Movie

Alien

Name: Alien
Released: 1979

1979 • Horror, Sci-Fi

Woke Score

out of 10

Plot

In the distant future, the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo are on their way home when they pick up a distress call from a distant moon. The crew are under obligation to investigate and the spaceship descends on the moon afterwards. After a rough landing, three crew members leave the spaceship to explore the area on the moon. At the same time as they discover a hive colony of some unknown creature, the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a distress call. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew realizes that they are not alone on the spaceship and they must deal with the consequences.

Overall Series Review

The 1979 film centers on a struggle for survival against a lethal alien creature and a cold, profit-driven corporation. The narrative is driven by classic horror and survival dynamics, not modern political lecturing. The crew is a pragmatic, working-class mix of men and women of various ethnicities, all primarily defined by their roles and competence under pressure. The main critique is aimed squarely at the callous, dehumanizing megacorporation, which views the crew as disposable for the sake of acquiring the alien as a weapon. This critique targets corporate malfeasance rather than a broad hatred of Western society. The highest scores are found in the theme of anti-natalism, as the central horror plot device is a monstrous form of forced, violent reproduction, and the female protagonist's survival is framed as her rejection of being reduced to a biological role. The film contains no explicit discussion of sexual ideology or anti-religious messaging.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The crew's casting is racially mixed but operates on a clear hierarchy of military/commercial rank and demonstrated professional ability. The screenplay was written to be gender and race-neutral, meaning the characters are judged by their actions and competence, which is meritocratic. No character's struggles or successes are attributed to their race or immutable characteristics. The antagonist is an extraterrestrial creature and the corporate employer, not white males or 'whiteness'.

Oikophobia4/10

The film criticizes the powerful, all-encompassing Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which sacrifices the lives of its working-class crew for corporate profit. This is a pointed institutional critique of corporate greed and capitalism's worst impulses, framing the future's powerful commercial entities as fundamentally corrupt. It does not demonize ancestors, family, or other traditional Western institutions.

Feminism8/10

The protagonist, Ripley, is a competent leader who survives due to her rational thought and adherence to protocol, qualities not presented as inherently gendered. The core horror imagery, however, is a monstrous, involuntary form of reproduction where the male body is forcibly impregnated by the 'facehugger' and violently gives 'birth' to the creature. This central theme focuses on the violation and deconstruction of natural biological roles, leaning heavily toward anti-natalism as the foundational horror element.

LGBTQ+1/10

The film focuses exclusively on the survival of the crew against the creature. Traditional male-female pairing or nuclear family dynamics are absent but are not explicitly deconstructed or critiqued. There is no presence of sexual identity being centered or any political lecture on gender ideology within the narrative. The film's primary structure is normative by omission, treating sexuality and gender identity as irrelevant to the plot.

Anti-Theism2/10

The conflict is entirely secular and material, focusing on corporate corruption and a biological monster. The film takes place in a 'spiritual vacuum' where morality is largely relative to the situation, with no source of strength drawn from faith. It avoids overt hostility toward religion, as no religious characters or established faiths are present to be vilified or mocked.