Corrected entry: In the scene where Ripley is leaving in the escape ship, she's looking out the front window looking back at the ship as she's leaving. When she was prepping the escape ship moments before, the cockpit window is facing outward. If the ship took off nose-forward, she could not see the mother ship moving away through the front window as then she'd be going backwards. There is a small window in the back of the ship through the rear door, but it's far too small to be the same window she was looking out while leaving. Also, the front window has diagonal support struts to hold the windows in place, providing further evidence that the window she is looking through is actually the front of the ship.
12o
11th Feb 2013
Alien (1979)
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Correction: Ripley boards the Narcissus and starts the launch procedure. We see the shuttle being lowered from the belly of the Nostromo, then we see the forward braking thrusters fire [they visibly light up]. This was the effect of slowing the Narcissus relative to the Nostromo, shedding the velocity inherited from the parent vessel. As the Nostromo, which is still under full power, moves on ahead of the Narcissus, Ripley's able to watch it through the shuttle's forward windows. As you say, she could only watch the Nostromo's progress through the forward windows if she was flying backwards. Compared to the Nostromo, that's exactly what she IS doing.
Tailkinker ★