Alien Page 3: The Chest-bursting Scene

Heresy indeed! ;->
I liked this movie so much i actually owned the DVD before owning a player.
Great SciFi horror but cyber?
Reasoning like that one might even consider Starship Troopers cyberpunk…

Hi Neuromancer, I too am on the fence about Alien (this is one of the reasons I let Metatron do the review for this - the other being that he really is very interested in the Alien series, and I knew he’d do a great job). Thematically, even though it has a robot, there isn’t a lot there. However, the robot does represent a corporation interested in increasing technological power over all else, including the destruction of humanity.

But visually, this movie is absolutely critical to cyberpunk, in that many a cyberpunk movie has been influenced by it, including Blade Runner.

Hey, guys, have you heard of BIOPUNK, though? I read about it in Wikipedia, that cyberpunk themes applied to bioengineering instead of cybernetics is basically considered its own subgenre now. Alien would DEFINITELY fall under that banner.

Biopunk, to me, is more along the lines of say, GATTACA…genetic manipulation, etc. RESURRECTION, to me, was the most Biopunk of the Quadrilogy. But I can see how this definitely has themes from both, really. A gray area, without a doubt. It fits under cyberpunk (albeit loosely) by having elements such as Ash, the synthetic human, and Weiland-Yutani, the evil corporation which seemingly runs everything…not to mention the group rebelling against them. If anything, I’d say it’s vaguely “cyberpunk-esque.” My question is, if this fits, how about something along the lines of CUBE (another evil corporation) or EVENT HORIZON?

Wow - Biopunk? I like it!!

I shall investigate, as this gives a nice answer for films like Soylent Green and its ilk. They have virtually no cyber elements, but fall nicely along all other lines.

New term for you, huh, SFAM? Just wait until you hear about the intricate details of Splatterpunk…or even Indrapunk (”Industrialpunk”).

I’ve heard of Industrial cyberpunk, but I guess this is probably the same thing as Industrialpunk?

SFAM - Yes, more or less. I’ve heard of films such as TETSUO, METROPOLIS, and ERASERHEAD referred to as Industrialpunk. But the first two are pure CP, to me. And ERASER, to me, is more steampunk than anything, so…talk about obtuse. At least Biopunk has the genetic coding angle to differentiate itself from the others… IP is probably the most difficult to define.

*On a wild side note, I popped in my old Super Nintendo copy of SHADOWRUN last night. What a blast. Any chance of covering the “Shadowrun” universe in the near (or not-so-near) future? I know William Gibson loathes it, but I’ve always had a certain fondness for the FASA creations. I actually considered writing a review of the game myself, but…I think I have to get a better feel for the site and how your reviews are set up before I even attempt it.

Hi Case, I think one of the game reviewers (we have three now) is planning on doing a review of shadowrun. I’m looking forward to it.

Alien is as much gothic horror as anything regardless of its futuristic (or alternate reality, however you want to look at it) setting. I think it would be an extreme stretch to call it cyberpunk or any version thereof. Good job on the review of a great movie though.

Biopunk?
That sounds like Doom and Quake to me!