'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' Hidden Connections To 'Aliens'
SPOILERS for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness … also Aliens.
As Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness continues to make tons of money at the box office (while simultaneously bombing horribly, Gigli-style, in a parallel universe) screenwriter Michael Waldron has revealed a key cinematic influence on the story was none other than James Cameron’s Aliens – AKA, the movie that was nearly completely derailed because of some tea.
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In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Waldron claimed that he watched Aliens “a lot” while writing the script and took inspiration from the ‘80s blockbuster, specifically how the film goes to “great lengths to tell you how badass the space Marines are — and then they just get slaughtered.”
Which is what led Waldron to pen the sequence in which Doctor Strange meets the Illuminati, comprised of Marvel icons like Reed Richards and Charles Xavier, only to have Wanda promptly (and brutally) kill them off one by one. According to Waldron, since Cameron’s twist made audiences “scared of the Xenomorphs for the rest of that movie” he hoped to do the same thing “with Wanda.”
But the influence seemingly goes beyond that one plot point; much of the movie feels like an extended nod to Aliens. Doctor Strange is not unlike Ripley, helping out a young orphan; America Chavez and Newt, respectively. Both pairs end up on a crazy dangerous adventure – and both are betrayed and imprisoned by a colleague (Mordo and Burke).
And come to think of it, the climax of Multiverse of Madness isn’t so dissimilar from the iconic finale of Aliens. The hero puts on an elaborate suit of sorts (power loader/zombie body) and has to triumphantly storm the villain’s lair in order to save the captured orphan character from an angry mother (the Xenomorph Queen/Wanda).
Whether or not Wanda (who we literally just spent like 9 hours emotionally empathizing with) is a great fit for the “rageful alien monster” role is another discussion …
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Top Image: Marvel Studios/20th Century Studios
