Ash - the under-appreciated comic genius

One of the many joys of watching Alien is spotting Ash’s constant irritation with Ripley and the subtle digs he keeps making towards her.

When she quite reasonably asks how his motion tracker works, notice the ‘dumb bitch’ eye-roll he makes towards the others as he answers.

When she confronts him about letting an infected crew member onto the ship, notice his whole ‘oh just fuck off’ body language, and subtle power-games ‘please don’t touch that’ 😆

He’s like a rebellious teenager who hates his mom.

Also funny is how he keeps trying to protect the alien without anyone, especially Dallas, noticing what he’s up to. When Dallas suggests getting rid of the face-hugger Ash is all ‘well let’s not be too hasty…’ and ‘if we take it off… it could kill him’ 👏🏻😅

Of course, when Ripley suggests blasting the face-hugger into space he gives a massive ‘who is this bimbo?’ eye-roll to Dallas as he explains its scientific significance.

What does he do when he finally gets rumbled? Tries to make Ripley eat a magazine 🤣🤣

I swear, next time you watch Alien keep an eye out for Ash’s naughty schoolboy antics. Underneath Alien’s many layers of bleakness and horror is hiding a masterful comedy performance by Ian Holm.