Late To The Party: Alien

To kick off Patreon month, we visit Alien (1979) with fresh eyes and honest takes, weighing its slow-burn craft, Ripley’s legacy, and how practical effects still make fear feel real. We compare it to Aliens, examine themes of corporate control and body horror, and share where it lands in our running rankings.

• Pacing as a deliberate tension engine
• Ripley’s competence and the final girl lens
• Xenomorph design and practical effects impact
• Corporate exploitation and bodily autonomy themes
• Sound design and score shaping atmosphere
• Aliens' tonal shift and why the first hits harder

Letterbox'd Synopsis: During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.

🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast 🔺

🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
"Extenz - Gravity" is under a Creative Commons license
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://bit.ly/extenz-gravity
🔺

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Kicking Off: Why Alien Now

SPEAKER_00 0:12

This is the Wait for It Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait For It Podcast. I'm your co-host, Phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

And I'm your other co-host, Mr. Eric Almighty, and for this edition of Late to the Party, well, we are gonna be watching a film that I know we should have seen already, but it's a movie that has eluded us, and we're going back to 1979 to cover Alien.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yeah, this really is kind of one that like I would very much understand, more so than some of the other ones we have covered when it comes to like these classics and talking about like sci-fi and the importance of film. And Alien is definitely one of those where it's like, yeah, that's that's fair. I understand why you would react that way. So very excited to talk about this film by Ridley Scott and get into

Expectations, Classics, and Sci‑Fi Weight

SPEAKER_02 1:06

it and how we felt. And Eric, uh some of the audience may not know that some of these older films, especially those themed classics, especially in the horror genre, of course, it's sci-fi horror. So there's two genres going on here uh that haven't gone very hard for us, but hopefully that changes for the sake of our buddy Cory, because I think he may stop working with us and speaking to us all together here if we shit on this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So it's true, it's true. It's also our Patreon polled episode. Uh, this is Patreon month in the month of October, so our uh community over there had chosen this film, and I had seen this movie about a year ago because of Alien Romulus, but I had only seen bits and pieces of it. I ended up watching the whole thing. I only recently watched Aliens, so we'll get a little side conversation on that. But Phil, this is fresh on your mind, and uh again, a classic to many people. So, yeah, is this gonna end up in the lower tiers where we're criticized a lot, or is this gonna end up in the higher tiers where people think it deserves to be? I guess you're gonna have to stay tuned to find out.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah, so let's get into it. Late to the party, Alien, 1979, directed by Rick Scott, famously starring Siguria Bieber but a host of characters here in this film. We've gotta start with the iconic tagline, of course, in space. No one can hear you scream. During its return to Earth commercial spaceship, the stromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the

Patreon Pick and Franchise Context

SPEAKER_02 2:47

planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the end. Is gone. So uh over the last few months we have adopted a new format for these episodes. We each choose three takeaways. So, Eric, I will go ahead and go first, and we will just go ahead and start with uh one thing one thing that I think maybe some people could be turned off by this movie, and I'll give you uh I'll give you guys my thoughts on it here. And some people may think that this is a smoker. Maybe people may not like the pacing. It takes a while for the iconic scene to pop up, which is about an hour into the film. I also watched the kill count for this after I watched the movie Eric, so hey, I'm doing better. I watched the movie first and then the kill count. Same thing, in my opinion. But some people may not like the fact that it takes a while for this thing to get going.

