light it up movie review

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The movie unfolds at an inner-city high school where the heat doesn't work, the winter wind blows in through broken windows, and most students don't have copies of their textbooks. But the students are basically good kids--not the crazed dopers and gang-bangers depicted in so many movies about high schools in trouble.

The ingredients for a tragedy are assembled early. A new security guard with the ominous name of Dante Jackson ( Forest Whitaker ) has come to work. He's got problems. One student pegs him: "A $5 cop with a $50 attitude." Meanwhile, a teacher named Knowles ( Judd Nelson , from the original "Breakfast Club") is wandering the halls with his students, looking for a heated classroom. He eventually takes them to a fast-food restaurant. Misunderstandings multiply when they return to the school. The guard gets into a shoving match with some of the students, his gun goes off, and a routine day turns into a hostage crisis.

The ringleader is a good student and star athlete named Lester, played by R&B singer Usher Raymond , who shows real screen presence. Other students include Rosario Dawson , as a girl who counsels moderation; Sara Gilbert , as a girl so steeped in misery, she's basically just along for the ride; Robert Ri'chard as a goofy kid who unwittingly starts the trouble; Fredro Starr as a hothead with a police record, and Clifton Collins Jr. as Lester's pal.

As these six students barricade themselves in the library with the guard, we're reminded of the young actors in "The Breakfast Club": Emilio Estevez , Anthony Michael Hall , Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy . Although their careers have had ups and downs, they all became stars, and the "Light It Up" cast is similarly promising.

The problem is the movie is too predictable--so predictable that it keeps it from truly generating suspense ("The Breakfast Club" wisely went for discovery and revelation instead). Cops surround the school, which is in New York (although the movie was filmed in Chicago, at Calumet Career Preparatory Academy on the South Side). Searchlights bathe it. Vanessa L. Williams plays the hostage negotiator who gets Lester on the telephone. Of course, the library is equipped with computers, and soon the students are e-mailing their defense to CNN.

I am not sure I buy the way the movie thinks the crisis would play out. With the hostage-takers portrayed on TV as good kids, with their friends demonstrating their support, with even their teacher (Nelson) backing them, is it possible a hothead cop would seize control from the negotiator "because we want this wrapped up before the morning news?" Maybe that's necessary because in these souped-up times, a more rational conclusion is unthinkable. "The Breakfast Club" ended with the students, slightly older and wiser, driving off with their parents. "Light It Up" has a SWAT team poised in a stairwell while the gang member prepares Molotov cocktails. Connect the dots.

The movie was directed by Craig Bolotin and produced by musician Kenneth (Babyface) Edmonds and his wife, Tracey. It has a refreshing lack of heated racial attitudes. Twenty years ago, there would have been some kind of obligatory shouting match in the library between the white girl and the black one. The teacher might not have been white. The principal would have been. The negotiator might not have been black. Bolotin's screenplay considers the characters as individuals, and they're not color-coded. Obligatory racial side-taking and name-calling is gradually (too gradually) being phased out of situations like this, in fiction and life, at the end of the century.

If I can't quite recommend the movie, it's because so much of the plot is on autopilot. The dialogue spells out too much that doesn't need to be said. The dynamic of the Internet-media angle is not really exploited. The final scenes seem contrived to supply action where it is not needed or convincing. But there's a lot in the movie that's good, including its cast of gifted newcomers.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Light It Up (1999)

Rated R For Language and Violent Content

103 minutes

Usher Raymond as Lester Dewitt

Forest Whitaker as Officer Jackson

Rosario Dawson as Stephanie Williams

Judd Nelson as Ken Knowles

Vanessa L. Williams as Negotiator

Written and Directed by

Craig Bolotin

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DVD & Streaming

Light It Up

Content caution.

In Theaters

Usher, Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson, Marcello Robinson, Vanessa Williams

Home Release Date

Craig Bolotin

Distributor

20th Century Fox

Movie Review

The students of Lincoln High lack books, chairs, heat and hope. The only teacher who genuinely cares about them just got suspended. So, after an accidental shooting puts a cop’s gun in their hands, several kids mount an offensive, demanding the city’s attention and respect.

In Light It Up , six urban teens (a jock, a drug dealer, an honor student, a loner, a gangsta and a promiscuous punker) hole up in the school with a wounded security guard as a hostage. The standoff causes these social rivals to bond over shared pain and personal secrets. Call it The Breakfast Club Goes Postal in the ‘Hood.

This film is trouble . Not just because of its violence, blasphemies, obscenities, racial slurs and street slang for sex and drugs. With a rap backbeat, Light It Up turns high school anarchists into cult heroes. They watch their drama unfold on TV. As a mob gathers outside with cheers of support, one mutineer says, “Now I got my own little war story to tell … [It] may give my little bulls— life some meaning.” That sentiment is echoed time and again by the teens, all of whom seem to end up better off after the ordeal. Even a boy who dies is immortalized by this romantic insurrection of few consequences.

Granted, the students are initially victims of overly zealous authority figures. But they take a stand by taking a hostage and threatening to kill him. Inexcusable.

A pretty girl proudly tells the gun-wielding boy who has a crush on her, “You say you’re tired of people not listening to you. Well, everybody’s listening.” Dim lights. Falling snow. Snipers on nearby rooftops. Ahh, young love. Such implicit messages make Light It Up a potentially inflammatory fantasy for the desperately disenfranchised.

Bob Smithouser

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Light It Up

Light It Up - User Reviews

Thank you for rating this movie read your review below. ratings will be added after 24 hours..

