FLM.RED / After the credits
No room to escape aboard the Nostromo
A spoiler-filled discussion of the crew, the company’s orders and Ripley’s escape.
Open the recap & discussion — spoilers
The crew of the commercial ship Nostromo are heading home when a mysterious signal diverts them. What they find turns an ordinary journey into a nightmare in confined spaces.
The signal
The seven-person crew investigate a transmission. Dallas, Kane and Lambert explore a derelict ship while Ripley determines that the signal may be a warning. A creature attaches itself to Kane. Ripley insists on quarantine, but Ash opens the hatch.
Something came aboard
The creature falls away and Kane wakes, only for a small organism to burst from his chest during a meal. It grows rapidly. Brett is taken after following Jones the cat, and Dallas disappears while trying to trap it in the air ducts.
Ash and the company order
Ripley consults the ship’s computer and learns that recovering the organism is the company’s priority; the crew are expendable. Ash attacks her, and the others discover that he is an android who has protected the creature.
Leaving the Nostromo
Ripley, Parker and Lambert plan to destroy the ship and escape in a shuttle, but the creature kills Parker and Lambert. Ripley takes Jones, activates the self-destruct and escapes before the Nostromo explodes. The alien is also aboard the shuttle; she puts on a spacesuit and expels it into space.
Ripley’s final report
Ripley records that she is the Nostromo’s last survivor and settles into hypersleep with Jones. The quiet after the alarms brings relief, while reminding us that the rest of the crew are gone.
After watching
- When does the ship begin to feel like a trap?
- How does the company order change your reading of Ash’s earlier decisions?
After the alarms
Long waits and ordinary ship sounds make even familiar corridors unsettling. The final quiet carries both relief and loss.
Keep the conversation going
Do Ripley and Jones survive?
They escape in the shuttle, and Ripley expels the alien before entering hypersleep.
