Unity through Humanity: Stylistic Comparisons of Ridley Scott’s Science Fiction Films

By Hope Abel

Ridley Scott is an acclaimed director who rose to prominence with his second feature  film, Alien (1979), which was a huge success and influence on the science-fiction genre. Scott’s next film, Blade Runner (1982), underwhelmed critically and at the box office upon release but since became a cult classic and shaped the cinematic look of the future through its innovative world-building and production design. While Scott did other work with sci-fi undertones and  other Alien franchise films, he made a notable return to science-fiction in 2015 by directing The Martian (2015), which became one of Scott’s biggest hits at the box office and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Upon first look at these three science-fiction films—Alien, Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007), and The Martian — it may seem difficult to discern any clear stylistic through-line or evolution in his directorial choices. While all three emphasize setting through expansive world-building, the films have striking differences visually, tonally, and in their subgenres. They are all science fiction, but Alien doubles as a horror film, Blade Runner: The Final Cut defines the neo-noir genre, and The Martian contains prominent moments of comedy. Ultimately, Scott’s science-fiction films are vastly different from one another through their subgenres and visual design, but their uniting factor—and thus, Scott’s stylistic unifier—is their emphasis on humanity.

Ridley Scott puts an emphasis on spectacle and world-building, though the worlds he builds visually contrast each other. In Alien, Scott uses mechanical grays and dark colors to give an eerie tone to the film as well as ground the movie within its setting of a utilitarian, futuristic spaceship. For the eponymous creature, the visual design captures a similar mix of industrialism with dark and grotesque imagery. When designing the alien, Scott was attracted to the style of surrealist artist H. R. Giger, whom he brought on board the project. Giger “invented a remarkable style he called ‘biomechanics’ which combined organic life with machinery,” which perfectly suited the film (LoBrutto 51). Despite having little interest or experience in science-fiction prior to this movie, Scott became interested in Alien because of the unique visual tone he could envision for the film. While Scott similarly had specific visuals in mind for his next project, Blade Runner, his vision of the future was decidedly different. Blade Runner brought biomechanics to fruition in its plot rather than the visual design. The narrative of Blade Runner revolves around humans and human-passing A.I. machines called replicants. In this harsh society, replicants are thoroughly discriminated against by their human counterparts. Instead of using the same grays and unnerving industrial style to depict this futuristic world, Scott creates a dystopian city filled with skyscrapers and neon billboards. The neon lights serve as colorful futuristic lights, but more importantly diffuse the setting with soft glows and sharp shadows which help distinguish the film’s neo-noir look. While Alien highlights the enclosed space of the ship, Blade Runner relies on the spectacle of huge buildings and advertisements, thereby reducing the people underneath them to little more than shadows. For Blade Runner, the difference in scale works to heighten the sense of loneliness for the characters despite living in a crowded urban environment. However, for The Martian, Scott uses world-building to emphasize Watney’s (Matt Damon) isolation in an entirely different visual way than Blade Runner. The Martian uses the saturated red colors of Mars to bring an empty planet to life. While temporally it is still set in the future, this scenario is much closer to the twenty-first century in its technology, plot, and feasibility for the space mission. In fact, Scott secured “complete cooperation” with NASA for the film and, during filming, “Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary sciences, visited the set of The Martian and told Scott the production was capturing all the right details” (LoBrutto 195-196). Most likely because of NASA’s involvement and a desire to stay as realistic to the science as possible, The Martian was filled with crisp whites of space equipment and research gear. While shots emphasize the vastness of the planet, Watney’s isolation within the bright reds of Mars and whites of NASA gear feels more optimistic. Because of the films’ distinct visual designs, Watney’s situation feels much more hopeful than the psychological loneliness of the Blade Runner characters within their huge city. All three of these films significantly use world-building and visual design to tell their stories and heighten the tone, yet each one carries a distinct look from the others. While an emphasis on world-building visual design can certainly be part of Ridley Scott’s signature, the distinct characteristics of each films’ visual designs makes determining his style by visuals alone difficult.  