Based on 112 votes and 9 reviews

Please rate movie 1 to 5 stars

usher is bum & soooooooooooooooooo sssssssssssssssssssssssexy in d film

Usher`s looks has nothing to do with the movie. I don`t know why people are rating the film based on Usher. The storyline was good. The movie was good. I recommend watching it. Trust me.. I know movies.

even though i did not see the movie i know that it was good. anything that Usher is involved is bound to be good!

it was sexy with usher in it usher should be in morec movies he isd just soooo seeeeeeeeexxxxxy

as long as sexy usher is involved in a movie if i have to give the movie a rating out of 10 i`ll give it 100

I think it looks a good movie and also it must be excellent if usher is in it he is a really good singer/dancer/actor he is a all round favourite for me and my friends.I will see this film because it has a great story line and good characters thanks for reading my comment see ya l8ter

Light it up was an awesome movie that palyed on on all emotions. i loved the way the writer of the film made your sympathies switch from character to character. Great actors.....im a big fan of usher so am a lil bias but he was great....everyone played thier part with such passion. All up the film had me in tears. *************************

Lit it up was a great movie and i think usher is way hottt

I think it is a good movie.I think you all needed to put usher in alot more movies.

TERMS OF USE

LIGHT IT UP

"education under fire".

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

In LIGHT IT UP, a group of six inner city high school students take a stand and protest the dismissal of a respected teacher. The teenagers take a police officer hostage after he is accidentally shot in the leg, demanding improvements in their school and the right to be heard. Two other students unintentionally wind up involved in the situation. Together, the group keeps the officer hostage, bargaining with a police detective. The standoff proves to be effective, especially with the media and other supportive students.

Unlike DEAD POETS SOCIETY, in which students are encouraged by and take action for their teacher, LIGHT IT UP focuses more on the results of a favorite teacher’s dismissal, igniting an unlikely, unmediated situation. It is this situation that makes the redeeming factors of the film appear weak. The movie touches on but does not deal directly with many social issues, including teenage pregnancy, police brutality, child abuse, crime, and education woes including financial, scholastic and behavioral ones. It contains a romantic, politically correct idealization of school improvement, with many obscenities and some violence. The movie ultimately provides a tragic lesson for the students, though some reform occurs

(RoRo, H, PCPC, FR, LLL, VV, D, M) Mostly romantic worldview with humanistic, politically correct elements encompassing a justifying attitude & defiance against authority to obtain politically correct, romantic ideals; 73 obscenities & 9 profanities; teacher hits robber over head, several scenes of police officer & youths in struggles, officer accidentally shot in leg, youth aggravates wound on officer’s leg, officer hits youth in mouth causing him to cough up blood, depiction of man being beaten, implied shooting by officers, implied abusive father, & youth is shot by police; no sex or nudity but some lewd sexual references & youth finds out she is pregnant, implying fornication; smoking; and, revenge & student bows to Allah in prison.

More Detail:

In LIGHT IT UP, a group of six inner city high school students take a stand, protest the dismissal of a respected teacher and end up in a standoff with the police. After a struggle with a police officer, the children take him hostage, demanding improvements in their school and the right to be heard.

R&B idol Usher Raymond stars as Lester, the high school’s star basketball player with good grades who has recently lost his father due to a mistaken shooting by police. At school, he gets into a dispute with Officer Jackson, played by Forest Whitaker of JASON’S LYRIC and BIRD, because the officer tells his best friend, “Ziggy” (Robert Richard), not to sit in the hallway. Ziggy tells Lester, “Everything is cool,” but Lester backs off only after he has had his say.

After the incident, the two head off to class, where their respectable teacher, Mr. Knowles (Judd Nelson of FROM THE HIP and TV’s SUDDENLY SUSAN), is trying to conduct class under poor conditions. The room is cold, and there aren’t enough textbooks for all the students, so when a window in the room breaks because of the wind, Knowles decides to move his class to another place. When they find the cafeteria and gym full of classes in the same predicament, and when they discover that the principal won’t deal with the problem, the teacher takes them to a café off campus. As he is conducting class, an armed robber comes in demanding money. Mr. Knowles, recognizing the student, distracts him long enough to hit him over the head and disarm him.

Upon hearing about the incident, the principal dismisses Mr. Knowles from the school. The students begin to protest, citing that Knowles is one of the few teachers who shows any concern for them. The teenagers begin to question the principal, who refuses to listen and begins handing out expulsions. When he informs the students involved that he will inform their parents, Ziggy runs off knowing that his abusive father will be a worse consequence. The principal sends Officer Jackson after him, and the two get into a struggle. Lester intervenes, knowing Ziggy’s fears, and tries to defend him. Amidst the chaos, the officer gets shot in the leg. At that point, Lester presumes that the only way to explain the situation is by telling Ziggy, his friend Stephanie and Rivers, who witnessed the incident, to stay in order to explain what happened. Seeing that the consequences are starting to pile up, Lester then decides to take Officer Jackson hostage, so that he might have the chance to be heard.

Two other students unintentionally wind up involved in the situation, and together the group keeps the officer hostage, bargaining with detective Audrey McDonald (Vanessa Williams of ERASER), demanding repairs for the school and improvements in education. The standoff proves to be effective, especially with the media and other supportive students. Ultimately, however, the students learn a tragic lesson, though some good reform occurs.

Unlike DEAD POETS SOCIETY, in which students are encouraged by and take action for their teacher, LIGHT IT UP focuses more on the results of the incident – the dismissal of a favorite teacher – igniting an unlikely, unmediated situation. It is this situation of unwarranted actions that makes the redeeming factors of this film weak. The goals are politically correct, although realistic. Furthermore, the circumstances and actions undertaken to achieve them don’t match up well. The movie touches on many social issues, including teenage pregnancy, police brutality, child abuse, crime, and education woes such as financial, scholastic and behavioral troubles. Performances by the up-and-coming stars are promising, though marred by the excessive use of obscenities to portray emotion. Such foul language, regrettably, however, has become too much a part of our public and private schools in real life.

