Ok, so Alien is one of my favorite films of all time, and I think the level of influence that it’s had over the sci-fi genre is undeniable. I was lucky enough to see this movie when I was about 4 years old because my grandad knew I liked cool space aliens, and he taped it for me after seeing the title.
Many happy nightmares followed, and it’s a movie that’s stuck with me for years and years and years.
Throughout this video, I want to go through the film scene by scene to talk about all the little details in it, the horrifying hidden themes, and just some of the other aspects that make this one of the greatest films ever made.
Now, this would never have been made had Star Wars not been so successful. 20th Century Fox had the script lying around for a while and they weren’t expecting Lucas to deliver the massive blockbuster that he did. People were desperate for science fiction stories, and this was one of the projects lying around that they quickly greenlit in order to cash in on the hype.
What we got is very different tonally—like very different—but I’m so glad that it got made. Scott actually borrowed slightly from Star Wars, and just in the same way that we get an opening on the Star Destroyer, Alien starts off with us opening on the Nostromo. The undersides of the ships are shot in similar ways, and it helps add to the scope and scale of the vessels.
Now there are two versions of this film that exist, and depending on which one you watch, you’ll get an extra couple of scenes and moments. The director’s cut is actually 47 seconds shorter than the theatrical version, even though it technically has more. This was achieved by shortening some of the other sequences and eliminating certain unnecessary moments.
There’s a big list of the differences online, with most of them being things like characters drinking coffee and so on.
However, there are two big differences, and when Brett goes looking for Jonesy, he lets some water drip on him to refresh him. Depending on the version, we get a moment in which we see some chains dangling down, and amongst them, you can catch the xenomorph hidden there. This adds to its chameleon-like structure, and throughout the film, the environment itself looks a lot like the xenomorph, adding to the subliminal horror of the environment.
There’s also an extra scene in which we see some of the crew turning into eggs. This of course contradicts the way they’re laid out in the sequel with the Alien Queen being behind it. You can find this version in the director’s cut, but yeah, it does go against the established lore that would spring up in the sequel.
I also think it was removed because there’s not really anything in nature where a creature is turned into a different species of egg half their size, and though the scene is creepy, I go with the theatrical. And that’s across the board too; that is my favorite version, with even Ridley admitting that he only did the director’s cut for money and that he likes the one he put out originally the best.
Which, yeah, fair enough, Ridley is actually from South Shields, which is where I live, and a couple years back they had a great alien exhibit with all the props, costumes, and so on.
Alien Breakdown
Now, Alien, at its heart, is very much a slasher horror film set in space, and Ridley Scott actually said that he looked more at movies like Texas Chainsaw than anything in the sci-fi genre.
What it does perfectly is that it slowly builds this slow feeling of dread throughout the film. Things get more and more extreme, and throughout the movie, this feeling of uneasiness gets more and more intense. This is evident early on from the slow title reveal and the fact that not a word is spoken in the film for seven minutes.
The title itself almost feels like it’s in an alien language too, as the letters slowly fade in. On first viewing, we don’t really know what the word will be, and they’re almost like heiroglyphics, throwing us off balance until the name of the film is finally revealed.
It’s an uneasy way to start the movie, with there being large gaps of silence and minor drones from the score.
When we do get to see the crew interacting, we get a great moment around the lunch table in which we bond with them all. The dialogue here helps you side with them, and it’s a really fun scene. At the end of the film, we watch as this group is torn apart, and we see that the people within it aren’t who they seem to be.
Who I’m talking about is, of course, Ash, who is revealed to be an android.
The franchise actually keeps up a nice theme throughout and when viewed in release order the main films all have an android in them who’s initial ascends in alphabetical order. A is for Ash in Alien, B is for Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3, Call appears in Alien Resurrection and Prometheus gets that D in David.
In the film, we learn that Ash is working for the company and that he’s been instructed to bring back the Xenomorph. The crew is expendable, and he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty to get rid of them. Throughout the film, there are some clues that he’s well aware of what’s going on, and after Kane is attacked by the face hugger, we can catch him watching a monitor. This is him scanning Kane’s body, and he’d clearly be aware of the alien embryo inside him. As soon as Ripley walks in, he turns this off, almost like an embarrassment for a teenager when their parents walk in the room, and this is to hide it from Ripley.
