The Primal Scream And The Primal Scene
Since the beginning of the human history, the mysteries of the “inexplicable” have formed one of the main interests and most powerful fascinations for the civilizations all around the world. The origin of the human kind, the limits of the universe, the infinity of chaos and the horror that such unanswered queries provoke, lead to an effort to approach and (whenever possible) represent “The Unknown/The Other”. Art has always been one of the most popular ways of reconstructing the mysteries that have been torturing the human mind for centuries. Film in particular, due to its ability to visualise even the most pervert imagination, has succeeded to transform those mysteries into images.
Cinema, always under the impact of the social and technological development, attempts to illustrate the terrifying and the obscure. The fears of a whole society are successfully reflected on the fictional character of an alien or a psychotic murderer. The restrictions of the contemporary way of living and the oppression caused from the capitalist patriarchal model of western life result as a terrifying representation of what we would call “The Other”. As Robin Wood defends “the Other is not only something external to our culture but also what is repressed in the self and projected in a way that finally becomes hated and disowned”. The horror movie achieves to illustrate the restricted dimensions of our contemporary culture, such as sexuality. The genres of horror and science fiction reflect the anxieties of a modern society in a complicated and extravagant way. Both these genres give the spectator the opportunity to escape into (and possibly from) his/her most terrifying nightmares and to become the witness of his/her forbidden daydream images.
It would be useful to refer to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy almost 2500 years ago. He describes it as “an imitation of an action that is serious. Complete and of a certain magnitude […..] with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions”. The protagonist of the horror movie (exactly like the characters of the ancient Greek drama) is ready to fight against all the enemies, overcome all the obstacles, becoming the final hero, the last survivor while the spectator is experiencing the catharsis, liberated from the fear, the anxiety and the feeling of injustice.
The film Aliens (1986) is certainly a representative sample of the above. It belongs to a modern, contemporary film genre, which combines the elements of horror and science fiction. In Aliens the fear is set in outer space. The main character of the film, Lt Ellen Ripley “combines the survivor of slasher with the heroic astronaut of science fiction”. Ripley having (already once) experienced the frightening existence of the Alien Other (and being in the situation of hyper sleep for 57 years) is being asked to re-investigate and finally destroy the creatures but at the same time overcome her tremendous nightmares. Accompanied by a team of tough marines she is sent to the planet LV 426. The sole survivor on this inhospitable planet is the little girl Newt, whom Ripley takes under her “maternal” responsibility.
Aliens (sequel of the movie Alien -1979-), functions as the introduction to the structure of the whole family of those “unidentified” creatures, which consists of 5 different members, each with a different role.: the eggs, the face huggers, the chest busters, the soldiers and the scariest of all, the horrifying Mama Alien, who is “responsible” for the reproduction of all these beings.
Motherhood appears to be one of the main issues of Aliens. Ellen Ripley and Mamma Alien become the main characters of the film, representing two different and opposite dimensions of the powerful role of maternity. Mama Alien is present during the whole film through her absence. All the crew of Sulaco is wondering who is laying the eggs, where do Aliens come from and she finally appears in the last 20 minutes of the movie to give the terrifying solution to the enigma.
The film is successfully introducing the audience to the modern contemporary identity of The Mother. Ripley becomes the post-modern mother as she achieves to combine the role, the basic characteristics and the duties of both parents in one. She embodies both the Male and the Female. She is an amalgam of strength and sensitivity, the result of a powerful and vulnerable combination. Ripley is courageous, energetic, powerful, ready to take risks, dynamic, smart, fearless and at the same time affective, protective, carrying and ready to sacrifice everything for “her” child.
One of the promotional posters of the film presents Ripley as she holds Newt in her right arm, having a big destructive gun in her left hand. Accepting the fact that a gun is always used in order to represent masculinity and the penis (due to its phallic shaped structure) Ripley appears to be the powerful phallic mother. She successfully overcomes her feminine castration complex, by incorporating her own penis in her body. Ripley succeeds both of the feminine wishes, according to Freud, possessing a penis and a child of her own, gaining her superiority against the male sex and satisfying her eternal maternal instinct. She is conquering the patriarchal world in which she belongs becoming the Woman who has it all, fully “equipped”, ready to win the battles and become a triumphant of her sex.
