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Alien

  • 1979
  • R
  • 1h 57m
IMDb RATING
8.5/10
1M
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
323
4
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
10 Videos
99+ Photos
Alien InvasionCyberpunkMonster HorrorSpace Sci-FiTragedyHorrorSci-Fi

After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.

  • Director
    • Ridley Scott
  • Writers
    • Dan O'Bannon
    • Ronald Shusett
  • Stars
    • Sigourney Weaver
    • Tom Skerritt
    • John Hurt
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.5/10
    1M
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    323
    4
    • Director
      • Ridley Scott
    • Writers
      • Dan O'Bannon
      • Ronald Shusett
    • Stars
      • Sigourney Weaver
      • Tom Skerritt
      • John Hurt
    • 1.9KUser reviews
    • 290Critic reviews
    • 89Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #49
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 19 wins & 22 nominations total

    Videos10

    Theatrical Version
    Trailer 2:05
    Theatrical Version
    Alien
    Trailer 1:06
    Alien
    Alien
    Trailer 1:06
    Alien
    Close Encounters with Xenomorphs on 'Alien: Romulus'
    Clip 2:36
    Close Encounters with Xenomorphs on 'Alien: Romulus'
    Why We Can't Wait for Alien: Romulus
    Clip 2:43
    Why We Can't Wait for Alien: Romulus
    5 Award-Winning Sci-Fi Films to Stream
    Clip 1:00
    5 Award-Winning Sci-Fi Films to Stream
    A Guide to the Films of Ridley Scott
    Clip 1:40
    A Guide to the Films of Ridley Scott

    Photos357

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    Top cast10

    Edit
    Sigourney Weaver
    Sigourney Weaver
    • Ripley
    Tom Skerritt
    Tom Skerritt
    • Dallas
    John Hurt
    John Hurt
    • Kane
    Veronica Cartwright
    Veronica Cartwright
    • Lambert
    Harry Dean Stanton
    Harry Dean Stanton
    • Brett
    Ian Holm
    Ian Holm
    • Ash
    Yaphet Kotto
    Yaphet Kotto
    • Parker
    Bolaji Badejo
    Bolaji Badejo
    • Alien
    Helen Horton
    Helen Horton
    • Mother
    • (voice)
    Eddie Powell
    Eddie Powell
    • Alien
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ridley Scott
    • Writers
      • Dan O'Bannon
      • Ronald Shusett
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews1.9K

    8.51016.4K
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    Summary

    Reviewers say 'Alien' is celebrated for its groundbreaking effects, iconic creature design, and atmospheric tension. The film's suspense, realistic interactions, and minimalist horror approach are frequently praised. Sigourney Weaver's performance as Ripley and the film's genre influence are often commended. The production design, eerie soundtrack, and practical effects are noted for their impact. Despite some pacing and character development criticisms, 'Alien' is regarded as a seminal sci-fi work.
    AI-generated from the text of user reviews

    Featured reviews

    9chrishn

    "Alien" is not just the monster, it's the atmosphere and the way you feel!

    In "Alien" we follow a seven man crew en-route to earth on board the huge space freighter "Nostromo". The crew is in cryosleep, but the on board computer interrupts the journey when a foreign radio signal is picked up. It originates from an uninhabited planet and the crew lands to investigate. There they make contact with an alien life-form...

    What makes Alien so great is the constant feel of uneasiness. Right from the beginning you have a feeling that something is wrong. The crew is not particularly friendly towards each other, and you truly feel all the in-group tension. The ship itself is a huge worn out industrial-style maze of halls and corridors, and it feels more like a prison than a place to live. It is as if not only the alien but also the ship itself is against the humans. The Alien itself is the scariest monster in history because it is a ruthless, soul-less parasite completely devoid of any human or civilized traits. The design of the monster is a stroke of genius. Sure it has a humanoid form, but it has no facial traits or anything else which could give away emotions or intentions. Its actions reveals no weaknesses nor civilized intelligence. The Alien is more or less the opposite of everything human and civilized, plus the creature is more well-adapted to the inhumane interior of the ship than the humans who build it. To sum up, you then have a setting where the humans are caught in a web of in-group tensions, an inhospitable ship and the perfect killer which thrives in the ships intestines. You almost get the feel that the humans are the ones who are alienated to each other and to their own ship.

