Alien: The Story Behind MAKING the ‘Derelict Sequence’ | Making ALIEN 

I truly consider the original "Alien" one of the best films ever made and cinematic art.

Funny how the Iceland locations in Prometheus feel like CG, but the Giger's Derelict landscape set/paintings feel so grounded and real.

"Giger is a special case. When something is that good you have to recognize it and leave it alone." He understands something that is lost on many.

Giger created something so timeless it‘s incredible

hard to put in context now as we've been saturated in decades of Gigeresque imagery, but I still recall when the movie first came out. I was gobsmacked. I went out and bought "Giger's Alien" the artist's book on the project. I showed it to my art teacher and he was blown away. The derelict sequence is one of the creepiest, most convincing, best edited and best designed sequences in science fiction cinema. And to think the studio heads wanted Scott to ditch the Space Jockey scene based on cost! Scott stuck to his guns and we can all be thankful for that.

Am saving for later, a nice reward. :) When I saw ALIEN opening week, the Derelict scene was the moment when everyone in the theater just bought the whole movie. All around me, I heard the adult viewers saying, "The Fu....?" "What is that?" It was a stroke of genius of Scott's to first show it to us at a remove, like we were watching something happening live on TV. Then Lambert says what the audience was thinking: "Let's get outta here," people were nervously muttering in the audience, and the kid me thought, "Yeah, lets..." But of course we had to go on...

Imagine designing something so alien and out of this world, that people had a hard time actually building it physically. Giger's mind was one of a kind.

Interesting behind the scenes video. Back in the 90's, I worked for Derek van Lint, the cinematographer for "Alien". It's his lighting that makes the alien landscapes, the dark corridors, and the Alien itself work - revealing enough for the audience to be scared while hiding all the seams and rough spots. In normal light, the Alien looked exactly like what it was - an actor in a rubber suit. I don't think Derek and Ridley Scott got along. "Alien" was Derek's ticket to Hollywood, but it didn't quite work out. He had considerable success in commercial production, with its ups and down, but he always came back. "Alien" has all the hallmarks of Derek's best work. He did like his smoke! An artifact from "Alien" that we had at the studio was the hot-head crane he had made for the movie. It was a complete pig to move which was always heavier after a long day of shooting.

Having HR Giger design all things that were “Alien” made it so convincing. The Alien architecture fascinated me at the time and still does. It was terrible and beautiful.

The found footage quality of the set up shots that introduce the Derelict are so unsettling. Entire modern films use the FF concept as a premise but Scott stumbled on it here. A true master.

Artists like Giger are something we desperately need more of in this world. Artists who truly trust their own vision and spirit to manifest something beautiful, meaningful and mysterious

I love the space jockey. That room looks like a tomb but I got the impression that was how it looked when he was alive anyway. They just walked in there so that meant it was open to the vacuum of space when the ship was in flight. And whatever information he got from those weird instruments, it was invisible to us.

It's really fascinating how big of an impact Jodorowsky's failed Dune project had on Hollywood in the late 70's and 80's. Even though the movie was never made, it created bonds between people, concepts and ideas that would permeate Sci-Fi movies for over a decade. There is a high likelihood that we never would have seen this version of the Alien if O'Bannon and Geiger hadn't met while working on the Dune concept.

I liked Aliens, but I loved Alien. As a kid I was totally blown away by how well the movie was visualized. It’s a masterpiece.

The space jockey scene is on my top 3 list of all time favorite sci-fi scenes. I was intrigued and curious for years about the idea of another, different alien species. When they explained it in Prometheus, I was very disappointed, it seemed contrived.

Practical Effects and Models > CGI

I love this movie to death. And it's worth recognizing how bad and cheesy it could have turned out if all of these things hadn't happened to come together, all these different ideas and talents merging. There are obvious predecessors and influences that I also love like Mario Bava's 1965 Planet of the Vampires, John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's 1974 Dark Star, and of course Lucas's Star Wars, but Alien avoids all that cheesiness, and in so doing it just feels legendary. There's probably an editor that deserves a lot of credit for that too. Loving this series!

Practical effects had such a wonderful effect on movies. As well as animation and creative multimedia tactics. Modern CGI just comes off like bland disconnected green screens.. Just look at Beetlejuice, Spawn, The Thing, The Fly, Pee wee Hermans big adventure, Dinosaurs, Hook, James & the giant peach, space jam, etc. There is just something so special about practical effects, animation, multimedia formats. I wish movies and shows could bring it all back. I never would have thought these things would have basically disappeared. When they were all over the place during my childhood through out the 90's

I'm fascinated by Giger and Giger's artwork. we take it for granted now but his style is truly something unique and out of this world. I can still see his influence in movies that came after alien like The Matrix and the new Dune movies. he changed sci fi.