Just as he builds unique, individual worlds, Scott also explores vastly different genres within each of these three science-fiction films: for Alien, it is horror; for Blade Runner, neo-noir; and for The Martian, comedy. While all three of these films can easily be categorized into science-fiction—especially as the first two works profoundly affected the genre—Scott again defies simple classifications of his style through genre. Beginning with Alien, Scott plays up the horror features in the film through its survivalist narrative and its most iconic but gruesome scene in which the alien bursts out from the chest of astronaut Kane (John Hurt). While much of the film is dark and eerie, the “chest-breaker” moment is filled with gore as the alien kills the astronaut and disappears into the spacecraft. Other moments, such as the beheading of Ash (Ian Holm) when it is revealed he is a robot, use macabre imagery to push the film solidly into the horror genre. The plot itself also becomes a canonical horror narrative as the film becomes less about whether the characters will change or what will happen to their mission but rather revolves around whether the characters will or will not survive the alien attack. In a similar fashion, Blade Runner utilizes conventions of the noir genre, such as character archetypes of the femme fatale and detective antihero, to prominently mix genres of noir and science-fiction. Blade Runner’s visual style mirrors the heavy shadows of traditional noir, but the futuristic setting elevates the genre into neo-noir, or even future-noir, because of its technological and dystopian elements. Deckard (Harrison Ford) embodies the archetypal discontent protagonist who works as a detective while Rachael (Sean Young) represents the femme fatale through her relationship with Deckard, as well as her physical look and secret replicant status. Femme fatales are mysterious and often have shifting loyalties as double agents, so the secrecy and ambiguity of Rachael’s replicant identity constantly casts doubt around her true motives. Even Roy (Rutger Hauer), as a somewhat sympathetic villain, illustrates the noir trope in that every character is neither good nor bad but somewhere in between. Finally, The Martian uses elements of comedy to brighten the film and give it a feel-good tone. Of all the genre mixes, this is probably the least clear-cut as the film relies heavily on dramatic moments, though the dialogue is filled with comedic one-liners. Notably, following backlash after the film was nominated and eventually won in the categories of ‘musical or comedy’ at the Golden Globes, the organization decided to change its rules on the category qualifications (Child). Though the film is loosely categorized as a comedy, the movie is distinctly much more comedic than Scott’s other science-fiction work. Watney is a likable protagonist who, despite facing insurmountable odds, rarely loses his sense of humor, and the film’s visual brightness adds to the optimism leading to the inevitably happy ending. The disco soundtrack and lack of spouse or children at home for Watney (he only worries about his parents) help alleviate a lot of tension surrounding his predicament as well. Overall, while Alien, Blade Runner, and The Martian are all science-fiction films, Scott relies on wildly different subgenres to play with genre conventions and obscure any definitive definition of his directorial style based on genre. 

However, what Scott’s science-fiction films do share is an emphasis on humanity which  can be seen within each film’s climactic scene; for Alien, this is when Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) defeats the creature and survives. Over the course of the film, the crew members are killed one by one by the monstrous alien until Ripley at last knocks it out of a door and into open space. The horror narrative of the film relies on the tension stemming from whether the crew will survive or not. In his chapter, “The Final Frontier: Survival Ethics in Extreme Living Conditions as Portrayed in Tom Godwin’s The Cold Equations and Ridley Scott’s Alien,” Christian Baron explores this concept of survivability and frontier ethics within the realm of science-fiction. While all other crew members exhibit failings and ultimately die at the hands of the alien, Baron argues that “Ripley is the ‘perfect survivor’ – a feature Ash otherwise ascribes to the alien intruder… [because Ripley] displays the correct, survivalist priorities, setting the survival of herself and the crew before  anything else” (204). In this way, it is Ripley’s good instincts and logic which save her. She represents the ideal for humanity as she is smart, strong, a good leader, and capable of making tough decisions. Because of these qualities, she is the only one who manages to not only survive but to expel and kill the alien that was terrorizing the ship. While Scott’s decision to make Ripley a female character was quite radical for Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, the character is not a hero because of nor in spite of her identity as a woman but rather her heroism as a human being facing an otherworldly threat. Near the beginning of the film, Ripley was the only crew member to insist on following protocol and not bringing Kane aboard the ship because of the unknown alien attached to him. Had Ripley been listened to, almost the entire crew would have survived. While initially Ripley’s reluctance to break protocol may seem to be a bit unfeeling or unempathetic because Kane will die if not examined, this scene shows that she takes responsibility seriously and values the lives of the crew by wanting to stick with the safest route. As the only one of the crew members to survive until the end, with the exception of Jonesy the cat, Ripley embodies ideal traits of humanity through her courage, strength, leadership, and intellect. While Ripley is certainly the best of them, the entire movie centers on humanity by framing the conflict as an ‘us versus them’ scenario of the human crew against the alien. While not many of them survive, ultimately, the human prevails.  

