A Great Video Analyzing Subliminal Foreshadowing in the Opening Scenes of Alien

Wow...

That's a good vid and he finds some really good points to ponder. I NEVER gave even an instant's thought to the little dangly figurine we see by Kane's console in that opening shot with the console activating...

Thanks for posting about this!!!!

@Blackwinter-witch

Right? I never gave that a second thought. I did always think that the button thing sticking out of the helmet was kind of weird and sort of wondered about it, but never made the connection. 

And the narrator is right, the opening sequence is very "hypnotic". Like, I don't have a long attention span, but I've never been bored by the opening sequence even though it has no dialogue or real action. 

I also liked his observation about the "flatulence noise". I never noticed that, but he's so right! 

I always liked that opening scene but took it at face value- it was MUTHER awakening. I never understood the helmet since it was different from what the crew wore. I also didn't notice the little elephant dangling on the screen until now.  40 years in and there are still new things to see and consider.

The foreshadowing aspect of the opening scene and Kane later on never occurred to me, but I can see where the author is coming from. I don't recall RS ever commenting on it.

Thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see things like this.

The helmet I always dismissed as 'okay, emergency helmet, and the air hose connect in the lower middle of the faceplate kinda makes sense'..but that was it. Same with the console, just went with 'okay, some computer action is going on, kicks off the story'

You know, the whole opening sequence manages to do a very good job of having an ominous feel to it. 

You know that feeling...and maybe this is too specific (but it feels like it's universally relatable on some level), when you were a kid, hanging out with your mom and siblings, watching T.V. at night, and your mom asks you to go get her something from the kitchen, on other side of the house?

So like, you run full speed down the hall, grab the thing, then then run back (but stop running just before you reach the room where everyone is, because you don't want your siblings to know you're chicken shirt lol) and then casually stroll back in like you weren't just running for your life? 

And like, you have to run, because if you stop and stare into the darkness for longer than a split second, or god forbid catch sight of a window, you're 100% sure you'll see weird eyes or a UFO out the window or some indescribable terrifying thing?

That's sort of what the opening sequence feels like. Like, looking at an empty part of the house that isn't meant to be seen at night in the dark, when no one's around. It's very tense and spooky. 

VivisectedEngineer

Good point, yeah!! It has that feel, yes! Or like a highschool or shopping mall in the dead of night...you just feel, as you said, some places are not meant to be seen outside 'working hours'.

I've been in high schools and a couple of malls mid-night for work and such in the past...and as for 'spooky' 'looking at an empty part of the house that isn't meant to be seen at night in the dark, when no one's around'. both are tied for 1st place....maybe the school edges out a hair ahead.

@Blackwinter-witch

Lol, before my son was born, I used to stay at the school working until around 10pm almost every evening (saved me from having to do work on the weekends). 

Yes! It was VERY creepy. When I'd walk form my classroom to the work room to make copies, I'd always envision being a ghost haunting the school

...Like, what if something like that happens? Like, what if when you die, you go back to the place where you spent the most time, and just...endlessly work...? Anyhow, it's surreal thoughts like that that would strike me in an empty school at night because, yes, it's an extremely spooky setting. 

Remember that really well done fan video a few years back, with a Xeno in an apartment building or something? (I think it was made for a theater class or something maybe?)

Anyhow, someone should make something like that but in a school after hours. (Mall would be awesome too!) 

VivisectedEngineer I think the short you are talking about is Alien Infestation Part 1 and is on this thread:

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/47453

Yes, it is very creepy has that vibe you mentioned. There is a Part 2 out there and it is on the same thread near the bottom!

VivisectedEngineer

IF they could get permission to do that film idea at West Edmonton Mall in Alberta Canada...THAT place, in the still of night...by itself gives you the chills.

An Alien stalking around, hunting maintenance workers...with the maze of miles of tunnels underneath it...Perfect.

