Alien Nation (1988)

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 | American Flag | Drug Dealing | Bullet Proof Vest

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

Color:

Color

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:

The alien character played by Mandy Patinkin was originally going to be named George Jetson but Hanna-Barbera wouldn't give the rights to the name. The decision to call his character 'George' in the movie was kept as an in-joke.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the chase scene with the police car the tail lights on Sykes and Francisco's car change from broken to intact to broken again.

Quotes:

Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes: [Sykes has just cornered Harcourt] Hands Up!
[Harcourt raises his hands, producing a tube of ja-bru-kha]
Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes: You make one move and you're history.
William Harcourt: Not history... ETERNITY!
[consumes the ja-bru-kha]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Signs (2002)

Soundtrack:

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Great Movie

This is a great movie, and has and great series to go with it. Also the Social backdrop is cleverly handled and not to blatant, Concentrating mainly on the stupidity of bigotry and showing it to be a product of fear, its fun with plenty of action some of which is quite realistic, without being gruesome. The movie also contains a little humour, some quiet subtle, and is well paced. The only downside is you will want to know what happened next.

it also works as a drama due to the nicely scripted family scenes, which are not to sugary. Obligatory bad guys, with wonderfully bad guy plans, and cop to cop jibes, which are not lame.

So if you like Sci-fi, drama and cop movies you will love this, the makeup is decent, and the 80's fashion is not overdone, so does not date the movie.

Also it has some real stars in it, see the IMDb site for the cast list.