Parents Guide for
Alien (1979) More at IMDbPro »

Sex/Nudity: 4/10

One of the cabins is full of pornographic magazines and posters. The posters adorn the walls, but they aren't viewed up close and the images aren't seen very clearly (they are explicit though). They don't serve a huge purpose to the story, they are simply there in one scene and one of the magazines is rolled up and used as a weapon when Ripley and Ash get into a fight.

When Ripley prepares for hypersleep, she strips down to nothing but an undersized undershirt and skimpy panties. The top of her backside is partially visible.

When Lambert is killed by the Alien, we see her backed up against the wall. She is in a short skirt, and we see the Alien approach her slowly, and we see its tail begin to slither past her ankle and move upwards. The scene cuts, and we hear something that sounds more like orgasmic moaning than screams of pain and death.

This film contains sexual imagery and themes. For example, The Facehugger clings to John hurt's face and will not get off. It seems to be thrusting in one scene. It later dies and John Hurt wakes up. While he is eating dinner, a Chestburster bursts through his chest, implying the Facehugger used John Hurt as a human host. The Xenomorph's head may be perceived as phallic.

Violence: 9/10

The alien shoots its teeth into a mans head. It lifts him up into the air by its teeth. The man screams and blood runs down his forehead (quickly, before the camera cuts away).

The alien bursts through a man's chest while he is eating dinner with the rest of the crew (blood spurts everywhere). This scene is very intense, he begins to choke and then starts squirming around. then he starts having a seizure sort of thing and begins to scream and yell. the alien tries to come out of him a bunch, and succeeds on the third or so try. It looks around while the mans hands twitch and have spasms.

The alien attacks a man and pierces his head with its inner jaw (a puddle of blood is shown in the director's cut).

A man is attacked by the alien, and you see blood in his mouth as he screams; later, you see the man very briefly with blood on him and a severed foot dangling nearby.

A man is hit in the head with a fire extinguisher and white substance comes out of him; he is then hit once more and his head tears off; moments later, we figure out he is a robot; afterwards, the crew asks him questions and at first he answers with sputters and spurts (his blood is white, though).

A man cuts a "finger" of a facehugger and it bleeds acid.

The crew looks at the insides of a facehugger alien.

Ripley is attacked and beaten severely by a human-like robot or android on-screen (her nose bleeds and she makes disturbing moans as she is being thrown all over the place).

In the Director's Cut, we see Dallas cocooned. He wakes up and tells Ripley to kill him, implying he has an Alien inside him. Ripley does as he wishes and burns Dallas alive with the flamethrower (not graphic).

Profanity: 7/10

Five uses of the word 'fuck.'

1 sexual reference, 8 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 20 mild obscenities, 5 religious profanities, and 8 religious exclamations.

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: 2/10

Some people smoke cigarettes.

Frightening/Intense Scenes: 10/10

There are some scenes that will make you jump and some scenes that you may find intense or frightening.

In one scene an alien surprisingly bursts through a man's chest and blood splatters everywhere.

In the scenes when the monster shoots teeth at its victim's head, it will make you jump.

In the scene when Ripley is getting ready for hypersleep, she turns around and a alien is hiding in an air duct (very sudden).

When Dallas is in the air ducts, the alien screeches when he sees him and reaches out to grab him (very brief moment, yet still very frightening). [DIRECTOR'S CUT] Later, he is seen cocooned (with an alien possibly in his system) begging Ripley to kill him. She does as he wishes. [DIRECTOR'S CUT]

Parker and Lambert are attacked by an alien (very frightening and intense); it is also very discretely implied that Lambert is raped by the alien (though you don't see anything, her screams and deep cries that are heard can be very disturbing).

The alien is more frightening than it is violent or gory.

In the scene with the alien eggs, one egg opens and an alien jumps out and attaches to Kane's face (a very surprising jump moment).

The scene where Ripley is beaten up by Ash is quite disturbing and pretty violent compared to the rest of the movie.

This movie is somewhat sexual, however, kids will not see the underlying sexual theme of this movie.

This movie has been called the scariest sci-fi film of all time, and for good reason. This movie has lots of atmosphere (pun intended) and tension gets very high in the last two-thirds of the movie.

32/50 Adult audiences, 16-17 and older