''Alien'' is a 1979
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
and written by
Dan O'Bannon
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, film director, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and Horror fiction, horror genres.
O'Bannon wrote the scr ...
. Based on a story by O'Bannon and
Ronald Shusett
Ronald Shusett (born June 1935) is an American motion picture screenwriter and producer, usually in the science fiction genre.
He wrote the original story for ''Alien'' (1979) with Dan O'Bannon and later ''Alien vs. Predator'' (2004).
In 1974 ...
, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug ''Nostromo'', who, after coming across a mysterious derelict spaceship on an undiscovered moon, find themselves up against
an aggressive and deadly extraterrestrial set loose on the ''Nostromo''. The film stars
Tom Skerritt
Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962. He is known for his film roles in ''M*A*S*H'', ''Alien'', '' The Dead Zone'', ''Top Gun'', '' A R ...
,
Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
,
Veronica Cartwright
Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1949) is a British-American actress. She is known for appearing in science fiction and horror films, and has earned numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
As a child actress, sh ...
,
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including '' Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroe ...
,
John Hurt
Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...
,
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
, and
Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born Frederick Samuel Kotto; November 15, 1939 – March 15, 2021) was an American actor known for numerous film roles, as well as starring in the NBC television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999) as ...
. It was produced by
Gordon Carroll
Charles Gordon Carroll III (February 2, 1928 – September 20, 2005) was an American film producer. He is known for his work on ''Alien'' franchise (1979–1997). He died on September 20, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. He also co-founded Bran ...
,
David Giler
David Kevin Giler (July 23, 1943 – December 19, 2020) was an American filmmaker who was active in the film industry since the early 1960s.
Career Television
Giler's father Bernie (1908–1967) was a writer. Giler began his career collaborating ...
, and
Walter Hill
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
through their company
Brandywine Productions
Brandywine Productions is an American film production company known for its ''Alien'' film series, founded in 1969 by American filmmakers Walter Hill, David Giler
David Kevin Giler (July 23, 1943 – December 19, 2020) was an American filmmaker ...
, and was distributed by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist
H. R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...
, while
concept artist
Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the de ...
s
Ron Cobb
Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. In addition to his work as an editorial cartoonist, he contributed to major films including '' Dark Star'' (1974), ''Star Wars'' (1977), ''Alien'' (1979 ...
and
Chris Foss
Christopher F. Foss (born 1946) is a British artist and science fiction illustrator. He is best known for his science fiction book covers and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of ''The Joy of Sex''.
Career
Early wo ...
designed the more human settings.
''Alien'' premiered on May 25, 1979, as the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival, presented in 70 mm at midnight. It received a
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
on June 22 and was released on September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with mixed reviews on release but was a box-office success, winning the
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.
History of the award
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects ...
, three
Saturn Award
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
s (
Best Science Fiction Film,
Best Direction
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly rename ...
for Scott, and
Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...
. Critical reassessment since then has resulted in ''Alien'' being widely considered to be
one of the greatest science fiction and horror films of all time. In 2002, ''Alien'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
and was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
. In 2008, it was ranked by the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
''.
The success of ''Alien'' spawned
a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver's acting career, providing her with her first lead role. The story of
her character's encounters with the alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels ''
Aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
'' (1986), ''
Alien 3
''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''A''LIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising her r ...
'' (1992), and ''
Alien Resurrection
''Alien Resurrection'' is a 1997 American science fiction horror film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Joss Whedon, and starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. It is the fourth installment of the ''Alien'' franchise, and was f ...
'' (1997). A crossover with the ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
'' franchise produced the ''
Alien vs. Predator
''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror
media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...
'' films: ''
Alien vs. Predator
''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror
media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...
'' (2004) and ''
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' (2007). A prequel series includes ''
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
'' (2012) and ''
Alien: Covenant'' (2017), both directed by Scott.
Plot
The commercial space tug ''Nostromo'' is returning to Earth with a seven-member crew in
stasis
Stasis (from Greek στάσις "a standing still") may refer to:
* A state in stability theory, in which all forces are equal and opposing, therefore they cancel out each other
* Stasis (political history), a period of civil war within an ancient ...
: Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash, and engineers Parker and Brett. Detecting a transmission from a nearby moon, the ship's computer, Mother, awakens the crew. Per company policy requiring any potential distress signal be investigated, they land on the moon despite Parker's protests, sustaining damage from its atmosphere and rocky landscape. The engineers stay on board for repairs while Dallas, Kane, and Lambert investigate the terrain. They discover the signal originates from a derelict alien ship and enter it, losing contact with the ''Nostromo''. Ripley deciphers part of the transmission, determining it as a warning, but cannot relay the information to those on the derelict ship.
Meanwhile, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large, egg-like objects. When he touches one, a creature springs out, penetrates his helmet, and attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the ''Nostromo''. As the acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash overrides her decision and lets them inside. Ash attempts to remove the creature from Kane's face but stops when he discovers that its extremely corrosive acidic blood could hurt Kane and potentially damage the hull. It later freely detaches and is found dead. The ship is partially repaired, and the crew continues their journey back to Earth. Kane awakens with some memory loss but seems to be otherwise unharmed. During a final crew meal before returning to stasis, he suddenly chokes and convulses. A
small alien creature bursts from Kane's chest, killing him, and escapes into the ship, with Ash dissuading the rest from killing it.
After ejecting Kane's body out of an airlock, the crew attempts to locate the creature with tracking devices and capture it with nets, electric prods, and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat, Jones, into a landing leg compartment,
where the now-fully-grown alien attacks Brett and disappears with his body. After a heated discussion, the crew decides the creature must be in the air ducts. Dallas enters the ducts, intending to force the monster into an airlock, but it ambushes and seemingly kills him. Lambert, realizing that the alien intends to kill the crew one by one, implores the others to abandon ship and escape in its small shuttle, but Ripley, now in command, explains it will not support four people and insists on continuing Dallas' plan of flushing out the alien.
Accessing Mother, Ripley discovers the company has secretly ordered Ash to return the alien, with the crew considered expendable. She confronts Ash, who tries to choke her to death. Parker intervenes and clubs Ash, knocking his head loose and revealing him as an
android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
. He, Ripley, and Lambert reactivate Ash's head, and they learn that he was assigned to ensure the creature's survival. He expresses admiration for the creature's psychology, unhindered by conscience or morality, and taunts them about their chances of survival. Ripley cuts off his power and Parker incinerates him.
The remaining crew decides to self-destruct the ''Nostromo'' and escape in the shuttle. However, Parker and Lambert are ambushed and killed by the creature while gathering life-support supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence but finds the alien blocking her path to the shuttle. She retreats and attempts unsuccessfully to abort the self-destruct. With no further options, she flees to the shuttle, carrying Jones, and narrowly escapes as the ''Nostromo'' explodes.
As Ripley prepares for stasis, she discovers that the alien is aboard, having wedged itself into a narrow space. She dons a spacesuit and uses gas to flush the creature out. It approaches Ripley, but before it can attack, she opens an airlock door, almost blasting it into space. However, it hangs on by gripping the frame. Ripley shoots it with a grappling hook, but the gun catches as the airlock door closes, tethering the alien to the shuttle. It pulls itself into an engine exhaust, but Ripley fires the engines, blasting it away into deep space. After recording the final log entry, she places Jones and herself into stasis for the trip back to Earth.
Cast
*
Tom Skerritt
Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962. He is known for his film roles in ''M*A*S*H'', ''Alien'', '' The Dead Zone'', ''Top Gun'', '' A R ...
as Dallas, captain of the ''Nostromo''. Skerritt had been approached early in the film's development, but declined as it did not yet have a director and had a very low budget. Later, when Scott was attached as director and the budget had been doubled, Skerritt accepted the role.
*
Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
as
Ripley, the
warrant officer
Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mos ...
aboard the ''Nostromo''. Weaver, who had Broadway experience but was relatively unknown in film, impressed Scott, Giler, and Hill with her audition. She was the last actor to be cast for the film and performed most of her
screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a came ...
s in-studio as the sets were being built.
The role of Ripley was Weaver's first leading role in a motion picture and earned her nominations for a
Saturn Award for Best Actress
The Saturn Award for Best Actress is one of the annual Saturn Awards given by the American professional organization, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The Saturn Awards are the oldest film-specialized reward of achievements ...
and a
BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role.
*
Veronica Cartwright
Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1949) is a British-American actress. She is known for appearing in science fiction and horror films, and has earned numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
As a child actress, sh ...
as Lambert, the ''Nostromo''s
navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...
. Cartwright had experience in horror and science-fiction films, having acted as a child in ''
The Birds'' (1963) and ''
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film ...
'' (1978).
[Mcintee, 17.] She originally read for the role of Ripley and was not informed that she had instead been cast as Lambert until she arrived in London for wardrobe.
[McIntee, 29–30.] She disliked the character's emotional weakness,
[McIntee, 30.] but nevertheless accepted the role: "They convinced me that I was the audience's fears; I was a reflection of what the audience is feeling."
Cartwright won a
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
The following is a list of Saturn Award nominees and winners for Best Supporting Actress, which rewards the best female supporting performance in a genre film. Anne Ramsey and Tilda Swinton are the only actresses to win this award multiple times ...
for her performance.
*
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including '' Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroe ...
as Brett, the engineering technician. Stanton's first words to Scott during his audition were, "I don't like sci fi or monster movies".
Scott was amused and convinced Stanton to take the role after reassuring him that ''Alien'' would actually be a
thriller more akin to ''
Ten Little Indians
"Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples.