Pacing Debate: Slow Burn or Slow Start

SPEAKER_02 3:49

There is a lot of essentially world slash team building, there's a lot of exploration with not a whole lot of explanation. And I gotta tell ya, I thought that was a major positive when it came to building the story and the tension of this film because you just don't know when it's going to happen. It's 2025. And the movie, the name of the movie's Alien. It's not like there's a surprise. I can't imagine anybody going to the movie theater in 1979 and that happening be like, oh shit, there's aliens in this movie. Hopefully that didn't happen. But I think the pacing and the slow build of this film is so important. And honestly, when you think of like some of these monster slash horror adjacent sci-fi films that come out now, maybe some of them get to the point a little bit too quickly. So, you know, it's no surprise that Alien Eric Swan, a bunch of copycats because you know what? They got it right here the first time.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, and as somebody who did watch Alien Romulus, again, not the biggest alien fan, but I've seen films. I've seen that. Alien vs. Predator, of course. I think most casual people will say that. I did see Prometheus back in the day, and that was a film that I thought I could just kind of go into. Very similar, very similar vibes, slow build, tension building. Uh, it doesn't always work in all of these films. Uh, same thing with for Aliens. I watched Aliens, very similar, even though there's an S at the end. So, you know, there's gonna be a little bit more going on. Spoiler here. You know, you know what the you know what the first one needed? More aliens. Oh my god. Oh my god. So, yeah, one of our favorite letterbox reviews ever. And um, yeah, for aliens, like it's uh for alien, it's one of those things where I think it works if there are other interesting dynamics at play. So that was a really good first callout. We typically call out about three, so my first call out is gonna maybe be a little different. So focusing on yours just for a second, it is a thing that a beauty when a pacing can be done in a way that it's building tension and it's escalating the horror and it's upping the ante. And this film did that very well for a 1979 film. My takeaway is this movie looked really good and honestly iconic. It has those iconic elements when you're watching it, and you can really appreciate some of the set designs and some of the locations and some of the real things you're seeing. I mean, you know, we're a big fan of like practical effects and things of that nature, those things go a long way, especially for older films. So I really liked a lot of what I was seeing on that end when it came to my first view of the

Atmosphere and Practical Effects Praise

SPEAKER_01 6:40

film. Those stood out to me to make me understand, like, oh, this is why this movie is held up in such a high regard on such a pedestal. Because this movie, like, actually looks good. As a resident fan of like games like Dead Space and other franchises that have obviously taken inspiration or paid homages to this, it was nice to see, and I really appreciated that, even if I'm not the biggest fan, or I should say digester of the genre.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Yeah, man. Practical sets, building that sense of dread and just kind of like wonder. I I watched another video from uh one of my uh one of my favorite YouTube channels as well, and they were talking about how that big corridor, even that they use, and it's it looks like this place is somewhere you're going to revisit quite often, it's going to be a really important part. And it's just not, but they just they they built that. Like they just don't they don't make movies like they used to. Like that's literally what is happening here, and that's one of the benefits of being able to go back and watch some of these films. It's like, man, they just don't do that anymore. And yeah, we can, you know, I'm sure some of the practical effects when it comes came to the actual alien, especially one part in particular, looked a little rough uh in a very tight space, which I'll talk about a little bit later. Not as a negative, but just because as a funny part, uh, where I did laugh. But yeah, you just don't get that anymore, which is a a real, real bummer. But they did that here, and I'm glad you brought up, you know, like you said, how big a how much of a fan we are when it comes to practical effects. Uh, you know, very intentionally for this Jurassic Park t-shirt because that's been, you know, there are practical effects in Jurassic, but like it's just so layered with CGI and crap and all that stuff, and just doesn't capture that same magic anymore. So uh, but yeah, I agree with you, Eric, as far as like the building that atmosphere and the film looking great all this time later. I recently, I think I've talked about this here in the last couple episodes. I just saw Jaws in theaters for the first time, first beacon experience. And you know, that shark, obviously, Steven Spielberg, very aware, the shark didn't look great. So, you know what you do? You don't show it a lot, and you let the storytelling do its job, and that's what happened here.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's one of those things where, like I mentioned, it's iconic and it does that in several different ways. So, uh really good first takeaway is just kind of in general. Phil, do you want to go back and

Ripley’s Impact and Final Girl Legacy

SPEAKER_01 9:10

forth with your second takeaway?

