"Aliens (1986): What Are The "Arcturans" Or "Arcturians"?" Topic

In the first draft of the film script (1985):

WIERZBOWSKI
Hey, I wouldn't mind getting me some more a that Arcturan poontang. Remember that time?

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In the film Aliens (1986):

FROST
Hey, I sure wouldn't mind getting some more of that Arcturian poontang! Remember that time?

SPUNKMEYER
Yeah, Frost, but the one that you had was a male!

FROST
It doesn't matter when it's Arcturian, baby!

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So, I ask . . .

1) Other than the obvious "an inhabitant of the Arcturus star system", what is an Arcturan/Arcturian in the film Aliens? Did Camerron ever elaborate on that in any interview, before or after the film?

2) If not, do you think he meant the Edgar Cayce type "Arcturians"?
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3) Or do you think Cameron left it unclear on purpose? And, if so, how did YOU imagine them to look when you first heard the term used in the film? As humanoids? As some other lifeform?

Thanks,

Dan

I think it was left unclear-just there to add some "atmosphere".

Nothing says humans have had contact with sentient alien life. Arcturans are probably humans. Maybe Arcturus is space Vegas/Bangkok.

"What happens in Arcturus, stays in Arcturus!"

Did an image come to mind when you first heard the "Arcturian" reference in the film? If so, what sort of creature?

Dan
PS. Maybe I'm the only one that visualizes everything. :)

I've always assumed they're some sort of humanoid of ambiguous gender. I doubt much thought went into the actual nature of the Arcturians and their place in the universe. It's just a cool line. :)

I think there was also a passing reference to 'another bug hunt'. That implied another alien species, to me anyway.

I'll have to try and look it up but in the colonal marines supplement, it says humans have not come across any other tech alien race, only bugs and criters. It talks about a group of colonies has broken away from earth control and the majority of the military is there dealing with that. It also talks about a planet of worms or bugs that tunnel in the ground and attacked the colonist on that planet. The marines were sent in to clean out the tunnels. Also if I remember right the marines in the movie were on R&R after losing a couple marines in some other engagement? Since they were close and available their R&R was cut short and sent on their last mission in the movie Aliens. Now this is all from memory cause its been a few years since I've read it.

I always understood that there were other ALF's out there.

Inside my head thought the Arcturians He-shes looked a lot like Captain Kirk's Green Squeeze from TOS.

Pat

I read the Alien novel before watching Alien and Aliens. It was pretty clear that the human race had encountered no other (living) intelligent alien species. The Preds were retconned into the series, and as they are both elusive and classified, the majority of the human race (Ripley etc.) is unaware of their existence.

Lampyridae: "It was pretty clear that the human race had encountered no other (living) intelligent alien species."

That's precisely what I remembered, from either reading or just from the first film (1979)!!!

That's why, when Aliens (1986) came along, and I heard the reference to the Arcturians, I envisioned (yes, I pictured something as I heard it) something less-than-sentient.

In fact, that same night, a friend, my brother and I (mid teens all of us) started talking about what image came to our mind during the film, and joking about what they could have meant by "pootang" (giggling in fact).

Out of the three, I was the one that said it had to be some sort of brainless "fleshy" plant. Like a giant pod one would walk into and be enveloped (talk about Freudian). Of course, the sensation would have been very different from this:

YouTube link

The idea of it being some sort of animal sounded plain gross to me. However, they both said it had to be some sort of trainable pet. And, believe it or not, this is very close to what my friend and brother sketched out:

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Needless to say, when my brother and I went to see Fifth Element, he nearly choked on popcorn and soda when he saw Zorg's "pet" (Picasso):

YouTube link
YouTube link

Dan

What were the creatures from Hammers Slammers called by the way. They had some surgically modified humoniod creature also.

The Aliens Leading Edge figures had a rule book that defined the Arcturians as the following… prepare to be disturbed… immensely.

"The Arcturians are the natives of Arcturus and they are mammal-like creatures that are about the same size as humans. Their society is like that of ants; they live in underground hives, have a single large queen which lays eggs, and raises their young in communal nursing chambers. they are semi-intelligent, with mental abilities similar to those of lower apes.

This combination of animal and insect traits makes them a strange race. They are warm-blooded omnivores, breathe oxygen, and are roughly humanoid, but they are also eyeless and the communicate and find their way with sonar. Their young are amphibious and are raised in warm pools near the bottom of their hive."

