Other mistake: When Ripley is trying to deactivate the self-destruct mode, the instructions she follows on the container are actually just the French interpretation of the instructions she read to activate self-destruct before.
Alien (1979)
2 reviews
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright
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(27 votes)
I own this movie on DVD and saw the 40th Anniversary edition in theaters with my girlfriend.
Funny story, is that right after me and my girlfriend started dating, she told me she likes horror movies but she'd never seen the Alien movies. I own them and was going to bring them over for her to see. But after we we leaving the theaters after watching It Chapter 2 and Stories to Tell in the Dark, we saw the poster for the 40th anniversary of Alien coming to theaters the next month. Great timing! What a coincidence!
For being a movie that came out in the 70's, this film still holds up extremely well. The acting, the set design, and even the effects. Some of it is dated, but it works with the aesthetics of the film. The miniature work with the ships is fantastic.
A movie that perfectly blends sci-fi thriller with a "creature feature" horror film. Still holds up as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and I can't see it losing that title any time soon. Sitting up there right along side The Shining.
I had only ever saw this movie on the small screen as it came out about 10 years before my time. Originally seeing it on VHS, and then later I got the DVD collection. But finally getting to see it on the big screen in a real cinema, along side my wonderful girlfriend who had never seen it before, was an experience all of it's own! There just simply isn't much you can do to beat this film. Still standing the test of time. And spawning one of the best action sci-fi thrillers of all time as it's sequel.
Mistake Status: I'll probably get around to looking through this movie some day for mistakes. None yet.
Alien remains a formidable science fiction horror thriller decades later-great small cast, unique monster, frightening premise with solid scares delivered, top-tier set design and cinematography, lighting, direction. It's just a wild ride through a maze of a ship while a nasty, nearly-unstoppable and cunning creature stalks the crew, picking them off in gruesome ways as they try to survive it plus duplicity. The now-iconic chest-bursting scene is still chilling and painful to witness! If you've never seen Alien or Aliens, watch them on separate days and enjoy Ridley Scott and James Cameron's very different take on the murderous beast.
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Trivia: The original budget for Alien was supposed to be $4.2 million, but was then doubled to $8.4 million after Ridley Scott impressed 20th Century Fox with the storyboards he made.
Question: A bit puzzled as to why Ash tried to kill Ripley by stuffing a rolled up magazine in her mouth when he could have strangled her in seconds.
Answer: This is just one possibility among many, but Ridley Scott suggested Ash may have been developing latent sexuality that he was not equipped to handle through his programming, and perhaps not physically either; his use of a rolled-up magazine may have come about because he was not constructed with a penis (I had to stop myself from making a pun about "hardware").
I always wondered about this. It always struck me as a little Freudian. Also, notice the picture of the topless lady on the wall - an interesting detail when combined with the phallic paper.
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Answer: I believe this was another subtle way for the film to depict that Ash was malfunctioning or at least not fully processing correctly and having problems. It was showing a brutal savagery to his motions as well as an artistic choice for the moment.
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