NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Alien (1979 movie)

The science fiction/horror film Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, has become extremely popular and influential, and has spawned several sequels and imitators. The title of the film refers to highly-aggressive extraterrestrial creatures. But the connecting thread becomes the saga of Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, a human woman who finds herself the principal opponent of the species throughout the series. The film launched the first major American film series with a female action hero. A movie poster from the original release of Alien. ... Description: Rating stars. ... April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer. ... Walter Hill (born California 1942) is a prominent American film director. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... Sigourney Weaver Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of Ripley in Alien (1979) and its sequels. ... Tom Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor, born in Detroit, Michigan. ... Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1950 in Bristol, England) is an actress. ... Harry Dean Stanton (born July 14, 1926 in West Irvine, Kentucky, USA) is an American actor. ... John Hurt (Mississippi John Hurt is an early American folk and country blues singer, 1893â€“1966) John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award nominated English actor. ... Sir Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm CBE (born September 12, 1931) is a British actor. ... Yaphet Kotto starring on Homicide. ... 20th Century Fox logo Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Aliens is a 1986 science fiction movie starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... // Events March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. ... Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer. ... A sequel is a work of fiction in literature, film, and other creative works that is produced after a completed work, and is set in the same universe but at a later time. ... Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley Ellen Ripley is a fictional character, the protagonist in the Alien movie series. ... Sigourney Weaver Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of Ripley in Alien (1979) and its sequels. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are biologically classified as bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or thinking man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... An action hero is any character that lacks the superhuman powers that would normally be connotated in superhero. ...

The crew of the ship Nostromo also includes an onboard cat named "Jones". Tom Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor, born in Detroit, Michigan. ... Captain Dallas (ID# 032/V4-07C) was the captain of the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 science fiction film, Alien. ... Sigourney Weaver Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of Ripley in Alien (1979) and its sequels. ... Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley Ellen Ripley is a fictional character, the protagonist in the Alien movie series. ... Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1950 in Bristol, England) is an actress. ... Lambert (ID# 971/L6-02P) was the navigator on the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 in film science fiction film Alien. ... Harry Dean Stanton (born July 14, 1926 in West Irvine, Kentucky, USA) is an American actor. ... Brett(ID# 724/R4-06J) was the engineering technician of the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 science fiction film Alien. ... John Hurt (Mississippi John Hurt is an early American folk and country blues singer, 1893â€“1966) John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award nominated English actor. ... Kane (ID# 825/G9-01K) was executive officer on the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 science fiction film Alien. ... Sir Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm CBE (born September 12, 1931) is a British actor. ... Ash (ID# 111/C2/01X) was the science officer on the commerical towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 in film science fiction film Alien. ... Yaphet Kotto starring on Homicide. ... Parker (ID# 313/S4-08M) was the chief engineer on the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 science fiction film, Alien. ... The USCSS Ulysees Nostromo is a fictional starship, featured in the 1979 film Alien. ...

H.R. Giger designed the film's visual imagery and won an Oscar for it. Birth machine Hans Ruedi Giger (pronounced: GEE-ger) (born at Chur, Grisons canton, February 5, 1940) is a Swiss painter best known for his design work on the film Alien. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Academy Awards The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States. ...

In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed Alien "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. For the Cusco album, see 2002 (album). ... The Great Hall interior. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

Plot

En route to Earth, the computer of the ship Nostromo awakened the crew from hypersleep: the ship has detected an apparent distress signal from a nearby planet. Under the terms of their contract, the crew must investigate. Upon landing on the planet, they send several of their company to find the ship and any possible survivors. They eventually reach an apparently ancient spacecraft. Upon entering, the crew find the corpse of the ship's non-human pilot with a large gash along its stomach. After more exploring, they find a massive chamber full of eggs. They send one of the crew (Kane) down to investigate. Upon closer inspection, one of the eggs hatches, opens slowly, and an unknown lifeform attaches itself to his face. For other uses, see Space Jockey (disambiguation). ...

