Reluctantly, the crew lands on a nearby planet to inspect the source of the transmission. The ship is damaged on landing so the maintenance men, Brett and Parker, start repairs. In the meantime, Captain Dallas, Kane, and Lambert set off to find the source of the transmission. Ripley and science officer Ash remain on board to monitor repair and the exploring party, and to try to decode the transmission.
The scouting party encounters a ship with a dead pilot and a cargo hold full of odd eggs. Kane makes the mistake of coming too close to an egg and is attacked by a Facehugger. Dallas and Lambert take him back to the ship where Ripley refuses to let them aboard due to quarantine procedures. Ash decides to ignore the procedures and allows the group onto the ship. In the medical bay, Ash and Dallas discover that the alien's blood is made of acid and removing it from Kane's face may kill him. Thankfully the repairs are finished and the ship is able to lift off the planet.
Not long after docking with the rest of the Nostromo, Ash reports Kane's seemingly miraculous recovery. The alien's dead body is found and the relieved crew prepares to return to stasis for the remainder of the journey home. One last meal is shared and things go horribly wrong from there out.
In the DVD director's commentary, Ridley Scott mentions that people often say that nothing happens in the film for 45 minutes. From a modern audience's perspective, this is true--there is very little action for the first half. It is mostly dedicated to building suspense and atmosphere, not action. But once it starts it's almost non-stop until the end.
The movie's strength lies in the startling contrast between the know and the unknown. The mining ship Nostromo is gritty, dark, and industrial, a long way from the bright and shiny Starfleet ships from Star Trek. Likewise, the crew is not full of uniformed fresh-faces all working their way up the ranks. These are normal-looking people, people who look like they've been on the job for a long time and just want a hot shower and a nap in their own beds. Although the movie was filmed in 1979, there are no modern fashions or hairstyles that date the characters (the actually look like they all need a haircut and a change of clothes). In short, the crew and their ship look like any mining crew with their equipment.
Contrast this with the planet and the alien ship. The film owes much to the work of German artist HR Giger, who designed the ship and the aliens themselves. The ship looks almost organic, as opposed to the Nostromo which is completely mechanical. The sense of scale helps to enforce the disorientation--the humans are dwarfed by the ship and the pilot (known as the Space Jockey), a huge fossilized beast with just enough humanity in its face to make everyone uncomfortable. The adult alien is obviously biological but with elements that seem mechanical, such as a shiny, almost metallic-looking carapace and steel-esque teeth.
Another fantastic element is that the film does not spend a great deal of time establishing back stories on the characters. None of them have first names and their characters are ultimately determined by their actions, not their histories. The age of the cast, none of them in their teens, sets this film apart from the other horror films that were coming out at this time such as Carrie, Halloween, and Phantasm. The casting of Ripley as a woman was a fantastic choice (since the role was originally to be a man) but the genius came in not rewriting her lines to make them more "feminine." She is a strong female lead that rings true even now.
The only other female role is Lambert, who does react in a more typical "female" way with tears and hysteria. But she is not the only one panicking--Parker seems dangerously close to losing it himself once his sidekick Brett is gone. The difference is that these characters express themselves differently; they are unique enough that they are not stand-ins for the differences between men and women.
After the famous dinner scene, the movie at its core becomes a haunted house film. But that doesn't keep it from being one of the best haunted houses ever, with much higher stakes than in the "old dark house" films of the 1930s and 40s where the ghost or demon ends up to be someone trying to get their hands on the fortune. The threat here is real and there is more at stake than old Aunt Sadie's diamonds.
Everything about this movie is pitch-perfect: the cast is top-notch, the direction is superb, the effects (all practical) and designs are fantastic, and the soundtrack of both musical score and industrial background noise serve the film well. Although the ending that isn't really an ending seems cliche now, this was one of the first films to do it and they do it the best.
Rating:★★★★★
