Taking its cue from the "mask" scene in "Communion," "Fire in the Sky" suggests that the big-eyed "Gray" visage (already a consumer touchstone by the film's release in 1993) is due to the metallic "spacesuits" worn by the aliens, presumably for excursions outside their vehicle.
The alien sequence is replete with arresting detail, from the UFO's eroded, labyrinthine interior to the bits and pieces of debris Walton rakes up with his hands as he's dragged down a dimly lit corridor to the aliens' laboratory. The alien environment's thoroughly aged appearance subverts the conventional image of ET spaceships as pristine and clinical. Instead of the pragmatic decor and sourceless lighting reported by abductees, we're treated to what amounts to a space-borne catacomb. Even the aliens defy the expected "Grays" in critical respects; their necks, for instance, feature a detached "extra" throat that cleverly accentuates their mummified physique.
Verisimilitude notwithstanding, "Fire in the Sky" articulates powerful fears of what the abduction phenomenon represents. Perhaps its most striking contribution to the canon of UFO-themed movies is its insinuation that the aliens behave so strangely not because they're evil so much as amnesiac, their original agenda so faded with time that their very spacecraft has begun to decay. For all their technological might, they're a species on the brink of dissolution, sustained by inexplicable sadistic impulses.
More importantly, the cosmic molesters of "Fire in the Sky" serve as frightening caricatures of what human science might become under the unmitigated burden of postindustrial society. We expect our galactic elders to be wise, even compassionate. "Fire in the Sky," and the beings it attempts to represent, are a mocking reminder that such assumptions may be rooted in our own implicit, unexamined desires.
5 comments:
Perhaps its most striking contribution to the canon of UFO-themed movies is its insinuation that the aliens behave so strangely not because they're evil so much as amnesiac, their original agenda so faded with time that their very spacecraft has begun to decay. For all their technological might, they're a species on the brink of dissolution,
I love how the interior of the craft looks like the inside of a rotting wasps' nest or something.
It's a marvelously executed sequence, probably the best cinematic alien abduction to date, despite the liberties it takes with the actual account.
It's amusing to imagine what it would've been like if they had gone with Walton's actual story! That would've translated rather bizarrely to screen.
It's a marvelously executed sequence, probably the best cinematic alien abduction to date, despite the liberties it takes with the actual account.
I agree.
Movie was fantastic, unfortunately the abduction sequences were completely off base from the real deal (as reported by millions). This sequence actually brings up an important omission which permeates most abduction tales; that being a drug-like state of indifference or euphoria.
When taking down game for study via helicopter, we always give them a hit of sedative. The same would seem to be true in many reported abduction cases. There is awareness but it is numb or hyper-real in a strange kind of dream-like lucidity.
Denny
The aliens' medical experiment on poor Travis was definitely designed to make me postpone that colonoscopy I need to get....
During the five days that Walton was missing, he says he could only recall a total of about an hour to an hour and a half of being inside the "craft"--and that it certainly wasn't as portrayed in the movie.
My favorite part of the movie was when "Walton" was being dragged down the hallway by the grim grey, and as the Walton character looked back down the hallway behind him, you see all this floating debris, including someone's rotating old sneaker. That was amusingly incongruous.
Post a Comment