Alien

Character mistake: The menu selection screen on "Mother" has "L. ALLIGNMENT" mis-spelled. (00:08:55)

Character mistake: While entering the atmosphere of LV-426 when the ships starts to shake in a turbulence, there is a close-up at Ripley's screen showing the terrain and at the bottom of that screen we can see "WEYLAN YUTANI NOSTROMO 180246." The correct name of the Company is WEYLAND YUTANI and Nostromo's registration number is 180924609. (00:16:35)

sirwimpyix

Alien mistake picture

Character mistake: When Ripley is talking to "mother" by typing, it types "Emergency command overide 100375". "Override" should be spelt with two R's. (01:19:34)

Character mistake: When Ripley interfaces with Mother for the first time and sees the special order, an instruction reads as "Insure return of organism" rather than "Ensure return."

Character mistake: When the crew come upon the space traveler in the derelict space craft one of them says he is fossilized. For fossilization to occur the tissue must be replaced by minerals from surrounding materials. That is why fossils are found in the ground. When the creature dies it must be covered with dirt or mud before it decomposes. Over time the minerals in the dirt replace the tissue. But the space traveler is sitting in the pilot chair, completely open to the environment and not covered with anything. The term they should have been looking for was 'mummification' or perhaps 'skeletonization'.

Other mistake: When Ripley is trying to deactivate the self-destruct mode, the instructions she follows on the container are actually just the French interpretation of the instructions she read to activate self-destruct before.

Jack Vaughan

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Ripley: Micro changes in air density, my ass.

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Trivia: Ripley abruptly yelling at Parker to "Shut up!" is not in the script. Fans and industry gossip have long speculated that this was Sigourney Weaver breaking character in frustration and she was in fact telling Yaphet Kotto to "shut up" so she can finish her lines. The sequels 'Aliens' and 'Alien 3' both feature scenes where one of the normally cooler-headed protagonists suddenly snaps at a ranting character to "shut up!" in apparent reference to this moment. (01:16:50)

TonyPH

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Question: A bit puzzled as to why Ash tried to kill Ripley by stuffing a rolled up magazine in her mouth when he could have strangled her in seconds.

Answer: I believe this was another subtle way for the film to depict that Ash was malfunctioning or at least not fully processing correctly and having problems. It was showing a brutal savagery to his motions as well as an artistic choice for the moment.

Quantom X

Answer: This is just one possibility among many, but Ridley Scott suggested Ash may have been developing latent sexuality that he was not equipped to handle through his programming, and perhaps not physically either; his use of a rolled-up magazine may have come about because he was not constructed with a penis (I had to stop myself from making a pun about "hardware").

TonyPH

I always wondered about this. It always struck me as a little Freudian. Also, notice the picture of the topless lady on the wall - an interesting detail when combined with the phallic paper.

Jack Vaughan

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