Blank Check — Patreon: Alien: Resurrection

Published 2020-11-21; 2:17:34 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Alien: Resurrection”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Ben Hosley (producer), Angela Barracuda Ferragudo (Ange).

Subject films: Alien: Resurrection (1997).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy crosstalk; names are badly mangled and speaker attribution between David and Griffin is often uncertain. The transcript ends at about 2:17:38; the film itself runs roughly 0:17:30 to 1:59:00 of the track.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Character names in the people roles (Johner, Vriess, Call, Elgyn, Christie, Distephano, Purvis) were not said in the transcript; they and the Gary Dourdan, Marion Cotillard, David Twohy and Greg Berlanti-adjacent guesses are mine.

Films that came up

Claims (101)

contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Alien 3. Alien 3 is grim; Resurrection is whimsical and odd.
“Well, the last one's just so grim, whereas this one is kind of whimsical.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:04:06 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Alien. Ridley Scott's Alien is sexual in a Freudian way; Resurrection is the overtly sexual one.
“This is also the most overtly sexual of the alien movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:04:14 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Delicatessen. Griffin was shown Delicatessen and City of Lost Children by his French mother before Resurrection let him down.
“She had absolutely made me watch, uh, Delicatessen and City of Lost Children at this point”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:05:05 · Griffin Newman (0.90 sure it was them)
career (career): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Delicatessen. Jeunet's own early films are inventive, dystopian comedy.
“You know, he makes delicatessen, which is a really good movie and really invented little, you know, sort of dystopian comedy movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:05:38 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): The City of Lost Children → Terry Gilliam. City of Lost Children has a Terry Gilliam feel in its designs and monsters.
“very sort of Terry Gilliam, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:05:53 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Amélie. After Resurrection flopped, Jeunet went back to Paris and made Amélie, which took over culture.
“I'm going to just go off back to fucking Paris and make a movie about a nice fucking lady who lives in Paris and makes bread and shit.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:06:06 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Amélie → Griffin Newman. Griffin loved Amélie at 12 or 13; David thought it twee at 15.
“I was 12 or 13 and I was like, 100%.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:06:44 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Alien 3. Alien 3 ended with Ripley's noble sacrifice in lava; Resurrection undoes it by cloning her.
“She falls into lava, and that's the end of that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:07:24 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Danny Boyle → Alien Resurrection. Danny Boyle, fresh off Trainspotting, was the first choice and said no.
“He just made train spotting.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:10:03 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Peter Jackson → Alien Resurrection. Peter Jackson was also asked and was not pumped; Alien 3's failure made the job a poison chalice.
“So now it's kind of like a poison chalice.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:10:23 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Bryan Singer → Alien Resurrection. Brian Singer, director of The Usual Suspects, turned the job down, so Jeunet was not the top choice.
“So then they approach Brian Singer, director of the usual suspects.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:10:46 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Joss Whedon → Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Resurrection came as Whedon's Buffy TV series was about to debut.
“who is a hot shit screenwriter, like Buffy's going to debut this year, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:11:15 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Joss Whedon → Alien Resurrection. Whedon wrote a big epic ending on Earth and the studio planned to split it into two movies with an Alien 5 on Earth.
“There'll be an alien 5 that's set on earth.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:11:29 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Joss Whedon → Jean-Pierre Jeunet. A Whedon script was handed to a distinctive French auteur, a bad pairing.
“It's a terrible match.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:11:43 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Wolfgang Petersen → Mimic. Earlier crossover directors got smaller films first, like Del Toro's Mimic.
“It was like, you get to make a mimic, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:12:45 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien → Kon-Tiki. Franchises now hand big movies to foreign directors; you make Kon-Tiki and get Pirates of the Caribbean.
“Yeah, now it's you make kantiki and you get to make pirates of the Caribbean.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:12:52 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien → Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The Alien series was already a franchise for early-career filmmakers.
“Alien was one of the few franchises that already kind of functioned like that, where it was a franchise for early filmmakers.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:12:56 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Amélie. Jeunet went from bleak and misanthropic work to the most whimsical film imaginable.
“And then after this, he makes the most whimsical manic pixie dream girl.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:13:27 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
programming (programming): The Hunchback of Notre Dame → Lon Chaney. Griffin pitches a Patreon series doing all the Hunchback of Notre Dame movies, including the Lon Chaney version.
“We do all the hunchback of Notre Dame movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:16:29 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Dominique Pinon → Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Pinon is part of Jeunet's regular company of actors.
“He's a Jhené company player.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:18:43 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Dominique Pinon → Delicatessen. Pinon starred in Delicatessen and is in all of Jeunet's films.
“He was the star of delicatessen, but he's an all of Ghent's.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:18:57 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Pitof → Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Pitof, the Resurrection VFX supervisor and later Catwoman director, is Jeunet's French VFX guy.
“He's Jhene's guy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:19:38 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Darius Khondji → Alien Resurrection. Khondji shot it and it is good-looking, with cool sets.
“Darius Kanji shot this movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:19:40 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