This is because he knows that questions will be raised if she sees it, and this knowledge of the xenomorph is also carried over to the chest burster scene. Ash is the only one who doesn’t initially get up to help Kane, and we even cut to a shot of him sitting while the others help out.
Scott also said that when the group wakes up, Ash actually takes longer because he’s almost like a computer starting up, and this very much mirrors the system on the ship turning on in the beginning. We cut to Kane at one point and can see Ash to the right, and you might notice that Ian Holm isn’t actually breathing at this point, and it isn’t until much later that he starts to do this.
Mother is the other bit of artificial intelligence that we meet in the movie. She actually steers the ship towards the signal, and she’s also well aware that it puts the crew in danger. I know people have gone back and forth over whether this was the true mission or not, but I think this line about ash gives it away.
They were given the new science officer in Ash because the company wanted to put an android among them that would obey the true mission.
Now the xenomorph itself was based on the artwork of H.R. Giger, with the Necronom 4 being the piece of art that eventually evolved into the creature. Gigers work is full of phalluses, and the movie itself has sexual undertones to it, which we’ll get into later on in the video. It very much carries the idea of male pregnancy through assault, smothering, and so on.
In addition to phallic imagery, we also get a lot of things that look like vj jay jays (you know what I mean, mate, but I can’t say it because YouTube is doing stupid f**king demonetization on anything slightly controversial).
Anyway, the facehuggers possess this in their design, and originally the eggs themselves had it too. Scott realised he’d probably get an x rating if he went through with what giger wanted though and thus they turned them into opening like flower petals. There’s very much this idea of the sleeping chamber being like a womb, and with the ships captain being a mother, we have this all tying together. Early on we get a tour of the Nostromo and can see that most of the shapes and structures are made up of tubes and openings. When crafting the design, Giger said he wanted to create something biomechanical, and there’s this idea throughout that the machines and aliens are a mix of things you’d see in both man-made and natural beings.
We get the computer intercepting the distress call, and then the crew wakes up, almost like they’re opening their eyes for the first time after being born.
The pods they’re in are cylindrical, and the crew coming out of them is meant to be similar to the way an animal hatches out of an egg. Eggs, of course, play a big part, and in the opening part of the movie we see lots of things related to them.
At one point, we can catch two nodding birds, and then later, as we go into the main section, we see three egg models vibrating up and down.
This is the chicken coming before the egg, which…might be a reach…
The way that the papers flap around and such gives the idea that there’s very much something moving through the ship, watching over what’s going on. We don’t know what this is, but it’s very much meant to be voyeuristic.
From here, we cut into the sleeping quarters and watched the crew very much being born.
Birth is a theme in the movie too, with the alien being born out of Kane, who just so happens to be the first character we’re introduced to. We are supposed to believe that he’s the main character and the person that we should be following, and for this initial act, he very much is. He’s the one we focus on here the most, and he’s the one who leads everyone into the space jockey ship. Thus, when he dies, it’s a major twist in the movie’s dynamics that plants the idea that no one is safe.
Dallas is painted as one of the main characters too, and it’s a long time before we focus on Ripley. Ripley originally was a man in the script, and, interestingly, Scott didn’t end up changing any lines to fit the gender swap. If we’re sticking with the confines of a slasher movie, then Ripley is very much the final girl archetype who navigates the movie by sticking to the rules. She refuses to let Kane in when he’s infected and very much goes by the book on a lot of the issues.
Now we cut to them all eating, and around the table we catch the cat Jones there too. In the film, all of the cast members are referred to by their last name as a way to address them professionally, and this is even the case for the cat too. Jones is very much seen as a member of the crew as well, and the animal is of course there to boost morale.
If you pay close attention to this scene, you might catch Ash reaching out and grabbing a jug of milk, which is something that he continues to drink throughout the movie. Later on, when he’s revealed to be an android, we see that he has a milky substance instead of blood, which could be what’s sustaining him.
