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Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Aliens at 40: from wearable cameras to exoskeletons, here are the technologies the film predicted
theconversation.com: Director James Cameron’s acclaimed sci-fi movie Aliens turns 40 in August. It’s a sequel to Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic breakout hit Alien, made in 1979. Where the original featured one terrifying creature, Cameron’s movie features hundreds – and pits them against a squad of space marines.
Alien (and the many sequels of varying quality) is unfortunately a huge cultural blind spot for me. I'm a huge fan of practical effects/props, especially when it comes to science fiction -- there really is nothing cooler than a huge, clunky, datapad or a big ol' mech suit. I enjoyed reading this article because it let me ogle at cool stuff, in so many words, which is always a good time. However, not to try try to metagame too hard, but I've always found commentary like this a little perplexing. "Snow Crash", "The Simpsons", "Contagion", people have been doing this whole "this piece of media PREDICTED THE FUTURE?!??" song and dance forever, and while it's mostly harmless, I can't help but feel like it's missing the point? Creators make artistic choices because they are trying to make an argument or paint a picture of a world, and to wipe over that potentially biting social commentary with facile gaping at cool nerd shit feels kind of sad. This article is far from the worst I've ever seen (it is engaging with the themes of the film), but it's just an unfortunate part of a broader media commentary tradition that I'm not crazy for.
1 comment:
Alien (and the many sequels of varying quality) is unfortunately a huge cultural blind spot for me. I'm a huge fan of practical effects/props, especially when it comes to science fiction -- there really is nothing cooler than a huge, clunky, datapad or a big ol' mech suit. I enjoyed reading this article because it let me ogle at cool stuff, in so many words, which is always a good time. However, not to try try to metagame too hard, but I've always found commentary like this a little perplexing. "Snow Crash", "The Simpsons", "Contagion", people have been doing this whole "this piece of media PREDICTED THE FUTURE?!??" song and dance forever, and while it's mostly harmless, I can't help but feel like it's missing the point? Creators make artistic choices because they are trying to make an argument or paint a picture of a world, and to wipe over that potentially biting social commentary with facile gaping at cool nerd shit feels kind of sad. This article is far from the worst I've ever seen (it is engaging with the themes of the film), but it's just an unfortunate part of a broader media commentary tradition that I'm not crazy for.
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