career (career): John Frizzell → Ghost Ship. Resurrection composer John Frizzell also scored Ghost Ship and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
“Oh, John Frisell also did ghost ship in the Beavis and Butthead do America.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:19:51 · Angela Ferragudo (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Ghost Ship → Ben Hosley. Ghost Ship keeps coming up on the podcast as a future pick by Ben.
“Ben's choice 2025.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:20:04 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Brad Dourif → The Lord of the Rings. Dourif pops into big franchises like Alien and Lord of the Rings yet stays anonymous.
“The fact that he's in Lord of the Rings.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:21:14 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Brad Dourif → Child's Play. Dourif is Chucky, one of the most iconic characters, unrecognized unless you are a big fan.
“But he's also Chucky.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:21:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Brad Dourif → One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A secret Academy Award nomination, from Cuckoo's Nest, that nobody mentions.
“I have a secret Academy Award nomination that no one ever talks about.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:21:51 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Brad Dourif → Deadwood (TV). Dourif was Emmy-nominated on Deadwood and had a recurring Star Trek Voyager part.
“I was on Deadwood.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:22:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Aliens. Seeing Ripley cloned and cut open feels as cruel as Hicks and Newt dying off-screen at the start of the previous sequel.
“this is the moment where I feel the way people describe the anger of Hicks and Newt getting killed at the beginning of alien cube.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:22:17 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Alien 3. Ripley died on her own terms taking the chestburster; Resurrection cuts the alien out of her clone.
“Ripley dies on her own terms and she takes the alien chest burster with her, and she settles the score”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:22:30 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Sigourney Weaver → Super Mario Bros.. Weaver's reptilian Ripley 8 is like Dennis Hopper's Bowser.
“it's a pretty similar take to Dennis Hopper's Bowser.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:24:30 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Joss Whedon → Alien Resurrection. Whedon turned the which-one-is-the-android guessing game into plot because audiences expect it.
“Well, it's that and that's that kind of Weedon thing where he's like the audience at this point is going to be waiting for that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:24:57 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Joss Whedon → Toy Story. Whedon is often uncredited or one of many names; he ends up one of six on Toy Story.
“So like he ends up as one of 6 names on Toy Story”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:25:54 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Joss Whedon → Speed. Whedon did a substantial rewrite on Speed, which explains its fizzy dialogue.
“By all accounts, he did a pretty substantial rewrite.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:25:54 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Joss Whedon → Alien Resurrection. Resurrection is a rare sole Whedon screenplay credit from that period.
“This is just a rare Wheedon soul screenplay credit in that period.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:26:22 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Dan Hedaya → Alien Resurrection. Dan Hedaya, leader of the military folks on the ship, steals the early section.
“Dan Hideea should be in every film by law.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:26:41 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien Resurrection → Firefly (TV). The Betty's space-pirate crew reads as proto-Firefly, Whedon's later show.
“I mean, some proto firefly stuff.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:31:00 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien Resurrection → Taxi Driver. One crew member has a Travis Bickle gun-sling rig.
“So this guy has the, like, Travis Bickle... It's got the gun, the gun slings, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:31:07 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Winona Ryder → Girl, Interrupted. Ryder's next film after Resurrection was Girl, Interrupted in 99, an underrated movie.
“After this, I guess she has girl interrupted in 99, which is an underrated movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:31:47 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Ron Perlman → Eddie Constantine. Perlman is Europe's favorite American actor, like Eddie Constantine in Alphaville.
“It's like Alphaville.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:32:37 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Ron Perlman → Alphaville. Alphaville took a marginal American noir actor and presented him as America's greatest star, like directors do with Perlman.
“this marginal American noir actor and was like, you are the greatest movie star America has ever produced.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:32:42 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Ron Perlman → Quest for Fire. Perlman's career was feast and famine: Quest for Fire, then three years off, then Beauty and the Beast.
“He was in quest for fire, didn't work for 3 years.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:33:19 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Ron Perlman → Guillermo del Toro. Perlman says his American career was saved by Jeunet and Del Toro, who cast him in Cronos and City of Lost Children.
“my American career was entirely saved by Gene and Del Toro.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:33:26 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Ron Perlman → Cronos. Perlman was put in the foreign films, Cronos and City of Lost Children, before coming back.
“he's in Kronos.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:33:33 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Ron Perlman → Hellboy. Del Toro and Mike Mignola both said Perlman was the only choice for Hellboy.
“there's only one man that I want to play him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:33:49 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Ron Perlman → Keegan-Michael Key. Perlman's face works as art direction in genre films the way Key's bald head works for sketch.
“And Ron Perlman is like so ideally faced for a genre actor where it's like, A, he just works as art direction.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:34:28 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Michael Wincott → The Crow. Wincott was the villain in The Crow and was in Strange Days.
“He's the villain in the crow.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:36:04 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Michael Wincott → Strange Days. Wincott was in Strange Days, as the character Philo Gant.
“He's in Strange Days.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:36:07 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Winona Ryder → Griffin Newman. David has a lifelong weakness for Winona Ryder and she is his number one crush.
