‘Alien’ (1979)

The ‘Alien‘ franchise has been with us for over 30 years, and while all entries into the series have had their own unique take on the subject matter, the original 1979 debut by Ridley Scott is still one of the scariest movies ever made.  With designs and inspiration for the film by Swiss surrealist, HR Giger, the haunting imagery stays with you long after viewing.

Sigourney Weaver (in her first of four appearances in the subsequent series) plays Lt. Ellen Ripley, one of many crew members (Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Ian Holm) of a mining ship who receive a distress call from a nearby planet and land to investigate. The ground crew finds a derelict spaceship, and more than they bargained for when an unknown creature attaches itself to one of their team.  As it turns out, they received a warning rather than a distress call.  Back aboard their ship, the Nostromo, all hell breaks loose as this unknown creature lays an embryo into the body of its attached human.  Of course the newly gestated alien is born by bursting through the chest of its human host, from the inside out.

The alien runs amok on the ship, growing at a tremendous pace, attacking and killing everything in sight.  It’s got acid for blood, has a mouth inside its mouth, and the crew members have basically no weapons to use against it.  What more could you want?  Check out our ‘Alien’ Sound Quotes Collection page, relive the terror again if you dare.  Remember, in space, no one can hear you scream…

Pop Quiz, Hotshot:  Did you know that the character of Ripley wasn’t written to be a female?  Sigourney Weaver was given the part and it was rewritten for her.  Sigourney’s portrayal of Ellen Ripley (from all her ‘Alien‘ films) has gone on to be recognized as one of the strongest heroic female leads in the history of film, especially after she was given flamethrowers and automatic weapons in James Cameron’s epic action-packed 1986 sequel, ‘Aliens‘.

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