Alien Featured the Greatest Secondary Villain in the Franchise

by

Summary

  • Ash’s android reveal in
    Alien
    showcases the company’s inhumanity, leading to a deadly confrontation with Ripley.
  • Ash’s cunning design to facilitate the discovery and preservation of the alien reveals his true villainous nature in the film.
  • Ash’s legacy continues in
    Alien: Romulus
    , raising the question of whether android characters will help or harm.

As a long-time fan of the Alien franchise, I must say that Ash, the cold and uncaring android from the original film, has left an indelible mark on the series. His character set the stage for the complex portrayal of artificial intelligence in these movies, a theme that continues to captivate audiences even today.

In the science fiction movie “Alien”, one of the most startling moments unfolds when it’s uncovered that Ash, a crew member aboard the spaceship Nostromo, is actually an android. This shocking revelation takes place after Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, another crew member, queries the ship’s computer, Mother, and discovers that Ash has been instructed by the malevolent Weyland-Yutani Corporation to protect the movie’s namesake alien creature at all costs.

Enraged upon learning that the crew members’ lives are considered disposable, Ripley confronts Ash, who attempts to choke Ripley but is stopped by Parker. Parker reveals Ash’s android nature by decapitating him, causing a fluid filled with milky white substance to flow out of his synthetic body. Initially, Dan O’Bannon’s Alien script didn’t include the Ash android character, which was added by producers David Giler and Walter Hill as they believed the movie needed a powerful secondary antagonist. This addition proved essential, as Ian Holm’s portrayal of Ash perfectly illustrates the company’s ruthless disregard for life and offers intriguing perspectives on the film’s title creature, which he admires deeply.

As a die-hard fan of the Alien franchise, I can’t help but marvel at how the seemingly destroyed Ash model paved the way for a plethora of android characters within this terrifying cinematic universe. Take, for instance, Andy from the latest addition, Alien: Romulus. Just like his predecessors in the series, Andy shares an uneasy alliance with the film’s main character, leaving us guessing whether he can be trusted or not. It’s this ongoing tension that keeps me on the edge of my seat!

Protecting the Perfect Organism in Alien

As a passionate movie-goer, I can’t help but notice the subtle hints that signal the villainous transformation of the android, Ash, in Ridley Scott’s classic film Alien. Leading up to his reveal, several scenes subtly foreshadow this dark twist. Every move Ash makes prior to this moment is part of a predetermined plan, one that ultimately aims to uncover the movie’s terrifying title creature and protect it at any cost, even if it means sacrificing the human crew.

Ash’s strategy initiates with the reception of a message from moon LV-426. After urging the team to probe the message in adherence to corporate policies, Ash deceitfully suggests that the message is unreadable, thereby pressuring the crew to explore its origin. Eventually, Ripley suspects that the message might be a warning, and unfortunately, by then, three crew members have already departed the vessel to examine the source of the signal, which was emanating from an abandoned alien spacecraft.

In a significant turn of events that would go down as one of the franchise’s pivotal moments, Ash makes a crucial move following a facehugger attaching to crew member Kane. Dallas and Lambert had retrieved the unconscious Kane from where he lay on the alien planet. Despite Ripley insisting on maintaining quarantine procedures, which would have kept Kane outside the Nostromo, Ash disregarded her orders, allowing the potentially contaminated Kane aboard the ship, seemingly driven by compassion.

As a dedicated cinephile, I can’t help but notice that Ash seems more captivated by the creature attached to Kane’s face than concerned about Kane’s wellbeing from the get-go. When this small extraterrestrial bursts forth from Kane’s chest and morphs into a fully-grown alien, it appears that the first phase of Ash’s mission has been successfully accomplished. Meanwhile, as the rest of the crew scrambles to counteract this menace, Ash offers no meaningful help. His indifferent demeanor is evident in his sarcastic “You have my sympathies” remark when addressing survivors Lambert, Parker, and Ripley about their prospects against the alien, a comment that rings hollow until his head meets a flamethrower’s blast.

Ash Gave Androids a Bad Reputation

The impact of Ash can undeniably be seen in the 1986 film “Aliens,” where the solitary survivor, Ripley, comes across another corporate android, Bishop. Initially, Ripley harbors suspicion towards Bishop due to her traumatic past with Ash. However, it is later revealed that Bishop possesses good qualities. In contrast to Bishop’s benevolent portrayal in “Aliens,” the character most akin to Ash can be found in the human antagonist, corporate executive Carter Burke. Similar to Ash, Burke is driven solely by the ambition to acquire alien specimens for research purposes and is prepared to sacrifice countless lives for this objective.

In Alien: Covenant (2017), an unexpected twist involving an android is presented, a departure from the original Alien series. Unlike Ash, who was initially trusted and later revealed as malevolent, Michael Fassbender’s character Walter seems sympathetic at first. However, the film takes a surprising turn when it is disclosed that Walter has been replaced by a replica of the evil David, leaving both the audience and the film’s remaining protagonist in shock.

Alien: Romulus Continues Ash’s Legacy

In one of the latest previews for ‘Alien: Romulus’, set between the stories of ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’, we see the artificial intelligence voice of the late Ian Holm as Ash, explaining that Ripley, in the final scene of ‘Alien’, sent the Alien out of her spacecraft’s airlock into the cosmos, where it attached to a drifting rock which eventually arrived at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s space station ‘Renaissance’, serving as the primary setting for the majority of the movie.

The enduring fascination with Ash, a villainous android from the ‘Alien’ franchise, even after nearly 45 years since the first movie’s release, underscores the ongoing debate about whether these android characters will aid or endanger their human counterparts during alien invasions. This persistent question keeps audiences engaged. Remember, ‘Alien: Romulus’ hits theaters on Aug. 16.

Read More

2024-08-15 23:31