Alien: Early Alien script by Dan O'Bannon references The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear (Published 1936) by Hergé?

 

 

leading from

Alien : Jewel associations

and

Alien; Development by way of Tintin

a) Following the jewel obsession

Following the idea of the crazy dramas surrounding jewels becoming what drove Dan O'Bannon's script for Alien along, reading the recently published book Hergé  Occult: La Ligne Sombre by Arnaud De La Croix, where he talkes about the

"The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear" and the statue used for the fetish in the story graced the cover , I felt drawn to go back and take another look at it. 

I had read through it numerous times, but looking at it again, I saw how there was something to do with a diamond involved in that story and realised that this was something else that somehow was a part of this trail of ideas to do with jewels. 

Then what was the most obvious conclusion unfolded before my eyes

 

The Chimú statuette from the Cinquantenaire Museum
which was copied into the adventure by Hergé.

b) The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear, p57 (Published 1936) by Hergé

b.i) I imagine that he looked at this page and it helped to evolve the idea of at the end of the story.

Tintin has been hunting for the fetish which is the Broken Ear statue in the story in which a diamond is hidden, and then he comes to find that the same fetish is being mass produced in a shop.

 

b.ii) In the Alien story character Roby (who becomes Ripley)'s discovers that the alien life form is actually replicating itself.   

 

A crew member member is found alive but cocooned hanging from the ceiling, as it were transforming into a spore.  

 

Another cocoon is found hanging from the ceiling, on the verge of becoming a fully formed spore.

  

Early version of the cocoon scene by Ron Cobb

 

 

c) The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear, p59 (Published 1936) by Hergé

The villains take out the fetish looking for the diamond that's inside of it. 

In Dan O'Bannon's early Alien script written in 1976, since I believe that Dan O'Bannon played with ideas from Tintin book, I would think that Dan looked at this and it set of associations to do with the Alien beast coming out of hiding in the shuttle near the end of the story. 

 

 

Alien continuity polaroid from blu-ray set showing
the alien creature hiding amongst the pipes

 

 

d)  The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear, p60 (Published 1936) by Hergé

d.i) The diamond goes astray and out into the sea, passing by the inky darkness of the side of the ship.

 

 

 

The diamond shooting off against an inky black background into the ocean

 

 

d.ii)  As scripted by Dan O'Bannon in his early script, here Ripley (who used to be named in the script as  Roby) blows the rear hatch of the shuttle open and the alien beast is sucked out into space

First draft storyboard from  Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set

 

First draft storyboard from Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set

 

e)  The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear, p61 (Published 1936) by Hergé

e.i) Here is a scene where Tintin gets dragged over board in a fight with two men who are attacking him because the diamond went overboard. 

 

He comes to the surface and is rescued while the two criminals die in the bottom of the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

e.ii) So going by what I've connected with Alien from the comic book story so far, this scene would connect with the moment when the alien is cast out into space but the creature grabs Roby (who becomes Ripley) and pulls him out of the shuttle leaving him hanging and Roby gets back aboard the shuttle to safety while the alien beast floats off to its doom.

 

 

illustration by Ron Cobb for early version of Dan O'Bannon's Alien script

 

 

 

First draft  storyboard from Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set

 

First draft  storyboard from Alien Anthology Blu-Ray set