In space no one can hear you scream (or retch, or sigh, or…)

THE CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION HORROR MOVIE TAGLINE: “In space no one can hear you scream.”        The memorable marketing slogan used for the 1979 movie Alien         This famous tagline and the image of the alien egg used for posters and ads promoting Alien were created by Steve Frankfurt and Philip Gips, partners of the graphic design firm Frankfurt Gips Balkind (now In Sync Bemis Balkind). It has been repurposed, copied and parodied countless times ever since.

THE SPACE STALKER MOVIE APPLICATION: “In space, no one can hear you retch.”        Barry Hertz        Film critic for the UK Globe and Mail        This is the pointed headline of his review of the 2016 science fiction movie Passengers, starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, published in the Globe and Mail, December 20, 2016.        “It’s Stockholm Syndrome masked as true love, and it is sickening,” Hertz said of the film’s plot. Most critics and women’s rights activists agreed. The film was widely-criticized as being cluelessly sexist. Why? In a nutshell, Pratt’s character finds himself to be the only crew member who’s awakened from cryogenic sleep on a spaceship taking a long voyage. He gets lonely, fixates Lawrence’s still-hibernating body and wakes her up. He lies to her by saying her revival was a pod malfunction, then woos her. In the minds of the spaced-out producers who greenlit Passengers, this was supposed to be a romantic storyline.

THE SPACE MOVIE CLONE APPLICATION: “Don’t let the very good cast fool you, this outer space adventure is just another Alien clone...In space, no one can hear you sigh with resignation.”        Adam Graham        Film critic at the Detroit News        In his review of the science fiction movie Life, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds, published in the Detroit News, March 23, 2017.

THE SPACE ALIEN SEQUEL APPLICATION: “In space, no-one can hear you scream...except whatever it is that’s about to rip your chest apart.”        Susan Arendt        US Executive Editor for GamesRadar and Co-founder of TakeThis.org        In her article on the GamesRadar site previewing the sixth movie in the Alien series, Alien Covenant (2017).

THE SPACE MARINES VERSION: “In space, no one can hear you scream – unless it is the battle cry of the United States Marines!”        Line yelled at a group of rookie marines by Drill Sergeant Frank Bougus (played by actor R. Lee Ermey) in the boot camp scene in the first episode of the TV series Space: Above and Beyond, first aired on September 24, 1995. (One of my favorite science fiction TV shows, gone too soon after only one season.)

THE CYBERSPACE POLITICAL HORROR VARIATION: “in space, no one can hear your political views”        Danny Charnley         American writer and comedian In a Twitter tweet about the overabundance of idiotic political posts on sites like Twitter and Facebook. (A modern phenomenon that is scarier than most science fiction horror movies.)

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