Reproduction and the Maternal Body in the Alien series

Chapter Two: Aliens

The ‘devil-mummy’ is the monstrous feminine personified: the Medusa made flesh, lurking inside every mother, and haunting her with the threat of eruption should she fail to live up to the myth of beatific maternity.

– J. Ussher, Managing the Monstrous Feminine

Get away from her you bitch.

– Ellen Ripley, Aliens

Helmed by James Cameron, Aliens is the successor of the original 1979 film and follows on from the occurrences on board the Nostromo. The story picks up 57 years after the events of the original film, and again puts Ripley at the centre of the alien narrative. While Alien thematically focused on the abject manifestation of reproduction and interspecies rape, Aliens alters this narrative with themes of the female maternal body, motherhood and adult/parent bonding, not only in the human characters, but also in the alien. Part of the story reveals Ripley, the last human survivor of the Nostromo, has now outlived the daughter she has not seen since she was a little girl. This emotional loss is restored when Ripley and the accompanying colonial marines discover a survivor of the alien onslaught, a girl nicknamed Newt (Carrie Henn). A question left unanswered in Alien is that of the origin of the deadly alien eggs encountered by Kane in the derelict craft. While the archaic mother who bore the eggs is only present in theme and metaphor in Alien, her ovarian manifestation is presented in the physical form of the Alien Queen, who presides over her warrior breed of aliens in the belly of the human colony.

This chapter will focus on specific scenes in Aliens that represent themes of reproduction within the mise-en-scène, and using textual analyses of these scenes, will explore the allusions to motherhood that are prevalent within the film, together with the physical and thematic abject symbolism that is present in both human and alien. In addition, the chapter will explore the social influences that are apparent within these themes, including advancements in 1980s’ surrogacy, and Ripley as the Reagan-era feminist hero fighting an external threat.

The film opens with Ripley floating adrift in the reaches of deep space. The shuttle Narcissus that was once aborted from the underbelly of the mother ship Nostromo in Alien’s penultimate scene of abjection has now been Ripley’s life support for the last 57 years, a speck of technology amid the deep gulf of outer space. The audience is re-introduced to Ripley as she is frozen in time in the hypersleep chamber with the cat Jonesy sleeping at her side, a reminder of the maternal instinct displayed by Ripley in Alien’s final scenes. The ship acts as a womb (mirroring the re-awakening scene in the original film) in which Ripley is discovered by a salvage team. Immediately, the mise-en-scène introduces male domination in which “the smaller female space is penetrated by force […] A robotic arm enters [through the ships door] like a gigantic amnio-needle – or worse, abortion forceps – searching the interior for signs of life” (Gallardo-C and Smith, 2004: 74). Ripley is rescued by the three-man team of salvagers, is handed over to The Company, and placed in an Earth orbiting infirmary. It is at this point that the narrative introduces the horror and anxiety of birth and biological motherhood, as first established in Alien.

As Ripley is in the hospital, surrounded by hospital staff and instruments, her birthing scene is visually more closely tied to normal human labour than Kane’s, which happens over a meal. Prefiguring the monstrous Alien Queen, this image of monstrous birth equates the anatomy of the human female with that of the Alien female. The scene also draws on the symbolism of the vagina dentata, as not only do Jones’s open mouth and teeth represent the Alien’s castrating jaws, but they also visually stand in for Ripley’s vagina as he is nestled in her crotch at the beginning of the scene.

(Gallardo-C and Smith, 2004: 75)

The scene depicts Ripley’s body as a place of danger. As the doctors attempt to restrain her, the series of slow motion shots and close-ups of Ripley’s panicked face emphasis the confused chaos of the scene. The camera is positioned at the foot of the bed as Ripley pulls up her hospital robes, exposing her pulsating stomach, the drama heightening as an alien head pushes up from within her innards and attempts to breach the skin as the body succumbs to both maternal and abject duties. Before the ‘birth’ can come to fruition, the scene cuts to Ripley bolting up in bed from the nightmare. Sweating and perturbed, the recollections of the events on board the Nostromo, and the deaths of her fellow crewmembers, clearly continue to disturb her. At this point it is unclear to the audience where reality ends and dream starts, as there are no indications in the mise-en-scène to suggest this. However, what the spectator is aware of is that the alien did not erupt from her stomach, an act which, like Kane before her, would have resulted in her death as the monster would eat its way through her organs and burst from the skin. The scene also suggests that Ripley has become the victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, a disorder often associated with the surviving soldiers of the Vietnam War, a war that overtly influences part of the film’s story arc in the manifestation of the marines.

This opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the film. What was once a story enveloped in sexual, phallic implication, emasculation and rape, becomes directed towards themes of war (both internal and physical) and motherhood, and in doing so, gives insight into Ripley’s life before the events of the Nostromo. Eager to discover the whereabouts of her daughter, Amy, she is saddened to discover that she met her death while Ripley was still floating in deep space. The loss is unbearable, and Ripley struggles to come to terms with the idea of outliving her daughter who died of old age on Earth. Later, however, the bereavement is compensated when Ripley discovers a survivor of the alien slaughter on the planet LV-426, in the shape of a young girl named Newt. The two form a special bond, much like a mother and child, a bond that strengthens throughout the course of the film. The relationship also reinforces Ripley’s mental and physical state, and while attempting to rescue Newt (and the marines) from the alien onslaught, Ripley becomes a warrior. If Alien sets the character of Ripley up as a feminist icon of contemporary cinema, then Aliens sets her up as a female action hero, a figure of iconography suitably established in the Reagan-era of America. By the final scenes of the film, she has transformed into a gun-carrying combatant and mother, a soldier whose primary objective is to rescue Newt, and destroy the alien species.

Film theorist Catherine Constable addresses the maternal and heroic instincts that Ripley attains while on the mission with the marines. Focusing on Ripley’s relationships with Newt and the Alien Queen, Constable applies Barbara Creed’s discussion of Alien to the analysis. In doing so, Constable deploys Kristeva’s theory of abjection in considering the representation of the maternal body and reproduction.

In Alien, Ripley is first and foremost a science officer, a fully integrated member of the crew of the Nostromo. She is fleetingly feminized when she undresses in the escape pod, a glimpse of sexual difference at odds with the impersonal egalitarian structure of the rest of the film. In Aliens, however, Ripley is an outsider, a civilian advisor on a military expedition. Her positioning outside the marine corps is clearly conveyed in the waking scene en route to the planet LB426 [sic].

(Constable, 1999: 184-185)

From the offset of the re-awakening, this scene alienates Ripley from the rest of the crew of the Sulaco, the ship taking them to the alien planet. Upon seeing Ripley, Vasquez (Jeanette Goldstein) questions who she is by asking a fellow marine, “Who’s Snow White?” As she asks, the wide tracking shot places Ripley in the centre of the frame surrounded by the soldiers, her soft, slender frame and plain grey underwear providing a contrast to their hard, taught bodies and khaki clothes. This immediately feminizes Ripley in comparison with the rest of the crew, in particular Vasquez who has a muscular physique and overt masculine characteristics. Constable argues that this reference to Snow White puts Ripley in the category of fairy-tale princesses, an image also comparable to Ripley’s awakening at the beginning of the film, which has visual comparisons to Sleeping Beauty. However, upon encountering the alien, it is Ripley who rescues Vasquez and the marines from certain death, thus indicating Ripley’s transition into hero.

