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Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It follows a spaceship crew who investigate a derelict spaceship and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The alien creatures and environments were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while the concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the other sets.

Alien premiered on May 25, 1979, the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival. It received a wide release on June 22 and was released on September 6 in the United Kingdom. It initially received mixed reviews, but won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Award (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Alien grossed $78.9 million in the United States and £7.8 million in the United Kingdom during its first theatrical run. Its worldwide gross to date has been estimated at between $104 million and $203 million.

In subsequent years, Alien was critically reassessed and is now considered one of the greatest and most influential science fiction and horror films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by Empire. The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, books, video games, and toys, and propelled Weaver's acting career. The story of her character's encounters with the alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, while a two-film prequel series was directed by Scott before Alien: Romulus (2024), a standalone sequel, was released. A television prequel written by Noah Hawley and produced by Scott, Alien: Earth, will premiere on FX on Hulu in 2025.

The commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth with a seven-member crew in "stasis" (suspended animation): captain Dallas, executive officer Kane, warrant officer Ripley, navigator Lambert, science officer Ash, and engineers Parker and Brett. The ship's computer, Mother, detects a transmission from a nearby planet and awakens the crew. Following company policy to investigate transmissions indicating intelligent life, they land on the planet. Dallas, Kane, and Lambert discover the transmission comes from a derelict alien spaceship. Inside is a large, mummified alien corpse with a hole in its torso. Later, Mother partially deciphers the transmission, which Ripley determines is a warning beacon and not an SOS as originally thought.

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