In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
''.
*
John Hurt
Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...
as Kane, the
executive officer
An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, o ...
who becomes the host for the alien. Hurt was Scott's first choice for the role, but he was contracted on a film in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
during ''Alien''s filming dates, so
Jon Finch
Jon Finch (2 March 1942 – 28 December 2012) was an English stage and film actor who became well known for his Shakespearean roles. Most notably, he starred in films for directors Roman Polanski (''Macbeth'', 1971) and Alfred Hitchcock (''Fren ...
was cast as Kane, instead.
However, Finch became ill during the first day of shooting and was diagnosed with type 1
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
, which had also exacerbated a case of
bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
.
Hurt was in London by this time, his South African project having fallen through, and he quickly replaced Finch.
His performance earned him a nomination for a
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film. Actors of all n ...
.
*
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
as
Ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
, the ship's science officer who is revealed to be an
android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
. Holm was a character actor, who, by 1979, had already been in 20 films.
*
Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born Frederick Samuel Kotto; November 15, 1939 – March 15, 2021) was an American actor known for numerous film roles, as well as starring in the NBC television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999) as ...
as Parker, the chief engineer. Kotto, an
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, was chosen partly to add diversity to the cast and give the ''Nostromo'' crew an international flavor.
Kotto was sent a script off the back of his recent success as villain Dr. Kananga in the ''
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
'' film, ''
Live and Let Die'' (1973), and said he rejected a lucrative film offer in the hope of being cast in ''Alien''.
*
Bolaji Badejo
Bolaji Badejo (23 August 1953 – 22 December 1992) was a Nigerian visual artist and actor. He was known for playing the Alien in Ridley Scott's 1979 film ''Alien''. He was tall, a height which convinced Scott to cast him in the role. It is hi ...
as
the alien.
Nigerian
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...
Badejo, while a 26-year-old design student, was discovered in a bar by a member of the casting team, who put him in touch with Scott.
Scott believed that Badejo, at (7 ft inside the costume) and with a slender frame, could portray the alien and look as if his arms and legs were too long to be real, creating the illusion that a human being could not possibly be inside the costume.
Stuntmen
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
Eddie Powell
Eddie Powell (9 March 1927 - 11 August 2000) was a British stuntman and actor.
Powell performed stuntwork in several films for Hammer Studios, serving as a regular stunt double for Christopher Lee. His credits during this time included portra ...
and
Roy Scammell
Royston Edwin Scammell (28 July 1932 – 15 May 2021) was a British stuntman and actor.
Life and career
Scammell was born in July 1932 in Hendon, Middlesex, England. He died at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital in Luton, Bedfordshire
B ...
also portrayed the alien in some scenes.
[McIntee, 30–31.]
*
Helen Horton
Helen Virginia Horton (November 21, 1923 – September 28, 2007) was an American actress. She was born in Chicago and had a brief career in New York. She married Hamish Thomson and lived near London. She worked extensively in British television, ...
as the voice of Mother, the ''Nostromo'' computer.
Production
Writing
![Dan O'Bannon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Dan_O%27Bannon.jpg)
While studying cinema at the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
,
Dan O'Bannon
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, film director, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and Horror fiction, horror genres.
O'Bannon wrote the scr ...
had made a science-fiction comedy film, ''
Dark Star'', with director
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
and
concept art
Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the ...
ist
Ron Cobb
Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. In addition to his work as an editorial cartoonist, he contributed to major films including '' Dark Star'' (1974), ''Star Wars'' (1977), ''Alien'' (1979 ...
.
["Star Beast: Developing the Story", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] The film featured an alien (created by spray-painting a
beach ball
''Beach Ball'' is a 1965 American beach party movie starring Edd Byrnes and partly financed by Roger Corman.Ed. J. Philip di Franco, ''The Movie World of Roger Corman'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1979, p. 145
It features appearances by The Supre ...
and adding rubber "claws"); the experience left O'Bannon "really wanting to do an alien that looked ''real''."
A "couple of years" later he began work on a similar story that would focus more on horror. "I knew I wanted to do a scary movie on a spaceship with a small number of astronauts", he later recalled, "''Dark Star'' as a horror movie instead of a comedy."
Ronald Shusett
Ronald Shusett (born June 1935) is an American motion picture screenwriter and producer, usually in the science fiction genre.
He wrote the original story for ''Alien'' (1979) with Dan O'Bannon and later ''Alien vs. Predator'' (2004).
In 1974 ...
, meanwhile, was working on an early version of what would eventually become ''
Total Recall''.
Impressed by ''Dark Star'', he contacted O'Bannon and the two agreed to collaborate on their projects, choosing to work on O'Bannon's film first, as they believed it would be less costly to produce.
O'Bannon had written 29 pages of a script titled ''Memory'', containing what would become the opening scenes of ''Alien'': a crew of astronauts awakens to find that their voyage has been interrupted because they are receiving a signal from a mysterious planetoid. They investigate and their ship breaks down on the surface.
He did not yet have a clear idea as to what the alien antagonist of the story would be.
O'Bannon soon accepted an offer to work on
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker.
Best known for his 1970s films '' El Topo'' and '' The Holy Mountain'', Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his wor ...
's adaptation of ''
Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
'', a project that took him to Paris for six months.
[McIntee, 21.] Though the project ultimately fell through, it introduced him to several artists whose work gave him ideas for his science-fiction story including
Chris Foss
Christopher F. Foss (born 1946) is a British artist and science fiction illustrator. He is best known for his science fiction book covers and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of ''The Joy of Sex''.
Career
Early wo ...
,
H. R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...
, and
Jean "Moebius" Giraud.
O'Bannon was impressed by Foss's covers for science-fiction books, while he found Giger's work "disturbing":
"His paintings had a profound effect on me. I had never seen anything that was quite as horrible and at the same time as beautiful as his work. And so I ended up writing a script about a Giger monster."
After the ''Dune'' project collapsed, O'Bannon returned to Los Angeles to live with Shusett and the two revived his ''Memory'' script. Shusett suggested that O'Bannon use one of his other film ideas, about
gremlin
A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft and later in other machinery and processes and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely ...
s infiltrating a
B-17 bomber
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and set it on the spaceship as the second half of the story.
The
working title
A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...
of the project was now ''Star Beast'', but O'Bannon disliked this and changed it to ''Alien'' after noting the number of times that the word appeared in the script. Shusett and he liked the new title's simplicity and its double meaning as both a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
and an
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
.
[McIntee, 21–22.] Shusett came up with the idea that one of the crew members could be implanted with an alien embryo that would burst out of him; he thought this would be an interesting
plot device
A plot device or plot mechanism
is any narrative technique, technique in a narrative used to move the Plot (narrative), plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing ...
by which the alien could get aboard the ship.
In writing the script, O'Bannon drew inspiration from many previous works of science fiction and horror. He later stated,"I didn't steal ''Alien'' from anybody. I stole it from ''everybody''!"
[McIntee, 19.] ''
The Thing from Another World
''The Thing from Another World'', sometimes referred to as just ''The Thing'', is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporati ...
'' (1951) inspired the idea of professional men being pursued by a deadly alien creature through a claustrophobic environment.
''
Forbidden Planet
''Forbidden Planet'' is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox (director), Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story ...
'' (1956) gave O'Bannon the idea of a ship being warned not to land, and then the crew being killed one by one by a mysterious creature when they defy the warning.
''
Planet of the Vampires
''Planet of the Vampires'' ( it, Terrore nello Spazio, lit=Terror in Space) is a 1965 Italian-Spanish science fiction horror film, produced by Fulvio Lucisano, directed by Mario Bava, that stars Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell. The screenplay, ...
'' (1965) contains a scene in which the heroes discover a giant alien
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
; this influenced the ''Nostromo'' crew's discovery of the alien creature in the derelict spacecraft.
O'Bannon has also noted the influence of "Junkyard" (1953), a short story by
Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Wr ...
in which a crew lands on an asteroid and discovers a chamber full of eggs.
[McIntee, 20.] He has also cited as influences ''Strange Relations'' by
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.
Obituary.
Farmer is best known for his sequences of novels, especially the ''World of Tiers ...
(1960), which covers alien reproduction, and various
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-195 ...
horror titles carrying stories in which monsters eat their way out of people.
With most of the plot in place, Shusett and O'Bannon presented their script to several studios,
pitching it as "''
Jaws
Jaws or Jaw may refer to:
Anatomy
* Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth
** Mandible, the lower jaw
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker''
* ...
'' in space."
They were on the verge of signing a deal with
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
's studio when a friend offered to find them a better deal and passed the script on to Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill, who had formed a production company called Brandywine with ties to
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
.
O'Bannon and Shusett signed a deal with Brandywine, but Hill and Giler were not satisfied with the script and made numerous rewrites and revisions.
[McIntee, 25.] This caused tension with O'Bannon and Shusett, since Hill and Giler had very little experience with science fiction; according to Shusett, "They weren't good at making it better, or, in fact, at not making it even worse."
O'Bannon believed that Hill and Giler were attempting to justify taking his name off the script and claiming Shusett's and his work as their own.
Hill and Giler did add some substantial elements to the story, including the
android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
character Ash, which O'Bannon felt was an unnecessary subplot
but which Shusett later described as "one of the best things in the movie...That whole idea and scenario was theirs."
Hill and Giler went through eight drafts of the script in total, concentrating largely on the Ash subplot, but also making the dialogue more natural and trimming some sequences set on the alien planetoid.
