LogIn"When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact."
Alien: Romulus, the latest installment in the much-loved sci-fi horror franchise Alien, will be released in just three days. The movie is inspired by the first Alien movie, which was the start of the series back in 1979, and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, as well as comics, novels, and of course, video games.
Recently, Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez has shared how the movie is paying homage to Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly’s well-received 2014 video game. In an interview with GamesRadar+, he mentioned that it was thanks to the video game that Alvarez realized that “Alien could truly be terrifying.”
“I played a few years after it came out. Don’t Breathe was coming out. Or was I waiting for Don’t Breathe to come out, and I was playing the game. That’s why, at the time, I was like, ‘Fuck, if I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and scare the audience again with that creature and those environments.’ I was playing, and realising how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone.”
20th Century Studios
A few years later now, Álvarez does get a chance to do something with Aliens. With the aim to “scare the audience again with that creature,” here comes the movie. Meanwhile, the unique saving feature in the game is another aspect that Álvarez pays homage to.
Different from most of the games, which allow you to simply click a button or visit certain places to save your progress, the Registration Point in Alien: Isolation is the Emergency Phone connected to the walls, which needs a key card from the protagonist Ripley. When the animation of Ripley inserting the card is playing, she will be vulnerable to attack — that’s a dangerous alert in that volatile world.
“The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone. In the game, every time you knew there’s a phone you’d go, ‘Fuck, I’m about to go into some bad set-piece.’ It’s the same thing here. You’ll see they’re planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact.”
Alien: Isolation
Take this as a friendly reminder from the director to those who are going to watch the movie very soon. You can check out the interview by GamesRadar+ here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.