Alien

Ridley Scott cemented his reputation as an exceptional director when he made Alien in 1979. His film included a number of elements that have since been widely imitiated. Its setting is a cramped and claustrophobic spaceship: now the de facto scene for horror movies set in space. It was one of the first sci-fi films to depict astronauts not as elite professionals associated with the military but as blue-collar workers who are mere pawns of commercial corporations (a common characteristic of cyberpunk writing and films). And it was the first action-adventure series to have a female lead role, making a star of Sigourney Weaver (in early versions of the script, the whole cast, including Ripley, was male).

The plot concerns the crew of a haulage spaceship who are forced by their company to investigate a distress signal coming from an ancient and abandonned spaceship wreck. The ship harbours a clutch of eggs that one of the crew has been instructed to bring back to earth. Whilst they are investigating the eggs one hatches and the alien inside latches on to the face of one of the crew, played by John Hurt. Only when they are trapped on their ship again does it grow into its now familiar, seemingly indestructible form.

The film offers nail-biting suspense, as well as horror and, unlike Steven Spielberg’s films of the time, is certainly not offering a vision of friendly alternative life forms. Renowned graphic artist, H.R. Giger provided the drawings on which the world of Alien was based, and won an Academy Award for his work. One of the themes of the movie is the cycle of human birth, a common feature in Giger’s designs. In this instance, they feature womb-like rooms and narrow passageways that could represent the birth canal. In 2002, the US Library of Congress deemed Alien ‘culturally significant’ and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.