Sigourney Weaver and the Killer Drugs

An introduction

This is an introductory post in a three part series I’m calling Sigourney Weaver and the Killer Drugs.

No, it doesn’t make intuitive sense. But then again, that’s not really what this newsletter is all about¹. Yes, I can assure you that all the drug related content will make sound scientific sense. However, the analogies and cultural references will likely border on the absurd. That’s not an apology, more of an explainer about the way I am and what to expect here.

I’ve chosen to focus this series on Sigourney Weaver² because she’s a feminist icon with a broad repertoire of movies to choose from. Pretty good combination I think. Want to know about how it relates to learning about drugs? Well, you’ll have to read on a bit further for that.

I learned from my Batman post that it’s incorrect to assume readers have seen the same movies as I have. So allow me to give you an extremely abridged and slightly skewed summary of the three movies that form the backbone of this series: Ghostbusters, Alien, and Copycat.

There is no Dana, only Zuul

As a child of the 80s, my first memory of seeing Sigourney Weaver was in Ghostbusters. Not that I paid much attention to her at the time. I was only little, so I was only really interested in slimer, the marshmallow man, and the song³.

Ghostbusters is about a group of progressive scientists⁴ who are committed to ridding the streets of New York from unwanted spirits. One of their early clients is Sigourney Weaver’s character Dana, who gets visited by a spirit named Zuul. She eventually gets possessed by Zuul, becoming the Gatekeeper. This results in the classic “There is no Dana, only Zuul” scene where she levitates above the bed and Bill Murray remains remarkably professional throughout the whole interaction other than drooling and taking everything in visually.

Dana’s neighbour Louis, played by Rick Moranis of Little Shop of Horrors and Honey I Shrunk the Kids fame, also gets possessed by a spirit and becomes the Key Master. His mission is to find the Gatekeeper (possessed Dana). Eventually they get together, there’s a weird kiss, some crazy lightning and stuff, a Ziggy Stardust inspired woman appears in what would probably be considered a standard outfit for a celebrity these days, and the giant Stay Pufft marshmallow man comes to reek havoc on the city. Thankfully, the four Ghostbusters are able to work together, combine the streams of their proton accelerators and save the day, miraculously surviving despite the ginormous explosion that covers them all in melted marshmallow. Credits roll and Dana gives Bill Murray the kiss he’s been so desperate for.

Then we'll blow it the fuck out into space

My next memorable encounter with Sigourney Weaver came when I was older, in the Ridley Scott classic Alien⁵. Based on how things usually went, I’m going to assume that my viewing of Alien would’ve occurred with my brother, either because it was showing on free to air television, or because we rented the VHS for a school holiday movie marathon, possibly as a trilogy⁶. Both are feasible scenarios.

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, the lead role in Alien, and possibly one of my most favourite female characters to ever appear on screen⁷. Ripley is a crew member on what I’m just going to call a residential type spaceship, because I don’t really think the details are important here⁸.

The crew gets woken up from stasis when the ship’s computer ‘Mother’ detects a signal that indicates an intelligent life is in the vicinity that needs to be checked out. With some reluctance, they do. This turns out to be a bad decision.

They find the origin of the signal is an abandoned alien ship. Well, is it abandoned or did everyone on board just die? Turns out the ship is infested by aliens that reproduce quickly judging by all the eggs they find. One such alien attaches itself to a crew member’s face and they quickly head back to the ship. Unfortunately, they don’t listen when Ripley asks them to quarantine (bad decision number two) and an alien makes it’s way back onto their ship. Not great for the crew. They’re slowly picked off in a series of gory encounters. Ripley displays an ability to stay calm under pressure, making smart decisions and being a badass alien killer when she needs to blasting the alien “the fuck out into space”⁹. She and the cat Jones are the sole survivors (along with just enough alien remnants to enable a sequel…).

You're just a sad, second rate, boring, impotent little copycat.

A bit older again, and I meet Sigourney Weaver in the movie Copycat. I’m not going to lie, my motivation for seeing this movie as a teen was most definitely Harry Connick Jr¹⁰ with a side of Dermot Mulroney. I had no interest in a mature Sigourney Weaver or Holly Hunter at the time. But now I’ve grown to appreciate this pairing a lot more than the former and see them for the strong and capable women they represented¹¹.

Sigourney Weaver’s character in Copycat is Dr Helen Hudson, an expert on serial killers. But, unsurprisingly, being an expert on psychopaths has its downside and she has a very bad experience with someone trying to kill her that sees her turn agoraphobic. Holly Hunter’s character calls her in to help solve a case of a new psychopath who is on the loose in San Francisco and appears to be copying the techniques of the grand serial killers of old¹².