Despite the fact that the final shooting script was written by Hill and Giler, the
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Guil ...
awarded O'Bannon sole credit for the screenplay.
Development
![Ridley Scott by Gage Skidmore](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Ridley_Scott_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)
Despite these rewrites, 20th Century Fox did not express confidence in financing a science-fiction film. However, after the success of ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' in 1977, the studio's interest in the genre rose substantially. According to Carroll: "When ''Star Wars'' came out and was the extraordinary hit that it was, suddenly science fiction became the hot genre." O'Bannon recalled that "They wanted to follow through on ''Star Wars'', and they wanted to follow through fast, and the only spaceship script they had sitting on their desk was ''Alien''".
''Alien'' was
greenlit
To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead".
Film industry
In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...
by 20th Century Fox, with an initial budget of $4.2 million.
''Alien'' was funded by North Americans, but made by 20th Century-Fox's British production subsidiary.
O'Bannon had originally assumed that he would direct ''Alien'', but 20th Century Fox instead asked Hill to direct.
[McIntee, 26.]["The Visualists: Direction and Design", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] Hill declined due to other film commitments, as well as not being comfortable with the level of visual effects that would be required.
[McIntee, 26–27.] Peter Yates
Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer.
Biography Early life
Yates was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from ...
,
Jack Clayton
Jack Isaac Clayton (1 March 1921 – 26 February 1995) was a British film director and producer who specialised in bringing literary works to the screen.
Overview
Starting out as a teenage studio "tea boy" in 1935, Clayton worked his way up ...
, and
Robert Aldrich
Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include '' Vera Cruz'' (1954), ''Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955), ''The Big Knife'' (1955), '' Autumn L ...
were considered for the task, but O'Bannon, Shusett, and the Brandywine team felt that these directors would not take the film seriously and would instead treat it as a
B monster movie.
[McIntee, 27.] Giler, Hill, and Carroll had been impressed by Scott's debut feature film ''
The Duellists
''The Duellists'' is a 1977 British historical drama film and the feature film directorial debut of Ridley Scott. It won the Best Debut Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. The basis of the screenplay is the Joseph Conrad short story "T ...
'' (1977) and made an offer to him to direct ''Alien'', which Scott quickly accepted.
Scott created detailed
storyboard
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
s for the film in London, which impressed Fox enough to double the film's budget.
His storyboards included designs for the spaceship and
space suit
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...
s, drawing on such films as ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''Star Wars''.
However, he was keen on emphasizing horror in ''Alien'' rather than fantasy, describing the film as "''
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American horror film produced and directed by Tobe Hooper from a story and screenplay by Hooper and Kim Henkel. It stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, w ...
'' of science fiction".
Casting
Casting calls and
audition
An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...
s for ''Alien'' were held in both New York City and London.
With only seven human characters in the story, Scott sought to hire strong actors so he could focus most of his energy on the film's visual style.
He employed casting director
Mary Selway
Mary Selway (14 March 1936 – 21 April 2004) was an English casting director.
Life
Selway was born in Norwich in 1936, daughter of a cinema manager and impresario. At the age of 13 she enrolled at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in Lon ...
, who had worked with him on ''The Duellists'', to head the casting in the United Kingdom, while Mary Goldberg handled casting in the United States.
["Truckers in Space: Casting", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.][McIntee, 14.] In developing the story, O'Bannon had focused on writing the alien first, putting off developing the other characters.
Shusett and he had intentionally written all the roles generically; they made a note in the script that explicitly states, "The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women."
[McIntee, 22.] This freed Scott, Selway, and Goldberg to interpret the characters as they pleased, and to cast accordingly. They wanted the ''Nostromo''s crew to resemble working astronauts in a realistic environment, a concept summarized as "truckers in space".
According to Scott, this concept was inspired partly by ''Star Wars'', which deviated from the pristine future often depicted in science-fiction films of the time.
To assist the actors in preparing for their roles, Scott wrote several pages of backstory for each character explaining their histories.
["Fear of the Unknown: Shepperton Studios, 1978", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] He filmed many of their rehearsals to capture spontaneity and improvisation, and tensions between some of the cast members, particularly towards the less-experienced Weaver; this translated convincingly to film as tension between the characters.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
notes that the actors in ''Alien'' were older than was typical in thriller films at the time, which helped make the characters more convincing:
David A. McIntee, David McIntee, author of ''Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films'', asserts that part of the film's effectiveness in frightening viewers "comes from the fact that the audience can all identify with the characters...Everyone aboard the ''Nostromo'' is a normal, everyday, working Joe just like the rest of us. They just happen to live and work in the future."
[McIntee, 41.]
Filming
''Alien'' was filmed over 14 weeks from July 5 to October 21, 1978. Principal photography took place at Shepperton Studios near London, while model and miniature filming was done at Bray Studios (UK), Bray Studios in Water Oakley, Berkshire.
The production schedule was short due to the film's low budget and pressure from 20th Century Fox to finish on time.
A crew of over 200 craftspeople and technicians constructed the three principal sets: the surface of the alien planetoid, and the interiors of the ''Nostromo'' and the derelict spacecraft.
Art director Les Dilley created -scale miniatures of the planetoid's surface and derelict spacecraft based on Giger's designs, then made molding (process), moulds and casting, casts and scaled them up as diagrams for the wood and fiberglass forms of the sets.
[McIntee, 29.] Tons of sand, plaster, fiberglass, rock, and gravel were shipped into the studio to sculpt a desert landscape for the planetoid's surface, which the actors would walk across wearing space-suit costumes.
The suits were thick, bulky, and lined with nylon, had no cooling systems, and initially, no venting for their exhaled carbon dioxide to escape.
Combined with a heat wave, these conditions nearly caused the actors to pass out; nurses had to be kept on-hand with oxygen tanks.
[McIntee, 33.]
For scenes showing the exterior of the ''Nostromo,'' a landing leg was constructed to give a sense of the ship's size. Scott was not convinced that it looked large enough, so he had his two young sons and the son of Derek Vanlint (the film's cinematographer) stand in for the regular actors, wearing smaller space suits to make the set pieces seem larger.
["The Darkest Reaches: Nostromo and Alien Planet", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] The same technique was used for the scene in which the crew members encounter the dead alien creature in the derelict spacecraft. The children nearly collapsed due to the heat of the suits; oxygen systems were eventually added to help the actors breathe.
Four identical cats were used to portray Jones, the crew's pet.
During filming, Sigourney Weaver discovered that she was allergy, allergic to the combination of cat hair and the glycerol, glycerin placed on the actors' skin to make them appear sweaty. By removing the glycerin she was able to continue working with the cats.
''Alien'' originally was to conclude with the destruction of the ''Nostromo'' while Ripley escapes in the shuttle ''Narcissus''. However, Scott conceived of a "fourth act" to the film in which the alien appears on the shuttle and Ripley is forced to confront it. He pitched the idea to 20th Century Fox and negotiated an increase in the budget to film the scene over several extra days.
Scott had wanted the alien to bite off Ripley's head and then make the final log entry in her voice, but the producers vetoed this idea, because they believed the alien should die at the end of the film.
Post-production
Editing and post-production work on ''Alien'' took roughly 20 weeks to complete, concluding in late-January 1979.
Terry Rawlings served as editor, having previously worked with Scott on editing sound for ''The Duellists''.
Scott and Rawlings edited much of the film to have a slow pace to build suspense for the more tense and frightening moments. According to Rawlings: "I think the way we did get it right was by keeping it slow, funny enough, which is completely different from what they do today. And I think the slowness of it made the moments that you wanted people to be sort of scared...then we could go as fast as we liked because you've sucked people into a corner and then attacked them, so to speak. And I think that's how it worked."
The first cut of the film was over three hours long; further editing trimmed the final version to just under two hours.
One scene that was cut from the film occurred during Ripley's final escape from the ''Nostromo''; she encounters Dallas and Brett, who have been partially Cocoon (silk), cocooned by the alien. O'Bannon had intended the scene to indicate that Brett was becoming an alien egg, while Dallas was held nearby to be implanted by the resulting facehugger.
[McIntee, 24.] Production designer Michael Seymour later suggested that Dallas had "become sort of food for the alien creature",
while Ivor Powell suggested that "Dallas is found in the ship as an egg, still alive."
Scott remarked, "they're morphing, metamorphosis, metamorphosing, they are changing into...being consumed, I guess, by whatever the alien's organism is...into an egg."
The scene was cut partly because it did not look realistic enough, but also because it slowed the pace of the escape sequence.
Tom Skerritt remarked that "The picture had to have that pace. Her trying to get the hell out of there, we're all rooting for her to get out of there, and for her to slow up and have a conversation with Dallas was not appropriate."
The footage was included with other deleted scenes as a special feature on the Laserdisc release of ''Alien'', and a shortened version of it was reinserted into the 2003 Director's Cut, which was re-released in theaters and on DVD.
Music
![Jerry Goldsmith 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Jerry_Goldsmith_2.jpg)
The musical score for ''Alien'' was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, conducted by Lionel Newman, and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Scott had originally wanted the film to be scored by Isao Tomita, but Fox wanted a more familiar composer and Goldsmith was recommended by then-president of Fox Alan Ladd Jr.
Goldsmith wanted to create a sense of romanticism and lyrical mystery in the film's opening scenes, which would build throughout the film to suspense and fear.
["Future Tense: Music and Editing", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] Scott did not like Goldsmith's original main title piece, however, so Goldsmith rewrote it as "the obvious thing: weird and strange, and which everybody loved."