“I guess I have such an incredible weakness for Winona Rider, as you know, Griffin.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:37:58 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Space Jam. Ripley shooting hoops in the 24th century is a 90s basketball moment.
“Would you say they're space jamming right now?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:39:51 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → The City of Lost Children. Big industrial sets and neon are Jeunet's signature; that is what City of Lost Children is all about.
“that's what City Lost Children's all about.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:43:33 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Alien Resurrection → Alien: Covenant. David walked out of the Covenant press screening hearing grumbling that it was not their Alien; he does not get that anger.
“I walked out of the press screening of covenant, and I remember one credit being like, I mean, that's just not my alien.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:43:47 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien Resurrection → Aliens. In Aliens you see them fleetingly; in Resurrection animatronics let an alien stand in front of you for ten seconds.
“But this is the 1st one where it's like, yeah, an alien's just standing in front of you.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:45:18 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Resurrection came out the same year as The Lost World, with Independence Day in the mix.
“This comes out the same year as Lost World.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:45:51 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien Resurrection → Jurassic Park. Aliens caged and taunted while hunting you feels like the raptors; raptors may be Alien rip-offs.
“the raptors have a bit of an alien rip off vibe, honestly”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:46:01 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Independence Day. Another 90s creature-effects tentpole of the same era.
“An independence day in between as well.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:46:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Prometheus. Prometheus has a stacked cast on one level; Resurrection puts a second movie star above the title with Weaver and loses balance.
“it's putting them above the title, it's kind of implying that it's going to be kind of a two-hander”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:47:45 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Clint Eastwood → The Mule. Cry Macho will be like The Mule: an old man telling a boy not to be like him.
“It's gonna be just like the mule.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:49:40 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Clint Eastwood → Alien Resurrection. A Clint Eastwood Alien movie would be shot in real time, one two-hour take.
“It'll be the 1st alien movie shot in real time.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:50:30 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Joss Whedon → Alien Resurrection. The acid-blood tricks in Resurrection are Whedon-style fan service, while Jeunet is the better visual stylist.
“The stuff like using the acid in creative new ways.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:57:46 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Joss Whedon → Astonishing X-Men. Kitty Pryde's bat-in-the-head interrogation shows Whedon's gift for finding a clever new angle in pre-established ideas.
“so emblematic of what he's good at as a writer, which is just using all the things that have been pre-established by other writers”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:58:09 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
people (people): Darius Khondji → Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet brought his own French collaborators, cinematographer Darius Khondji and VFX man Pitof, plus his production crew, onto Alien: Resurrection.
“he brings all of his French people, right? Like he brings Darius Kanji, and he brings Pitoff, and he brings like his sort of, um, uh, production crew who all speak the same language as him”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:58:42 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Alien Resurrection. Jeunet brought his French crew and could not talk to the writers, producers or actors; the film is cohesive visually.
“And this movie is very cohesive visually.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:58:55 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → A Very Long Engagement. Jeunet's only other Hollywood-financed film was A Very Long Engagement, a Hollywood production made in France on his terms.
“Very long engagement's a Hollywood production, but in France on his own terms.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:59:12 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → A Very Long Engagement. Jeunet feels like a director to put in a future bracket.
“he certainly feels like someone we should throw on a bracket at some point.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:59:54 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): A Very Long Engagement → Gone with the Wind. It was Jeunet's big romantic war epic follow-up to Amélie, pitched as his Gone with the Wind.
“He's going to make his gone with the wind.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:00:02 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): A Very Long Engagement → Warner Bros.. Warner financed most of it for distribution rights, so it was disqualified as a foreign film for the Oscars.
“And so it was disqualified as being a foreign film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:00:28 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Michael Wincott → Paul W.S. Anderson. Wincott feels like he dropped out of a Paul W.S. Anderson movie; a generic villain.
“He feels like he's dropped out of like a Paul W.S. Anderson movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:01:19 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Michael Wincott → David Twohy. A Pitch Black-style director would have rejected Wincott as too on the nose.
“Like David Towie would have rejected him for being too on the nose for pitch.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:01:26 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Sigourney Weaver → Aliens. Weaver redefines Ripley in each film: throw it out, ball it up.
“It's so telling that each of the 4 movies, she's like, throw it out, ball it up, redefine my character, give me new shit.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:05:37 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Winona Ryder → Alien. Call is asked to do what Ripley does in the first movie, but Weaver makes it sing and Ryder punches the clock.
“what call is being asked to do here is not that different than what Ripley does in the 1st movie, except fucking Sigourney makes it sing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:06:02 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Dominique Pinon → David Lynch. Pinon's weird face and presence reads as a Lynchian figure.
“He's a very lynchian figure.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:07:54 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Raymond Cruz → Breaking Bad (TV). Raymond Cruz in Resurrection is Tuco from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Detective Sanchez on The Closer.
