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Mickey 17 is like Alien if it was good
(multiverse.soulism.net)
Wow congrats on an actually controversial opinion π
I don't see even the silhouette of a resemblance between Alien and Mickey 17, really curious where should I look ?
Alien is a movie about capitalists travelling space to exploit its resources, but then encountering a mysterious alien threat that kills them all until the hero neutralises the alien with cunning and violence.
Mickey 17 is a movie about capitalists travelling space to exploit its resources, but then encountering a mysterious alien threat that just wants to be left alone, but is willing to kill them all until the hero neutralises the capitalists with diplomacy and violence.
The fact that the creepers want peace and can be reasoned with really elevates Mickey 17 over Alien. Both of them are about how capitalism is horrible and wants to exploit everything no matter the harms. But Weyland-Yutani is only harming humans; everything nonhuman is just another metaphor for the dangers of capitalism. The Niflheim expedition is torturing both humans and aliens, often for very little reason.
And the resolution of the movie fixes these problems, offering a way out of capitalism. Alien kinda has the Harry Potter problem in that the core political tension of the movie never gets resolved. Ripley survives against all the odds, only to go back to capitalist Earth and live through it all again in Aliens. It's a good business move to leave the potential for the sequel open, but it does degrade the quality of the art.
Jesus Christ where do you even begin with this one. Thanks for a quality film analysis through the Marxist lens.
You're absolutely right and communists would never exploit a rock for its resources or be violent towards another creature. Forget reality and read more theory.
I'm not a maxist, I'm an anarchist. In Mickey 17, the creepers are communists.
ok 16 year olds view of the world same as marxists.
Plenty of First Australian Elders who know the value of a non-capitalist economy, and they're not 16.
A hunter-gatherer society that hasnt developed modern markets isn't an ideological stance. Now elders fight for property rights, run land councils, and take mining royalties. When they start a business they want returns on that investment same as everyone else. Capitalism allows any form of economy to function under it. You can start a socialist business or run a communist town. Its just that capitalism solves a lot of the problems with the least downside.
The government requires people to pay taxes. The pastoralists who stole Aboriginal land now charge money for the food grown on that land. Native plants and animals are going extinct because of the for-profit mining companies' pollution. Sacred sites are bought and sold, access to songlines is locked behind property ownership. During the invasion, Aboriginal warriors who tried to enforce the local law on the illegal immigrants were murdered, their corpses desecrated.
Capitalism has been a disaster for Aboriginal nations, and there is no opting out. You can't just go bush to get away from it, they fucking stole and poisoned the bush!
aha yes, makes sense under this lens !
I wish someone would explain why you're getting downvoted. π
It's cause My opinion is unpopular
Even then, you provided a thorough and reasonable explanation. Some people, huh...
I wonder if more people knew that:
- scores are tied to posts and comments and not users the way karma works on reddit; and
- some instances disable downvotes
would they still use downvotes as a "I don't like this" button?
It stifles the conversation and since they don't like the arguments but can't argue against them effectively, they would still. I'm of the mind that every place should easily allow you to see who votes and in which way. Responsibility is a good deterrent for silliness.
I guess my point is that the lemmy system is less stifling, so it's ineffective for anything but hurting feelings (especially for comments!), which is still a shitty thing to do.
I could be misunderstanding the facts, but I don't think base lemmy hides comments with low vote counts (and they don't hide users with low vote counts because that's not a thing). With posts, it does make them less visible because if your view is based on "hot" or "top" they will be ranked lower.
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:
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.
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 π . 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.
slasher movies are not good at exploring political issues.
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!)
Because that's how slasher movies structurally work, they're about monsters that kill people for no reason. They're boring and shallow.
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 π
This is kind of only unpopular because you might be the first person to ever compare the two movies lol
There's way better comparisons to make: Avatar, Ferngully, Dances With Wolves, etc. Those movies all directly address capitalism/colonialism with every step of the plot. Capitalism is just a metaphor in Alien.
For the record, I really liked both films.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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