AlienFilter: Why does Ash run in place?
January 28, 2025 2:36 PM   Subscribe

My wife and I still haven’t made up our minds on this question after seeing the movie together at least 20 times. [SPOILERS WITHIN (moderator added this verbiage)]

He’s an android, so I don’t believe he needs to warm up in what is probably a chilly part of the Nostromo. The fact that he first checks to make sure that no one is watching him seems relevant.
posted by Lemkin to Media & Arts (15 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
ScreenRant says that Ridley Scott discusses this in the Alien DVD commentary. They say he says Ash jogging in place was an idea by the character's actor, Sir Ian Holm, and quote him saying "The first sign here that Ian isn’t necessarily what you think he is. Is he arthritic, or is it something else? Or years in space have got to his joints. That was a little suggestion by him which I thought was great… an actor really thinking through the whole idea and getting into the notion of the realities of science fact and not science fiction." So it was extemporaneous, and intended to hint that he is artificial (maybe synths need to loosen their joints if they've been static for a long time) or sort of a connection to Bishop's "the A-2's always were a bit twitchy" remark.
posted by RichardP at 2:46 PM on January 28 [4 favorites]


He’s an android, so I don’t believe he needs to warm up in what is probably a chilly part of the Nostromo

No idea what types of internal lubrication androids would be using in that universe, but sometimes machinery in our universe does actually need to be warmed up and/or put through its paces especially if it's been sitting idle for a long time and some of the lubrication has started to gunk up or dry out in spots. (You want the lubrication liquid/malleable enough to coat everything smoothly, and the machinery moving enough to distribute it effectively.)
posted by trig at 3:00 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]


Mod note: Post edited to move the spoiler tag below the fold. If you're using spoilers at all, in any way, please put them below the fold, to avoid messing with the movie experience of others, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 3:01 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]


below the fold

Do you mean above the fold? Maybe I’m hazy on the metaphor.
posted by zamboni at 3:10 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


I've also heard Ridley Scott say that the running in place is Ash's attempt to control his sexual frustration. I remember the first time I watched the movie, the shots of the pinups and Ash rolling the pinup magazine up into a tube and trying to stuff it into Ripley's mouth seemed so crazy. But Scott has said that the android character has a sort of longing for physical connection that he cannot fulfill because Ash is not anatomically complete. This theme gets picked up with David later in the Alien series.
posted by effluvia at 3:16 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


Do you mean above the fold? Maybe I’m hazy on the metaphor.


I think you might be hazy. Below the fold means you have to click on the post to see the additional context. So, in this case, to see the spoilers, you need to click on the post.

So, Brandon's using the term as intended.
posted by kbanas at 3:29 PM on January 28


Spoilers should be below the fold of course. But the SPOILERS WITHIN warning should be above the fold.

Post edited to move the spoiler tag below the fold. This is perhaps a confusing sentence. The spoiler tag SPOILERS WITHIN is above the fold.
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:41 PM on January 28 [6 favorites]


Ash rolling the pinup magazine up into a tube and trying to stuff it into Ripley's mouth seemed so crazy.

Not to mention the extremely odd 'precious bodily fluid' -like character of his :blood'.

Those two things suggest to me that Ash running in place is a metaphor for a usually solitary activity of quite another kind — and that Ash doesn't have one because he is one.
posted by jamjam at 3:48 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]


Which might even explain the name ’Ash’, via the old 'getting your ashes hauled' slang.
posted by jamjam at 4:25 PM on January 28


Bizarrely, I've started to do this occasionally in real life. 90% of the time at home, but occasionally out and about if no one is watching too closely.

Generally I think of it as a way to get my blood pumping and burn off some nervous energy before I do something I don't 100% want to do (think "speak in public," not "allow an alien lifeform onto the ship that is going to kill everybody")
posted by thecaddy at 4:30 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


(Also I did it once to warm up when I was doing a trash pickup outside. Sure, Ash is artificial, but he's much more organic in how he's built than mechanical. Moving is still going to generate heat, and heat is still going to need to be regulated.)
posted by thecaddy at 4:32 PM on January 28


Honestly, I've always thought that Ash did his little "run in place" in order to put convincing wrinkles into his clothes. Recall that, at that point, none of the crew suspected that Ash was an "artificial person." Looking a bit disheveled furthers the illusion.
posted by SPrintF at 4:43 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


I always think of it as a machine calibration.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:30 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


I always assumed it was to help with pushing the synthetic white blood(?) around in his body, in the same way that stretching your legs will help move some of your own blood around.
posted by RubixsQube at 7:56 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


Maintenance-arthritis, circulation, and just plain moving to stave off stagnation was my thought. I thought it was optimizing his physical self.
posted by childofTethys at 8:19 AM on February 1


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