Alien Nation (1988)

Director:

Graham Baker

Writer (WGA):

Rockne S. O'Bannon (written by)

Release Date:

7 October 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Prepare Yourself.

Plot:

A few years from now, Earth will have the first contact with an alien civilisation. These aliens, known as Newcomers...

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Police | American Flag | Drug Dealing | Bullet Proof Vest

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

James Caan	...	Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes
Mandy Patinkin	...	Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco
Terence Stamp	...	William Harcourt
Kevyn Major Howard	...	Rudyard Kipling
Leslie Bevis	...	Cassandra
Peter Jason	...	Fedorchuk
Conrad Dunn	...	Quint (as George Jenesky)
Jeff Kober	...	Joshua Strader
Roger Aaron Brown	...	Det. Bill Tuggle
Tony Simotes	...	Wiltey
Michael David Simms	...	Human Dealer
Ed Krieger	...	Alien Dealer
Tony Perez	...	Alterez
Brian Thompson	...	Trent Porter
Francis X. McCarthy	...	Capt. Warner (as Frank McCarthy)

Also Known As:

Future Tense (USA) (working title)
Outer Heat (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Belgium:16 (video rating) | USA:R (Certificate #29061) | UK:18 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American Entertainment Partners II L.P.

Trivia:

Jerry Goldsmith's synthetic and score was rejected early in post production for being "too weird" and replaced with music by Curt Sobel. Jerry Goldsmith's rejected score was released in Spring 2005 as a Varese Sarabande CD Club Release limited to 3000 copies.

Goofs:

Continuity: When George is hanging outside the helicopter, above the water surface, he should be screaming in pain since the rotor-blades would whip up a pretty dense cloud of seawater, thus he would be injured since his race is extremely sensitive against seawater, as pointed out by Joshua Strader, and William Harcourt in the end scene, their bodies react to it as we would to sulfuric acid, as referenced in the movie.

Quotes:

Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: You humans are very curious to us. You invite us to live among you in an atmosphere of equality that we've never known before. You give us ownership of our own lives for the first time and you ask no more of us than you do of yourselves. I hope you understand how special your world is, how unique a people you humans are. Which is why it is all the more painful and confusing to us that so few of you seem capable of living up to the ideals you set for yourselves.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Smallville: Doomsday (#8.22)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY

Not half bad

Considering that it is little more than your standard cop buddy movie, the slight variation being that the buddies are a tough seen-it-all cop and a by-the-books rookie who is an alien, Alien Nation ends up being a pretty good film. You can give a lot of credit to James Caan and Mandy Patankin for that. They have great chemistry as the partners. Both are very accomplished actors, and they make a very cliched script into something well worth watching. 7/10