ALIEN (1979) MOVIE REACTION - AN AMAZING SCI-FI HORROR CLASSIC! - First Time Watching - Review
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2023
- Welcome to our first-time reaction to the Alien movie. Releasing way back in 1979 this movie still holds up and it's such a spine-chilling cinematic experience!
Join us on as we discover the truth about this expedition the Nostromo crew is about to embark. We hope you enjoy our reactions to the groundbreaking sci-fi horror film that has become a cultural touchstone. Get ready for a heart-pounding journey filled with suspense, intense thrills, and the introduction of the legendary Xenomorph.
In this unforgettable film, we'll witness the terrifying tale of the Nostromo's ill-fated crew as they encounter a deadly extraterrestrial creature with a thirst for survival. As we navigate the corridors of the spacecraft alongside Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, we'll be captivated by the film's atmospheric tension and masterful direction by Ridley Scott.
Got to say some of the camera work in this film was absolutely masterful. It gave you a sense of claustrophobia while also feeling like you were the creature itself lurking in the shadows.
And we finally got to see the unforgettable design of the Xenomorph in action! A true cinematic icon! From the iconic chestburster scene to the suspenseful cat-and-mouse game, we'll discuss the elements that have solidified Alien as a genre-defining classic.
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It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, it made $200 million dollars at the box office against an $11 million dollar budget, it put Sigourney Weaver on the map, it's one of the scariest motion pictures ever made, it spawned 3 sequels, 2 spinoff films, board games, toys, comics, graphic novels, video games, and an upcoming like action TV series, And a third spinoff film titled ALIEN ROMULUS for an August 2024 release.
So excited to discover this franchise with you guys! We’ve learned tons already from the first film alone. The set design is astonishing!
There are also books/audio books- not just the graphic novels.
In fact, there are more sequels to this movie than you wrote(even prequels), although some of them are made by other directors and their quality is unsteady.
There are a total of 8 movies with this alien.
And yet, only the first two movies are highly rated and highly regarded. The rest are crap. They only have fringe fans. Even when Ridley Scott finally goes back and does Prometheus and Covenant, with modern "technology," they are huge disappointments.
The original movie was a perfect storm of talent and blind luck converging in the same place at the same time. Aliens was James Cameron at his best. The rest are a stain on that legacy.
@@ifly-fsx I disagree David Fincher's Alien was also excellent and after all Prometheus wasn't as bad as some here claim.
Nothing beats practical effects done right! The sets in this movie are incredible 👽
Indeed. And its f*kin incredible how good they look 44 years later! .. One, if not THE best movie how stand the test of time with its effects. Alien 1 + 2 are masterpieces.
The only movie who beat them on practical effects was The Thing, and I think Alien beats them on a couple things so it works 😂
These are some of the best practical effects and sets we’ve seen. We were absolutely blown away by them!
@@OfficialMediaKnights The set was a compete 360 degrees spaceship ... so, to all intents and purposes, the actors were actually onboard a complete spaceship while filming ... they could wander down the corridors and visit the sick bay, or go to the bridge .. it was all created for real.
Yeeeeeeea
My favorite part of this film is the unsung hero: Bolaji Badejo. He's an extremely tall Nigerian refugee (6'10") that they met in a bar in the UK by chance and had him come in to audition for the role of the xenomorph. He was fully ride or die with the film, working with the team for hours as they constantly made adjustments to the xenomorph suit for him. This film was his only acting credit to his name, as he would pass away not too long after the movie was made due to sickle cell anemia.
Just for accuracy's sake, Bolaji passed in 1992; I wouldn't exactly call that time frame "not too long".
Daaamn. That's so cool. Sucks about him dying though 😞 Imagine what he could have accomplished in the film industry if he'd lived longer. He could've been one of the great creature actors, up there with Doug Jones.
@@NoriMori1992 Could have been a Predator
o7
@Geth-Who Ah, a fellow Citizen!
o7
They didn't _"leave the mother ship"_ , and land a shuttle. They landed the Nostromo itself... What was left in orbit is the ore refinery that they normally drag along with them. The Nostromo is essentially the tractor and the refinery is the trailer... Like a big ole 18-wheeler! ;-]
Thats one thing i feel a lot of people miss when watching this. They are not soldiers or adventurers, they are truckers, regular people.
Dragging a cargo is a concept that makes little sense in space. You put the rocket always behind the cargo, not in front, otherwise the engine exhaust would hit the cargo itself.
@@andreabindolini7452 Don't tell me, tell the original writer! ;-]
The concept was likely used for the average 1979 moviegoer to understand, from the very start of the thrill ride, that these protagonists are not space marines, or explorers, but rather, they are essentially long-haul truckers and factory workers with training in Astrophysics and Geology!
In one brief shot, as they are about to go down to the planet, you see the Nostromo detaching and falling away from what it is dragging, they even made it look like unhitching a trailer!
As for justifying the concept, I'd have to look at the plans to be sure, but the engines could very well not be pointing directly back at the refinery, Perhaps slightly under it. And the refinery itself could have its own, bigger and more powerful slaved engines at the back -- indeed, they probably have them in the front, too, to slow down again. In which case the Nostromo isn't really "dragging" as much as steering the ore-refinery section.
Anyway, the gist of my comment was that the Nostromo is not a fucking shuttle, and you are being a just little pedantic. ;-]
@@robertcartier5088 I could be even more pedantic. Well, without going too deep into rocket science: the expansion ratio of an exhaust, in vacuum, is very high. Think about a "bell" of hot gases, that enlarges very quickly once they are expelled from the engine. This means that your exhaust would certainly hit the refinery even if the engines are slightly offset and not exactly pointing at it.
That said, good observations of yours.
saw it more like a train, engine at both ends load in the middle with remote control of the rear end from the command section in front tractor unit. ( push from the back and a smaller pull from the front like a 70/30 ratio)
it’s funny when people who are fans of modern scifi/horror watch this film for the first time. they automatically see the influence this franchise has had on movies, games, comics, etc.
It really was such an aha moment for us, it's such an incredible experience to watch movies like these because they truly were the trailblazers of their time that carved the way for us!
If someones a fan of sci-fi and not seen Alien or Aliens by the time they're an adult, I find it almost unbelievable.
@@system3008 some people catch on later in life. there’s also sci-fi horror classics i’ve never seen before and i’ve loved horror since a child. it’s bound to happen considering how many movies there are in existence. i don’t find it that odd.
@@system3008
Halo is another video game influenced by the alien movies
If you saw the original as a 13 year old (like myself) it probably influenced you to remain interested in scifi through adulthood and you saw the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy process unfold in real time. There is barely a single science fiction film made in the last 30 years that wasn't directly, or indirectly, heavily influenced by this film.
Finally: I cannot overstate how revolutionary this movie was in its design, look, atmosphere, and intensity. We had seen nothing like it before. Its influence on the genre and medium is enormous.
Genres, plural. In science fiction, before this, all of the space craft were shiny and clean. This movie had a working ship that was lived in and often quite dirty. This had a major effect on science fiction design to this day.
It also made Ridley Scott's career, not to mention Sigourney Weaver's.
for me its acting. no horror film before or after has good realistic acting like this
giger gets the credit because of the monsters .. but the earth-mens "tech base" look? its the work of one artist .. Ron Cobb (rip) and that tech base look is the thing we really took away as a genre wide thing isnt it
@@spacecadet35 The Ships in Star Wars 1977 are not shiny, the Millenium falcon looks dirty and used inside and out. The Deathstar is clean. In fact they ruined the Spaceships in the Prequel movies by making them all shiny.
@@spacecadet35 Well we had Star Wars 1977 and 2001 Space Odyssey which pioneered space models and looks before this. But yeh in other ways this was a step forward.
Props to H.R. Giger's biomechanical designs that were translated into this film, and of course, the Xenomorph. Masterpiece!
In the second film, Ripley has a line “just one of those things managed to wipe out my entire crew in less than 24 hours.” That means from the time it killed Kane to her blowing it out the airlock was probably just under a day time wise.
I’d imagine nobody in the crew were able to sleep once they knew what they had on board.
@@greenman4946 Would you.
Rip Sir Ian Holm, John Hurt, Bill Paxton and Stan Winston
Speaking of time, in the sequel, Ripley is told that she had been adrift for 57 years. Her and the Colonial Marines then go back to LV-426 to investigate. Were they traveling for 57 years as well? It's an interesting thought.
One of the interesting things is that the screen time between Kane dying and Ripley becoming the sole survivor remaining is only 35 minutes. So in a two hour movie that most people think of as a story in which the creature gradually whittling the crew down, one by one, that section of the story actually only takes up around a quarter of the narrative. The first half of the movie in particular is a slow burn, and all the better for it. I *love* the feeling of realism in the opening reel and the growing sense of dread from the time they decode the message onwards. A truly magnificent piece of cinema.
This is a perfect movie. Cinematography, Directing, Sets, Performances, and sound design are all absolutely incredible. More impressive that Ridley Scott did this in the 70's.
With just two cameras
And fantastic pacing as well. Scott took the time to allow us to get to know the characters so we'd care more about them when things go south. Too many movies these days don't give us that and we end up not caring about who lives or dies in the end
It is truly a unique film! We fell in love with it and started to study it at a deeper level. What were their challenges? And how did they solve those problems? Etc so talented!
@@spacecadet35 you only need one camera to capture excellence - which means Alien was twice as good by using two cameras!
You forgot "music"
I'm a professional musician - I'll say no more - but please just apologise (unless you genuinely think the music sucked - I thought it was really good; but you are entitled to your opinion - flawed as it must be)
For me, the music in ALIEN was fantastic - but you didn't think it worthy of praise. You praised everything except the music.
The music is one of the best soundtracks ever made for a movie - with it's unmistakeable "tick-tock" theme in the flutes. A theme so simple and unmistakeable, that everyone knows what movie they're watching if they hear it. [except you, obviously]
Great reaction!! The art direction was done by H.R. Giger, a Swiss surrealist, horror artist who chronically suffered from night terrors. He designed the alien, the face hugger, the landscape, etc... giving the movie that creepy, ghastly look. I got to visit his museum in Switzerland, and I got to see the Oscar he won for the art direction for Alien.
Such brilliant artist.
Said he liked to be in the dark,eliciting he didn't like sunlight.Everybody has slight excentricity and its unique.
@@juanforrester2283 Eccentricity indeed! According to Alien writer Dan O'Bannon, only he and Ridley Scott had contact with him as Geiger quietly worked in a corner of the studio building props, models, and set pieces. Everyone else was afraid to be around him. Geiger also created a few decor pieces for the Alien movie premiere, only to have it torched by some religious group citing it was the work of the devil.
@@dannyropero4216 Dressed all in black working on the film,he and his girlfriend.
All those documentals are so enjoyable,so much insight on the artists involved and their different interpretations previous the final result.
Also an imersion of the times and the overall vibe of the people involved.
@juanforrester2283 His voice was creepy as hell. He spoke like that black clad Nazi villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Nonetheless, Giger was one hell of an artist. I've been a fan for a long time.
@@dannyropero4216 his accent was truly thick just like that character from Raiders,very gentle spoken and kind face surprisingly,passionate in his art,so inspirational
There's a reason this film is considered a masterpiece if horror. 44 years old and it still has the power to shock you
And why it spawned it's own entire sub-genre of sci-fi horror, with innumerable imitators and outright rip-offs
Ellen Ripley has a little-known superpower: the ability to think be rationally in scenarios where everyone (even hardened space marines) is losing their goddamned minds.
100% agreed about the phenomenal set design! The "slimy biomechanical" aesthetic from H.R. Giger was truly revolutionary - there literally had never been sci-fi ships or creatures that looked quite like that before in movies. And even all these years later, it's still just as eerie, unsettling, and fascinating to look at.
Ridley Scott was amazed when he saw the artwork of H.R.Giger, and asked him, how he finds those ideas. H.R. Giger said: "i have nightmares every night". Ridley Scott asked: ''About these things ?'' ... Giger answered: ''Worse''.
So his art was really mostly: trying to paint his nightmares.
The scary thing is, that a lot of his art merges with sexuality... in that sense a lot of his paintings also suggests r*pe by gross monsters. Thats also the reason, why the facehugger is build that way... in the middle its like a female genitalia, but around it its like a spider. Same thing, when a p*nislike-creature bursts out of the chest - with a reversed penetration (not from outside to inside, but from inside to outside... not creating life, but destroying life).
Its just pure horror and terr*r.
The Italian film 'Planet of the Vampires' 1972 or thereabouts is worth a look, for half of 'Alien' and much of how it looks.
The hunting the creature on the ship comes from 'It! The Terror From Beyond Space!' a 1950s black and white US SF potboiler.
This was recognised back in 1979, and was in all the SF movie magazines then popular.
The story about the chestburster scene: there's an exaggerated tale of "they had no idea what was going to happen", but how it went down is, the scene was written typically until it just said "This thing emerges" as a description. They came down to a set where everyone was wearing raincoats, which already made them nervous. Take one, the chestburster doesn't break through the shirt so they yell cut to reset. Take two, the actors felt a bit more confident so they leaned in more, and that's when it came erupting out and spraying blood everywhere. Their shock at how violent it looked is the take you see in the film. In the extended scene, you can see Veronica Cartwright even trips and falls while stumbling away.
Saw this in a theatre in Manhattan. After this scene, you could have heard a pin drop. LOL
Thank you for correcting the long held belief that none of the actors knew what was about to happen. It amazes me that story still gets trotted out 🙄
Veronica(Lambert) screams of terror in the background always took that scene to the next level for me. She was outstanding throughout the movie, However one of the reasons that scene is so iconic to me is Veronica.
@@eddhardy1054 "the actors just improvised!" is a common folktale, but when you're dealing with an expensive setpiece that needs hours to reset or CAN'T, you cannot just tell them to "improvise!" and hope it works. It's the same with the Joker hospital explosion - it's been confirmed tons behind the scenes by Nolan that they planned that "button stops working" moment meticulously due to it being one take.
@@eddhardy1054 It's one of the funnier Hollywood myths, at least. Imagine actually believing that the actors had no idea what was going to happen...meanwhile, John Hurt is sticking up through a table, with fx people huddled below frame, coordinating the blood and the puppet...everyone present HAD to know the basics of what was going on. Just not the specifics. More than anything, they just didn't realize how much blood there would be, or how forcefully it was going to geyser from the dummy chest, once they got the gag to work.
Now, can you imagine watching that in the cinema for the first time?? Also Aliens 2 is absolutely freakin brilliant, totally different feel, but brilliant.
I saw it in 1979, and it was absolutely terrifying in so many ways: the truly alien nature of the beast, the claustrophobic corridors, the Nostromo internals looked and felt so real, all tied together with Goldsmith's unearthly score. And just as important was the incredible soundscape, the horrific screaming of the planets atmosphere when they landed, and the highly unsettling 'organic' sounds and pulsations littered throughout the audiotrack - no other movie had combined so many elements on this level before, and so it became the iconic cinema experience it is today.
I saw this in the base theater on Ft Bliss in 1979 with a couple hundred other soldiers. You could have heard a pin drop during most of the film, the audience was so creeped out. Right when Dallas was searching the ventilation shafts, the power went out and the theater went pitch black for a few seconds. It actually made some viewers scream until the emergency lights came on a few seconds later.
Brandywine was the name of the river that runs through The Shire in Lord of the Rings. In the first movie when Frodo and friends make a run for the Bockleberry Ferry to escape the Ringwraiths, it is the Brandywine they cross.
Riddley Scott had said, "I was going to create the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE IN SPACE, horror movie, with the crew being taken out one at a time, and with no place to hide." He definitely accomplished his goal.
And watch the directors cut of Aliens. The extra scenes are worth it.
He directed alien was not the script writer.
@@ez-8238 You need to watch the Additional DVD, The Making of Alien, that came with the DVD Movie ALIEN. In it, Riddley Scott said, "I was going to create the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE IN SPACE, horror movie, with the crew being taken out one at a time, and with no place to hide."
Go to the 17:00 time mark on the UA-cam Video below, and You'll see, with your own eyes, Ridley saying, "I was going to create the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE IN SPACE, horror movie." And, He did.
Uh, you do know that Directors can change the script, don't you?
ua-cam.com/video/sG4JGn22fXA/v-deo.html
its basically that and 2010 space odyssey mixed into one and at a faster pace obviously
@@ez-8238 The part of Ash being a robot, was not in the original script. That was added by 2 of the Brandywine producers/directors/writers.
In the novelization it is revealed the creature broke into the food stores and that helped it grow so big so quickly.
Yeah they went with a lot of different rules in the script, novelization, etc. The sequel established the rules that are more popular in culture like the queen laying eggs, etc. but the director's cut of this film made it so that the eggs are made from the humans glued to the walls
@@danwilliams2551 Which is closer to the story of the novel "The Expedition of the Space Beagle", whose author won a lawsuit because there are so many simiiarities that it is easy to believe they stole the idea from the novel. I only found out after i read the novel and researched, because it reminded me strongly of "Alien". There are some differences though, for example the alien is already an adult when they pick it up and it fights the crew of several hundred scientists and military personel.
@@gerhardadler3418cool. I would like to see that
@@gerhardadler3418 The Voyage of the Space Beagle by AE Van Vogt. Back in the seventies, that was the book that launched a lifetime of SF reading for me, after finding a copy lying around in my block of flats in my early teens. In actuality it is a composite novel created by Van Vogt merging several earlier published short stories. It is old school but nonetheless excellent SF. As for Alien... it is a masterpiece.
@@peterv4533 Yes it is, and so is Space Beagle in its own way. I first got the book (actually Triad, which included two other Van Vogt novels, but Space Beagle was far and away the best of the three imo) when I was 11 as a Christmas gift from my grandmother. Being a dumb kid, I thought it was about a literal beagle (like the dog I had) in space. But of course it was more like Star Trek before Star Trek ever existed. Loved it of course as I was already a big Star Trek nerd, though the section about the telepathic birdlike aliens the Riim was kind of boring to me at the time. In fact, I always felt the very first episode The Man Trap was also inspired by Voyage of the Space Beagle, as was It the Terror from Beyond Space.
I always love that Ripley went back for Jones (the cat). Really says a lot about her character. I also remember being shocked the cat survived the film, I thought for sure it would be the first one to go. Pleasantly shocked, but shocked.
This film up to this date, remains the TRUE EXAMPLE and movie to look up to, on how to make tension and atmosphere. On how to shoot a spaceship and an unknown planet. A masterclass in cinematography and building tension!! All moviemakers should be taking notes here!!!
Jerry Goldsmith's otherwordly score is worth mentioning and contributes a lot to the terror and overall atmosphere of the film. The dissonant percussive hits with delay are creepy af and when it does give melody, it's whistful, fragile and far from home. Fits the action so well and overall just a classic score in every sense.
💯 👍🏾
The same year (1979), Jerry Goldsmith also composed the score for *Star Trek: The Motion Picture.* All told, Goldsmith's film work was a rare combination of quantity and quality. The man was a master of his craft and widely known as one of the best film composers of all time.
Well said!
One of my favorite scores ever. Some of the most beautifully eerie music ever made
Yes, agreed ! And I also agree with the Director's over-ruling of some of Goldsmith's initial compositions and choices. Goldsmith's original composition for the film's opening was too conventional and lacked the correct tone needed to instil fear right from the start. Also, the final choice of Howard Hansen's 'Romantic' for the end credits is absolutely perfect to release the immense terror and tension for the audience. I vividly remember this feeling during the credits when I first saw it in 1979.
As much as I love this masterpiece of a movie, I’m always excited when reactors watch this for the first time and I tell myself just wait until they see the sequel! One of the few sequels that just puts it over the top!
Aliens was unbelievable the first time I watched it. the special edition is one of the few to take it even to higher heights.
This is a classic masterpiece! Just like Lord of the Rings is the foundation to most medieval fantasies, this movie is the foundation for sci fi horror. Always will be a 10/10 for me.
Psycho fact: Ash used the rolled up paper inside the throat of Ripley to suffocate her and leave no bruising on the throat and avoid arousing suspicion.
It was also because he didn't have functioning sexual organs and felt frustrated by the fact he couldn't have sexual relations with humans, so this was his way of getting his frustrations out
That’s Ash fact is just…creepy! This movie stayed with us and became one of our top sci-fi horror flicks! Can’t wait to check out the sequel 😃
@@synaesthesia2010huh... That's a ... Useful piece of information
Hands down my favorite alien design. Over 40 years old and it still looks amazing, even better than a lot of stuff today cause it’s so cgi dependent.
100% Practical Effects
0% CGI 😁
Amen! I agree! 🙏🏽💪
I mean with the computers they had, of course there was no cg
@@deathmetal271 CGI existed back then, but it wasn't very good. The fact that they managed so well with practical effects still blows my mind. :)
The best combination is a mix of both not completely devoid of one or the other.
The good old days 😊❤
I worked at an indoor paintball centre many years ago here in England where they filmed alien.
The whole upstairs was a Lazer tag area and they'd bought the walls of the alien spaceship set from shepperton studios.
It was really creepy walking about up there when I was checking out the equipment.
Nobody wanted to go there on there own and they thought I was not affected.
They were wrong
I was shitting myself the whole time 😂
I imagine that you were hearing the motion detection sound going off and you were looking all around you.
I know that I would have been doing that! 😅
I can just remember that. It was billed as an Alien Adventure Zone or something, where people were taken through on foot at a run like a jog-along-ghost-train. It got positive reviews in the local paper, but I don't think it lasted more than a season...
@@tedthesailor172yer, it was in an old American base gymnasium/ sports centre which was eventually condemned.
I visited London in 1998 with some friends and we went to this place "Alien Experience" or what they called it. I suspect this place you describe might have been where I was. Or at least the same "walls" and decor from the movie. But the "experience" included a guy dressed up as a Space Marine and putting the group of people into a setting where we were inside the spaceship where an Alien was loose. We ran around following the marine when at one point the Alien popped up and stood in the doorway. He "fired his pulserifle" and commanded us, the group to run. The next thing I remembered was that I found myself alone in pitch darkness. I had lost the group, all fell quiet and I had to feel my way till I heard voices. That in itself was my greatest scare in that experience.
@@mortenBP I went to this when it was open around the same time. It was called 'Alien War'. Pretty amazing being forced to run around the corridors that looked just like the ones in Aliens, only to find an alien crouched in front of you with its arms out to grab, just like in the air vent in Alien. The coolest thing was one of the people in your group was a stooge. You all got bundled into an APC, but just as the doors closed an alien burst in and grabbed the 'stooge', pulling them out. You thought one of your group has actually been grabbed, but it was just an actor.
What makes this movie great is the acting. People get so caught up in the action and suspense that they forget to notice how real the acting makes everything feel. There's an almost documentarian feel to the first part of the movie that no amount of CGI and special effects can achieve. It's an example of the kind of movie where everything just works. Except perhaps some of the creature effects :)
A lot of the minor dialogue was ad-libbed by the actors, plus Ridley Scott set some of them up in various ways. For instance, he told Yaphette Kotto (Parker) in private to cold-shoulder Sigourney Weaver and be low-key hostile to her _all the time_ , not just when they were shooting, so that it created real tension between them that came out in the characters. After they'd finished, Kotto made a point of apologising to her.
I remember watching this movie for the first time back in 1979 at the cinema and it blew me away. 44 years later, I purchased the 4K disk and viewed it on my 83 inch TV and it looked even better than I remembered. The detail in the sets are truly amazing. This movie hasn't aged at all and is still the best SciFi horror fim ever made!
Thanks for reacting to this timeless masterpiece! I was 14 when I saw it back in 1979, and it gave me nightmares for weeks. My favorite Sci-Fi/Horror movie for sure!
I was 21, and I swear it gave me nightmares for many months on end; it was so disturbing and scary !
I was only 10 when I saw it and it didn't affect me. Wonder what that says about me
I was 17 when I saw it, and had no idea it was supposed to be a horror flick.
I was obsessed with Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the time, and was sort of half expecting something in the same vein.
And until that point, most "scary" alien films had been incredibly cheesy and corny.
Alien also gave me nightmares for weeks on end. I remember walking out of the theatre with the crowd, late evening, and being in a complete daze. Truly traumatized by an absolutely brilliant, and terrifying, film.
I was 17 when it was released in 79. CGI doesn't compare to practical effects.
@@MREmusique Very very similar to my experience, I was also obsessed with CE3K, and I recall the many times I would randomly sneak in an evening session of CE3K just after my 1st yr university classes. In 1979, I was now a graduate trainee, and me and a friend casually chose Alien for Friday movie night, having zero idea about it - and FRAK did it totally scare the sh..t out of me. I vividly remember the opening scenes and music, I was petrified from the start, the slow intense panning of outer space, the creepiness, the emptiness, the organic sounds, the movie titles - nothing I mean NOTHING had combined absolute terror and scifi in this way before. What an experience !
Much like Jaws, such intense buildup without even seeing the monster ❤
Yeeess, absolutely agreed!
Can’t wait for the next one. It’s super rare for a sequel to equal its predecessor. This one absolutely does.
Don't agree. Cameron made a more mediocre populist film, with awful dialogue and hokey characters (like he always does--'Titanic", both "Avatar" films). As critics said at the time of 'Aliens" release: 'It's bascially a war movie in space.'.
@@eldiran2 Crtics reception for Aliens was exceptionally good, though. Roger Ebert didn't even really enjoy the movie (he makes it pretty clear in his review) but still couldn't find any faults in it and gave it both praise and a good score.
@@yrenekurtz5268 'Aliens' (like 'Titanic' & the 'Avatars') does what it does well--gives the public exactly what it wants, i.e., they ae Populist Films. The original 'Alien', though, was original and intriguing and well-scripted. As I stated, Cameron is awful with dialogue and hokiness.
@@eldiran2 Disagreed on all counts, but hey, that's what opinions are for!
I was 16 when this came out. The theater was packed, people were freaking out. It was SO intense.
Here's a fun fact. The chestburster scene reaction was authentic. The cast didn't exactly know what was about to happen to John Hurt, so the reveal was a complete shock.
There is another small fun fact about this scene. The actress who played Lambert was so much scared about this scene , that she really thought of quitting the job. She said, she had nightmares from it, even months after that shooting. Her tears in the movie, when she is one of the last survivers with Ripley and Parker, were actually real. She was really traumatized. Even though she knew its not real.
Also Ridley Scott made it, that no actor or actress actually saw the alien creature forehand - until the scene came, where they act with the alien. Therefore the shape of the alien really catched the actors by surprise, and the reactions were more genuine. Thats also a reason, why we can feel with them so much, and are scared for them.
It was a real alien bursting out of John Hurt's chest. Talk about method acting!
They knew *what* was going to happen, since it was in the script. They didn't know exactly *how* it would happen. The large amount of stage blood and the shock of the bursting effect was what they had such a big reaction to.
@@greenmonsterprod Thats why the first comment said "they didnt knew it EXACTLY" ... They knew, but not exactly.
@@InjuredRobot. Thats a claim of you. Without any source.
And actually i heard it from Ridley Scott.
But sure, you can undermine it with ''but they took a peek'' , and just mock everyone, who dont copy-pasted it, like you accuse, but heard it from an interview from Ridley Scott.
But ok, seems that you can even accuse Ridley Scott as liar - because in the internet: the claim alone is enough.
One of my two kittens is named Ripley. (The other is Jade.) I brought them home and was originally going to call them Grayson and Jade. But Grayson didn't really feel right. So I was watching the making of Aliens on my BluRay set (for like the 5th time) and the kittens were sitting on my legs. I said, "I don't like the name Grayson. How 'bout Ripley?" And she looked at me, then looked back at the tv. I said "Ripley" again, and she looked at me again. Tried it a third time, then I was like, "Ripley it is then." 😆 She's definitely the adventurous sort. When you're done with these movies, I HIGHLY recommend one of the making-of films. Even Netflix has an episode on Aliens on The Stories/Movies That Made Us.
Fun Fact, in order to save money on set design they built most of the sets "Child Size" the directors own kids would wear child sized space suits and do some of the long planet walks. It's an old movie trick some directors use to trick the audience into believing only adults were on set or in front of the camera.
For the "chest-burster scene," none of the actors knew what was going to happen. The director told them something was going to go wrong, but didn't tell them what. Consequently, the look of horror and shock on their faces was quite real when the alien started ripping it way out, spraying blood all over them, and then ran across the table and escaped. No one had ever seen anything like that before and they'd specifically received no warning about it.
Also, that slap that Ripley received was real. They kept trying to do the scene over and over again with a near miss/fake slap, but it just wasn't working. So, without telling Sigourney Weaver, the director told the other actress not to fake it and to just hit her. Thus, again, a very real reaction from the actors.
The writing, the cinematography, sound design, and outstanding practical effects are why this movie still hits so hard after this long. In think, in the end, the alien was only on screen for a total of about 4 minutes. Those little glimpses and the suspense were enough to drive the entire movie.
The actor who played the bloke who had the Alien burst out of his chest, was in the end scene of sify spoof "Space Balls" & his one line "Not again,!"
You mean John Hurt? A very famous actor.
Glad you guys enjoyed this movie and also was terrified of it as well. One of my all time favourite horror movies, love from Australia 🇦🇺
Oh my goodness, this movie GOT us a bunch of times!! It was sooo good!! Cannot wait to watch the rest! Thanks so much for your support, love right back to Australia!
@@OfficialMediaKnights watch aliens now its second part
Saw it at the cinema - the whole audience screamed at the chest burster. SCREAMED.
One of my top three favorite movies of all time. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen it. Fun fact: Ridley Scott used children (his own, I believe) dressed in the space suits in the scene where they first encounter the space jockey, so the alien pilot would seem even bigger.
Veronica Cartwright played the tallest astronaut, 'Dallas' and two kids played the others from when they are seen departing the ship, and when they are in the sets within the alien derelict, as you say, to expand the size of the sets.
Smaller versions of the spacesuits were all that was needed.
@@stevetheduck1425 thanks! I love movie trivia bits like this.
"Bones are bent outwards? May be the ship got depressurised or something" Oh boy were you in for a treat! Good call on guessing Ash was 'too chill'. Really glad you enjoyed it. This is one of my favourite movies of all time.
I never get tired of watching this film.
If you haven't see it yet, I recommend John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982). In many ways, its the soulmate of "Alien"; A small group of people in a remote, isolated location. Tension that builds relentlessly. Excellent practical effects and set design. Eerie, masterfully sound score.
That soundtrack… 😱😱😱
I saw a great review of this movie once, "No one listened to the smart woman with the cat and they all died except for her".
I mean, there you have it.
Yeah…pretty much 😂
I highly recommend playing Alien: Isolation after you watch Aliens. It happens in between Alien and Aliens, but you'll want context from the second film before you play it. It is so well done and looks, sounds, and feels like the films. It is also paranoia inducing :D
The retro-future set design is so iconic, I agree.
Cannot wait to play! Been in need of a good horror game lately and this surely will deliver! Thank you for the suggestion 😃
@@OfficialMediaKnights One of the few games I played through multiple times. I used to restart it every Halloween!
@@OfficialMediaKnightsif you plan to play Alien Isolation I’ll second watching Aliens beforehand. Make sure to watch the extended cut of Aliens. It has a critical scene that sets up Alien Isolation that the theatrical edition cut. (Also pissed off Sigourney Weaver that the scene was cut)
I’ll also mention that Aliens is one of the few sequels where you can legitimately argue whether it’s better than the first. Aliens also had a huge impact on science fiction media. Ridley Scott did not return for Aliens which was picked up by James Cameron of Terminator, Titanic, Avatar fame.
Alien Isolation is a masterpiece.
Maybe not in graphics (but at least it easily runs on older PCs) and to me it's a little bit too long, but the way it reproduces the feeling of the first movie is as perfect as hell. The same design, the same sounds, the same claustrophobic paranoia... They're all there, perfectly reproduced. And even if the Alien AI is scripted, it's very difficult to understand its behavior, so it's very well damn scripted.
Ripley has always been my favorite female protagonist, well, she and Dana Scully 😁 So probably not hard to guess whos my favorite male protagonist😂🛸 Anyways, I would trust my life in hands of Ripley.
Omg Scully was the best!!! I (Denise) was a huge X Files nerd when I was younger, and Mulder was just awesome!! Definitely agreeing on your favorite protagonist take! 😊
@@OfficialMediaKnights I think The X-Files was the best TV show there ever was, yes it had it's up and downs but everything around the whole serie was just done perfectly, even the advertising campaign before the show started was pefrect, at least here in Finland, there was the roadsigns saying "its coming", "soon it starts", etc. and these ads were everywhere, and no where it said what is happening. Only few days before show aired, there was time and TV channel mentioned in posters, but not the name of the show.
Anyways, I started watching the show from the beginning and never missed an episode (Yes I'm that old 😅), and yes I bought all the merchandise and still have books, playing card, collectible cards...
Yes, but the Alien. I hope you guys watch all of them, if not for the channel, the by yourselves, second movie Aliens you should check the directors cut, but either way, it's a very entertaining movie also, after that it gets little, well, if not better to do, why not.
Also if not familiar yet then Google H.R.Giger (Late Swiss artist know for his airbrush art).
As I understand it, all the Nostromo sets were all connected. They described walking through it was like touring an actual ship.
Yes I read that as well👍🏾
Ridley Scott designed the sets to be stacked on top of each other, so the camera could go along a corridor, up or down a ladder and into another room with the actors.
This was impossible due to fire regulations (fires destroyed the sets of 'The Shining' and 'Legend' during production, for example) and so the ladders going down go into spaces below ground (you can see such a space in Star Wars in the hangar bay).
Today this might be achieved by electronically 'blending' the transition.
Veronica Cartwright, who plays Lambert, is a Horror veteran. She appears in Hitchcock's 'The Birds' which was a huge inspriation on Alien and Jaws, as well as the 1978 sci-fi classic 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.' Ridley Scott didn't tell any of the actors besides John Hurt and Ian Holm what was going to happen, and so when Veronica saw the alien burst out of John Hurt's chest, her reaction is absolutely truthful.
IIRC, this was one of the first horror movie to add a 4th act, with the threat returning after being assumed dead. What you think is a part of the ship suddenly moving and revealing it's the xenomorph was bone chilling.
And Ripley was such a great main character. Smart, competent, doesn't take BS, but still vulnerable and prone to fear like any human would do in her situation. Too often the "final girl" ends up as a flawless badass by the end of the movie. Ripley was doing what she needed to do to survive, but still understandably shitting herself while doing it.
20:40 People sometimes forget how terrifying the chestburster scene is for someone going into the movie blind lmao
Classic horror! Everyone is expecting a good jump scare...
No one and I mean *no one* sees the "Ash is a robot" twist coming!
Great reaction! My top five favourite horror films!
Nice to see the respect you two have for the movie. If you can imagine.......seeing it in the theatre in 1979. It absolutely froze the audience. So way ahead of its time. Think of this. It took 48 minutes into the movie before the big scene, taking the audience on a slow suspenseful trip.....then hell broke loose. An absolute classic. Thank you.
When I saw Alien in the cinema, no one knew what it was. They were expecting some more Star Wars. A shock to the system.
One of my personal favorite horror franchises! A huge classic! 🙏🏽💪
Absolutely, this movie was FANTASTIC!
Guys, I'm a soon to be 64 year old black man who saw this great film when it was released. Unfortunately, my girlfriend was with me at the time, and I had claw marks from her beautifully manicured nails to prove the intensity of this film! I said all of that to say that yours is one of the best reactions I've seen. I love that your understanding of filmmaking helped you to appreciate the cinematic impact of this film. Kudos!😊❤
Never forgot watching it for the first time in Wales, as an exchange student from Virginia Tech .. the screams .. the screams! .. On the way out, before they turned all the lights back on, I almost slipped stepping on vomit. ... No way you can forget that!
I saw this in the theatre when it premiered and the big screen made it really immersive. A friend of mine saw it and one of the jump scares was so intense that his wristwatch flew off of his hand across the aisle!
Oh man, A dude I work with saw this at the cinema on acid. Had no idea, thourght it would be a star trek like deal. He can never watch it/has never watched it again.
The Nostromo detached from the automated ore refinery it was towing to investigate the planet. Later, right before Brett was killed all that dripping water is condensation from the plant's cooling system it's safe because it's distilled.
Frodo asks Merry how far to the next crossing and Merry replies "Brandywine Bridge. 20 miles."
This film is Art. It’s also terrifying. Ripley kicks ass 💪
One of the awesome things about the Nostromo set is that it was fully enclosed. Rather than building a set that could be pulled apart in order to take off one side for cameras lighting and crew to peer inside, it was built like a real spaceship, with doors that opened and the lighting was pretty much mostly generated by the lights built into the ship. So when filming inside the nostromo, the camera had to be mobile and move almost like another person inside the cramped space. It gave the film this amazing authentic, real world feeling. And the actors felt like they were in a real spaceship.
I saw this in the theater when it came out in 79. I was 13 and had very strict Christian parents that would never have dreamed of letting me see something like this. Fortunately my best friend's Mom had no such reservations. So one nice Summer Saturday Afternoon she took me, my best friend and his 12 year old sister Val that shared a bit of a mutual crush with me, to see it. The late 70s were a very special time for Sci-Fi and almost Zeitgeist was coming together with the films like Star Wars and Close Encounters, and several Sci-Fi TV shows, and of course Marvel Comics and I was super into it all and I was really excited to see this as I was expecting more awe and wonder. What I got was bone-deep Cosmic Horror I had no idea ever existed. From the opening scene a sense of unease got established. I knew this wasn't going to be fun. When I saw the derelict Alien ship, worst dread I ever felt. The Chestburster scene really unhinged the audience. I remember a lot of screaming and people literally running for the door. Audiences weren't inured yet back then. I felt sick. I have waves of revulsive horror like I never imagined. Valerie ended up in my lap, crying into my neck. The fact I had a crush on her was bad enough. I had never had a girl in close physical contact with me before. So, I experienced all kinds of feelings. Imagine that juxtaposed with the horrors I was seeing on screen. She pulled back a little one and we looked right into each other's eyes I think I would have kissed her if her Mom hadn't literally been right there. Then came for me the worst part, Lambert and Parker's deaths. To see Parker, who I had though would be the big hero in the end. A bid tough man absolutely made helpless and brutally killed terrified me beyond all measure. We were all wrung out by the end credits. Afterwards I had nightmares for weeks, and my parents? Were not pleased.
WOW!! This was such a great comment to read, thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful story!! Made us feel like we were right there with you!!
But the real question is, did things work out with Valerie in the end?! Can't leave us on a cliffhanger like that!!
You mentioned playing games. Alien Isolation, its insanely good suspense game that is a sequel to this movie, it happens in between this movie and the 2nd one. They did a fantastic job on it, looks SPOT on.
I was 17 when I first saw this. I am now 62, so it is hard to imagine not being aware of it and it's impact on the sci-fi/horror genre. Loving your reactions to all these films that have been part of my life for so long.
The 80s aesthetic of futuristic technology in this and Alien isolation gives it charm
I love that it also depicts humans in space as boring, dirty and dangerous. It is not all gleaming control panels etc............ Aliens is as good, think Alien meets Diehard. You'll love it! :)
You guys are great. Subbed! Awesome reaction to one of my top movies ever (no wonder Ridley Scott went on to make other legendary films).
This one sends the right kind of chills. Interesting interpretation of an encounter with an alien intelligence, and the isolation makes it that much scarier. Music, atmosphere, acting, it is all on fire.
The Director’s Cut has a very cool scene in the latter part that includes Dallas and Ripley.
When I was 14 I saw this 2nd day out in theaters with my friend and his stepdad, a 6'4" Vietnam Vet ex Marine. The line went around the building and remember it was a hot day. Most people were expecting a Star Wars type film and were very shocked to say the least. My friend's dad waited in the lobby for my friend and I after the chest burst scene. And yea, the Xenomorphs grow to full size in a few hours...truly Alien.
Went to see this, when it came out in 1979, with my best friend. We both had large Dr. Peppers. From the start of the movie, my friend slowly began sinking down in her seat. When the chest-burster scene happened, my friend's soda shot up into the air and landed on me and she got up and walked out of the theater.😮. I had to finish watching the movie by myself. She never forgave me for that.
Saw this when I was 16 on opening weekend with my dad. It scared the shit out of me and for the first and only time in my life I saw my dad was also shaken up. This movie was so realistic and we had never seen anything like it. Today's horror seldom leaves anything to the imagination so most people are desensitized to it before they get around to watching this almost 50 year old movie.
Alien for me will always be the best horror movie ever made.
I agree. In that sense this scifi is for me one of the most realistic scifis ever made. Because it doesnt explains or shows everything. Like real: people never get a full picture of the truth. And a lot is left for speculation. And that just feels realistic. Nowadays most scifi-movie-makers think: that they need to explain and show everything. And the aliens are CGI (which in my opinion always has that plastic-moving-look). I really prefer even a bad model (if its not to bad) over CGI.
I couldn't sleep for a week after seeing the trailer, lol. "In space, no one can hear you scream."
@@PygmalionFaciebat 100% agree, its a masterpiece of both horror and scifi, and the practical special effects cement the realism of everything they put to film. I think it will always remain at the top of my list of scifi movies, and 40 years on it still looks timeless.
This was probably the first film that genuinely frightened me. I saw it at the cinema when I was sixteen and I do not think anything has scared me more since. It certainly helped that I saw it for the first time on the big screen. It was my favourite film until Ridley Scott gave us the outstanding Blade Runner, three years later.
Hi guys, cool it's awesome you've seen this sci-fi classic - it's the GOAT space chiller! Please react to it's amazing sequel Aliens (1986) asap! It's widely regarded as being better than the original and one of the greatest sequels ever. Alien was filmed at Shepperton Studios in the UK in 1978 and the Alien creatures were created by Swiss artist H.R Giger. Plus the chestburster scene came to writer Dan O'Bannon in a dream! The movie is set in the year 2122 and there was originally a darker ending where the alien kills Ripley in the shuttle and speaks to earth in her voice...
Ohhhh that's awesome!! The creature design is incredible, and frankly, still feels unmatched to this day!! We are superexcited to watch the sequel, we've heard incredible things!!
Ooofff that ending?! That would have destroyed us holy cow 😂😂 kinda glad they chose not to use that one!
@OfficialMediaKnights Absolutely! Yes definitely, its unlike anything we've ever seen before or since. Yay excellent! I cant wait to see it and watch this and that back to back. Fantastic, yep it can't be praised enough. Yeah that's it! Oh same here and I'm glad they chose to do the ending we see on screen too.
@@OfficialMediaKnights Oohh, trivia titbit: when the production of The Terminator was held up for 9 months between 1983-84, James Cameron used the delay to write Aliens!
What a guy huh!? His creative mind never stops for one second!
@OfficialMediaKnights Oh indeed! His imagination is incredible. Nope, he's on the go all the time and that's why he's one of the best filmmakers ever.
I love your comment "this movie excels" - it is indeed so impactful, landmark and iconic for its time, and set benchmarks for both horror and scifi, let alone both in combination. I saw it with a friend just after graduation, and it scared the sh..t out of me for a long long time. It was the golden age of cinema, Star Wars, Close Encounters, ET, Bladerunner, and Alien. And of course Ripley, a true heroine purely by virtue of great acting and phenomenal movie making.
A masterclass in horror and suspense. Lamberts scream at the end was bone chilling.
I was 7 when this movie first came out. And the one thing I have always said about the story was if they had just listened to the crazy cat lady none of them would have ended up dead.
I went to see this when it was first released. Stood in line for an hour in S.F. and couldn't get in. That was not a thing back then. This movie was huge. Btw, the interior of the ship and the alien were designed by this freaky Swiss artist Giger. Check out his Necronomicon. Very disturbing stuff. You gotta love it.
Holy cow, waiting in line like that back then wasn't too common of an occurrence for sure!
We managed to check out some of Giger's work and we are mindblown! Superinspiring for us for our own projects for sure!
Google Ron Cobb.
The Tag line for this movie was "In space no one can hear you scream". One hell of a tag line. There was a interview in Fangoria magazine saying that no one knew what the monster looked like and each death was a solo event. The alien was brought around to the set in secret so their death scene was a original reaction and not acted.
Just one of my absolute favourite films. I remember seeing this when it came out expecting something along the lines of Star Wars only to be confronted by this absolute horror of a film. Brilliant effects even now and a wonderful story. Scared the life out of me on first watch!
Terminator and Predator are kind of adjacent sci-fi hits and have crossed over with Alien in films, comics, and games. I recommend seeing both of them.
We did watch the first Predator a few months back, but are superpumped to check out the rest too!
@@OfficialMediaKnights I accidentally left Robocop out of that list. I was a fan of the Robocop vs Terminator and some of the Batman vs Predator comics. If you see Huntress in that run, you’ve found my favorite.
Imagine seeing this on the big screen with a few hundred others. The hype there was awesome. Jumping, screaming, hiding faces behind hands, 'WTF are you doing' comments and that was from the guys'. Glad you like this movie, it is a classic Down Under say,s Hi good reaction.
Ohhh we can only imagine!! It must have been such an experience and we wished we could have experienced it like that!!
Thanks so much for the support, so glad you enjoyed! Greetings back to Down Under!
@@OfficialMediaKnightsOne of my favs. I saw it with a bunch of school mates when it came out on its original release in 1979 in Sydney, Australia. I was about 14 years old. Love it as much today as I did back then. And I’ve had it on every video format it was ever released on. The 4K Blu ray is like watching a film print.
An absolute classic!! The acting, the atmosphere, the music, the sound design, the visual design, the escalating tension, the creature....all simply GREAT! As I once heard this described, this is a haunted house story set in space. And we get introduced to one of the greatest movie heroes, Ellen Ripley. Wonderful reactions as always, you two!!
You'll love 'Aliens' even though it has a completely different feel to it.
Or you WON'T if you find this original,well....original. "Aliens" is more typical Hollywood fare, by the awful screenwriter James Cameron.
@eldiran2
Don't agree, Aliens is considered a worthy successor to the original,,,and a classic. For many fans it's considered the last of the legitimately great movies in the franchise before it became just a money grab
@@Iacon40k I think you meant to comment on someone else's comment instead of mine.
Ridley Scott's movies always look so good, because, to this day, he is a big believer in using practical effects. He does as much in-camera as possible, and, only uses VFX when absolutely called for. For instance, they got such a real, biological look on the eggs, and, face hugger, because, they used sheep, and, pig scraps they got from butcher shops to build them.
Whaaat, no way?! That's incredible!! But see, it's that dedication to make it look as real as possible, that separates a good movie from a great one!
Ridley Scott is one of the greatest directors of our time, and we are so excited to check out the rest of this franchise!!
Actually, if you watch his last several films they are filled with CGI.
Alien is a sci-fy horror and Aliens is more of a sci-fy action movie. Both are great. I've seen this movie so many times and every time Lambert slaps Ripley for following protocol and refusing to open the hatch and let them in, I wanted Ripley to beat her down. It just annoys me so much.
Commentary from you two, the attention you paid to the movie, the fact that you don't over-talk over important scenes or dialogue, that you genuinely seem interesting in the movie, etc.
You two are my new favourite react team. Keep it up and *definitely* do the sequel because it is absolutely brilliant. It's more action-horror rather than horror-suspense, but it's equally if not more legendary. The third and fourth are... well, not nearly as good by any means but still worth watching just to see.
This was way ahead of its time. Imagine seeing this back in 79? No one had ever seen anything remotely close to this. Alien launched a series of incredible movies all within a few years of each other like Terminator and Robocop.
In my country it was called: "Alien - the eight passenger of the Nostromo". And it was a first movie that I have learned why do they have an age restriction rating... :) And there is an absolutely awesome game: Alien Isolation. Definetely best franchise production in gaming.
It is called "Alien - the 8. passenger" here (in our native language obviously.
One of the greatest jump scares in cinema. This movie terrified me as a kid. You will absolutely LOVE Aliens the sequel. Can’t wait for it.
Not to mention the amount of great stars in this film... Ian Holm, Tom skerrit, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt and putting Sigorny Weaver on the map
I saw this when I was 11 years old that summer in 1979. My dad took on a Sunday afternoon. I can't possibly explain how terrifying it was to see this movie in a dark movie theater without having any idea what it was about or what was going to happen. That sequence when Dallas was in the air shafts had me clinging to my dad's arm burying my face into his shoulder. I couldn't bear it!
Now I don’t feel so bad, as I just let my 12yr old nephew watch it. That chestburster scene really got to him, however it sounds like you turned out ok😄
You gotta watch Aliens now!! Best sequel ever!!
NOW your have to watch the sequel "Aliens", one of the greatest movies ever made!!
Maybe the best sequel ever made.
You have to watch the director’s cut of Aliens. James Cameron introduces it & the extra scenes are well worth it.
I have a weird history with this franchise. First Alien movie I ever saw was Alien: Covenant, at the theater with a Meetup group. Some months later, I saw Prometheus on TV. Even without seeing the first Alien, or hearing any opinions about the sequels, I knew these weren't very good; I knew they weren't what an Alien movie looks like when it's being its best, truest self. Then last year, I finally got to see the first Alien, on movie night in a Discord server. And I immediately knew: This was home. This was what an Alien movie was supposed to be. So good. The atmosphere alone is top-notch.
The cinematography is outstanding in this film. I love the use of the wide format to show us the confined space of the Nostromo. The lighting, set design and overall production value is top notch. An excellent cast, well written and quality direction plus the joy of a Goldsmith score.
There was a fashion in this era for catchy tag lines and for this movie they came up with the best one ever,
In space, no-one can hear you scream"
I love how Ripley doesn't want or try to be a hero--she just wants to make the nightmare end.
Thats the thing. It makes it so believable. She only wants to survive, and not necessarly killing it and give a ''cool one-liner after the kill''. In a realistic scenario no one gives a one-liner after barely surviving a wild animal.
Considering that anything outer space-set at the time tended to have (still) disco planets, silver leotards, ray guns, Far Future humans running around in flares and very groovy 70s haircuts - to suddenly cut to a bunch of (in effect) working class stiffs in the depths of a humid, sweaty oil rig - never mind the acting, script, plot, monsters, music etc - has given it a true timelessness that keep it very watchable and relatable, any decade since. It's a pity the director's recent cash grabs in the same cinematic universe have been just so bloody awful - at least the original film, and its barnstorming sequel, are both stone-cold Cinema classics...
Lol. Not entirely accurate - both Barbarella and 2001 famously came out the same year, ten years before Alien - and there was a ton of science fiction throughout the Seventies that focused on realism and social commentary and often featured "regular guy" protagonists. Even the most famous SF film of the decade, and a decidedly fantastical one, Star Wars (two years before Alien) still stood out for being set in a used, grungy universe. But your point is taken - it's great that the film doesn't overtly single out a protagonist until there's almost no one left - it gives everyone equal weight at the start, then very subtly shifts to tracking Ripley's responses to each development and never leaving her perspective out. While at the same time the film seems to be focusing a bit more on Dallas, the more 'traditional' hero of a movie like this, so when he's taken off the board it's like 'what are they gonna do?" Extremely well done.
@@Melancthon7332 Well, it was a general statement rather than a definitive one - there were grungier films like Soylent Green and the like, too. Anyway...
I saw this movie in the theater just after it was released. I've not seen many movies that had me wound so tightly with tension. It was an incredible feeling leaving the theater and being able to breath normally.
I have to say, this is one of the most enjoyable videos I have seen on YT . I've seen this movie a gazillion times, even when it first came out in theaters, , and I knew when every scary scene was going to happen, and it was so cool to see your reactions and to hear your comments . Loved it, thanks guys !!
One of the best movies ever. Aliens is a wild ride, ppl always say the sequel is better. But it's not a horror movie like the original, so imo the comparison is odd. 1 has no weapons, one is nothing but weapons. They both are masterpieces, make sure to watch Aliens, ASAP!
Oddly, the weapons in Alien are modified Beretta machine pistols, seen on the spacesuit's legs, flamethrowers, and a grapnel hook gun (improvised, but used as a weapon).
Parker was about to try a plastic knife at one point, but it doesn't get used.
In this version of 'Alien', Kane actually holds up one of the converted Berettas when looking over the 'egg'.
Hope you do Aliens, possibly the best sequel ever made
We're on an express elevator to hell, going down.
“In space nothing can hear you scream!” ❤
You can tell the practical effects artists, even the set builders, took pride in their work.