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Mickey 17 is like Alien if it was good
(multiverse.soulism.net)
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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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Unpopular Opinion
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I'm sorry, but...what? What's the bait and switch in Alien? Are you talking about Ash being an android? How does that reveal bring the movie down?
The first half hour of the movie has a wildly different tone, directorial style, character arc setup, and thematic tension than the latter half. The Ash scene actually goes some way to unifying the two disparate half-movies playing out here, but it's kinda sloppy and halfhearted.
The problem is that the Alien doesn't make a good metaphor for the violence inflicted by capitalism, because slasher movies are not good at exploring political issues. The Alien isn't a capitalist, it's a monster who kills people for no reason. Because that's how slasher movies structurally work, they're about monsters that kill people for no reason. They're boring and shallow.
Alien attempts to transcend the limits of the slasher genre to tell a political science fiction story, but it only partially succeeds.
If you want an entire movie that works like the first half hour of Alien, watch Outland. It maintains the same tone and story tension the whole way through, and succeeds in telling a political story. See, it's based on the western genre, and westerns are more political than slashers. I'm not even a fan of westerns, but Outland is a movie I love. I wish Alien were more like Outland.
I'm not trying to tell you your interpretation is wrong because that's kind of an absurd thing to do lol. I just want to share my interpretation of Alien to contrast:
I don't think the alien is capitalist either, or a direct analogy for the destruction capitalism brings.
I agree with Ash in that it's amoral within our worldview. The later movies kinda destroy this but that's not what I'm here to talk about 😅. Anyways, I think it's less of a metaphor and more of an analogy to something like atomic weapons. Here is a seemingly uncontrollable, humanity ending thing that can be used to enforce the will of those who possess it.
If Weyland-Yutani can possess this weapon, they no longer need to rely on the working class to chose to work against their own interests to protect the company against those who would either confront them directly, or who just stand in their way.
The company shows hubris against nature in thinking they can idk... commodify this being into a weapon they can direct. The exploration of the destruction of capitalism, imo, is via Ash himself. He is evidence of capitalisms true intent and absolute ruthlessness and disregard for workers in the quest obtaining higher wealth. In the end, it is ironic that this creature who doesn't give a fuck about the struggle between the corporation and the workers outdoes the corporation in terms of violence. The allusion to the destruction that comes from capitalism isn't to the alien itself but to to the outcome of the company trying to control it.
I don't even like slasher movies but I understand people feel very differently about this! You may be aware and still think they suck at it, which I'm not going to argue with.
Examples: https://morbidlybeautiful.com/screaming-for-change-political-horror/
https://offscreen.com/view/jenniferas-body-karyn-kusama-2009
(Don't get me started on zombie movies lol!)
I want to share that I never viewed Alien as a slasher movie. There is graphic violence but it's not nearly as gratuitous as even slasher flicks of the time. That's why I like it so much! I love atmospheric horror but hate gore and jump scares. Both exist in Alien but to a tolerable extent 😅