Of all three films, Blade Runner deals with humanity most directly by infusing its plot with ethical questions surrounding the definition of what it means to be human. Deckard is a detective and works to find rogue replicants and ‘retire’ (i.e. kill) them. He tests whether someone is a human or a replicant through the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test which relies on studying a person’s reactions to empathy triggering questions. In the film, this test measures empathy as humanity, so though the replicants are shown to experience emotion, they must experience empathy to qualify as human. As it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between replicant and human, it is clear that “being human here, it seems, is a matter less of what you can do, than of where you came from, what you once were, where your origins lie” (Norris 20). The delineation becomes how they were created and whether they are or are not a replicant, despite no discernible difference when among humans. In the film’s most climactic scene, Roy saves Deckard before he dies on the rooftop in the rain. As Roy is dying, he recalls his memories and what he has witnessed in his life and says, “All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain ... Time to die” (Blade Runner). While this final line echoes an earlier threat made to Deckard, the gentleness of Roy’s delivery is heartbreakingly human. In “‘How Can It Not Know What It Is?’: Self and Other in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner,” Andrew Norris examines the ethics and questions of humanity which the film explores. He writes that Roy’s “final words demonstrate such a sensitive grasp of the reliance of his, and our, identity upon the capacity to endure in time” or, in other words, they connect to the human desire to have a legacy (Norris 42). The rain coming down seems to blur the lines even further between humans and replicants as Roy is revealed to be dealing with the same existential questions as humans, but his body is only built for a far shorter amount of time. In this way, Scott centers the emotional climax of the film on the theme of what it means to be human. Instead of a gruesome creature like in Alien, in Blade Runner humans are pitted against sentient beings that seem to be human in all but name.  

Finally, Scott utilizes a focus on emotion to exacerbate the human experience of isolation and resilience in The Martian. Watney is mistakenly abandoned on Mars when an evacuation goes south, and he must survive on the deserted planet for at least four years until another spacecraft can reach him—assuming that he can alert them of his presence. Watney consistently uses his sense of humor within the circumstances and works to stay alive on the unforgiving terrain. Against all odds, he lives on the planet long enough for a rescue mission to come back for him, and he returns to earth. Though there is significant tension once the shuttle takes off surrounding whether it will hit the rescue ship, the true emotional climax of the film is just before this, when Watney straps himself into the shuttle and announces he is ready. In this moment, Watney finally breaks down in tears for his relief to get rescued, his fear of the survivability of the mission, and his pride at somehow being able to live for 560 sols alone on Mars. Up until this point, Watney has dealt with triumphs and frustrations alike, but he breaks down on the shuttle when confronted by what he has accomplished and the hope that he might finally go home. No matter the unbelievable circumstances, Watney’s relief in his moment of breakdown is the emotional climax for the audience because it shows the relatable humanity of someone who survived against all odds. In his review, Peter Bradshaw writes that “the charm of The Martian turns out to be how down-to-earth it is” (Bradshaw). He also writes that the film “should of course be called The Earthling” because it “is not interested in life on or from other planets. The point is that the home team is in danger” (Bradshaw). These statements are true because no matter how visually spectacular the planet is or realistic the NASA technology is, the film is driven by Watney at its emotional core as a man trying to survive the obstacles in front of him. Chris Matthews admired the film’s humanity, saying, “It’s about the prevalence of the human spirit through the forge of individual courage and human loyalty” (LoBrutto 198). While this film lacks the horrific survivalist tones of Alien or the ethical questions raised by Blade Runner, The Martian nonetheless explores the emotions and  experiences of humanity and ends on a decidedly more optimistic note.  

Despite their differences in visual design, tone, and subgenres, Alien, Blade Runner, and The Martian are all examples of how emphasis on humanity is Ridley Scott’s stylistic unifier across his science-fiction films. In Alien, Scott became a sensation by using horror conventions for the design and narrative structure, but ultimately tells a story about a woman surviving a gruesome extraterrestrial threat. In Blade Runner, Scott created a cult classic that influenced the world-building of dystopian and science-fiction movies to follow, yet, at its core, the film centers around questions of what exactly it takes to be human. With The Martian, Scott told a brighter tale than his typical science-fiction movies, but even with its beautiful views of Mars, the film was successful because of its reliance on the humanity of Watney’s perseverance and desire to get home. Together, these three films show that Ridley Scott can build any spectacular visual world or experiment with any subgenre, but the true mark of Scott’s science-fiction movies is their reliance on humanity. 

Works Cited 

Alien. Directed by Ridley Scott, 20th Century Fox, 1979. 

Baron, Christian, et al. Science Fiction, Ethics and the Human Condition. Cham, Springer, 2017.  Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Directed by Ridley Scott, Warner Brothers, 1982/2007. Bradshaw, Peter. "The Martian Review – Matt Damon Thanks His Lucky Stars in Sci-Fi Test of  

Survival." The Guardian, 1 Oct. 2015, www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/01/the martian-review-matt-damon-ridley-scott. Accessed 7 May 2021. 

Child, Ben. "Golden Globes Change Comedy Rules after Controversial Win for The Martian."  The Guardian, 19 Apr. 2016, www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/19/golden-globes change-comedy-rules-the-martian-judd-apatow. Accessed 7 May 2021. 

LoBrutto, Vincent. Ridley Scott: A Biography. E-book, Lexington, UP of Kentucky, 2019.  The Martian. Directed by Ridley Scott, 20th Century Fox, 2015. 

Norris, Andrew. "'How Can It Not Know What It Is?': Self and Other in Ridley Scott's Blade  Runner." Film-Philosophy, vol. 17, no. 1, 2013, pp. 19–50, doi:10.3366/film.2013.0002.