There’s a lot of focus on the Alien franchise right now. Prequels, sidequels, spin offs etc - what if I told you that we had one of the best non-official entries in that universe with Peter Hyams’s ‘High Noon in space’?
Nothing to do with acid bleeding Alien lifeforms, but everything to do with corporate greed, expendable workforces and the agonising courage to take a stand.
Throw in the claustrophobic retro tech futurism of the mining colony setting and I cant help feeling we are seeing a story from a rival to Weyland/Yutani - one as equally nefarious.
The star power of Sean Connery really elevates, what feels like a low key indie movie, and his scene about his characters regret and wanting to see if there was more to him, shows what a compelling actor he truly was.
And if IMDB is to be believed, this film was director Peter Hyams’s ticket to his next sci-fi movie - the brilliant sequel to 2001: A space odyssey, 2010: The year we make contact.
So if Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and Alien: Romulus left you feeling that no-one truly understood what made the story and characters from the orginal Alien Trilogy so compelling, do yourself a favour and revisit this 1981 sci-fi classic!