Why do androids have white blood in the Alien saga? It’s a detail that wouldn’t have returned in Blade Runner’s replicants, which had to be ‘more real than real’, but that Ridley Scott conceived specifically for the first Alien film in 1979.
In an interview with the New York Times some time ago, Ridley Scott explained that he had the idea on set while he was filming the scene where Ash begins to lose his mind and becomes violent and threatens to attack Ripley. The then semi-debut British director, who had only The Duelists to his credit before directing Alien, suddenly he asked those present on the set if anyone had milk with them and, after obtaining it, used a dropper to spread the white liquid on actor Ian Holm’s face.
The reaction was just what Ridley Scott was hoping for: “It scared everyone! No one expected to see white blood, white as milk of magnesia. I thought of this because I wanted to create a shock effect, and I convinced myself that it would have been more surprising than seeing banal red blood“.
Indeed it was like this and the effect of this idea has not changed even today: the white blood in Alien is one of the film’s many striking visual ideasand remains a trademark of its unique and iconic look.
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