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The "Alien" (also referred to as a "Xenomorph") is a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species that is the eponymous antagonist of the ''Alien'' film series. The species made its debut in the film ''Alien'' (1979), and reappeared in the sequels ''Aliens'' (1986), ''Alien 3'' (1992), and ''Alien: Resurrection'' (1997), as well as the crossover franchise ''Alien vs. Predator'' (2004) and ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' (2007). A similar creature of a slightly different design also briefly appears in the Ridley Scott film ''Prometheus'' (2012). In addition, the Alien appears in various literature and video game spin-offs from the franchises. Unlike many other extraterrestrial races in science fiction, the Aliens lack a technological civilization and are predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the ultimate destruction of lifeforms that could pose a threat to them. Like wasps or termites, Aliens are eusocial, with a single fertile queen breeding a caste of warriors. The Aliens' biological life cycle involves traumatic implantation of endoparasitoid larvae inside living hosts; these larvae erupt from the host's chest or intestines after a short incubation period, rapidly mature from juvenile into adulthood, and seek out more hosts for implantation. The Alien design is credited to Swiss surrealist and artist H. R. Giger, originating in a lithograph titled ''Necronom IV'' and refined for the series' first film, ''Alien''. The practical effects for the Alien's head were designed and constructed by Italian special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi. The species' design and life cycle have been extensively augmented, sometimes inconsistently, throughout each film. ==Concept and creation== The script for the 1979 film ''Alien'' was initially drafted by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. Dan O'Bannon drafted an opening in which the crew of a mining ship are sent to investigate a mysterious message on an alien planet. He eventually settled on the threat being an alien creature; however, he could not conceive of an interesting way for it to get onto the ship. Inspired after waking from a dream, Shusett said, "I have an idea: the monster screws one of them," planting its egg in his body, and then bursting out of his chest. Both realized the idea had never been done before, and it subsequently became the core of the film.〔''Star Beast, the Alien Quadrilogy'' boxset〕 "This is a movie about alien interspecies rape," O'Bannon said in the documentary ''Alien Evolution''. "That's scary because it hits all of our buttons."〔 O'Bannon felt that the symbolism of "homosexual oral rape" was an effective means of discomforting male viewers.〔 The title of the film was decided late in the script's development. O'Bannon had quickly dropped the film's original title, ''Star Beast'', but could not think of a name to replace it. "I was running through titles, and they all stank", O'Bannon said in an interview, "when suddenly, that word ''alien'' just came out of the typewriter at me. ''Alien.'' It's a noun and it's an adjective."〔 The word ''alien'' subsequently became the title of the film and, by extension, the name of the creature itself. Prior to writing the script to ''Alien'', O'Bannon had been working in France for Chilean cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic science-fiction novel ''Dune.'' Also hired for the project was Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger. Giger showed O'Bannon his nightmarish, monochromatic artwork, which left O'Bannon deeply disturbed. "I had never seen anything that was quite as horrible and at the same time as beautiful as his work," he remembered later. The ''Dune'' film collapsed, but O'Bannon would remember Giger when ''Alien'' was greenlit, and suggested to director Ridley Scott that he be brought on to design the Alien, saying that if he were to design a monster, it would be truly original.〔 After O'Bannon handed him a copy of Giger's book ''Necronomicon'', Scott immediately saw the potential for Giger's designs, and chose ''Necronom IV'', a print Giger completed in 1976, as the basis for the Alien's design, citing its beauty and strong sexual overtones. That the creature could just as easily have been male or female was also a strong factor in the decision to use it. "It could just as easily fuck you before it killed you", said line producer Ivor Powell, "() made it all the more disconcerting."〔 Fox studios were initially wary of allowing Giger onto the project, saying that his works would be too disturbing for audiences, but eventually relented. Giger initially offered to completely design the Alien from scratch, but Scott mandated that he base his work on ''Necronom IV'', saying that to start over from the beginning would be too time-consuming. Giger signed on to design the adult, egg and chest-burster forms, but ultimately also designed the alien planetoid LV-426 and the Space Jockey alien vessel.〔 Giger conceived the Alien as being vaguely human but a human in full armor, protected from all outside forces. He mandated that the creature have no eyes, because he felt that it made them much more frightening if you could not tell they were looking at you.〔 Giger also gave the Alien's mouth a second inner set of pharyngeal jaws located at the tip of a long, tongue-like proboscis which could extend rapidly for use as a weapon. His design for the creature was heavily influenced by an aesthetic he had created and termed ''biomechanical'', a fusion of the organic and the mechanic.〔 His mock-up of the Alien was created using parts from an old Rolls Royce car, rib bones and the vertebrae from a snake, molded with plasticine. The Alien's animatronic head, which contained 900 moving parts, was designed and constructed by special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi.〔 Giger and Rambaldi together would win the 1980 Academy Award for Visual Effects for their design of the Alien. Scott decided on the man-in-suit approach for creating the creature onscreen. Initially circus performers were tried, then multiple actors together in the same costume, but neither proved scary. Deciding that the creature would be scarier the closer it appeared to a human, Scott decided that a single, very tall, very thin man be used. Scott was inspired by a photograph of Leni Riefenstahl standing next to a 6'4" (1.93 m) Nubian. The casting director found 6'10" (2.08 m), rail-thin graphic designer Bolaji Badejo in a local pub. Badejo went to tai chi and mime classes to learn how to slow down his movements.〔 Giger's design for the Alien evoked many contradictory sexual images. As critic Ximena Gallardo notes, the creature's combination of sexually evocative physical and behavioral characteristics creates, "a nightmare vision of sex and death. It subdues and opens the male body to make it pregnant, and then explodes it in birth. In its adult form, the alien strikes its victims with a rigid phallic tongue that breaks through skin and bone. More than a phallus, however, the retractable tongue has its own set of snapping, metallic teeth that connects it to the castrating vagina dentata."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alien (creature in Alien franchise)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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