The Lone Woman

                  

Yesterday I saw the final twenty minutes of Alien. As I said in my previous post, I was interested in seeing what would happen, but at the same time, I was sad to see the movie end so soon. Speaking of the ending, it was very well-done, much like the rest of the film. Ripley, one of the women aboard the spaceship Nostromo, was the only person still alive. The rest of the men and women had been killed by those vicious aliens. Ripley was left to fight for her life all by herself.

Throughout the film, I noticed how intelligent she really was. Unfortunately, her intelligence wasn't realized by the men, who barely paid attention to anything that she said. If she gave them orders, such as telling them not to let the man attacked by the alien claw back onto the spaceship, they defied her authority completely. She warned them that they could all get killed if he were to be let back in, and guess what happened? They all got killed. What a surprise.

In an attempt to destroy the aliens once and for all, Ripley activated the automatic detonation system (sounds intimidating, doesn't it?). In just ten minutes, the ship was to explode, which would also destroy the extraterrestrials. It became so intense when she was rushing around to get to the exit in the labyrinthine spaceship. As Mr. Monahan pointed out, the exits were located on the opposite side of the spaceship from the automatic detonation system. Along the way out, there was a massive alien, and it was truly amazing that she was able to avoid being attacked by it. Luckily, just in the nick of time, Ripley was safe, or so she thought. She had separated herself from Nostromo just in time, and watched it explode.

But that wasn't the end. It wasn't over; all was not safe and sound yet. I could tell from the music, the cinematography, and by Ripley's facial expressions that danger was still lurking on the spaceship. As Ripley was undressing and getting comfortable, I saw something strange-looking behind her. It looked like an alien, and it turns out that it was. Like the wind, she ran to her spacesuit, got her weapon, and set out to fight the alien. After about thirty intense seconds, the alien was finally out. But it climbed back into another part of the ship, so Ripley blasted it out, along with the other aliens that were still inside the spaceship. Finally, she was safe from harm.

But the harsh reality kicked in: Ripley was the only person out of the entire Nostromo crew that was still alive. But it also showed how strong of a woman she was, and how she proved the guys wrong. She knew that something was wrong with Ash, who turned out to be a robot who was plotting to kill all of them, early on in the film. But the other guys didn't see it. I'm not saying that they deserved to die, but they were definitely asking for it.

Alien is now one of my favorite movies, it's incredible in every way, Not only are the special effects far ahead of their time, but the combination of great music, cinematography, storyline, and acting all make for a killer film.