Various cat and mouse tactics play out as they try and find Harry Connick Jr’s character who is the psychopath killer. One thing leads to another and said killer ends up dead with a bullet in his brain.

Targets to control or eradicate

What each of these movies have in common is that they each involve a target of some kind that must be either controlled or eradicated: Ghostbusters be getting the ghosts, Ripley is killing aliens, and Copycat is concerned with detaining a deranged human being.

Enter my usual line of ‘OK Lauren, but what has this got to do with drugs?”.

I’ve previously explained how lots of drugs work in the body through their action on cellular receptors. These drugs work on the usual signalling pathways that exist within the body, enabling, enhancing or blocking normal physiological functions. If you missed it (you probably did, it doesn’t have many views) I talked about this in greater detail in this post, which you should definitely read in about a minute’s time when you’re done this…or read it now and come back, I can wait…:

Sesame Street pharmacology

Using drugs that work on cellular receptors is the basis of how we manage most chronic conditions. In terms of the movie comparison, this is like actions we’d take to make New York and San Francisco great cities or keep the spaceship functioning. Make sure all the logistics are functioning well, things like that. But, just like in the movie, the quality of the environment isn’t all that matters when there’s a ghost, alien, or murderous psychopath on the loose (although, having a healthy environment to start with sure does help). Invasive beings can cause damage independently and need to be brough under control or eradicated.

This is the type of thing that happens when pathogenic bacteria or a virus infects our body, or when our normal functioning human cells ‘go wrong’ like in cancer. Managing these types of conditions requires drugs that take out these invasive targets effectively - this is the role of antibiotics, antivirals, and cytotoxic agents. It’s these drug classes that we’re going to look at in greater detail over the next few weeks.

Sounds fun, right?

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I haven’t written the posts yet, so if there’s anything in particular that you want me to cover, please let me know in the comments.

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Thanks so much for reading Lessons on Drugs!

1. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide plain language explanations of how drugs work, trying to walk the line between not expecting you to have any former scientific knowledge without being condescending or over simplified.

2. Yes, I am going to say her name in full every time. Just saying ‘Sigourney’ sounds too familiar. ‘Ms Weaver’ sounds weird. Celebrities are always referred to by their full name in my brain, that’s how it works.

3. My brother and I did a tape recording of the song where he sings the verses and I chime in with a four year old toddlery lisp saying “Gothst Busters”.

4. This is a generous description.

5. I say I’m not into Sci Fi and Cyberpunk and stuff, but I think I just don’t like defining what I like by genre. If the characters and plotline are well developed, I’m into it. Genre schmonre.

6. Remember the days of going to rent movies from the video store? You’d go and browse for ages and argue over what to get. Sometimes get a stack of weekly hires full of classics.

7. There are several moments in this movie where Ripley demonstrates just how strong her character is. One is when she’s getting taunted by the two male crew members in the ‘engineering bit’ of the ship and she tells them to fuck off and find her in the bridge. The other is when she defies Tom Skerritt’s order to open the hatch and insists on them quarantining. They should’ve listened to her, that’s for sure! Another big moment is when she sees Ash’s special order from Mother to prioritise return of the alien lifeform and treat the crew as expendable, resulting in an epic fight with Ash that sees his robot head decapitated with the help of her crewmates (not that they knew he was a robot). Even still, she quickly recovers to interrogate the decapitated Ash who is all covered in goo. And of course, the ultimate display of level headedness and ability to use her brain is when she’s confronted by the alien in the escape pod, resulting in it being blasted out into space. One detail I did find interesting though, is she managed to undertake all this action in the move without wearing a bra. That doesn’t seem comfortable to me, I’d like some sort of sports bra crop type situation if I were in that position, but good for you Ripley.

8. Apologies to the Sci Fi authors reading this. I’m sure the details are important in proper science fiction writing. And I do know it’s actually a ship called Nostromo, a commercial space tug.

9. I’m not unnecessarily swearing Mum, it’s a quote from the movie.

10. As I’ve previously mentioned, seeing Christian Bale in American Psycho was enough to turn me off of him forever. Harry Connick Jr however, well his charm shines through even as a deranged serial killer. Is that to do with differences in their acting ability or charisma…or perhaps both?

11. Clearly because I’m approaching the age she was when she made this movie.

12. I’ve just got to say, the glorification of serial killers is kind of messed up. I mean, they did kill very real people with very real loved ones.