Question about the Director's Cut of the film. The scene where Brett is looking for Jones has been altered slightly - when he looks up at where the water is dripping from, you can actually see the Alien hanging motionlessly from one of the chains. Has Ridley Scott given an explanation as to why he added this new dynamic to the scene? It's easy enough to speculate why, but a link to an 'official' explanation would be appreciated. [According to the commentary on the DVD, Ridley didn't add this scene to the original cinematic release because he thought it revealed the true horror of the Alien too soon in the film. The scene is quite early in the film and he thought revealing the fully matured Alien at that time would reduce the viewer's fear.]
Alien (1979) - 6 questions
Directed by Ridley Scott, starring John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt
The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!
Question about the Director's Cut of the film. The scene where Brett is looking for Jones has been altered slightly - when he looks up at where the water is dripping from, you can actually see the Alien hanging motionlessly from one of the chains. Has Ridley Scott given an explanation as to why he added this new dynamic to the scene? It's easy enough to speculate why, but a link to an 'official' explanation would be appreciated. [According to the commentary on the DVD, Ridley didn't add this scene to the original cinematic release because he thought it revealed the true horror of the Alien too soon in the film. The scene is quite early in the film and he thought revealing the fully matured Alien at that time would reduce the viewer's fear.] Just curious,does the space jockey have any relation with the Predator and what is their history? [The space jockey is another alien race entirely. Since the Predator movies didn't even exist when Alien was released and there were no creative links between the two series until Alien Vs. Predator, it is safe to say that the space jockey has absolutely nothing to do with the Predators.] When the man who was looking for the cat, before he was killed, there is water dripping from somewhere, where is it coming from? [It's a leak in one of the many systems onboard. The leak is relatively minor, so the crew postpones fixing it until they dock.] I know they never really make this clear in the movie,but if anyone has heard an interview from Ridley Scott as to about how far in the future this movie takes place,I'd love to know. [An easter egg on the Alien Legacy DVD states that the year of their arrival on Acheron is 2122. It's logical, since in Aliens, 57 years later, Ripley mentions the order given by Burke to investigate the derelict, which was dated '79.] One of the trivia entries states that Ridley Scott prevented any members of the cast from seeing the chestburster until the scene was filmed so their reactions would look more natural. However I've dug up numerous sources (such as IMDB) that says this is not the case and the cast had indeed seen the creature before hand. Which is the correct version of this story? [The version that I've heard the most often, which seems the most plausible, is that the cast were pretty much aware of what was going to happen - the chestburst effect requires machinery, a fake torso and so forth, so it's a bit daft to imagine that they weren't aware of what was coming. What they weren't expecting was the sheer amount of blood squirted everywhere, so their reactions to being sprayed with blood are, to some extent, natural.] Answered by Tailkinker What exactly is the space jockey and why haven't we seen it in the other films except its fossilized self sitting in the what I call the laser gun? [It's another race of space alien that is also subject to infection by the Aliens. This particular one was infected and moved as far as it could from its race's known space and broadcast a warning before it died. The presence of eggs in the hold may indicate that it was a research ship. The race was never used in other Alien movies because it adds a new dynamic to the plotlines: two alien species, locked in mortal combat and neither particularly friendly with humans.]You may also like: Aliens | Alien Vs. Predator | Alien Resurrection | Cloverfield | I Am Legend