We would describe Ripley as “neutral”, always “in between”. She is in a continuous “fight” against two contradictory identities. She is male and female, mother and father, soldier and citizen. Both her personality and her looks balance between two different worlds. After her decision to be sent to LV 426, she gets a haircut that makes her look more like a man, adding to her appearance more masculine characteristics. Her body is also neutral. Although she has a nice, slim figure, she does not have sexy curves or any other specific characteristic (such as big lips or feminine way of standing and walking) betraying her sexuality. Even her clothes are neutral. She is not dressed in an army uniform, like the marines nor in plain clothing. As Yvonne Tasker mentions: “Whilst the military are in uniform and Burke, the company representative of the mission, in civvies, Ripley’s dress, with leather flying jacket and fatigues, is iconographically, somewhere between the two”. She is the victim and the hero. Victim of the Company’s conspiracy against humanity, heroic figure who fights till the end, in order to save “her daughter” and destroy the threatening creatures. She is successfully becoming the hero of the spaceship as well. By displaying cool professionalism, while the men around her literally fall to pieces. Ripley is the final girl, the survivor. She is the protagonist in the full sense, as she combines the functions of suffering victim and avenging hero. In the scene where she fights against Mama Alien, wearing the robotic cargo loader, she is transformed into the “techno phallic mother”, the feminine ideal fantasy figure.
The element of motherhood is fully represented not only in the narrative and the characters of the film but also in the way that the whole space environment and background is set. Even before the beginning of the film the spectator is entering the dark, mysterious, interior world of the “yet undiscovered” and “uncanny” female genitals. As the blue colored title of the film is appearing on the cinematic screen, we can see the letter “I” transformed into a frightening and extremely bright vagina shaped hole, while the music background makes the scene even more terrifying. Right after this atmospheric transformation, the audience enters the world of the film with as a shot of the chaotic outer space while the rest of the titles are appearing on the screen.
As the camera reveals the calm face of Ripley while she is sleeping in her –womb look like, hyper sleep, hi-tech- cave (and as the cat Jones is sleeping on her genital area) the image of earth is slowly fading in to cover her face. The round shape of Mother Earth is covering the face of “Mother” Ripley, implying the relationship between the “female” reproductive powers of Mother Nature.
In ancient Greece the goddess Gaia, who was feminine, as most of the elements of nature were for the ancient Greeks, represented the Earth. Due to the privilege of reproduction, with which only the female creatures are gifted, the ancient Greeks and many other ancient civilisations characterised the forces of nature with feminine identities. Many words that include somehow, the significance of birth, literally and metaphorically, refer to the powerful and unique reproductive process. Τhe Greek origin word metropolis consists of two words. Metro coming from mitra (μήτρα) that means womb and polis (πόλις) that means city. Metropolis literally means the womb city.
Ripley is metaphorically reborn after her 57 years of hyper sleep, ready to experience once again the existence of the Other. This time she has to fight and win the battle against the terrifying reproductive power of Mama Alien, saving the humanity from this destructive creature. Ripley’s maternal instincts are also presented through her relationship with the cat, an animal always connected to the feminine personality, due to her ability of being autonomous and intuitive. When Burke is entering her room in the hospital, where she recovers from her long hyper sleep, she doesn’t seem to notice his presence at all. She simply focuses on her cat (Jones) that is lying on his hands.
The issue of motherhood-femeninity-birth as well as the “uncanny” of the interior female genitals is very well represented in the Aliens’ “residence”. The aliens have transformed the LV426 colony into a dark, mysterious, bodily interior, full of tubes and depressing huge walls area. The crew of Sulaco as well as the spectator enter a claustrophobic, gigantic, terrifying environment. As Carol Clover claims: “the space travellers actually enter and explore an otherworldly maternal cavity of tubes and eggs or Innerspace”. We would defend that the atmosphere and the interior design of the whole area is symbolising the female womb, implying that the marines are entering the cannibalising black hole from which all lives are coming from.
We should mention that in opposition to the “imperfection” of the vagina (due to its inability to posses a penis, according to Freud), the womb is the fully equipped superior organ, which is responsible for the origin and the reproduction of every single kind of living creatures. The womb is responsible for the origin of life. The feminine body hides both the mysteries of life and the fear of the abyss, of the unknown. What Kristeva calls: “the fascinating and abject inside of the maternal body”.
