Huge Skeleton in Alien (!979)

[Frank]

I bet most of you who have seen Alien (the first one) remember that at one point of the movie you see a huge ****ing skeleton sitting at a gigantic cannon or something that you can't really make out, but does anyone know what this is? I've searched everywhere on IMDB.com and that didn't help...! Is this suppose to tell us that at one point there was some sort of civilization on this planet or am I far out now?

EDIT: I just figured out that he's called The Space Jockey

 

[Frank]

Haha... I'll end up discussing this with myself...

Oh well, I just found this:
What exactly is the space jockey and why haven't we seen it in the other films except its fossilized self sitting in the what I call the laser gun?
It's another race of space alien that is also subject to infection by the Aliens. This particular one was infected and moved as far as it could from its race's known space and broadcast a warning before it died. The presence of eggs in the hold may indicate that it was a research ship. The race was never used in other Alien movies because it adds a new dynamic to the plotlines: two alien species, locked in mortal combat and neither particularly friendly with humans.

 

[The Monkey]

I've seen the first hour of Alien five times, but never the rest of the movie.

 

[Frank]

I suppose you didn't find it very interesting - well, most people think the first Alien movie is the best, probably just because it's the original, but I don't share their excitement. Aliens (the 2nd one) is by far the best one!

 

[Frank]

The Derelict (the space ship where they find the Space Jockey)

The Derelict was the name given to the long-wrecked spacecraft discovered by the crew of the Nostromo on the planet LV-426 whilst responding to an SOS signal in the 1979 science fiction film, Alien. The Derelict was an alien ship; however it is extremely unlikely that it was created by the species of the titular alien. Rather, this ship was used and most likely constructed by beings of a different species from the title creature, who fell then fell prey to the Alien.

The Derelict was a large, wishbone-shaped craft with three large vagina-shaped openings leading to what is assumed to be the cockpit. It is from one of these openings that three of the Nostromo crew members (Captain Dallas, Navigator Lambert, and Executive Officer Kane) entered the ship. The interior of the Derelict seemed to resemble more a giant beast than a spacegoing vessel, with its skeletal walls, circular gangways and steep passages. In a enormous cockpit room, on a turntable-like structure was a giant alien life form that appeared to have been dead for a long time, since it was fossilized. It appeared to have grown out of its equally enormous chair. It was sitting at a giant telescopic object that pointed upward that is assumed to be the pilot's controls. It also had a huge hole in its chest with bones bent outward, as if something exploded from the inside.

Very little is known about this long dead organism inside the Derelict, which the Alien production team named "The Space Jockey". H.R. Giger, designer of the Derelict and the Space Jockey, originally named it simply "The Pilot". Lambert of the Nostromo brought up the question of what happened to the rest of the crew on the Derelict, since no remains of any other "Space Jockeys" were found on board.

In a large hole near the side of the Space Jockey's "turntable" was a pit, apparently burned through by acid, leading down to an enormous cave-like cargo hold filled with thousands of leathery eggs, covered by a thin layer of blue mist that reacted when broken. This room was called "the egg chamber" for obvious reasons, and is the scene of the first contact with the Alien organism, when the facehugger bursts out from one of the eggs, penetrates Kane's helmet, and attaches itself to his face.

The Derelict and its inhabitant, the Space Jockey, remain a total mystery and virtually nothing is ever said about either throughout the entire Alien series. If there were a prequel added to the Alien series, the backstory of the Derelict and its crew might be a key and revelatory theme, and those responsible for the series have expressed their interest in seeing this.

It is generally assumed in Alien: Resurrection that the Derelict was essentially destroyed in the thermonuclear meltdown and subsequent explosion of the atmosphere processor in Aliens. The Derelict was never seen again after Alien except for its brief appearance in the 1991 Special Edition of Aliens which depicted its discovery by the Jorden family, on the now colonized LV-426, and it is following this reintroduction that the colony is decimated by the species.

The Space Jockey

Space Jockeys are either the first victims of, or the creators of the Xenomorphs, (from the Alien movies and games) that once ruled the universe. First shown in the original Alien movie as a giant humanoid sitting in front of a telescope-like device, the cargo hold of the Space Jockey's ship was filled with eggs, held in stasis, of Xenomorph facehuggers, the first stage in the Xenomorph life cycle. They have made appearances in various Dark Horse Comics publications on Aliens.

 

[CrazyHarij]

The thing that made that creature so god damn amazing and terrifying was because you just don't know jack shit about it and its origins. Like the alien.

Anyway, Giger owns kthxbye.

 

[pomegranate]

I'm missing the point of this thread. Help me out?

 

[Direwolf]

Its just one of those little things that people overlook in the movie.