Light It Up (1999)

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Craig Bolotin
Usher Raymond, Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson, Robert Ri'chard, Sara Gilbert, Fredro Starr, Clifton Collins Jr., Judd Nelson, Glynn Turman, Vanessa L. Williams, Vic Polizos.

Light It Up

In Theaters: November 10, 1999

R | Drama | 1h 38m

	, , , , ,
	Craig Bolotin
Studio:	20th Century Fox
Producer(s):	Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, Tracey E. Edmonds
Writer(s):	Craig Bolotin
Official Site:

Cast & crew
User reviews

Metacritic reviews

Light it up.

75 Baltimore Sun Baltimore Sun Much of Light It Up has a familiar feel. But there are enough redeeming insights to make the time you spend at this school worthwhile.
75 Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia Inquirer Heartbreaking and sometimes dazzlingly effective, the film still has flaws -- most of them in a too-often-maudlin script.
63 Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert If I can't quite recommend the movie, it's because so much of the plot is on autopilot. The dialogue spells out too much that doesn't need to be said.
60 Film.com Tom Keogh Film.com Tom Keogh Look to the cast as the best reason to see this film.
50 TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox It's a bit of 60s idealism wedged in what basically looks like a hip-hop music video.
50 Dallas Observer Dallas Observer The real find-- is Rosario Dawson, who has appeared to good effect in previous smaller roles ("Kids," "He Got Game") and just about walks off with the movie.
40 The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder Turns out to be a pretentiously righteous drama that drowns any claim to serious attention in a sea of superficial characters.
40 Slate Slate Singer Usher Raymond earns praise as the leader of the group, but the rest of the cast goes largely unnoticed.
38 New York Post Lou Lumenick New York Post Lou Lumenick Light It Up would be a strong candidate for the year's most irresponsible movie - if it were remotely believable.
20 Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov It's a hockey affair at the best of times.
See all 27 reviews on Metacritic.com
See all external reviews for Light It Up

Light It Up Reviews

43 Metascore
1 hr 40 mins
Drama, Suspense
Watchlist Where to Watch

An ensemble cast of young actors highlights this gripping drama about a standoff between students and police at an inner-city high school. The barricades are put in place after an accident involving a school security officer (Forest Whitaker). Judd Nelson, Usher Raymond, Sara Gilbert, Rosario Dawson, Robert Ri'chard, Vanessa L. Williams.

Bus the Breakfast Club out of their lily-white suburban neighborhood and into an inner-city hell-hole of a high school, give them something to really worry about --like a tense hostage crisis -- and you've pretty much got the formula behind this so-so social drama that nevertheless gets an A for idealism and effort. Dedicated teacher Mr. Knowles (Judd Nelson -- how's that for stunt casting?) is one of the few good things left about Lincoln High, a dilapidated and overcrowded Queens, NY, high school where security means metal detectors and hall monitors recruited from the NYPD. When Mr. Knowles is suspended, an angry confrontation between students -- lead by Lester Dewitt (Usher) and A-student Stephanie Williams (Rosario Dawson)  suddenly turns violent when one student, Ziggy (Robert Ri'chard), panics and grabs a gun from Officer Dante Jackson (Forest Whitaker). The gun goes off, Jackson is wounded and within minutes Lincoln High is surrounded by police. The school is emptied of everyone but Jackson and his six captors, a mixed-bag of school misfits (including Sara Gilbert, Fredro Starr and Clifton Collins Jr.) soon dubbed the "Lincoln 6" by the descending media. In a film in which Vanessa Williams appears a tough-talking hostage negotiator  complete with blond hair and a thick New Yawk accent  the urban realism that director Craig Bolotin strives for never really takes hold. But Boltin, who also wrote the script, tries just as hard to give his Breakfast Club a higher sense of purpose. Far beyond whining about being misunderstood (though they do that, too) the Lincoln 6 are savvy media manipulators who choose to use their moment to better the lives of their fellow students. It's a bit of 60s idealism wedged in what basically looks like a hip-hop music video, and the film has enough heart to argue that today's "apathetic" youth would indeed stand-up for a cause if they could only be sure someone would bother to listen.

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

... it's this sense of the "real" that not only keeps Light It Up lively but that marks it -- for all its visual flair -- as happily out of step with a zeitgeist enamored of naught but money and notoriety as the wildly overhyped millennium turns.

Snuff it out!

...isn't so much a bad movie as an unfinished movie

"The Breakfast Club" in the Ghetto

Additional Info

Genre : Drama, Thriller
Release Date : November 10, 1999
Languages : English
Captions : English, Spanish
Audio Format : 5.1

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Light it up.

Directed by Craig Bolotin

On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.

Usher Vanessa Williams Forest Whitaker Rosario Dawson Robert Ri'chard Judd Nelson Fredro Starr Sara Gilbert Clifton Collins Jr. Glynn Turman Vic Polizos Dale Rivera Sue Simmons LeShay N. Tomlinson Adam Gifford Eriq F. Prince Marvin Nelson Donna Hanover

Director Director

Craig Bolotin

Producer Producer

Tracey Edmonds

Writer Writer

Editor editor.

Wendy Greene Bricmont

Cinematography Cinematography

Elliot Davis

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Composer composer.

