Film
Alien (70mm)
Cert:(15)
Dir. Ridley Scott
GB, 115 mins, 1979
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm, John Hurt and Bolaji Bodejo as the alien
In the depths of space, the crew of the mining ship Nostromo is awakened from sleep by a distress signal from a far-off planet. What they discover there will eventually slaughter most of them, leaving Warrant Officer Ripley (Weaver in her breakthrough performance) alone to face an unimaginable horror as it runs amok in the labyrinthine tunnels of the giant ship. Ridley Scott’s landmark sci-fi shocker presented John Hurt with one of the most memorable – and arguably the goriest – on-screen exits in cinema history. As hapless Kane, host to an extraterrestrial life form that erupts from his chest after gestation, John Hurt brings humanity and tragedy to a chill tale of isolation. And as the alien systematically wipes out all human life, this masterpiece of horror builds to a shattering crescendo until only one terrified survivor remains. The original and the best, and playing in glorious 70mm.
Print source: 20th Century Fox/National Media Museum Archives
Watch footage of John Hurt 'debunking the Alien myth' on the National Media Museum Blog!
Other films showing as part of the Widescreen Weekend are:
- This is Cinerama (3-Strip Cinerama)
- Manhattan (35mm)
- Lecture: Oyster Bay - History of a
- Battle of the Bulge (70mm)
- Die Hard (70mm)
- Remastering Windjammer
- Windjammer (Digital)
- Alien (70mm)
- Screentalk: John Harvey
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (70mm)
- 2010 (70mm)
- Cineramacana
- The Alamo (35mm)
- Flying Clipper
- Cinerama's Legacy
- The Blue Lagoon (70mm)
- Quest for Fire (70mm)
- The Hunt For Red October (70mm)