When I was 13 me and my friends snuck into the theater to watch this I wish I could see it again for the first time. What an experience!

An excellent video. Giger was a true Rembrandt of our time. I have many of his books and his work is often imitated, but will never be matched. RIP

Giger looks like Carl Sagan's evil twin brother.

As a screenwriter I can tell you the final Alien shooting script is the leanest most visual script you’ll ever read. Ridley had a great guide but you can see he made the vision his own of course with the help of hundreds of great artists and a great cast that delivered.

As fascinating as the Giger designs are, it's easy to forget just how cool the space suits look.

*How tragic that the director appears to have spent the rest of his career vandalizing this moment*

I wish we did this more often. Then again, people used to be able to name a favorite artist. Recently I can't think of a single artist from the past couple decades that has really stood out to me.

7:44 I think the fact that it takes you a second to understand what it might be, is the best thing about the design!

I've been an Alien fan for 30 years and always learn something new from your videos. Well done! Cheers

The “space jockey” is by far my favorite part of the film.

Alien and The Thing are my 2 favorite sci-fi movies of all time.

The derelict whole sequence is one of the greatest triumphs of horror and thriller magic ever created. I mean, the "space jockey" is eerie as fuck! And the derelict spaceship also looks truly alien, and one of the most beautiful spaceships I've ever seen.

Thought I'd seen it all before. This video uses a lot of footage I'd never seen before. It was great to see.

It doesnt make sense that it’s a gun. What’s it supposed to do shoot inside the ship? I always thought it was a navigation instrument or something.

I love how thorough and informative your videos are! I've watched all of the behind-the-scenes content from my old Alien DVD, and your content remains fresh and thoughtful. Bravo!

Here after watching the 45 anniversary on the big screen. This movie is such a classic and the music is hauntingZ

Being a pro artist myself, I know of all these artists. I grew up studying their artwork thoroughly. As brilliant and legendary as they are, man I’m so glad they went down the path with Giger. Such a great decision! He nailed it !

Great video, Tyler. If you don’t already have it, I strongly recommend getting the HR Giger diary that was released a while back. It’s hundreds of pages from his personal diary during the Alien production. It’s a fascinating first hand account of the design and production of the film.

Great stuff. I’ve long felt that the derelict miniature may be the single greatest piece of production design of any science fiction film. It looks like it was built by beings who inhabit a completely different perceptual universe from us.

I love that there was such an emphasis on the alien world in the movie. It’s such an immense and atmospheric experience. The (relatively) short experience of the alien world felt like such a long and tense exploratory mission like the crew members would have felt about it because of just the sheer size and slowness of them trekking across the land. Truly masterful work, a beautiful and surreal experience that is rarely only caught in sketches but was somehow turned into a medium like cinema.

H.R.Giger did all that Artwork with a tiny little Airbrush! Sooo much work!!!!😮

So many great artists working and building towards an amazing film. Once again, it shows that amazing practical effects stand the test of time while bad cgi does not.

Go watch 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965) by Mario Bava. There's a sequence in there that is very similar to the "Space Jockey" scene in Alien which has also been sited as inspiration for the scene.

There is something awesome about the molded models from the 70s/80s, something that pure CGI can not replicate

The Nostromo interior and exterior was and still is the pinnacle of most possible realistic approach to ship design. Truly gorgeous.everyone. Acted like theyd been operatiing such machines as just a regular ol job most their lives, the sequence for self destruct was so fucking cool at the end. No ones done anything even close. This film really nailed the environment and the feel that just realistic feel inside their vessel. I wish this wouldve been a trend at least for a short while but uts ok cos the uniqueness of this film is the nostromo and its operation. Truly amazing work

Another great episode! Love these! Always neat to see Giger's work; must have been unreal to have him personally working on the film set. I also found it fascinating that Ridley used an early camcorder, onto a tv, being filmed; that's basically the retro 80s "aesthetic" that everyone loves these days.

Brilliant, thanks for taking the time to put this together. Just when I think I have heard all the stories and seen all the good photos from the production there always seems to be more 👏👏👏

Everything in this movie is pure perfection of moviemaking including visuals, design, sound, casting, screenplay, editing etc. One of the best movies ever made. In fact for me it is The movie!

1965's Planet of the Vampires is likely a big influence on the Derelict & Space Jockey, with its own derelict ship on a similar planet & giant alien skeleton crew

Brilliant video mate, well written, great quality, very much enjoyed watching that!

