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Alien

year 1979decade 70sdirector Ridley Scottgenre Sci-figenre Horror

116 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Tom Skerritt Dallas
John Hurt Kane
Ian Holm Ash
Yaphet Kotto Parker
Bolaji Badejo the alien. Badejo
Helen Horton the voice of Mother

Alien | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyproducer Craig Horlbeck
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What’s Aged the Best?

Trailer; tactile future; Weaver; burial; collaborative craft; restraint; humor; company; Cartwright; franchise

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:52Read transcript
  • The trailer is praised as a model for later thriller and horror advertising, using cutting and sound to generate urgency despite a cast without major stars.
  • Spacesuited exploration and the concise opening information card have aged well, establishing mission and crew without an explanatory scene.
  • The tactile, worn spaceship and visibly tired crew make the future feel used and believable, contrasting with cleaner, brighter science-fiction settings.
  • Young Weaver is an aged-best selection.
  • The body's space burial is an aged-best selection.
  • Walter Hill’s contribution is praised alongside the indispensable work of Giger, O’Bannon, Weaver and Scott; the film’s success is collaborative rather than attributable to one person.
  • Scott’s principle of showing little of the monster and letting viewers’ imagination work is praised as enduring advice.
  • Scott’s later technology-heavy Alien films are said to violate that restraint, while some awkward staging of Lambert and Parker’s deaths exposes the original’s practical limitations.
  • The first-hour humor, Kane’s opening remark about feeling dead and biblical or creation imagery gain resonance through later films.
  • Ash’s corporate function recalls HAL, while the minimally explained company becomes a lasting theme; facehugger and chestburster are production terms adopted by audiences despite not being spoken in the film.
  • Cartwright's terrified reactions are an aged-best choice.
  • An unranked five-film list groups Alien, The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Witches of Eastwick and Inserts as Cartwright in an auteur's nightmare.
  • Inserts is corrected as involving Jessica Harper and Richard Dreyfuss rather than Margot Kidder; a Cartwright SVU appearance is also recalled.
  • The franchise and especially Aliens are enduring benefits; Aliens is considered more fun but sometimes too long, while Alien is scarier.
  • Concept artist Ron Cobb reportedly originated the alien's acid blood; the panel praises both the idea and the shot of acid burning through the ship.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Chestburster dinner

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:02Read transcript
  • The crew waking from hypersleep is nominated for its evocative music and unanswered questions about their long sleep.
  • The first meal is nominated for natural overlapping conversation about food and pay, establishing relationships without expository speeches.
  • Ash reaching for milk gains significance on rewatch, although replenishing his artificial blood is not asserted; his eating behavior is discussed as an ambiguity.
  • The distress signal, landing, space jockey, eggs and facehugger attack form another scene candidate, praised for remarkable design and realism.
  • Kane’s curiosity is defended as an explorer’s plausible response, while others say they would flee moving alien eggs; reactions reveal character.
  • The chestburster dinner is nominated and praised for tight editing, genuine cast shock at blood effects and the swift transition from death to practical action.
  • Brett's death while seeking the cat is a candidate, but the cat search is questioned.
  • Stanton's dislike of monster and space movies reportedly helped make his workmanlike attitude right for the role.
  • Ash’s attack on Ripley is nominated for its accumulating mistrust, shocking artificial-body revelation and the bizarre continuation of conversation after his head is knocked off.
  • The film’s attacks and Giger imagery are interpreted through sexual violation, penetration and reproduction, with Ripley’s exposed final appearance deliberately making an otherwise powerful woman vulnerable.
  • Ash’s rolled-magazine assault, his pressure-point-like disabling of Parker and the sudden decapitation are singled out as especially strange and effective moments.
  • Ripley seeking Jones and the deaths of the remaining crew are additional scene candidates.
  • The ship's destruction and the alien's survival on the escape craft are additional scene candidates.
  • The chestburster is the agreed most-rewatchable scene, with Ash's turn an honorable mention.
  • Dallas's tunnel pursuit is a personal favorite without displacing the final chestburster choice.
  • Dallas’s tracker-driven tunnel pursuit is seen as a major precursor to the sustained tension of Aliens.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Smoking; quarantine failure; cocoon scene; rejected ending

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:10Read transcript
  • Smoking inside the spacecraft is considered aged worst, although unusually good ventilation is suggested as a possible defense.
  • The lack of concern and quarantine after Kane’s alien contact is criticized; Ash’s interventions repeatedly prevent protective action, including killing the emerging creature.
  • The cocoon deleted scene is disliked because it opens a distracting alternative understanding of the story; it is not treated as part of every cut.
  • Scott’s planned ending in which the alien kills Ripley and operates the ship is rejected in favor of the satisfying survival ending that still permits sequels.

