Forget Xenomorphs: The real threat in Alien was wage inequality and corporate greed

The 1979 film Alien conjures up scenes of chest-bursting extraterrestrials, 7ft–tall Xenomorphs and the threat of what monsters could lie out in the endless expanse of space.

But it also told the story of the monsters that already lived among us: corporate greed, wage inequality and the dangers of unchecked technological advancement. These ideas are at the heart of Alien: Earth, a new Disney+ spin-off series. While the original film masked its critique in horror and science fiction, the new series brings those themes into sharper focus.

To understand where Alien: Earth is headed, it’s worth going back to where Alien began – in the political and economic turmoil of the late 1970s.

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Alien was released on 6 September 1979 in the UK. The previous winter had become known as the ‘Winter of Discontent’ due to the widespread strikes across the nation. These demanded pay rises higher than the Labour prime minister at the time, James Callaghan, had been imposing.

While Alien is heavily influenced by American culture, it is key to note that it was produced by 20th Century Fox’s British subsidiary and filmed close to London in Shepperton Studios.

The film’s director, Sir Ridley Scott, was born in South Shields, a town in the north east of England, and his family later settled in Teesside. His father was a commercial shipping partner, and his mother was the daughter of a miner. There were two major miners’ strikes during the 1970s, in ‘72 and ‘74, which both resulted in pay rises for the workers.

Aside from the odd celebrity flight, space expeditions today are usually staffed with the best and the brightest trained astronauts who hold at least master’s degrees in STEM subjects. However, in the dystopian future of 2122, the crew of the USCSS Nostromo are seen as blue-collar workers, highlighting the seeming mundanity of space travel.

The opening credits of Alien describe the spaceship, owned by the company Weyland-Yutani, as a ‘commercial towing vehicle’. Critics have sometimes referred to the crew as ‘space truck drivers’, due to their known priority being transporting cargo.

Scott came from a military family; his father served as a colonel during the Second World War, and his brother joined the merchant navy when the director was still young. The crew roles, such as ‘captain’ and ‘warrant officer’ on the Nostromo, are similar to those you may find on a naval vessel, but it’s clear from early on in the film that the workers aboard this ship are civilians. While there is a ‘science officer’, who is revealed later in the film to be an android, the plot follows the crew members’ more practical roles, such as ship maintenance, rather than exploration.

Two of the crew members are engineers, Brett (the engineering technician) and Parker (chief engineer). Little over seven minutes into the film, Brett and Parker bring up how little they are being paid compared to the rest of the crew.

“Uh, before we dock, I think we ought to discuss the bonus situation,” says Parker, as he broaches the issue to the rest of the crew, who are sitting at a round table.

Brett adds: “You see, Mr Parker and I feel that the bonus situation has never been on an equitable level.”

The captain interjects, stating that the engineers get what they’re contracted for, just like everybody else. Brett responds: “Yes, but everybody else, uh, gets more than us.”

In the 1970s, the UK was marked by significant class tensions due to economic hardship. The decade saw soaring inflation, peaking around 25% in 1975, the highest annual inflation rate recorded in Britain. To put that into perspective, the annual inflation rate in June 2025 was 3.6%.

While wage inequality remained relatively stable during the 70s in Britain, income disparities began to significantly widen in the US throughout this decade, and have continued along this trend up to the present day.

Brett and Parker are both played by American actors, Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto, respectively. Prior to Alien, audiences might’ve seen Kotto on the screen in Blue Collar, a 1978 film about three men who feel let down by their bosses and union representation.

Kotto was a huge draw for the Alien movie at the time of its release. He played the main villain in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die and was a rising star. With his most recent portrayal having been as a blue-collar worker, this may have given his Alien character added weight. Kotto’s character in Blue Collar is put in danger by his work conditions, blaming negligent bosses, suggesting they don’t care about the safety of their workers.

Apart from the obvious wage inequality, the film – and subsequent Alien sequels and spin-offs – often deal with this exact topic. For Parker, Brett and the rest of the Nostromos, their bosses at Weyland-Yutani care more about bringing back a dangerous organism they hope to use as a weapon than the crew’s safety.

The sole survivor of the original film is Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. It’s not just her quick thinking and resourcefulness that lead to her survival and escape, but her realisation that her company does not care if she lives or dies. Her betrayal by Ash, the android science officer, moves the focus from the alien being the antagonist to revealing Weyland-Yutani as the real villain this whole time.

In his ‘dying’ words, Ash becomes the mouthpiece for the company’s true values. He calls the alien: “A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”

The Xenomorph, in Ash’s eyes, is the ideal organism because it operates without ethics, emotions or accountability – not unlike Weyland-Yutani itself. It’s a chilling line. However, it also contains the clues to how Ripley can defeat the extraterrestrial threat. The alien can’t be reasoned with and it won’t show mercy. To survive, Ripley now knows she has to do the same.

Ash’s words also echo how some modern-day CEOs describe AI as the ideal employee: no strikes, no sick days, no pay rises.

More than 45 years on, Scott’s sci-fi parable about workers’ rights and corporate greed feels as relevant today as it did then. Billion-dollar companies routinely dodge taxes, train AI tools on stolen labour, and underpay essential workers, all while marketing themselves as moral forces for good.

Alien’s message remains clear – the monster isn’t just the one lurking in the dark. It’s the system that sent you into the dark in the first place.

Alien: Earth is out now.

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