have you talked to space nerds? they'd happily risk their lives to play with alien goo... a friend of mine was even rooting for the martian halfway through the movie... as I think that scientist guy was before he died... I really think he knew that the alien was on his leg...

@ThrillKillz said: "How many more Sci-Fi alien life films have to be made before we learn not to f'k with the alien we know nothing about!"

Sci-fi stands for science fiction. The word "fiction" is important there. You are arguing that we should artificially limit our curiosity and base our real life decision making on the fact that sci-fi films tell us that aliens are dangerous.

Granted, the word "science" in sci-fi is important too because good sci-fi tends to be grounded in plausibility. But, it is important to not get carried away with our suspension of disbelief to the point where we forget that in the end it's "fiction".

The "stupid scientist" was not playing with the damn thing. He is an investigative biologist. His job is to investigate the lifeform in what was designed to be a controlled environment. This is his sole objective on the mission, it's what he is being paid to do. But, the astronauts did not account for the capabilities of this alien lifeform so the safety walls in place were not sufficient, and the controlled environment could no longer be considered a controlled environment (this is paraphrased from safety officer on the station).

I can't argue with your analysis that the movie has similarities to the blob. But, you have to understand that it's difficult to have original ideas when humans have created so many works of fiction in the past. There is a famous saying that it's impossible to have original ideas and that all works of fiction have some influence from Shakespearean plays. If you limit yourself to only consuming original works then you are limiting yourself greatly, you might end up watching one or two movies a year if you are lucky.

@Geff said:

@ThrillKillz said: "How many more Sci-Fi alien life films have to be made before we learn not to f'k with the alien we know nothing about!"

Sci-fi stands for science fiction. The word "fiction" is important there. You are arguing that we should artificially limit our curiosity and base our real life decision making on the fact that sci-fi films tell us that aliens are dangerous.

Granted, the word "science" in sci-fi is important too because good sci-fi tends to be grounded in plausibility. But, it is important to not get carried away with our suspension of disbelief to the point where we forget that in the end it's "fiction".

The "stupid scientist" was not playing with the damn thing. He is an investigative biologist. His job is to investigate the lifeform in what was designed to be a controlled environment. This is his sole objective on the mission, it's what he is being paid to do. But, the astronauts did not account for the capabilities of this alien lifeform so the safety walls in place were not sufficient, and the controlled environment could no longer be considered a controlled environment (this is paraphrased from safety officer on the station).

I can't argue with your analysis that the movie has similarities to the blob. But, you have to understand that it's difficult to have original ideas when humans have created so many works of fiction in the past. There is a famous saying that it's impossible to have original ideas and that all works of fiction have some influence from Shakespearean plays. If you limit yourself to only consuming original works then you are limiting yourself greatly, you might end up watching one or two movies a year if you are lucky.

Please. He states early on that it is totally unlike any life form we've ever seen on Earth. Obviously there would be no way of knowing what it could do, things like how physically strong it was. Yet he does play with it, letting it crawl all over his hand, which is only protected by some kind of rubbery glove. Did you miss that entire section of dialogue where he talks about how strange its cells were?

FlyingSaucersAreReal said: "Please. He states early on that it is totally unlike any life form we've ever seen on Earth. Obviously there would be no way of knowing what it could do, things like how physically strong it was. Did you miss that entire section of dialogue where he talks about how strange its cells were? Jesus Christ.."

I'm not 100% sure if I know who you're responding to and agreeing with, hopefully it's me because the other dude seems to be stuck in some sort of " it's all fiction, fiction!" argument, the topic is ridiculous. It's like yes dude/ette we are all very much aware of the correlation that the Science Fiction genre is exactly that, I mean fiction is in the damn name of the genre FFS.

@FlyingSaucersAreReal said: Please. He states early on that it is totally unlike any life form we've ever seen on Earth. Obviously there would be no way of knowing what it could do, things like how physically strong it was. Yet he does play with it, letting it crawl all over his hand, which is only protected by some kind of rubbery glove. Did you miss that entire section of dialogue where he talks about how strange its cells were?

I didn't say it wasn't dangerous. I said it's his job as a biologist to learn about the new life form. It is not abnormal for a biologist to be incredibly enthusiastic about analyzing a brand new life form from a different planet. This particular biologist was erroneously over-curious and was getting carried away, but this is part of his characterization and it is accounted for in the script. Ryan Reynolds' character was the cautious and rational engineer, and you see him scold the biologist for calling the creature Calvin and "playing around with it as if it were your buddy".