Harry Gregson-Williams

Edmonds Entertainment Group Fox 2000 Pictures

Releases by Date

04 nov 1999, releases by country.

Theatrical R

99 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Pube ★★★½ 6

The song Lick it Up by Kiss is about licking up jizz. I never thought any form of art could ever top such a brilliant expression of creativity and beauty. I was wrong. The film Light it Up is about jizzing on everything and that’s even better.

Review by benton tarantella

sara gilbert did not need to be here, i’m sorry

Review by Tim McClelland ★★★½

I watched this movie a lot in high school. I even had the soundtrack. It's still a good movie, but it's unfortunate how the issues it highlights are still prominent today.

Review by Sarah McCoy

Why was this tagged as LGBTQ+ on hulu?????

Review by BlackNerdMagic ★★

One of those films that is made for a good cause and to bring awareness to the plight of disadvantaged people but the form comes off melodramatic and speaking out of a bullhorn with its emphasis on being blatant in its intention to show how bad the media can exacerbate racist stereotypes/labels. Missing subtext and the awareness to be something different in a drama. Acting performances are hit or miss; all smiles seeing a young Rosario Dawson and Forest Whitaker but in order to enjoy them you have to tolerate a lukewarm Usher and a typecasted Fredro Starr in tandem. Easy to spot moments of low quality ADR, shots resused from other films, a musical soundtrack that stands opposite from the narrative, and the anticlimactic nature of the ending holds this film back like a unmovable barricade. As a kid, this was the jam but that’s nostalgia talking, some things are better left in the past.

Review by leeban2008 ★★★★★

One of the best films of the 90s, I've watched this movie at least once a year since its release date. Must watch for me personally

Review by Dustin Mason ★★★½

The most relevant film of The Trump Generation was made in 1999.

I always wanted to be in a hostage situation. It seems fun as fuck. Especially how it's portrayed in this film! It's full of problems. I don't care. It's well acted and and 98% entertaining as fuck. Like seriously, this movie is hilarious. And also really socially relevant, like I'm not even kidding. Usher's dad is killed in this because he was reaching for an inhaler. Usher is great in this film somehow. Rosario Dawson is in this movie I guess. She's ok. Fredro Starr is a great live wire as Rodney, a random character who literally goes back inside the school(PAST THE FUCKING SECURITY GUARD), because he…

Review by Sean Bell ★★★

Central lesson: 'You need to hold a cop at gunpoint to get them to apologise for literally anything, and even then it's gonna take a while'

Review by Andrew Da Gawd ★★

Very mid and forgettable I like forest Whitaker he’s fine but usher really can’t act but it’s alright it’s just not much to me

Review by Randi Reckless ★★★

We need to do this but with the U.S. Senate.

(Lol at the anti-violence PSA featuring Usher and Rosario Dawson before the start of the film on my VHS copy)

Review by anevenbiggerhat ★★★½

i won’t go as far as saying that light it up is great or anything HOWEVER for being what it is, it has aged supremely. and honestly USHER was just as good on screen as rosario dawson & forest whitiker which i never would’ve guessed in one million years.

Review by RogerEbertFilms

2.5/4 stars

As recently as 1985, our view of high school was so innocent that a movie like "The Breakfast Club" could involve five teenage trouble makers working things out in unsupervised detention. Now look at "Light It Up." The same kinds of kids take hostages and get involved in an armed standoff with the police. The movie unfolds at an inner-city high school where the heat doesn't work, the winter wind blows in through broken windows, and most students don't have copies of their textbooks. But the students are basically good kids--not the crazed dopers and gang-bangers depicted in so many movies about high schools in trouble.

The ingredients for a tragedy are assembled early. A new security guard…

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Light It Up

1 HOUR 39 MINS

A group of high school students form a protest over their school’s poor conditions, but an accidental gunshot results in a standoff.

Movie Trailer

Cast & Crew

Usher Raymond Lester Dewitt

Forest Whitaker Officer Dante Jackson

Rosario Dawson Stephanie Williams

Robert Ri'chard Zacharias 'Ziggy' Malone

Judd Nelson Ken Knowles

Fredro Starr Rodney J. Templeton

Sara Gilbert Lynn Sabatini

Clifton Collins Robert 'Rivers' Tremont

Glynn Turman Principal Armstrong

Vic Polizos Captain Monroe

Vanessa L. Williams Audrey McDonald

Craig Bolotin Director

Craig Bolotin Writer

Bridget D. Davis Co-Producer

Helena Echegoyen Co-Producer

Kenneth Babyface Edmonds Executive Producer

Tracey E. Edmonds Executive Producer

David A. Starke Co-Executive Producer

Harry Gregson-Williams Original Music

Elliot Davis Cinematography

Wendy Greene Bricmont Film Editing

Robi Reed-Humes Casting

Lawrence G. Paull Production Designer

Karen Fletcher Trujillo Art Direction

Patricia Schneider Set Decoration

Salvador Pérez Costume Design

Karyn McCarthy Unit Production Manager

Rick Johnson First Assistant Director

Matthew Tufano Set Dresser

Richard Whitfield Music Editor

Jon C. Scheide Second Assistant Director

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Alien: Romulus Review - Horrifying Sci-Fi Actioner Has The Best (& Worst) Of The Alien Franchise

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Andy (David Jonsson) and Rain (Cailee Spaeny) in Alien: Romulus and Ian Holm as Ash in Alien

Alien: Romulus includes a role for original Alien star Ian Holm, who played Ash in the 1979 film. Here's his character and connections explained.

