Alien was released in 1979, two years after Star Wars, which was the first film to blend genres. Alien was inspired by this revolution and combines horror and science fiction.

When analyzing a film, the goal is to understand the author's message, that is, their vision of the best way to live in a given situation. Each genre explores a specific theme.

The horror genre explores the theme of life and death. It raises the question of how to escape death.

• Literally, the hero must escape a violent and imminent death.
• Metaphorically, this genre questions death in general and our relationship with it.

In human beings, there is a desire to escape and transcend death. Philosophically, there are several ways to approach this subject: life after death through religion, reincarnation, immortality, succession, legacy, or individual posterity. One can also consider society as an entity that survives the individual. That is why, often, the monster (like the vampire or the zombie) appears in an immortal form.

This creates a dichotomy between good and evil, involving a conflict between the self and others. The focus is not on friendship or other more sophisticated human concerns. This binary logic is reflected in the character’s psychology: when confronted with death, characters often make very black-and-white decisions. Under extreme pressure, they reveal their deepest psychology: they must decide whether they are willing to survive at the cost of their humanity.

To question the limits of humanity, we compare what is human to what is not. The hero is confronted with their animalistic side or robotic aspect – the human being dehumanized by the machine (the automaton) – a kind of reversed evolution or regression from the values we consider human.

The setting of a horror film is thus about showing how a human can lose their humanity when tested under extreme conditions, forcing them to make binary choices.

To better understand the film's message and theme, we will focus on the narrative structure and classical "beats," that is, the key moments the story passes through. We will also rely on the narrative structure specific to the film's genre.

The seven fundamental structural points

1. Weakness and need

The hero is trapped by habits of thought and action and suffers from a deep personal weakness that diminishes the quality of their life. The hero must overcome this weakness in order to grow. Their need is to understand what is wrong. Exposition moment

• We discover the protagonist in their everyday life.
• Their weakness prevents them from being happy, creating a need for change (at first, they are unaware of it).
• The character acts based on a false belief.
• This marks the beginning of their narrative arc (the internal conflict to be resolved during the catharsis).
• We distinguish two types of weaknesses: moral (the character suffers from it) and psychological (others suffer from it).
• This allows the audience to identify with the protagonist.

2. The desire

The hero desires an external goal they see as valuable and missing in their life.

Learning moment

• The inciting incident creates a desire in the protagonist while targeting their weakness.
• This element should ideally challenge the hero’s weakness and gradually make them aware of their need.
• Desire, the heart of the plot, makes the audience want to see the ending.
• There is a conflict between desire and need.
• Desire becomes more complex and tends to align with the need around the film’s midpoint.
• The protagonist cannot obtain their desire as long as they act as they did in the beginning (false belief).
• During the climax, they make a moral choice that determines whether they will get or give up their desire — and therefore, whether they will resolve their need.

3. The antagonist

The hero faces an antagonist and one or more obstacles preventing them from reaching their desire. Ultimately, the main obstacle is themselves.

• The antagonist creates conflict and offers the hero the opportunity to change.
• They must be as complex as the protagonist.
• The protagonist can, in some ways, be the antagonist of the antagonist.
• Although they have the same desire, their approaches differ.
• They must be almost equally matched. The antagonist’s strength highlights the protagonist’s weakness.

4. The plan

The hero devises a plan or strategy to defeat the antagonist and achieve their desire.

• The plan represents the actions the hero intends to take to get what they want.
• It should be clear to the audience.
• The plan is doomed to fail and must constantly be adapted to the antagonist’s actions.
• It should be creative and surprising.

5. The battle

The hero enters a final conflict with the antagonist to determine who will prevail.

• This is the ultimate confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist.
• Their plans finally clash.
• Space and time are compressed (often into a single scene) to heighten dramatic tension.
• The outcome remains uncertain.
• This battle allows us to clearly distinguish the protagonist from the antagonist by showing their values in action.

6. The personal revelation

At the end, if the hero evolves, they make a revelation about their true nature and who they really are.

• They realize how they were misguided, both psychologically and morally.
• This moment represents the climax, where they must make a moral choice between their desire and their need — often through a sacrifice.
• Ideally, they choose to fulfill their need while also obtaining their desire.

7. New equilibrium

The system established at the beginning finds a new balance.

• The hero has a new understanding of themselves and has gained the ability to grow in the future.
• In contrast, we see what they’ve gained and learned (often in the same environment where they were first introduced).
• Ideally, this new balance benefits everyone.