The eponymous alien creature, a lethal predator with consistently exotic abilities and physical attributes, reproduces by parasitizing living victims with embryos; or by transmuting them directly into the early alien reproductive stages (egg and facehugger) through unknown means. The film crew set up the plot device of the alien having acid for blood in order to prevent the Nostromo's crew from readily killing it with firearms — the spilled blood would have eaten through the ship's hull. On the other hand, the crew think a flamethrower a suitable weapon, as Ash explains: "Most animals retreat from fire". Commentators have compared the life cycle of the alien to that of the ichneumon wasp — due to its parasitoid nature. Å’Å“Ã¡Ä§ÅÅ³ÅÄ¡Ä–ÄžÉ®Ê™[[]] It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with predation. ... A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. ... It has been suggested that strong acid be merged into this article or section. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ... German troops use a flamethrower on the Eastern Front during the Second World War A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to throw flames or, more correctly, project an ignited stream of liquid. ... A life cycle includes the major sexual stages of a species, especially in regard to its ploidy. ... Families Braconidae Ichneumonidae The Ichneumon wasps are insects classified in the parasitica group of the suborder Apocrita within the Order Hymenoptera. ... Parasitoids differ from parasites in their relationship with the host. ...

After the alien captures the ship's captain, Dallas, during a botched attempt to trap the creature, Ripley assumes command. She discovers that the Company that owns the ship had deliberately re-routed it to investigate a non-human distress signal and to return a specimen. We learn that the Company placed the Science Officer, Ash (revealed as an android), on short notice at the departure colony Thedus with the purpose of protecting the creature, and with instructions to regard the crew as "expendable". Ripley — as the sole survivor of the Nostromo — initiates the ship's self-destruct sequence, escapes in a shuttle craft with a cage carrying Jones, the ship's cat, and finally destroys the alien by blowing it out of the airlock into open space. The android Data, portrayed by Brent Spiner, from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation An android is an artificially created robot, an automaton, that resembles a human being usually both in appearance and behavior. ... A self-destruct is a mechanism which causes a device to destroy itself under a predefined set of circumstances. ...

Early versions

Dan O'Bannon (who had collaborated with John Carpenter on the cult sci-fi film Dark Star) wrote the original screenplay as a script titled Star Beast, a revision of some earlier ideas of O'Bannon's (one of which dated from some years before) about gremlins getting loose aboard a World War II bomber and wreaking havoc with the crew. Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948 in Carthage, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film music composer. ... Dark Star is a 1973 motion picture directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan OBannon. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... Falling Hare (1943), in which Bugs Bunny is tormented by a gremlin This article is about the fictional creature. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead:17 million Civilian dead:33 million Total dead:50 million Military dead:8 million Civilian dead:4 million Total dead:12 million World War II... A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ...

O'Bannon's original script bears many resemblances to the film as actually produced, yet with significant differences. The spaceship — designed with a low-budget production in mind — originated as a small craft called the Snark. In the original script, the ship has an all-male crew — including the Ripley character. Actor Tom Skerritt originally won the role of Ripley, but during script development character re-casting made Ripley a woman, reportedly at the insistence of producer Alan Ladd, Jr.. This decision proved crucial to the film's success. Alan Ladd Jr. ...

After sailing in response to the intercepted alien message, the crew discover the derelict alien craft and its dead pilot. Ominously the pilot in its death throes had scratched a triangle on its control console. The crew members go outside and see the remains of an ancient pyramid. Kane is lowered into the structure where he finds a chamber with a breathable atmosphere. The alien embryo eggs are housed in an altar like structure and there is a hieroglyph depicting the alien's lifecycle. This concept was retained for a long time, and preliminary H.R. Giger pyramid drawings intended for Alien exist, but eventually the producers went with the idea of combining the wrecked derelict ship with the egg chamber (also designed by Giger), although the ideas of the pyramid, the altar and the hieroglyphs were retained for the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator. The subplot of Ash being an android and the betrayal of the crew was introduced later in the script development. A scene in which Ripley and Dallas have sex was dropped in order to secure a lower censorship rating. Geometric shape created by connecting a polygonal base to an apex For other versions including architectural Pyramids, see Pyramid (disambiguation). ... An ancient Roman altar PROTESTANTISM RULES!!! An altar is any structure upon which sacrifices or other offerings are offered for religious purposes. ... Alien vs. ...