    Ridley Scott tells the story with a perfectly synchronized blend of visuals and sounds.

    The actors do a superb job, portraying their characters in a subtle but very realistic way. The seven man crew is not a bunch of Hollywood heroes. They are ordinary people with strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. In this way they all seem so fragile when confronted with the enemy.

    As mentioned the ship is very claustrophobic and Ridley Scott adds to the eeriness by using camera movement, lights and shadows in an effective way. The living quarters are bright and should be comfortable to the crew, but there is something sterile about it all. The rest of the ship is basically a huge basement.

    The music by Jerry Goldsmith underlines the eeriness so well, and the movie wouldn't have worked without his score. Combined with the sounds of the ship it all adds to the uneasiness.

    This is not a story about heroic people who boldly teams up against evil. It's a story about ordinary people facing true fear, which is the fear without a face. The fear we can't understand and can't negotiate with, because its only goal is to survive on the expense of us. It's a story where some people bravely fight back whilst others are destroyed by the terror. It's a story where people a killed in a completely random way. There is no higher-order justice behind who gets to live and who dies. All seven characters are just part of a race where the fittest - not necessarily the most righteous - will prevail, and all seven characters start the race on an equal footing. None of them are true heroes, and none of them are true villains.

    All the above makes Alien so great as a horror movie. The terror isn't just the Alien itself, it's the entire atmosphere which gets so effectively under your skin, that you just can't shrug it off after the end credits like you can with so many other Hollywood horror movies. The title "Alien" doesn't just refer to the monster, it is the theme of the movie and it is the feeling you have during and after the movie. 9/10
    bob the moo

    Classic horror

    The further we go in special effects, the more movies show us and ignore the unseen, the more people will return to dark horrors like this one.

    It's hard to look at this film without considering the sequels and knowing the alien itself, however when made the alien was mostly unseen and a mystery. It's difficult to forget what you've seen, but it's important to approach this film first if possible rather than joining the series late.

    It's amazing that this is over 20 years old - apart from the actors looking so young, the film doesn't feel dated at all. The sci-fi visions here are still bleak and futuristic as they were then - this is not the Star Trek vision of the future. The foreboding exists long before John Hurt spills his secret, Scott's direction is excellent throughout. Once the alien is "born" the tension is cranked up and the characters dispatched one by one (a formula we know oh-so well now!)

    However here the characters are not merely alien-food but have some dimension to them. Weaver is excellent, while the support cast is full of great support actors (Stanton, Kotto, Hurt, Skerritt, Holm), but of course the real star is the one we see least of.

    We barely see the alien in full detail, most of the time it is set in shadows, moving with deadly intent.The alien here is not simply a killing machine as seen in later films but is cruel with it. Witness the alien trap a female crew member and slowly rub up her leg, moving with slow seductive movements before moving with terrifying speed to kill another crew member sneaking up behind it. The slow movements betray the alien's pure cruelty.

    The film is a study in terror. It may not be as action packed as the other films in the series but it brings the claustrophobia of being hunted to a new level.
    9Fella_shibby

    The facehugger scared me as a kid and i still find em creepy.

    Everything has already been said about this great film n there seems to be little left to say but lemme contribute a lil more by praising how good this film is.

    I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs n as a kid i found it to be a bit slow but was shaken by the chestburster scene.

    The facehugger terrified me as a kid.

    Revisited all the four parts in the early 2k on dvds which i own.

    Revisited this part again few days back as i am on Alien movie marathon n very impatient to check out Prometheus n Covenant.

    I feel that this part is inspired by Bava's Planet of the Vampires.

    The ruins with the skeletal remains, the design and shots of the ship itself does have the deja vu effect.

