Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or...

NostromoThe USCSS Nostromo is a commercial towing vehicle. When the story starts, it is towing a refinery processing 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore to Earth. Essentially, it's the space age equival...

3-Act Structure + 1Alien's narrative technique is the basic 3-act plot structure, which is the cinematic equivalent of ordering vanilla at Baskin Robbins: boring, classic, and really tasty if done...

Science Fiction; Horror; ThrillerWhat a Piece of Junk!If Luke Skywalker had known how bad it could be, he wouldn't have been so hard on the Millennium Falcon. Compared to the Nostromo, the Millenni...

The film's title Alien obviously refers to the creature of this feature, the alien. But for a movie that is so important to film history, doesn't that title seem kind of… bland? It'd be like nami...

The first thing you'll notice about Alien's ending is that it isn't exactly revolutionary. There's no twist ending, no revelation, no moment that makes you shout at the screen, "What is happening?...

RAlien got an R rating mostly for scenes of intense sci-fi violence, which is apparently a different flavor of violence than your everyday violence in the eyes of the MPAA.For example, at one point...