Opening

88% Captain Phillips Oct 11
25% Machete Kills Oct 11
—— Haunt Oct 11
41% All the Boys Love Mandy Lane Oct 11
—— Romeo and Juliet Oct 11
67% Escape From Tomorrow Oct 11
—— CBGB Oct 11
—— The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete Oct 11
—— Zero Charisma Oct 11
—— Where the Devil Hides Oct 11

Top Box Office

98% Gravity $55.6M
59% Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 $21.5M
8% Runner Runner $7.6M
80% Prisoners $5.7M
88% Rush $4.4M
83% Don Jon $4.2M
16% Baggage Claim $4.1M
35% Insidious: Chapter 2 $3.9M
57% Pulling Strings $2.5M
95% Enough Said $2.2M
53% Instructions Not Included $1.8M
47% We're The Millers $1.6M
33% The Family $1.5M
73% Lee Daniels' The Butler $1.2M
—— Grace Unplugged $1.0M
78% Metallica Through the Never $0.7M
60% Riddick $0.5M
5% Battle of the Year $0.5M
75% Despicable Me 2 $0.5M
91% Blue Jasmine $0.5M

Coming Soon

78% Kill Your Darlings Oct 16
—— Carrie Oct 18
—— Escape Plan Oct 18
35% The Fifth Estate Oct 18
97% 12 Years a Slave Oct 18
100% All Is Lost Oct 18
86% Haunter Oct 18
—— Paradise Oct 18

Alien (1979)

tomatometer

97

Average Rating: 8.8/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 88 | Rotten: 3

A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole.

84

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 3

A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole.

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 447,428

My Rating

Movie Info

"In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo's crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas's (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts

R,

Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Dan O'Bannon

Jan 6, 2004

20th Century Fox - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (3) | DVD (44)

The most startling thing watching Alien again is its pacing. For the first 45 minutes, little happens. It's all slow, exquisite build-up, which makes the second half seem all the more horrific.

October 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It is depressing to watch an expensive, crafty movie that never soars beyond its cold desire to score the big bucks.

October 22, 2010 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comments (53)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The limited strengths of its staple sci-fi horrors always derived from either the offhand organic/ Freudian resonances of its design or the purely (brilliantly) manipulative editing and pacing of its above-average shock quota.

August 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An old-fashioned scary movie set in a highly realistic sci-fi future, made all the more believable by expert technical craftmanship.

June 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An empty-headed horror movie with nothing to recommend it beyond the disco-inspired art direction and some handsome, if gimmicky, cinematography.

Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The limited strengths of its staple sci-fi horrors always derived from either the offhand organic/ Freudian resonances of its design or the purely (brilliantly) manipulative editing and pacing of its above-average shock quota.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out New York
Time Out New York
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This revolutionary "haunted house in space" thrill-ride is the classic business, stunning you with shock after shock, even when the fascinating monster is exposed in all its hideous glory.

October 6, 2013 Full Review Source: Radio Times
Radio Times

If you want cinematic kicks, Ridley Scott's massively successful Alien will give you them in profusion.

August 2, 2013 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

Look as hard as you like, you won't spot a single flaw, even though the film's had 24 years to date.

October 10, 2012 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

A perfect roller coaster blend of horror and science fiction. Sigourney Weaver was an amazing discovery.

June 13, 2012 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

In a century of sci-fi/horror hybrids, few if any movies do such a good job at reaching the absolute highest peaks of both halves of that equation as this one.

June 11, 2012 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Antagony & Ecstasy

...a seminal feminist action flick.

May 31, 2012 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comments (3)
LarsenOnFilm

Alien has power, elicits terror, and the acid blood scars your consciousness.

May 2, 2012 Full Review Source: 2UE That Movie Show
2UE That Movie Show

It remains a benchmark of extra-terrestrial horror, and gave us a bona fide A-list star in the shape of Sigourney Weaver.

June 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

My favorite film of all time is one of the finest blu-rays in my collection.

January 9, 2011 Full Review Source: FEARnet | Comments (2)
FEARnet

The monster itself is still one of the flat-out scariest ever designed for the movies.

November 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Ridley Scott's Alien is nothing short of a masterpiece. Technically brilliant, tense, horrifying and visually breathtaking, there's not a moment in this B-monster movie that doesn't excel well beyond the usual genre trappings.

October 30, 2010 Full Review Source: IGN DVD
IGN DVD

Dated but still extremely scary. Not for younger kids.

September 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (9)
Common Sense Media

Science fiction horror doesn't get any better than this.

July 15, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

It's a chilling, slow-paced, space horror movie using the same formula as the B-films of the 1950s.

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment (1)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Alien proved that material derided as B-movie fodder could be handled with finesse and glossy production values, without diminishing the thrills or polishing over the hard-edged horror.

March 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique

Better than most of today's big budget sci-fi/horror films.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

It certainly doesn't look like a 24-year-old movie.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment (1)
Sacramento News & Review

Audience Reviews for Alien

'Alien' has aged remarkably well as a science fiction film, but not so much as a horror film. Beautiful and atmospheric, yet its formula (a group picked off one at a time) has been recycled so many times since that the movie no longer feels fresh and instead feels slow and predictable. This isn't the film's fault -- it's the genre -- but I had trouble remaining engaged throughout nonetheless.
August 7, 2013
Sam Barnett

Super Reviewer

A
June 3, 2012
Joseph Mcnicholas

Super Reviewer

    1. Ellen Ripley: Final report, the commercial star-ship Nostromo. Third officer reporting. The other members of the crew?Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas?are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier within six weeks. With a little luck the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
    – Submitted by Keanu V (5 months ago)
    1. Ash: I can't lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies.
    – Submitted by gage l (5 months ago)
    1. Ellen Ripley: We will and then we will blow it the fuck out into space!
    – Submitted by Ty R (9 months ago)
    1. Parker: Get out of the room!
    – Submitted by Nate P (10 months ago)
    1. Ellen Ripley: This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
    – Submitted by Jack R (11 months ago)
    1. Ellen Ripley: You...are...my...lucky...star...
    – Submitted by Brian N (12 months ago)
View all quotes (24)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
Alien 5 months ago 3
Gay looking guy who looks like a woman 5 months ago 2
dave kher = banishment 4 months ago 2
Time Magazine sucks 4 months ago 1
Old coot 10 months ago 0

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Foreign Titles

  • Alien - Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt (DE)
  • Alien (UK)
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