Xenogenesis (film)

Xenogenesis is a 1978 Canadian-American science fiction short film directed by James Cameron and Randall Frakes. It stars William Wisher Jr. and Margaret Umbel.

Raj is an engineered man, trained to deliver humanity from the final cataclysm, and Laurie, (a woman raised by a machine, but she alone knew the power of love), are sent on a gigantic sentient starship to search space for a place to start new life. Having come across a derelict starship belonging to an unknown people said to have been dead for fifty thousand years, Raj decides to investigate. He comes across a gigantic robotic cleaner, which attacks him and he ends up hanging from a ledge. Laurie arrives to help him, sitting inside of and controlling a vehicle which walks on four legs. Raj instructs her to go back to their ship, but she refuses and engages the robot in combat. The film ends with Raj still hanging from the ledge; Laurie pushing the robot towards the edge of a precipice and the robot fighting to not go over it.

• William Wisher Jr. as Raj
• Margaret Umbel as Laurie

Cameron raised $20,000 from a group of local dentists to fund the film. Most of the film was shot in his living room and the methods he used were self taught.^[1][2] Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure.

In A Critical Companion to James Cameron, the author found themes in Xenogenesis that would be repeated in later films Cameron would direct. They also commented that a scene in Aliens (1986) where Ripley yells at the Queen Alien was similar to a scene in. It was also noted that many of the themes that would appear in later Cameron movies, included a strong female character, can be first found here.^[3]

The dentist pulled out of the project based on a demonstration screening. Producer Roger Corman was impressed with the project to hire Cameron to work on projects that would become Battle Beyond the Stars and Piranha II.^[4]

• Xenogenesis at IMDb