The surprise for both Ripley and the marine crew of Sulaco is the discovery of Rebecca/Newt, the lone survivor of the colony’s inhabitants. Newt is soon adopted, literally and metaphorically, by Ripley becoming her alter ego, her precious assistant in the fight against the alien species. The portrait of Newt (even her name) betrays a frightened girl who is trying to escape. She is very mature for her age, basically due to the terrifying situations that she has witnessed. Her disbelief in humans, her loneliness and fear as well as her posttraumatic behaviour are fully reflected on her words. When she is being discovered by the marines (who almost kill her), she acts like an imprisoned animal seeking for care and affection. She is dirty and numb, motionless and still and looks as if she is lost, staring to nowhere. Newt refuses to talk to Gorman and is diagnosed as physically healthy (by the tough female doctor). Her lone «friend» Casey, a leftover head of a totally destroyed doll, represents her infant innocence. Ripley is treating Newt with patience trying to make her talk and she finally succeeds, giving “birth” to the bond between them. Newt is “the wise but innocent child”. She had been forced to lose her infant innocence very early, witnessing the destruction of the entire colony, becoming the lone survivor. She is desperately looking for a family as she has lost the one of her own. Ripley is there to treat her “wounds”, replacing her mother and her trust. Newt is once again becoming the unprotected victim of the Other in its worse version, the monstrous representation of femininity, the mother Alien. Her nightmares become true, as she realises that monsters finally exist in reality.
Ripley and Newt have many things in common. Their stories are pretty parallel to each other. They both loose their family (Newt literally, Ripley metaphorically as she experiences twice the loss of her fellow travellers), they are both the lone survivors and they are both experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder. “Mother and daughter” are desperately trying to escape from their nightmares. They are both afraid to dream as well as unable to forget, tortured by horrifying, continuous dreams. According to Freud and his theory that we only bother to dream of things which have given us cause for reflection in the day time, both Newt and Ripley are forced to revive their frightening past in their sleep, while dreaming. Newt is really afraid to sleep alone, asking for Ripley’s presence by her side. Harvey Greenberg defends that Ripley’s clinical condition is hallmarked not by her inability to remember but by the powerlessness to forget”. She succeeds to overcome her traumatic experiences by “returning to the scene of emotional scaring and mutating into the phallic superwoman”. She fights with her fears face to face.
Newt and Ripley are strongly connected not only because of the similar posttraumatic situation that they are both experiencing, but also because each one is the reflection of the other. Newt’s impressive maturity is helping Ripley to face her own fears and overcome her own queries, believe in herself and be strong and faithful. Ximena Galliardo and Jason Smith mention: “Newt is operating as Ripley’s inner child, as she gives voice to all of her fears and uncertainties Ripley is feeling herself”. Newt is mirroring Ripley’s fears and anxieties and so does Ripley to Newt. When they are both facing the threat of a face hugger’s attack and Newt tells Ripley “I am scared” Ripley responds “Me too». They are getting together under the fear of the same enemy that has threatened their past and continues destroying their present.
The family that Newt has lost seems to be complete with the presence of both Hicks and Bishop. Hicks becomes the ideal father figure, full of strength and discipline, following blindly the instructions given by Ripley. After the death of Gorman he is being responsible for the crew and the destruction of aliens. Krin Gabbard defends that Hicks is man enough not to be threatened by Ripley’s power, but also man enough to accept the sexual challenge”. The bracelet locator that he gives to Ripley (and following she gives to Newt) signifies the bond between the three of them. Hicks is also protective and carrying to Newt, opposite to Hudson who is questioning her abilities and her strength, because of her age and innocence.
As Hicks is wounded by the acid blood of an alien soldier, Bishop is now taking the role of the father, helping both mother and daughter to escape from the nightmare, their common nightmare, mama Alien. Although Bishop is literally cut in half (by the phallic tale of Mama Alien) bleeding white liquids, he is the one who saves Newt from being lost in chaos, “swollen” by the tremendous power of the air that is violently entering the spaceship.