Substantial excerpts of O'Bannon's original script appeared as bonus materials on the 1992 laserdisc boxed set of Alien, though they were not included in the 1999 Alien Legacy DVD box. The complete O'Bannon script was included on the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set as a bonus feature. 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo Laserdisc certification mark The laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... The official DVD logo. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Some early concept art was drawn by Chris Foss, and Jean Giraud, who is better known as the comic book artist Mœbius. Mœbius's designs for the Nostromo spacesuits made it into the final film. Christopher Foss (born 1946) is a British illustrator and science fiction artist, best known for his science fiction book covers and the illustrations for the original editions of The Joy of Sex. ... Jean Giraud (born May 8, 1938) is a French comics artist. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

Production

O'Bannon wrote the original treatment in 1976 while staying with Ronald Shusett after the collapse of a projected film version of Dune, on which he had been working and which Alejandro Jodorowsky) would have directed. Artist Ron Cobb, who had worked with O'Bannon on Dark Star and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, produced a series of conceptual designs that defined the gritty realism of the film. O'Bannon and Shusett sold the script to the Brandywine company of David Giler, Gordon Carroll, and Walter Hill who had a production deal with Twentieth Century Fox with Hill attached to direct. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. ... Alejandro (or Alexandro) Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky (born February 7, 1929, in Tocopilla, Chile) is an actor, director, producer, composer, mime, comic book writer and psychotherapist born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents of Russia origin. ... Ron Cobb is a cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director. ... This movie poster for Star Wars depicts many of the films important elements, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters Star Wars, retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981 (see note at Title,) is the original (and in chronological... Walter Hill (born California 1942) is a prominent American film director. ... Related articles FOX Television Network Fox Searchlight Pictures Fox Entertainment Group List of Hollywood movie studios List of movies Variant of current 20th Century Fox logo External links 20th Century Fox Movies official site Twentieth Century Fox is also the punning title of a song by The Doors on their...

Hill and Giler re-wrote the script, ejecting superfluous elements and making it more action oriented. They also rewrote almost all of the dialogue, giving the characters more distinct personalities. These changes were the source of tension between O'Bannon and the other production members that lasted through the making of the film. O'Bannon invited other artists who had worked on the Dune project to work on the film including Foss, Mœbius, and Giger. At this stage, there was a hiatus in the production, as the studio was alarmed at the prospect of committing to a new science fiction film when it feared the yet-to-be-released Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope would be a flop.

When Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope became a box office hit, Fox gave the film the go ahead with an $8 million budget—much higher than the writers had originally hoped. During the production hiatus, Hill had been replaced by Ridley Scott who revised many of the design elements before principal photography started at Shepperton Studios in England. Giger was brought in from Zurich and along with Ron Cobb was set up at the studios as a type of artist in residence. (Giger kept a diary through the production that was the basis of his book Giger's Alien). Much of the film's production design was done by the same team that had worked on Star Wars, with John Mollo supervising the costumes including the distinctive spacesuits and Carlo Rambaldi producing the crucial mechanical effects for the title alien's head. Special effects were led by the team of Brian Johnson and Nick Allder who had worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey and Space 1999. Scott turned to a computer animation pioneer Bernard Lodge from his old college the Royal College of Art in London to produce the film's influential green line computer displays. Shepperton Studios at Shepperton, Surrey, England is a film studio with a long history of film making. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“ Total (mid-2004) â€“ Total (2001 Census) â€“ Density Ranked 1st... Location within Switzerland ZÃ¼rich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of ZÃ¼rich. ... An artist in residence (AIR) program is a program where an artist is invited to reside in a location for a period of time during which their activities as resident artist are supported. ... Carlo Rambaldi is an Italian-born special effects artist who is most famous for designing title character of the 1982 super-smash hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. ... Brian Johnson For the American football player, see Bryan Johnson. ... Left to right: Barbara Bain, Catherine Schell and Martin Landau from Space:1999s second season. ... The Royal College of Art in South Kensington, London. ... This article is about the British city. ...

Music

Jerry Goldsmith composed the original score for the film . Despite the film's futuristic setting, the composer's score reflects the film's underlying horror-film genre. With its oscillating string textures and bizarre sounds, like those of the titular creature, Goldsmith's score lurks in corridors and pounces without warning. Goldsmith composed a main theme in the romantic style that barely appears in the finished film. Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 â€“ July 21, 2004) was a famous Jewish-American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ...

Director Ridley Scott and editor Terry Rawlings became quite attached to several of the cues they used for the temporary track while cutting the movie. As a result they moved around much of Goldsmith's score and had many sequences rescored. Two cues from Goldsmith's earlier score for Freud appear in the film, and a section of Howard Hanson's second symphony, "The Romantic" replaced the end credits. As a result, Goldsmith's original soundtrack LP represented more the original score he wrote than what ended up appearing in the film. Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was a composer, conductor and educator from the United States of America. ...

