Despite the success of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, science fiction films were often viewed as juvenile and escapist. Much of that changed in the late 1970s and the 1980s thanks to a new wave of films which challenged the...

Alien is a culturally influential 1979 science-fiction horror film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver. The film's title references the main antagonist, a highly aggressive, unfamiliar extraterrestrial life-form. Reluctantly...

The history of special effects in the cinema is, to a large extent, the history of the reaction shot. How often would 1950s audiences have believed in the monster without the screams of the hero's girl? Screaming is currently out of fashion, now that...

BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service The Record (Bergen County, NJ) 08-13-2004 New film alien to Sigourney Weaver -- Two sci-fi stars have moved on By BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service Date: 08-13-2004, Friday Section: GO! Edtion: All Editions.=.Two Star B....

After “Dry the Rain,” the lead-off track from the Beta Band’s The Three E.P.’s, nothing the band has done has been as compelling. So imagine the promise held by Astronomy for Dogs, the first full-length CD released by the Aliens, which reunites ex–Beta Band members...

Due partly to a shortage of federal agents and poor record-keeping, aliens under court order to be removed from the country often face unconstitutionally long detentions, an inspector general has found.A report to be released Tuesday by the Homeland Security Department inspector general found that...

In the following essay, Greenberg discusses the qualities of the central monster in Alien, rating it among the most frightening in film history, and examines the significance of the monster as a symbol of “capitalism's depredations.”

In the following essay, Matheson argues that Alien offers a pessimistic vision of man's relationship to modern society in the face of advancing technology.

In the following essay, Cobbs asserts that images symbolizing abortion act as a central leitmotif of Alien.

The 1979 movie "Alien," directed by Ridley Scott, was a landmark movie becaues it combined the genres of science fiction, horror and adventure in a way never accomplished before. The movie incorporates the influence of feminism and its specific characters are designed to be a microcosm of societal norms and status. The movie also presented the interplay of nature and technology in a new light.