid, but it's not one that most people share.
If my interpretation is valid, then I'm backing it up, and contrary views are invalid.
Ok, let me rephrase. I'm not saying your interpretation isn't valid for you. It may not be valid for someone else.
Also, you did actually say various things without anything to back them up, other than your own assertions.
Finally, that's not how interpretations work. That's why they're called interpretations.
Yes, but why do you think my interpretation is invalid? Which things weren't backed up? I'll do so in my next post. Also, this should address the idea of how interpretations work.
Those are good points. According to Cameron, Burke was "Special Projects Director for Weyland-Yutani (Space) Corp's Special Services Division," and "oversaw and managed various other aspects of the company's research programs". In short, he was the right representative for W-Y in the hearing, and strongly counters the argument that he was working alone like some cartoon villain, i.e., without knowledge or consent of the company and as merely a private individual.
The same applies to the claim that the company didn't care: it had a bio-weapons division, which would have been one of the main recipients of Burke's efforts. That's the main reason why they chose Burke to represent the company and why Burke ordered Bishop to prepare the facehuggers to be sent to company labs.
According to Burke and the movie, representatives of the ff. were identified in the hearing: W-Y (Burke), the feds, insurers, the ECA, and the ICC (van Leuwen). Of those, the only who would have cared about investigating the landing location given in the flight recorder would have been W-Y and the feds, i.e., if that refers to the equivalent of the national government, which would have meant that the military was under it. The rest would be concerned only if the location was investigated and triggered events that would concern them: for the insurers liabilities concerning the ship and cargo lost, for the ECA the security of the colony, and for the ICC anything that contravenes commercial law, including smuggling of alien organisms.
Finally, the same applies to the claim that Burke worked alone because he would have gotten all revenues. According to Burke's point, the feds (i.e., the government) owned LV-426 and gave W-Y mineral rights in exchange for terraforming the planet. The alien ship would not have been part of the same rights, which is the likely reason Burke rushed, ordering the colony manager to send someone to verify the existence of the alien ship. That would have given W-Y "exclusive rights" to monetize the find.
These show that Burke would not have "owned everything" even if he wanted to as the feds own the ship (because they own LV-426 and granted W-Y only mineral rights). This also explains why, when he was talking to Ripley, argued that they would both come out rich from this, as Ripley would get a percentage of monetization because the Nostromo crew discovered the ship. I think Newt would have also benefited as her parents discovered the ship "again," i.e., because W-Y didn't hear from the Nostromo. And Burke would have gotten one as well, being point man for the company, besides his paycheck as director of a company division tasked with researching on such finds, and probably even a raise and promotion if the company gained even from the alien tech, not to mention a major appreciation in his stock options. LOL.
This leaves us with another weird part of the movie, i.e., they sent only one squad with a greenhorn commander, and included Ripley. Possible reasons:
They were rushing following the drive for exclusive rights, and already made the mistake of sending a wildcatter, and with no instructions to not enter the alien ship. So, they now have to rush and send in a military unit tasked with rescuing "juicy" colonists' daughters but also specialize in "bug hunts" using "state-of-the-art firepower" (in short, not "bug hunts" in the sense of looking for bugs in a system), and more important acquire whatever alien organisms found and send them to company labs via their tech, Bishop.
Why Gorman? I imagine that they needed someone malleable and that would work with W-Y, and that was him. This might also explain why he met with Burke instead of, say, an ECA rep which is in charge of overseeing the colony, although one can argue that several of the colony personnel are W-Y employees.
Why one squad? They were probably assuming that there was only one alien involved, and that it damaged the transmitter, but that the colony was mostly holding on. They didn't imagine that the colonists would be crazy enough to enter the alien ship and end up like Jorden, i.e., if that's what happened.
Why include Ripley? It's possible that they believed that Ripley was not telling them everything about what happened to the Nostromo, and they needed her as an "adviser" to be sure.
Beyond that, the tactical errors remain: they could have sent two ships, with one team securing the alien ship, made sure that there were people on board the ships (as each one could carry more personnel), etc.
