Classic Villains: Alien’s Secret Synthetic Ash

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright 20th Century Fox

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

They say the most dangerous enemy is the one you aren’t even aware exists but is literally close enough to you to snap your neck under the notion they are simply following oders. Ash from the first Alien movie certainly qualifies as such.

At first glance, the by the book science officer of the Nostromo who seems to have an unemotional relationship with the rest of the crew but was in fact a synthetic under orders for the Company. And he has no problem murdering the crew to ensure those orders are carried out as per order 937 which was for the science officer’s eyes only.

Before his secret is revealed, the Nostromo encounter the alien ship where Kane (War Doctor John Hurt) is attacked by a facehugger in the alien egg field. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let him back on board as per protocol. With an alien contamination, she has to put the remaining crew and the ship first. However Ash overrules her and lets the infected crew member back on board. Ripley is furious putting them in direct conflict. She does not trust Ash at all.

But as we know an alien bursts from Kane’s chest and cinema history was made reaching to this very day. Ash’s behaviour strikes Ripley as odd and when she learns of order 937, Ash’s secret is revealed. Ripley uses the main computer, Mother, and finds the Company gave and Ash specific orders; to ensure the alien is brought back to Earth at all costs even if it means the crew dies in the process. Ash sneaks up on her and the true horror is revealed.

Ridley Scott’s direction is magnificent as Ash locks them both in the computer chamber. He stands impassive cloaked in gloom as Ripley tells him to let her out. Without a moment’s hesitation he begins throwing her around the room, smashing her off the walls until she lies semiconscious. His strength alone should have alerted the audience but when Ripley lands a punch, she causes him to bleed.

But this blood is white as milk as it trickles from the side of his temple.

In a way, it echoes Ripley’s earlier horror when the face hugger bled acid. Ash was, as far as she or the crew knew, human. Helpless, Ash stands over Ripley’s prone body. Screwing up his face, he rolls a magazine up tightly into a tube. The ferocity he does this with speaks volumes. If he were human he would be psychopathic but at this point he is something else altogether. Could it be he is also alien? The audience is unsure but they are about to find out in a spectacularly horrifying way.

Holding the tube over Ripley’s mouth to suffocate her. Some claim that it is a sexual act given it is a pornogrsphic magazine used given he could easily snap her neck instead. But it is a graphic attack and almost devoid of emotion bar murderous intent. Luckily the remaining crew burst in and overpower him. However he throws them back trying to plunge his hand into Harper’s (Yaphet Kotto) chest. In the tussle he breaks free and smashes Ash over the head with a fire extinguisher. Instead of smashing in a skull with blood and brains, the head breaks off revealing the robot spewing sickly white fluid. It is gross and add in the almost demonic unearthly squeals with the mad flailing is more alien than the alien itself.

Astounded they have been with a robot all this time, Ripley secures the head so they can reactivate it and get some answers. Ash with white spew gurgling disgustingly from his mouth reveals the company wants the creature and it cannot be killed. It is the perfect organism and he admires it for its purity. To him, it is unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of reality. He can’t discuss their chances of survival but they have his sympathies. He is being deliberately sarcastic here and in a way he sees something of himself in the alien. Ash has no conscience or morality. He would willingly kill everyone on board to achieve his purpose just as the alien would use every man, woman and child to populate their species. They are as ruthlessly single minded as he is.

Is it any wonder Ripley was so scared and suspicious of Bishop in the sequel given she almost died at a synthetic’s hands? Ian Holm is perfect as Ash and gives a performance as dark and double edged making his reveal as a synthetic revolting to watch. At the time I always thought Ash was using the magazine and was going to vomit directly into the tube so Ripley ould choke to death and drown in his fluids. But I was wrong as he was just suffocating her. But look at it again and watch his body language. Like Ash himself the scene deserves another look.