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yeah, let's do that. Uh, we'll we'll get to my second one here, and uh, you know, we just gotta talk about the supporting weaver and Ripley. This was obviously 1979, things were very different when it came to a female protagonist. We obviously didn't see a whole lot about that, and this is really a one of the staples when it comes to Ellen Ripley and being that kind of like final girl trope. And like, she was a badass man. She held things down. She was really the whole like the smartest person on the ship the entire time. There is like a lot of cliches here when it comes to you know people making dumb decisions and stuff like that, but uh, you know, all that is really forgiven when you're having uh an enjoyable time, so that really didn't bother me too much. So, Eric, I would love to know what your thoughts are on Ripley as this was gonna be our first introduction to that character. Also, this isn't super related, but like, why is it that all like a lot of movies from back in this time, 80s or before, does it did it feel like everybody was like whispering their dialogue? Why is everyone so quiet in older movies?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Because you're in in outer space, no one can hear you scream.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Oh, that's true. Yeah, Sotter, shout out to Donald. Uh, that would be very bad. Donald probably hates this movie.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Probably how much noise was made in space. That will let you know how angry Donald got, uh, friend of the show. But yeah, I don't want to keep going back to the same word, but again, iconic is what's coming to mind this morning, Weaver. Everybody talks about it. It's a performance that you don't expect to see from a film of this age. It's not like there were a lot of leading ladies in these type of very strong female performances. So to see this and the fact that she was such a staple in the franchise is really nice to see. You know, back in this particular time, she really had a strong hold on this character, what this character stood for, and it was a very interesting character among I would say maybe less interesting characters. Although I would bring up uh, you know, Ian Holmes' performance specifically, I think is also as the android uh there, also a pretty good performance uh alongside everything and a nice conflict in addition to the xenomorph. But I mean, yeah, she's fantastic, and the xenomorph is gonna be kind of my call out to pair with Segorna Weaver because the Xenomorph is something that like is iconic, is great, is awesome to look at. This movie, I think, they've tried to replicate this so many times, and just it's something about the first one. It's something about the first one that makes it special. You've seen the stuff coming out of the chest, the memes with the face huggers. You know what I mean? Like, you know this movie if you know pop culture, but when you actually watch it, there's still something very impactful about this being the first one. You kind of mention again some of the pacing, I mentioned some of the environment, and then Cigordin Weaver,

Xenomorph Design and Iconic Moments

SPEAKER_01 12:14

opposite, this creature. Like, there are so many things that I think elevate this to be one of the biggest draws in this genre, and they've tried to replicate the success. Some people would argue they have had success. I would say, just from my viewpoint, it never really got much better than this, and that's not supposed to be a knock. That's really just a kudos to the first one being able to pull it off so well.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Yeah, and once again, I will bring up Jurassic Park. Uh, and you also have some of these thoughts when it comes to some of the older Star Wars films, right? Like, we are when it's done basically perfectly the first time around. It's like, man, how can this really be replicated? And um, I'm very interested to hear your thoughts about aliens uh once we get to that here in just a little bit, but yeah, man, um again, a uh great performance from Super Weaver paired with an iconic movie villain. Uh and one, as far as a design, like no notes, you know what I mean? Like it just looks so cool, even with the restrictions of the time. Uh like the image of it, like uh when it when it first pops out of the chest, just like scooting away, like really fast, it's really funny. And then also, like, again, as I I wanted to bring up here a moment ago, like in the in the tiny corridor, and it's like reaching his arms out, which I'm sure back then, fucking terrifying, probably at a movie theater in 1979. Watching it in my bedroom, I laughed because I thought it was just a really funny image of a being like like reaching out to grab him. Yeah, other than that though, it was pretty terrifying, but that that moment was funny.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, no, I mean it's there's definitely some things about the age of these films that are hard to see and not like you when you try to appreciate it. Like, I remember when the android's head is like off of his body. Yeah, like it's the practical stuff. Like, I appreciated it, but some of the things, you know, some things you can tell are just like a little goofy of its age, of its era, and those I think add to the charm on a watchback, unlike other older films that we've watched that are kind of a chore to go through. The shining. So, not any movie in particular, but yeah, that's my thought.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

What if the Waywatchers had voted for us to re-watch The Shining? We should have put that on there.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

