Although he could’ve easily phoned in a haunted house movie set in space for a quick paycheck, when Ridley Scott was hired to direct Alien for 20th Century Fox, he went above and beyond. Scott elevated Alien’s B-movie premise into high art with Hitchcockian tension and strong thematic substance.
While more recent Alien movies like Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant have arrived as disappointments that the fanbase forgot about the second they left the theater, the 1979 original remains a timeless classic to this day, thanks to these elements.
Dan O’Bannon’s Perfectly Paced Script
It must be tempting for the screenwriters of horror films to jump into the good stuff with aliens ripping people to shreds and masked killers slashing unsuspecting sexually active teenagers, but that’s only the good stuff when the story is paced well.
Dan O’Bannon’s Alien script takes its time to introduce audiences to the characters and the curious near-future they inhabit. When the alien finally shows up at the midpoint, the audience has gotten to know all the human characters it starts picking off, so their deaths mean a lot more.
H.R. Giger’s Haunting Otherworldly Designs
The xenomorph in Alien is one of the most iconic and terrifying movie monsters of all time. It was designed by the great H.R. Giger, who took the familiar human form and twisted it into something hauntingly unrecognizable.
And Giger didn’t just design the xenomorph itself. He also envisioned the cold alien planet the crew visits, the “space jockey” they find there, and the grimy “used future” aesthetic of the Nostromo, all of which went toward creating the movie’s uniquely unsettling visual style.
The Nostromo Crew’s Blue-Collar Characterization
In most science fiction movies set in space, the characters are unrelatable geniuses, because they had to be smart enough to be entrusted with NASA’s best tech.
What makes the characters of Alien so refreshingly subversive is that they’re not absurdly intelligent scientists or highly trained astronauts on a mission to save the world; they’re the futuristic equivalent of truck drivers, lugging a space tug across the galaxy.
The Story’s Ominous But Powerful Metaphorical Meaning
With the intrusion of the facehugger, the gruesome childbirth-esque imagery of the chestburster, and the phallic shape of the baby xenomorph, Alien can be read as a big, extravagant metaphor for sexual assault.
Although Alien’s premise is based on humanity’s fear of the other, the specifics of its story instead tap into a different universal fear: sexual violence.
Gender-Neutral Casting
According to the documentary The Beast Within: The Making of Alien, the script included an interesting note for the casting team: “The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.”
While many movies of its era peddle outdated gender roles, Alien created complex, rounded roles for both men and women by focusing less on their gender and more on their personality.
The Chestburster
The chestburster at the midpoint of Alien is one of the most iconic moments in the history of horror cinema, ranking alongside Psycho’s unforgettable shower murder, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s disturbing dinner party, and Rosemary’s Baby’s haunting final reveal.
It works so well because Ridley Scott builds to it masterfully. After the initial shock of the facehugger attack, Kane is lulled into a false sense of security. He’s literally in the middle of a party celebrating his survival when an otherworldly infant tears its way out of his chest.
Jerry Goldsmith’s Foreboding Avant-Garde Score
Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien score has been praised as one of the greatest ever composed. Instead of following the traditions of film scores by establishing themes and musical motifs for each character and setting, Goldsmith created a foreboding soundscape for the whole movie.
This experimental, avant-garde sound went a long way toward creating the dark, tense atmosphere that makes Alien such an unnerving delight.
The Ash A.I. Twist
While Alien positions itself more on the horror side of the sci-fi horror subgenre, it has plenty of thought-provoking sci-fi elements. The plot twist involving Ash is a shining example, tackling the fear of artificial intelligence.
Ripley finds out on the Mother computer that Ash is an A.I. who’s been tasked with bringing the xenomorph back to Earth, even if it means allowing the rest of the crew to die. The shock factor of this twist still holds up today.
Ridley Scott’s Meticulously Crafted Jump Scares
One of the most common criticisms of modern horror movies is their overuse of jump scares, but the genre shouldn’t do away with jump scares altogether because they’re one of the reasons horror movies are so much fun. The problem with today’s jump scares is that filmmakers don’t bother to build up to them.
Ridley Scott masterfully builds toward each jump scare in Alien. A little blip on a screen representing the alien approaches a little blip representing Dallas, setting up the jump scare where Dallas illuminates the pouncing xenomorph in the dark tunnel behind him.
Sigourney Weaver’s Groundbreaking Performance As A Female Action Hero
While the xenomorph is the star attraction of Alien, what really anchors the movie is Sigourney Weaver’s performance as Ellen Ripley. The audience doesn’t just blindly root for her because she’s the protagonist; they root for her because Weaver makes them want to root for her.
Throughout the movie, Ripley goes on a tangible journey from an everywoman to a badass. Before Alien came along, Hollywood didn’t think women were feasible action heroes. Ripley essentially paved the way for Sarah Connor, the Bride, and Furiosa.