What in the world is that thing at the beginning of the movie? Its a big, alien/monster thing sitting on a chair. The researchers investigate his body and say "Look, he exploded from the inside" or something like that.

I've never seen that thing mentioned/referenced in any of the other movies. Can someone explain? i'd appreciate it.

 

Space Jockey. His origin is never Explained

 

Hopefully the prequel will explain it.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Jockey_(Alien)

It's been portrayed in some of the comics and I think the books also, but nothing that's definitively canon.

 

The Space Jockey was never explained, and the only model of it on display was burned by religious folks, if my memory is working right.

BBC News - Ridley Scott promises 'tough' Alien prequel

The prequel WILL explain it after all.

The Space Jockey is something that I sometimes wish will stay a mystery. I love that mysterious feeling.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I really enjoyed the first one . I love when they go into "Lets CATCH this alien!!" and they go after it with a Knife and net lol.

Also, that first Alien Chest Bust was spectacular to say the least. He Busts out, looks around, and takes off! lol!!

 

Despite my age, I never actually watched the very first one. With Aliens being my first major exposure as a kid, the first always looked "old and cheesy" from a kid in the 80s perspective.

I recently saw a trailer from the 70s for it....and it was one of the BEST trailers I had ever seen. So...it's now like 3,475 on my Netflix cue.

I'll check back in a couple of years with my thoughts lol

 

Alien deserves to be on the number one spot for your netflix, dude.  

 

Alien is arguably THE single greatest horror/suspense/thriller/sci-fi movie ever made.

 

I 100% agree, and SentinelPrime that is exactly why I never saw the first one. When Aliens came out on VHS, I was all over that. It was such a great movie because of all the action, I couldn't really give the first one a chance.

So, after 20 years, i'm glad I FINALLY got around to seeing the first. excellent movie, the best of the 4 for sure. Now everything Sigourney Weaver was worried about in the second with Bishop makes sense.

 

It's like... $5. Just go buy it.

 

No kidding, your really missing out! At least youtube the first chest buster scene lol. Its my favorite part of the movie.

 

Funny thing about that scene, only the behind the scenes crew and John Hurt knew what was going to happen, none of the other actors knew what was going to happen so all those reactions were real!   They were all really freaking out for a sec.

 

Not quite accurate. They knew, only in general, what would be going on. They had no idea about the blood spraying so far or what the puppet specifically looked like or how violent it would be.

Remember, Hurt's torso is down in the table. You couldn't exactly hide all the props from the actors on set.

As for the Space Jockey, whatever it was, it seemed to be a pilot, its ship was stuffed with xenomorph eggs, and it was obviously gotten to by a facehugger.

Beyond that...a mystery.

- Coeloptera

 

The 'space jockey' harvested aliens as a means to terraform new planets, as will be explained in the alien prequels.

 

From what I understand, the one actress was told she would get hit in the face with "a little bit" of blood.

 

Cartright? Yeah, she freaked the hell out!

 

LOL, so was she suppose to fall down? I couldn't really get a good screenshot of it but you can kind of make out her hand and foot

 

I dispute that, I've never been able to sit through it. Too boring.

 

Interesting that it was also referenced in AvP2