You know, we were talking about stuff to do for Patreon. Doing a vote to re-watch a movie and regrade it.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Like some of the bottom 20 or something like that. We're like 40 into this series for y'all that don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So, I mean, we could do that as like a Patreon exclusive, even.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

We gotta do something big 50 or 10 episodes away. It's gonna be crazy. But that'll be like July, August of next year.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

It'll be number 50. And we just gotta make sure it's number 50, because we're just going off the letterbox list. There might be one or two that couldn't get added. But we're close, yeah. We gotta do something real big. There are still a ton of movies that we have not seen. Maybe that's what it's gonna do with the godfather.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

I did not care for The Godfather.

Themes: Corporate Greed and Body Horror

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Listen.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

You gotta pick one. It's two big commitments there.

unknown 15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Oh, Aaron Brockovich.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

For number 15. You are not gonna be able to not talk about Aaron Brockovich between now and August 2026.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

No, we might do some bonus episodes between now and then.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

We're actually just a Julia Roberts podcast now, according to Aaron. So he made this decision on his own. I had no I had no creative control over it. Uh not mad about it. Uh, Schindler's List. I don't think we should watch. I don't think we have watched some very important films on this podcast. I don't think Schindler's List is one that we should discuss. I'm open to watching it and just having a discussion about it one-on-one. But I don't think we should watch Schindler's List and cover it off.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

You didn't want to watch Fruitville Station with me. You don't want to watch Schindler's List. I feel like I feel like you're trying to say something. Listen, I don't know if you're not sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

There have been some mistakes. Like Taxi Driver is one we probably shouldn't have don't.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I mean, how could we have known? How could we have known?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Maybe we could have read some Letterboxd reviews from like 2020 and on.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yeah, they're all positive apparently.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Anyway, alien. To get you my third takeaway, and just the the final one is just kind of combining a couple of things when it when you're talking about like the thematics uh of what's going on here. In this movie, there's a whole lot happening. Uh corporate uh exportation, uh, gender politics. They're cheating Ripley like shit. Uh they're treating her, even though she is in charge for a lot of this, you know, people are still disregarding her on the shit. Uh I saw I saw someone making more of like body violation thing, things of that. It gives the movie like a weight that's not just this is a nice this is a monster movie in space, and and upon like a re-watch, I'm very interested to really hone in on some of those themes and like see the things that I missed out on for the first time around. So uh yeah, definitely something I'll be re-watching, and um, yeah, just the again the layers of that, like all of our favorite horror films really, really have their they're not just a monster movie. Joss isn't just a shark movie, Jurassic Park isn't just a dinosaur movie, Star Wars isn't just a space movie, all these things are layered in their themes, and yeah, it is no difference.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, and I mean I agree with a lot of that, so I mean my third takeaway is a little conflicting, but like it's it's it's hard because like I don't disagree with anything that you mentioned. This is the type of uh movie you would want to go watch a breakdown of like Easter eggs or details you missed. But what I will say, and this is more of a complaint of the alien franchise in general, why I've never really gotten into it, is that while it does tackle several different thematics

Alien Lore: What Works, What’s Murky

SPEAKER_01 18:09

and topics, and whether those are underlying or very forefront up to the forefront of the movie, sometimes with the lore, it doesn't exactly hit as an audience member. Like, I typically tend to walk away from a lot of these viewings for this franchise, being a little bit more confused about like the grand schema thing, the timeline of things. And maybe for the first one, again, it's not as bad. There were doing a lot with like the mother thing and in all of these aspects. Like, some things don't need to be explained, but also it would be nice. And I think that's where sometimes the film would kind of lose me if I'm having to do too much exploratory digging. I feel like I'm lost in that and I'm not paying attention to the film. So I felt that a couple times, but really I feel that just in general with this franchise. Whenever I watch an alien film, I'm like, okay, I learned something new about the lore, and there's now three more questions. And then when I go to watch like a video breaking that down, it's not really clearly stated in the film. It's like through some other catalog of information or like a datalog that they read somewhere. You know what I mean? Yeah, maybe it's the tie-in game.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Yeah, I would go see there's video games, there's comic books for this thing now. There's so many different aspects of what's happening here. And if you had told me that like Alien 1979 was the first movie that did like post-credit scenes, I'd have been like, yeah, I know there's three more of these. Technically, I'd love to know what you know. There's there's more aliens showing up. Like, I would love to know how that happened. So, uh, you know, and then you even talk about like you mentioned with Prometheus and stuff like that. And then of course the most important ones, which is Alien vs. Predator, which uh Eric agrees with.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yeah, no, I mean top tier. Top tier. I've also seen vs.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Predator is that I have not seen this.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

