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1. Who directed Alien?
Ridley Scott
Scott had made only one feature, The Duellists, and got the job after Walter Hill and others passed on it. He shot most of the film at Shepperton Studios outside London, and came back to the series decades later with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
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2. Who plays Ellen Ripley?
Sigourney Weaver
Ripley was Weaver's first big role, with only a walk-on in Annie Hall behind her, and the script noted that every crew member could be played by a man or a woman. She was nominated for Best Actress for the sequel, a rare honor for an action film.
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3. What is the crew's ship called?
Nostromo
The Nostromo is a commercial tug hauling an enormous ore refinery back to Earth for the Company, with a crew of seven woken early to investigate a signal. Scott named it after a Joseph Conrad novel, and the Sulaco in Aliens keeps up the habit.
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4. What is the ship's computer called?
Mother
Mother is the crew's name for the ship's MU-TH-UR 6000 computer, consulted from a small room lined with lights that only the captain can enter at first. It is Mother who shows Ripley Special Order 937: return the organism, crew expendable.
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5. What is Ripley's rank aboard the Nostromo?
Warrant Officer
Ripley is third in command behind Dallas, the captain, and Kane, the executive officer, which is why she ends up in charge once both are gone. Ash is the science officer, and it is he who overrides her refusal to let Kane back aboard without quarantine.
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6. Which crew member is attacked by the facehugger?
Kane
Kane climbs down into the egg chamber of the derelict ship and gets a face full of creature when one of the eggs opens. It cannot be removed safely, drops off on its own and is found dead, and he wakes up hungry, which is where the real trouble starts.
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7. Who plays Kane?
John Hurt
Hurt was a late replacement after Jon Finch fell ill in the first days of shooting. The chestburster scene was done in one take with several cameras, and the cast knew only the broad idea, so the shock on their faces as the blood sprays is largely real.
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8. What is the ship's cat called?
Jones
Jones is a ginger tom, played by several cats, and Ripley risks a trip back through the ship for him before the self-destruct. Brett dies looking for him in the landing-gear bay, and Jones gets to sit out the sequel in comfort back on Earth.
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9. What dangerous property does the alien's blood have?
It is highly corrosive acid
The crew find out when they try to cut the facehugger loose and the drip eats down through several decks of the Nostromo. Later it means nobody can risk shooting the adult on a spaceship, so they hunt it with a cattle prod, nets and a flamethrower instead.
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10. Who designed the alien's distinctive look?
H.R. Giger
Scott found the Swiss artist's book Necronomicon and lifted the creature almost straight from one of its paintings, Necronom IV. Giger also designed the derelict ship and its dead pilot, and shared the film's Oscar for Visual Effects.
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11. Which crew member is revealed to be an android?
Ash
Ash was planted by the Company to make sure the organism came home, and he has been quietly protecting it since he let the infected Kane back aboard. The android twist was not in Dan O'Bannon's script; Walter Hill and David Giler added it in their rewrite.
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12. Who plays Ash?
Ian Holm
Holm came from the Royal Shakespeare Company and had never played anything like it; his Ash reads as merely chilly until Parker knocks his head off. He later played Bilbo Baggins for Peter Jackson. Lance Henriksen is the android in the sequel.
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13. Who are the two engineers most concerned about their pay shares?
Parker and Brett
Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton play the engine-room crew, who grumble about getting a smaller bonus share than the officers before anyone has seen an egg. Brett's contribution to most conversations is the single word 'Right', a running joke in the script.
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14. What is the escape shuttle called?
Narcissus
The shuttle is the only way off once Ripley sets the Nostromo to self-destruct, and she makes it aboard with Jones as the countdown runs. The cabin finale, with the creature folded into the shuttle's wall, was a late addition the studio paid extra for.
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15. What is the film's famous tagline?
In space no one can hear you scream
The line came from the advertising campaign rather than the script, and it sold a film whose trailer shows no creature at all, just a cracking egg, which is exactly why it worked. The other three taglines belong to The Thing, The Fly and Jaws 2.