Shoutouts to the Now Playing Podcast for saying that the entire crew are very much meant to be space truckers, and in the 1970s convoys and such were all the rage. It adds this extra human element to them, and we relate to them more because they come across as just everyday people.
Now we watch as Dallas goes to his mother’s, which is a giant room of blinking lights and buttons. Though I’ve been talking about sexual organs a lot there are body parts laced throughout the design of everything and Mother is very much supposed to be a brain.
From here, we cut back to the crew and see them working at their stations. At Lamberts, we see a box with Balaji Imperial written on it; this is actually a brand of cigarettes created solely for the movie.
Later on, we see Ripley’s computer, and you can catch a picture of Jonesy as a little kitten, which is nice. That’s nice, isn’t it?
I dunno, I’m a dog person.
Anyway, Jones was actually portrayed by four different cats, with one being used for holding, the other for hissing, and the other two for running off.
Lambert also mentions that the Nostromo is close to Zeta 2 Reticuli, which is an actual star system that’s one of the closest to our own.
The name Nostromo comes from the title of the 1904 Joseph Conrad novel, which follows an Italian explorer who tries to plunder a silver mine. This is a mining vessel, hence that name being used.
Now the crew ends up traveling to LV-426, and we see all the procedures they have to go through in order to land the shuttle there. When discussing the movie, the screenwriters stated that they’re so happy that Scott actually put as much effort into this scene as he did because it showed how difficult it actually is to land on another planet. Whereas a lot of sci-fi movies show it as being as simple as landing a car, we see just how difficult it is here. Star Wars wipes have become a thing where we just watch a planet being approached and then skip all this bit, but I appreciate that they put the effort into what could be a throwaway scene.
The environment is extremely hostile, and three members of the crew end up heading out into it in space suits. These were apparently a nightmare to film in, and in between takes the helmets constantly had to be taken off due to them filling up with carbon dioxide.
Ridley Scott actually used his own children for a lot of the scenes in the suits, and this was done in order to make the scale and size of the areas look larger. As they approach the ship, we see several things that pull from human anatomy, and the two doors that the crew go up into look like vaj-jays (again, sorry, ladies), and inside the walls appear like rib cages.
As Kane ascends into the ship, we also see the back of his helmet, which has been purposely designed to look similar to the alien’s body with tubes protruding like a tail.
There’s a skeletal feeling to it all, with the ships pilots very much seeming like an extension of the chair. You can’t really see where it ends and where it begins, making for a really eerie scene.
Now screenwriter Daniel O’Bannen went over what was originally supposed to be in the space jockey scene, and there were some things that he ended up explaining. Though Prometheus shows the seat as being how the space jockey pilots the ship, it was originally intended to be where the SOS beacon was sent out from. The team would then arrive there and turn the beacon off, and during this, they’d notice a triangle symbol. They’d then exit the ship and come across a giant pyramid, which is where the alien eggs were originally stored. Like them, the space jockey and his crew had traveled down to the planet searching for something, and it’s here that they went through something similar to what happens with the crew of the Nostromo.
Fox actually originally wanted to cut the space jockey due to the budget, but Scott insisted it be left in. They of course went on to make two Prometheus movies, and without Scott’s persistence, they never would’ve happened. Personally, I wish it had just remained a mystery, and like the Thing Prequel, I think your imagination of what this ship is is way more interesting than anything that we could’ve gotten. Especially when it’s that they designed the entire human race, which, pfft, moving on.
The creature being incorporated into the budget is something I’m so glad Scott got to do; however, he did concede that the pyramid was going to be way too expensive. Thus, they just put the eggs in the ship, and they lie within its bowels.
As Kane carries out his descent, we see the walls once again acting like rib cages, and it’s almost as if Kane is descending into the nine circles of hell.
Now, upon approaching the eggs, we see that there is a laser light that is almost acting like a barrier that warns people not to cross it. As Kane moves his hand through it, the sound it makes gets more high-pitched the closer that he gets.
Now this is such a cool thing in the film, but originally it wasn’t supposed to be there. The creative team actually wanted to have webbing blocking the way, but they realized how difficult that was going to be to produce. They actually ended up going in the next lot, and here they came across the Who, who were rehearsing for a concert next door, and they borrowed one of their lasers for the show along with some dry ice.
