Question: How was there a thunderstorm and rain inside the ship while traveling through space?
Answer: What scene are you referring to?
Question: Near the start of the film Dallas goes to mother and on the computer he scrolls down to special order 937 and then asks "what's the story, mother?" When he tapped on order 937, why didn't he see the same message that Ripley saw later in the film?
Answer: Dallas doesn't scroll to Special Order 937, he scrolls down to the "Interface" option which is coded as "Interface 2037." Interface 2037 is the program that allows the ship's captain to ask the computer questions in plain language. Ripley sees the message about Special Order 937 because she keeps pressing Mother for additional information that she is not authorized to see. Dallas probably did see the same message about "Science officer's eyes only" but thought nothing of it at the time. Dallas' dialogue to Ripley about Ash having final word on the alien seems to suggest that he did indeed see Special Order 937 and chose to follow his instructions.
Yes have rewatched it, you're quite right.
Question: First, thank you to the individual that answered my question: "Why did they wear helmets in the first alien and not Aliens?" However, I am still puzzled though with my question: "How did the facehugger get through Kane's helmet?" The answer given was: "It secreted an acid that "burned" through the helmet." If this is true, wouldn't the acid still on the facehugger have burned Kane's face when it attached itself?
Answer: In the Alien novel it pushed its way into Kane's helmet using just brute force and not with acid.
The question was about the movie, not the novelization. And yes, in the movie the facehugger secretes acid: you can hear a sizzling sound as the creature latches onto Kane's helmet.
Sorry I was wrong about the Alien novel, it did indeed use acid to burn its way into Kane's helmet.
Question: Just after Ripley finds out from mother "crew expendable", she has a run-in with Ash, but he doesn't hurt her - she hurts him - so why does she have a bloody nose?
Answer: The reason for the nosebleed was a deleted scene from the film. Ripley, in her attempt to escape from Ash, opened a hatch into a corridor which had been previously damaged by the alien (also a deleted scene) and wasn't supposed to be used. She suffered depressurization and retreated back and closed the hatch before looking for another escape route. That is what caused the nosebleed.
Chosen answer: Some people are prone to bloody noses without actually being physically hurt. Extreme emotional stress or physical exertion can trigger it by breaking small blood vessels in the nasal passages. She could also have bumped her head at some point off screen and had a delayed reaction.
Question: One thing that bugged me from a recent rewatch. When Brett comes across the Alien skin that it has recently shed, it in no way resembles what the creature looks like now, and is completely disproportionate with its size a few minutes later when it kills him. Now I know that its methods of 'growing' we are lead to believe are different to those of Earth creatures in that they are more accelerated etc...but if it is following a similar pattern to Earth animals that shed their skin shouldn't it have shed at least ANOTHER skin or maybe two to achieve its near-adult human size? And also why in 'Aliens' were no shed skins in abundance dotted around the place when it is part of the Aliens' natural life-cycle? They don't strike me as the kind of creature that would worry about leaving their shed skin around to cover up their presence?
Answer: The skin Brett finds is presumably the first skin the creature shed based on its size. There might be other skins that were shed all over the place but we never see every inch of the ship. The alien in this film primarily uses the air ducts to move around, but the film only shows the air ducts in one brief scene. There could be other skins somewhere in those ducts we never see. The same is true in Aliens. We never see every inch of the floors of the colony, they could be anywhere. The floor of the hive does have a considerable amount of debris, some of this debris could conceivably be shed skins.
That's a much more logical answer, thank you.
Answer: They shed their skin once, probably some kind of protective fleece around its immature body it disposes of, not actual skin like with a snake. These are smart creatures, yes they would hide their shed skin.
If that's the case why did the first Alien shed skin get found? If as you say they are 'smart' enough to hide their shed skin why was this one left laying around?
Because in later movies the aliens have a lot more space to shed their skins where it can't be found. Maybe they don't actually hide it, but it's logical they hide themselves as their skin sheds because they are vulnerable. The alien in the first movie simply couldn't find anywhere to hide.
Question: Is there ANY reason the smaller "lifeboat" ship (think they call it the Narcissus) Ripley evacuates into at the end, couldn't have been used as a lander to travel down to the planet in the beginning too (simply leave the Nostromo in orbit, with or without skeleton crew)? It seems, actually is, much less likely to be damaged in the initial landing, and, for that matter, much easier to take off afterwards (being much less massive). It also would have provided one more layer of quarantine containment for the people who stayed in the lander (who may or not be all the other four, in fact one would probably be just fine (Ripley manages the Narcissus just fine at the end), and it would have been a lot faster for the singleton to simply put on their own spacesuit if/when trouble is encountered, and in so doing, preserve their own personal uncontaminated space). The three explorers and the lander guard could simply see to trouble in Narcissus' sickbay-laboratory, without tainting the three back in the mothership, give Kane first response while taking him up to the main lab on the ship, while giving the orbit people warning to put on their suits/have some form of mobile quarantine ready for him.
Answer: It's not apparent whether the shuttle is capable of landing at all, much less launch itself back into space afterward even if it could.
Chosen answer: The small "lifeboat" ship was not equipped for the entire crew's long-term survival. As they are in deep space, there is no where close for them to land. They would just be adrift in space, as it takes years to travel from one destination to another. To survive long voyages, the crew needs to be in hibernation. The small ship would be a last resort in the hope that any survivors would be found before they died of starvation and/or lack of oxygen.
Question: Just curious,does the space jockey have any relation with the Predator and what is their history?
Answer: 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.
Question: 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?
Answer: 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.
Poor old Lambert got the brunt of it.
Question: Using the motion tracker with the screen when Dallas is in the vent, is it top-down or side-view?
Answer: It actually appears to orient both ways, presumably Lambert is switching back and forth between orientations. When Dallas turns; it shows on the readout as a 90 degree turn. When Dallas goes down the ladder the first time the readout shows the dot travelling downwards on the screen. It can't do both unless Lambert is switching them. And it makes sense that she would, she knows where he is because he is calling out his location as he goes. Lambert likely knows the path Dallas intends to take and switches orientations when he does. This confusing set-up is purposefully meant to disorient the audience, so they, like Dallas, have no idea from which direction the alien is coming. Lambert seems to have also become disoriented (this seems an impossible task with no line of sight) and can't give Dallas a direction to escape. She has the screen oriented so "forward" is to the right, Dallas goes down towards the alien, so she says "No! Not that way! The other way! God!"
Answer: That wasn't a "thunderstorm and rain" inside the Nostromo. It was condensation dripping down from the ship's ventilation/cooling system. When searching for the cat, Brett (played by Harry Dean Stanton) removes his cap and stands beneath a cooling shaft, allowing the condensation to splatter like rain on his head and face.
Charles Austin Miller