Alien

1979
R
1h 57m

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

992K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

136

A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.

Play trailer2:05

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Cyberpunk Monster Horror Space Sci-Fi Horror Sci-Fi

After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

992K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

136

See production info at IMDbPro

Top rated movie #51

Won 1 Oscar
- 19 wins & 22 nominations total

Trivia
According to Yaphet Kotto, Sir Ridley Scott told him to annoy Sigourney Weaver off-camera, so that there would be genuine tension between their characters. Kotto regretted this, because he really liked Weaver.

Goofs
(at around 1h 35 mins) A crewman with a black panel of some kind is visible through the smoke as Ripley runs through the corridors at the end of the film.

Quotes
[last lines]
Ripley: Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew - Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas - are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
[to Jonesy the cat]
Ripley: Come on, cat.

Crazy credits
The title of the movie is slowly created one line at a time at the top of the screen during the opening credits, starting out with the I, then the slash in A and the backslash in N, and then the vertical lines in L and E (so it looks like / I I I \). After that, the ensuing lines of each letter are added slowly one at a time until the title is fully visible.

Alternate versions
The 2003 DVD release plasters the 1979 version of the 20th Century Fox logo with the 1980's version.

Connections
Edited into Star Trek: The Next Generation: Datalore (1988)

Soundtracks
Incidental music from 'Symphony No. 2 ('Romantic')'
by Howard Hanson
[Played over end credits]

User reviews1.9K

Review

Featured review

My favourite tagline for a movie

"In space, no one can hear you scream." This remains my favourite tagline ever for a movie. When 'Alien' was released in 1979, it caused almost as much talk as 'Star Wars' did when released two years earlier. The science fiction genre was being revolutionized at this time and 'Alien' had a horror characteristic to it which was psychological, visually striking and compelling with the type of strength in silence not seen since '2001: A Space Odyssey' in 1968. Definitely a big influence in blockbuster film making, 'Alien' has spawned three sequels so far and is a great horror/science-fiction classic not to be missed. It is director Ridley Scott's best effort on the big screen for making fear the best character in the film.