Another source of tension was editor Terry Rawlings' choice to use pieces of Goldsmith's music from previous films, including a piece from ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and to use an excerpt from Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 ("Romantic") for the end credits.
Scott and Rawlings had also become attached to several of the musical cues they had used for the temporary score while editing the film, and re-edited some of Goldsmith's cues and rescored several sequences to match these cues and even left the temporary score in place in some parts of the finished film.
Goldsmith later remarked, "you can see that I was sort of like going at opposite ends of the pole with the filmmakers."
Nevertheless, Scott praised Goldsmith's score as "full of dark beauty"
and "seriously threatening, but beautiful."
It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album, and it won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.
The score has been released as a soundtrack album in several versions with different tracks and sequences.
Design
Creature effects
O'Bannon introduced Scott to the artwork of H. R. Giger; both of them felt that his painting ''Necronom IV'' was the type of representation they wanted for the film's antagonist and began asking the studio to hire him as a designer.
20th Century Fox initially believed Giger's work was too ghastly for audiences, but the Brandywine team were persistent and eventually won out.
According to Gordon Carroll: "The first second that Ridley saw Giger's work, he knew that the biggest single design problem, maybe the biggest problem in the film, had been solved."
Scott flew to Zürich to meet Giger and recruited him to work on all aspects of the alien and its environment including the surface of the planetoid, the derelict spacecraft, and all four forms of the alien from the egg to the adult.
The scene of Kane inspecting the egg was shot in postproduction. A fiberglass egg was used so that actor John Hurt could shine his light on it and see movement inside, which was provided by Scott fluttering his hands inside the egg while wearing rubber gloves.
The top of the egg was hydraulic, and the innards were a cow's stomach and tripe.
["The Eighth Passenger: Creature Design", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''] Test shots of the eggs were filmed using hen's eggs, and this footage was used in early teaser trailers. For this reason, the image of a hen's egg was used on the poster, and has become emblematic of the franchise as a whole—as opposed to the alien egg that appears in the finished film.
[McIntee, 34.]
The "facehugger" and its proboscis, which was made of a sheep's intestine, were shot out of the egg using high-pressure air hoses. The shot was reversed and slowed down in editing to prolong the effect and reveal more detail.
The facehugger itself was the first creature that H.R. Giger designed for the film, going through several versions in different sizes before deciding on a small creature with human-like fingers and a long tail.
Dan O'Bannon, with help from Ron Cobb, drew his own version based on Giger's design, which became the final version.
Cobb came up with the idea that the creature could have a powerful acid for blood, a characteristic that would carry over to the adult Alien and would make it impossible for the crew to kill it by conventional means, such as guns or explosives, since the acid would burn through the ship's hull.
For the scene in which the dead facehugger is examined, Scott used pieces of fish and shellfish to create its viscus, viscera.
The design of the "chestburster" was inspired by Francis Bacon (painter), Francis Bacon's 1944 painting ''Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion''.
Giger's original design, which was refined, resembled a plucked chicken.
Screenwriter
Dan O'Bannon
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, film director, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and Horror fiction, horror genres.
O'Bannon wrote the scr ...
credits his experiences with Crohn's disease for inspiring the chest-bursting scene.
For the filming of the chestburster scene, the cast members knew that the creature would be bursting out of Hurt, and had seen the chestburster puppet, but they had not been told that fake blood would also be bursting out in every direction from high-pressure pumps and bullet hit squib, squibs.
The scene was shot in one take using an artificial torso filled with blood and viscera, with Hurt's head and arms coming up from underneath the table. The chestburster was shoved up through the torso by a puppeteer who held it on a stick. When the creature burst through the chest, a stream of blood shot directly at Cartwright, shocking her enough that she fell over and went into hysterics.
According to Tom Skerritt, "What you saw on camera was the real response. She had no idea what the hell happened. All of a sudden this thing just came up."
The creature then runs off-camera, an effect accomplished by cutting a slit in the table for the puppeteer's stick to go through and passing an air hose through the puppet's tail to make it whip about.
The real-life surprise of the actors gave the scene an intense sense of realism and made it one of the film's most memorable moments. During preview screenings, the crew noticed that some viewers would move towards the back of the theater so as not to be too close to the screen during the sequence.
The scene has frequently been called one of the most memorable moments in cinema history. In 2007, ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' named it as the greatest 18 (British Board of Film Classification), 18-rated moment in film, ranking it above the decapitation scene in ''The Omen'' (1976) and the transformation sequence in ''An American Werewolf in London'' (1981).
''IGN'' ranked the scene 10th out of the 100 best movie moments of all time.
For the scene in which Ash is revealed to be an android, a puppet was created of the character's torso and upper body, which was operated from underneath.
During a preview screening of the film, this scene caused an usher to faint.
["A Nightmare Fulfilled: Reaction to the Film", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.] In the following scene, Ash's head is placed on a table and reactivated; for portions of this scene, an animatronic head was made using a face cast of the actor, Ian Holm.
However, the latex of the head shrank while curing and the result was not entirely convincing.
For the bulk of the scene, Holm knelt under the table with his head coming up through a hole. Milk, caviar, pasta, fiber optics, and Foley catheter, Foley urinary catheters were combined to form the android's innards.
The alien
Giger made several conceptual paintings of the adult alien before settling on the final version. He sculpted the creature's body using plasticine, incorporating pieces such as vertebrae from snakes and cooling tubes from a Rolls-Royce (car), Rolls-Royce.
The creature's head was manufactured separately by Carlo Rambaldi, who had worked on the aliens in ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''.
Rambaldi followed Giger's designs closely, making some modifications to incorporate the moving parts that would animate the jaw and inner mouth.
A system of hinges and cables was used to operate the creature's rigid tongue, which protruded from its mouth and featured a second mouth at its tip with its own set of movable teeth.
The final head had about 900 moving parts and points of articulation.
Part of a human skull was used as the "face", and was hidden under the smooth, translucent cover of the head.
Rambaldi's original alien jaw is now on display in the Smithsonian Institution,
[McIntee, 35.] while in April 2007, the original alien suit was sold at auction.
Copious amounts of K-Y Jelly were used to simulate saliva and to give the alien an overall slimy appearance.
[McIntee, 31.] The creature's vocalizations were provided by Percy Edwards, a voice artist famous for providing bird sounds for British television throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the whale sounds for ''Orca (1977 film), Orca: Killer Whale'' (1977).
[McIntee, 38.][McIntee, 18.]
For most of the film's scenes, the alien was portrayed by Bolaji Badejo. A latex costume was made to fit Badejo's slender frame by taking a full-body plaster cast.
Scott later commented that the alien "takes on elements of the host – in this case, a man."
Badejo attended t'ai chi ch'uan, t'ai chi and mime artist, mime classes to create convincing movements for the alien.
For some scenes, such as when the alien lowers itself from the ceiling to kill Brett, the creature was portrayed by stuntmen Eddie Powell and Roy Scammell.
Powell, in costume, was suspended on wires and then lowered in an unfurling motion.
Scott chose not to show the full Alien for most of the film, keeping most of its body in shadow to create a sense of terror and heighten suspense. The audience could thus project their own fears into imagining what the rest of the creature might look like:
"Every movement is going to be very slow, very graceful, and the alien will alter shape so you never really know exactly what he looks like."
Scott said:
The Alien has been referred to as "one of the most iconic movie monsters in film history", and its biomechanical appearance and sexual overtones have been frequently noted.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
remarked that "''Alien'' uses a tricky device to keep the alien fresh throughout the movie: It evolves the nature and appearance of the creature, so we never know quite what it looks like or what it can do... The first time we get a good look at the alien, as it bursts from the chest of poor Kane (John Hurt). It is unmistakably phallic in shape, and the critic Tim Dirks mentions its 'open, dripping vaginal mouth.
Sets
The sets of the ''Nostromo''s three decks were each created almost entirely in one piece, with each deck occupying a separate stage. The actors had to navigate through the hallways that connected the stages, adding to the film's sense of claustrophobia and realism.
The sets used large transistors and low-resolution computer screens to give the ship a "used", industrial look and make it appear as though it was constructed of "retrofitted old technology".
Ron Cobb created industrial-style symbols and color-coded signs for various areas and aspects of the ship.
The company that owns the ''Nostromo'' is not named in the film, and is referred to by the characters as "the company". However, the name and logo of the company appears on several set pieces and props such as computer monitors and beer cans as "Weylan-Yutani".
[McIntee, 15.] Cobb created the name to imply a business alliance between United Kingdom, Britain and Japan, deriving "Weylan" from the British Leyland Motor Corporation and "Yutani" from the name of his Japanese neighbor.
The 1986 sequel, ''
Aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
,'' named the company as "Weyland-Yutani",
and it has remained a central aspect of the film franchise.
Art director Roger Christian (filmmaker), Roger Christian used scrap metal and parts to create set pieces and props to save money, a technique he employed while working on ''Star Wars''.
[McIntee, 31–32.] For example, some of the ''Nostromo'' corridors were created from portions of scrapped bomber aircraft, and a mirror was used to create the illusion of longer corridors in the below-deck area.
Special-effects supervisors Brian Johnson (special effects artist), Brian Johnson and Nick Allder made many of the set pieces and props function, including moving chairs, computer monitors, motion trackers, and flamethrowers.
[McIntee, 32.]
H. R. Giger designed and worked on all of the alien aspects of the film, which he designed to appear organic and biomechanics, biomechanical in contrast to the industrial look of the ''Nostromo'' and its human elements.
