Stupidity: The Nostromo essentially is a detachable ship attached to a mining platform. After it returns and docks with the platform, much of the movie occurs in the platform section and not the Nostromo itself. The supposed reason they can't just blow up the ship is that the shuttle can't fit everyone. Why couldn't they just lure the alien into the platform, seal the ship, and then use the ship itself to escape? They could then blow up the platform to kill the alien.
BaconIsMyBFF
9th Apr 2025
Alien (1979)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Dallas tries to flush the alien out of the air ducts and is presumably killed. Lambert suggests fleeing in the shuttle, but it cannot support 4 people. Ripley decides to continue with Dallas' plan, but before she does so, accesses Mother and finds out Ash was ordered to help bring the alien back alive. When confronting Ash with this, Ash attacks Ripley and is revealed as an android. The survivors then decide to go with Lambert's plan because now there are only 3 people. There is no error here.
15th Dec 2020
Alien (1979)
Corrected entry: When the Alien appears behind Brett, we first see its tail lowering before the rest of its body, even though the tail is presumably how the creature was being suspended in the air. Immediately after chomping Brett's head, he and the creature are lifted upwards, again presumably by its tail, though it's not long enough to carry them the implied distance and it's unclear what it has latched onto in the first place. This scene starts a tradition of sorts, as both 'Aliens' and 'Alien 3' feature their own scenes in which an Alien grabs a victim and both are subsequently lifted upwards by a great height, presumably by the creature's tail, and the mechanics by which this is possible and even where exactly they're going off to are always obscured to the point where the creature may as well be wearing a jet pack.
Correction: The alien is suspended from the chains above Brett by its feet and hands. In the Director's cut this is more shown. There are also extended versions of the scene which make it more obvious what happens before and after Brett is bitten. The creature uses the chains to escape to the ducts and those are certainly well within reach of the ground. The scene you refer to in Aliens, in which Dietrich is grabbed, shows the alien using its legs to walk backwards up the wall as it carries her, the tail is not involved. These creatures are shown in all the films to possess an ability to grip walls and other surfaces similar to insects, and they are shown with remarkable flexibility, agility, and strength.
4th Nov 2003
Alien (1979)
Corrected entry: When the crew split into two teams of three, Ash gives Ripley a movement sensor, which he tells her detects movement in the direction its pointing. However, when Ripley points the sensor at Brett and Parker (who are both moving at the time) it doesn't detect their movement. (01:00:35)
Correction: The motion sensor does not work very well. Ripley even comments on this when she says to Parker "Changes in micro air density my ass." Parker also comments "What's the matter with that box?" when Lambert struggles to pinpoint the location of the Alien while Dallas is in the duct. It has been speculated by some that Ash purposefully gave the crew faulty equipment to impede their efforts to kill the alien.