Rook’s prime directive put the Weyland-Yutani corporation’s objectives above the lives of the humans onboard. While attempting to advance human evolution, the prime directive was discarding the people who already existed. As such, the prime directive ignored the humanity of the characters, which put Andy in an odd position considering his original prime directive was to ensure Rain was safe and protected. And despite the Xenomorphs being volatile, Rook was not above sacrificing Rain and company just to advance experimental research that itself was dangerous .

Prometheus 5, which Kay injected herself without knowing its full capabilities, is responsible for creating the Xenomorph hybrid, and its name connects directly to the Alien prequel Prometheus , which included a similar (if not the same) black goo that was capable of mutating DNA and creating new life. The Engineers may have wanted to eradicate humanity, but the Prometheus 5 formula indicates the black goo has gone on to be further developed in the years since Prometheus ’ events took place. It’s still creating new life from the old, even if the hybrid did end up killing Kay after being born.

It showcases Andy as part of Rain's family

Rain and Andy had an interesting relationship. As a synthetic, Andy was programmed to look after Rain in the absence of her parents. However, Rain treated Andy as more of a little brother; she took care of him just as he took care of her. It was, generally speaking, a very familial relationship — one that others, including Rook and Bjorn, didn’t understand. Typically, synthetics, like Rook, valued the prime directives embedded by Weyland-Yutani over genuine connection with humans. While synthetics weren’t programmed to kill people directly, there was a rift between them and humans that created some tension.

Andy and Rain aren't the only siblings in the film. Tyler and Kay are siblings, and Bjorn is their cousin. Sibling relationships act as a central theme in the film, as each sibling makes decisions based on these dynamics.

Rain and Andy’s relationship, which is at the heart of Alien: Romulus , feels like an anomaly when comparing it to others. They genuinely cared for each other, and, though Rain flirted with the idea of going to the Yvaga system and leaving Andy behind (they didn’t accept synthetics), her love for her brother overpowered that decision in the end . When Andy’s prime directive changed, it’s like Rain began to see the humanity in him that was erased in the upgrade. It made her double down on wanting to protect Andy. Their relationship is based on trust and love, a rarity.

Navarro

Bjorn

Tyler

Kay

Rook

Rain and Andy are in cryosleep and headed for Yvaga

Alien: Romulus may not have a post-credits scene , but its ending certainly leaves things open for further exploration in a sequel. Rain’s survival means her story isn’t necessarily over. Anything could happen while she and Andy are in cryosleep. What would be interesting is if an Alien: Romulus sequel explored Rain and Andy’s arrival to Yvaga III. It was revealed the space colony doesn’t take kindly to synthetics, which suggests the siblings will run into some trouble when they arrive. Rain promised to fix him, so a sequel could follow her journey to do just that.

What could transpire on Yvaga is a mystery, and the way Romulus ends reveals the potential for more Xenomorph encounters. What’s more, Rain could wake up from cryosleep and come face to face with employees from Weyland-Yutani. Whatever happens, Rain’s survival and Andy still being alive, though injured, creates opportunities for future stories. Theirs is one of the more interesting relationships of the Alien franchise, and it would be a shame if their story ended with Alien: Romulus , especially since their fates are up in the air.

Tyler (Archie Renaux) and Rain (Cailee Spaeny) looking around in fear in Alien: Romulus

Although the Xenomorphs are considered perfect species, Alien: Romulus ’ ending posits that humanity has still got a fighting chance . They may not be able to mutate quickly, nor are they strong enough to easily live in space, but humans are still powerful in their own right. What’s more, the film’s ending underscores the strength of a human/synthetic dynamic that isn’t solely based on the prime directive of a corporation. Romulus showcases Rook as wanting to do what’s best for humanity without realizing that Weyland-Yutani isn’t exactly looking out for them, either — they’re looking out for themselves.

Alien: Romulus also highlights the various ways humanity can be exploited by corporations. Weyland-Yutani, through Rook, tried to use Andy for their own ends, and the characters were essentially punished for wanting a better life for themselves, sacrificed for the sake of capturing Xenomorphs. The film’s ending doubles down on choosing one’s humanity over heartless prime directives. Rain came to that same conclusion once she realized that leaving Andy behind was not in her or his best interest, even if it meant potentially giving up starting a new life. It wouldn’t have meant anything anyway without him.

Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.

Alien: Romulus - The 10 Biggest Burning Questions

In space, no one can hear you scream… in confusion..

Warning: This piece contains full spoilers for Alien: Romulus.

Hold your pulse rifle and motion tracker ready, because Alien: Romulus is now in theaters. The newest entry in the long-running sci-fi horror franchise comes from director Fede Álvarez, best known for 2013’s Evil Dead remake and the original horror film Don’t Breathe. The acclaimed director takes the Alien series back to its roots by calling back to the 1979 original with another nail-biting, blood-soaked, haunted house in space. However, the new movie also left us with some serious questions, which we’ll try our best to answer here.

Whether you’re a Weyland-Yutani veteran or if this is your first time in zero gravity, we have the questions (and answers?) you’ve been waiting for. And be sure to also check out our review of Alien: Romulus as well!

What Happened to the Xenomorph From Alien 1979?

The opening of Alien: Romulus shows a science team from the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corporation finding the wreckage of the Nostromo, the ship all the action happened on in Ridley Scott’s original film. They come across what appears to be a xenomorph fossilized in some sort of mineral, and cut the specimen out of it. Later on, a familiar face from that film (we’ll get to that in a bit) says that the company found and recovered the xenomorph Ellen Ripley ejected into space after escaping the Nostromo’s self-destruct sequence. So, are these two different creatures? How did a fossilized xenomorph get onto the Nostromo? That movie never showed the crew picking up any rocks from LV-426, the planet where Kane was infected by a facehugger. Or if they’re supposed to be one and the same, then how did that xenomorph go from being spaced to getting trapped in mineral ore?