For the interior of the derelict spacecraft and egg chamber, he used dried bones with plaster to sculpt much of the scenery and elements.
Veronica Cartwright described Giger's sets as "so erotic...it's big vaginas and penises...the whole thing is like you're going inside of some sort of womb or whatever...it's sort of visceral".
The set with the deceased alien creature, which the production team nicknamed the "space jockey", proved problematic, as 20th Century Fox did not want to spend the money for such an expensive set that would only be used for one scene. Scott described the set as the cockpit or driving deck of the mysterious ship, and the production team was able to convince the studio that the scene was important to impress the audience and make them aware that this was not a B movie.
To save money, only one wall of the set was created, and the "space jockey" sat atop a disc that could be rotated to facilitate shots from different angles in relation to the actors.
Giger airbrushed the entire set and the "space jockey" by hand.
The origin of the jockey creature was not explored in the film, but Scott later theorized that it might have been the ship's pilot, and that the ship might have been a weapons-carrier capable of dropping alien eggs onto a planet so that the aliens could use the local lifeforms as hosts.
In early versions of the script, the eggs were to be located in a separate pyramid structure, which would be found later by the ''Nostromo'' crew and would contain statues and hieroglyphs depicting the alien reproductive cycle, contrasting the human, alien, and space-jockey cultures.
Cobb, Foss, and Giger each created concept artwork for these sequences, but they were eventually discarded due to budgetary concerns and the need to shorten the film.
Instead, the egg chamber was set inside the derelict ship and was filmed on the same set as the space-jockey scene; the entire disc piece supporting the jockey and its chair was removed and the set was redressed to create the egg chamber.
Light effects in the egg chamber were created by lasers borrowed from English rock band The Who. The band was testing the lasers for use in their stage show on the sound stage next door.
Spaceships and planets
O'Bannon brought in artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, with whom he had worked on ''
Dark Star'' and ''Dune (1984 film)#Early attempts and Jodorowsky's Dune, Dune'', respectively, to work on designs for the human aspects of the film such as the spaceship and space suits.
[McIntee, 28.] Cobb created hundreds of preliminary sketches of the interiors and exteriors of the ship, which went through many design concepts and possible names such as ''Leviathan'' and ''Snark'' as the script was developed. The final name of the ship was derived from the title of Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel ''Nostromo'', while the escape shuttle, called ''Narcissus'' in the script, was named after Conrad's 1897 novella ''The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'''.
The production team particularly praised Cobb's ability to depict the interior settings of the ship in a realistic and believable manner. Under Scott's direction, the design of the ''Nostromo'' shifted towards an tug towing a refining platform long and wide.
Cobb also created some conceptual drawings of the alien, but these were not used.
Jean Giraud, Moebius was attached to the project for a few days, as well, and his costume renderings served as the basis for the final space suits created by costume designer John Mollo.
The spaceships and planets for the film were shot using models and miniatures. These included models of the ''Nostromo'', its attached mineral refinery, the escape shuttle ''Narcissus'', the alien planetoid, and the exterior and interior of the derelict spacecraft. Visual-effects supervisor Brian Johnson and supervising modelmaker Martin Bower and their team worked at Bray Studios, roughly from Shepperton Studios.
["Outward Bound: Visual Effects", ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''.][McIntee, 36] The designs of the ''Nostromo'' and its attachments were based on combinations of Scott's storyboards and Ron Cobb's conceptual drawings.
The basic outlines of the models were made of wood and plastic, and most of the fine details were added from scale model, model kits of warships, tanks, and World War II bombers.
Three models of the ''Nostromo'' were made: a version for medium and long shots, a version for rear shots, and a , rig for the undocking and planetoid surface sequences.
Scott insisted on numerous changes to the models even as filming was taking place, leading to conflicts with the modeling and filming teams. The ''Nostromo'' was originally yellow, and the team filmed shots of the models for six weeks before Johnson left to work on ''The Empire Strikes Back''. Scott then ordered it changed to gray, and the team had to begin shooting again from scratch.
He asked that more and more pieces be added to the model such that the final version (with the refinery) required a metal framework so that it could be hoisted by a forklift. He also took a hammer and chisel to sections of the refinery, knocking off many of the spires that Bower had spent weeks creating. Scott also had disagreements with miniature-effects cinematographer Dennis Ayling over how to light the models.
A separate model, about long, was created for the ''Nostromo'' underside from which the ''Narcissus'' would detach and from which Kane's body would be launched during the funeral scene. Bower carved Kane's burial shroud out of wood; it was launched through the hatch using a small catapult and filmed at high speed. The footage was slowed down in editing.
[McIntee, 37.] Only one shot was filmed using chroma key, blue-screen compositing - that of the shuttle racing past the ''Nostromo''. The other shots were simply filmed against black backdrops, with stars added by multiple exposure, double exposure.
Though motion control photography technology was available at the time, the film's budget would not allow for it. The team, therefore, used a camera with wide-angle lenses mounted on a drive mechanism to make slow passes over and around the models filming at frames per second,
giving them the appearance of motion. Scott added smoke and wind effects to enhance the illusion.
For the scene in which the ''Nostromo'' detaches from the refinery, a docking arm was created using pieces from model railway kits. The ''Nostromo'' was pushed away from the refinery by a forklift covered in black velvet, causing the arm to extend out from the refinery. This created the illusion that the arm was pushing the ship forward.
Shots of the ship's exterior in which characters are seen moving around inside were filmed using larger models which contained projection screens displaying pre-recorded footage.
A separate model was created for the exterior of the derelict alien spacecraft. Matte (filmmaking), Matte paintings were used to fill in areas of the ship's interior, as well as exterior shots of the planetoid's surface.
The surface as seen from space during the landing sequence was created by painting a globe white, then mixing chemicals and dyes onto transparency (projection), transparencies and projecting them onto it.
The planetoid was not named in the film, but some drafts of the script gave it the name Acheron
after the river which in Greek mythology is described as the "stream of woe"; it is a branch of the river Styx (mythology), Styx, and forms the border of Hell in Dante Alighieri, Dante's ''Inferno (Dante), Inferno''. The 1986 sequel ''
Aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
'' named the planetoid as "LV-426",
and both names have been used for it in subsequent expanded universe, expanded-universe media such as comic books and video games.
Title sequence
The title sequence was developed by R/GA, R/Greenberg Associates "to instill a sense of foreboding, the letters broken into pieces, the space between them unsettling." It is referenced as one of the most iconic opening sequences of all time.
Release
An initial screening of ''Alien'' for 20th Century Fox representatives in St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis was marred by poor sound. A subsequent screening in a newer theater in Dallas went significantly better, eliciting genuine fright from the audience.
Two theatrical film trailer, trailers were shown to the public. The first consisted of rapidly changing still images set to some of Jerry Goldsmith's electronic music from ''Logan's Run (1976 film), Logan's Run'', with the tagline in both the trailer and on the teaser poster "A word of warning...". The second used test footage of a hen's egg set to part of Goldsmith's ''Alien'' score.
The film was previewed in various American cities in the spring of 1979
and was promoted with the tagline "In space, no one can hear you scream."
''Alien'' was Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, rated "R" in the United States, "History of British film certificates#1970–1982, X" in the United Kingdom, and "Australian Classification Board#Film and video game classifications, M" in Australia.
In the UK, the British Board of Film Classification, British Board of Film Censors almost passed the film as an "AA" (for ages 14 and over), although concerns existed over the prevalent sexual imagery. 20th Century Fox eventually relented in pushing for an AA certificate after deciding that an X rating would make it easier to sell as a horror film.
''Alien'' opened in a limited release in American theaters on May 25, 1979.
The film had no formal premiere, yet moviegoers lined up for blocks to see it at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, where a number of models, sets, and props were displayed outside to promote it during its first run.
It received a
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
in the United States on June 22. Vandals Arson, set fire to the model of the space jockey, believing it to be the work of the devil.
The film started its international release in Japan on July 20 and then Brazil on August 20.
[ In the United Kingdom, ''Alien'' premiered at a gala performance at the Edinburgh Film Festival on September 1, 1979, before starting an exclusive run at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on Thursday, September 6, 1979, for one week before expanding slowly until opening wide in Britain in 180 theaters on October 1, 1979.] The film opened in France and Spain in September before expanding to other markets in October 1979.[
]
Box office
The film was a commercial success, opening in 90 theatres across the United States (plus 1 in Canada), setting 51 house records and grossing $3,527,881 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend with a per-screen average of $38,767, which ''Daily Variety'' suggested may have been the biggest per-screen opening in history. In its first 4 weeks it grossed $16.5 million from only 148 prints before expanding to 635 screens. In the UK, the film grossed $126,150 in its first 4 days at the Odeon Leicester Square, setting a house record. By the beginning of October 1979, the film had grossed $27 million internationally including $16.9 million in Japan, $4.8 million in France and $3.7 million in the UK.[ It went on to gross $78.9 million in the United States and Pound sterling, £7,886,000 in the United Kingdom during its first run.] Including reissues, it has grossed $81.8 million in the United States and Canada, while international box-office figures have varied from $24 million to $122.7 million. Its total worldwide gross has been listed within the range of $104.9 million to $203.6 million. In 1992, Fox noted the worldwide gross was $143 million.
