Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
These points, mildly interesting at the time, seem to be increasingly irrel-
evant as the story proceeds, and through the rest of Act Il—amidst harrow-
ing, intense action and drama as Ripley and the marines find themselves
under siege by hordes of deadly aliens—the audience almost forgets about
Power Loaders.
Notice the phrasing:
almost forgets
. The planted information is still
there, in the back of each audience member's mind—exactly where the
writers want it.
Almost a full hour of riveting action passes before we finally see another
Power Loader—at the climax, when Ripley emerges from the airlock suited
up in one, ready to fight the Alien Queen to the death.
That moment—when the door lifts and we see Ripley step forward in the
Loader—is a perfect payoff for the seed planted way back near the begin-
ning of Act II.
But why not just introduce the Power Loader for the first time here, at
the climax? Why bother planting it an hour earlier?
There are two main reasons.
Pacing
: Ripley's emergence from the airlock in the Power Loader occurs
near the very climax of the entire film. Tension is incredibly high at this
point; everything Ripley has fought so hard for up until now is in desperate
danger. To slow things down enough to introduce the Power Loader,
show its capabilities and establish that Ripley knows how to use it would
hobble the momentum that's been rapidly building ever since it was re-
vealed the Alien Queen is in the hangar. Slackening the pace during the
movie's climactic scene would have been a tragic mistake—one that
James Cameron clearly had no intention of making.
Believability
: Without planting, situations like this (called
deus ex mach-
ina
, which we'll cover in greater depth in
chapter 6
), can feel too coincid-
ental and hard for the audience to swallow. If we had never seen a Power
Loader before the big reveal near the end, it surely would have raised
questions and bounced the audience out of the experience at the worst
possible moment. “What is that thing?” “Where'd it come from?” “How'd
she know how it works?” Ripley's commandeering of the Loader might
have felt forced, exceedingly “convenient,” and hard to believe. But by
planting it in Act II, it suddenly becomes an
aha!
moment for the audience,
and—with no lingering or distracting questions in their minds—they are in-
stantly on board with it.
