Alien (1979)

The crew of a commercial deep space mining ship, investigating a suspected S.O.S., lands on a distant planet and discovers a nest of strange eggs.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Dan O'Bannon (story), Ronald Shusett (story),

Stars:

Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright

Top 250 #40 | Won 1 Oscar. Another 12 wins & 18 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom Skerritt	...	Dallas
Sigourney Weaver	...	Ripley
Veronica Cartwright	...	Lambert
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Brett
John Hurt	...	Kane
Ian Holm	...	Ash
Yaphet Kotto	...	Parker
Bolaji Badejo	...	Alien
Helen Horton	...	Mother (voice)

Storyline

The crew of the deep space towing vessel Nostromo are awaken from hypersleep to investigate a strange signal from a nearby planet. While investigating the signal, they discover it was intended as a warning, and not an SOS.

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Plot Keywords:

spaceship | egg | warning | parasite | deep space | 

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Taglines:

In space no one can hear you scream.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sci-fi violence/gore and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

25 May 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alien: The Director's Cut

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£208,081 (UK) (31 October 2003)

Gross:

$1,983,690 (USA) (28 November 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brandywine Productions, Twentieth Century-Fox Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min 116 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (as Dolby Stereo)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dallas' pursuit of the alien down the ventilator shafts, and the intercut scenes of the rest of the crew urging him on, was shot in one day.

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Goofs

When Dallas, Kane and Lambert are inside the alien ship containing the space jockey, there is light coming from the left side of the screen, despite them being inside an internal chamber of the derelict spacecraft.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Brett: This is the worst shit I've ever seen, man.
Parker: What you say? You got any biscuits over there?
Ripley: Here's some cornbread.
Parker: Cornbread. Yeah.
Lambert: I am cold.
Parker: Still with us, Brett?
Brett: Right.
Kane: Oh, I feel dead.
Parker: Anybody ever tell you you look dead, man?

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Connections

Referenced in NCIS: Recruited (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Eine kleine Nachtmusik'"
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (as W.A. Mozart)

User Reviews

Iconographic Horror

ALIEN received mixed reviews when it debuted in 1979--largely from science fiction critics, who accused it of being little more than a sort of Friday the 13th in Outer Space, a blood-and-gore horror flick given a futuristic twist via special effects. But while these accusations have more than a little truth, it has been an incredibly influential film--and even today, in the wake of CGI effects, it still holds up extremely, extremely well.

The story is well known: the crew of an interstellar craft responds to what seems a distress signal, only to encounter a remarkably lethal alien life form that boards their ship and sets about picking them off one by one. Some of the special effects are weak (the alien spacecraft and the android "revival" are fairly notorious). There is little in the way of character development, the film has a fairly slow pace, and the story itself is predictable; you can usually guess who is going to die next.

BUT. The art designs are incredible: the entire look of the film, from the commercial nature of the spacecraft to the iconographic alien itself (brilliantly envisioned by Giger) is right on the money. Director Ridley Scott encouraged his cast to ad lib from the script, and the result is a shocking sense of realism--and the somewhat slow pace of the film and the predictability of the story gives it a sense of relentless and ever-mounting paranoia that is greatly enhanced by the tight sets and camera set-ups. With its odd mixture of womb-like organics and cold mechanics, ALIEN is a film calculated to send even the most slightly claustrophobic viewer into a fit of hysteria.

The entire cast, led by Tom Skerrit and Sigorney Weaver, is very, very good--and the film abounds with memorable images and scenes ranging from John Hurt's encounter with the alien egg to Skerrit's search of the ship air ducts to Weaver's terrifying race against time as the ship counts down to self-destruct. Seldom has any film been so consistent in design, cast, direction, and out-and-out fear factor, and although certain aspects of ALIEN are open to legitimate criticism the end result is powerful enough to bring it in at a full five stars. A word of warning, however: you'll need to send the kids to bed for this one. And you'll probably be up half the night afterward yourself! Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer