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Why Ridley Scott is Sci-Fi's Most Important Director
As an innovative director and producer, Ridley Scott remains one of the most influential creative minds in sci-fi filmmaking. He has launched enormously successful franchises, like Alien in the late 70s, which are still lauded and carry weight to this day.
Like other successful and cutting-edge directors, Ridley Scott has carved out a niche for himself in his filmmaking capabilities, setting a standard for future movies in the sci-fi genre. Without his novel ideas and design, movies about space and futuristic societies would be an entirely different domain.
But Scott is by no means just a director from the past. The director is still involved in high-profile Hollywood productions, like his critically-acclaimed sci-fi film The Martian. He continues to create provocative movies for modern audiences with just as much authority and vision as in past decades.
He Created An Entirely New Look And Feel
The 1979 blockbuster, Alien, was a game changer for space films. The movie follows the crew of the Nostromo as they respond to a distress call from a distant moon. As they investigate the mysterious call, they soon realize the signal for help was actually a warning, and must deal with the monstrous consequences.
Ridley Scott updated Stanely Kubrick’s clean and open space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey, subverting the Nostromo from Alien into something industrial and grungy with narrow hallways. The look of the ship, partnered with more seemingly realistic technology, inspired a sense of undeniable claustrophobia and tension in audiences. Directors are always conscious of how the look of their film evokes and emotional response, and it’s clear that Scott was very focused on this aspect. In Alien, he exploits that unpleasant look to its fullest potential, which ultimately sets a precedence for other movies throughout the years. More recent movies, like Pandorum (2009), follow in this same vein and pull from what Scott was displaying decades ago.
Another genre-defining film of his was Blade Runner in 1982. Set in a futuristic Los Angeles, Rick Deckard, a former kind of detective known as blade runners, comes out of retirement to investigate a case with threatening implications. It’s his job to find and “retire” four replicants, robots used for off-world labor, but the seemingly simple case quickly becomes complicated and leaves Deckard unsure of where he stands.
Films set in futuristic societies are a good exercise for directors to show their creativity and explore what a society might look like in the coming decades. It’s safe to say that Ridley Scott’s unique approach to the fashion and ambiance in Blade Runner paved the way for generations of directors. He essentially founded the cyberpunk look, a jarring combination of urban grunge and colorful neon day-glow. Futuristic societies used to be portrayed as pristine utopias, but Scott’s distinct vision completely changed the way filmmakers present their concept of the future. Modern films like Alita: Battle Angel (2019) also display this cyberpunk atmosphere, keeping Scott’s vision alive almost 40 years later.
He Brought Strange Creature Concepts To Life
When it comes to terrifying creatures from outer space, the ones from Ridley Scott’s Alien are still recognized as one of the greatest concepts in the genre. Scott enlisted Swiss artist H.R. Giger as part of the special effects team that designed the infamous facehuggers and xenomorphs. The facehuggers resemble fleshy, spider-like creatures whose sole purpose is to implant a xenomorph embryo into a host. The xenomorphs, on the other hand, are relentless killing machines with incredibly agile bodies, an extra set of retractable teeth, and have blood acidic enough to eat through the hull of a ship in seconds.
The special effects team won an Oscar for their design work on the Alien creatures, but design is only half of the battle. It was Ridley Scott’s directing that truly brought the monsters to life. Without the glossy overlay of cinematography, those slick black aliens with acid blood are inherently far-fetched. But it was Scott’s storytelling and camera work that made the audience believe Alien's horrific scenes could actually happen. This proved to future filmmakers that no matter how outlandish the creature might be, it’ll work if it’s shot correctly. With today’s CGI capabilities, directors and effects teams are able to push the boundaries even further, like designing the prawn-like creatures in District 9 (2009) and the Cthulu mega-monster in Underwater (2020).
He Created Stories That Stood The Test Of Time
One of the most important things however, is that Ridley Scott was able to create sci-fi stories that still hold up to this day. Even though Blade Runner bombed in theaters when it first came out, it became a cult classic in the decades since. It has grown on audiences so much, that acclaimed director Dennis Villeneuve picked up the story 35 years later to make its sequel, Blade Runner: 2049.
Likewise, a similar thing happened with the Alien movies. It’s no secret that Scott was not a fan of where other directors took his story in the sequels, but 33 years after the original release, Scott had the reigns again with the prequel, Prometheus (2012). Regardless of time, setting, or genre, Scott is able to make movies with universal truths which inspire other directors to do the same.
He Is Still Relevant Today
But Ridley Scott is far from being a model director from another era in filmmaking. He is still very much active today in the sci-fi genre, using his same high-calibre storytelling techniques with better quality production equipment and CGI. He’s arguably a tour-de-force whose movies can only get better with the advent of greater technology.
In 2015, Scott directed The Martian, which follows the story of an astronaut stranded on Mars as he tries to devise a plan to get back to Earth. Rotten Tomatoes and audiences alike scored the film at a 91%, showing that Scott is still a formidable director in the genre.
Scott also directed the film Alien: Covenant in 2017, and has another Alien prequel announced for the coming years. Ridley Scott has always had a captivating vision and it will be interesting to see where he steers the genre next.
