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Alien (film)

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who, after coming across a mysterious derelict spaceship on an uncharted planetoid, find themselves up against a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial loose within their vessel. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. 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, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.

Not to be confused with Aliens (film).

Alien

20th Century-Fox

  • May 25, 1979 (1979-05-25) (United States)
  • September 6, 1979 (1979-09-06) (United Kingdom)

116 minutes[3]

  • United Kingdom
  • United States[1][2]

English

$11 million[a][5]

$184.7 million[5][6]

Alien premiered on May 25, 1979, as the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival, presented in 70 mm at midnight.[7][8][9] It received a wide release 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, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.


Critical reassessment since then has resulted in Alien being widely considered one of the greatest and most influential science fiction and horror films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by Empire.


The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, books, video games, and toys, and propelled Weaver's acting career. The story of her character's encounters with the alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997). A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, while a two-film prequel series was directed by Scott before the upcoming interquel Alien: Romulus (2024).

Plot[edit]

The commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash, and engineers Parker and Brett. The ship's computer, Mother, detects a transmission from a nearby moon and awakens the crew. Following company policy to investigate "any systematised transmission indicating intelligent origin", they land on the moon and Dallas, Kane, and Lambert head out to investigate the signal's origin. The party discovers that it is from a derelict alien spaceship; inside, they find the remains of a large alien with a hole in its torso. Mother later deciphers part of the transmission, which Ripley determines is actually a warning message.


Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large eggs. 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. The crew returns to space, and 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 ship's hull. It eventually detaches itself and is found dead. Kane awakens with some memory loss but otherwise seems fine. 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.


After ejecting Kane's body out of an airlock, the crew attempts to locate the creature with tracking devices and kill it. Brett follows the crew's pet cat, Jones, into a landing leg compartment,[10] where the now fully-grown alien attacks Brett and disappears with his body. The crew determines the creature must be in the air ducts. Dallas enters the ducts with a flamethrower, intending to force the monster into an airlock, but it ambushes and seemingly kills him. Lambert implores that they abandon ship and flee in an escape 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 with the alien for study, and to consider the crew expendable. She confronts Ash, who tries to kill her, but Parker intervenes and clubs Ash, knocking his head loose and revealing him to be an android. The survivors reactivate Ash's head, who confirms the company's orders and states that the creature is unkillable, while expressing his admiration for it and taunting them about their chances for survival. Ripley shuts him down 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 supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence but finds the alien blocking her path to the shuttle. She retreats, attempts unsuccessfully to abort the self-destruct, flees back to the shuttle with Jones, and narrowly escapes as the Nostromo explodes.


As Ripley prepares for stasis, she discovers that the alien is aboard, having stowed itself into a narrow compartment. She dons a spacesuit and flushes the creature out. It approaches Ripley, but before it can kill her, she opens an airlock door. The alien manages to hang on, but Ripley fires a grappling hook gun to push it out and then fires the engines, blasting it away into deep space. After recording her final log entry, she places Jones and herself into stasis for the trip back to Earth.

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.[11][12]

Tom Skerritt

as Kane, the executive officer 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 during Alien's filming dates, so Jon Finch was cast as Kane, instead.[13] However, Finch became ill during the first day of shooting and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which had also exacerbated a case of bronchitis.[14] Hurt was in London by this time, his South African project having fallen through, and he quickly replaced Finch.[12][14] His performance earned him a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[15]

John Hurt

as Ripley, the warrant officer aboard the Nostromo. Meryl Streep was considered for the role, but she was not contacted as her partner John Cazale had recently died.[16] 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 tests in-studio as the sets were being built.[12][13] 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 and a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role.[17]

Sigourney Weaver

as Lambert, the Nostromo's navigator. Cartwright had experience in horror and science-fiction films, having acted as a child in The Birds (1963), and more recently in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).[18] 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.[12][19] She disliked the character's emotional weakness,[13] 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."[12] Cartwright won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.[20]

Veronica Cartwright

as Parker, the chief engineer.[12] Kotto was sent a script off the back of his recent success as villain Dr. Kananga in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), and said he rejected a lucrative film offer in the hope of being cast in Alien.[21]

