Private Ross (spoilers)

I liked that, but what puzzles me is that if Becker and Hanson were BOTH screamers then why they hell did they keep him alive even for a few days? And why shoot the child?

Probably to draw in Hendricksson, who knows how to get off Sirius 6B and back to Earth. That's ultimately what the Screamers are up to.

And as Becker states he took the face of the NEB commander.....Wouldn't Ross have recognised him?

Apparently not.

Siriusly . . . errr, seriously, I guess Ross had never seen him; I don't know why not. Perhaps they'd simply never met in person. And the Screamers were probably controlling the virtual-reality communications of the NEBs as they were those of the Alliance.

Perhaps more seriously, we don't know with absolute certainty that Ross is really human anyway. The only evidence we're shown is the fact that he has human-looking blood, and that evidence has to be re-evaluated in light of what we learn later. So another possible answer to both of these questions is that Ross might be a Screamer after all. (I don't think he is; I think he's human. But still . . . )

And you're right about the similarities with The Thing. I don't think that's a coincidence; the primary screenwriter is Dan O'Bannon, who went to film school with John Carpenter and worked on Dark Star with him (and later adapted part of Dark Star into Alien). According to IMDb, O'Bannon started working on this screenplay as early as 1981; you do the math.

But yeah, it's an awesome movie and it's one of my favorites.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

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A late response, I know, but who knows if the OP will come back or if others will benefit.

I liked that, but what puzzles me is that if Becker and Hanson were BOTH screamers then why they hell did they keep him alive even for a few days?

We don't know that Jessica and Becker even whether or not the other was a screamer. It is possible that Becker didn't know if Ross actually was or was not.

Either way, a reason for keeping him alive is that he is at least somewhat of link to real humans. He is one more component to their cover.

They are trying to get off the planet, and it is implied they may not even be working together.

And why shoot the child?

Same reason, really. The "child" was following them to NEB head quarters, which we later find out had already been overrun by that point. The "child" is of no use to Becker (and perhaps Jessica) except that it provides a good way to earn the trust of the others. So Becker benefits from shooting it, reducing some of the suspicion that he can't be trusted or may be a screamer.

And as Becker states he took the face of the NEB commander.....Wouldn't Ross have recognised him?

Not if they had never met... It's possible that he had never actually seen somebody that high up.

I like to think that the humanoid (not the kids) screamers themselves don't really know who is and who isn't a screamer...but given that NONE of this is ever explained even in passing it's just my imagination filling the gaps.

No, I would say it is not just your imagination, at least not in that you are alone in thinking this or that you are not intended to think it. It is implied* that these advanced screamers may not even know who is who, and even if they CAN, they don't always trust them or cooperate with them for the greater good. It is implied that they have gained a sense of individuality that is possible beyond the intent of their design and are a danger even to their own kind, now (making them even more like humans).

* Becker scans the "child" model several times and sees that it is armed. He is obviously considering the nature of the three figures approaching his position. This could have been purely for our benefit, but I'm not so sure since they could have just shown him scan the "child" model once, or even not at all. We would still probably trust him more after seeing him shoot it and finding out that he had a good reason to do so.

* Becker and Jessica also may not know that the other is a screamer, or even if they did, they may not have trusted the other. Becker attacks the group after finding that the Alliance base has also been overrun, meaning he probably was not aware of that before, and so his mission objective was apparently met, leaving him with only a few humans to take care of. Jessica on the other hand keeps going and doesn't even help him or relate to him while he is attacking, showing that she has some other independant motive. Earlier Jessica threatens to shoot Becker and decides not to. We don't know if this is because he is a screamer or if it is because she may have thought he was a human (or it could have all been for show entirely). She mentions that she wasn't even aware that he existed "until 2 days ago". She has no reason to increase the level of paranoia or superstition surrounding Becker or in general unless she genuinely distrusts him.

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