Yes, these are all spooky and creepy things and it's interesting to pull back and consider that evolution wise, we seem to be more cautious in the dark and quiet. That rational doesn't always help though, especially if you are in an area that should be dark, quiet and unoccupied and you observe a cracked door that you thought was shut before, or seeing a shadow against a wall that looks like a figure but is really a coat and hat hanging on a coat rack- things like that. It's easy to feed into that fear and good writers know how to tap into that.

"I NEVER gave even an instant's thought to the little dangly figurine we see by Kane's console"

Me too i Never paid any Attention to that Detail, as far as the Figure being Elephantine.

Its a Interesting Interpretation of that Scene, i had before Wondered if they Wore that Mask if it would offer some Better Protection ;)    Nice to see someone else Noticed it.

I had not Paid Attention in detail to the Sound Track/Silence then Sounds with the Helmet compared to the Face Hugger Scene so thats also a Nice Catch.

The opening scenes are fantastic. The helmets are a little bonkers, though. It's just for artistic effect. It's also a bit disturbing that some of the helmets switch from having a red cylindrical "port" on the outside to it being on the inside of the helmet visor. Continuity errors. Whatever, they look cool.

Have any of you ever considered that the small elephant figure was never in the original film ever.

But some how the small elephant figurine dangling from Kane's monitor is now there.....What ever did this did not change everything.

I can tell you all this.......I have watched Alien at least 100 times maybe more...just watched it again early morning Aug 27, 2020 and do not recall seeing an elephant dangling from the monitor....I saw the output, thought about the helmet, saw the pack of cigarettes, watched as the camera pans around the room, the camera fades into the hyper-sleep chamber scene.....BUT NO ELEPHANT ever and I have been watching the film for over 40 years.

I know a good part of the dialog verbatim, obviously recall of every scene in chronological order.....but there was never any elephant in the original movie until now. 

@BigDave,

I would also like to add that you just stated that you never saw the elephant figure as described until this video was posted? You know every frame of the movie, in concise detail, perhaps better than the people who made the film....since you never saw it either until now it was never in the original film we all saw until just recently.

Now of course that would mean everyone's memories and the entirety of all physical aspects of this anomaly - has been altered, added somehow???

How is that possible? There are movie mistakes that are very had to see because they happen in tenths of a second, the blink of an eye.....this was never in front of all of us for the past 40 years and no one ever talked about it or noticed it until now.....in fact I find very little evidence of the inclusion of it in another locations on the web....and of course we all know very well that RS and many of the set designers go into great detail about how they incorporated various aspects of the each and every thing they put into the production...I have investigated those videos for years as well as everyone else and BigDave.....there was never any elephant figurine there.....it is something that we would have noticed after 40 years.....I read the original Alan Dean Foster Book Alien so I am very familiar that the Space Jokey sitting in the chair is refereed to an elephant like creature that is fossilized. 

I have studied Kane's terminal where he sat for several years.....in fact one day a few months back I wanted to know what brand of cigarettes he was smoking...and of course looking them up on the internet you come to the conclusion they were made by the prop department. No there was no elephant figurine dangling from the Kane's monitor in any of those subsequent viewings or study of the film....I also studied where and when the WY logo appears in the film as well....and no elephant figurine in any of those viewings either.

Four decades is a long time for a lot of people to watch a film and not see this very important detail......also I would like to add NO ONE EVER DISCUSSED IT ONCE IN ALL THE YEARS WE EVER TALKED ABOUT THIS FILM IN ANY OF THESE POSTS....Why is that?

Why does this elephant figure appear just now....recently....because it was never in the original film; however, for some reason, no matter how strange the reality of that irrational explanation is, it is the only explanation that fits the truth of the causality of this contradiction.

As an experiment........we should all participate.....BigDave you start a separate post call the title "What jewelry did the crew of the Nostromo wear in Alien?"

Just as an experiment lets all go to that post and list every item and compare what we think they wore from memory only....however, do not watch the film, do not look online.....just go into the post and list what think each movie character wore....it could be anything from a ring, bracelet, earrings, ect.....it is experiment time......pick a day we all post.....then after the submissions to the post we should all watch the film separately and then compare what is in the post.