The initial DVD release of Alien included an isolated score track that synched the original music up to where it would have appeared in the film, as well as an additional track with the re-scored tracks (the production audio plays when the music does not appear). The soundtrack CD has gone out of print, however. In the final DVD release, most of the scenes showing the Nostromo exterior and all of the sequences from Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony, some of which went along with them, have disappeared, for reasons unknown. The official DVD logo. ... CD may stand for: Compact Disc Canadian Forces Decoration Cash Dispenser (at least used in Japan) CD LPMud Driver Centrum-Demokraterne (Centre Democrats of Denmark) Certificate of Deposit ÄŒeskÃ© DrÃ¡hy (Czech Railways) Chad (NATO country code) Chalmers DatorfÃ¶rening (computer club of the Chalmers University of Technology) a 1960s...

Themes

The theme that most critics and fans of the film have pointed to is that of the human birth cycle. When Kane, Dallas, and Lambert venture into the alien craft, they enter through giant vagina-like openings and travel up a tunnel that resembles the birth canal. The long, telescopic machinery the fossilized alien sits in is phallus-shaped, and the egg that Kane finds could be interpreted as an ovum. All this imagery is not surprising since Giger's art is often of a sexual nature.

The film presents a version of birth that might seem almost empathetic with that of the woman's experience: the alien bursting from Kane's chest is reflective of the intense pain that a woman experiences during natural child birth (a birth without anesthesia). The film also more broadly deals with issues of human sexuality, including rape, free love and even homosexuality, although these last two points are only revealed on the DVD director audio commentary. Cetacaine, a typical topical anesthetic Anesthesia (American English), also anaesthesia (British English), is the process of blocking the perception of pain and other sensations. ... The official DVD logo. ...

The other main theme of the film deals with blue-collar workers faced with extraordinary circumstances. With the exception of Ash the science officer, all the characters are working class, even the officers. There is also the notion of a corporation that puts profit before the safety of their workers. Ripley hints that the company probably wants the creature for its weapons division. To acquire it, the company makes the lives of the crew members expendable. This may be reflective of the economic culture of the 1970s when millions of blue-collar workers lost their jobs as American corporations shut down factories and other production facilities in favor of cheap, overseas labor. David Giler and Walter Hill added these paranoia themes, much to the chagrin of Dan O'Bannon who thought they had used his film to make a trite statement against the American work-ethic. A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual, unskilled or semiskilled labor, such as in a factory or maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Walter Hill (born California 1942) is a prominent American film director. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ...

Also important is the confusion of artificial with organic. The initial stress laid on life cycles and processes eventually eases off once the alien births. After it escapes, much weight is given to visually confusing its smooth head with metal piping and its spindly, bristling legs and tail with wires, chains, and grates. The film further explores this theme with the computer system "Mother", with the revelation of Ash as an android, and with the realization that Ash's mission involves regarding humans as accessories or mechanisms in the process of preserving the alien and of bringing it to Earth at all costs. On its own, this idea can already generate immense interest, but coupled with the birth-imagery it becomes quite frightening; it calls into question the very point of reproduction, the nature of "humanity," and even of being alive.

The name of the ship, "Nostromo" is a reference to a work of the same name by Joseph Conrad, an author visited earlier by Ridley Scott in his movie The Duellists. In Nostromo, a silver-mining corporation entrusts a dangerous cargo (silver—dangerous because revolutionaries want it) with an audacious anti-hero called Nostromo, tasking him with protecting it from the revolutionaries. It is possible that this could be linked with the idea of blue-collar workers facing impossible odds as mentioned above. Given that the alien cargo is eventually destroyed just as the silver is betrayed in Nostromo, one could draw parallels between the eventual corruption of Nostromo and the "corruption" of Ripley, perhaps making an argument in favor of disloyalty to evil corporate overlords. Joseph Conrad NaÅ‚Ä™cz Coat of Arms Warsaw flat once occupied by Conrad. ...

