"Commercial towing vehicle 'The Nostromo'
crew: seven
cargo: refinery processing
20,000,000 tons of mineral ore
course: returning to Earth."
These words crawl across the screen in the opening scene of Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Alien. The use of this opening title card draws an immediate comparison to another sci-fi classic of the era: Star Wars. However, instead of "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," we have mundane details about a commercial spaceship. These details immediately distinguish Alien from other sci-fi films, by grounding it in some sense of reality, even as a massive spaceship flies through deep space.
For the next 25 seconds, we watch the underbelly of the ship. This choice of opening shot encourages another comparison with Star Wars. In the first scene of A New Hope, we watch as Princess Leia's ship flies through space with an imperial star-destroyer in close pursuit. This shot is framed widely, to show the epic quality of Star Wars' setting and action. However, in Alien, our view is restricted to a close up of the least majestic part of the spaceship. This serves the same purpose as the title card by making the film feel like less of a sci-fi epic, and more of a gritty thriller from a not-so-distant future.
This tone is supplemented by the soundtrack, or lack thereof. Jerry Goldsmith's iconic, haunting score only plays for the first six seconds of the film. Soon, it fades away, replaced by the monotonous hum of the spaceship's engine.
The next thirty seconds give us a sweeping, one-take shot of a hallway in the Nostromo. The set is dark, and has a cool, lifeless color tone. Derek Vanlint, the cinematographer of the film, employed the use of a Steadicam for shots such as these. This gives the footage an unnaturally smooth quality. Combined with the emptiness of the hallways, this cinematic choice makes the ship feel lifeless. The eerie movement of the camera through the empty ship foreshadows the arrival of the xenomorph alien, who's similarly unnatural movements will strip the ship of its life later in the film.
The next long shot shows us details of the ship's interior. In an audio commentary which accompanied a later release of the film, Alien's set designer described the spaceship as "primarily functional, and then accessorized." As PATbro on Letterboxd says, "The ship exteriors, interiors, and furnishings are all so complicated in detail that it should come off as a big hot mess, but throughout the picture, little details emerge... that make the prospect of the Nostromo being a standard, blue-collar, industrial vessel easily believable." This is a far cry from the sensationalist design of other sci-fi films of the era, whether it be Star Wars or even 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's clear that Ridley Scott appreciated this painstaking attention to detail, as this shot spends nearly a minute showing it off.
The next sequence displays a virtual interface of the spaceship receiving a transmission. It's not clear to me what is happening; maybe it's the ship becoming aware of the signal from the xenomorph's planet? Regardless, this sequence pushes the oppressive sense of suspense which will linger with the audience for the next two hours. The sound of computer systems humming and clicking is incredibly unsettling, especially when it is juxtaposed with the artificial computer system in the helmet.
The film has been rolling for nearly three minutes, and there is no sign of human life. Watching the program in the helmet make decisions places both the audience and the characters of the film at the computer's mercy: we don't know what the strings of code mean, and the characters don't know where the program is sending them. This sense of passive dread is what I think makes Alien so uniquely terrifying. It's clear from the opening minutes of the film that something awful is going to happen, but we're stuck aboard the Nostromo for the next two hours, just as powerless as the characters are.
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