Analyzing 'Alien' | Was that signal a distress call or a warning? [Teacher, what was that?]

The meaning of 'that scene' that has been bothering me ever since I watched the movie.
Cinema Teacher (55), a man who has seen every movie, and Tok (19), a college student from the streaming generation, dig deep into a single question.

🎤 Tok: Teacher. You know that signal the Nostromo receives near the beginning of 'Alien'? At first, they said it was a distress call, but later Ripley says, 'This might be a warning.' In the end, what was that?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Good question. And it is the most cruel question in this film. First, let's organize the facts. As a result of Ripley re-analyzing the signal, she says, 'It might not be a distress call, but a warning.' However, by that time, Kane has already descended to the planet, found the eggs, and been attached by a facehugger.

🎤 Tok: In other words, it was too late.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: It was too late. But that's not what's truly scary. Think about it. If that was a 'warning,' who issued it?

🎤 Tok: Uh... the big fossil-like pilot who was on that crashed spaceship—the Space Jockey, right?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: That's right. That being died inside a ship loaded with a massive amount of eggs. In other words, it is highly likely that he was also a victim of that creature. And let's assume he sent that signal in his dying moments. If it was a warning saying 'don't come,' then—I read that signal as perhaps being a 'last will and testament.'Not a cry for help, but a final act of goodwill saying, 'Don't let anyone else come here.'

🎤 Tok: ...Wow. Isn't that incredibly sad? A dying alien used its last strength to say 'run away,' but they misread it as 'asking for help.'

🎬 Cinema Teacher: And the company knew from the start. It was no coincidence that they sent the crew to that planet. In other words—even if Ripley had realized it was a warning sooner, there is a possibility it couldn't have been stopped. Regardless of what the signal actually was, the Nostromo was destined to go to that planet from the beginning.

🎤 Tok: ...Does that mean the warning and the goodwill were all for nothing?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: The movie doesn't provide that answer. It leaves it intentionally blank. But as long as this blank exists, the audience will keep wondering, 'What if they had listened to someone's warning?' That lingering feeling is one of the reasons why this movie has kept scaring people for 46 years.

🎤 Tok: But Teacher, that's just your interpretation, right? Aren't there other ways to look at it?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Of course. To begin with, the reading that 'it was a distress call' is also valid. That is the interpretation that the Space Jockey was asking for help, and simply no one came to save it. There is also a theory that the signal wasn't sent by the Space Jockey, but was a 'luring signal' emitted by the alien eggs themselves. A trap to call in prey. —Which one is correct is not determined within the movie. That is precisely why the reading you felt when watching it is the correct answer for you.

👉 Click here for a deeper discussion on this movie:
Cinema Teacher and Tok's Movie Talk #12 'Alien' — The scariest thing wasn't the alien