1:53 it would be neat if someone tried to create a 3D model out of Cobb's Derelict. 7:07 in *Giger's Alien,* the Derelict is a representation of 666, the sign of the Beast (Giger recalled how his grandmother would occasionally flash "the sign of the beast" at him when he was a kid, ie sticking your pinky and index finger out, while curling your middle and ring finger into your hand, with your thumb holding them down). The left leg is the hand sign on it's side (6), the ship itself from atop is another sign (6) and the right leg is the fingers spread out (6). 8:02 it was even better than that. In Cinefantastique, while Carrol and Giger were arguing, Scott broke out a little ball of clay and a little plastic airliner, and dunked the airliner into the ball of clay without saying a word. Carrol decided that Giger's design was probably for the best. 15:58 interesting that you mention herbivorous. If you look at the Space Jockey skull, it holds a lot of similarities to an elephant. I always thought it would be interesting if someone recreated a model of the Jockey skull (from *Alien,* not Prometheus) and had a facial reconstruction done just to see what you would come up with. 23:15 Giger came up with the idea. He created the extra flap to create a Christian cross (to appease the ones who might be offended). The original 2 lipped egg was used for the "Cocoon" scene, as Brett's corpse was put into it and set into the inside of one of the landing legs.

I had heard the Space Jockey was inspired from Planet of the Vampires. That one had huge alien skeletons in it as well.

thank you for doing such a great job of showing references. wish more people did that

This film made over 100 million on a 10-15 thousand budget and FOX still called it a loss lol

Thanks for this very thorough treatise on Ridley Scott's 1979 gift to the world! Scott, O'Bannon, Geiger et al, came together to produce a masterpiece that will never be duplicated! IMHO, all those involved had some decades earlier lived through the horror of WWII, and that experience must have had a profound effect on their psyches. This enabled them to collectively envision and produce a film that encompassed all the horrors they had witnessed. A true work of art that will never be duplicated. The status Alien has attained in the decades since demonstrate that this movie is an outlier, produced by individuals who had just 30+ years earlier had experienced a fight for survival that only they could appreciate. Definitely one of the genres top films ever!! Thanks for posting! Memories of seeing this in a theater are fading, but this triggered them yet again! Much praise!!

Can’t describe the joy I feel when you’re explaining how it actually was done, cause those are details that I always loved while watching the actual movie, thank you. Best birthday gift ever

14:10 No mention at all of Brava's 1965 "Planet of the Vampires" (Terrore nello Spazio)? An obvious source of inspiration for "Alien."

This is a great video. Scotts brilliant insight was recognising immediately what Giger could bring visually. Without Giger Alien would probably only have been a very good scifi horror instead of also being a seminal piece of art.

Wonderful comprehensive idea on this Tyler, I’m learning so much and seeing new footage of one of my favorite films! Incredible and great work that you and your team are doing, this deserve to be in the special features in a re-release

This is the first of your videos I've watched and I just want to say thank you so so much for fully subtitling this AND going above and beyond and adding your references to them as well. As a HoH individual, I'm deeply, deeply grateful; and I look forward to your future works.

The effort involved in old moves... I really appreciate it. So much proper, human skill involved.

Put me on the "I thought I'd seen everything about Alien..." list. Such an enjoyable video, with plenty I hadn't seen before. Great job, you never disappoint.

Another brilliant, highly informative upload, Tyler. Your work never ceases to amaze me.

Insane documentary. Thank you for sharing man!!

Always appreciate when People take the time to look up Pronunciation of Names. You wouldn't believe how many times one hears "GEIGER" instead of Giger. Even the Rudi you pronounced (mostly) right! EDIT: I should also mention how well researched and put together the Video is!

Alien is one of the best films ever made, and it's nice to see new artwork I have only read about. Good vid.

I love your videos! The first Alien movie will always be my favorite of the franchise. I knew Giger designed the alien but didn't know he designed the ship and so much more.

Bring back this Brilliant Integral Art back to films.

As many times as I've seen any of the behind the scenes of this movie, they never get old. Always as interesting as the first time. This film is a masterpiece that has stood the test of time and holds up on its own.

This is fantastic 👌👌👌 Alien is what you get when you put two geniuses together, and they back each other all the way.

"Polystyrene, which is kind of like styrofoam" - Well, styrofoam is one of trademarked names for a type of polysturene. It would be like saying "Lemonade, which is kind of like Sprite"

oi Mate, Tyler, another great episode today. Cheers! Enjoyed this a lot and great information about the production.