Despite this apparent box-office success, 20th Century Fox claimed that in the 11 months since its release, ''Alien'' had lost the studio $2 million. Seen as an example of Hollywood accounting, Hollywood creative accounting used by Fox to disguise the film revenue and limit any payments to Brandywine, the claim was decried by industry accountants, and by August 1980, Fox readjusted the figure to $4 million profit, although this was similarly refuted. Eager to begin work on a sequel, Brandywine sued Fox over their profit distribution tactics, but Fox claimed that ''Alien'' was not a financial success and did not warrant a sequel. The lawsuit was settled in 1983 when Fox agreed to fund an ''Alien II''.
Critical reception
Critical reaction to the film was initially mixed. Some critics who were not usually favorable towards science fiction, such as Barry Norman of the BBC's ''Film'' series, were positive about the film's merits. Others, however, were not; reviews by ''Variety (magazine), Variety'', ''Sight and Sound'', Vincent Canby, and Leonard Maltin were mixed or negative. (Maltin reassessed the film upon the release of the Director's Cut and gave ''Alien'' a positive review.) A review by ''Time Out (company), Time Out'' said the film was an "empty bag of tricks whose production values and expensive trickery cannot disguise imaginative poverty". In their original review on ''Sneak Previews'', critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film "two 'yes' votes." Ebert called it "one of the scariest old-fashioned space operas I can remember." Siskel agreed that it was scary but said it was basically a "haunted house film" set "in a spaceship" and was "not the greatest science fiction film ever made." Siskel gave the film three stars out of four in his original print review, calling it "an accomplished piece of scary entertainment" and praising Sigourney Weaver as "an actress who should become a major star," but listed among the film's disappointments that "[f]or me, the final shape of the alien was the least scary of its forms."
Accolades
''Alien'' won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.
History of the award
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects ...
and was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Production Design, Best Art Direction (for Michael Seymour (production designer), Michael Seymour, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian (filmmaker), Roger Christian, and Ian Whittaker). It won Saturn Award
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
s for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly rename ...
for Ridley Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Veronica Cartwright, and was also nominated in the categories of Saturn Award for Best Actress, Best Actress for Sigourney Weaver, Saturn Award for Best Make-up, Best Make-up for Pat Hay, Saturn Award for Best Special Effects, Best Special Effects for Brian Johnson (special effects), Brian Johnson and Nick Allder, and Saturn Award for Best Writing, Best Writing for Dan O'Bannon. It was also nominated for British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design for John Mollo, BAFTA Award for Best Editing, Best Editing for Terry Rawlings, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Supporting Actor for John Hurt, and Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role for Sigourney Weaver.[ It also won a ]Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...
and was nominated for a British Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography for Derek Vanlint, as well as a Silver Seashell award for Best Cinematography and Special Effects at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Jerry Goldsmith's score received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album, and won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.[
]
Post-release
Home video
''Alien'' has been released in many home video formats and packages over the years. The first of these was a 17-minute Super 8 mm film, Super-8 version for home projectionists. It was also released on both VHS and Betamax for video rental, rental, which grossed it an additional $40,300,000 in the United States alone. Several VHS releases were subsequently issued both separately and as box set, boxed sets. LaserDisc and Videodisc versions followed, including deleted scenes and director commentary as bonus features.[McIntee, 259.] A VHS box set containing ''Alien'' and its sequels ''Aliens'' and ''Alien 3'' was released in facehugger-shaped boxes, and included some of the deleted scenes from the Laserdisc editions. When ''Alien Resurrection'' premiered in theaters, another set of the first three films was released including a ''Making of Alien Resurrection'' tape. A few months later, the set was re-released with the full version of ''Alien Resurrection'' taking the place of the making-of video. ''Alien'' was released on DVD in 1999, both separately and, as ''The Alien Legacy'', packaged with ''Aliens'', ''Alien 3'' and ''Alien Resurrection''. This set, which was also released in a VHS version, included a commentary track by Ridley Scott. The first three films of the series have also been packaged as the ''Alien Triple Pack''.
In 2003, 20th Century Fox was preparing the ''Alien Quadrilogy'' DVD box set, which would include ''Alien'' and its three sequels. In addition, the set would also include alternative versions of all four films in the form of "special editions" and "director's cuts". Fox approached Scott to digitally restore and remaster ''Alien'', and to restore several scenes which had been cut during the editing process for inclusion in an expanded version of the film. Upon viewing the expanded version, Scott felt that it was too long and chose to recut it into a more streamlined alternative version:
The "Director's Cut" restored roughly four minutes of deleted footage, while cutting about five minutes of other material, leaving it about a minute shorter than the theatrical cut.[McIntee, 40.] Many of the changes were minor, such as altered sound effects, while the restored footage included the scene in which Ripley discovers the cocooned Dallas and Brett during her escape of the ''Nostromo''. Fox released the Director's Cut in theaters on October 31, 2003. The ''Alien Quadrilogy'' boxed set was released December 2, 2003, with both versions of the film included along with a new commentary track featuring many of the film's actors, writers, and production staff, as well as other special features and a documentary entitled ''The Beast Within: The Making of Alien''. Each film was also released separately as a DVD with both versions of the film included. Scott noted that he was very pleased with the original theatrical cut of ''Alien'', saying that "For all intents and purposes, I felt that the original cut of ''Alien'' was perfect. I still feel that way", and that the original 1979 theatrical version "remains my version of choice". He has since stated that he considers both versions "director's cuts", as he feels that the 1979 version was the best he could possibly have made it at the time.
The ''Alien Quadrilogy'' set earned ''Alien'' a number of new awards and nominations. It won DVDX Exclusive Awards for Best Audio Commentary and Best Overall DVD, Classic Movie, and was also nominated for Best Behind-the-Scenes Program and Best Menu Design. It also won a Saturn Award
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
for Best DVD, and was nominated for Best DVD Collection and Golden Satellite Awards for Best DVD Extras and Best Overall DVD. In 2010 both the theatrical version and Director's Cut of ''Alien'' were released on Blu-ray Disc, as a stand-alone release and as part of the ''Alien Anthology'' set.
In 2014, to mark the film's 35th anniversary, a special re-release boxed set named ''Alien: 35th Anniversary Edition'', containing the film on Blu-ray, a digital copy, a reprint of ''Alien: The Illustrated Story'', and a series of collectible art cards containing artwork by H.R. Giger related to the film, was released. A soundtrack album was released, featuring selections of Goldsmith's score. Additionally, a single (music), single of the Main Theme was released in 1980,[McIntee, 38–39.] and a disco single using audio excerpts from the film was released in 1979 on the UK label Bronze Records by a recording artist under the name ''Nostromo''. ''Alien'' was re-released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and 4K digital download on April 23, 2019, in honor of the film's 40th anniversary. The 4k Blu-ray Disc presents the film in 2160p resolution with HDR10 High-dynamic-range video. Several previously released bonus features on the 4k Blu-ray include audio commentary from Director Ridley Scott, cast and crew, the final isolated theatrical score and composer's original isolated score by Jerry Goldsmith, and deleted and extended scenes.
Cinematic analysis
Critics have analyzed ''Alien'' sexual overtones. The film is often cited as a major work of abjection, as outlined by Julia Kristeva in her 1980 work ''Powers of Horror''. According to Kristeva, the abject refers to that which signifies the breakdown of conventional borders and rules. It confronts the subject with the fallibility of the human body and societal norms, and thus exposes how the supposedly sacred distinctions between what is Self and what is Other are arbitrary. She suggests that this confrontation—often manifesting in excrement, bodily invasion and corpses—is an inherently traumatic interruption of subjectivity, and thus all evidence of abjection is hidden in conventional society. Much of ''Alien'' effectiveness as a work of horror has been attributed to its indulgence in abject themes and imagery, and has thus functioned as a major framework for critics, such as Barbara Creed, in their analysis of the film. Following Creed's assertion that the alien creature is a representation of the "monstrous-feminine as archaic mother", Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith compared the facehugger's attack on Kane to a male rape and the chestburster scene to a form of violent birth, noting that the alien's phallic head and method of killing the crew members add to the sexual imagery. Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the film's screenplay, has argued that the scene is a metaphor for the male fear of penetration, and that the "oral invasion" of Kane by the facehugger functions as "payback" for the many horror films in which sexually vulnerable women are attacked by male monsters. David McIntee claims that "''Alien'' is a rape movie as much as ''Straw Dogs (1971 film), Straw Dogs'' (1971) or ''I Spit on Your Grave'' (1978), or ''The Accused (1988 film), The Accused'' (1988). On one level, it's about an intriguing alien threat. On one level it's about parasitism and disease. And on the level that was most important to the writers and director, it's about sex, and reproduction by non-consensual means. And it's about this happening to a man."[McIntee, 43.] He notes how the film plays on men's fear and misunderstanding of pregnancy and childbirth, while also giving women a glimpse into these fears.[McIntee, 43–44.]
Film analyst Lina Badley has written that the alien's design, with strong Sigmund Freud, Freudian sexual undertones, multiple phallic symbols, and overall feminine figure, provides an androgyny, androgynous image conforming to archetype, archetypal mappings and imageries in horror films that often redraw gender lines. O'Bannon described the sexual imagery as overt and intentional: "I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number."
''Alien'' roots in earlier works of fiction have been analyzed and acknowledged extensively by critics. The film has been said to have much in common with B movies such as ''The Thing from Another World
''The Thing from Another World'', sometimes referred to as just ''The Thing'', is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporati ...
'' (1951), ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' (1954), ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' (1958), ''Night of the Blood Beast'' (1958), and ''Queen of Blood'' (1966),
as well as its fellow 1970s horror films ''Jaws
Jaws or Jaw may refer to:
Anatomy
* Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth
** Mandible, the lower jaw
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker''
* ...