Whatever the case may be, the events of the ‘79 original lead into this film’s story, with the xenomorph specimen providing the Weyland-Yutani team on the Renaissance space station (which has modules called Romulus and Remus) with the material they need to craft a whole new house of horrors for our new cast to get caught up in.

Sigourney Weaver, designer H.R. Giger, and Bolaji Badejo as the xenomorph in a promotional shoot for 1979's Alien. (Credit: 20th Century Studios)

Why Do the Heroes Have a Spaceship if They’re Not Allowed to Leave the Planet?

Speaking of the new cast, our leads this time around are Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine and David Jonsson as her android sibling/companion Andy. They, along with some colleagues/friends of Rain’s, are indentured servants trapped on Jackson’s Star, a colony where they’re forced to work for years on end for Weyland-Yutani, who will clearly never honor the agreement to eventually let them go. The entire crew’s motivation is to find a way to escape this planet, but if that’s the case, why do they have access to a spaceship? The very spaceship they use to travel to the Romulus station, where they want to salvage cryo pods for an interstellar journey? It would be one thing if this was a work vessel that they had to steal under the company’s noses, but it appears to be something they just have unfettered access to in their off-hours.

Perhaps the case could be made that the company knows no one could ever escape without access to cryo pods and they limit access to those. But even then, just letting your employees who you want to keep trapped fly off into space whenever they like seems like a serious oversight on the company’s part.

Does Alien: Romulus pose more questions than it answers about the Alien universe?

Why did no one else notice the derelict space station.

Here’s another oversight: the Romulus station itself. The main group we follow say they want to get to Romulus before “anyone else does,” but why are a bunch of lowly workers the first to notice the derelict station? Certainly the company must have better scanning technology and would have found it first. Perhaps if Romulus had just gone down, this would make sense. But going by the state of it, and how close the station is to crashing into the planet’s rings, it seems like Romulus has been abandoned for some time. Especially because the movie later reveals just how important the project they were developing on Romulus was to Weyland-Yutani, it makes us wonder why they never sent a team of their own to recover their research.

The arrival of a company team or a rival salvage crew could have been an interesting wrinkle to put even more pressure on our leads, but as far as we can tell, they’re the only ones who notice Romulus in time. Maybe whoever at the company that was supposed to keep track of Romulus’ whereabouts was on vacation?

Why Is There No Alien Queen on Romulus?

As established in Aliens, the eggs containing the facehuggers that begin the xenomorph’s life cycle are typically laid by an Alien Queen. Yet although there are many xenomorphs on the Romulus station, we never see a Queen in this film. The creature that Weyland-Yutani recovers from the first movie was just a basic xenomorph, and we haven’t seen any indication in other films that they can generate facehuggers on their own. Granted, it’s possible that there are aspects to the xenomorph life cycle we don’t yet know, perhaps related to the cocooning process that was briefly shown in a famous deleted scene from the first film. Or maybe there were fossilized facehuggers in the mineral ore that the scientists used to clone more of them.

We also have to admit that between the original series, the Alien vs. Predator films, and the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, how exactly the xenomorph life cycle works has not been the most consistent. So perhaps Álvarez just went with what he thought was best and skipped the Queen entirely to make room for the new surprise monster at the end of the film.

Every Xenomorph and Alien from the Alien Movies

With Alien: Romulus continuing the long-running sci-fi saga, let's break down every Xenomorph variation we've seen in the movies so far.

Why Didn’t the Xenomorphs Attack En Masse Until the Third Act?

When the main characters arrive on Romulus, it isn’t immediately clear if there are adult xenomorphs still on the station. Aileen Wu’s Navarro, one of Rain’s group, is attacked by a facehugger and subsequently killed by a chestburster, creating one xenomorph. But later on, we see at least a dozen others on board, even though no one else was implanted. These xenomorphs had to have been created from the station’s crew before Rain and her group arrived. So why didn’t they attack earlier when a bunch of humans entered Romulus, which has since become their lair? It’s not like the humans are subtle; they’re running around, screaming, messing with the ship’s systems, and generally causing a ruckus. Are the xenomorphs just really deep sleepers? It may also be that the big boy Xenos are restricted to the Romulus module.

The practical answer to this is that the movie needs to escalate over time, so the reveal of many xenomorphs is held back until later. Still, it’s odd that the aliens don’t seem to care about a group of humans poking around their home until the script says they do.

Alien: Romulus Gallery

What’s the Deal With Ian Holm’s Character, Rook?

All Alien fans know that the late Ian Holm played Ash, the evil android, in the original Alien film. The veteran actor sadly passed away in 2020, but Alien: Romulus uses his likeness anyway, recreated via computer-generated imagery atop a different actor. According to the studio’s press notes, Daniel Betts provided "facial and vocal performance" for the character, while Ian Holm is credited for "facial and vocal reference." This character isn’t Ash, since that android was vaporized on the Nostromo, but instead a new villainous company man named Rook. This is clearly a reference to Bishop, the good guy android played by Lance Henriksen in Aliens. We guess Weyland-Yutani has a bunch of different androids named after various chess pieces. Yet what Rook’s purpose is in the story isn’t completely clear. Yes, he gives some vital exposition about what happened on the station before the main characters arrive, but why is it an extended reference to Ash? Especially since making him resemble Ash means we know not to trust him?

