Culture chat: ‘Alien: Romulus’ is all horror, no guts

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we discuss Alien: Romulus, the latest instalment of the space-epic franchise. The film stars Cailee Spaeny, who, along with a group of friends climbs aboard an abandoned spacecraft only to find some very familiar murderous aliens. Is this new entry an evolution of the series or does it simply play the hits? And what do we want out of sci-fi franchise films? Guest host Topher Forhecz is joined by FT Weekend senior editor Horatia Harrod and political columnist Stephen Bush.

-------

We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

-------

Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Our review of Alien: Romulus by Danny Leigh is here: https://on.ft.com/46VyElE

– Stephen recommends the album Bad with Names by corto.alto

– Topher recommends Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Here’s an interview with the director from 2018.

– Horatia is on X @horatiaharrod, and Stephen is @stephenkb

-------

Register now for the FT Weekend Festival, and claim £24 off your pass using promo code FTPodcast at: ft.com/festival

Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

-------

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Tofer Forges in for Lila Raptopoulos. And this is our Friday chat show.
0:09.4	Today we are talking about the new film Alien Romulus. It is the latest movie in the alien franchise.
0:15.4	The film is directed by Fetti Alvarez and stars Kaylee Spaney as a scrappy outsider who works under the thumb of an
0:22.0	oppressive corporation.
0:23.9	She, her robot brother, played by David Johnson, and some friends, decide to board an
0:28.9	abandoned spaceship in pursuit of a better life, but wouldn't you know it, there's an alien
0:33.3	there, and horror and hijinks ensue.
0:36.3	Welcome to the Romulose Space Station.
0:38.3	You are my lucky.
0:47.3	Stop playing around, man.
0:48.3	Just get up.
0:49.3	I'm not playing around. There's something in the water.
0:51.3	What do you mean? There's something in the water?
0:52.3	I don't know. There's's something in the water. I don't know. It's just something in the fucking water. Alien Romulus has all your franchise hallmarks from facehuggers to acid blood, and while it looks like a box office success, critics are divided over it. So is it a scream or should it be ejected into an asteroid field? Joining me in London, we have the FTs political columnist and resident film buff Stephen Bush. Hey, Stephen. Hey, yeah. Also joining me is Horatia Herod, the FT Weekend senior editor. Hey Horatia.
1:28.4	Hi there.
1:29.3	All right, y'all. Let's talk about the movie. Stephen, what did you think?
1:34.7	So I think that the tragedy of this film, and indeed many of the alien films, is that they kind of
1:40.7	feel like they're a living metaphor for the first alien movie,
1:44.5	in which some ordinary working stiffs are sent on a mission.
1:48.2	The money-making company is not being fully straight with them.
1:52.1	And as a result, this terrible beast infects one of them,
1:55.6	eats them out from the inside, and kills most of the rest of them.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.