Please tell me the marines were talking about the human colonists on the planet and not the queen!

Cameron?

These are marines we are talking about. Why assume 'Sentience' and 'Poontang' are mutally exclusive?

They are semi-intelligent, with mental abilities similar to those of lower apes.

Ever been to Portsmouth?

Pat

Maybe (if the sentence *had* some hidden meaning for the authors and was not just, as written above 'for the atmosphere') rooted in a confusion similar to the mistaking by sailors of old of female seals with 'mermaids'?

And / or a traditional military joke similar to the old references to the attraction of French Legionnaires to goats, and to the dumb one who catched a billygoat?

'Seriously' (?) a reference to a colony with the same kind of repute as to-day Thailand: propitious to sexual tourism and with many 'ladyboys'?

Sane Max: "Why assume 'Sentience' and 'Poontang' are mutally exclusive?"

I don't understand. Who said they were? Was it me?

Dan

I had always assumed it was just in there for banter, making the Marines more real (and so mattering more to the viewer when they got killed). Just like them picking on Vasquez for the 'she thought they meant illegal aliens'…

But it's a toss-up between Space Vegas/Thailand 'ladyboys' and something like the 'flirts' from Hammer's Slammers – not human, but close enough for sanity's sake.

I always envisioned Arcturans as being androgynous emo Thai ladyboy settlers that made it near impossible to tell the men and women together. (no offense meant to any androgynous emo Thai ladyboys on the board)

You bastard! (tosses head angrily)

Pat

Space sheep?

Remember now … it's only a story … fiction … not real … There was a Slammer story, kind'a reminds me of this. JT and his crew made models !!! link

I believe the directors were just ing with us.
link

I doubt there was anything more to it that a line of throwaway dialogue.

For my part, I always had an image in my mind of some less-than-sentient alien race that looked something like a 'Grey', but maybe a little less creepy.

As Legion 4 said, they were called 'Flirts' in Slammers. Sort of Monkey level intelligence with some sort of lizard scaled skin and surgically enhanced (breasts and wigs) so's not to put off the troopers too much…

Dan – I think you're thinking about this way too much

John T

Looks like it might be in homage, from Wiki:

"Alien From Arcturus (1956), expanded as Arcturus Landing (1978), novel written by Gordon R. Dickson describing an attempt to build a ship with a faster-than-light propulsion system. The aliens in this novel, sublimated sex-objects, are decidedly cuddly, with shiny black noses, and a striking resemblance to the Ewoks of the Star Wars franchise."

They are colonists on Arcturus (or rather at as no one can live on a star…).

Obviously, Arcturans have a poor reputation amongst other colonies.

Sort of like Coloradans, Californians, Floridans, or those bozos in Congress…:)

It's clearly an example of a Noodle Incident.

link

Sane Max wrote:

Ever been to Portsmouth?

Hang on mate, I'm Pompey born and bred and object most strongly. Gosport, on the other hand…

"Dan – I think you're thinking about this way too much"

It wouldn't BE CC if he *didn't* . . . :D

I agree that the Acturian reference is to another human culture or planet – I always thought of it like a Las Vegas in space as well!

As an aside, the "Is this just another bug hunt?" line is not (contrary to popular perception) a reference to aliens – it's Vietnam-era military slang for a skirmish without any military action. In the context of Hudson's comments, that makes perfect sense.

Finally, thought some wargamers might be interested to hear that Lee Brimmicombe-Wood's Colonial Marines Technical Manual is being re-released in May 2012! I already have it, so I'm hoping that it's going to be updated or re-edited in some way for the new release!!!

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(Just to add support to the view this might be a revised version: I read in an interview with the author that there was some problem with copyright/permission to use some of the sketches in the latter part of the book – so these will likely be adapted to reflect whatever the problem was. Also, the cover looks different from my version of the book.)

At the time of the film I assumed "Arcturians" were an alien race sexually compatible with humans, and "bugs" referred to alien varmints endangering civilian areas.

However I agree this doesn't match the fictional background which seems to say there are no known intelligent life forms.

According to this New York Post op-ed piece by John Ringo, the phrase "bug hunt" came into common usage during the occupation of Grenada and referred specifically to missions to root civilian political targets out of hiding, but through general usage can also refer to any non-combat assignment handed down the chain of command in an occuppied area.