You all may find this of interest.

This is Alien Isolation the game.....they recreated the Nostromo in really good detail. 

NO ELEPHANT HANGING FROM THE CORNER OF KANE'S MONITOR....but they took the time to digitally render every detail of the emergency helmets, every detail of each characters hair, all the different colored  buttons, sizes and shapes of other objects.....ect.

Not photoshopped....and NO ELEPHANT FIGURINE.

This pic of Kane's terminal was taken from this website... https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/

Lot's of very important facts at that website.

@BlackAnt

Maybe its the Mandela Effect ;)

I watched the Opening Scene Last Night both from the Movie on my Cable Network On Demand and One of my DVD's and the Elephantine Key Chain thing is there. (in Both).

It could be just something we can MISS like how Many Movies have GOOFS that you dont Notice until they are Pointed Out and so you go and Watch the Scene again and then Notice them for the First Time ;)

Or someone is Playing with the Similation/Matrix ;)

As i had the other Month watched a Movie with someone in my Home and said we SAW this in the Cinema before, and they was like NO we Never... i have NOT seen it... i was like we DEFO DID!

But then i have also seen a Movie and said i ant seen this before while others said YES we had together, and also there are some Memories i have in regards to Events with some People who do-not even Remember, or have Slightly Different version of the same Event ;)

So maybe the Mandela Effect is going on and we can blame CERN!

LOL @BigDave,

I wish it were that simple....but none of us remember it as well as the people who programmed that video game....

What is even more interesting....is finding someone that should absolutely know that it should be there......and no one from any of these posts in year after year ever mentioned it once........

Here is what is creepy ok.....when I mentioned the knife mistake/plot defect/movie blooper....everyone instantly remembered that.....

Its the fact that we all have a shared memory of not seeing this that is of worry to me....there should be one person in the group at least with a vague recall of it being there and there are none.....and I know you have watched the film as have I frame by frame and its not in there for us both....

For example....ponder this.....Ash is studying the remains of the face hugger....and then Ripley appears right behind him....this was a plot defect because you are supposed to hear the med bay door slide back into the recess but you don't and you know exactly what I am talking about because you have seen the movie so many times.....however, you said it yourself....never in all my viewings where there is something PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED ON ASH'S MONITOR DO YOU EVER RECALL IT ONCE EVER BEING THERE.....this is something that we all did not miss...it was never there to being with....

It is so strange in fact....it would be as if someone came into the chat one day and said the Alien sits down and writes a letter you know while the other crew members are looking for it.....and we all know this is just impossible....just like its would be impossible to be watching this movie for 40 years and all of us not notice something hanging right there on ASH'S monitor....

I do not believe in the Mandela Effect....although I believe something is at work here with this...it is a very extraordinary contradiction....and it is worth investigating further.

Ok i have just watched ALIEN again well the First 20 Min and what we have SHOWN in the Opening Sequence is TWO Different VDU

The One you are have Marked Out from the Game is the One that ASH uses, which is different to the ONE which Lambert uses Later

There are some Differences to BOTH of the VDU stations.

11 Min into ALIEN we come to see Lambert at her Station and we again see the Elephantine Thingy...   I do indeed Never Recall it before but i maybe MISSED it before because its maybe a Scene where Nothing that Important Happens so i dont pick on some Details.

I could maybe have been there all along and simply MISSED.

OR maybe something is up ;)

Oh I knew that both the scenes of Kane's.....VDU correction....not ASH's VDU KANE'S.....don't know why I said ASH....both Kane's VDU are different that is why I posted them....

I am sticking with my story about the Elephantine figurine never really being in there but every aspect of every frame has been discussed in great detail....for decades at a time. 