'' (1975) and ''Halloween (1978 film), Halloween'' (1978). Literary connections have also been suggested: Philip French of the ''Guardian'' has perceived thematic parallels with Agatha Christie's ''And Then There Were None'' (1939). Many critics have also suggested that the film derives in part from A. E. van Vogt's ''The Voyage of the Space Beagle'' (1950), particularly its stories "The Black Destroyer", in which a cat-like alien infiltrates the ship and hunts the crew; and "Discord in Scarlet", in which an alien implants parasitic eggs inside crew members which then hatch and eat their way out. O'Bannon denies that this was a source of his inspiration for ''Alien'' story. Van Vogt in fact initiated a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox over the similarities, but Fox settled out of court.
Several critics have suggested that the film was inspired by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava's Cult film, cult Cult following, classic ''Planet of the Vampires
''Planet of the Vampires'' ( it, Terrore nello Spazio, lit=Terror in Space) is a 1965 Italian-Spanish science fiction horror film, produced by Fulvio Lucisano, directed by Mario Bava, that stars Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell. The screenplay, ...
'' (1965), in both narrative details and visual design. Rick Sanchez of IGN has noted the "striking resemblance" between the two movies, especially in a celebrated sequence in which the crew discovers a ruin containing the skeletal remains of long dead giant beings, and in the design and shots of the ship itself. Cinefantastique also noted the remarkable similarities between these scenes and other minor parallels.[Frentzen, Jeffrey. ''Cinefantastique'' Magazine, Volume 8, Number 4, 1979, pgs. 24 - 25. "''Alien'': It! The Terror from Beyond the Planet of the Vampires"] Robert Monell, on the DVD Maniacs website, observed that much of the conceptual design and some specific imagery in ''Alien'' "undoubtedly owes a great debt" to Bava's film. Despite these similarities, O'Bannon and Scott both claimed in a 1979 interview that they had not seen ''Planet of the Vampires''.[Carducci, Mark Patrick and Lovell, Glenn. ''Cinefantastique'', Volume 9, Number 1, 1979, pp.10–39. "Making ''Alien'': Behind The Scenes"]
Writer David A. McIntee, David McIntee, as well as reviewers for ''PopMatters'' and ''Den of Geek'', have noted similarities to the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Ark in Space'' (1975), in which an insectoid queen alien lays larvae inside humans which later eat their way out, a life cycle inspired by that of the Ichneumonoidea, ichneumon wasp. McIntee also noted similarities between the first half of the film, particularly in early versions of the script, to H. P. Lovecraft's ''At the Mountains of Madness'', "not in storyline, but in dread-building mystery",[McIntee, 23.] and calls the finished film "the best Lovecraftian movie ever made, without being a Lovecraft adaptation", due to its similarities in tone and atmosphere to Lovecraft's works. In 2009, O'Bannon said the film was "strongly influenced, tone-wise, by Lovecraft, and one of the things it proved is that you can't adapt Lovecraft effectively without an extremely strong visual style ... What you need is a cinematic equivalent of Lovecraft's prose." H. R. Giger has said he liked O'Bannon's initial ''Alien'' storyline "because I found it was in the vein of Lovecraft, one of my greatest sources of inspiration."
Audience research
Findings from an international audience research project conducted by staff from Aberystwyth University, Northumbria University and University of East Anglia were published in 2016 by Palgrave Macmillan as ''Alien Audiences: Remembering and Evaluating a Classic Movie''. 1,125 people were surveyed about their memories and opinions of the film in order to test some of the theories offered by academics and critics about why the film became so popular and why it has endured for so long as a masterpiece. The study discusses memories of ''Alien'' in the cinema and on home video from the point of view of everyday audiences, describing how many fans share the film with their children and the shocking impact of the "chestburster" scene, among other things.
Legacy
Critical reassessment
In a 1980 episode of ''Sneak Previews'' discussing science fiction films of the 1950s and 1970s, the reviewers were critical of ''Alien''. Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
reiterated Gene Siskel's earlier opinion, stating that the film was "basically just an intergalactic haunted house thriller set inside a spaceship." He described it as one of several science fiction pictures that were "real disappointments" compared to ''Star Wars'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', and '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. However, in both episodes Ebert singled out the early scene of the ''Nostromo'' crew exploring the alien planet for praise, calling the scene "inspired," said that it showed "real imagination" and claimed that it transcended the rest of the film. Over two decades later, Ebert had revised his opinion of the film, including it on his The Great Movies, ''Great Movies'' list, where he gave it four stars and said "Ridley Scott's 1979 movie is a great original." In 1980, the film was included in ''Cinefantastique''s list of the top films of the 1970s while failing to make the magazine's top ten. Frederick S. Clarke, the magazine's editor, wrote that ''Alien'' was "an exercise in style, refreshingly adult in approach, wickedly grim and perverse, that manages to compensate for a lack of depth in both story and characters." In 1982, John Simon (critic), John Simon of the ''National Review'' praised the cast of ''Alien'', particularly Sigourney Weaver, and the film's visual values. Simon also wrote, "For fanciers of horror, among whose numbers I do not count myself, ''Alien'' is recommendable, provided they are free from hypocrisy and finicky stomachs".
Despite initial mixed reviews, ''Alien'' has received critical acclaim over the years, particularly for its realism and unique environment, and is cited one of the best films of 1979. It is seen as one of the most influential science-fiction films. It holds rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "A modern classic, ''Alien'' blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' awarded it a full four stars, describing it as "a classic of suspense and art direction". Alan Jones of ''Radio Times'' awarded it five stars out of five, describing it as a "revolutionary 'haunted house in space' thrill-ride [...] stunning you with shock after shock", praising the "top-notch acting [...] and imaginative bio-mechanical production design", as well as "Ridley Scott's eye for detail and brilliant way of alternating false scares with genuine jolts, which help to create a seamless blend of gothic horror and harrowing science fiction".
Critical interest in the film was re-ignited with the theatrical release of the "Director's Cut" in 2003. Roger Ebert ranked it among "the most influential of modern action pictures" and praised its pacing, atmosphere, and settings:
David A. McIntee praises ''Alien'' as "possibly the definitive combination of horror thriller with science fiction trappings." He notes that it is a horror film first and a science fiction film second, since science fiction normally explores issues of how humanity will develop under other circumstances. ''Alien'', on the other hand, focuses on the plight of people being attacked by a monster: "It's set on a spaceship in the future, but it's about people trying not to get eaten by a drooling monstrous animal. Worse, it's about them trying not to get raped by said drooling monstrous animal." Along with ''Halloween'' and ''Friday the 13th (1980 film), Friday the 13th'' (1980), he describes it as a prototype for the slasher film genre: "The reason it's such a good movie, and wowed both the critics, who normally frown on the genre, and the casual cinema-goer, is that it is a distillation of everything that scares us in the movies." He also describes how the film appeals to a variety of audiences: "Fans of Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcockian thrillers like it because it's moody and dark. Gorehounds like it for the chest-burster. Science fiction fans love the hard science fiction trappings and hardware. Men love the battle-for-survival element, and women love not being cast as the helpless victim."[McIntee, 42.]
David Edelstein wrote, "''Alien'' remains the key text in the 'body horror' subgenre that flowered (or, depending on your viewpoint, festered) in the seventies, and Giger's designs covered all possible avenues of anxiety. Men traveled through vulva-like openings, got forcibly impregnated, and died giving birth to rampaging gooey vaginas dentate — how's that for future shock? This was truly what David Cronenberg would call 'the new flesh,' a dissolution of the boundaries between man and machine, machine and alien, and man and alien, with a psychosexual invasiveness that has never, thank God, been equaled."
In 2008, the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
ranked ''Alien'' as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre as part of ''AFI's 10 Top 10'', a CBS television special ranking the ten greatest movies in ten classic American film genres. The ranks were based on a opinion poll, poll of over 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians, with ''Alien'' ranking just above ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991) and just below Scott's other science fiction film ''Blade Runner'' (1982). The same year, ''Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine ranked it 33rd on its list of the 500 greatest movies of all time, based on a poll of 10,200 readers, critics, and members of the film industry. In 2021, Phil Pirrello of Syfy ranked it at number two in the "25 scariest sci-fi movies ever made". He described it as a "groundbreaking science fiction classic" and "a movie so influential that it's hard to think of a time before ''Alien''".
Cultural influences
''Alien'' had both an immediate and long-term impact on the science fiction and horror genres. Shortly after its debut, Dan O'Bannon
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American film screenwriter, film director, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and Horror fiction, horror genres.
O'Bannon wrote the scr ...
was sued by another writer named Jack Hammer for allegedly plagiarising a script entitled ''Black Space''. However, O'Bannon was able to prove that he had written his ''Alien'' script first.[McIntee, 40–41.] In the wake of ''Alien'' success, a number of other filmmakers imitated or adapted some of its elements, sometimes by using "Alien" in titles. One of the first was ''The Alien Dead'' (1979), which had its title changed at the last minute to cash in on ''Alien'' popularity.[McIntee, 262.] ''Contamination (film), Contamination'' (1980) was initially going to be titled ''Alien 2'' until 20th Century Fox's lawyers contacted writer/director Luigi Cozzi and made him change it. The film built on ''Alien'' by having many similar creatures, which originated from large, slimy eggs, bursting from characters' chests. An unauthorized sequel to ''Alien'', titled ''Alien 2: On Earth'', was released in 1980 and included alien creatures which incubate in humans. Other science fiction films of the time that borrowed elements from ''Alien'' include ''Galaxy of Terror'' (1981), ''Inseminoid'' (1981), ''Forbidden World'' (1982), ''Xtro'' (1982), and ''Dead Space (film), Dead Space'' (1991).