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That makes the most sense to me, although shame on the script writer, who can't possibly have expected audiences to make that association versus imagining something having to do with dangerous alien varmints.

And I think space-Vegas or space-Bangkok makes the most sense for the Arcturians reference.

I like abdul666lw's reference to soldiers with goats and the dumb soldier with a billygoat. This is banter between Marines, which tends to be full of running jokes, machismo oneupmanship, and self-referential deliberate irony. Frost's answer may not be a literal statement of experience, but a counter-brag, or counter-taunt to maintain his own self-esteem. "You're so dumb when you called me dumb you were dumb too" or really "I may be dumb but I'm a Marine so I'm proud of it!".

According the the Wikipedia page on Arcturans, they are indeed androgynous Thai ladyboys in Space Vegas. Just don't go there yet, I'm not through writing it yet.

I always just figured they were hermaphrodites, so could be classified either way.

I first saw it when I was young and unaware of the meaning of the word "poontang." I assumed they were some sort of food creature, and perhaps the females tasted better.

My current assumption is that it refers to a human resident of the colony on Arcturus. A line almost immediately before "Arcturian poontang" involves Apone talking about rescuing juicy colonists' daughters from their virginity, so…

And I assume the Colonial Marines pull exterminator duty for other colony worlds, and have to blast other critters, hence "bug hunt" is slang for such activities.

"Dan – I think you're thinking about this way too much"

It wouldn't BE CC if he *didn't* . . . :D

This is why I like CC. He comes up with the oddest little things to point out….and then it gets the creative juices running.

I always imagined they were in fact just colonists…Though, that description of a ape/insectoid race is abit disturbing if you use that as context…. but, it's possible for them to be the native Acturians while we'd still refer to the human settlers as Acturians and with their sentience, declare them the heirs to the world. At least until the natives learn to use or even manufacture the colonial weapons… then we've got Planet of the Bug-Apes!

"As an aside, the "Is this just another bug hunt?" line is not (contrary to popular perception) a reference to aliens – it's Vietnam-era military slang for a skirmish without any military action. In the context of Hudson's comments, that makes perfect sense."

While the source of the quote might be correct, the movie does imply that the Marines were involved in combat operations against critters of some kind before: The logo on their Dropship shows an eagle with military boots and the motto "Bug Stompers – We endanger species".

Bug hunting is a must in military Sci Fi since 'Starship trooper' (the novel): a form of homage from the movie to the book / a kind of 'private joke' for Sci Fi aficionados?

"While the source of the quote might be correct, the movie does imply that the Marines were involved in combat operations against critters of some kind before: The logo on their Dropship shows an eagle with military boots and the motto "Bug Stompers – We endanger species"."

Exactly. For me, the only thing that is canon is the film itself and in the film it seems clear that the marines are used to tackling alien species (and I don't mean the xenomorphs) and winning. Remember, Gorman tells Ripley that the marines "are used to these kinds of situations" and to the question about the "stand up fight, or just another bug hunt" from Hicks, Gorman directly references the xeno and the fact that not much is known about it and then introduces Ripley to giver her briefing about the creature. Given the marines banter during the briefing, especially by Velasquez, they don't seem concerned or surprised to be going up against an alien species. So, it seems pretty clear that the marines are used to taking on various alien species.

That being said, their laid-back (non-)reactions show that those encounters were probably something akin to exterminator duty, i. e. clearing an infestation of some kind of alien creature that is harmless when confronted with the marines' training and gear.

John T: "Dan – I think you're thinking about this way too much"

Covert Walrus: "It wouldn't BE CC if he *didn't* . . . :D"

Wolfprophet: "This is why I like CC. He comes up with the oddest little things to point out….and then it gets the creative juices running."

LOL. Glad to still be entertaining to the community!!! I aim for useful too. :)

Dan

And I assume the Colonial Marines pull exterminator duty for other colony worlds, and have to blast other critters, hence "bug hunt" is slang for such activities.

There are several mentions of Marines pulling extermination duty in the Tech Manual. And I definitely need a new copy, mine's getting a little worn around the edges and didn't take kindly to at least one move…

I just found the line disturbing in general. As a viewer it didn't make me care any more when they got eaten. But then, I am of a different mind set than the target audience.

At least you have a mindset.

Dan

Would making the Arcturians into changelings get past most sensibilities?

Dan