Influence

Xtro video cover Xtro is a low-budget British science fiction/horror film made in 1983 and directed by Harry Bromley Davenport and co-produced by Bob Shaye. ... DVD case cover for Inseminoid Inseminoid (called Horror Planet in the United States) is a low budget British science fiction/horror film, directed by Norman J. Warren and released in 1981. ... John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948 in Carthage, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film music composer. ... John Carpenters The Thing is a 1982 science fiction film directed by John Carpenter. ... The Brood is a 1979 Canadian horror film directed by David Cronenberg. ... Body horror is term applied to works of horror based on a sense of physical wrongness in the body. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... The term Abjection literally means the state of being cast out. ... Hélène Cixous (born 1937) is a French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and literary critic. ... Star Trek collectively refers to a science-fiction franchise spanning six unique television series, 726 episodes and ten feature films in addition to hundreds of novels, computer and video games, fan stories and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the... Silent Running DVD Silent Running is a science fiction movie made in 1971, directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Bruce Dern as the protagonist Freeman Lowell. ... Outland is a 1981 science fiction movie starring Sean Connery. ... Independence Day is an American action movie about an attempted alien takeover of the Earth. ... The Matrix is a science-fiction/action film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. ... Star Trek collectively refers to a science-fiction franchise spanning six unique television series, 726 episodes and ten feature films in addition to hundreds of novels, computer and video games, fan stories and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the... The Borg or Borg Collective is a race of cyborgs in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... The cover of the 2004 DVD widescreen release of the modified original Star Wars Trilogy. ... Expanded Universe material (e. ... The Yuuzhan Vong are a race of sentient beings from the fictional Star Wars Expanded Universe that rise as a threat to the New Republic in the New Jedi Order series of novels. ... A film that is released direct-to-video (also straight-to-video) is one which has been released to the public on home video formats first rather than first being released in movie theaters. ... // Atom, star of the long-running science fiction series Mighty Atom (also known as Astro Boy to Western audiences). ... A human ovum An ovum (loosely, egg or egg cell) is a female sex cell or gamete. ... To copy or imitate blatantly or unscrupulously This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... Nintendo (Japanese: ä»»å¤©å ‚, ãƒ‹ãƒ³ãƒ†ãƒ³ãƒ‰ãƒ¼ NintendÅ; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is an international company originally founded in Japan on November 6, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... Box art of the first Metroid game The Metroid ( Japanese : ãƒ¡ãƒˆãƒã‚¤ãƒ‰) games are a series of video games produced by Nintendo. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Ridley is a fictional villainous character from the Metroid video game franchise. ... Konami Corporation (ã‚³ãƒŠãƒŸ) TYO: 9766 (NYSE: KNM) (SGX: K20) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling computer and video games. ... For the champion New Zealand bred race horse, see Starcraft (horse). ... Blizzard Entertainment is a PC game developer and publisher. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Viewtiful Joe 2 is a video game and sequel to Viewtiful Joe. ... Conkers Bad Fur Day is a Nintendo 64 video game made by Rareware that was marketed as an adult platform game. ... A selection of fresh conkers from a horse-chestnut tree. ... Arjen Anthony Lucassen is an amazingly talented composer and musician from the Netherlands. ... Photo of Arjen Lucassen used as publicity material for Star One Star One is a Dutch progressive metal side-project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame. ... Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (ãƒã‚¤ã‚ªãƒã‚¶ãƒ¼ãƒ‰) in Japan, is a successful franchise of survival-horror video games developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami. ... Resident Evil 2 ) is a survival horror game by Capcom originally released for the PlayStation in 1998 and the second installment in their Resident Evil series. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Left: A headcrab from Half-Life. ... Facehugger A Facehugger is the first stage in the life-cycle of the Xenomorph aliens seen in the Aliens movie series. ... Halo around the sun at the South Pole (NOAA) A halo (also known as a nimbus or Gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds an object. ... A Calico can refer to: Calico (fabric) A cheap fabric Calico (fish) A domesticated Goldfish A domestic cat. ...

Alien Special Edition, a.k.a. Director's Cut (2003)

October 29, 2003, saw Alien re-released in cinemas as a Ridley Scott Director's Cut. It restores many — but not all — of the deleted scenes that have already appeared as bonus materials on previous laserdisc and DVD releases of the film, and makes some interesting deletions from the original cut. However, unlike the Star Wars "Special Editions", it does not appear to digitally enhance any of the film's original special-effects footage (though the film's original negative did undergo some digital cleanup and restoration). However, the new release added some minor effects to the film, such as the shot of the sunrise on the planetoid, the lights on the helmets of Dallas, Lambert and Kane move under a natural arc on the left side of the screen. Also, when the Nostromo aligned itself to the planetoid, effects added a field of stars to the background. October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer. ... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo Laserdisc certification mark The laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ... The official DVD logo. ... The cover of the 2004 DVD widescreen release of the modified original Star Wars Trilogy. ... The pseudopod in The Abyss marked CGIs acceptance in the visual effects industry. ...

