With Prometheus landing in cinemas within days, we explore the deepest, darkest corners of the galaxy to present an unmissable alphabetical guide to the Alien franchise. Just beware of franchise spoilers ahead.
A is for... Alien
The movie that gave birth to a phenomenon. Ridley Scott's second feature film after The Duellists, it's a masterclass in sustained tension and economy of horror - the 'monster' is only on screen for seconds at a time. Written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, and formerly titled Star Beast (catchy), it evolved into the terrifying survival horror we know and love. Inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002, it remains one of the most terrifying and iconic horror films of all time.
B is for... Burke
Burke by name, berk by nature. The 'corporate dickweed' archetype had been hinted at in the first film, with Ash working on behalf of 'The Company' to bring the beast back alive for bio-weapons, but it wasn't until we met Paul Reiser's Carter Burke in Aliens that we realised The Company was almost exclusively staffed by buttheads. Open-handed and queasily chummy on the surface - like a sort of shifty space politician - he nonetheless puts countless lives at risk for his employers, probably to secure a bigger office or something.
C is for... Chestburster
The most startling scene in a film packed full of memorable moments, the 'chestburster' sequence is one of the most shocking deaths in sci-fi history. Having just had an alien get jiggy with his gob, John Hurt's Kane wakes up feeling woozy, but thinks nothing of joining the crew of the Nostromo for a spot of dinner. Turns out that wasn't indigestion he was feeling: after some terrifyingly realistic convulsions, Kane's stomach is punched open from the inside, and an alien embryo bursts forth, spraying the unprepared cast members with blood. That look of shock on their faces is genuine, captured on film forever.
D is for… David
You may have already met Michael Fassbender's Bowie-inspired android David in Prometheus' promotional material. And given his promise that he can carry out directives that human crew members might consider "unethical" we're guessing he's not entirely on the level. Interestingly - and despite the revised chronology post-Prometheus - the 'synthetic humans' in the Alien franchise have all been named alphabetically (Ash, Bishop and Call in that order). We look forward to meeting Eugene, Frank and Gerard in future instalments.
E is for... Eggs
With the design of the alien being kept a secret, the striking image on the Alien poster was the egg, with green pus oozing forth. You may notice that this egg (belonging to a hen, egg fans) looks different to the ones in the movie – that's because the scene in which John Hurt inspects the more organic-looking facehugger egg was added in post-production. The movement that Kane sees inside is Ridley Scott's hand in a rubber glove, and the innards – if you really must know – were made of cow guts and tripe. Anyone fancy an omelette?
F is for... Facehugger
There's something horribly perverse about the design of the facehugger – the first creature created for the movie. It's the combination of its long, spindly, human-like fingers and its whipping tail that still gives us the fear – that and, of course, its penchant for humping your face and laying eggs in your stomach. It's more than just a freaky creepy-crawlie – the facehugger's disgusting "oral invasion" technique as used on Kane in Alien was intended as a riposte to various scenes of abuse suffered by female horror protagonists at the hands of male monsters.
G is for... Giger
Hans Rudolf Giger is the creative (and potentially quite troubled) genius behind Alien's most twisted designs. The Swiss artist studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich before realising his talent lay in creating disturbing, evocative, impossibly dark imagery – a perfect fit for the Alien universe, in other words. Ridley Scott saw potential in Giger's painting, Necronom IV, and commissioned the artist to birth his beast. The finished product – an asexual creature with a long, smooth, curved cranium – was the perfect nightmare. "It could just as easily f*ck you before it killed you" commented producer Ivor Powell.
H is for... Hudson and Hicks
The twin pillars of the Colonial Marines: Corporal Dwayne Hicks, a gruff, lantern-jawed leader of men; and Private William Hudson, a sarcastic technician who talks the talk but breaks down like a little bitch when the odds aren't in his favour. Despite surviving Aliens, Michael Biehn didn't get the chance to reprise Hicks in the threequel – he was killed off during the opening credits, but successfully demanded almost the same amount of cash for the brief use of his image as he was paid for the entirety of James Cameron's movie. Bill Paxton's Hudson saw an undignified end, but did get some of Aliens' best lines, including the eternally over-quoted cry of defeat: "Game over, man! Game over!"
I is for... Ident
Arguably the scariest moment of Alien 3 comes before a single second of footage has been shown. The movie opens with the customary 20th Century Fox fanfare, but holds the penultimate note and transforms it into a discordant wail, putting the viewer at instant unease. Director David Fincher's idea, this startling opening was intended to unsettle audiences and let them know that nothing, not even the company idents, were safe from harm. Shame the rest of the movie didn't quite deliver in the same way.
J is for… Joss and Jean-Pierre
The red-headed stepchild of the Alien franchise, fourquel Resurrection sticks out like a sore thumb – it's not so much a horror as a sci-fi fantasy adventure, complete with underwater sequences, Ripley shooting hoops and a baffling final baddie that looks like crappy fan art brought to life. Joss Whedon claims his tongue-in-cheek script was mostly left intact, but was poorly adapted by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the studio heads, who "executed it in such a ghastly fashion they rendered it unwatchable." We are not entirely disagreeing, although it does have its moments (see 'U').
K is for... K-Y Jelly
If you ever wondered what they used for the slime slithering out of the alien's mouth, well... now you know! Ridley Scott was the first to lube his beast with K-Y Jelly (steady), but James Cameron took slobbering to a whole new level on Aliens, literally dumping buckets of the stuff on the Alien Queen's snout. It apparently made controlling the hydraulics incredibly difficult because the individual components couldn't get a proper purchase. Job well done, K-Y!
L is for... LV-426
Planets way out there in the furthest reaches of the galaxy don't have cool names like Mars or Jupiter – they just get numbers. LV-426 is the interstellar code for the planet on which the distress signal is picked up by the Nostromo in the first Alien movie. Named 'Acheron' in extended universe fiction, the planet is where we first see the crashed ship (known as The Derelict), the Space Jockey and our friends the facehuggers. It is a travel agent-approved vacation recommendation. It's just a few moons over from LV-223, the planet on which Prometheus is set (see 'Z').
Source : http://www.ign.com
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