Another stunning argument for the proposition that "Ridley Scott is God!" This is one of the classiest, moodiest and scariest horror films ever created.
The story centers on a space tug's crew woken by their computer to investigate an automatic signal. The crew ends up getting a lot more than they bargained for. From the moment the ship sets down on the dead planet, things go from bad to worse. They immediately suffer a hull breach. While awaiting repairs, an away-team investigates the planet's storm-ridden surface. They find an alien shipwreck, complete with a dead husk of a pilot.
What killed the alien captain? The crew discovers the answer, all too soon. Investigating the alien's ship they find a collection of eggs - eggs containing life! One of them erupts, spurting its foul charge right through the face-plate of an overly-eager explorer.
Sad to say, this casualty is not abandoned then and there. He is brought back to the ship, in clear violation of standard quarantine procedure. The parasite, a truly repulsive cross between a hand and spider soon dies, leaving our hapless spaceman apparently none the worse for wear.
The crew prepares to return to the hibernation they endure for the long space hauls. As they all sit down for one last snack, the alien reappears in one of the most disgusting scenes in cinema history. Once loose in the ship, it begins a progression of hideous mutations, each more deadly than the one before. The crew is systematically hunted down and murdered. They never know what the creature will look like, what its powers will be, or when and who it will strike.
The showdown finally comes between the fully developed beast and Ripley, the female 3rd mate, perfectly played by sex-tough Sigourney Weaver.
I almost walked out of this movie the first time I saw it, due to overwhelming fear. When it was over, as everyone was leaving the theater we all knew, down to that basic cellular level, that we were truly ALIVE, that we were survivors.
(P. Sugarman)
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Alien
Directed by Ridley Scott
Here is the TEXT POPUP for Alien:
The design of the shipwreck, its skeletal captain, and the various aliens used in the movie was the work of the bio-mechanical artist/sculpture, H.R. Giger. He has perfected a style that is a disturbing mixture of organics and inanimates. His creations are at once warm and alive and painfully cold and mechanical. The creatures in Alien were constructed by combining metal sculptural materials with actual bones from various animals. Apparently, he did not want to have his designs used in Aliens, so director James Cameron had to alter his Aliens so as to avoid a lawsuit. Giger has also designed album covers for numerous rock artists including Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Debbie Harry. His latest book, called "Biomechanics" (Morpheus International), is another coffee table-sized presentation of recent work, including his designs for Poltergeist II.
The cast did not know that John Hurt's stomach was going to explode in the famous dining scene. They knew that the alien was going to reappear, but they hadn't been told how. Scott wanted their reactions to be genuine. The f/x team used a bladder filled with animal guts from a butcher shop. By the time the scene was shot, the heat on the cramped set had rotted the meat. When it was finally detonated, it flew everywhere including into the faces of the cast and crew. As the story is told, a lot more people "exploded" with the contents of their lunch after the one take of this scene was "cut."