The absolute representation of the monstrous feminine is appearing in the last 15 minutes of the film (though as we have already mentioned, the Alien Mama is present during the whole film through her absence), in order to solve the enigma of the weird reproduction of the Alien species. As Ripley succeeds to save Ripley from her cocoon she finds herself, trapped in the most terrifying and destructive hatchery of all. She is there face to face with the horrifying Mama Alien.
The frightening gigantic creature hisses as soon as She realizes the presence of Ripley. “The battle of the Big Mammas, implies that it takes a female to take out a female” as Ximena Galliardo and Jason C. Smith claim. The Alien Mother represents the parthenogenetic figure of the creature that embodies both the female and the male gender. She is the representation of the archaic mother; of the poisonous, fatal vagina dentata who is hiding all the powerful mysteries of life and death. As Barbara Creed defends “the archaic mother is the parthenogenetic mother, the mother as primordial abyss, the point of origin and end”. She is the dyadic mother, the maternal figure of the pre-Oedipal period, who symbolically threatens to engulf, incorporate the infant. Mama Alien represents the feminine desire to possess a phallus. We should also say that the image of the monstrous birth equates the anatomy and the reproductive mechanism of the human female.
The reproductive procedure of the alien species represents the horrifying, monstrous side of the birth miracle. The film Aliens takes extraordinary steps to identify reproductive sexuality with evil and horror.
Mama Alien is laying countless eggs from which the face huggers pop out. The face huggers impregnate their human victims by forcing a tube down to their throat. The eggs when hibernated come out of the host’s chest leading to his/her painful death. As the chest busters grow up they become the soldiers, who live in order to serve the Mama Queen Alien.
“The Queen is born in a similar way to the Soldier alien, but her incubation period is longer – several days instead of several hours. Her cranium is much larger and flatter and she is approximately two to three feet taller than the Soldier. She also has four arms instead of two. Similar to a queen ant, she is the only reproductive female in the hive and directs its operation – from its construction to the location of suitable hosts. It is believed that she communicates her will through the secretion of pheromones or possibly by an empathic link. She is also more intelligent than the Soldiers and Drones.”The Aliens’ society is a living nightmare for the human imagination.
The power of the alien species is lying upon their superiority (they can defend themselves by spreading all around their acid blood when wounded) and perfection. Although they are called (zenomorphes-Gorman, pets-Spank Meyer, animals-Hudson, bastards-Hicks, busy little creatures-Gorman) with multiple names and their “Mind”/Ability/Instinct is underestimated (Hudson wonders “How can they cut the power? They are animals”), their real identity appears to be much more frightening than the one the marines had imagined. Even the toughest of the soldiers seem really “tiny” in front of the Alien living threat and incapable to defend themselves against the horrifying (Creature) Other, despite their heavy weaponry. The way the Aliens move and their appearance is a clear reference to the insect society.
When Ripley is facing Mama Alien a mysterious silent dialogue is taking place between them. Mama Alien thinks, she is conscious of her behaviour and ready to protect her eggs. When she realises that Ripley is there, she hisses as she continues laying eggs from her scary, “obscure” vagina dentata. The Soldiers Aliens step back due to the demand of their queen, however Ripley breaks her word of not harming the eggs, when she realises that some of them are about to come out. Ripley is taking revenge by destroying each one of the eggs, with her phallus shaped, power flamethrower. She even manages to heart Mama Alien by hearting and finally “disconnecting” her from her monstrous vagina. Both creatures are fighting for their children. The Good Mother against the Bad Mother. The human creature against the monstrous creature. A battle of species.
Mama Alien represents the human effort to dominate, transform and finally control many natural procedures, such the miracle of birth. Man is fighting against his nature with the use of the most horrifying scientific scenarios. Humans are trying to conquest the earth, by destroying it. Ripley is fighting against the Other, the fear of science.
Both figures are fighting for the survival of their own kind. As Barbara Creed mentions: «mother Alien represents Ripley’s other self, that is woman’s alien, inner, mysterious powers of reproduction».
