A character sitting down to dinner with fellow crew members falls into convulsions, then dies a bloody death as an alien burrows out of his chest. One by one, characters are killed by the alien. While their deaths aren't always shown, gruesome ends are strongly implied. Characters shoot a flamethrower and fire a cattle prod while trying to defend themselves against the alien. Tons of horror movie suspense of the "What's that around the corner?" variety. Darkness, jump scares, and strobe lighting heighten the intensity.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Toward the end, a character takes off her uniform, stripping down to a half-shirt and low-cut panties with visible butt cleavage. In a scene in one of the pods, there are pictures of naked women in the background, breasts shown.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Crew member Ripley shows courage, perseverance, integrity, and presence of mind during a traumatic event. She even takes the time to rescue the ship's cat as surviving crew members attempt to escape the ship. Captain Dallas defies protocol to try to save his crewmate's life. Parker takes great pride in his work, faces danger head on, and leaves no crewmate behind.
Positive Messages
a little
Corporate greed nearly wipes out a human space crew through a bloodthirsty alien that's devoid of remorse or conscience. This is countered by a strong message to never give up and to do everything you can to try to save your friends and co-workers.
Diverse Representations
a little
Ripley was revolutionary when Alien first released as a smart, brave woman and acting senior officer leading the action. But the movie hypersexualizes her, having her strip down to very low-cut underwear and a half-shirt. The rest of the crew offers just shallow diversity: The one Black character, Parker (Yaphet Kotto), sacrifices himself to save a White character, while Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), the only other female character, is highly emotional.
Parents need to know that Alien is Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic that spawned a franchise spanning movies, books, comics, video games, and a possible TV series. While not as gory as most horror films, it's too intense for younger viewers. In its most iconic scene, a character is killed after an alien burrows out of his chest, shooting blood everywhere. Unrelenting suspense permeates every scene after the first 15 minutes. While the deaths of the characters aren't always shown, gruesome killing at the hands (actually, tentacles) of the alien is strongly implied. Main character Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was groundbreaking at the time of the movie's release as a strong female sci-fi hero, but the movie still hypersexualizes her, having her strip to panties and a half-shirt. Two characters smoke, some drink, and all of them use language such as "f--k," "s--t," and "bitch." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
Alien does a much better job at building unsettling tension and fear than it does being outright horrifying to the viewer. It's strange and alienating but can be darkly beautiful because it is shot and paced so well. We feel the nastiness much more often than we see it making the violence largely implied excepting a few scenes. Were it not for those few notable moments of body horror I would say the film would be okay for 12 or 13+ but I think it's enough to keep this one at high-school level. It's an excellent film.
Obviously many violent/scary scenes...but one scene is worth noting:
For the version we watched, these were the times the scene started/ended - I would recommend completely skipping this scene if younger kids:
1:21 - start of the very violent scene (it's a robot - but looks just like a man - and the "blood" is white, but still very violent scene which also includes a woman being attacked by this robot)
1:22 - full female nudity - there are a bunch of pictures on the wall, full female nudity - completely in focus... and the camera sits on them for a long period of time, and keeps showing them over and over
1:27:30 - end of very violent scene and nudity
Hope this helps someone!
What's the Story?
In ALIEN, the Nostromo—a cavernous and poorly lit interstellar mining ship—is staffed by a miniscule crew of seven led by Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt). They're awakened out of hibernation by an order from faraway Earth to investigate a mysterious distress signal on a dark and stormy planet. There, the miners find a huge, grounded spaceship from an unknown civilization with a long-dead alien pilot. A parasite, apparently the same type that took down the other craft, affixes to the face of Nostromo crewman Kane (John Hurt). After Kane seems to recover, a hostile newborn alien bursts out of the doomed man's chest in front of the rest of the crew. The crew, now led by senior officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), struggles to kill the fast-moving, fast-growing, unwelcome visitor before it gets them.
This groundbreaking sci-fi classic definitely still has the scare factor. Being scary, in new and disturbing ways that hadn't been done before, was Alien's mission. For a generation of moviegoers, Alien was a state-of-the-art shocker, even though it basically has a second-hand monster plot and characters that behave like clichéd horror-movie victims, wandering alone in the dark or waiting like sitting ducks to be picked off. Alien did defy stereotypes of its time in the brilliant move of making the ultimate survivor, Ripley, a vulnerable-looking young woman who courageously fights back against the alien marauder.
Most of the violence is suggested in quick edits rather than directly shown, just like the skittering, skeletal/serpentine alien parasite itself. While this once-shadowy monster species has been exposed in inferior sequels, video games, and comic books (even Superman battled them!), some of the best minds in cinema tried to ensure that this movie would be a nightmare-inducer, and parents should keep that in mind.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why Alien is so effective in evoking fear. How do the filmmakers use lighting, editing, and sound to heighten the intensity? Also consider the design of the alien: What about its appearance makes it so scary?
Have you seen any other Alienmovies, such as the sequel Aliens, or the crossover film Alien vs. Predator? How does this movie compare to those? And how does the alien in this movie evolve throughout the franchise?
How does the creature in Alien compare with other movie aliens, like those in E.T.or Star Wars? Do you imagine aliens as friendly, or deadly-scary?
What makes Ripley an iconic hero? How does she compare to other sci-fi heroes? What do you notice about how she's portrayed compared to the other female crew member, Lambert?
MPAA explanation:
sci-fi violence/gore and language
Last updated:
August 13, 2024
Inclusion information powered by
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Charles Cassady Jr.
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