Without Geiger’s work our world would be lacking

thanks for all your hard work.

you're an absolute legend, mate! Every video is a banger! love love love them!

Man, this is a wonderful video you’ve made. Thanks for all your efforts here!

Excellent video I am hooked.

It's a bloody masterpiece, innit! If only the ones he made subsequently, bloody were! Bloody noice video as usual CT. Thanks a bloody lot!

Watching this and thought it would be great to have a connection to the movie. I wish😊 Jus remembered I worked with John Hurt , and Sigourney (who is really tall btw) queued up behind me in LAX. She was so polite. Lucky me. I never worked on anything as successful as this but I can relate to the process. It really is astonishing

This is a great channel. So glad the algorithm brought it to me. I have a lot to watch this weekend.

Thank you, Tyler! 👾

Excellent. 👍 So much work to make amazing models and sets, then even more work to make everything dark, moody, mysterious and almost impossible to see!😩

Giger was a unique genius artist making this movie unforgetful

You did such an amzimg job on this video. I cant wait for the next part

Alien is the gift that keeps on giving, as I had never seen some of that behind-the-scenes footage, and I've seen a LOT of "making of" docs on the film. I really liked the upward dripping condensation scene, as it just added a simple, but wild, aspect of the eggs and their chamber. Not mentioned here, but there's also what sounds like a violent hand buzzer that goes off when Kane sticks his hand near the top of the egg he winds-up investigating. I've never thought about acid being the cause of the opening to the egg chamber. I'm not sure I buy it, though, as it looks too square and uniform. Also, it presupposes that the Space Jockey also had acidic blood, which diminishes the uniqueness of the xeno's biology. Speaking of the egg chamber, there's this persistent notion that it's part of the derelict itself, like a cargo hold. This can't be the case, though, as it's far too large and even snakes around, conveying a truly gigantic area. Instead, it's (probably) an artificial cave underneath the ship that's been hollowed-out using the same biomechanical processes used in the derelict's construction, which is why the walls of the Space Jockey room and the chamber are the same (yes, I know the walls were reused to save on time and production costs). It staggers me to this day that Cameron's production team was able to locate the model of the derelict for Aliens, but it was still cut for the theatrical release. Not only that, but it was in pretty poor shape, but Cameron used that to his advantage and worked its dilapidated state into the narrative (though I think you have to read the novelization to discover why). Reminds me of the jaw-dropping decision to eliminate the original kaiju ending of Little Shop of Horrors, which reportedly consumed a huge percentage of the overall budget.

I saw this movie as a 11 year old by myself at the movie theater. Afterwards I was always looking under my bed for Aliens

One of my favorite dynamics in the art of Alien is that Giger’s most foreign seeming images are very often distorted versions of human anatomy. Who’s the real alien here, the xenomorph or the interplanetary spaceship crew? The alien is our dark other, and it’s inside us. The horrific “birth” of the alien is a metaphor for actual human birth. Even a cute little baby is a radical otherness from outside our understanding

A very frightening and cutting edge movie for its time. I remember watching when it came out in 1979.

The original Alien movie remains the only film I can’t watch with the lights off. It’s not just horror, it’s unsettling horror.

Never made the connection between ALIEN and an episode of the animated “Star Trek” series (which was written by Samuel Peebles, who also penned the second Trek pilot), but fascinating insights like that are why I love this channel. 😊

amazing video, some of my favorite art done by an incredibly talented artist Mr Giger. great images and voice over.

Sometimes I wish I could rewatch Alien, but for the first time. I have not seen a movie that has blown me away as much as Alien did when I first saw it. Blade Runner is another one in this category.

😢R.i.p. giger and space jockey :(

22:53 - Yeah, well “it’s Giger” wasn’t really a mainstream thought at the time, but if you investigate the Giger poster included with the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist (1985) you’ll get the idea. Don’t bother if you’re at work or under 16 and have a parental lock on you web browsing. It’d be a great way to get fired from your job or family 😹 (The original artwork is from 1977 around the time of Alien’s production, but it took the print in 1985 to be a lightning rod for its controversy)

not a big fan of his art style but OMG his work on Alien makes the film Legendary .. this Doc is awesome :)

Bonus points for adding all the references to the source material 👍

Ron Cobb is so interesting . I love that he just couldn't make something weird due to his engineering mind....even with all of the drugs he used to take!

wow finally someone who pronounces his name correctly lol

Treating Moebius as "some french artist" actually hurt me haha Great video nonetheless

Absolutely amazing and well made video! Super interesting!

You did not mention Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES from 1965. It had a scene very similar to the Space Jockey part from Alien.