Ben Schultz

I’m not going to review the movie, as others have done that, and better than I can. I will say this: I was in my late 20s, watching a movie with a good friend when a trailer for Alien came on. Occasional bass notes, and white line drawn on a black background. Then other white lines to complete the title, and then the tag line, “In space, no one can hear you scream”. I had been reading science fiction since I was in 4th grade, and I absolutely knew this was going to go down in the pantheon of bad sf movies. We excitedly made a date for opening night, a couple of months later. We bought popcorn, sat down and got through the trailers, expecting another”Plan9 From Outer Space “. It started and my jaw dropped; it was so beautiful and the planet was so foreboding, to say nothing about what happened there. It has remained one of the best SF movies ever, ranking with Forbidden Planet, the original The Day The Earth Stood Still, and the TV series Babylon 5, the new Battlestar Galactica, and The Expanse. Do Not Miss It.