Corrected entry: Ripley's nosebleed: from 1:17:16 (chapter 14: 'A Confrontation with Ash' on the '99 DVD), Ripley's nose starts bleeding, eventually very noticeably. This is almost a full minute before Ash begins attacking her by throwing her twice, which might actually make it bleed. (01:17:15)
TonyPH
27th Jan 2006
Alien (1979)
Correction: Actually, Ripley's nosebleed was from when they opened the airlock on the Alien and she and Parker were caught in the decompression. That scene obviously was never filmed but the nosebleed was in reference to it. Also, in a cut scene you see Ripley and Lambert talking with Parker over the intercom where he says the Alien is right next to the airlock, apparently somewhat fascinated with a blinking light on in the door.
Correction: This would only be an error if a later scene were intended to show the moment the bleeding is caused by some physical strike, but there's no such moment (and there is the chance that her first shoving match with Ash may have had her head striking his, but it's not a certainty). Still, nosebleeds are commonly triggered by stress in people prone to them. Ripley's nosebleed begins after she learns of the special order (crew expendable) and becomes extremely distraught- and after her physically tossing Ash around (causing his head cut that later drips). She marches off, and in the passageways she can then be seen with the nosebleed.
You're really rationalizing this. Ridley Scott did not make Ridley's nose bleed to show that she's stressed out. It's inexplicable, and was the result of something cut from the film. The presence of it in the film constitutes it as a mistake.
Accidents and unintended effects are not necessarily mistakes. The nosebleed may have been intended as one thing - a reference to another scene - but became something else by that other scene's absence: a detail that helps sell the realism of the moment precisely because it does not feel contrived. Because a random nosebleed that occurs at an inconvenient time whose cause is not immediately obvious is something most people have experienced at one time or another.
17th May 2005
Alien (1979)
Corrected entry: On the special edition: go to the main menu, highlight special features, press right, and you will get the dossiers for the crew.
Correction: This description vaguely resembles an easter egg from the "Alien Legacy" collection or "20th Anniversary Edition" but the wording for just about everything is a bit off.
10th Aug 2003
Alien (1979)
Corrected entry: Several scenes on the story boards and in the script did not make the final cut of the film. Some weren't even filmed at all. Some of these scenes included a sexual encounter between Dallas and Ripley, who have their moment spoiled in horror when Kane's corpse, which they ejected hours before, drifts in front of their view and bangs into the window. The other more controversial scene that was not even filmed, but only hinted at, was a 'rape' scene involving Lambert and the Alien. The Alien sliding its tail between Lambert's legs was originally intended to be the start of a bizarre sodomy/rape sequence, but director Ridley Scott thought better of it and decided not to film that scene. The only inclination of the alien sodomizing or raping Lambert left in the film is the fact that her corpse, which we only get a brief glimpse of hanging from the ceiling, is stark naked.
Correction: When Lambert was killed by the Alien you heard her on the intercom and the sounds she was making certainly sounded like she was being raped.
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Correction: It's just an incidental nosebleed that can occur for any number of reasons like dehydration, blood pressure, etc. In addition to the other answers, it seems the film's purpose with the nosebleed is to contrast a sweaty, bleeding Ripley against Ash, who is totally dry aside from a strange drop of white fluid trickling down his face. The juxtaposition is a signal that yes, Ash is indeed "bleeding/ sweating" this white substance as a body fluid and it hasn't just dripped or spilled on him.
TonyPH