It's not though. I think a lot of people, I really think a lot of casual people went to that. Uh it's very much like uh Freddie versus Jason. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Right, it was a spectacle. Like it was a oh shit. Yeah, they're gonna fight.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

You know how many people watch Batman versus Superman and watched Mana Steel? How do you know that name? Martha Fucking dumbass film, dude. Man, we're bringing up a lot of bad films here. We should probably get back on topic. Alien, guys. Uh, very good. Aliens that's a different story.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Uh-oh.

unknown 20:43

Uh-oh.

Aliens (1986): Cameron Shift and Take

SPEAKER_02 20:44

I didn't I did not care. Did not care for aliens. You know what the problem is? The xenomorph insists upon itself with this.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

It's so when I was watching Aliens, obviously this one instead of Ridley Scott is James Cameron. You can immediately feel the shift in direction. So it's it's already got that. And if you like that, that works out. But like, I don't know, it felt like a lot of like cliche James Cameron stuff. Like, you know, it's um Sigourney Weaver now is kind of playing this motherly role to a child situation that that is kind of brought upon her and this team. There are more aliens, cool, so there's some more action. There's also more attempts at CGI and stuff like that, especially when it comes to like spacecraft and those look of their age, of their time. And then the bigger thing is that this is a movie that tries to take its time. So there are more aliens, yes. But it doesn't feel like that until the end. So you're watching this again to about two-hour film, the first hour is like building, building, building, and it loses some of that lust because the first one did it already, and then it loses some of that lust because, again, not really interesting characters. Bill Paxton is really funny in it, like he's really great in that. There's a couple different standout characters, I would say more enjoyable supporting cast in this one, a little bit more goofy, a little bit more unserious. But it just, I don't know, Phil. It didn't hit the same beats. I still liked it as a movie, and I could appreciate it. But yeah, compared to the first one, a lot of people say that people believe it's a 1A, 1B situation in the alien community. I just don't see how that's the case. I think Alien is clearly superior than aliens.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Yeah, I will definitely be sitting down and watching aliens eventually. Uh certainly, I didn't think alien school by aliens. And you're definitely in the minority, so as far as some of our brands as well. The second film. So, yeah, it also came seven years later, uh, which were I mean, when you talk about turnaround time sequels back then, they usually weren't that long. Like, there wasn't usually that much space in between them. So I wonder if that led to the disconnect, obviously when you're at happening projectors, and especially a director whose really good film might be terminated.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

So as a fan of the Avatar films, I'm not gonna I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Oh sorry, and Piranhas 2. Really? Oh. Did he direct this? Yeah, 1982. Late to the party, November.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Have I seen that? Oh my god, I don't know. I've definitely seen the first why did he not do why does he keep doing the sequels? Why why didn't he do the first piranha?