Ridley Scott has stated that he did not really think that Alien required this tweaking, and that the term "Director's Cut" was used for marketing reasons only (and inconsistently as well). In the Alien Quadrilogy materials, he goes out of his way to state his preference for the original: "rest easy, the original 1979 theatrical version isn't going anywhere". He recut the film himself, only after viewing the studio's attempt to do so; a version that he felt was "too long" and ruined the film's pacing.

A brief rundown of the restored footage or cut scenes, in the order that the scenes appear:

The Alien Quadrilogy boxed set released on December 2, 2003 includes both the Special Edition and the original theatrical version. Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story. ... December 2 is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Note that due to the scenes cut from the original release to accommodate the new footage in the "Director's Cut", the "Director's Cut" actually runs a full minute shorter in time than the original theatrical release.

Feature films within the same storyline

Prequels/Crossovers

Alien vs. ... This is a list of film-related events in 2004. ... Paul William Scott Anderson (Born: March 4, 1965 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, United Kingdom-) is a British filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. ...

Sequels

Rumors also presage an Alien 5 movie. Although commentators have assessed the script (for the moment) as too violent to appeal to any major group, Ridley Scott has said on occasion that he would consider directing the film. However, when interviewed in 2005 after the release of Alien vs. Predator, Scott characterized the franchise as wrung dry and as no longer interesting to him. However, another interview has stated that he has regained some interest and that the fifth film might happen after all. ^{[citation needed]} // Events April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Gos Belinda Carlisle Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver. ... Aliens is a 1986 science fiction movie starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. ... James Cameron from Ghosts of the Abyss James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian film director noted for his action/science fiction films, which are often extremely successful financially. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1992. ... AlienÂ³ is a science fiction/horror movie that opened May 22, 1992. ... David Fincher (right) directs actor Michael Douglas in The Game (1997) David Fincher (born May 10, 1962) is an American music video and film director known for his dark and stylish portraits of the human experience. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1997. ... Film poster Alien: Resurrection Alien: Resurrection (1997) is the fourth movie in the Alien series, preceded by Alien, Aliens and Alien³. Synopsis Spoiler warning: Alien: Resurrection takes place 200 years after the events of Alien³. Ellen Ripley has been cloned using blood samples from Fiorina 161, on ice so that... Jean-Pierre Jeunet Jean-Pierre Jeunet (born 3 September 1953) is a French film director. ... Alien 5 has been long rumoured by many internet websites yet information on its plot is scarce. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Quadrilogy plot-summary

Following is a plot summary for the entire Alien series. For additional plot details, see the movies' specific pages or The Alien Universe Timeline.

Alien

The USCSS Nostromo, a towing vessel hauling an enormous ore refinery and 20 million tons of raw ore, and with a crew of seven (including Captain Dallas and Warrant Officer Ripley) has set out from the mining colony Thedus on its return to Earth in the year 2122. During the return voyage, the ship’s computer (called Mother) intercepts a non-human transmission from the moon LV-426. Mother, according to Weyland-Yutani (“the Company”) protocol, alters course and wakes the crew from hypersleep in order to investigate the transmission. Nostromo is a 1904 novel by Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of Costaguana. ... LV-426 as seen in Aliens LV-426, also known as Acheron, is the name of the fictitious moon (frequently but erroneously referred to as a planet) where the Alien was first encountered by humans in the movie Alien (1979) of the Alien Series. ... Weyland-Yutani is a fictional corporation that forms an essential part of the setting of the Alien movie, and its sequels. ... Stasis (IPA: ) is a science-fiction concept akin to suspended animation. ...

Upon investigation of the transmission source, a derelict alien ship, Executive Officer Kane becomes infected with an alien embryo. On orders of Captain Dallas, Kane is brought back on board and treated by Science Officer Ash, an android. The crewmembers return to the Nostromo from LV-426, hoping to return to Earth as soon as possible. After a brief period, an alien emerges from Kane and proceeds to kill all crewmembers except Ripley. (Ash, the android, was terminated by the other crewmembers after his attempted murder of Ripley, an action he took in defense of the alien species.) Ash (ID# 111/C2/01X) was the science officer on the commerical towing vessel The Nostromo in the 1979 in film science fiction film Alien. ... The android Data, portrayed by Brent Spiner, from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation An android is an artificially created robot, an automaton, that resembles a human being usually both in appearance and behavior. ...