However, before Ripley is transformed into fully-fledged action hero, she must first exorcise the demons that haunt her from her past. Already established is Ripley’s fear of her own body becoming the birthing place for the alien creature, as well as the loss of her own biological daughter. The arrival of Newt provides Ripley with sense of fulfilment, and represents her as substitute mother, which emphasises 1980s’ developments surrounding surrogacy. The theme of the surrogacy is also prevalent in the lifecycle of the alien, namely the Alien Queen, whose survival displays the need to contain life within a host at the absence of sexual intercourse, much like the advancements of surrogacy:

As doctors in the 1970s and ’80s perfected methods of sperm collection and artificial insemination, surrogacy no longer needed to involve intercourse. Then, in the late 1980s, another technological milestone changed the practice even more. Using in-vitro fertilization, doctors could combine a husband’s sperm and his wife’s egg and implant the embryo into a surrogate, who would then carry it to term. It’s a process called gestational surrogacy. Suddenly, a surrogate could give birth to a baby with whom she shared no genetic connection.

(Patton, 2006)

The development of surrogacy is a theme that is ostensibly relatable within the narrative to the abject, as represented by the alien. Alien featured the archaic mother in the form of the alien that impregnated Kane, followed by the alien that killed all but one of the crew. In Aliens, the metaphor of the archaic mother has shifted its manifestation into the physicality of the Alien Queen, the monarch of the alien hive, and a character, which serves to mirror Ripley’s maternal body. As Ripley and Newt race to escape the labyrinthine corridors of the colony in the belly of the station, they take one miscalculated turn and happen upon the alien nest, finding themselves in the middle of a room filled with eggs, each containing the creature capable of forced impregnation. The room is a dark, dangerous space, a hostile womb of alien birth, which when compared to the sterile infirmary of Ripley’s nightmares, serves as a direct opposite to the human elements of labour.

In Aliens, differentiation between species types takes the form of an opposition between cerebral replication and physical reproduction. This contrast is built up in the scene which Ripley and Newt find the queen. Newt is balanced on Ripley’s hip at first, and there follow cuts between medium close-ups of their two faces and shots of the queen. Their faces mirror each other, acting as a symbol of continuity, but more importantly, a continuity achieved through shared experiences of being sole survivors rather than by physical reproduction.

(Constable, 1999: 188)

This mirroring of faces is also shown in previous scenes in the film, which emphasise Ripley’s maternal role over Newt. Upon rescuing the child, Newt is shown as unresponsive towards the marines’ questions. However, when Ripley attempts to communicate with her, she slowly opens up about her family. As Ripley stands in front of Newt who is sat on a table, the camera shows the two in close-up as the edit cuts between them during the conversation. Ripley wipes dirt from Newt’s face, and smiles as she softly talks to her. It represents Ripley as a caring, maternal figure. Later, before an attack by the alien, the two are seen sleeping. Newt is positioned in the foreground while Ripley sleeps behind her, her arm wrapped around Newt, who in turn is clutching her doll, Casey. Again, the scene alludes to a mother/daughter relationship. But while both scenes depict Ripley in a maternal role over Newt, the cinematography in the first example in particular positions them as equals, their faces at equal elevation displays no indication of a height difference, instead mirroring them as survivors of horrific onslaught, as does the scene Constable describes when encountering the Queen. As the camera pans the nest in a subjective shot, the audience initially sees a medium close-up of an egg being deposited on the floor. Covered in a soft, protective mucus-like membrane, the camera subjectively tilts upwards to reveal the egg sac, enormous and pulsating, the breeding apparatus in which the eggs form and where the alien life takes shape. As the two terrified females slowly turn around, a tracking shot along the egg sac finally reveals the Alien Queen. Constable continues her analysis:

The piecemeal presentation of the queen conveys a sense of her size. The cuts between Ripley’s and Newt’s faces and the queen’s body also serve to contrast their cerebral mirroring with her mute physicality. The opposition face/body feeds into a traditional dialectal model, sustaining other oppositions such as mind/matter, individuation/undifferentiating physicality. As a representative of matter/maternality, the queen is clearly designated Other.