40 years is a long time to miss something right in front of all of us....it is something that all of us do not recall because it just appeared in all the sources of this content....every aspect of it.......somehow what could not be replaced was our collective memory of it....this is the hypothesis....BigDave do not doubt your own memory of the film...you would have noticed an ELEPHANT HANGING FROM THE CORNER OF KANE'S MONITOR - The thing is you don't? and it was right in front of you for 40 years and me too....No matter how strange the theory, it has to be true if you can rule everything else out that is even remotely plausible, because there is no other rational explanation for anything else.

This is not about something we all lost and then found....it is about something that was right in front of all of us for 40 years and we never all saw it not one time - all of us, tens of millions of people saw this film and it never comes up one time until now - this was meant to be seen or was it until now? It was right there in front of all of us for 40 years.

So it was never there to being with originally but now it is there in every copy of every movie now though...in every picture on the internet....When the developers of the video game recreated the Nostromo they left that out? Because when they created the video game it was not there either until now.....there are discrepancies and the biggest one is that we can see it now for some reason as before for over the past 40 years, despite it being right in front of all of us we never see it?????? NOT ONCE DOES IT EVER COME UP FOR DECADES UNTIL RECENTLY.

BigDave we argued in this forum about the way Bishop held a knife in Aliens....the way a character was holding something for days.....but this never came up not one time by thousands of people.....and it was there in front of us for 40 years.....

It was not there that is why it never came up....it appeared recently....and that is also why we can go oh how did I miss that for so long....it was right there in front of me the entire time????

It was never there originally until now.....and we should try to figure out why.

"I NEVER gave even an instant's thought to the little dangly figurine we see by Kane's console"

Me too i Never paid any Attention to that Detail, as far as the Figure being Elephantine."

For 40 years none of us saw this....not ever not once, why is that?

I bet a lot of you would not be able to recall it under hypnosis either....this is all stranger than you think....I bet a lot of you could recall more detail under hypnosis about a lot of things in this movie that would prove this aspect of the film is a rather serious anomaly that we cannot have a knee jerk reaction to and just say well that is something I never saw before.....something we just missed.

A better question to ask yourselves now is are there any other things, objects in this film you think you may not know are there but they are there and were always there. 

I am confident I could go frame by frame in this movie and identify every aspect it. With a degree of certainty of why it's there, why the people who made this movie put it there, and there reasons for it......the small elephantine figurine does not fit in that analysis....until now just a few days ago...it just appeared recently....and no one has a rational explanation why millions of people missed it?

Ergo it was never there to begin with....and yet we are to believe it was right there in front of all of us for 40 years....

1 - Here’s the first time we see a console.

2- Here’s another. Except it’s probably the first one dressed up with some additional props.

3 - Here it is again, lighting up.

4 - Hey, some navigation. Note the elephant toy and the mistake about the Nostromo’s capacity.

5 - Another peek. The elephant toy is a bit more visible.

6 - The elephant is still there (blurred), but the handwritten note has disappeared, and the monitor now has a piece of tape

7 - same shot

8 - Here’s Ash. He’s got some sticky notes on his monitor.

9 - Lambert is trying to find out where we are. She likes sticky notes, too.

10 - A closer view.

11 - Almost found our location. Hey, the elephant is back.

12 - Ash figures out the geology. He’s very tidy, having ripped off his sticky notes from the monitor.

It looks like what hox is showing are continuity errors which are fairly common in movies if we look closely enough.

Here is the scene. FFW to 1:50 . The figure isn't there, and then it is. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f95xBXq8MR0

To illustrate my point, here are some errors from The Thing 1982 that I never noticed until an alert viewer pointed them out. It's still a great movie though. The video is about 4 minutes and some change:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ1xJ5P2X4o

It's exactly this kind of Laboratory Dissection that motivates me to keep things in my works as solid as humanly possible in respect to their own Continuity and canon. I'm certain I do not always succeed, but I do make the effort.

Because I KNOW you guys will slice things up thin and run them under a microscope. :D

Good points about the monitor and sticky notes and such changing...never would have noticed those little details.