Ripley activates Nostromo's auto-destruct sequence and escapes in the shuttle. The Nostromo and its cargo are destroyed in a series of explosions, but Ripley soon discovers that the alien had also entered the shuttle. Half-dressed and nervously singing "Lucky Star", Ripley kills the alien by blasting it out of the shuttle's airlock and burning it with the shuttle’s jets. Ripley sets the shuttle's course for Earth and returns to hypersleep.

Aliens

In the year 2179, after 57 years drifting in space, humans find and rescue Ellen Ripley. Upon recounting the events of the Nostromo and LV-426, she learns that a group of settlers has recently moved to LV-426 and set up Hadley's Hope, a space colony. After dismissing Ripley’s claims as ridiculous, the Company (specifically Carter Burke) sends colonists to the derelict ship to investigate Ripley’s report of an alien species. Shortly thereafter contact with the colony ceases. In response, the Company sends Ripley, a group of United States Colonial Marines, and Carter Burke to investigate LV-426 aboard the vessel Sulaco. (From left to right) USCM Pvt. ... Image:Http://www2. ...

Arriving at LV-426, Ripley and her companions soon discover that aliens have overrun the colony and that all settlers have died, except for a young girl nicknamed Newt. The rescue team becomes trapped in the settlement, where hundreds of aliens hunt them. Their mission is further complicated by Ripley's discovery that Burke has orders to bring one of the aliens back for the Company's bio-weapons division.

Eventually, all aboard the Sulaco are killed, except Ripley, Newt, Corporal Hicks, and Bishop (an android), who escaped LV-426 shortly before the thermonuclear meltdown of the facility's atmosphere processor destroyed the colony. The Sulaco sets a course for Earth and the crew enters hypersleep. Bishop as seen in Aliens Bishop 341-B is a fictional character from the Alien series of films, an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. ...

Aliens Special Edition

The Aliens Special Edition added approximately 17 minutes to this film. Several small additions to the plot were presented, including:

Alien³

The movie begins with one alien facehugger emerging during the crew's hypersleep at the Sulaco and impregnating Ripley with an alien queen-embryo. The cover of Ripley's hypersleep chamber cut the facehugger, and the release of its acidic blood caused a fire onboard, which led to the Sulaco jettisoning an escape shuttle towards a penal colony planet, Fiorina 161, inhabited only by a small number of extremely violent and dangerous offenders. Upon rescue from the escape vehicle, the rescuers discover that of all the humans, only Ripley has survived the crash. Meanwhile, a colony dog becomes impregnated with an alien embryo, shortly after which an alien emerges from the dog and begins hunting and killing inmates.

Upon learning about the alien on the planet, the company sends a "rescue ship" to Fiorina 161. However, it quickly becomes clear that they care only about capturing the alien, not about saving the inmates. In these circumstances, Ripley convinces the inmates to kill the aliens (including the one inside her) before the company ship arrives.

After the destruction of the alien using a lead smelter, Ripley sacrifices herself to prevent the company from harvesting the queen embryo from her body, saving countless human lives in doing so. The fate of the sole survivor of Fiorina 161, Prisoner Morse, remains unknown.

Alien³ Special Edition

The Alien³ Special Edition added approximately 35 minutes of new or alternate footage to this film. Several changes to the plot ensued, including:

Alien: Resurrection

Two hundred years later, around the year 2379, a United System Military scientist has cloned Ripley several times by using blood samples from Fiorina 161 rediscovered in the year 2356. Upon successfully cloning Ripley, whose DNA had intermingled with the alien species her body had hosted, the experiment successfully develops an intact alien and extracts it from her abdomen.

In the year 2381, a small ship manned by smugglers called the Betty brings several kidnapped space-travelers, still in hypersleep, to a secret USM research vessel called the USM Auriga. The smugglers do not realise the reason for the kidnappings, but they later discover that the USM scientists will impregnate the travelers with alien embryos. The experiment quickly runs awry when the aliens break loose and begin killing everyone on the ship. While chaos ensues, an android, Call, changes the course of the ship (previously heading to Earth as per default emergency procedures) to crash-land in an attempt at destroying the aliens onboard in the process. Betty is a common diminuitive for the name Elizabeth or Bettina, and has been used as the name of several things: // Terms Slang for a woman (i. ...

