Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens just got brand new, modernized trailers… for no reason at all. Scott’s original 1979 Alien film - based on a script by Dan O’Bannon and a story by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett - is widely considered one of the greatest science fiction movies of all-time, and its success spawned an everlasting franchise that continues to this day. But before it became a franchise, Alien received a sequel a few years after its release.
James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd were given the go-ahead to make an Alien sequel after 20th Century Fox executives saw The Terminator in 1984 and were impressed by their work. The sequel, titled Aliens, released in 1986 and became as - if not more - popular than Scott’s original film. But despite which one people believe is better, both films are well-regarded for being cornerstones of the science fiction genre, and it seems that the studio doesn’t want people to forget that.
The official Alien Facebook page released new, modernized trailers for Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens over the past few days. You can watch the Alien trailer above and the Aliens trailer below.
As is the case with most modern promos, the new Alien trailer gives away much more than the movie’s original trailer from the ’70s. For instance, the trailer hints or shows everything that would’ve surprised audiences in theaters, such as the Facehugger, the Chestburster, and even the Xenomorph. What’s more, the trailer also includes features that studios nowadays tend to overuse, such as the foghorn sound that was popularized by Christopher Nolan’s Inception in 2010. Ever since then, the foghorn has almost become a necessity for blockbuster movie trailers.
As for the modern Aliens trailer, the beginning starts out about the same, but the biggest changes are noticeable about midway through when it starts to show the Facehugger and the Xenomorph. Overall, this trailer is just as spoiler-heavy as the one for Alien is. What’s more, it also throws in Bill Paxton’s famous ad-libbed line: “Game over, man. Game over.” But, for the most part, the original and the modernized Aliens trailers are somewhat the same in that they tease virtually the same things, albeit with some minor changes.
Given that the Alien franchise seems to be on ice for the moment, it’s strange that Fox would suddenly go through the effort of creating and releasing modernized trailers for Alien and Aliens (so far). The caption for the Alien trailer said Fox created the trailer because they “can and it’s awesome,” but is that enough? Sure, they could just be having fun with the new promos, but they could also be teasing something down the line. After all, convention season is starting up and Alien Day - 4/26 - is only a month away. So, anything’s possible, but we’ll just have to wait and see what (if anything) happens.
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Source: 20th Century Fox