Now the eggs and the face hugger are some of the most memorable things about this movie and they used dead animal entrails for both. The facehugger was made up of a shellfish and the stink of it got so bad on set that the cast and crew were apparently vommiting after getting close to it.
When crafting the script Ronald Schushitt said that one of the big problems they faced was how they actually got the alien off the planet and onto the ship. They needed to do it in a way that didn’t make the crew look like idiots and they realised that the only want to do it was to have the face hugger impregnate one of the crew.
They actually do something that messes with your head a bit and when Kane approaches it we can see moisture droplets on the top dripping upwards against gravity. The top of the egg then opens up and Kane decides to do the scientific thing and stick his face directly in it.
It all happens so fast and I love how Scott takes his time actually showing whats happened to Kane. We see the crew come back to the ship which is difficult to make out and even the airlock is covered in smoke with focus on Dallas and Lambert instead of Kane.
Now that the helmet is removed, we see the spiderlike creature wrapped around Kane’s face. Its tendrils are designed to look like fingers, almost crushing Kane’s head.
Another point that Now Playing brought up which I think is really important is that typically in movies if something bleeds we tend to see it as being a weakness.
That isn’t the case with these creatures though and even their blood is a defence mechanism. We see that the creature spouts acid from it’s wounds and this is strong enough to melt through the hull of the ship.
Conceptual artist Ron Cobb came up with the idea for this because they ran into a problem with the third act in that thye knew audiences would ask why they just didn’t shoot it. So this was a work around to make it so that every attack on the creature could cause more damage to the crew and ship.
We then get more voyeur shots and come across Ash clearly looking at the embryo inside Kane. As mentioned earlier He turns this off when Ripley comes over. Originally in the script she was going to ask what the black mass in his lungs were but I think this would’ve given the game away as to what could be coming. On a first viewing we are supposed to believe the titular alien is the facehugger and thus questioning that theres something else might ruin the dinner surprise.
However she does ask the right questions here that give the game away with Ash a bit.
Ripley wanted to quarantine the group and if he was truly a man of sciences he’d understand why that’s so important. Instead he goes against protocol and this tips his hand a bit that he wants the creature on the ship. He once again drinks milk and we cut to Dallas learning that the creature is now off Kane. What the film does brilliantly here is that it lures us into a false sense of security. We get the crew going looking for the creature and a little jump scare when the corpse of the facehugger lands on Ripleys shoulders.
We are supposed to think that the alien is dead and Kane waking up in good spirits makes us begin to relax as an audience. I love the line about him having a nightmare about smothering and he’s very much reppressed this trauma. Again this carries themes of assault and people very much hiding the memory from themselves because of the horror it carries.
Still though Kane moves on and we get the Dinner scene which is once more put in place to make us relax.
However, it’s at this point that we’re treated to one of the most memorable scenes of all time in which the alien makes a big entrance. Now one of the myths about this movie is that none of the cast knew this was going to happen and that it was a surprise. That’s not strictly true as they of course had the script. What they didn’t know though was that they’d be sprayed with fake blood so that’s very much real and it’s why Veronica Cartwright looks so caught off guard.
If you listen to the score here it’s also like a heartbeat thumping away as we see the horror play out.
Parker goes to kill the creature but Ash is the one who says not to touch it which spares it from being killed.
Looks a bit goofy now but I honestly find the little xenomorph a bit cute and it’s funny watching it skate off like a remote control car.
Also earlier in the scene we can catch a Mr. Fusion at the table and this would later pop up in back to the future as a prop from the film.
Anyway Kanes funeral is swift and almost emotionless adding to the sterile and solitary feeling that one would likely experience when moving through space.
Now whereas in most horror movies we see as the people we follow attempt to get away from the killer we watch as the crew instead go on the hunt. So far all theyve experienced are small creatures like the young xenomorph and facehugger and thus they believe that they can kill it with ease.
We get the old animal fake out scene which at the time wasn’t really a cliche and it once more lures us into a false sense of security.