“He's Tuco and Breaking Bad. And better call Saul.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:08:28 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Raymond Cruz → The Closer (TV). Cruz was also on The Closer.
“He's also Detective Julio Sanchez on the closer.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:08:31 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Alien Resurrection → Paint Your Wagon. The next Alien should be an Eastwood musical in the style of Paint Your Wagon.
“He should be painter wagon.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:10:42 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien Resurrection → Heavy Metal. Ripley 7's mutant looks like French graphic novels, Moebius and Metal Hurlant.
“Like, this is Mobius, metal herlon shit.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:11:15 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Saturday Night Live. The creature too awful to live begging 'kill me' is a funny trope, like an Eddie Murphy SNL sketch.
“The the SNL, uh, uh, Eddie Murphy cake.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:13:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Tintin → Heavy Metal. French comics began with grounded Tintin and moved into grimy dystopian sci-fi.
“It starts out with things like Tintin, which are far more like grounded reality.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:13:52 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Jean-Pierre Jeunet → Heavy Metal. Jeunet comes out of the grimy dystopian French sci-fi comic aesthetic of the 70s through 90s.
“And this is very much the aesthetic that Jhené is coming out of.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:14:07 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → John Wick. John Wick is the only modern equivalent of a major franchise built on fatalism.
“I feel like the only modern equivalent is, um, John Wick, in terms of a major franchise being so based around kind of fatalism.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:15:43 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Terminator: Dark Fate. Studios kept trying to make Terminator something different, unlike Alien's willingness to hire dark people.
“Versus, I feel like 3 Terminator movies in a row where they were like, I don't know, can we make it into something different?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:16:31 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Leland Orser → Brad Dourif. Orser is the 90s spiritual sequel to Brad Dourif, another good career.
“sort of the spiritual sequel to Brad Duriff.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:16:54 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Sigourney Weaver → Political Animals (TV). Weaver played a Hillary Clinton-like figure on the miniseries Political Animals, which Griffin was on.
“Sigourney was essentially Hillary.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:21:25 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien Resurrection → Godzilla. 1998 Godzilla and the first Jurassic Park shot their CGI creatures in rain and night to hide the rendering.
“the 98 Godzilla is set in the rain constantly, and why in Jurassic, the 1st Jurassic”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:26:19 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Guillermo del Toro → Blade II. They want to do Del Toro and Blade II is David's favorite of the Blade films.
“Blade 2 is one of your favorites.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:29:16 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Westworld. The robot world-building feels like Westworld's reveal of robots outside the park.
“Like a Westworld thing when you realize like there's actually robots like outside of here”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:33:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien Resurrection → Aliens. In Aliens she rescues Newt and in Alien 3 the convicts find purpose; in Resurrection there is no purpose to the fight.
“in aliens, she's rescuing newt and like, you know, even in alien 3, they kind of, by the end of it”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:40:03 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Alien 3. The alien-hybrid birth echoes Alien 3's mommy-child relationship; this one is treated as parent and child.
“But much like an Alien 3, it's like, oh, hey, mommy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:48:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Alien → Neill Blomkamp. A Neill Blomkamp-type director might some day talk the studio into an Earth-set Alien sequel; Disney will do something.
“I live in fear of the sort of Neil Blonde camp-esque director”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:51:35 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien → Die Hard. Alien will be remade without its original star the way Die Hard will without Bruce Willis; the xenomorph design is too powerful to leave dormant.
“In the same way, they'll make another diehard without Bruce Willis.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:52:06 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien Resurrection → Goldfinger. The newborn alien sucked out the window repeats the Goldfinger ending, but sad.
“it's the goldfinger ending.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:55:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien Resurrection → Alien 3. The studio could not settle on a sad ending, perhaps afraid after Alien 3.
“They just can't... settle on a sad ending and they should have.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:59:09 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Alien. The first three Alien movies were summer releases; this one opened at Thanksgiving.
“The 1st 3 are all summer releases, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:01:13 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Flubber. Flubber was number one on the Thanksgiving 1997 weekend; Resurrection opened number two with 25 million.
“It is it's flubber.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:03:02 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Anastasia. Number three that weekend was Anastasia, Don Bluth's penultimate movie, followed by Titan A.E.
“Right, because he makes Titan AE after this.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:04:07 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → The Rainmaker. Number four was Coppola's Rainmaker, an underrated slumming adaptation of a bestseller.
“It's from one of our great directors.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:04:37 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → The Jackal. Number five was The Jackal, a remake of The Day of the Jackal with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere.
“Jackals a remake?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:06:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. The prior week's number one had fallen to number six.
“Big drombat annihilation.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:07:08 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien Resurrection → Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Number seven was Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:09:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Prometheus → Alien Resurrection. The Patreon run continues with Prometheus then Covenant after this final Ripley film.
“Tune in for Prometheus, tune in for covenant.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:17:13 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)

