1979, R, 117 minutes

"In space no one can hear you scream," is easily one of the most well-known taglines in movie history. Alien is one of the most acclaimed sci-fi/horror movies of the last 30 years (it ranked #6 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Thrills" list), and rightfully so. Filmed on a budget of 11 million, and making over 70 million at the box office, it also spawned a sequel. Many critics consider James Cameron's Aliens to be the better picture. While I agree that Aliens is more relentless, Ridley Scott's Alien has more intensity and more of a scare factor. After the box office success of Aliens, two more less-than-stellar sequels were released (rumors of a fifth Alien movie have been circulating since the release of Alien: Resurrection in 1997). All things considered, another sequel will probably not live up to the excellent first one.

Why can't all sci-fi movies be like this? Alien is a methodical motion picture - it doesn't start out fast-paced. More and more sci-fi movies these days are more worried about explosions and special effects to care about the atmosphere in a movie, and that makes Alien even more pleasurable to watch today. The beginning slowly shows us the exterior of the ship (it's also cool that such a creepy score was used), and then shots of the interior. This helps set up the dreary mood. Alien is drenched in atmosphere, and that's what makes the movie even scarier as an overall experience.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

The seven-man crew of the Nostromo is headed back to Earth. The crew consists of the captain, Dallas (Tom Skerritt), second-in-command Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm), and Parker (Yaphet Kotto). About halfway towards Earth, the seven awake from cryogenic sleep. It turns out that the Nostromo has intercepted a transmission from another planet. Because of their contracts, the seven are forced to investigate.

They land on the barren, apparently lifeless planet where the transmission is coming from. Soon, they discover what looks like a crashed spaceship. While exploring the spaceship, the crew discovers material that looks like alien eggs. Kane starts checking out one of the hundreds of eggs, and sees that it's starting to hatch. He looks inside and sees the baby creature, but only catches a quick glimpse before the creature jumps up and sticks to his face. Apparently, the creature is feeding off the oxygen in Kane (he's still alive while the "Facehugger" is attached to him).

Now we have an issue between the crewmembers. Should they let Kane back inside the ship, and risk all being infected by the alien? Or should they abandon Kane, and take off without him? Of course, we wouldn't have a movie if they chose the latter option. The Facehugger is attached to Kane for some time, as the rest of the crew tries to figure out what to do with it. While trying to take it off, they find out that it bleeds an acid substance capable of eating through the ship ("It's got a wonderful defense mechanism; you don't dare kill it." one character comments). Eventually, the Facehugger releases itself from Kane's face and everything returns to normal, momentarily.

Then we get to the most famous and memorable scene in the whole movie. The crew has just started to eat dinner, when Kane starts gagging and choking. They lay him on the table, and blood starts splattering everywhere. The alien bursts through Kane's chest, viciously shows its teeth, and then suddenly runs out. We find out that the Facehugger was used to put the alien in Kane's chest, and then to eventually come out. That scene is genuinely scary, and it's not because of all the blood splattering everywhere. The whole dinner scene was built up to it, and made it very intense to watch. The rest of the movie deals with the crew being picked off one-by-one, and the alien gradually growing larger and more powerful.

A movie that's definitely worthy of being called such clichés like "edge-of-your-seat entertainment" or "white knuckler", Alien is exactly that throughout its entire two hour running length. Every minute is put to good use. Alien goes in some interesting directions - while it's not suprising now, many people didn't suspect that Ripley would be the sole survivor (actually, an early draft of the script had Ripley as a man, which would've made it less suprising). Women, before this, were used mainly as sex toys in sci-fi/horror movies, and Ripley proved that heroines can be just as cool as heroes. Ripley is an obvious inspiration for characters as broad as Sarah Connor (from the Terminator movies) to Lara Croft (from the Tomb Raider movies). Another interesting turn lies in the infamous "second ending." Again, many people back in 1979 thought the movie was over when the Nostromo blew up. They were dead wrong; the alien managed to get onto the shuttle Ripley is on, and it makes for a chilling climax. Fun little tidbit: originally, Ridley Scott wanted the alien to bite off Ripley's head, and then make a call to Earth talking like Ripley. Fox, of course, didn't approve of that deliciously darker ending. We still got a great ending, though.

Alien also boasts some fine performances from all eight actors. Wait, isn't there seven crew members on the ship? Well, lets not forget about the alien. The 7-foot Bolaji Badejo was chosen personally by Ridley Scott to be the alien, and he does an awesome job. We can't give Badejo all the credit though - some great makeup and costume work is the primary reason why the alien is so frightening.

Winner of the Academy Award for best visual effects (the film was also nominated for Art Direction, but lost to All That Jazz). One thing that does confuse me is how Alien didn't get an Oscar nomination for Original Score (it did get a Golden Globe nomination for it, however). The score is another reason why this movie works so well - especially the way it helps to create the tone of the entire film.

If you're looking for an edge-of-your-seat thriller, look no further. Hell, if you're just looking for a great time in front of the television set (or movie theater, where it'll be re-released later this year), look no further.