Alien

Alien (1979)

6 mistakes since 19 Apr '21, 13:12

(27 votes)

Other mistake: The voice of Mother saying the self-destruct sequence has been activated is heard before Ripley pushes the red button of the last of the four mechanisms used for that purpose. (01:35:58)

Continuity mistake: When the ship warms up before the crew is revived, a computer workplace is shown two times: in the second instance, an empty coffee mug sits before the right side of the screen that wasn't there before.

Continuity mistake: When the ground crew prepares to leave, the captain tells them to take weapons. All three crewman are in suits with side arms on hips. These weapons are never seen the rest of the movie.

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Suggested correction: With reference to the side arms mistake the weapons are seen, when Kane goes to look inside the egg before he is attacked he is carrying his side arm and holding it ready.

Continuity mistake: Right at the beginning of the movie we see one side of a planet with a ring going around it pointing toward the bottom of the image, then the camera slowly moves to the other side where the ring is pointing towards the top of the image. This would only be possible if the ring around the planet has a figure 8 shape, however later in the film the ring is revealed as flat.

Revealing mistake: You can see the blood was initially thrown on John Hurt instead of coming from underneath his shirt. You can also see the underlying prop wrap that was used for the blood exploding out of him just before you see the alien pop out. (00:56:56)

Parker: It's a robot. Ash is a god damn robot.

More quotes from Alien

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

More trivia for Alien

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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