Fun items (26)

fun, about Alien Quadrilogy: The 2003 DVD box set that David calls a word hardly used outside that box; Resurrection got a special edition about seven minutes longer.
“Quadrilogy, a word that has rarely been used outside of that one box.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: Production trivia: Danny Boyle and Peter Jackson and Bryan Singer were approached and passed before Jeunet.
“They ask Peter Jackson.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:10:12 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Joss Whedon: Whedon's script ended with a battle on Earth and the studio planned to split it into two movies, with an Alien 5 set on Earth.
“There'll be an alien 5 that's set on earth.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:11:29 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The drinking game: rules from Instagram stories, including someone saying 'the company'.
“Four, someone says the company.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:14:14 · Angela Ferragudo (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The Fox logo at the start is clearly from the film print, grain and all, not an HD transfer.
“clearly the logo from the film print from this movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:17:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Brad Dourif: Dourif's perfect career: Alien, Lord of the Rings, Chucky, a secret Oscar nomination, unrecognized.
“Brad Dorff, another example of a guy where I look at him and I go, that's a perfect career.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:21:00 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Sigourney Weaver: The Ripley 8 tattoo: she's the 8th clone, the first one to take.
“She's the 1st one to take.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:23:50 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Sigourney Weaver: Ripley 8's reptilian, T-Rex-armed performance is compared to Bowser.
“Yes, she's doing like T-Rex arms.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:24:20 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Ron Perlman: The basketball shot: Weaver actually sank it over her shoulder on a quick take and Perlman's reaction is real; no visual effects.
“That shot is 100% real.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:41:55 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: Golden age of animatronics: the aliens can stay in bright close-ups for ten seconds without cutting away.
“This is the peak of animatronic technology before the entire art form is largely thrown in the toilet.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:44:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Clint Eastwood: The Cry Macho gag: Eastwood announces his own Alien movie shot in real time.
“What if they announced Clint Eastwood announces plans to star in and direct next alien movie?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:50:13 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Ron Perlman: Perlman has a thermos canteen that turns into a gun; the more scars they add the better.
“He's got a thermos gun.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:51:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Brad Dourif: The pitch: killed early, only four weeks on set.
“You only have to be on set for 4 weeks.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:54:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Dan Hedaya: His shoulder hair is the subject of a long bit.
“There are like Dungeons and Dragons adventures happening in his body hair, like as we speak.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:54:44 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Dominique Pinon: Jeunet spoke no English to the actors; Pinon likely did the film phonetically.
“He probably did this movie phonetically.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:56:57 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about A Very Long Engagement: Jeunet's follow-up was seen as an Oscar play until Warner's financing disqualified it as a foreign film.
“And so it was disqualified as being a foreign film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:00:28 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Dominique Pinon: The Santa Claus line reading, with the emphasis in the wrong place, is the movie's famous unnatural English line.
“That's just such a clear, I don't understand the words I'm saying.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:07:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sigourney Weaver: Griffin met Weaver on Political Animals: she introduced herself at lunch and was impossibly tall and gracious.