You seem to be missing the fact that these characters are in the space station for the sole purpose receiving and studying the Mars specimens. They have been sitting there for months waiting for the specimens. The biologist has to study this organism, it's his job, it's why he is there, he is not driven only by curiosity, but also by occupation. Studying includes not only studying the organism's biological makeup, but also it's behavioral characteristics like how it interacts with other organisms.

What do you expect them to do? Just eject the organism into space at the first sign of movement after waiting for these precious specimens for so long? Or, do you expect them to not do anything and wait for cavalry? Guess what, there is no cavalry. The engineer character even says that there are 5 other people on earth who can do his job, but there is only person who is qualified to do the biologist's job.

@ThrillKillz said: "How many more Sci-Fi alien life films have to be made before we learn not to f'k with the alien we know nothing about!"

@Geff said:

Sci-fi stands for science fiction. The word "fiction" is important there. You are arguing that we should artificially limit our curiosity and base our real life decision making on the fact that sci-fi films tell us that aliens are dangerous.

Granted, the word "science" in sci-fi is important too because good sci-fi tends to be grounded in plausibility. But, it is important to not get carried away with our suspension of disbelief to the point where we forget that in the end it's "fiction".

The "stupid scientist" was not playing with the damn thing. He is an investigative biologist. His job is to investigate the lifeform in what was designed to be a controlled environment. This is his sole objective on the mission, it's what he is being paid to do. But, the astronauts did not account for the capabilities of this alien lifeform so the safety walls in place were not sufficient, and the controlled environment could no longer be considered a controlled environment (this is paraphrased from safety officer on the station).

I can't argue with your analysis that the movie has similarities to the blob. But, you have to understand that it's difficult to have original ideas when humans have created so many works of fiction in the past. There is a famous saying that it's impossible to have original ideas and that all works of fiction have some influence from Shakespearean plays. If you limit yourself to only consuming original works then you are limiting yourself greatly, you might end up watching one or two movies a year if you are lucky.

I see our views are split, but that's cool and I have no problem with anyone's views. It seems that our discord is actually pretty simple and it's really a matter on how each of us interprets the handling of ALL of the safety precautions and how badly those precautions were executed, so yea that's my beef with the script. What you're are saying is that you thought that because the guy is an _investigative biologist _ ** that he was merely just doing his job when he clearly poked the bear **he clearly should NOT have been playing with "It" no less zapping it w/electricity with a stun pen when it wasn't in the mood be be messed wit. You know the saying first impressions are important and this guy clearly didn't care about that as he zapped the hell out of it and pissed it off, I actually enjoyed how "Calvin" twisted his hand, broke or crushed all of the human tissue in that. It was pretty badass and don't take me wrong I felt bad for the guy, but he got what he deserved by f'ing with it too much.

All of the above is merely just my subjective opinion on the matter.

@Geff said: What do you expect them to do? Just eject the organism into space at the first sign of movement after waiting for these precious specimens for so long?

Yes, there was a moment when it was clear that sh!t was gonna get real ugly fast and at that point they should have blown them both out of airlock IMO, but prior to that he shouldn't have been screwing with it so much. Frankly it should have been put into deep freeze until it could be locked down in the most secure and protected lab under a mountain somewhere and then start to run tests. Space is just not the ideal place to perform any kind of such testing, especially with an organism so highly advanced and the way in which it presented itself. They all saw it grow and replicate almost immediately, it should have put back into deep freeze while it was still in the small petri dish before it got anywhere the size that it did.

Oh and sometimes these so called "precious specimens" are organisms capable of wiping out the human race rather quickly if let loose even if just a few cells of it. I think the people of the world would understand if "Calvin" was lost in space because it was deadly and potentially an apocalyptic event causing creature.

so you want them to bring it to earth to experiment on?! that's even worse...

@Renovatio said:

so you want them to bring it to earth to experiment on?! that's even worse...

Actually yes, absolutely, BUTif protocols were held in check and the entity was kept small and stored in -180 celsius extremely well made refrigerated case and moved into a extremely secure base/lab. Just imagine possible medical or military applications that organism could make happen. Or maybe not, but there's is always the possibility of it being the most advanced bio-weapon.

Imagine you're given a week to live and they offer a sample of a vaccine they created that may save your life, just sign the dotted line and they are flying to the secret military base once secured testing begins. Control is everything of course and I'm talking about a silly sci-fi flick like it's reality instead of the bullsh!t it is, ha.

hahaha... I know... that's what i like about this movie... we can actually have a discussion about it...

The Blob In Space

sounds like a cool title for a movie!

