The Original ‘Alien’ Was Meant to Be the Opposite of ‘Star Wars’

Director Ridley Scott revealed he wanted 'Alien' to be the "antithesis" of 'Star Wars'. He also said that he had '2001: A Space Odyssey' in mind when he directed 'Alien'.

Star Wars paved the way for many subsequent science fiction films, including the original Alien. During an interview director Ridley Scott revealed he wanted Alien to be the “antithesis” of Star Wars. He also said that he had 2001: A Space Odyssey in mind when he directed Alien.

The original ‘Alien’ was the most beloved of the ‘Star Wars’ cash-ins

George Lucas’ Star Wars came out in 1977 and changed cinema forever. In 1978 and 1979, many film studios released Star Wars cash-ins. We got Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Disney’s The Black Hole, the sci-fi James Bond romp Moonraker, and the bold Japanese Star Wars rip-off Message from Space. The most beloved of the bunch is Alien. Part of the reason why fans remember Alien a lot more than Message from Space is that Alien told a story that wasn’t derived from Star Wars in any meaningful way.

During a 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scott said he saw Star Wars as “the romantic version of space, and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey being the reality of space.” Watching both movies changed Scott’s perspective on technology. “It was the first time in my life I learned that computers are smarter than people,” he said. Notably, the character of Ash from Alien explores the threat of android artificial intelligence.

Scott decided that his movie should be “the antithesis of Star Wars and be kind of dirty spaceships in space, used craft that were no longer spanking new and no longer futuristic, but felt like, as we ended up calling them, the ‘freighter in space.’ I wanted to go in that direction. So in a funny kind of way, I was already reacting more subliminally, I think, than design-wise against the way that Star Wars had been done.”

Ridley Scott said the script for ‘Alien’ has ‘virtually no characterization whatsoever’

Scott also revealed how his approach to design influenced his work on Alien. “I thought the script had an inordinately good engine,” he said. “I thought it was virtually no characterization whatsoever. It was, ‘And then and then and then.’ And then I got to a page where it says, ‘And then this thing comes out of the guy’s chest.’

“And I’m thinking, ‘This has put off four of the directors’ — because I was No. 5 on the list,” he added. “Obviously, clearly, the previous four went, ‘What?!? This is ridiculous,’ and just put it down. Because I’m a bit of a designer, I could see the film and I knew exactly what to do.”

Why the original ‘Star Wars’ was the much bigger hit at the box office

Star Wars became one of the biggest hits of all time. According to Box Office Mojo, the original film earned over $775 million worldwide. At a time when movies didn’t make billions, Star Wars‘ $775 million gross was jaw-dropping. Star Wars went on to inspire Hollywood to make more big-budget science fiction films and movies aimed at a broad, family audience.

Box Office Mojo reports that Alien grossed more than $108 million worldwide. That’s no small feat for a horror film. Horror doesn’t have the same broad appeal as space operas do, so it’s no surprise that Star Wars was the bigger hit.

Whether or not Alien was the opposite of Star Wars, both films became timeless classics.