In the horror genre, certain specific "beats" stand out:

The ghost

• It often involves a past crime that comes back to haunt the character in the present.
• Even if the hero did not commit the crime, they will have to pay the price for it.
• This becomes especially interesting when the hero bears some responsibility.

Form

• The force of the past exerting itself on the present.
• Crimes committed in the past and left unpunished affect the next generation.
  Example: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The ghost as a form of conscience

The ghost can take the form of a conscience turning against itself, through shame or guilt.

Story world: The haunted house

• The film is set in a closed and confined arena — a true haunted house — which puts the character under intense pressure because they cannot escape it.
• Thematically, this creates a micro-society that questions our shared morals.
  In Alien, the «haunted house» is the Nostromo.

First level of analysis using the horror genre: the 7 structural beats

• Weakness and need: None.
• Desire: To survive against the alien.
• Antagonist: The alien.
• Plan: Get the alien out of the ship by guiding it to the airlock.
• Battle: Ripley finds herself alone in the escape shuttle with the alien and must confront it.
• Personal revelation: None, due to the absence of weakness and need.
• New equilibrium: Back to square one, but only Ripley has survived.

Horror-specific beats

• Ghost: Not really, at first glance.
• Story world: The Nostromo.
• Characterization of Ripley:
  Ripley, who turns out to be the main character, seems to have neither a weakness and need nor a ghost haunting her. This makes her a relatively simple character, but we can note her characterization through the following scenes:

6:30 – Meal scene:
The characters are introduced in a familiar context to give a sense of realism. We immediately notice the social relationships and hierarchy between them. Ripley is barely present in this scene.

Comparison with Lambert:
Ripley is a positive female hero, which was rare at the time, when female characters were generally unremarkable. Lambert embodies the cliché of the female character, whereas Ripley stands out through her qualities. Lambert is first introduced complaining about being cold, clearly identifying her as a stereotypical character.

Kane:
The first character to be highlighted on screen, initially assumed to be the protagonist, already feels dead — a sign foreshadowing his fate.

Parker and Brett:
Presented as blue-collar workers (symbolized by their blue caps), they are engaged in class struggle and complain about their low pay. Captain Dallas reminds them of their duties.

Observation about Dallas:
Interestingly, Dallas doesn’t seem very competent: it’s Ash, the android, who has to tell him that Mother wants to speak with him. Two possibilities arise:

• Either the Weyland-Yutani Corporation places an android in the team to monitor the crew out of distrust,
• Or Ash has already spoken to Mother and expects her to address Dallas.

9:35 – Scene:
The characters are trying to figure out where they are. Ripley is the first to realize they’re not in the correct solar system. She appears more clever than Lambert, for whom this should be part of her role, and Kane mocks him. Tension between different hierarchical levels is evident.

10:32 – Scene:
Brett and Parker, the “proles,” complain about being the only ones working and that no one understands what they do. Ripley is the only one who comes to talk to them (scene at 19:55), highlighting her attentiveness. Parker mocks her by releasing steam from the pipes while she talks. The relationship between Brett and Parker is also one of submission, with Brett making no decisions and relying entirely on Parker.

Various conflicts:
Conflicts arise between individuals and social classes.

11:33 – Conflict between Ripley and Lambert:
A shot shows the conflict between Ripley (behind Lambert, but she is the one speaking) and Lambert, which irritates her.

31:41 – Signal decoding:
Ripley decodes the signal, which turns out to be a warning. Courageous, she wants to warn the team. Ash tells her it’s too late to do so, and Ripley accepts this argument, showing a degree of naivety.

36:30 – Quarantine protocol:
Ripley wants to enforce the quarantine protocol. She knows how to assess a situation and whether the established rules should be followed. Ash lets the team in, in line with his true mission.

1:08 – Ripley’s compassion:
Far from being naive at this point in the film, Ripley shows compassion when Lambert asks if Brett might still be alive. Her first reaction is to say he’s probably dead, but then she softens her words not to frighten Lambert too much, demonstrating her empathy.

1:15 – Taking command:
With Dallas’s death, Ripley becomes the hierarchical leader and takes his place. She has to shout to assert her authority.

1:18 – Moment of awareness:
Ripley understands that the main mission is to bring the alien back and that the crew’s survival doesn’t matter to the company. This moment marks the climax of Ripley’s narrative arc, where she defines her human values. She rebels by rejecting this perspective, unlike Dallas, who earlier (at 1:05) stated that “the standard procedure is to do what you’re told” (referring to the company).