The Auriga crashes into South America and explodes, presumably killing the aliens onboard. A few survivors: Ripley’s clone (#8), Call, and two members of the Betty crew (Johner and Vriess) manage to escape the Auriga before its crash-landing, using the Betty. The Betty lands safely on Earth near Paris, France. Ripley and Call contemplate their next move. South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La DÃ©fense business district 5 kilometres behind. ...

Spin-offs

Spin-offs include comics, novels, and computer games. Note for example the novelization by Alan Dean Foster. The Aliens have also appeared in numerous crossovers featuring Predators (See Yautja), Superman, Batman, WildC.A.T.s, Green Lantern, and many others. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... An intercompany crossover (also called cross-company, or simply company crossover) is a comic or series of comics where a character (or group of characters) from one company meets a character from another (For example, DC Comics Superman meeting Marvels Spider-Man). ... It has been suggested that Wristblades be merged into this article or section. ... Superman is a fictional character and superhero of DC Comics who first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and is considered the first character to embody the particular combination of traits that characterize the modern superhero. ... The DC Comics superhero Batman (originally and still sometimes referred to as the Batman or the Bat-Man) is a fictional character who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... Wildcats is the name of multiple incarnations of the Wildstorm comics superhero comic book. ... Cover to Green Lantern: Rebirth #6, art by Ethan Van Sciver. ...

John Hurt had a cameo part in the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs, in which a scene near the end of the film features a parody of the chest-burster scene from the original movie. John Hurt (Mississippi John Hurt is an early American folk and country blues singer, 1893â€“1966) John Vincent Hurt CBE (born January 22, 1940) is an Academy Award nominated English actor. ... Mel Brooks on the talk show Parkinson. ... Spaceballs is a 1987 science fiction spoof movie written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks. ...

The 30 Second Bunny Theater made a version of Alien (with Angry Alien Productions), turning movies into 30-second flash comedies starring bunnies. 30 Second Bunny Theater is a Flash cartoon series produced by Angry Alien Productions and featuring films re-enacted by bunnies in thirty seconds. ... Angry Alien Productions is a website best known for featuring animation created with Macromedia Flash software. ...

Trivia

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly-shaped, interlocking and tesellating pieces. ... A board game is any game played on a board (that is, a premarked surface) with counters or pieces that are moved across the board. ... View-Master reels from a German Karl May-movie. ... Kenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by Albert, Phillip, and Joseph Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located. ... The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ... The cover of the 2004 DVD widescreen release of the modified original Star Wars Trilogy. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... Jon Finch (born March 2, 1941 in Caterham, Surrey) is an English actor noted for many Shakespearean roles. ... Urban legends are a kind of folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them (see rumor). ... Colin Baker (born June 8, 1943) is a British actor who is best known for playing the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as The Doctor, who explores time and space with his companions, fighting evil. ... The Sixth Doctor is the name given to the Sixth incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Henry Van Satten is a fictional character from the new TV Series of Doctor Who. ... The Ninth Doctor refers to the ninth official incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor, in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Rose Tyler, or simply Rose, is a fictional character played by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS in the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Police spinner flying over industrial sprawl. ... Led Zeppelin was a British rock band, formed in 1968, and consisting of Jimmy Page ( acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Robert Plant (lead vocals, harmonica), John Bonham (drums, percussion), and John Paul Jones (bass guitar, keyboards, mandolin). ... This article is about the US naval hero. ... Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer. ... Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer. ...

Contents

Plot

Early versions

Production

Music

Themes

Influence

Alien Special Edition, a.k.a. Director's Cut (2003)

Feature films within the same storyline

Prequels/Crossovers

Sequels

Quadrilogy plot-summary

Alien

Aliens

Aliens Special Edition

Alien³

Alien³ Special Edition

Alien: Resurrection

Spin-offs

Trivia

See also

External links

Contents

Plot GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Early versions

Production

Music

Themes

Influence

Alien Special Edition, a.k.a. Director's Cut (2003)

Feature films within the same storyline

Prequels/Crossovers

Sequels

Quadrilogy plot-summary

Alien

Aliens

Aliens Special Edition

Alien³

Alien³ Special Edition

Alien: Resurrection

Spin-offs

Trivia

See also

External links

Plot