On top of that, there’s the ethical dubiousness of the choice. Digitally resurrecting deceased actors for cheap nostalgia plays has become more common in blockbusters, and it’s a worrying trend. Would it not have been easier to simply cast another actor as the new evil android? We don’t know what the filmmakers were thinking, but hopefully this doesn’t happen again.

The late Ian Holm (as Ash here on the right) makes a return, of sorts, in Romulus.

Why Did Andy Start Glitching in the Blue Light Room?

On the subject of androids, Andy slowly turns to the dark side when he’s “upgraded” with a module from Rook that increases his capabilities but also changes his prime directive from protecting Rain to serving the company. But he gets redeemed in sort of a weird way. In the third act, Andy and Rain pass through a room with blue lights over the floor, which is a clear reference to the room in the Space Jockey’s ship where Kane finds the eggs in the ‘79 film. Andy starts glitching out in this room, falling over as if he’s had a seizure, and this allows Rain to access the chip behind his ear and take out the upgrade module. It’s an important moment for the plot so that Andy can help Rain in the finale, but why it happens is a mystery.

Did we miss something? Please let us know, because aside from Andy running his fingers through the blue light, we’re not sure what triggered Andy’s glitch. Perhaps this is something that was elaborated on in a deleted scene, but whatever the answer, it should’ve been in the final cut.

How Fast Does the Prometheus Mutagen Work?

One of the film’s later twists is that Romulus station was being used to research a mutagen, Compound Z-01, extracted from the xenomorphs that is related to the Engineers in Prometheus. The mutagen appears to cause rapid evolutions in its host, transforming them into new creatures, while also boasting remarkable healing properties. We see this in lab footage of a dead rat that is resurrected by a mutagen injection and then transforms into a bloated alien creature. Isabela Merced’s pregnant character Kay injects herself with the mutagen to save her own life, but it transforms her fetus into an Engineer-like monster that she gives birth to soon afterwards. The timeline of this is rather confusing; not only is the alien gestation time in this movie way faster than in previous films, but this mutagen apparently causes massive transformations in its hosts and makes the Engineer creature grow to full size in what amounts to mere minutes.

We know we’re talking about minutes here because the second half of the movie essentially takes place in real time, with a countdown from 40 minutes to zero sounding over the speakers as the station heads down a collision course with the planet’s rings. Even by sci-fi logic, the mutagen causing such profound transformations in such a short time frame feels incredibly convenient. That said, in Prometheus Elizabeth Shaw was impregnated with a massive squid monster that had to be cut out of her belly in a short time frame too, so maybe that’s just how it works in space.

The Alien Movies in Chronological Order

The Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise is one of the coolest, most nefarious movie monsters ever hatched, with its acid blood, mouths-within-mouths, and diabolical claws. If you're looking to do a full rewatch of the Alien franchise (including the Alien/Predator films), we've got you covered. Ahead you'll find full listings for the Alien films in chronological order.

How Many Black Liquid Mutagens Are There in This Universe and How Do They Connect to Prometheus’ Engineers?

What makes the mutagen business weirder is that it raises some serious questions about the connection this movie has to Prometheus. To recap, Prometheus reveals that humans were created by the Engineers, and our DNA matches theirs. One of the Engineers uses a black liquid to seed life on Earth, kickstarting the slow evolutionary process that leads to humanity. Then there’s another black liquid later on in that film that turns humans into zombie-like monsters. Are these the same? They don’t seem to have the same effects. And now we have yet another black liquid in Romulus that makes evolution happen at a lightning fast rate. It obviously has a connection to Engineer DNA because it creates a similar creature out of Kay’s fetus. But Kay injected the mutagen directly into herself, so why doesn’t she mutate? Once again, this liquid doesn’t seem to have the exact same effects as previous mutagens. Does this mean there are three different black liquid mutagens?

Basically, there are a ton of questions about how the various mutagens that may or may not be related work in this series, and Alien: Romulus doesn’t give us a whole lot of answers. Perhaps this is something the filmmakers want to explore in a sequel, but right now, we’re just left scratching our heads.

The rules of how a xenomorph gets made are getting increasingly confusing these days, though Romulus does give us the traditional variety of the creature.

Why Didn’t Weyland-Yutani Get More of the Mutagen From LV-426?

Now here’s a real conundrum. Alien: Romulus takes place between Alien and Aliens , 20 years after Alien in the series timeline. Rook makes clear how important the mutagen research is to Weyland-Yutani, and we know the mutagen came from the xenomorphs. Okay, fine. But if that’s the case, then why did the company never go back to the Space Jockey’s ship on LV-426 and get more mutagen? At the beginning of Aliens, Ripley wakes up 57 years after the first film and is told by the company that LV-426 has been a colony world for “20 years.” We also know that the company knew about the xenomorphs because they gave Ash the order to bring the creature back for study at the expense of the Nostromo’s crew. So if they were working with xenomorphs between those two points in the timeline, they would have to know that they could just go to LV-426 (where they will have a colony soon enough, remember) and grab some more xenomorphs to make more of the mutagen. Yet there’s no indication that they did so.

The answer to this is a bit dull: It’s because Romulus was made after Aliens, and this is a retcon that doesn’t fit all that cleanly into the established chronology. Again, perhaps a direct sequel to Romulus could shed some more light on this front. Hopefully we don’t have to wait the full nine years of Rain and Andy’s journey to another star system to get some answers.

The Alien Movies' Long History of Recycling Rejected Ideas

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter .

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Blink Twice Review

After striking recent performances in the High Fidelity series, Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi and as Selina Kyle in The Batman , Zoë Kravitz steps behind the camera with Blink Twice : an unsettling tale of coercion, violence and ‘cancel culture’.