1:36 – Final confrontation:
Ripley finds Dallas, who asks her to end his life. She shows mercy, raising the question of what humanity truly is: should we go as far as killing to relieve suffering?

For this level, we focus on the second genre and what it brings: science fiction, which reflects not on the individual but on the social structure. It explores symbolism.

Science fiction highlights what is missing in Ripley in terms of societal representation. The author’s message likely lies at this level of analysis.

Metaphor of society

• The social dynamics shown in the film are essential. The smallest social structure is the family, so it’s no coincidence that the ship is called Muther (pronounced "Mother"), evoking the mother figure.
• The scene introducing the characters symbolically resembles children coming out of an incubator: they are naked, except for what looks like a diaper (5:40).

The societal rules presented reflect an ultra-capitalist society run by private companies like Weyland-Yutani. This is evident from the characters’ initial introduction, described as a work crew (Crew, 2:15) — a function rather than individuals. They are dehumanized, and their sole objective is profit generation.

This idea of a dehumanized society is reinforced symbolically. The first interaction occurs when Muther announces a signal, which is projected onto an empty spacesuit (4:14). The close-up of the suit seems to suggest that humans have become mere empty technological shells. Then, the ship’s interior, accompanied by a heartbeat-like sound, humanizes Muther and invites us to explore her mechanical innards (2:53), in contrast with the alien ship, which appears organic (27:50).

We’ve seen that the symbol of the mechanized man represents a loss of humanity — a theme strongly addressed in horror films. Ash (the android) embodies, among the humans, the interests of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. He seems to be there to monitor the crew and ensure that the human side doesn’t prevail — as shown in the scene where Ripley eventually rebels by affirming her human values. Conversely, Captain Dallas, who blindly follows what the company expects and toes the line (8:12), symbolizes these imposed values. The fact that the ship is called Nostromo (meaning "our man") highlights that he was chosen by the company because he obeys their demands.

The Ghost in this context

The Ghost, an essential beat usually present, seems absent in Ripley. Normally, it’s a past crime that returns to haunt the hero. Here, the crime is accepting to live in a dehumanized society where only profit matters, and where killing for profit is acceptable.

• The alien perfectly embodies this Ghost: a killing machine that uses its victims to reproduce.
• It represents the perfect individual in a capitalist society, devoid of human values like morality or empathy (as Ash admires at 1:24).
• It uses others solely for reproductive purposes.

The taboo in the film

The first taboo is that of non-consensual sexuality.

• The film is filled with sexual allusions. Nearly all of Giger’s designs reference sexuality.
• Each time the alien kills, it can be interpreted as a form of sexual assault.
  - Its first victim, Kane, is orally violated, which leads to his death.
  - Ash refers to the alien as Kane’s "son" in a close-up, emphasizing the importance of this phrase (1:09).

Sexuality, which is a fundamental aspect of human relations — used to create bonds and perpetuate society — is here perverted. A fundamental human value, meant to be consensual and positive, is presented through the lens of a dehumanized society that uses others only for profit, equating it to rape. Worse still, there is a blending of cannibalism and sexuality, as the alien literally feeds on its victims. This theme is echoed by Parker during the meal scene, when he jokes about wanting to eat something else while looking at Lambert, who seems embarrassed, though the group laughs (55:59).

To understand the second taboo, one must compare the figure of the mother (Muther) to that of the father.

• The planet where the distress signal is found, resembling Saturn (14:40), evokes Greek mythology: Saturn, the god of the cosmos, is also the father who devours his children to ensure they do not replace him.
• This symbol fits perfectly with the society portrayed in the film.
• Mother does not hesitate to sacrifice her own children (the crew) for profit, embodying the taboo of infanticide, which prevents society from continuing.
• The alien appears as the child born from a union between a father and mother willing to commit infanticide.
• It infiltrates Mother and, like a cuckoo, eliminates the other children, embodying the values of an ultra-violent and dysfunctional society.
• It fights with the other children to impose its values.
• Ripley, being the only one to uphold strong human values, is the only one to survive and destroy the alien.

This brings us to the film’s title: Alien. In English, this word can mean "foreigner" or "stranger." But in this dysfunctional society, where human relations are corrupted and dehumanized by pure selfishness, viewing the other as a stranger amounts to becoming a stranger to all others. The author’s message seems to be a warning: beware of viewing others as strangers, or you risk ending up in the kind of society depicted in the film.