Quote from: Eldritch on Nov 22, 2011, 07:29:30 AM
Quote from: deuterium on Nov 22, 2011, 05:43:42 AM
And what is it with flamethrowers (KILL IT WITH FIRE) anyway? I realize the original film may have started this trope. However, it would seem to me that if we have advanced enough to build and fly interstellar spacecraft...there might be a lot more impressive, advanced hand-held weaponary then a friggin' flame thrower. How about electro-magnetic rail guns, or particle beam weapons, or heck -- man portable high powered masers or even x-ray lasers. Don't get me wrong, I realize why they use flame units in a film. Flamethrowers are visually sexy. And, a flamethrower kind of made sense in Alien, as the crew already knew about the creature's prediliction for bleeding acid. But they make absolutely no sense as a weapon that may have to be used in an enclosed environment (e.g. a spacecraft)...and may be of questionable efficacy on a planet with a reducing atmosphere (little or no atmospheric oxygen). Conversely, they might be disastrous in an environment which has an atmosphere with O2 content greater then 20%.
In the first movie, the flamethrowers were the only things besides the cattleprods that they could muster. The Nostromo was not a warship, it was a freighter/tow ship. Not sure about the ship the humans use in Prometheus. However, using any kind of bullet weapon inside a space ship is a BAD idea since the slightest hole will cause depressurization and everyone will be sucked into space (the ending of Alien Resurrection was quite spot on in this actually). Energy weapons would look EXTREMELY silly... like something out of Star Trek or Star Wars.. let's not go there I think that having a minimalistic amount of weapons will keep the suspence up.
Actually, Eldritch...not meaning to split hairs...but the scene in which the Newborn alien was sucked out through a tiny whole in the spaceship's window is completely and utterly rubbish, scientifically speaking. There is no way that would happen. Yes, the compartment would have depressurized, but the hole wasn't large enough to create the force required to move a 500+ pound creature up against the glass. And even if the Newborn was already up right against the window, it's body would have sealed the hole. There just is not enough pressure differential between the compartment and vacuum. At seal level, the absolute pressure differential is 14.7 psiA versus zero (vacuum). In reality, spacecraft typically pressurize to 10 psiA, so it is even lower. The hole would have caused a loud hissing sound, a MINOR breeze, but would not have moved anything massing over a few kilograms.
Actually, the Newborn would have made a nice temporary patch, if it decided to put its back up against the hole, and just stand there. And no, it wouldn't have gotten progressively (and gruesomely) sucked out through that little hole. This was a movie, but movies often contain bad science.