Alien Nation (1988)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

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 | Drugs | Reference To Richard Nixon | Detective

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 trailer shows a portion of a fight scene between George and Rudyard Kipling with a burning car in the background, meaning that in an earlier edit Kipling exits the car before it explodes (you see him regain consciousness at one point with a groan) and then fights with George. This would also explain why it is that Sykes compliments George on showing "some good moves back there".

Goofs:

Continuity: When George is hanging outside the helicopter, above the water surface, he should be screaming in pain since the rotor-blades would whip up a pretty dense cloud of seawater, thus he would be injured since his race is extremely sensitive against seawater, as pointed out by Joshua Strader, and William Harcourt in the end scene, their bodies react to it as we would to sulfuric acid, as referenced in the movie.

Quotes:

Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: You humans are very curious to us. You invite us to live among you in an atmosphere of equality that we've never known before. You give us ownership of our own lives for the first time and you ask no more of us than you do of yourselves. I hope you understand how special your world is, how unique a people you humans are. Which is why it is all the more painful and confusing to us that so few of you seem capable of living up to the ideals you set for yourselves.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Shooting the Police: Cops on Film (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY

Good movie...hated the tv show and movies though.

The reason I liked the movie and hated all the subsequent tv stuff is the movie had James Caan. He is what I enjoyed most about the movie and he was not in any of the tv stuff as far as I know. The interplay between him and Patinkin was great. The movie revolves around aliens who are living on earth...Caan can't stand these aliens, and really takes to disliking them when his partner is killed by one. He volunteers to be the partner of one of the aliens so that he can use the alien to find out what and who was behind his partner's death. During this time being partnered with the alien Caan's character learns to actually like being around him and they end up becoming friends. This movie has good action and comedy as Caan's character tries to figure things out and learns about his alien friend's different weaknesses and strengths. Basically it is a buddy cop movie that has an alien teamed with a human.