Alien is a culturally influential 1979 science-fiction horror film , directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver. The film's title refers to the main antagonist, a highly aggressive, unfamiliar extraterrestrial life-form. Reluctantly following a distress-beacon in deep space, a crew member of the space-faring towing vessel Nostromo encounters a young Alien that attacks and infects him. As a result, the creature boards the ship, eventually wreaking havoc and threatening the entire crew.

Alien garnered both critical acclaim and box-office success, spawning a Hollywood media franchise of literature, video games, merchandise, and three official sequels. The film effectively launched actress Sigourney Weaver's career. By featuring a strong heroine, Alien also proved unconventional (by Hollywood standards) for the action genre. While the Alien itself emerged as a popular aspect of the film, the story of Ellen Ripley became the thematic thread that ran through the series. Together with the films of David Cronenberg from the 1970s , Alien emerged as a central work in the development of the body-horror subgenre. Publicity for the film involved a tagline that became widely known: "In space no one can hear you scream."

Sequels to the film include: Aliens (1986), Alien³ (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997). The 21st century saw a possible end of the Alien franchise in favor of a crossover with the Predator series Alien vs. Predator (2004) and its sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

The Alien film series is a science fiction horror film franchise, focusing on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) and her battle with an extraterrestrial lifeform. Produced by 20th Century Fox, the series started with the 1979 film Alien, which led to three sequels, books, comics and video game spinoffs.

In addition to the franchise are the "Alien vs. Predator" films (AvP: Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem), based on the related franchise which combine the titular Aliens with the Predator beings from the Predator film series.

The Alien was a science fiction film under production in the late 1960s which was eventually cancelled. The film was being directed by Bengali Indian director Satyajit Ray and produced by Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures. The script was written by Ray in 1967, based on Bankubabur Bandhu (Banku Babu's Friend), a Bengali story he had written in 1962 for Sandesh, the Ray family magazine.

What differentiated The Alien from previous science fiction was the portrayal of an alien from outer space as a kind and playful being, invested with magical powers and capable of interacting with children, in contrast to earlier science fiction works which portrayed aliens as dangerous creatures.

The plot revolved around a spaceship that landed in a pond in rural Bengal. The villagers began worshipping it as a temple risen from the depths of the earth. The alien established contact with a young village boy named Haba (Moron) through dreams and also played a number of pranks on the village community in course of its short stay on planet earth. The plot contained the ebullient presence of an Indian businessman, a journalist from Calcutta and an American engineer.

The Alien had Columbia Pictures as producer for this planned US-India co-production, and Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando acting in lead roles. However Ray was surprised to find that the script he had written had already been copyrighted and the fee appropriated. Marlon Brando later dropped out of the project and though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in his place, Ray became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta. Columbia expressed interest in reviving the project several times in the 70s and 80s but nothing came of it.

When E.T. was produced in 1982 by the same company that had contracted with Ray in 1967, many saw striking similarities in the movie to Ray's earlier script - Ray discussed the collapse of the project in a 1980 Sight & Sound feature, with further details revealed by Ray's biographer Andrew Robinson (in The Inner Eye, 1989). Ray believed that Spielberg's film "would not have been possible without my script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." When the issue was raised by the press, Spielberg denied this claim and said "I was a kid in high school when his script was circulating in Hollywood."

When commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, heading back to Earth, intercepts an SoS signal from a nearby planet, the crew are under obligation to investigate. After a bad landing on the planet, some crew members leave the ship to explore the area. At the same time as they discover a hive colony of some unknown creature, the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a call for help. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew do not know the danger they are in until it is too late. Written by Graeme Roy

In the near future, during its return to the earth, a commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress SOS from a distant planet. The seven-member crew are woken up from the hypersleep and the spaceship subsequently descends on the planet. While exploring the planet, a three-member team of the crew discovers a derelict spaceship and a huge chamber inside it containing thousands of eggs. When a curious team member goes too near the egg the parasite inside the egg attacks him, rendering him unconscious. He is brought back aboard, the spaceship takes off. After a little while the parasite dies and his host wakes up seemingly unruffled. But other crew members are unaware of the living nightmare which is going to descend upon them when the alien creature planted inside its unfortunate host would emerge. Written by Soumitra

The crew of the deep space mining ship Nostromo are awaken from hypersleep to investigate a strange signal from a nearby planet. While investigating the signal, they discover it was intended as a warning, and not an SOS. What follows are some grisly and inventive special effects based on the work of H.R.Giger Written by Colin Tinto

On what should have been a trip back to Earth, the Nostromo, a mining freighter, is automatically re-routed to a desolate planet after receiving an SOS coming from it. After the crew is awakened, they investigate the source of the SOS, and discover a derelict alien ship on the planet. One of the crew members is put into a coma by an alien creature while investigating the ship. But the alien parasite dies and the crew think all is well. But the small ordeal was only a prelude for greater things to come... Written by Kerwin Tsang

While returning from a deep-space mission, the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo is awakened by a supposed SOS call from a system they are passing through. Descending to the planet's surface, they discover a strange derelict spaceship - the apparent source of the transmission - and one of the crew descends into the hold. What he finds are thousands of strange alien eggs. While examining one of the eggs, it hatches and the parasite inside attacks him. After returning to the Nostromo the crew takes off again to head for Earth. The alien parasite subsequently dies and all seems well again. But what no one knows is that another alien is quietly forming within its host - and when it emerges, the crew finds itself in serious trouble... Written by Derek O'Cain