As Ripley is facing her gigantic enemy, the camera focuses on her figure from the Queen’s point of view, revealing her gigantic shape and also implying that Mama Alien can think. She can watch, she can communicate she is conscious in spite the fact that the most popular horrific figures are bodies without souls. In that case it is much easier for the spectator to control his fear of the Other, as it usually appears to be an animal guided simply by its instincts. Ripley is becoming the hero, kicking the “bitch” out of the spacecraft, sending her back to the chaotic universe, the dark mysterious womb of all creatures, right where She came from.
The film Aliens is definitely a product of the conservative Reagan (1981-1989), Cold War, Post Vietnam, Post Watergate era. America is under the influence of the Republican principles and “demands”. The director admits that, in order to structure his characters’ language and communication skills, he studied the “war speak” of the Vietnam soldiers, their specific idiom and terminology and the general sense of how they expressed themselves. In this way, the film becomes quite realistic as it presents the crew of Sulako more like a military expedition. The nuclear family is the promoted ideal icon while the threat of a new fatal disease (HIV) raises the fear of sexuality and reproduction.
The horror film as Robin Wood defends depicts the sense of a civilization condemning itself, through its popular culture. Our inability to accept the Other, the “zenomorph” transforms it into terror, disgust and denial. As humans become disable to confront with the Unknown, they want to annihilate It.
The director is clearly influenced by all the events of this period (late 60’s, 70’s, early 80’s), reflecting on the persona of the Other, the enemies of the United States at the time. Ximena Galliardo and Jason C. Smith state: “In the true spirit of the American science fiction film, James Cameron manages to connect his metaphor for the communist threat to one uncanny and dangerous female”.
In the case of Aliens the Other could be the Russians (and all the possible political enemies of the United States), as well as the terrifying development of Science.
We can notice that the marines are dressed in uniforms of the United States’ Marine (Sgt. Apone is wearing a jockey hat with the American flag, all the marines have the metal identity around their neck), implying the superiority of the U.S Army Forces against the enemy, as well as the US ambition to dominate the Universe literally and metaphorically (having the privilege of the advanced armament and technology).
On the other hand the Alien Other possibly depicts the human fear of the science evolution, as we have already mentioned above.
The film Aliens contains both a right and a left wing approach. Its right wing point of view supports the U.S superiority against the (real or imaginary) enemy, by coding the Alien Other as the Russian/Communist threat. The left wing point of view supports the working class proletariat against the powerful “bourgeoisie”, the Company. We notice that the marines behave like servants/employees (Apone says “They ain’ t paying us by the hour”, Frost says “I hate this job”), complaining about the way they are treated by the Company (Spunkmeyer is complaining about the food, Hudson says “I am just doing my job”, during the meal the marines are sitting on a separate table).
The Other in this case is the Company represented on the character of filthy Burke. The internal battle of the working class and the Capital is portrayed on the way that Burke manages to fool and underestimate (he calls Hicks ”a grunt”) the spaceship crew and Ripley about his real intentions, concerning the species. In the name of power and money he does not hesitate to lock Ripley and Newt in a room under the threat of the Alien creatures. We could defend that the crew of Sulaco along with the Alien, form a diachronic miniature (“a perfect analogon”) of the human society.
Each character of the (multinational) crew portrays a specific behaviour/gender/nationality with its own characteristics. The characters of the film embody different genders and identities. Vasquez is the tough macho marine with her Spanish accent and vocabulary. Bishop is “the artificial person” balancing between a man and a robot. Hudson is the coward –feminine look a like- marine who serves as the audience’s voice due to his fear to face the threat and his spontaneous reaction against Burke or the Alien. Burke is the silent “spy”, Gorman the incapable chief, Apone the disciplined marine etc.
We should also refer to the realistic sense of time and space in Sulaco as well as on the planet LV 426. Ripley is wearing a watch (she is checking the time when she wakes up next to Newt), Hicks tells Ripley that she hasn’t slept for 24 hours while Newt says to Ripley that Aliens come out at night mostly. A light sign that says “Bar”, half eaten donuts and smoking are some other elements that make the Other (coded as the Outer Space) to look totally realistic.
As a conclusion we would say that Aliens is a film about nightmares. Ripley and Newt face their fears trying to escape from their horrifying dreams and so does the audience. The horror film is the “safest” way for the spectator to witness his/her nightmares, sitting comfortably in the dark film theater room, eating popcorn.
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