Also worth pointing out that Chevy Chase actually wore the same cap that Brett does in Fletch…so…the thumbs up button is right there.
Now Brett comes across some skin which in hindsight we know is due to the creature shedding. He goes into one of the ventilation rooms and if you look at the recesses on the four main structures you can see that several of them look like the aliens head and tail.
As he lets water drip on his face we can actually hear the faint hiss of the xenomorph.
Xenomorphs In Alien Explained
It then drops down and attacks before taking Brett away. We get a quick cut to Jonesy as the cat watches things play out. This is a technique that Scott would use in Blade Runner and we cut to Tyrells owl as his murder played out. Blade Runner actually reuses several graphics from this including many of the things that we see on computer screens.
The tongue with a tongue gives more phallic imageray and it very much has to penetrate its prey to stun them. Now from here we cut to Ripley and Parker saying that the alien took Brett up into the air shaft but how they know this never gets explained in the theatrical cut. However in the directors cut we see that they run in and get covered in blood as they look up.
Now Ash refers to the creature as Kane’s son.
It’s such a creepy term to talk about the creature as being Kane’s son and it shows that he’s more sympathetic towards it that the rest of the crew. Normally you wouldn’t refer to a monster like this as being someones offspring but he does it because he has a different appreciation for it than the rest of the crew does.
Now this whole airlock scene is another standout moment in the film that pretty much defined the genre. I remember a couple of years ago I was really excited for Alien Isolation because it was recapturing the look and feel of this film. However when IGN gave it a 5.9 out of ten I decided not to get it which…I’ll never forget…I’ll never forget mate.
Anyway it went on sale a couple of years later and I picked it up and was blown away by the game. Now why I’m talking about it here is because there’s actually DLC for it involving the nostromo crew and in that you have to crawl through the vents like what we see here. It’s just as tense playing it as it is to watch and if you’re a fan of horror games and this film then you definitely have to pick it up.
Now what makes the scene so tense is that we spend a lot of it in darkness with only Dallas’ light to show the way.
Again we have the image of bodies with the closing shutters being like butthol….look I never promised the breakdown would be high bro. You can also see them as Iris I suppose with them opening up and closing.
The horror here is so simple and all that scott uses sound perfectly to create a terrifying atmosphere. I’m sure Now Playing mentioned that the motion tracker was made by using a football game on an Atari 2600 but whatever it is the simplicity is what gives the scene it’s terror.
Rather than being a 3D map its just two dots moving on a screen with the beeps mimicking our heart rates as the creature gets closer. In most confrontations like this when the two dots line up you’d expect there to be a big jump scare or something but in this movie nothing actually happens.
This throws the audience and Dallas completely off guard because we now know that the creature is close by. We still can’t see it though and thus your mind starts to wander.
Now the crew are terrified for him…well…all except Ash who once more calmly observes it because he wants to see what will happen.
After he’s taken Ripley is given his priveleges as she’s the next in line for command. Lambert wants to take her chances in the shuttle and as we see this ends up becoming the plan later on.
Anyway at this point they want push it into the airlock and blast it into space and originally there was a scene along these lines involving Ash that also played his hand. The deleted scene had the creature just about to go into it and the crew watched over it on monitors. Just before it stepped in though Ash sounded the alarm and it startled the xenomorph which then fled.
I think this would’ve given the game away far too early and I can definitely see why they removed it.
Instead Ripley says.
–
This is Ash once more lying and thus Ripley goes directly to Mother. Upon learning the truth Ash appears and we get one of the most graphic scenes in the film if you go off the subtext. When discussing this scene on the commentary Ridley Scott said that this is very much a metaphor for sexual assault with Ash shoving a literal adult magazine down her throat. Upon explaining it he said that being an android meant that Ash didn’t have the parts that men do and that he’d built up frustration over the visit. This was him very much assaulting Ripley in the only way he could and the director stated that Ash didn’t actually want to kill her in this moment.
Its something I never considered at all when watching the movie and I dont really like to think about that kind of stuff when watching it but I do think the directors intentions are important to address.
Ash spraying white fluid everywehre could be seen as…well you know and it leads to the big reveal that he’s a robot coming with his head being smashed like it’s the like button.
