SPOILER ALERT.
I’m watching Alien – the original film, from 1979 – on HBO Max. I’ve seen it several times. Every time I’ve seen it, I have this creepy memory of a college literature professor, who mentioned it in class to illustrate some point. I don’t remember the exact context or the point he was making. I assume it was something to do with vulnerability. I know we weren’t talking about film or sci-fi – just some book we were supposed to have read.
Seemingly out of nowhere he said, “Why do you think Sigourney Weaver had to have the final fight with the monster in her underwear at the end of Alien?” or something like that. The answer was that in her near-nudity, she was more exposed, more vulnerable. He talked about it for maybe 30 seconds, and there was this comment he made – a totally unnecessary and creepy comment – about how Sigourney Weaver has a glorious body. Why? Why was it necessary to say that? It wasn’t. It did not help make his point, whatever that was. It was just creepy. This isn’t just “woke 2020 me” looking back at it now. I knew then, immediately, that it was creepy.
Oh yeah, also, it was a spoiler. That film came out in 1979, and this happened 1989 or ’90, or maybe ‘91. I hadn’t seen Alien, at that point, and I bet a lot of the other students hadn’t seen it either. There was no Netflix, no streaming, no anything “on demand.” There were video stores, but I don’t remember college students doing a lot of video renting. A lot of people didn’t have TVs, much less VCRs in their dorm rooms. Blockbuster wasn’t even a big deal yet. But the first time I did see it, which was probably at least a few years later, as the movie seemed to be drawing to a close, I knew the alien wasn’t gone because Sigourney wasn’t in her underwear yet. Then when she was, I knew, “Ah! Here comes the monster, any second now.”
Fuck you, professor whatever your name was. For being creepy and for spoiling the end of that film.