    This one is atmospheric n dark, gory at times, it has enuff stuff for sci fi fans, it also has slasher n war like tone.

    But the best thing is the feminist tone where in this part the women are not being cast as the helpless victims.
    oneshotstop

    Structural perfection matched only by its hostility

    Director Ridley Scott's well-honed talents of pacing and editing create a tense atmosphere that superbly conveys dread and fear of an unknown, unseen evil entity. In 1979, the technology didn't exist to generate a computer image of a Being from another world, and thank God, because this film would have sucked just like all these post-Alien creature features do. Everyone who loves this movie knows what I'm talking about. Ridley Scott had to be extremely careful not to show a full shot of the Alien, except in very brief scenes, and not to reveal exactly how it moves, because then we would see that it is just some tall, skinny guy in a rubber suit. Nowadays, some computer guy would whip up a really scary-looking, but nevertheless FAKE-looking (yes, computer guys, we can tell) Alien, and the director would not have to even think about trying to breathe life into H.R. Giger's hallucinations to make a successful picture.

    The dark, cold beauty of this film will never be equaled.
    Infofreak

    A horror classic that has stood the test of time! Still by far the best movie in the series.

    'Alien' while technically science fiction is also one of the greatest horror/suspense movies ever made. Ridley Scott is now one of the most well known and successful directors in Hollywood, but I don't think anything he's made in the last ten years is a patch on this perfect film, which is a near masterpiece in my opinion. In fact, on reflection there are only three Scott movies I genuinely like, those being his first three. The last of these 'Blade Runner' was released twenty years ago now, so to me Scott is long past his use by date. Whatever, 'Alien' itself is a brilliant piece of work, and is almost flawless. Scott's direction is superb and everything else about it is outstanding - a strong script from Dan O'Bannon et al, an evocative score from Jerry Goldsmith, brilliant design and special effects, including the amazing contributions from H.R.Giger, all add up to an amazing movie experience. I also really liked how the cast were character actors and not "stars" so there was plenty of suspense generated as to who will live and who will die. This is something very few subsequent movies have done, 'Pitch Black' being one of the exceptions. Sigourney Weaver may be an icon as Ripley now, but when the movie was first released she was virtually unknown, having had a small cameo in Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall' and not much else. The rest of the cast are equally as good. I especially enjoyed Yaphet Kotto ('Blue Collar') and the legendary Harry Dean Stanton ('Wise Blood') as the wise cracking "below deck" crew. Many people seem to prefer James Cameron's sequel 'Aliens' over this, but as I much prefer horror and suspense movies to action ones I think this is definitely the better movie, and still the strongest and most effective in the series. 'Alien' is a horror classic and an absolutely unforgettable movie that I can't recommend highly enough. If you haven't seen it before watch it immediately!

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to Yaphet Kotto, Sir Ridley Scott told him to annoy Sigourney Weaver off-camera, so that there would be genuine tension between their characters. Kotto regretted this, because he really liked Weaver.
    • 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 2003 DVD release plasters the 1979 version of the 20th Century Fox logo with the 1980's version.
    • Connections
      Edited into Star Trek: The Next Generation: Datalore (1988)
    • Soundtracks
      Incidental music from 'Symphony No. 2 ('Romantic')'
      by Howard Hanson

      [Played over end credits]

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    FAQ35

    • How long is Alien?Powered by Alexa
    • Where is the planetoid the Nostromo visits, and does it have a name?
    • How does the spaceship create gravity? The spaceship does not seem to be rotating, although rotation is necessary to create gravity in the space.
    • Does the Alien species have a name?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 22, 1979 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Facebook
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Alien, el octavo pasajero
    • Filming locations
      • Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK(Studio)
    • Production companies
      • Twentieth Century Fox
      • Brandywine Productions
      • Scott Free Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $11,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $84,206,106
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $3,527,881
      • May 28, 1979
    • Gross worldwide
      • $109,102,567
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 57 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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