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

Dallas’s death is scarier; Scott’s influence; movie cats are bad

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:20Read transcript
  • One hot take says Dallas’s tunnel death is scarier than the iconic chestburster; The Exorcist III and Friday the 13th provide jump-scare comparisons without a completed ranked list.
  • Another hot take suggests the Rewatchables might not exist without Alien launching Ridley Scott’s influence on Tony Scott.
  • Ridley Scott and Tony Scott are described as foundational to the show's taste; Scott's genre range and enduring set pieces keep his films culturally present.
  • Scott's storyboards, lighting, textures and spaceship details reward repeat viewing, sometimes despite limited attention to actors.
  • The hottest take attacks movie cats and argues Jones mainly leads people toward danger; The Godfather cat and Mr. Bigglesworth are offered as counterexamples but dismissed as villain props.
  • Ripley's late determination to rescue Jones is challenged because earlier crew behavior does not establish comparable attachment and the cat might carry the alien.
  • The pet rescue is compared with James Brolin returning for the dog in The Amityville Horror despite escaping a visibly dangerous house.
  • Alternative defenses suggest the cat provides crew comfort and a narrative parallel between predators; saving it may help audiences identify with Ripley.
  • A personal cat-and-mouse anecdote supports the anti-cat provocation; another speaker defends cats as normal pets while declining to take them into space.
  • Ripley's rescue of Jones is defended as empathy toward innocents, continuing through Newt, the prisoners and the Winona Ryder character; the opposing view depends on not caring about cats.

Apex Mountain

Hawaiian shirts in space

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:31:34Read transcript
  • Weaver's Apex is placed later around Ghostbusters, Aliens and Working Girl.
  • Hurt's Apex is placed at The Elephant Man following Alien.
  • Stanton's Apex alternatives include Paris, Texas as an iconic rather than commercially dominant role and his busy 1980s run through Red Dawn, Pretty in Pink and Escape from New York; his long association with Nicholson is jokingly proposed.
  • Skerritt's Apex is Top Gun.
  • Kotto's Apex alternatives are Homicide, Midnight Run and Live and Let Die, with debate about the Bond role's subsequent effect on his opportunities.
  • Scott's Apex is assigned to Gladiator rather than Alien; Blade Runner is rejected on financial-success grounds.
  • Alien movies as a category are rejected for Apex here.
  • Dripping and secreting are proposed as an Apex with joking pushback.
  • Movie cats are disputed against the Godfather cat.
  • Hawaiian shirts in space receive affirmative Apex discussion, praising Stanton's timeless thermal-shirt, Hawaiian-shirt and trucker-hat look.
  • Stealth Joseph Conrad references are proposed for Apex alongside Apocalypse Now, leaving a shared alternative rather than an unqualified sole choice.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

All-Black cast; existing sequels/prequels and developing television

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:38:23Read transcript
  • Existing sequels and prequels plus developing film and television projects make Alien far from untouchable; an all-Black cast is welcomed, with a joking Brooklyn Nets cast and Tyler Perry version.

Is This Movie Better With…?

Wayne Jenkins

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:39:13Read transcript
  • Wayne Jenkins is imagined intervening in Ash's attack and loudly opposing Ripley's return for the cat.

Just One Oscar

Ridley Scott (directing)

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:40:07Read transcript
  • Ridley Scott for directing is the extra-Oscar choice; the panel compares the 1979 directing nominees and argues Alien belongs among the retrospective five.
  • The directing nominees are enumerated as Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer, Bob Fosse for All That Jazz, Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now, Peter Yates for Breaking Away and Édouard Molinaro for La Cage aux Folles; the Best Picture nominees instead include Norma Rae in place of La Cage aux Folles.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

Nostromo jacket; flamethrower; facehugger mask; original alien design

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:48:42Read transcript
  • Dallas's Nostromo jacket, the flamethrower and Kane's facehugger mask are memorabilia choices.
  • Ash's head is proposed as memorabilia but rejected as too disturbing to keep in a room.
  • The original alien design is another desired memorabilia object; a tangent recalls the unaffordable auction price of the Shawshank Bible.

Mentions across The Rewatchables