Originally titled ‘Pussy Island’ — which we should all mourn, greatly — Blink Twice sees nail artist Frida (Naomi Ackie) and best pal Jess (Alia Shawkat) strike up an unlikely connection with wealthy tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) after crashing a fancy gala. Slater is in the midst of a scandal — one that’s seen him step down from running his company, and issue a plethora of sincere online apologies for his ‘abuse of power’. That doesn’t bother the girls much, though; Tatum’s slick businessman is incredibly charismatic, so when he asks them to come to his private island, they say yes. Once they arrive, reluctantly handing in their phones, they soak up a paradise of pool-lounging, private dinners and psychedelic drugs. Everything is perfect — or is it?

Ackie is on great form, anchoring the film in her desperation for things not to be too good to be true, and her wide-eyed terror and determination when it turns out that they are. Her friendship with Shawkat’s Jess feels authentic and endearing, and her fascination with Slater believable. As the inscrutable billionaire, Channing Tatum is, eventually, chilling, swinging between romantic and ruthless. Slater’s entourage, including Christian Slater’s Vic, Simon Rex’s Cody and Haley Joel Osment’s Tom, are mostly one-dimensional. Of the island inhabitants, Adria Arjona’s reality-TV star Sarah is most compelling — she really comes into her own in the final act, providing much of the darkly comedic levity.

Kravitz's impeccably cool real-life energy seeps into every element.

The way Kravitz unspools the horrifying reality of what’s happening on the island feels heavily Get Out -inspired. She utilises flashbacks, fast cuts and spikes in sound and visuals to overwhelm your senses, leaving you tense and hyper-vigilant. The over-arching narrative becomes quite predictable early on — but Kravitz’s direction, and the smart, neat script by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, keep things surprising. The film doesn’t shy away from graphic scenes, particularly in the bloody final act, but always holds just enough back to stop it feeling exploitative.

Overall, it’s a really accomplished debut from Kravitz. Her impeccably cool real-life energy seeps into every element, from the pulsating soundtrack, to the saturated colour palette, and a searing sense of humour — there’s even a hilarious glimpse of father Lenny’s viral leather-clad gym video early on. Whatever she turns her hand to next, we’ll be watching.

COMMENTS

Light It Up movie review & film summary (1999)
A new security guard with the ominous name of Dante Jackson ( Forest Whitaker) has come to work. He's got problems. One student pegs him: "A $5 cop with a $50 attitude." Meanwhile, a teacher named Knowles ( Judd Nelson, from the original "Breakfast Club") is wandering the halls with his students, looking for a heated classroom.
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Light It Up. The topical story of a group of high school students who form a protest when they become fed up with their school's poor conditions. After a shot is accidentally fired and a police ...
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Full Review | Jan 1, 2000. Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000. The dialogue is ridiculous and condescending. Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000. Too often writer ...
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Light It Up is a ridiculously melodramatic piece on problems in low income area schools. While the topic is one that needs to be addressed, the film uses every cliche in the genre and comes off as a textbook popcorn flick. The characters are cutouts from the inner city version of The Breakfast Club or even The Faculty.
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Light It Up is a 1999 film starring an ensemble cast that consists of R&B singer/actor Usher Raymond (in his first leading role), Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson, and Vanessa L. Williams.The film was written and directed by Craig Bolotin, and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and his wife Tracy Edmonds.. The film follows five teenage high school seniors and one sophomore, who hold a ...
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Movie Review. The students of Lincoln High lack books, chairs, heat and hope. The only teacher who genuinely cares about them just got suspended. ... In Light It Up, six urban teens (a jock, a drug dealer, an honor student, a loner, a gangsta and a promiscuous punker) hole up in the school with a wounded security guard as a hostage. The ...
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The movie touches on but does not deal directly with many social issues, including teenage pregnancy, police brutality, child abuse, crime, and education woes including financial, scholastic and behavioral ones. It contains a romantic, politically correct idealization of school improvement, with many obscenities and some violence.
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Light It Up. When a favorite teacher (Judd Nelson) is fired for taking his class off-campus at a neglected high school in Queens, New York, it inevitably leads to the accidental shooting of a cop (Forest Whitaker). A group of studentsa student council member, a punk-rocker, a hustler, a star basketball player, a gangbanger and a gifted artist ...
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Purchase Light It Up on digital and stream instantly or download offline. In this dazzling leading-role, recording artist Usher Raymond plays Lester, the troubled teen who has finally been pushed to his limit. Taking matters into their own hands, Lester and his friends hold a police officer (Forest Whitaker) hostage and barricade themselves inside the school. Negotiator Audrey McDonald ...
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2.5/4 stars. As recently as 1985, our view of high school was so innocent that a movie like "The Breakfast Club" could involve five teenage trouble makers working things out in unsupervised detention. Now look at "Light It Up." The same kinds of kids take hostages and get involved in an armed standoff with the police.
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Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus' ending leaves the door open for more to come in the Alien movie franchise.The film is set in the intervening years between Alien and James Cameron's Aliens.Alien: Romulus features a new cast of characters who venture to an abandoned spaceship in a bid to retrieve cryo fuel to travel the Yvaga system. What awaits them is the Xenomorph Ripley threw ...
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Alien: Romulus Review - Horrifying Sci-Fi Actioner Has The Best (& Worst) Of The Alien Franchise

It was thrown into space, but that doesn't mean it's the end

Rook is based on the likeness of the late Ian Holm, who played Ash in the first film

It showcases Andy as part of Rain's family

Rain and Andy are in cryosleep and headed for Yvaga

Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus - The 10 Biggest Burning Questions

What Happened to the Xenomorph From Alien 1979?