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yeah. He's like, you know what, I got everything I wanted out of the Piranha sequel. Let's make six avatars.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

You know, I would I clicked on James Cameron's filmography, and I felt like this should be longer, and it's not. Yeah, because the movies are four hours long each year.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

It takes 20 years to make one of the James Cameron movies.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

That's what I'm saying. Like, out of the films that are here, especially listed by popularity, this isn't all of them, obviously, but it's Avatar, Terminator, two Terminators, one Titanic, one aliens. That's pretty much it. Like, there's true lies in there. Oh, just yeah, but but yeah, there's

Sound, Score, and Ensemble Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 24:15

like uh there's true lies in there and stuff like that, but like those are mainly his films. Like, this man is old. This man's old. Like, did he start late? I don't know. I've never put that together like mainly done like major franchises.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

When two of your movies, to be fair, are top five all-time softest gross in the history of Bill. You can chill, you can relax. They also re-released Titanic and Avatar like once every five years, so yeah, I guess that's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah. Alright. Yeah, no, I I guess I should have known this, but yeah, that just really caught me off guard. I'm sorry. James Cameron derailed this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

I think he's derailed some of the other things. Anyway, Alien. Really, really enjoyed Alien, and glad that we finally got to sit down and watch it. So we will get to scores here in just a moment. Eric, were there any one-offs or anything that we you think we missed that we should discuss? I do want to just throw out here as far as like sound design, score, excellent. That goes into just setting the tone of the film. All that is very, very good. So yeah, and and then there was like just a nice kind of I the moment where like right before shit hits the fan and they're all sitting around and just eating, you know, having a meal and everything, like you really feel like a sense of familiar familiarity with with all those characters, even though we don't really spend a whole lot of time with them. So they did a good job at that in, you know, in in a uh in an hour where everyone was together. You know, they got they start cutting people off pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Pretty pretty quickly. And I would just say that this is a movie that is clearly groundbreaking. You don't need us to tell you that. So I don't think there's any one-offs that you probably haven't already heard in the what over 40, 50

Ratings, Rankings, and Rewatch Value

SPEAKER_01 26:02

years that this movie's been out, whatever the number is. So yeah. I uh I don't have any one-offs, but I do have a score, and I believe you do too. And uh if the episode has told you anything, I think they're both gonna be positive.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Unfortunately, Eric, it's not up to me as I bring in the horses.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Don't bring in the horses, don't bring in the horses. You guys unfortunately will have to catch a future what did I miss episode for that.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Jesus. Uh let's get to the scores here. Rotten Tomatoes, 93% certified fresh, 94% popcorn and either score. Over on IMDB. It is sitting at an 8.5. Very, very good for IMDB. It's on course various lists for best and most influential films of all time. Uh, Eric, there is no way that I think anyone should really be giving this less than a four out of five, which is what I gave it. And honestly, I could see it going to at least a 4.5 upon a rewatch. We have some of the praises of this film from uh beginning to end in this episode, and uh, it's iconic. It has earned its place in history, and uh rightfully so.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Yeah, I mean you said it perfectly, so I don't feel like we should delay it much longer. Uh mine is also a Here's the horses. Oh, okay. Did you do the Rotten Tomatoes as well? I did, yeah. That's the first I did. I I I zoned out there after the horse to be honest. Yeah, no, but uh Alien is a four out of five for me. It's a film that, like Phil mentioned, has everything you're looking for uh from a film like this. You're looking for that in this one. You go in with expectations if you know about it in pop cultures, and I think you know, pop culture circles, and I think you really can walk into this with confidence that you will walk out, at least enjoying it. I couldn't imagine anyone giving this less than a. So maybe not a four, but you know, I could be a little bit more gracious or lenient because it is an older film, but I think it's hard to believe that. And Phil, I think this probably ended up in the top half of our list, maybe even further than that.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Yeah, here's the thing as far as where it breaks, because if we talk about this every single month as we add a new film to this list, because this is going to seem low. Actually, I gotta change it

More Like This: Comparisons and Preferences

SPEAKER_02 28:20

for one second, I gotta put one of this down. Uh, which is still very good, but I certainly enjoyed this much more space down.