It’s also important to bear in mind that Ripley has a nosebleed here and she actually ends up getting one in every film from here to resurrection.
They put his head on a table and unfortunately they leave in one of the worst jump cuts ever as we switch from the dummy to Ian Holm. I think on the whole that the effects in this film really hold up more than 40 years but I really wish they’d cut back to the crew and then to the switched out head instead of keeping it in the shot. Scott even said that he hated this effect and said that the mould for Ash actually ended up deformed due to the conditions on set which left it looking slightly different to how holm does.
Either way I think the fact that Ash is an android is the best twist in the film and it adds another enemy for the crew to work around. Unlike the Alien, Ash can talk and emote and we hear about how he admires the creature. They are very similar to one another in many respects as they both work for something bigger than them and will kill those that get in the way of that goal. They also operate based on instincts and programming that they don’t understand.
Ash drops a chilling line.
Alien Ending Explained
And after he’s burned the crew decide to take their chances in the shuttle. There’s only one life support chamber and limited oxygen and food but their odds are better there than they have on the Nostromo.
The split off with Lambert and Parker going off on their own and I love how they use the pipping and environment here to further evoke images of the xenomorph. Ripley ends up returning to the ship after realising Jones is there but the Xenomorph attacks Parker and Lambert as they collect the supplies.
They have such an effective use of shadow here with the xenomorph closing in and you might notice some little continuity errors here. As we watch the tail going up Lamberts trouser leg we can see that her pants are navy blue here even though in the previous shot they’re white.
This this because this moment actually came from earlier in the movie and this a scene from when Brett was grabbed. Lambets original death was going to involve her hiding in a locker and she’d then die of fright as the xenomorph moved around outside. I think the switch here was done because of the sexual connotations that come with it but they also had to be mindful of how the suit looked in motion.
Bolaji Bedejo was hired after Scott saw him in a pub and standing at 6 foot and ten inches meant that he was perfect for the role. However in motion they realised that the suit looked pretty bad and this is why a lot of the shots of it in the film are it standing still. We do get a moment here where it moves almost like a ballet but the creature was cut around due to how fake that the suit looked in motion.
In better lighting and in Alien Isolation we can also see that the creature has a skull and eye sockets within its head but its difficult to make out in the film itself.
Ripley ends up arming the self destruct sequence on the ship and we get a scene in which she goes to the shuttle and then returns here to try and disarm it. This doesnt work and thus she has to make her way past the alien. This part of the film was also recreated in the Alien Isolation DLC leading to one of my favourite parts of the game.
Again as she moves through the environemnt we see as certain panels and wall textures are put in place to mimic the alien but Ripley eventually manages to make it through.
Now we discover that the xenomorph is onboard the shuttle and the set was actually built around Bolaji in order to create this effect. Leaving it proved to be difficult though and the suit tore in multiple places.
Ripley starts to sing Lucky Star and this was something Sigourney Weaver just improvised on the day. The song pulls from Singing In The Rain and unfortunately it added more money to the budget as the studio had to secure the licencing rights which yeah…no one was really happy about.
In the end Ripley opens the airlock and she shoots it with a harpoon gun which gets stuck in the door as it closes. In a nice bit of attention to detail this gun can actually be seen at the start of Alien at the same place that it was at the end of this film.
Tying back to the themes of birth this moment has been interpretted as a baby being pulled out of the womb with the wife acting like an umbilical cord. Finally the alien is cut free once Ripley blasts the engines and it’s sent off into space. I love how we can see that it’s still moving and it shows just how difficult it is to kill. You can’t end it you can only get rid of it and we close out the movie with a shot of Ripley sleeping mirroring the crew waking up at the start.
This would later be repeated in Aliens with Ripley and Newt closing out both films on a positive note.
And that ends the movie.
I Hope you’ve enjoyed this breakdown through the classic film and if you have we’d love to see you at the channel again. Make sure you subscribe and on screen right now we have another classic movie breakdown for you to watch next.
With that out the way, I’ve been your host Paul and I’ll see you next time.
Take care, Peace.
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