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.
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.Written by
blazesnakes9
The chestbursting scene was NOT filmed in one take (despite the myth). The scene was filmed twice: on the first take, the chestburster did not make it through Kane's shirt, so the crew needed to reset and shoot it again. The failed attempt is visible in the finished film since Ridley thought it made it look like the creature was struggling to push its way out, and made the scene more violent. (See The Beast Within documentary where this is discussed). See more »
Goofs
Despite the humid temperatures of the ship during the detonation sequence, and the fact that Ripley is seen coated in sweat, including her nails, when she disrobes in the escape shuttle, there is no perspiration anywhere on her under garments, not even the armpits. See more »
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?
See more »
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. See more »
Alternate Versions
Other changes in the Director's Cut: As in the Theatrical Version, Brett stops in the the landing strut chamber to wet his face during the sequence where he is searching for Jones the cat. In the Directors Cut, we see a shot looking up at the landing strut with the Alien rather unexpectedly in the foreground, head bowed, swaying from side to side. Another change concerning Jones the cat: when Ripley encounters the Alien in the corridor having just set the self-destruct sequence, instead of the Alien looking curiously at Jones in his cat box, it gives him a brief glance before violently swatting the box aside. (This explains why in both versions of the film the cat box is flipped on its side and not where Ripley left it when she returns to collect Jones.) See more »
What makes Alien great is it's synchronization of sound, visuals and showing great attention to detail. Not only that but Alien has an unnerving atmosphere right from the beginning. We're introduced to a crew who is not exactly too friendly to each other add to that the ship. It's huge, and with its halls and corridors, it feels almost like a maze.
Enter Alien, a ruthless parasite with humanoid form yet it lacks any civilised traits of a human. It does have humanoid form but it doesn't give a single emotion. The design of the monster is what's the most terrifying (and it still holds up despite Alien being released in 1979). The creature is also better adapted to the ship's interior making a big part of the movie feel like a sinister game of cat and mouse.
What I particularly like is how the characters are written. They are not Hollywoodized heroes, in fact, there is no hero. They're just people which makes them even more threatened. The performances are all equally realistic and do deliver. Kudos to director Ridley Scott for using crafty cinematography and combining it with shadows and lights in an eerie way. The music is unrelenting and combined with Scott's cinematography, sound and visuals it adds to the eeriness.
The plot is also not another Hollywoodized cliché. It's more like "survival of the fittest". The characters battle true terror as they race to survive or outlive each other, they're all just a part of a race to see who will prevail and who will die.
Final Rating: 10/10
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What makes Alien great is it's synchronization of sound, visuals and showing great attention to detail. Not only that but Alien has an unnerving atmosphere right from the beginning. We're introduced to a crew who is not exactly too friendly to each other add to that the ship. It's huge, and with its halls and corridors, it feels almost like a maze.
Enter Alien, a ruthless parasite with humanoid form yet it lacks any civilised traits of a human. It does have humanoid form but it doesn't give a single emotion. The design of the monster is what's the most terrifying (and it still holds up despite Alien being released in 1979). The creature is also better adapted to the ship's interior making a big part of the movie feel like a sinister game of cat and mouse.
What I particularly like is how the characters are written. They are not Hollywoodized heroes, in fact, there is no hero. They're just people which makes them even more threatened. The performances are all equally realistic and do deliver. Kudos to director Ridley Scott for using crafty cinematography and combining it with shadows and lights in an eerie way. The music is unrelenting and combined with Scott's cinematography, sound and visuals it adds to the eeriness.
The plot is also not another Hollywoodized cliché. It's more like "survival of the fittest". The characters battle true terror as they race to survive or outlive each other, they're all just a part of a race to see who will prevail and who will die.
Final Rating: 10/10