unknown 28:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

So I'm adjusting my score here on the fly. Uh it's our podcast I'm gonna do. Uh so right now I have it listed, Eric, at 15. Um, it's behind, I could not put it above for sure, but just because it's just love pretty woman. Uh behind you behind Pretty Woman and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, which is my personal favorite Indiana Jones of the of the trilogy that we watched. And then it's just in front of Paddington 1, uh The Whale, Temple of Doom, things like that. So uh yeah, still number 15. Um, but again, just because the 14 films in front of it are so strong.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah, I think we're pretty much on the same page. I actually put it just in front of Indiana Jones and the uh The Last Crusade and uh The Whale as well, first Paddington. Uh and it's underneath films like Spirited Away, The Devil Wears Prada, and John Wick. So it's marked at 13 here for me. But again, I mean, late to the party, we've had good ones and we've had some not good ones. But the good ones really are harder and harder each time we add to like that top 15 list. It's harder and harder, and some of these things do need to get moved around and shuffled as well. For Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, because I think we are in the very vocal minority for that being the best one, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:55

We are, yeah, it's like our favorite one because it's just so funny.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

I know it's It's a good time. I had it at 10 before I added Alien. I had to reshuffle from like 10 to 15 to make that work because I was like, I don't know that I like it that much, but I do really enjoy it. And then I thought about it more. I was like, yeah, no, I kind of enjoyed Alien a little bit more for just like from a film perspective.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

What movies in the top 10 do we share? I'm gonna guess Interstellar, Chernobyl. Yeah. Shawshank? Is Shaw Shank in your top 10? Okay. Yeah. Perfect Blue? Yes. And Top Gun Maverick? Are those the five? Yeah, Top Gun Maverick and Paddington 2. Because the ones I assume are different would be Goodfellas, Devil Works Prada, Klaus for Me, I have Perfect Blue, and then Big Sick in my top ten.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yeah, so I have Perfect Blue as well, but the films that I have in the case.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

So we have six out of ten. So we have six out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Okay, that's out. Yeah, uh Mad Max Fury Road is in my top ten. That's number 11. Um Midgels versus the Machines and Spirited Away. Oh, and Pretty Woman. Oh yeah, that's right, Pretty Woman. Yeah. Again, uh Criminal is uh Criminal E2 a little bit lower for me. A little bit. It's like the one big discrepancy in like our list. Our lists are pretty consistent. Like, I don't not like the Big Sick or Klaus or the Double Girls Prado or Goodfellas. Like, those are still pretty high in my list, but like Spirited Away for you, huge difference. Huge difference, but yeah, Spirited Away is at 10. It will fall out at some point when we add another film into this. So probably Aaron Brokovich.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Yeah, we have a few uh big deal with something. Something racks the top 10. Uh we doing uh a more like this?

SPEAKER_01 31:43

We we are so we do a little series on the podcast called More Like This, where I look at Letterboxd and I look at IMDB, and we go into it looking at the films, bringing them up, and seeing which one would we rather watch. So, Phil, this might be hard because I feel like a lot of these films are not your jam. So if you don't did not watch this movie, that's okay. Pretty much not gonna bring up any of the aliens for you.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah. Predator's rough too.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Alright, I gotta scroll down quite a bit. Oh, okay, we can start here. Phil, would you rather watch Alien or A Quiet Place?

SPEAKER_02 32:29

We just did a whole episode about atmosphere and how atmosphere is good. I'm gonna I'll give Alien interest back, but it's close. Love that first Quiet Place movie. Uh you know the only Quiet Place movie.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Would you rather watch Alien or Terminator 2?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Alien.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Would you rather watch would you rather watch Alien or The Matrix?

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Alien. The Matrix confuses the fuck out of me. I don't want to watch The Matrix. I've never- I haven't wanted to watch The Matrix since I saw it as a kid and didn't understand it, and I don't want to watch it now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Would you rather watch Alien or The Silence of the Lamps?

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Silence of the Lambs, come on, man. We're Hannibal lovers here.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Would you rather watch Alien or Back to the Future?

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Back to the Future for different reasons, Scott, because that's

Wrap‑Up, Community Shout‑Outs, and CTA

SPEAKER_02 33:25

just it's just totally such a different shit's a good night, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Uh would you rather watch Alien or Nope?

