Alien Nation (1988)

A few years from now, Earth will have the first contact with an alien civilisation. These aliens, known as Newcomers, slowly begin to be integrated into human society after years of ... See full summary »

Director:

Graham Baker

Writer:

Rockne S. O'Bannon

Stars:

James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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)

Storyline

A few years from now, Earth will have the first contact with an alien civilisation. These aliens, known as Newcomers, slowly begin to be integrated into human society after years of quarantine but are victims of a new type of discrimination. When the first Newcomer police officer, Sam Francisco is assigned his new partner, he is given Matthew Sykes , a mildly racist veteran, the animosity between them soon gives way to respect as they investigate the Newcomer underworld, and especially Newcomer leader William Harcourt.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | police officer | discrimination | police | strangle | 

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Taglines:

Prepare Yourself.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Future Tense

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$25,216,243 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Entertainment Partners II L.P., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When George is comforting the old woman a poster of former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard can be seen hanging next to the Pepsi cooler.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

[Translating for Newcomer 'Porter' to Sykes]
Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: Your mother mates out of season.

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Connections

Spin-off Alien Nation (1989)

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Soundtracks

"SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL"
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Published by ABKCO Music, Inc.
Performed by Jane's Addiction
Courtesy of Tripple X Records

User Reviews

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.