Like an eruption from the chest cavity, Alien burst onto the scene over 35 years ago changing attitudes and perspectives about horror, sci-fi, and genre films altogether. Ridley Scott took long-established tropes and archetypes and flushed them out "the god damn airlock" in 1979, and its subsequent sequels and prequels have been subverting expectations ever since.
From androids going rogue to alien queens to the sudden and unceremonious deaths of beloved characters, the franchise has never let fans take a breath. Faced with an onslaught of narratives as twisted as a xenomorph's tail, audiences have learned better than to try to guess what will happen next in the Alien movies.
The Engineer Decapitating David
From the beginning of the franchise, androids have gotten the short end of the circuit, but that doesn't mean audiences were ready for what happens to David at the conclusion of Prometheus, when he brings his age-defying creator to meet with the Engineer to discuss the mysteries of immortality.
No sooner has David begun the parley than his head is brutally ripped off by the towering behemoth, sending familiar milk-white fluid spraying everywhere. Due to the reverence leading up to that moment, it's a highly effective scene, especially since it throws the rest of the character's fates into question.
Shaw Performing Surgery On Herself
When previously infertile Elizabeth Shaw discovers that she has an alien embryo growing inside of her, she has to think fast. She ultimately decides to perform self-surgery, and with the Prometheus's medical bay assisting her, removes a fledgling chestburster (one that's unlike any previously seen in the franchise).
Not only is it mind-boggling to watch her do this, but it's also even more surreal that she's able to continue running around the ship, dodging deacon aliens and all other manner of terrifying creatures. Even with all the adrenaline coursing through her brains, audiences didn't expect her to have the stamina to carry on.
The Predalien
While some fans might choose not to consider the Alien vs. Predator movies canon, there's no denying they expand the lore of the franchise in surprising ways. Focusing on the conquest of two of the most horrifying hunters in the universe, they bring the famous Predator and Xenomorph figures together in a way no fan could see coming.
The Yautja have started to breed Xenomorphs, and the moment a hybrid bursts out of a Predator's chest, audiences know they're witnessing the birth of an upgraded evil. The "predalien", as it has come to be called, is both gimmicky and terrifying in its implications, a necessary contribution in a series that always wants to deliver greater dread.
Ripley Being Resurrected (As A Hybrid)
Fans thought the franchise died with Lt. Ellen Ripley when she found out she was carrying a queen xenomorph embryo and sacrificed herself at the end of Alien 3, ensuring that its terror could never be unleashed on an unsuspecting human population. Imagine their surprise then when a few years later, Alien: Resurrection brought her back as a clone, and not just any clone, but one composed of human and queen DNA.
It's a shock for fans to discover that their alien butt-kicking hero has become the very thing she hates the most and is forced to pick her allegiance to humankind or the xenomorphs. Knowing that humans are capable of some significantly twisted things themselves (which she sees for herself when she discovers her clone rejects in the laboratory) doesn't make her decision any easier.
The Alien Newborn
Just as the Ripley clone became contaminated with alien DNA, the queen that the scientists aboard the USM Auriga extracted had traces of human DNA. She was given a second reproductive cycle, one that allowed for live birth. In this way, she was able to give life to a new sort of human/alien hybrid. Unfortunately, the newborn didn't view that queen as its mother and imprinted on Ripley.
Even with all the new versions of xenomorphs present after Prometheus, the newborn is quite a surprise, especially when it kills the queen in favor of being with Ripley. When she is forced to make a brutal decision about its fate, it's an almost tender moment, especially as the newborn displays signs of curiosity, affection, anger, and sorrow, revealing that the more "human" the alien is, the less easy it is to annihilate.
Killing Off Hicks And Newt
The only survivors of the Hadley's Hope catastrophe on LV-426, Newt, Corporal Hicks, Ellen Ripley, and Bishop eventually flee the carnage only to crash land on the prison colony Fury 161. While Ripley and (parts of) Bishop survive, Hicks and Newt are presumed dead among the wreckage. After fighting so hard to survive, they're killed off-screen with no fanfare.
Fans had begun to root for Hicks and Newt, who stood out among a strong cast in Aliens. Hicks has been recognized by fans as one of the only men in a position of authority who listened to Ripley's smartest decisions in the Alien movies and respected her rank, and Newt was seen as more essential to the plot than for her value as a cute child actress. Killing off these characters rather than exploring their stories further was an abrupt narrative decision that hurt Alien 3.
Bishop Getting Speared
Before David got his head unceremoniously torn from his torso, Bishop received his own mutilation in the form of a spear through the chest, thanks to the Queen who smuggled herself aboard the USS Sulaco in the final harrowing moments of Aliens. The moment was jolting for a number of reasons, the least of which was Bishop receiving his own version of a chestburster sequence.
For one, Ripley had already been suspicious of cooperating with an android thanks to her terrifying experience with Ash on the Nostromo and had finally started to trust Bishop just when he was seemingly killed. Fans shared Ripley's incredulity at Bishop's near-death experience, only to be later impressed by the way he put Newt's safety above his own when nothing more than a torso.
The Alien Queen Revealed
As if the Xenomorph from Alien wasn't enough, Aliens put a new face on terror. When Ripley descends into the bowels of Acheron's colony looking for Newt, she realizes it's become a hive with a Queen at its center, populating it with hundreds of eggs through her Ovipositor. Larger by far than Xenomorph workers and Alien drones, and infinitely stronger and more intelligent she is, to quote Pvt. Hudson "bada**, man. I mean big!"
Creating a queen for the franchise didn't just expand its world-building, it allowed for a new dimension to the Xenomorph species and gave more insight into their procreation and development while still remaining mysterious. A Xenomorph capable of vengeance and intricate problem solving was a new threat for Ripley, and their subsequent duel crackled with intensity.
Ash Going Haywire
No one suspects the mild-mannered Science Officer aboard the Nostromo to be up to no good, but eventually, Ash is forced to reveal everything --literally. When it's clear he wants to study the xenomorph at the crew's expense, Ripley tries to stop him, and in their scuffle, he becomes dangerous. Only a mortal wound can subdue him, but when he starts bleeding white, his true identity as an android is exposed.
As if the alien isn't terrifying enough, knowing that Ripley can't even trust her fellow crew is chilling. Ash going haywire, and even going so far as to try to choke Ripley to death is one of the most violent scenes in Alien, a stark contrast to the fact that the creature is almost never seen, and the horrors they inflict occur off-screen and left to the imagination.
The Original Chestburster
In sci-fi --and indeed in cinema-- there are a few notable moments of honest, compelling surprise; Darth Vader's paternity, HAL-9000's malfunction, bullet-time, and the chestburster exiting Kane during spaghetti dinner. Neither the audience nor the crew of the Nostromo is prepared for the horror that comes next, with a parasitic creature that acts as a harbinger of humankind's doom.
Much of the xenomorph isn't seen in Alien, but the chestburster has an unflinching scene devoted to its grand entrance. Part of the reason Alien still holds up today is that the audience has been lulled into a false sense of security after Kane's facehugger has been successfully removed, and revel with him as he enjoys a good meal around friends. The subversion of the expected in such a successful way helped clinch the movie's legacy for decades to come.
