Alien

19791979
RR
1h 57m

Alien (1979)

A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.

Play trailer2:05

After a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely ... Read allAfter a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.After a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

Director
- Ridley Scott
Writers
- Dan O'Bannon(screenplay by)
- Ronald Shusett(story by)
Stars

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Top rated movie #52

Won 1 Oscar
- 18 wins & 22 nominations total

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Theatrical Version

Theatrical Version

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Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979)

John Hurt in Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver and Bolaji Badejo in Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979)

Alien (1979)

Bolaji Badejo in Alien (1979)

John Hurt and Ridley Scott in Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, and Harry Dean Stanton in Alien (1979)

John Hurt and Percy Edwards in Alien (1979)

Harry Dean Stanton and Bolaji Badejo in Alien (1979)

Veronica Cartwright and Bolaji Badejo in Alien (1979)

John Hurt in Alien (1979)

Director
- Ridley Scott
Writers
- Dan O'Bannon(screenplay by) (story by)
- Ronald Shusett(story by)
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

In the distant future, the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo are on their way home when they pick up a distress call from a distant moon. The crew are under obligation to investigate and the spaceship descends on the moon afterwards. After a rough landing, three crew members leave the spaceship to explore the area on the moon. At the same time as they discover a hive colony of some unknown creature, the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a distress call. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew realizes that they are not alone on the spaceship and they must deal with the consequences. —blazesnakes9

alien spaceship outer space creature female protagonist 203 more

Taglines
- In space no one can hear you scream.
Genres
- Horror
- Sci-Fi
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated R for sci-fi violence/gore and language
Parents guide

Trivia
The blue laser lights that were used in the alien ship's egg chamber were borrowed from The Who. The band was testing out the lasers for their stage show in the soundstage next door.

Goofs
(at around 1h 35 mins) A crewman with a black panel of some kind is visible through the smoke as Ripley runs through the corridors at the end of the film.

Quotes
[last lines]
Ripley: Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew - Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas - are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
[to Jonesy the cat]
Ripley: Come on, cat.

Crazy credits
The title of the movie is slowly created one line at a time at the top of the screen during the opening credits, starting out with the I, then the slash in A and the backslash in N, and then the vertical lines in L and E (so it looks like / I I I \). After that, the ensuing lines of each letter are added slowly one at a time until the title is fully visible.

Alternate versions
The laserdisc release features a separate section with the scenes not included in the theatrical release. This is the new material:
After being awakened from hypersleep, Kane wanders out to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, he says "Rise and shine Lambert".
The crew gathers on the bridge and listens to the signal coming from the derelict craft.
Lambert confronts Ripley about Ripley's reluctance to let them back on the ship with Kane and the facehugger. Lambert tells Ripley, Parker and Brett how the face hugger got on Kane.
Ripley radios down to Parker and Brett to see how they're progressing on the repairs, Parker and Ripley exchange tense words over the radio.
After the face hugger's acid eats through a few floors, the crew returns to the med lab to check up on Kane's condition. Ripley sees an X-Ray of Kane's chest and asks Ash, "What is that dark stain on Kane's lung?" The rest of the crew starts asking if Kane's going to live, Dallas tells everyone to go back to work.
After Kane's death, the crew gathers around at the meal table to discuss what they're going to do with the escaped alien. Brett announces the cattle-prod idea and suggests "catching" the alien in a net.
Longer version of Brett's death. This scene had Brett frozen with fear as the alien grabs his head, he yells "Parker!" and then blood poors from beneath his cap. The alien lifts him up into the landing gear and Ripley and Parker come rushing in. Parker stands where Brett once was and looks up; blood drips on his shirt and then Brett's cattle prod falls to Parker's feet.
Part of a scene that involves Parker, Ripley and Lambert trying to flush the alien out of the air lock. As they are about to succeed, an alarm is triggered and the alien rushes out of the airlock (getting its tail caught in the closing door, and spilling acid that causes a hull breach). Parker falls unconciously to the floor, Ripley does the same and Lambert and Ash come to their rescue. Ripley vocalizes her suspicions about Ash by accusing him of setting the alarm off.
After Dallas's disappearance, Ripley (being suspicious of Ash) asks Lambert if she's ever slept with him.
The build-up to Lambert's death is much longer. (Watch the alien's shadow on the wall, it walks in, crouches down, then immediately gets up) A scene where we see the alien enter, crouch down and wait until Lambert notices its presence was cut. When Lambert sees the alien, it uncoils its tail and walks (like a crab) over to Lambert.
After Ripley discovers the remains of Parker and Lambert, she makes another discovery. Ripley enters the landing gear area of the Nostromo (where Brett got killed) and discovers a cocooned Dallas and Brett mutating into an egg. Dallas pleads, "Kill me". Ripley flames Dallas and the Brett-egg and then runs to set the ship on self-destruct.

Connections
Edited into Bride of Monster Mania (2000)

Soundtracks
Incidental music from 'Symphony No. 2 ('Romantic')'
by Howard Hanson
[Played over end credits]

Top review

9/10

Milestone

The beginning of one of the greatest series of all time. This film will always remain a classic. It's scary, influential and insanely entertaining. Not just that but Ridley Scott actually has a great sense of style and mood and he plays with that a lot, to make us shiver. There's also an interesting mystery surrounding the Alien which we know practically nothing about. Sigourney Weaver is just as powerful as usual and really brings strength to the film; they make one. Last but not least, the musical score. Wow! It's fantastic. I think the Alien series is known for that aspect as well. Let's hope they'll continue the series and dang we need it all on DVD !

helpful•196

70

Pluto-3
Aug 14, 1998

Budget
- $11,000,000 (estimated)
Gross US & Canada
- $81,900,459
Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,527,881
- May 28, 1979
Gross worldwide
- $106,285,522

See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

Runtime
1 hour 57 minutes
Color
- Color
Sound mix
- Dolby Stereo
Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1

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Alien (1979)

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