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Quotes

Ripley: Did you ever ship out with Ash before?

Dallas: I went out five times with another science officer. They replaced him two days before we left Thedus with Ash. Hmm?

Ripley: I don't trust him.

Dallas: Well, I don't trust anybody.

See more...

Trivia

Originally, director Ridley Scott wanted "Alien" to have a much darker ending. His intention was to have the alien get back on board the shuttle, rip Ripley's head off and then calmly sit down in her chair and record the final transmission, speaking in her voice. The producers understandably found this a little too extreme, so Scott tried changing it to having Ripley go to sleep as normal only for the camera to pull back out of the airlock's window and reveal an alien egg, in the process of hatching, attached to the outside of the shuttle (after the "Brett/Dallas egg mutation" scene was deleted, this also had to go). See more...

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Alien (1979) - 49 mistakes

Directed by Ridley Scott, starring John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt (add more)

Genres: Horror, Sci-fi, Thriller

Where is Alien ranked on the ultimate best to worst list? Cast your vote and find out!

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Continuity: When Ripley reconnects the dismembered Ash droid, the switch from dummy to actor is blatantly visible. A few minutes later the android is incinerated, at which point the dummy head has reappeared and the android's left arm has disappeared.

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Continuity: During the alien chest-burster/death of Kane sequence, Kane's shirt switches back and forth from being tucked-in, to being un-tucked throughout the scene.

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Continuity: When the search party goes into the boneship, they are wearing full space suits, and hoods under their helmets. When Kane's helmet is first cut off, he has no hood on.

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Continuity: In regards to the self destruct mechanisim of the Nostromo, It is said that the time from the setting to detonation will be 10 minutes. This is also confirmed by the voice of "Mother" who says, right after Ripley initiates the sequence, that the detonation will take place in "T-Minus 10 minutes" However, in the next shot you see one of the monitors which shows a countdown with 10 minutes and an extra 30+ seconds on it.

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Continuity: While the Alien is bursting out of Kane's chest, notice how the blood stain on his shirt changes in size from a large stain to a small one and finally back to a large one.

Edit Submitted by Will Time
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Visible crew/equipment: After Ripley fails to shut off the auto destruct sequence, she runs through a corridor filled with gas. As she exits from the gas right before the shot cuts away we see her pass by a full sized light. Beside this light is the clear arm and head of a lighting crew member. (This is acknowledged on the DVD commentary).

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Revealing: while Parker is decapitating Ash with the fire extinguisher his T-shirt is not torn, just after he says "Ash is a goddam robot" his T-shirt is now torn and held together with a safety pin.

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Revealing: In the rapid closeup sequence in which the alien kills Parker (Yaphet Kotto) by biting him right in the face, a freeze-frame viewing indicates that, at the point of impact, a honeydew melon was used to absorb the bite. Now a honeydew melon has a white external rind, and Kotto is a black actor. Why couldn't the SFX guys, at least, have painted the melon to match Kotto's complexion? This production error is, well, in your face.

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Continuity: Disappearing Android Fluid- When Ash has gone crazy and is attacking Ripley, his white android juice/sweat/fluid is flowing from his forehead. After he throws Ripley into the room with the nude pictures on the wall, there is a new shot. In it, Ash is walking into the room, but there is no android fluid on his forehead.

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Continuity: When the dead facehugger falls onto Ripley in the medical room, it lands on the floor with its legs up. The distant shot shows its tail has looped under its body, but the close-up shows the tail entirely straight.

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Visible crew/equipment: When Ripley is heading towards the Shuttle towards the end, just before she finds Jonesy, there is a POV shot where the camera is walking towards a ladder. If you look at the floor you can see the dolly that the camera moves on.

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Visible crew/equipment: Following the chest-burster scene, as the camera pans around the darkened corridors on the Nostromo just prior to Dallas ejecting Kane's body, what appears to be a boom mic is visible only for approximately two seconds to the left of the screen.

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Deliberate "mistake": After Ash's body is incinerated, the interior walls of the Nostromo appear more metallic and grey than they were before. According to Ridley Scott, this was done deliberately to make the alien's presence appear more menacing.

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Visible crew/equipment: When Kane is struggling on the table shortly before the alien rips through his chest, just before the first patch of blood appears, his T-shirt rides up and something strapped to his chest can be seen. This is some sort of pack containing fake blood that discharges onto his T-shirt. (Best viewed in slow motion.)

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Continuity: When Lambert deactivates Ash by using a cattleprod, you will notice that she is wearing brown cowboy boots. Minutes later as the Alien goes to wrap its tail round the back of her legs, she is now wearing a sneaker - though you only see the toe cap it is clearly not a brown cowboy boot.

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Continuity: When the crew is chiding Parker for Brett saying nothing but 'Right' all the time, Brett's cigarette is first short, then long, then short again.

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Continuity: In the shot of the alien's tail wrapping around the back of Lambert's legs right before it kills her, the floor is different to what it was before, there is water suddenly falling from the ceiling when there wasn't before and her trousers have changed from white to blue. This is because that shot was originally intended to be used when Brett was killed.

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Audio problem: When Tom Skerritt first "interfaces" with Mother after being awoken, he says, "Good morning, Mother" - it is not even close to being Tom Skerritt's voice.

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Continuity: When Ripley backs into the shuttle closet you can see three axes on the wall next to her, when she starts to get into the space suit there are only two, then when she puts the helmet on there is only one.

Edit Submitted by Jack Vaughan
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Revealing: Parker had hair. When the alien bit through his head the melon they used did not have hair. Also, the seeds can be seen inside the melon when paused at the right moment.

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