Alien Nation (1988)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

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 | Drugs | Reference To Richard Nixon | Detective

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:

Cassandra: Tell me the truth. Have you ever... made it with one of us?
Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes: No... unless I got drunk and somebody didn't tell me.
Cassandra: Mmm. A virgin! I find that very arousing. You sure you haven't?
Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes: Um... there's lots of things I haven't done; that's not real high on my list. No... you know... don't take it personally. I'm a bigot.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Shooting the Police: Cops on Film (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Not too bad

Curiously enough, this movie is far inferior to the excellent television series it inspired, something you don't see very often. However, ALIEN NATION the film is enjoyable in its own right if you are not opposed to buddy cop movies. That's basically what this is, a buddy cop movie with some scifi stuff thrown in. The acting by Caan and Patinkin (a great actor) is good stuff, and probably saves the film from being below average. That, along with the original storyline and fairly well-crafted Newcomer/human society, holds the film up well enough in order for me to give it a 7. Not as good as the TV show, but not too bad either.