104
votes
Accepted
Is it true that none of the cast knew what to expect in the famous "chestburster scene" in Alien?
It does appear to be somewhat true.
UK newspaper The Independent looked at this legend shortly after Hurt's death and cites an old issue of Empire magazine.
It all started with Scott's desire for ...
46
votes
Accepted
How do the other crew members know the xenomorph is "big", if they haven't seen it?
Note that the scene where Brett is taken has some significant alterations in the DC compared to the Theatrical Cut, as described in this Wikia:
Immediately after Brett is taken, the theatrical ...
44
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the producers offer Ridley Scott the chance to direct the 2nd Alien movie?
From alienseries, the producer blamed it on availability:
In 1986 Bobbie Wygant asked Aliens producer Gale Anne Hurd if Scott had turned down the opportunity to direct the sequel. “I’m not really ...
36
votes
Why didn't the producers offer Ridley Scott the chance to direct the 2nd Alien movie?
We don't know. Gale Anne Hurd said in 1986
I’m not really sure. I know that he was in post-production on Legend at the time we were in pre-production [on Aliens], so perhaps it was a result of his ...
23
votes
Why didn't the producers offer Ridley Scott the chance to direct the 2nd Alien movie?
The heads of Fox (which owned Alien) changed between the two movies. The previous heads didn't believe a sequel would be profitable.
When Fox's interest in a sequel was reborn, they first needed a ...
21
votes
Accepted
What do Xenomorphs eat in the Alien series?
So, canonically, it is uncertain whether or not the Xenomorphs actually eat, or if they are just powered by their blood, but there are certain examples in the movies which we can refer to to determine ...
8
votes
Accepted
Why was the cocoon scene edited out of Alien?
As explained on the Xenopedia wikia:
Eggmorphing was originally to be witnessed during the climax of Alien,
when Ripley discovers Dallas and Brett cocooned in the Nostromo's
hold, with Brett ...
6
votes
Accepted
Where did Alien come from?
After watching both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant (links to IMDb pages), the answer appears to be a combination of factors (WARNING: Spoilers for both movies follow, but as they are the entire ...
5
votes
Accepted
How to explain this in Alien and Prometheus considering Alien Covenant plot?
You are assuming that all the engineers were wiped out with David's attack.
This is obviously not the case though since we know that the Engineers have been colonizing worlds and setting up bases ...
5
votes
Accepted
In what order to watch the alien franchise?
Watch each series separately in the release date order
While all the movies within the series follow each other (i.e. "Aliens" is a direct continuation of "Alien"), the relation ...
5
votes
Accepted
How long is the crew "frozen" during the trip in Aliens
The script for Aliens prefixes the scene with the marine crew waking from hypersleep with:
EXT. DEEP SPACE - THREE WEEKS LATER
So the short answer to the question is three weeks.
So you might ask, ...
4
votes
In what order to watch the alien franchise?
Watch them in the order they were made.
There is nothing wrong with Yasskier's answer, but I will offer a third option to go with the two he suggests: watch the films in the order they were made. ...
4
votes
Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) watching order confusion between theatrical and director's cut
Both are great, great films, you're gonna want to watch them multiple times so it really doesn't matter where you start. Even watching them in reverse order doesn't matter, I saw Aliens first and it ...
4
votes
How to explain this in Alien and Prometheus considering Alien Covenant plot?
This is the very question I had after seeing Alien: Covenant. How to get from end of Covenant to Start of Alien? If the narrative is that David created the Face hugger & Xenomorph that we all know ...
4
votes
Accepted
Is it possible that a human can survive after a chestburster came out?
No, it bursts out of their chest. Humans cannot survive if something bursts out of their chest considering that Humans need a heart, lungs, and stomach to survive, and when the Alien bursts out out ...
3
votes
Accepted
Prometheus to Alien: Who is on the crashed spaceship in Alien?
It is not the same engineer. It is not even the same planet.
In 'Alien', the crew of the Nostromo lands on LV -426 where they find the 'derelict' (the wrecked space craft) with the 'space jockey' (...
2
votes
How did the facehugger grow to full-sized xenomorph?
First of all, the Facehugger is a different alien. It's job is to find a host and lay an egg (much like a parasite), and the egg then hatches from inside its host. The newly hatched alien then kills ...
2
votes
Is it possible that a human can survive after a chestburster came out?
I've thought about this. Let's say it's just in the cavity space. So all it does is break the rib cage. That alone would be such a shock to the body you would have to be put under as soon as it ...
1
vote
How did the facehugger grow to full-sized xenomorph?
I've always suspected the xenomorphs have some ability to draw carbon out of the air, similar to what plants do with photosynthesis, because they often seem to grow without eating sufficient mass to ...
1
vote
How to explain this in Alien and Prometheus considering Alien Covenant plot?
I don't know for certain if the comics, Fire and Stone are canon, but one of the stories take place at the same time as Aliens and features a crew member finding a dormant Engineer in stasis on LV-223
...
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