"Alien" vs. Real Life Parasites

Описание: '“Alien" vs. Real Life Parasites'
A talk by RJ Millena, entomologist, American Museum of Natural History

Entomologist RJ Millena describes how the Xenomorph’s terrifying life cycle in ALIEN (1979) owes a significant debt to the real-world horrors of invertebrate parasitoids. John Hurt’s famous chest–burster scene will be played in tandem with images of parasitoid wasp larvae emerging from a caterpillar, and Millena will describe the parasitic mechanisms happening every day below our noses. Millena will also introduce audiences to the insect she studies, the twisted-wing parasite, as well as others with uncanny similarities to the Xenomorph like the emerald cockroach wasp, dragonflies, damselflies, genus Phronima (barrel amphipods), the moray eel, and Cordyceps fungi.

This program, “Creature Feature: The Science of Monster Movies,” took place live at Museum of the Moving Image, New York, on June 8, 2025 as part of Open Worlds: Science, a series of free science and film events.

Learn more at https://movingimage.org/series/open-w...

Open Worlds: Science is supported by the Simons Foundation. 

Filmed and edited by Yan Mengyu.