Contamination (alternate titles include: Alien Contamination, Toxic Spawn, and Alien Arrives on Earth) is a 1980 Sci-Fi Horror film by Luigi Cozzi. As a large cargo ship, the Caribbean Lady, drifts into New York City, the crew is nowhere in sight. Upon further investigation, their remains are found, appearing as if they exploded.
Inside the cargo hold, an unusual cargo is found: green, pulsating eggs, unlike anything seen before. Disturbing them causes them to rupture, and reveals the cause of the crew's deaths as the police officers' chests explode!
Colonel Stella Holmes is assigned to investigate the strange case. Soon it becomes apparent that these eggs are not from Earth, and with the help of former astronaut Ian Hubbard, they track the eggs to South America, where their true source is revealed…
Contamination was among the earliest of Alien ripoffs, taking the chestburster idea and running with it.
This film provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Commander Ian Hubbard has become one after his story of the alien pods was declared debunked, he was declared crazy, and he was drummed out of the space program. He gets better once Col. Holmes and her agency come calling and admit he was right.
- The Atoner: Played with. While she doesn't outright completely apologize, Col. Stella Holmes admits to Hubbard after she discredited his story on the alien pods and largely was responsible for his downfall that he was indeed right, and asks for his help in destroying them.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Hubbard kills the alien cyclops by shooting it in the eye.
- Big Bad: The alien queen that Hamilton serves after being corrupted.
- Big Damn Heroes: The cynical Jerkass Hubbard is the only one that evades capture. He steals a suit to blend in and he's the one that manages to kill the alien queen and save Stella from getting eaten.
- B-Movie: It's basically a movie about what would happen if there were thousands of face huggers, and instead of putting an alien in you, getting sprayed with their contents makes your chest and stomach explode almost immediately.
- Chekhov's Gun: Hubbard's flare-gun is used to shoot the alien cyclops in the eye, killing it.
- Damsel in Distress: Stella gets locked in her bathroom with a pod incrementally getting closer to exploding, and if she gets sprayed with the fluid inside, she's toast. She makes an effort to get out herself but it's finally Hubbard who comes to her assistance and gets her out in time.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": When Aris salutes Stella upon finding out that she's a colonel for the President, she tells him that there is no reason for him to salute her.
- The Dragon: Hamilton. He initially appears to be the big bad, and while he does do a lot to drive the film, his actions are all under the control of the alien queen, and once it's killed, he dies along with it.
- The End... Or Is It?: Good news, the alien cyclops and presumably "queen" is dead. The bad news, there's eggs spread in secret on random cities around the world, and we see one burst in the middle of a crowded street just as the movie cuts to credits.
- Exploitation Film: As noted in
Follow the Leader below. - Faking the Dead: Hamilton staged plane wreck months before the film begins, so he can focus on growing and spreading the eggs.
- Genre Shift: It goes from a sci-fi horror film to a spy thriller in the middle portion back to a sci-fi horror film at the end.
- Gorn: Exposure to the contents of an egg causes people's chests to bloodily explode.
- Hypnotic Eye: Looking into the eye of the alien cyclops compels the person to walk close enough to be killed and eaten. It's put on full display with poor Aris.
- Jerkass: Hubbard starts off as one, but considering he told the truth and was humiliated and expelled from the space program for telling the truth, it's hard to blame him.
- Kill It with Fire: Stella's solution to A New York warehouse filled with eggs.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Hubbard has traits of this. He answers Holmes' call for help, but he's still a bit bitter about how she ruined his career.
- No Romantic Resolution: Aris really falls for Stella, and she slightly reciprocates while mainly focusing on the task at hand. They eventually kiss during the climax, but the poor sap is eaten by the alien queen not long after.
- Refusal of the Call: Hubbard initially declines to help Stella when she comes asking for his help dealing with the alien pods because he's pissed that she was largely responsible for his expulsion from the space program and making him seem like a loon. Subverted when they break the tension and he finally agrees to assist her.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: At least on Aris' side. He falls hard for Stella, but only gets a kiss before he's eaten by the alien queen.
- Too Dumb to Live: The cop who picks up a pulsating egg.
- Video Nasties: The spray from the pods hitting a human body is a visual that requires a strong stomach.
