45 Years of Alien: Celebrate Alien Day with Us

May 25th marks exactly 45 years since the movie Alien hit theaters, forever changing the sci-fi and horror genres. It introduced a dark vision of the future where humanity travels through space in gloomy, steam-filled, and grimy ships—a far cry from the pristine, welcoming vessels seen in Star Trek. The universe created by director Ridley Scott is a dark place where, indeed, no one can hear you scream…

The seven-member crew of the space freighter Nostromo wakes up from cryosleep. The ship's AI, Mother, has picked up an unknown signal. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which owns the ship, has clear rules: every unknown signal must be investigated. The signal originates from the planetoid LV-426. The planetoid didn't get its name until 1986; it remains unnamed in the original film. Its name inspired Alien Day, celebrated in its honor on April 26th (4/26).

The rest is history for most of us. There is clearly an alien ship on the planetoid and a pile of strange eggs in the basement, from which spider-like creatures love to jump out and plant an egg with a very nasty surprise in your belly. That is exactly what happens to poor officer Kane. The unsuspecting crew brings him back on board. Crew member Ellen Ripley grumbles and objects regarding quarantine, but she is outvoted. The Nostromo has officially welcomed its first space pest! The whole thing culminates, of course, in the iconic dinner scene where a small alien bursts out of Kane's chest.

When I saw this scene as a young boy, it gave me nightmares for nights on end. I looked at eggs for breakfast with great suspicion for a long time after. The first film is built entirely on slowly mounting tension, where fear is evoked primarily by the viewer's own mind rather than bloody scenes full of special effects. The film plays psychological games with the audience, letting them fear the unknown. We only see the Alien itself a few times, yet it etched itself into our memories and, ultimately, into film history.

Fans waited seven long years for a sequel. James Cameron took the director's chair and sent poor Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo, back to planetoid LV-426. 57 years have passed since her last visit. The previously empty rock has been filled with colonists thanks to terraforming. They have gone silent, but no one really believes the fairy tale about drooling monsters. Eventually, Ripley joins the rescue mission, if only to face her own nightmares.

The result is a spectacular, action-packed film where Aliens are everywhere, and we see the Alien Queen for the first time. It is a completely different approach. The slow horror full of hints was replaced by action full of one-liners. The Aliens became murderous monsters, functioning like an insect swarm that drags poor colonists into their hives. This gave the Aliens an interesting background, which soon spawned further adaptations. Aliens made their way into literature, comics, and video games.

But first, let's look at the third film. It premiered in 1992 and was directed by David Fincher. After the destruction of the Alien Queen, Ripley and the remaining crew enter cryosleep. They have no idea that the Queen managed to lay two eggs on the ship. When a fire breaks out on board and the ship crashes near a penal facility where a group of prisoners maintains an old foundry, no one suspects that a treacherous facehugger has already crawled out of the eggs and infected Ripley herself. A second facehugger waited for a poor dog wandering around.

The third installment returns to the slower pace of the first film. We see a digital Alien for the first time. A computer model replaces the previous elaborate puppets and costumes. It just isn't the same. The era and technology hadn't fully matured, and I have to say the Alien in the third film looks strange. Nevertheless, the film is successful. Above all, it shows the true face of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. They are no longer interested in saving people, but in capturing the Alien and using it as a biological weapon. When Ripley realizes this, and discovers that a little one is sleeping in her chest, she jumps into a vat of molten lead, where they had previously managed to fry the original Alien. It seems it's all over…

Five years later, in 1997, Ripley surprisingly returns in Alien: Resurrection. 200 years have passed since the events of the third film. The crew of the military-scientific ship Auriga manages to clone Ripley on their eighth attempt, including the Queen's offspring in her chest. The Queen is surgically removed, and Ellen is kept alive as a rather interesting experimental result. She is half-human, half-Alien. Alien breeding begins. What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything. The Aliens are not just mindless, drooling animals. They can adapt and learn. It is no surprise that they escape their breeding pens and start spreading hell.

The fourth installment received mixed reviews. To this day, it has the lowest rating of the original tetralogy. But I like it. I really enjoy the completely different, dangerous Ripley, who struggles between loyalty to humans and to the Aliens. I was also pleasantly surprised by the new human-alien hybrid, which represents a departure from the original insect-like creature. Ultimately, it is more of a return to the action-oriented approach. But we had no idea what was coming next!

Meanwhile, the floodgates opened, and a ton of other material began to emerge. Novels, comic book series, short films, and video games. The character, whose visual design was created by Swiss artist Hans Rudolf Giger, became a pop-culture brand that conquered the world. Soon, the Alien teamed up with another iconic space "monster" – the Predator. Their eternal duel doesn't sound bad at all, but the two resulting Alien vs. Predator films are rather shallow action flicks that failed to offer anything interesting to a more demanding viewer. This concept fared better in video games. For instance, the 1999 title Aliens Versus Predator is an immortal classic.

From the multitude of Alien games, I must highlight Alien: Isolation from 2017, which showed the best that Alien has to offer—cruel survival horror action where every sound and creak scares you. I spent long hours in the game myself, hiding in a locker… Beautiful.

The year is 2012, and the film Prometheus hits theaters. It was supposed to be Ridley Scott's grand return to the Alien world. His goal was to create a spectacular, big-budget prequel that would show a new version of the origin of the Aliens and humanity itself. The result, however, was mixed. The film divided fans. Some liked it, others consider it trash that turned the original Alien into a confusing farce. I proudly count myself among the latter. I consider Prometheus a screenwriting disaster where characters try to act as illogically as possible, scenes often make no sense, and it's crawling with octopuses, strange slime, and who knows what else. I don't really understand why this happened, and they even gave it to a pair of screenwriters who either never saw Alien or didn't understand it. Prometheus failed, and I would prefer to forget it.

Unfortunately, Scott's next attempt, Alien: Covenant, didn't fare much better. Yes, the film fortunately tries harder to connect to the original Alien. It introduces the Xenomorph in a more classic form. But the script was again handled by a different pair of hacks who infested the film with dull characters whose only good quality is that they die effectively… Yes, I understand that the primary task of films is to entertain, but no one can expect fans to calmly overlook all those illogical blunders, stupid dialogue, and pseudo-philosophical babble. And yet, I consider Ridley a capable director who knows how to make a good film. Just, for heaven's sake, don't let him near Alien anymore!

What's next? This August, Alien: Romulus arrives in theaters. A film in which fans are placing high hopes. Fortunately, Scott has been replaced by Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez, who has a few decent horror films under his belt. It is supposed to be a return to the roots, and rumors are spreading on the internet that it might not be bad at all! Fingers crossed. At the same time, a series is in production that should capture events between the first and second Alien films. We should see it sometime in 2025. Several big games are also in development; let's just hope a sequel to the amazing Alien: Isolation is among them.

Alien is an icon known to the whole world, and it will certainly be with us for some time to come. Thanks to Giger's timeless design, it will continue to terrify generations of viewers. Alien attacks basic human instincts in a certain way. It evokes fear through its inhumanity and animalistic, insect-like nature. The Alien is an apex predator, a monster designed to quickly eliminate any competition and multiply. If humanity ever encounters an alien race in the future, let's hope it's as little like the Aliens as possible.

author Karel Krajča