Yaphet Kotto

as Brett, the engineering technician. Stanton's first words to Scott during his audition were, "I don't like sci fi or monster movies".[11] 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.[11]

Harry Dean Stanton

as Ash, the ship's science officer who is revealed to be an android. Holm was a character actor, who, by 1979, had already been in 20 films.[22]

Ian Holm

as the alien. Badejo, as 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.[13][23] Scott believed that Badejo, at 6 feet 10 inches (208 cm) (7 feet (210 cm) inside the costume) and with a slender frame,[24] 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.[13][23][25] Stuntmen Eddie Powell and Roy Scammell also portrayed the alien in some scenes.[25][26]

Bolaji Badejo

as the voice of Mother, the Nostromo's computer.[27]

Helen Horton

Post-release[edit]

Home video[edit]

Alien has been released in many home video formats and packages over the years. The first of these was a 17-minute Super-8 version for home projectionists.[111] It was also released on both VHS and Betamax for rental, which grossed it an additional $40,300,000 in the United States alone.[58] Several VHS releases were subsequently issued both separately and as boxed sets. LaserDisc and Videodisc versions followed, including deleted scenes and director commentary as bonus features.[111][112] 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.[112] In addition, all three films were released on THX certified widescreen VHS releases in 1997.[113] When Alien Resurrection premiered in theaters that year, 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.[112] Alien was released on DVD in 1999, both separately and, as The Alien Legacy, packaged with Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.[114] This set, which was also released in a VHS version, included a commentary track by Ridley Scott.[111][112] The first three films of the series have also been packaged as the Alien Triple Pack.

Legacy[edit]

Critical reassessment[edit]

In a 1980 episode of Sneak Previews discussing science fiction films of the 1950s and 1970s, the reviewers were critical of Alien. Roger Ebert 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's 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.[151] Over two decades later, Ebert had revised his opinion of the film, including it on his Great Movies list, where he gave it four stars and said "Ridley Scott's 1979 movie is a great original."[152] 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."[153] In 1982, 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".[154]


Despite initial mixed reviews, Alien has received critical acclaim over the years, particularly for its realism and unique environment,[78] and is cited one of the best films of 1979.[155][156] It is seen as one of the most influential science-fiction films.[157][158] It holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 195 reviews and an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole."[159] Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[160] Halliwell's Film Guide awarded it a full four stars, describing it as "a classic of suspense and art direction".[103] 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".[161]


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:

List of films featuring extraterrestrials

List of monster movies

Clarke, Frederick S. (1980). "1970~1979 Decade Recap: The Seventies 1970~1979". . Vol. 3, no. 3.

Cinefantastique

Macek III, J.C. (May 11, 2015). . PopMatters. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2018.

"Hollywood Creative Accounting, or, How to Hide a Hit and Still Profit From It"

De Lauzirika, Charles (December 2, 2003). The Beast Within: The Making of Alien ( disc 2). O'Bannon, Dan (Writer), Ronald Shusett (Executive producer/story), Ron Cobb (Conceptual artist), Ivor Powell (Associate producer), Gordon Carroll (Producer), David Giler (Producer), Alan Ladd, Jr. (former President of 20th Century Fox), Ridley Scott (Director), H. R. Giger (Alien designer), Mary Selway (Casting: UK), Sigourney Weaver (Actor: Ripley), Veronica Cartwright (Actor: Lambert), Tom Skerritt (Actor: Dallas), Harry Dean Stanton (Actor: Brett), John Hurt (Actor: Kane), Roger Christian (Art Director), Michael Seymour (Production Designer), Derek Vanlint (Cinematographer), Carlo Rambaldi (Alien head effects), Terry Rawlings (Editor), Jerry Goldsmith (Composer), Brian Johnson (Visual Effects Supervisor), Martin Bower (Supervising model maker). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc.

Alien Quadrilogy

at IMDb

Alien

at AllMovie

Alien

at Rotten Tomatoes

Alien

at the TCM Movie Database

Alien

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  0826429777, pp. 755–756 [1]

ISBN

Interviews with , Tom Skerritt, Ridley Scott, and H.R. Giger at Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Sigourney Weaver