The "chestburster" effect was parodied in Mel Brooks's comedy ''Spaceballs''. Near the end, in a diner, John Hurt does a cameo appearance as a customer who seems to be suffering indigestion. He turns out to have an "alien" in his gut, and moans, "Oh, no...not again!" The "alien" then does a song-and-dance, singing a line of "Hello, Ma Baby", from the classic Warner Bros. cartoon ''One Froggy Evening''.
Nintendo's long-running ''Metroid'' video game series, created in 1986, was significantly influenced by ''Alien'', both in stylistic and thematic elements. As an homage to ''Alien'', villains in Metroid (video game), the first ''Metroid'' installment were named Ridley and Mother Brain, after the movie's director and the ship computer, respectively.
In 2002, ''Alien'' was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the National Film Preservation Board of the United States, and was inducted into the National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
of the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
for historical preservation alongside other films of 1979 including ''All That Jazz (film), All That Jazz'', ''Apocalypse Now'', ''The Black Stallion (film), The Black Stallion'', and ''Manhattan (1979 film), Manhattan''.
In 2019, author J. W. Rinzler published ''The Making of Alien'', a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the film with cast and crew interviews and previously unseen photographs. ''The Verge'' praised the book as "the definitive story of the classic horror film".
Eli Roth cites ''Alien'' as his primary influence, saying "I saw ''Alien'' when I was 8 years old. To me, it was like a combination of ''Jaws'' and ''Star Wars'' and that's the movie that made me want to be a director. It traumatized me. I actually threw up I was so nervous after I saw it but that's like the highest compliment you can give a horror film." Ty Franck, one of the authors behind the sci-fi series ''The Expanse (TV series), The Expanse'', credits ''Alien'' as one of his major inspirations.
Merchandise
Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of the film in both adult and "junior" versions, which was adapted from the film's shooting script. ''Heavy Metal (magazine), Heavy Metal'' magazine published a graphic novel adaptation of the film entitled ''Alien: The Illustrated Story'', as well as a 1980 ''Alien'' calendar. Two behind-the-scenes books were released in 1979 to accompany the film. ''The Book of Alien'' contained many production photographs and details on the making of the film, while ''Giger's Alien'' contained much of H. R. Giger's concept artwork for the movie. A scale model, model kit of the alien, 12 inches high, was released by the Model Products Corporation in the United States, and by Airfix in the United Kingdom.[McIntee, 39.] Kenner also produced a larger-scale Alien action figure, as well as a board game in which players raced to be first to reach the shuttle pod while Aliens roamed the ''Nostromo'' corridors and air shafts. Official Halloween costumes of the alien were released in October 1979.
School play adaptation
In 2019, students at North Bergen High School in New Jersey adapted the film into a play. The production had no budget, with props and sets developed from recycled toys and other items. Social media recognition brought Scott's attention to the play. He wrote a letter of congratulations to the students ("My hat comes off to all of you for your creativity, imagination, and determination") and recommended they consider an adaptation of his film ''Gladiator (2000 film), Gladiator'' for their next stage production. He donated to the school to put on an encore performance at which Weaver was in attendance. She got on stage before the performance to congratulate the cast and crew for their creativity and commitment.
Sequels and franchise
The success of ''Alien'' led 20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
to finance three direct sequels over the next eighteen years, each by different writers and directors. Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
remained the only recurring actor through all four films: the story of her character Ripley's encounters with the Alien (Alien franchise), aliens became the thematic and narrative core of the series. James Cameron's ''Aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
'' (1986) focused more on action and involved Ripley returning to the planetoid accompanied by marine (military), marines to confront hordes of aliens. David Fincher's ''Alien 3
''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''A''LIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising her r ...
'' (1992) had nihilism, nihilistic tones and found her on a prison planet battling another Alien, ultimately sacrificing herself to prevent her employers from acquiring the creatures. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's ''Alien Resurrection
''Alien Resurrection'' is a 1997 American science fiction horror film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Joss Whedon, and starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. It is the fourth installment of the ''Alien'' franchise, and was f ...
'' (1997) saw Ripley resurrected through cloning to battle more aliens even further in the future.
The success of the film series resulted in the creation of a media franchise with numerous novels, comic books, video games, toys, and other media and merchandise appearing over the years. A number of these began appearing under the ''Alien vs. Predator
''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror
media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...
'' fictional crossover, crossover imprint, which brought the alien creatures together with the eponymous characters of the Predator (franchise), ''Predator'' franchise. A film series followed, with Alien vs. Predator (film), ''Alien vs. Predator'' in 2004, and '' Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' in 2007.
Sigourney Weaver has expressed interest in reuniting with Ridley Scott to revive her character for another ''Alien'' film. In the 2003 commentary track for the ''Alien'' DVD included in the ''Alien Quadrilogy'' set, she and Scott both speculated on the possibility, with Weaver stating: "There is an appetite for a fifth one, which is something I never expected...it's really hard to come up with a fifth story that's new and fresh...but I have wanted to go back into space...I think outer space adventure is a good thing for us right now, 'cause Earth is so grim...so we've been talking about it, but very generally." Scott remarked that, if the series were to continue, the most logical course would be to explore the origins of the space jockey and the aliens. Weaver supported this idea, saying "I think it would be great to go back, because I'm asked that question so many times: 'Where did the alien come from?' People really want to know in a very visceral way." David Giler
David Kevin Giler (July 23, 1943 – December 19, 2020) was an American filmmaker who was active in the film industry since the early 1960s.
Career Television
Giler's father Bernie (1908–1967) was a writer. Giler began his career collaborating ...
said that he, Walter Hill
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
, and Gordon Carroll
Charles Gordon Carroll III (February 2, 1928 – September 20, 2005) was an American film producer. He is known for his work on ''Alien'' franchise (1979–1997). He died on September 20, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. He also co-founded Bran ...
, the producers of the first four films in the series, would not be willing to produce another unless it was about the aliens' homeworld and Weaver was on board (despite the fact that they were among the producers of ''Alien vs. Predator'' films). Weaver indicated that she would only return to the franchise if either Scott or James Cameron were to direct.[McIntee, 264.] Cameron had been working on a story for a fifth ''Alien'' film which would explore the origins of the creatures, but ceased work on it when he learned that Fox was pursuing ''Alien vs. Predator'', which he felt would "kill the validity of the franchise".
In July 2009, 20th Century Fox announced that Jon Spaihts had been hired to write a prequel to ''Alien'', with Scott attached to direct. The script was subsequently re-worked by Scott and Damon Lindelof. Titled ''Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
'', it went into production in May 2011, and was released the following year. Scott said in a statement: "While ''Alien'' was indeed the jumping-off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of ''Alien'' DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative."
''Variety (magazine), Variety'' reported on February 18, 2015, that a new ''Alien'' film would be developed by Neill Blomkamp. On February 25, it was confirmed that Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
would have a role in the film, the intent being to produce a direct sequel to ''Aliens'', ignoring the events of later films, featuring the characters of Hicks and Newt. Blomkamp's sequel was ultimately shelved by Fox in favor of '' Alien: Covenant'', a continuation of Scott's prequel, ''Prometheus''.
Several computer games List of Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator games, based on the film were released, but not until several years after its theatrical run.
See also
* List of films featuring extraterrestrials
* List of monster movies
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
* Anderson, Craig W. "Alien." ''Science Fiction Films of the Seventies''. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 1985. Print. 217–224.
* Barker, Martin; Egan, Kate; Ralph, Sarah; Phillips, Tom (2016). ''Alien Audiences: Remembering and Evaluating a Classic Movie''. Palgrave Macmillan. .
* Bell-Meterau, Rebecca. "Woman: The Other Alien in ''Alien''." ''Women Worldwalkers: New Dimensions of Science Fiction and Fantasy''. Ed. Weedman, Jane B. Lubbock, Tex: Texas Tech Press, 1985. Print. 9-24.
* Elkins, Charles, ed. "Symposium on ''Alien''." (Jackie Byars, Jeff Gould, Peter Fitting, Judith Lowder Newton, Tony Safford, Clayton Lee). ''Science-Fiction Studies'' 22.3 (Nov. 1980): 278–304.
* Gallardo C., Ximena and C. Jason Smith (2004).
Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
''. Continuum.
* Matheson, T.J. "Triumphant Technology and Minimal Man: ''The Technological Society'', Science Fiction Films, and Ridley Scott's ''Alien''." ''Extrapolation'' 33. 3: 215–229.
*
* Torry, Robert. "Awakening to the Other: Feminism and the Ego-Ideal in ''Alien''." ''Women's Studies'' 23 (1994): 343–363.
External links
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*
* ''Alien'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 755-75
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1979 films
1979 horror films
1970s monster movies
1970s science fiction horror films
1970s American films
20th Century Fox films
Alien (franchise) films
American monster movies
American science fiction horror films
Android (robot) films
Brandywine Productions films
British monster movies
British science fiction horror films
Cryonics in fiction
1970s English-language films
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films directed by Ridley Scott
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films produced by Gordon Carroll
Films produced by Walter Hill
Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith
Films set in the future
Films set on spacecraft
Films shot at Bray Studios
Films shot at Shepperton Studios
Films shot in London
Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award
Films with screenplays by Dan O'Bannon
Films with screenplays by Ronald Shusett
Girls with guns films
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation winning works
United States National Film Registry films
1970s British films