“Like she does look like a Greek god.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:23:53 · Griffin Newman (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The worst-case scenario joke: aliens loose on Earth becomes a Kenner toy line of animal mashups.
“create an entire early 90s Kenner toy line of fun alien animal mashups.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:35:39 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Sigourney Weaver: Weaver would not let toys be made with guns for years; Resurrection was the only time, and no collector figure for 15 years after.
“one of the key reasons was because she didn't want her action figures coming with guns.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:44:51 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The newborn's chest cavity was a hybrid genital design cut from the film as too intense.
“it's supposed to be kind of like this sort of like hybrid genital thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:47:58 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The newborn was originally designed to look like Ripley.
“Originally, they wanted it to look like Ripley, which would have been crazy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:49:27 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: Ending gets read as acting out: alien movies are violent so Jeunet shows how violent.
“Also, it's acting out, which I support.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:57:01 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: Credits: personal stunt trainer, movement coach and drama coach to Weaver, all separate.
“Personal stunt trainer, Ms. Weaver, movement coach to Ms. Weaver, drama coach to Ms. Weaver.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:02:06 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: Opening weekend at Thanksgiving 1997: number two, 25 million, behind Flubber.
“All right, so number 2 alien resurrection.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:03:28 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The second-to-last credit is the video game.
“The 2nd to last credit on the movie is play the video game.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 2:05:49 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loved the first three Alien movies in 7th grade and felt a massive drop-off with Resurrection, but is won over by the practical effects, the wet sets and Sigourney Weaver. A collector who owns every Ripley action figure but one. Cannot stand the generic villain casting and is sentimental about French cinema through his mother.
David Sims (host): Knows the production history cold (Danny Boyle, Whedon, Jeunet) and loves practical effects, animatronics, big industrial sets and character actors like Brad Dourif and Ron Perlman. Has a lifelong crush on Winona Ryder. Cannot stand when a movie stops to talk, or generic villains like Michael Wincott's.
Ben Hosley (guest): Producer who had not seen the film; sleepy, lowkey and affectionate, cuddling his dog Pig during the screening. Engages with the mechanics of the show more than the film and brought the drinking-game format and the box-office game guesses (the Rainmaker).
Angela Ferragudo (guest): Also new to the film; reacts to the big reveals (newborn, the android twist). Neighbors' noise intrudes; she took the Instagram drinking-game submissions.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Jean-Pierre Jeunet rendered as Genet / Janae / Jhene / Jhené / Sinea / Ghent / June
Dan Hedaya rendered as Hide / Hideia / Hideea / Heddaya
Dominique Pinon rendered as Piña / Pinion / Piñon
Darius Khondji rendered as Darius Kanji
Gary Dourdan rendered as Gary Jordan (my guess)
Bryan Singer rendered as Brian Singer
Leland Orser rendered as Lelandor / Leland Oyster / William Dorser
Brad Dourif rendered as Brad Dureff / Dorff / Duriff
Marion Cotillard (my guess) rendered as Kutiar / Coat yard
David Twohy (my guess) rendered as David Towie
Neill Blomkamp rendered as Neil Blonde camp
Pitof rendered as PTOF
Fred Zinnemann rendered as Fred Zinnamon
Moebius / Métal hurlant rendered as Mobius, metal herlon
Mary McDonnell rendered as Mary McConnell
Charles Dance rendered as Charles Stance
Jacques Audiard rendered as Jacques O'Diard
Weyland-Yutani rendered as Wayland Dutani
Joss Whedon rendered as Josh Wheedon / Weedon

Blank Check — Patreon: Alien: Resurrection

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

subject (1)

compared (10)

passing (73)

anecdote (7)

Claims (101)

Fun items (26)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong