Alien (1979)

Directed by

Ridley Scott

Written by

Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon

Cast

Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Eddie Powell

Genre

fantasy film, action film, horror film, adventure film, science fiction film, mystery film

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Runtime

1h 57m

Rated

R

Rating

8.2 of 10 from 16,530 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A commercial starship crew investigates a distress signal from a derelict alien vessel and brings a hostile creature onboard. They must survive as the alien hunts them one by one through the ship's cramped corridors.

tenseclaustrophobicsuspensefulbleakslow-burnunsettlingdarkvisceral

What happens

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It follows a commercial starship crew who investigate a derelict space vessel and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The alien creatures and environments were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while the concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the other sets. Alien premiered on May 24, 1979 at the fourth Seattle International Film Festival. It received a wide release on June 22 and was released on September 6 in the United Kingdom. It initially received mixed reviews, but won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Alien grossed $78.9 million in the United States and £7.8 million in the United Kingdom during its first theatrical run. Its worldwide gross has been estimated at between $109 million and $188 million. In subsequent years, Alien was critically reassessed and described as one of the greatest and most influential science fiction and horror films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by Empire. The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, books, video games, and toys, and propelled Weaver's acting career. The story of her character's encounters with the alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, while a two-film prequel series was directed by Scott before Alien: Romulus (2024), a standalone sequel, was released. A television prequel written by Noah Hawley and produced by Scott, Alien: Earth, was released on FX on Hulu on August 12, 2025. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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