JAMES CAMERON’S XENOGENESIS
The Birth of Filmmaking's Daring Genius
James Cameron has directed and written films for 43 years. His catalog features some of the most popular projects ever made, including the Terminator series, Aliens, Robocop, and Avatar. Avatar 2 is in post-production and set to release in 2022. This short, Xenogenesis (1978), is Cameron’s first film. The music is from Bernard Herrmann, who composed the scores of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Vertigo (1958), and Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976).
Xenogenesis is a sci-fi thriller that follows an engineer, Raj, and woman, Laurie, who are sent on a starship to find a place to start a new life cycle. However, on the ship, Raj encounters a cleaning robot who fights him. Raj is played by William Wisher, known for his later work as a writer on Judge Dredd, The Terminator, and Terminator: Judgment Day. Laurie is played by Margaret Umbel, whose film career consists solely of this role.
set of Xenogenesis is massive, and its design is sophisticated for a 1978 project. The film’s appearance emulates the earlier film, Star Wars (1977). Even the robot’s look is similar to that of droids from the original Star Wars IV: A New Hope. After being pushed to the ledge of the ship, Raj hangs on for life, trying to remain on the ship’s surface while being hit by lasers from the robot. To save him, Laurie operates another robot from the ship’s control board to attack the threat and save Raj. The fight between the two robots is exciting, as Laurie’s machine is pushed to the edge of a fall before Raj can climb to safety. Cameron leaves the viewer in suspense as the film ends before the outcome of the war is shown.
This film is approximately 12-minutes in length and shows off special effects of the 1970s. It is innovative for its time and follows in the footsteps of projects like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Trek: The Original Series (1968). The viewer can see Cameron’s later science fiction filmmaking inspiration through Xenogenesis’s concept and design.
