33 Alien (1979) Trivia Questions & Answers

Answer: Warrant Officer

Ripley was played by Sigourney Weaver in only her second ever feature film. She was not second-in-command aboard the vessel, as one might assume from her starring role.

Weaver was the last of the Nostromo's crew to be cast by the director, Ridley Scott. She earned nominations for the Saturn Award for Best Actress and for BAFTA's Most Promising Newcomer based on her performance.

Answer: Dallas

Dallas was the Captain of the Nostromo. Dallas said this to Ripley, right after the ship left the planet and she stated her mistrust of Ash. Ripley asked Dallas if he had ever shipped out with Ash before and Dallas told her that the company had replaced his Science Officer with Ash two days before they left Thedus.

Answer: Bob Burns

Not only was Bob Burns given the stuff, but he was consulted a few times for a few items to be given back for another "Alien" movie and then said items were returned in better shape. The robotic Queen's head from "Aliens" was taken from him for the Queen in "Alien: Resurrection" and then returned, as well as the miniature Sulaco ship from "Aliens" (except that one was used in "Alien 3" rather than "Alien: Resurrection").

Answer: Dallas

Tom Skerritt played Captain Dallas. He initially declined the role of Captain Dallas, as he thought that "Alien" was going to be a low-budget B-movie with a no-name director. He reconsidered upon learning that Ridley Scott was to direct the film, and that 20th Century Fox would finance "Alien" as one of their featured films for the summer of 1979.

Answer: Parker

Parker was the engineer of the Nostromo. Parker said this after Captain Dallas asked everyone to get dressed at the end of the breakfast scene. This happened right after they awoke from hypersleep.

Answer: pyramid

There were actually many illustrations of this mysterious pyramid before it was scrapped and replaced with a derelict ship.

Answer: Star Wars

Scott called the film "captivating" and credits "Star Wars" for peaking his interest in a genre, that until that time, he had all but ignored.

Answer: Parker and Brett

Parker was played by Yaphet Kotto, later known widely for his role in television's "Homicide: Life on the Street". Kotto claims to be a descendant of the royal family of Cameroon.

Harry Dean Stanton portrayed the subservient Brett, who followed Parker around the ship and always supported his colleague's opinions with a simple "Riiight!"

Answer: Lambert

Lambert was the Navigator of the Nostromo. Although when Lambert was killed you may have noticed her lack of cowboy boots. That was because the shot of her feet actually showed Brett's feet! I never did find out a reason for this, but it was confirmed by multiple sources, including IMDB.com.

Answer: Necronomicon

Giger, a Swiss born industrial designer and painter, did the designs for the 1969 film, "Swiss Made". He also collaborated on the first attempt to bring Frank Herbert's "Dune", to the screen.

Answer: Kane

British actor John Hurt played Kane. After disturbing the egg field, he was attacked and impregnated by an embryonic alien.

Hurt's "chestburster" scene in the mess hall is one of the most memorable and shocking surprise scenes in horror cinema. The special effects of the scene were not made known to Veronica Cartwright (who played Lambert) ahead of time. Thus the look of surprise and horror on her face was a genuine reaction to the emergence of the chestburster and the blood which sprayed her.

Answer: Parker

Parker was the Chief Engineer. Parker said this when he and the others watched the acid drip from the ceiling from the cut Ash made in the creature. This helped to establish the reason why the crew couldn't simply shoot the creature, for fear that the acid in the alien's body would eat through the ship.

Answer: All of the seven

Although they were all male, the characters had been written in such a way that "gender" wasn't absolutely defined. It was only when the script was re-written by producers David Giler and Walter Hill, that the characters of "Ripley" and "Lambert" were portrayed as women.

Answer: Brett

Kane was the first to die, but he died "giving birth" to the juvenile chestburster alien. Several scenes later in the film, after the crew had spread out to search for the creature, Brett was killed by the rapidly-matured adult alien as he searched the bowels of the Nostromo for the crew's pet cat.

Answer: Parker

Parker was apparently worried about getting cooties or something from Ash. This occurred just as Parker and Brett arrived at the mess to hear what Captain Dallas had to say about the alien signal. You could see Parker brush the chair with his hand as if to remove any left behind dirt from when Ash had been sitting there.

Answer: Paris

H.R. Giger is the designer for all the alien aspects of the film. Anything from the derilect ship to the alien itself was based on his brilliant artwork. Dan O'Bannon is the writer for this movie and came up with many of the ideas for the life-cycle of the species and he also came up with the title as well.

Answer: Women in the Fox offices

After her screen test, Ladd gathered all the women he could find in the studio offices to have them view Weaver's performance. They liked Weaver so much that, two days later, she had the part.

Answer: Micro-changes in air density

Ash was played by veteran British stage and film actor Ian Holm. Holm was both the eldest and most experienced film actor to appear in "Alien".

When Ash created the motion tracker, Captain Dallas asked for a demonstration. Apparently satisfied, he ordered the crew to split up in order to track the alien. Ripley, however, by this point does not trust Ash, and she comments under her breath, "Micro-changes in air density my ass!"

Answer: Kane

Kane was the Executive Officer and second in command. Kane said this when he, Dallas, and Ash were looking at the computer readout about the planet's composition, after they had landed. Dallas then made a comment, "Yeah... that figures," implying that Kane had an adventurous spirit. This tended to explain why he was more prone to look in the alien egg, that had a face-hugger in it, than someone else.

Answer: A drink.

Giger's assistant had readied a glass of brandy for each of the actors. Not feeling the need for "fortification", Weaver refused the offer, only to come racing out moments later to grab the bottle!

Answer: Dallas

Dallas entered the air ducts armed with a flamethrower and guided by Ripley and Lambert, who were monitoring his and the alien's positions using Ash's tracking device.

His plan was to herd the alien toward the airlock room, closing off the air ducts' junction doors along the way, ultimately trapping the monster into a path which could only lead to the airlock. Then the alien would be ejected from the ship. Unfortunately, the plan did not succeed.

Answer: Brett

Brett was seen lighting his cigarette in that fashion during the scene where he and Parker talked to Ripley about the shares they were going to get. Ripley ended the conversation by stating she would be on the bridge if they needed her. This scene established the antagonistic relationship between Parker and Ripley, which would play out further once the Captain was gone.

Answer: extra coolant for the shuttle

The shuttle could not carry all three crew without extra coolant, as it was only designed to support two passengers.

Answer: Brett

Brett said it so many times that Ripley accused him of being a parrot. Although the character had scenes where he said more, director Ridley Scott eventually cut them to make the character of Brett a man of few words.

Answer: a series of 2x3 thumb-nails drawn by Ridley Scott

While Dan O' Bannon's scripts were impressive, they weren't impressive enough for Fox to give out an extra $4.2 million. James Cameron also wrote impressively, but he wrote for the sequel to this film, "Aliens". Quite frankly, Fox Studios was against H.R. Giger's designs for the film.