Alien

"You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility."

- Ash

Alien is a 1979 sci-fi/horror film directed by Ridley Scott. It was releaased theatrically in the United States on May 25th. Alien proved popular enough to spawn a franchise including multiple sequels, comic books, video games, novels as well as several crossover project with the Predator franchise. A special director's cut of the film was released and included on the Aliens Quadrology DVD set, which included a special introduction by Ridley Scott.

Notes & Trivia

 * The original working title for this film was Star Beast.


 * Rated R for sci-fi violence/gore and language.


 * The crew members of the Nostromo are identified only by their last names in this movie. Brett, Parker and Lambert's first initials are revealed on their dossiers in Aliens. Ripley's first name, Ellen, is also revealed in Aliens.


 * The name of the alien species featured in this film is never identified by a proper name, but is referred to by the generic term Xenomorph beginning with Aliens.


 * The Nostromo's registry number is revealed in the beginning of the film when the computer screen first activates.


 * The only reference to Weyland-Yutani is on the computer monitor when the automatic pilot disengages in the beginning of the film. On the screen, the company's name is spelled Weylan Yutani.


 * While filming Alien, Sigourney Weaver and Veronica Cartwright were made to wear white surgical tape across their nipples during scenes where they wore sheer clothing.


 * The original title design for the film was going to show the Alien logo made out of bone and bits of flesh. The producers decided that this would be too gruesome of an opening and changed it to a slow dissolve title sequence, which resembles a form of hieroglyphs.


 * Most of the interior set design for the Nostromo was constructed from the remains of old aircraft found at an "aircraft graveyard".


 * Actor John Hurt parodied his character of Kane in the 1987 comedy Spaceballs. In his scene, Hurt begins convulsing in a restaurant until a chest burster explodes from his body and begins singing. Afterward, he looks at the camera and says, "Not again."


 * The death of Lambert takes place off-screen and it is never detrmined exactly how she dies. According to Ridley Scott and actress Veronica Cartwright, Lambert crawls away from the alien and hides inside a locker where she dies of fright.


 * Dan O'Bannon's original script treatment for Alien did not include the character of Science Officier Ash. Producers Walter Hill and Ronald Shusett felt that the film needed a secondary story element, so they added the sub-plot of Ash, the android spy who ultimately betrays the crew. O'Bannon was displeased with this, feeling that it was a cheap gag and disingenuous to his original vision. He referred to the new material as suffering from "Russian Spy" syndrome.


 * The first shot of the alien embryo inside the egg was actually Ridley Scott's hand wriggling around inside a rubber glove.


 * The interior of the alien egg was constructed out of steamed sheep and cattle parts from a slaughterhouse.


 * The underside of the dead face hugger that Ash examines was made out of oysters.


 * On the director's commentary for the Alien special edition DVD, Ridley Scott attempts to ratonalize the scene where Ash tries to kill Ripley. Scott ascribes a Freudian sexual conflict to the character of Ash, noting that as an Android, Ash is not anatomically correct, and vents his sexual frustration upon Ripley when he forces her to fellate a rolled-up pornographic magazine.

Special Edition
A special edition of Alien was released in 2003 and packaged as a single DVD as well as being included in the nine-disc Alien Quadrology collection. The special edition included an introduction by director Ridley Scott as well as twelve-minutes of previously deleted footage that were re-inserted back into the film.

The first deleted scene takes place early in the film and is a longer sequence showing Lambert determining the Nostromo's location in the Zeta II Reticuli system. The next deleted scene takes place on the surface of the planetoid when Kane first comes upon the egg farm. In the scene, he is seen holding a futuristic firearm. Another cut scene takes place shortly thereafter when the crew are back on the drop-ship. In the scene, Lambert slaps Ripley across the face for failing to let the crew back inside the ship. The first shot of the adult xenomorph is also cut from the original film. Moments before Brett is killed, the alien can be seen lurking in the background as if it were being suspended by chains. Like many shots in the film, the alien is barely distinguishible from the various pipes and tubes decorated throughout the ship. One of the more infamous cut scenes is one that reveals the final fates of Dallas and Brett. Ripley finds them cocooned inside a membrane if gelatinous ooze on one of the lower decks. Dallas is still alive and begs Ripley to kill him, at which point, she turns her weapon upon them and incinerates them as an act of mercy. The final cut scene from the film is a bit where the alien, while chasing Ripley, comes upon Jones the cat in his pet carrier. The alien swipes the carrier out of his way and resumes his attack.

Casting
Director Ridley Scott discovered Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) while she was working theater in New York City. Upon seeing her, he immediately decided that she would be the perfect choice to play his heroine, Ripley. During Weaver's audition, Scott had several female employees from the offices of 20th Century Fox sit in to observe her. Nearly all of them felt that Weaver was more than capable of playing a strong, heroic female lead, with one of them even comparing her to actress Jane Fonda.

Actor John Hurt, who plays the role of Kane, was the last actor to be cast for the film. Originally, the part of Kane was to be played by British actor Jon Finch. On the first day of shooting however, Finch had a severe attack of diabetes and had to be taken to the hospital. In a rush to replace him, Ridley Scott sought out actor John Hurt. Hurt was initially unavailable due to a project that he was scheduled to work on in South Africa. As it turned out, Hurt was denied entrance into South Africa because the South African authorities had mistaken him for a political activist named "John Hurd", who had developed a reputation for his outspoken views against Apartheid. Unable to work in South Africa, Hurt then became available to work on Alien.

Body Count
In chronological order