Other mistake: When Ripley is trying to deactivate the self-destruct mode, the instructions she follows on the container are actually just the French interpretation of the instructions she read to activate self-destruct before.
Alien (1979)
2 reviews
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright
Your rating
Average rating
(27 votes)
I own this movie on DVD and saw the 40th Anniversary edition in theaters with my girlfriend.
Funny story, is that right after me and my girlfriend started dating, she told me she likes horror movies but she'd never seen the Alien movies. I own them and was going to bring them over for her to see. But after we we leaving the theaters after watching It Chapter 2 and Stories to Tell in the Dark, we saw the poster for the 40th anniversary of Alien coming to theaters the next month. Great timing! What a coincidence!
For being a movie that came out in the 70's, this film still holds up extremely well. The acting, the set design, and even the effects. Some of it is dated, but it works with the aesthetics of the film. The miniature work with the ships is fantastic.
A movie that perfectly blends sci-fi thriller with a "creature feature" horror film. Still holds up as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and I can't see it losing that title any time soon. Sitting up there right along side The Shining.
I had only ever saw this movie on the small screen as it came out about 10 years before my time. Originally seeing it on VHS, and then later I got the DVD collection. But finally getting to see it on the big screen in a real cinema, along side my wonderful girlfriend who had never seen it before, was an experience all of it's own! There just simply isn't much you can do to beat this film. Still standing the test of time. And spawning one of the best action sci-fi thrillers of all time as it's sequel.
Mistake Status: I'll probably get around to looking through this movie some day for mistakes. None yet.
Alien remains a formidable science fiction horror thriller decades later-great small cast, unique monster, frightening premise with solid scares delivered, top-tier set design and cinematography, lighting, direction. It's just a wild ride through a maze of a ship while a nasty, nearly-unstoppable and cunning creature stalks the crew, picking them off in gruesome ways as they try to survive it plus duplicity. The now-iconic chest-bursting scene is still chilling and painful to witness! If you've never seen Alien or Aliens, watch them on separate days and enjoy Ridley Scott and James Cameron's very different take on the murderous beast.
More mistakes in Alien
More quotes from Alien
Trivia: Ripley abruptly yelling at Parker to "Shut up!" is not in the script. Fans and industry gossip have long speculated that this was Sigourney Weaver breaking character in frustration and she was in fact telling Yaphet Kotto to "shut up" so she can finish her lines. The sequels 'Aliens' and 'Alien 3' both feature scenes where one of the normally cooler-headed protagonists suddenly snaps at a ranting character to "shut up!" in apparent reference to this moment. (01:16:50)
Question: What exactly is the space jockey and why haven't we seen it in the other films except its fossilized self sitting in the what I call the laser gun?
Answer: Other theories, mostly developed in the comics derived from the original franchise, assume the xenomorphs were biological weapons conceived by the Space Jockeys for some interstellar war of theirs. Hence, the crescent-shape derelict was just a bomber, full of eggs and operated by a single pilot to minimize risks of accident with this mostly dangerous cargo. - what just happened though.
AKA, the plot of Prometheus.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: It's another race of space alien that is also subject to infection by the Aliens. This particular one was infected and moved as far as it could from its race's known space and broadcast a warning before it died. The presence of eggs in the hold may indicate that it was a research ship. The race was never used in other Alien movies because it adds a new dynamic to the plotlines: two alien species, locked in mortal combat and neither particularly friendly with humans. In the Alien pseudo-prequel Prometheus we learn these beings are known as the Engineers and have interesting ties with both the aliens and humans as well.
Phoenix