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Over on threads a response I made explaining why Alien 3‘s opening sequence is a mistake had prompted a little push back from fans of the 3rd film in the franchise.

What is posted was; ‘It’s worse than that. It’s telling the audience from Aliens that they were suckers for investing any emotional energy in Newt or Hicks. All of your emotional strain and joy — wasted — because we can’t give an ef what you feel.‘

The response that has intrigued me the most goes like this; ‘That’s life man. No rhyme, no reason, no ef’s given for your feelings. The people you love sometimes die in accidents, that doesn’t make you a sucker for loving them. Alien 3’s opening is gut-wrenchingly real.’

That response is a clear example of nihilism, that life and existence is essentially meaningless. The vast cold universe is utterly uncaring of your little concerns and your efforts to impose order and meaning are futile.

I myself am not a nihilist but it is a valid philosophical disciple, but does it negate the point I made about the betrayal of the audience with the uncaring killing off of the characters of Newt and Hicks?

Nihilistic art has its place and a long tradition even in cinema. The French film The Wages of Fear is famously nihilistic and its ending a somber examination that a person’s fight for life is futile and that death comes for all of us is woven into the films story and mood.

Alien and the direct sequel Aliens are not nihilistic pieces. Ripley survives the first film triumphant. Ridley Scott did not invoke The Wages of Fear and have an asteroid slam into Ripley’s shuttle after her defeat of the alien to demonstrate the futility of existence. James Cameron’s script and film for Aliens is a voyage of healing and becoming whole after a traumatic event. It contains not only message of hope that healing can be had but message against racism with Ripley’s acceptance of Bishop after her near murder by Ash. It is far from nihilistic.

This is what makes Alien 3 the sequel rejected by so many fans. The franchise had not been nihilistic. The series itself, born in the cinematic garden that followed Star Wars in rejecting the overly cynical mood of the 70s for a more upbeat and optimistic vision. While Alien and Alienscontained the sub-plot of the ‘Corporation’ and its corruption providing motivation for events absent in the original drafts of the script the overall tone of the films are is not cynical. The 1980s were not fertile ground for cynical stories, the audiences had experienced enough of them in the 1970s and wanted adventure and escapism, hence why two film now considered classics and masterpiece works, Blade Runner and The Thing failed utterly at the box office.

Alien 3‘s sharp turn to cynicism and nihilism is at odds with the previous films and with the mood of the audience. It is thematically divergent from the franchise and while each film must hold its own unique vision and theme to work within the franchise they must hold the encompassing theme of the greater work.