Nostromo (Alien)
We now have talked earlier than about the large affect the Nostromo’s kitchen and in any other case has had on spaceship set design basically. Alien’s impression on sci-fi aesthetics as a complete is incalculable, generally to the detriment of the style, however that affect is felt strongest the place film spaceship crews eat.
And with good trigger. The meat of the motion in Alien doesn’t happen on some bridge or management room, or in a laboratory or Star Trek-style area convention room. It doesn’t even happen in its many spacious air shafts. All of it occurs within the kitchen. That is the place we meet the Nostromo crew for the primary time arguing about percentages. That is additionally, in fact, the place John Damage has the worst case of indigestion in movie historical past. It’s the place plans are instructed, argued over and agreed on. It’s the place Ash makes an attempt his brutal and terrifying homicide of Ripley and the crew overpowers, interrogates and finally, cooks him.
The set for the Nostromo’s kitchen may also simply be one of the intricately designed movie units in film historical past. It nonetheless locations the bar for environmental storytelling, from Ron Cobb’s now legendary “Semiotic Normal” to the cereal station, the wall of cups neatly ensconced of their little cupholders. All the things has its place, its premade slot.
However the hole between its meant and precise use can also be clear—the stark white is in all places coated in grime; the partitions plastered with pin-ups, stickers, and notes. It isn’t simply the room the place the story motion takes place, it’s the room the place the characters dwell, typically regardless of the needs of the employer that put them there, and that’s seen in each element.
One of the crucial illustrative parts is the meals itself. There are not any ovens or hobs seen, and definitely no contemporary meat or greens. This can be a place for out-of-the-packet dwelling. The Nostromo crew drinks canned beer and scoop meals out of Tupperware containers, consuming huge bowls of what seems to be like low-cost noodles, though the crew “don’t know what it’s manufactured from.” Frankly, the meals tells you the way a lot the crew’s well-being is valued by their employer, foreshadowing what’s going to turn out to be of them.
Serenity (Serenity)
The kitchen aboard the workhorse spaceship of the collection Firefly and its film spinoff Serenity might be the second greatest identified spaceship kitchen on the market. Earlier than we go any additional you will need to additionally acknowledge we’re not right here to have a good time Joss Whedon (who by many accounts is a shit), however Firefly’s impression on the sci-fi style is plain (even when arguably that impression is recycling a bunch of stuff from the Millennium Falcon and throwing in some concepts from Cowboy Bebop and Southern Revisionism of the American Civil Struggle).
