Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Alien (1979)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

Alien (1979)

In director Ridley Scott's atmospheric sci-fi thriller:

  • the opening scene - the 'birthing' scene - of hypersleeping crew members of on the Nostromo ("Mother") who emerged from separate egg-shaped, coffin-like cribs
  • the discovery of a huge, derelict alien spaceship that had crash landed on an uncharted planet, with its two hind 'legs' visible and extending upwards; the crew explored and entered the ship through vaginal openings leading to the inside of the 'body' of the spacecraft; there, they found a gigantic, fossilized, reptilian, alien creature - described as leathery and skeletal with a ribbed surface; it was seated, with its ribs bent outwards
  • the view of a pod field composed of rows of eggs (semi-translucent) resting below a bluish, reactive mist; Nostromo crew member Kane (John Hurt) was attacked by the 'face-hugging' alien as he explored the alien ship and the rows of egg sacs; the Face-hugger had a bilateral hand of eight fingers that grasped and covered Kane's head; later, its underside revealed dark, fleshy and moist-appearing labial folds, and there was also a phallic-shaped proboscis that had forcibly inserted itself into the victim’s mouth; there was an attempt to surgically remove the parasitic Alien from Kane's face, spilling an acid-like substance that ate through metal layers in the ship
  • in the film's most startling and gory scene, after Kane had been 'impregnated' by the insidious creature as a surrogate mother, he 'gave birth' to the phallic-shaped baby alien - the newborn alien burst from his bloody chest - as a Chest-burster
Kane's Gory Death From Alien Birth
  • the life-and-death struggle with the relentless Alien as it committed murders, now that it had grown to full size as a Xenomorph; it was momentarily viewed as a slimy, penis-headed beast about 7 feet tall, with dripping secretions from its open vaginal-shaped mouth; inside the Xenomorph's mouth was a second set of pharyngeal jaws
  • the scene of the bludgeoning of Ash (Ian Holm) revealing that he was an android/robot; and when Ash's severed head was reactivated, he warned: "You still don't understand what you're dealing with"
Android Ash's Head Bludgeoned Off
  • the scene of crew-member Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) question to "Mother" (the ship's computer) and its harsh answer: "Insure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable"
  • the Alien's head-splitting murder of crew member Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) when he searched for the crew's cat named Jones
  • in an air shaft of the Nostromo, Dallas with a flame-thrower was guided with the help of a tracker to try and locate the alien - when suddenly the tracker screen showed a second dot moving ominously straight toward him: (Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright): "Oh God, it's moving right towards you. Move! Get out of there!"; the Alien attacked with two hands upraised when Dallas turned and shined his light onto it - the monitor screen ended its transmission with static and a very high-pitched whine
  • Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) was also lethally attacked - the creature's phallic tail slid up between her legs and she made pseudo-orgasmic grunts and howls of pain over an intercom as she was killed (offscreen), implying that she was literally raped
  • the ending sequence inside the Narcissus shuttle (with a throbbing blue strobe light) revealed sole remaining Ripley's starkly female appearance in a braless, sleeveless white tank top (revealing her erect nipples) and skimpy, low-cut mini-panties as she confronted the threatening, phallic alien beast; she protected her fragile flesh from penetration after dressing herself in an astronaut suit; she realized, to her horror, that the Alien was still onboard

Sole Survivor Ripley

Partially-Expelled Alien From Airlock

The Alien Hanging On by an 'Umbilical Cord'
  • she fought the creature to the death - when she opened the airlock to expel the Xenomorph, it held on until Ripley shot a harpoon at the creature to completely eject or expel it, but it still persisted by grasping a rope (its umbilical cord) until it was incinerated by a blast from the ship's engines

The Crew's 'Birth'

The Crashed Alien Spacecraft


A Giant Fossilized Alien Creature

Alien Egg Pods

Giant Alien Egg Sac

Face-Hugging Alien Attached to Kane's Face


The Xenomorph's Double-Set of Jaws (Phallic and/or Vaginal)



Brett's Murder by Alien



Dallas' Death

100's of the GREATEST SCENES AND MOMENTS

Greatest Scenes: Intro | What Makes a Great Scene? | Scenes: Quiz
Scenes: Film Titles A - H | Scenes: Film Titles I - R | Scenes: Film Titles S - Z