And yeah, James Cameron did a kickass job in Aliens. My favorite too.

 

[VictimOfScience]

The Derelict was a large, wishbone-shaped craft with three large vagina-shaped openings leading to what is assumed to be the cockpit.

This didn't strike anyone else as funny? Whoever wrote this description certainly seemed to have a sly sense of humor. :E

And I think that the original Alien was an amazing horror/sci-fi film and the second one was an amazing action/sci-fi film. That said, I prefer horror to action, so I prefer the first film.

 

[Frank]

This didn't strike anyone else as funny? Whoever wrote this description certainly seemed to have a sly sense of humor. :E

Ehm... no, because nearly every single work of Gieger is based on some sort of genital...

 

[VictimOfScience]

Ehm... no, because nearly every single work of Gieger is based on some sort of genital...

Yes, he's terribly creative. I just thought it was particularly funny that "vagina-shaped openings" would lead to a "cockpit." Call me naive...

 

[Sulkdodds]

Its just one of those little things that people overlook in the movie.

People overlooked this? It's kind of...well, obvious.

Many think that the aliens were created by the Pilot race, seeing as the damn things are such incredible, flawless killing machines. There was also a comic series called Aliens: Earth War which began with the earth totalled by alien infestation ended with the Pilot/Jockey race manipulating the last few humans into clearing the aliens from the planet. The Pilots then terraformed earth and moved in themselves...but not all the aliens were dead. "Perhaps they'll learn from our mistakes. Perhaps not."

So there you go, they have actually featured pro-actively in a part of the aliens mythos/franchise.

 

[SimonomiS]

Was that the one with Ripley having dreams? I remember seeing that ship a lot in one of the comics.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Sounds about right - might have been Newt having dreams as well. It continued directly on from Aliens series 1 and 2, before Alien 3 came out and messed everything up.

 

[Ennui]

Giger ftw, seeing that huge alien was awesome even if I hadn't the faintest idea what it was.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Try and find a book called "Giger's Alien" - it details all of Giger's work on the film. You'll want to thank me for it afterwards.

 

[knut]

Was that the one with Ripley having dreams? I remember seeing that ship a lot in one of the comics.

I've forgotten the name of it but theres the one comic which showed a team of marines going back into the Derelict and being completly ripped apart. But that one involved Ripley having a short of 'connection' between the Aliens as she saw the Alien mother in a vision while on the planet. I think, anyway. I appear to have lost that novel now; all I have lying around at the moment is Laberyinth.

 

[Sulkdodds]

That sounds like Earth War to me. At the end they got the mother to call all the aliens to her and then nuked them, didn't they?

Oh yeah - Labyrinth is the ****ing win.

 

[Space Farm]

Is this what your talking about? It looks pretty cool:

 

[Frank]

Yep...

 

[knut]

That sounds like Earth War to me. At the end they got the mother to call all the aliens to her and then nuked them, didn't they?

Oh yeah - Labyrinth is the ****ing win.

Yeah, thats the one. Thats the one that had that blonde girl who went down to Earth to rescue the distress signal survivors in the sewers.

The part in Labyrinth where Doctor Church reveals his first encounter with the Aliens in the Hive... man, some of that actually made me cringe. Which one was the one with the pills that were used from the jelly of the Queen Alines egg sack. Was that Genocide? Good comic that, if that is the one.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I think that was Genocide but I never actually read all of it. I'm told Stronghold is great, and Sui has it, but he hasn't let me borrow it yet. Bastard.

Christ, Labyrinth is disturbing. And a great ending too. Hell EVERYBODY GO READ IT!

 

[kupocake]

Neat bit of cinematographic manipulation: the people in the suits are actually kids. Not something you can really notice, but I'm sure it saved them on set design... wonder what happened to it though? The large alien they made, I mean. I guess it was trashed after use... to damned scary to keep, and they never really knew the film would be a hit...

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Also, the background for the pilot scene is the same background as the egg chamber. Budget constraints...

 

[knut]

I think that was Genocide but I never actually read all of it. I'm told Stronghold is great, and Sui has it, but he hasn't let me borrow it yet. Bastard.

Christ, Labyrinth is disturbing. And a great ending too. Hell EVERYBODY GO READ IT!

Yeah, thinking back when I last read it, thats the one. Great comic, I must locate it. They had the acid-resistant suits in that, too. Only they look much more badass than the ones at the start of Labyrinth. (wtf was with that huge wave of acid :\) And also the other race of Aliens; those red ons. Never read Stronghold, or seen it actually. The comic store here got rid of all the Darkhorse stuff. Made me sad.

And yes, everyone go and find the graphic novel Labyrinth, for it is good. ;D