@Geff said:

@FlyingSaucersAreReal said: Please. He states early on that it is totally unlike any life form we've ever seen on Earth. Obviously there would be no way of knowing what it could do, things like how physically strong it was. Yet he does play with it, letting it crawl all over his hand, which is only protected by some kind of rubbery glove. Did you miss that entire section of dialogue where he talks about how strange its cells were?

I didn't say it wasn't dangerous. I said it's his job as a biologist to learn about the new life form. It is not abnormal for a biologist to be incredibly enthusiastic about analyzing a brand new life form from a different planet. This particular biologist was erroneously over-curious and was getting carried away, but this is part of his characterization and it is accounted for in the script. Ryan Reynolds' character was the cautious and rational engineer, and you see him scold the biologist for calling the creature Calvin and "playing around with it as if it were your buddy".

You seem to be missing the fact that these characters are in the space station for the sole purpose receiving and studying the Mars specimens. They have been sitting there for months waiting for the specimens. The biologist has to study this organism, it's his job, it's why he is there, he is not driven only by curiosity, but also by occupation. Studying includes not only studying the organism's biological makeup, but also it's behavioral characteristics like how it interacts with other organisms.

What do you expect them to do? Just eject the organism into space at the first sign of movement after waiting for these precious specimens for so long? Or, do you expect them to not do anything and wait for cavalry? Guess what, there is no cavalry. The engineer character even says that there are 5 other people on earth who can do his job, but there is only person who is qualified to do the biologist's job.

I think the biologist could have studied it without doing things like waking it up by jolting it with electricity and then letting it crawl all over his hand without much protection. "Poking the bear" as JD put it - hard to believe even for an over enthusiastic scientist. Of course, people make mistakes, like when Cain takes a peak inside the alien egg at the beginning of the movie Alien, but for an expert biologist to get that careless is really pushing believability. And the design of the lab WAS pretty lacking too.

But now you seem to be arguing that the biologist WAS being reckless and stupid and "playing with the damn thing" but that's explained because its all part of his personality. You're quoting the engineer who scolded him with "playing around with it as if it were your buddy".

It didn't ruin the movie for me. I did like it. Acting was good, the scares were well done. Just thought a couple of the major plot points were hard to believe.

I'm arguing that the biologist's motivations are as follows:

1) It's his job to study the organism. He and the crew have been up here for months preparing for this very task. It's their mission.

2) He is a biologist, most biologists would be enthusiastic to discover a brand not extraterrestrial species.

3) The crew mentions in a couple different scenes that he was being carried away with curiosity. His over-curiosity leading to recklessness and not being fully lucid about the dangers of his task is part of his characterization.

In regards to poking the bear: I think the movie explained the motivations behind him jolting Calvin fairly clearly. They thought Calvin was dead; a result of the rapid change in pressure caused by the lab malfunction earlier. The biologist wanted to jolt it with electricity as a last resort to see if he can get it to move again so that he can resume his study and continue the mission.

If this last resort failed they would likely have to move on to performing an autopsy to get any final data and then end the mission.

so he was basically defibrillating it, or whatever the alien non-cardiac equivalent terminology is? i bought it either way...

@Geff said:

I'm arguing that the biologist's motivations are as follows:

1) It's his job to study the organism. He and the crew have been up here for months preparing for this very task. It's their mission.

2) He is a biologist, most biologists would be enthusiastic to discover a brand not extraterrestrial species.

3) The crew mentions in a couple different scenes that he was being carried away with curiosity. His over-curiosity leading to recklessness and not being fully lucid about the dangers of his task is part of his characterization.

---

In regards to poking the bear: I think the movie explained the motivations behind him jolting Calvin fairly clearly. They thought Calvin was dead; a result of the rapid change in pressure caused by the lab malfunction earlier. The biologist wanted to jolt it with electricity as a last resort to see if he can get it to move again so that he can resume his study and continue the mission.

If this last resort failed they would likely have to move on to performing an autopsy to get any final data and then end the mission.

I NEVER SAID THAT HE SHOULDN'T HAVE TRIED TO STUDY THE THING. Why do you keep going back to that? It's like your willfully ignoring the actual point of what I've written.

I know why he tried prodding it. They didn't know if it was dead or what. It wasn't responsive but the thing's biology was totally unlike anything they'd ever seen so they didn't really know what state it was in. The STUPID PART was playing with the damn thing after waking it up that way. It didn't occur to him that it might be less than happy? You don't wake up a wild animal and assume its going to be friendly, do you? There's being carried away and then there's being delusional.

It reminded me of the biologist in Prometheus who starts playing around with some snake like creature as if he knows its friendly. Very similar scene actually. I thought that was absurd too, even though I liked the movie.