Editorials
‘Alien: Resurrection’ at 25: The Underwater Chase Sequence Remains a Franchise Highlight [Scene Screams]
The deaths of Newt, Corporal Dwayne Hicks, and Ellen Ripley in 1992’s Alien 3 created a significant obstacle to the franchise’s continuation. Five years later, Alien: Resurrection answered this problem by resurrecting central heroine Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as a clone, spliced with xenomorph DNA thanks to the alien queen embryo gestating within the actual Ripley before her death. How Resurrection handled this pesky problem, and the return of the xenomorphs proved extremely divisive upon release, with one notable, unifying exception: the mesmerizing underwater chase sequence.
Resurrection takes place two centuries after Alien 3 and follows the mercenary crew of the starship Betty. The mercs deliver their human payload to the USM Auriga, a military ship deep into their extensive scientific study of the xenomorphs. So much so that they’ve cloned Ripley numerous times over and have full-grown xenomorphs in captivity, which happen to break free while the Betty crew are on board, prompting a fight for survival from both the damaged Auriga and the lethal aliens.
With the ship under heavy damage and the high death toll, the remaining members are forced to make their way through the ship’s flooded kitchen for an escape route. The protagonists must hold their breath for an extended period, dodging obstacles and debris underwater with two apex predators closely in pursuit. It creates one of the franchise’s most intense yet visually thrilling chase sequences.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of the Lost Children) kicked off production with this intricate, elaborate, and dangerous sequence. Filming this intense chase required multiple weeks of training with stunt coordinator Ernie Orsatti and underwater cinematographer Peter Romano, followed by a month of shooting the sequence in an enclosed set completely submerged in over 12 feet of water.
The Alien: Resurrection featurette, “Death from Below,” chronicles the challenges involved. Winona Ryder, who plays surprise clone Annalee Call, recounts how a near-drowning experience at a young age instilled severe anxiety when approaching this scene, while Broadway obligations left Weaver unable to attend much of the training to prepare for the scene. Gary Dourdan had to accommodate Dominique Pinon, strapped to his back as paraplegic character Dom. That so many characters were involved meant it was even trickier for stunt and diving coordinators to track them all at once, creating more than a few harrowing brushes with disaster. There was also the matter of the fully submerged kitchen set accumulating debris and bodily fluids over the weeks it took to film the sequence.
Scarce oxygen and limited vision affected none more than special makeup effects legend and creature performer Tom Woodruff Jr., who played the lead xenomorph in this sequence as well as the Alien Queen and Ripley’s newborn hybrid. The fiberglass, foam, and latex xenomorph suit meant the creature actor couldn’t see or hear and had to put complete trust in the stunt team to help guide him.
The camera tracks eight different characters into and through the watery kitchen, followed by two inhuman creatures. Not all of them make it to the water’s surface alive. Jeunet effectively captures how ill-equipped the humans are underwater; their clunky movements, the way the weapons and added weight slows them further, and the desperation to find air before it runs out add to the suspense. It’s all contrasted by the sleek way the xenomorphs glide and maneuver through the water, underscoring how well they adapt to any hostile setting. The almost otherworldly underwater sound gives way to a nail-biting score, signaling imminent danger that heightens the tension to a palpable degree.
This stunning sequence took an incredible amount of labor and craftsmanship, and the effort was more than worth it. For one intense, edge-of-your-seat scene, Resurrection slowed down time for a showstopping moment that threw impossible odds at its characters in the most breathtaking (pun intended) way.
Scene Screams is a recurring column that spotlights the scenes in horror that make us scream, whether through fear, laughter, or tears. It examines the most memorable, and often scariest, scenes in horror and what it is about them that makes them get under our skin.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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