(Constable, 1999: 188)

As she sits upon her ovarian throne, the external womb slowly produces the eggs. Her black body and heavy breathing is reflective of the danger that was present in the physical presence of Darth Vader in Star Wars. In the alien hive, there appears to be an insect-like hierarchy, in which the queen is representative of the ‘queen bee’. Her long legs and protruding spines from her back give a spider-like quality to her physicality, as Constable argues, a physicality that “conjoins both the bee and the spider” (1999: 188). She is a grand spectacle of the grotesque, an ornate elaboration on the monstrous-feminine, as previously introduced in Alien. It is a hostile scene, a grotesque and abject encounter, which Creed argues is represented by an inside/outside distinction:

Horror films that depict monstrous births play on the inside/outside distinction in order to point to the inherently monstrous nature of the womb as well as the impossibility of ever completely banishing the abject from the human domain. […] The womb represents the utmost in abjection for it contains a new life form which will pass from inside to outside bringing with it traces of contamination – blood, afterbirth, faeces.

(Creed, 1993: 49)

However, the Queen is not merely a tool to underline allusions towards birth as monstrous and abject. Although the grand narrative of the film includes anxiety surrounding reproduction, as emphasised by Ripley’s nightmares and the alien lifecycle, the Alien Queen represents specific categories of society in 1980s’ America. In her analysis of the film’s climactic fight between Ripley and the Queen, Amy Taubin argues that

Like Alien, Aliens climaxes with a one-on-one between Ripley and the alien. In the second film however, the scene is structured as a catfight between the good mother and the bad. (As in Fatal Attraction, or the more recent The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, the good mother is forced to defend her family against a crazy woman who invades her household and tries to usurp her position.) However, thrilling is the entrance of Ripley in the power loader (she’s transformed into cyborg), the image is immediately tarnished by the obviousness of her line, “Get away from her, you bitch”, addressed to the alien who’s about to do something terrible to the cowering Newt. The misogyny of the scene has often been analysed on a psychosexual level as the refusal of the ‘monstrous-feminine’, of the archaic, devouring mother. But it also has a historically specific, political meaning. If Ripley is the prototypical, upper-middle-class WASP, the alien queen bears a suspicious resemblance to a favourite scapegoat of the Regan/Bush era – the black welfare mother, that parasite on the economy whose uncurbed reproductive drive reduced hard-working taxpayers to bankruptcy.

(Taubin, 1992: 9)

Taubin’s statement argues that while the Alien films revolve around a metanarrative that that raises concerns with reproduction, Aliens relates the Alien Queen and her brood to the unemployed immigrants of ‘80s’ America, and Ripley as the taxpaying worker. Therein, the scene in which Ripley shoots grenades into the ovarian sac in the hive could be argued as her attempt to sterilize the Queen, purifying the colony (here representing America) of the alien threat.

Ripley and her alien nemesis are juxtaposed in their maternal instinct and stature of surrogate mother. While the Queen does not appear to have sexual proclivity, at least not for the purpose of this film, she does not show signs of breasts to nurture her young, nor does it appear she needs them, which further implies a subtext of surrogacy as her breed are born out of human hosts. Her maternal instinct is based solely on survival of her species, her external womb acting as a production line for the eggs containing the alien weapon, each capable of lethal impregnation. She is the archaic mother in her most grotesque form: a deadly killing machine with the phallic vagina dentata, a prominent attribute that gets passed onto her warrior brood. But while Ripley’s and the Alien Queen’s physical appearance differ in the sense of monstrous versus human, both share the maternal instinct which places them as protector of their offspring, paralleling their similarities. In Aliens, Ripley represents the caring, yet hard-personified surrogate mother and redeemed Reganite, while the Alien Queen becomes the Welfare Queen, feeding off the state, represented here by the civilians of the colony. While the film is allegorically influenced by what was the Reagan-era of America, encapsulated within its narrative is the abject threat of the horror of childbirth, a nightmare Ripley herself has yet to encounter.

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