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Alien, but it's close because Nope, upon looking back at it, I think I was too far song. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Would you rather watch Alien or Alien versus Predator?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Okay. I don't know if you've seen this movie, but because it's an awful movie, I just assume you have. Would you rather watch Alien or After Earth? The movie with Will Smith and Jamie Smith.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Alien, Jesus Christ. I thought you were gonna bring up 45 with uh Adam Driver, which and I love Dinosaurs. I couldn't get through 45. Uh that's what that's what it's called, right? 45?

SPEAKER_01 34:10

It's 65? 65. For 65.

unknown 34:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

You said 45, I thought of that shine now. So I'm staring down.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

45! God, 65 is a 2.1 letterbox.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Yeah, it's uh really Is this why Adam Driver doesn't like to talk about movie season? Maybe because really interesting premise. You don't know what this movie is, but uh there's this movie called Red Planet that I specifically remember. It had Val Kilmer in it. And yeah, Red Planet, underrated movie. It's got a 2.6 on letterbox, so don't listen to me. Yeah, uh, I used to watch that. Oh yeah, this is when they went to Mars.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

When they went to Mars.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah, and then the robot like turns on them. Alright, just uh a couple last ones. So you already said 65, that's good to know. Uh would you rather watch Alien or Cloverfield?

SPEAKER_02 35:00

I love Cloverfield, yeah. I'm a Cloverfield. And I'll style uh Alien's a better movie, but I'd watch Cloverfield first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

And then last one, would you rather watch Alien or the Shiny?

SPEAKER_02 35:13

You cut out?

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Oh, okay. No.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

I think you went through a tunnel.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

No, it's fine. I said I was done. Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, that was it. But uh yeah, uh, I'm really glad that we didn't have to disappoint anybody and that we didn't have to let anybody down with our scores. Uh again, we tend to do that from time to time. I'm glad tonight was not one of those nights. It's the extra five.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

We're gonna have to add that. We're gonna add it next time. Was that the face sucker? I don't know what it was. Also, we didn't even talk about the fucking moron falling into the eggs. Like, I don't think any he just slipped like like a jackass. The girl, too, was like, we need to turn around. Second smartest person, probably on that ship. So, yeah, guys. Smart ladies. Yeah, always listen to the women in your life, man. That's that's what we've learned. But Alien, 1979, late at the party, there it is. To kick off Patreon month, shout out to our Wait Watchers again for voting. Uh, and if you want to uh know how you can get involved as far as our content, Eric will let you know about that here in just a moment. But if you want to keep up with the Wait for a podcast, make sure you click the Link Tree link in the show notes of this and each and every single episode. You can follow us on social media, Instagram, TikTok, join our thriving Discord community, follow us on Twitch where we are streaming a ton. And also uh make sure to uh like, share, subscribe on YouTube. You guys know the drill. Follow myself and Eric on our personal pages as we navigate our content creation journeys. And if you want to support the show, head on over to Apple Podcasts Spotify, wherever you're listening, give us five stars is one of the best ways you can support the show. But as I teased there a moment ago, if you want to have a hand in the content that we create as well as getting these episodes early, Eric will let you know all about that before wrapping us up.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Yeah, so Alien was brought on by one of several films that we added to our Patreon poll for this edition of Late to the Party, where patrons of the show were able to vote on what movie we were gonna watch. We've done the same for several episodes in the month of October. And if you want to be a part of that, get behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one, come join our community over on Patreon where patrons of the show, Briar, T3 Kato, Vintage Macaroni, Corey from the World's Margaret, Nick Casbaro, the author of the Vitalarium series, and Bodder from the Shortbox Podcast, are supporting us monthly in exchange for some of those benefits. We're also now beyond one of our conventions that we do every single year, and we typically have interviews that you're gonna get first access to on that platform. So please make sure to support us there if you'd like to go above and beyond for the show. But all the free stuff that Phil mentioned goes a long way and only takes a moment of your time. With all that being said, my name is Mr. Eric Almighty, that is my co-host, Phil the Filipino. And please don't forget that we release new episodes every Wednesday for the podcast, and all you gotta do is wait for it.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

This is the Wait for It Podcast.