the spacecraft nostromo is on a return trip to earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: captain dallas (tom skerritt), executive officer kane (john hurt), warrant officer ripley (sigourney weaver), navigator lambert (veronica cartwright), science officer ash (ian holm), and the engineers parker (yaphet kotto) and brett (harry dean stanton). detecting a mysterious transmission from a nearby planetoid, possibly a distress signal. following standard company policy for such situations, the ship lands on the planetoid, sustaining damage from the planetoid's dusty atmosphere in the process. parker and brett begin repairing the ship, while dallas, kane and lambert head out to investigate. they discover the signal is coming from a derelict spacecraft. inside, they find the remains of a large alien creature whose rib cage appears to have exploded from the inside. on the nostromo, ripley determines that the transmission is not a distress signal!. ash responds by telling her that she wouldn´t be able to communicate with the others in time. in the mysterious ship, kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of eggs. as he inspects one, a creature comes out and attaches itself to his face. ridley scotts direction and the editing of his sequences is so perfect, it feels like you´re on this ship with the crew, every shot is marvellous, every movement of the camera is breathtaking. the set design is incredible, it´s still one of the coolest movie ships of all time and the ship feels so much like a real enviroment. the crew is also very well realized. this take on the future was very believable. one thing that is very rare in alien is that it doesn´t have a clear protagonist, first it feels like the crew as a team is the protagonist but later ripley steps up and to see ripleys character grow in the movies is so much fun. the acting is splendid and the performances builded a credible world centuries away. sigourney weaver is more than a revelation, and the rest are great aswell. on first viewing the android played by ian holm seems like a real person but on second viewing you see that he is analyzing the crew. the script is a work of art, the story is so mesmerizing, well-constructed, well-developed and free of any absurd twists. it´s simplicity and effectiveness are yet, 25 yers after, to be matched. the atmosphere is pure genius, it's gothic and claustrophobic, the use of light and dark is beyond description and the use of sound is as creepy as it gets. the fx are so impressive especially from 1979 and it still holds up very well! in the time of it's release some scenes was very scary and they still are effective! jerry goldsmiths score matches the images so perfectly it seems to bleed for them and it´s one of my favorites soundtracks for any sci-fi movie! and, of course... the alien. h.r. gigers design is the most innovative i´ve seen. it has spawned dozens of imitations and no one has lived up to it which is kinda of sad. this is the real deal, not only the look, but the complete design of the xenomorph, including biological features. acid instead of blood. a very good sign of a movie that has gone down in history is the amount of well remembered scenes like - the chest burst scene which is a great scene! but my favorite scene is when brett is looking for the cat named jones and in the background the alien is seen, that scene is so amazing and suspenseful! so what else? i urge all young directors and young people who wanna be filmmakers to watch this movie, take notes all along. but not in order to rip off as many others have done, but to learn and how a movie should be done! in my opinion, alien is one of the few perfect movies in the history of cinema, because this is one of the few movies i can´t find the slightest flaw. the only flaw i can find is near the end when the alien hangs out, that scene looks a little dated but except for that everything is perfect! alien has engaging characters, a incredible creature, scary and suspenseful. rating 10/10