I'm starting to make this an occasional feature on my blog. Previous installments were about "Night of the Living Dead" (May 8, 2021), and John Carpenter's version of "The Thing" (November 7, 2020). As before, I'm choosing an extremely successful movie, "Alien," which did excellently both critically and at the box office. Also like before, be forewarned that these trivia questions are ludicrously detailed--even folks who've seen the film dozens of times probably won't know some or most of these. (The only reason I found most of these out was by re-watching it and writing all of these tidbits down.) Clearly, there are many SPOILERS for Alien here. Finally, these are from the 1979 Theatrical version--the 2003 Director's Cut was slightly different, and may not have had all of these points. I'll list the questions first, and the answers will be at the end. The questions follow the order of the movie fairly closely, too.
Questions:
1) Let's start off easy. What type of ship is the Nostromo?
2) What is the Nostromo's listed cargo?
3) What is the Nostromo's registration number? (This is seen on screen, and Ripley says it as well.)
4) Who is the first crew member to wake up and emerge from the hypersleep containers?
5) According to Parker, what is the only consumable that's good on the ship?
6) What color light indicates a message for the Captain's eyes only?
7) On the ship's computer, what interface number is necessary to ask questions? (It's called "Ready for Inquiry.)
8) According to Ripley, where is the Nostromo based out of ?
9) Where on Earth is Traffic Control located?
10) Where is the Nostromo located at the beginning of the movie?
11) What fraction of the journey back to Earth has the Nostromo made to this point?
12) How many shares does each crewperson receive, assuming no bonuses?
13) How often does the acoustical beacon on the mystery planet repeat?
14) According to Brett, how many hours will it take to repair the damages after landing on the planet?
15) How long does Parker then say they'll need over the intercom?
16) Once the ship's landed, how far away is the acoustical beacon, in meters?
17) According to Ash, what does the planet's "almost primordial" atmosphere consist of?
18) What's the surface of the planet like, again, according to Ash?
19) What computer program does Ripley use to interpret the mysterious beacon transmission?
20) How long would the quarantine procedure last?
21) Ash tells Ripley about two features of the Alien, which help make it tolerant of many environmental conditions, and make it a "tough little son of a bitch"? What are they?
22) Who is the senior officer after Captain Dallas and Kane?
23) Dallas listens to some classical music while in the shuttle. Name the piece, and its composer.
24) Ash mentions a classic movie monster during a discussion about the Alien. Which one?
25) How many trips did Dallas make with his previous science officer?
26) How long before departure was this officer replaced with Ash?
27) Where was the Nostromo's departure point for this journey?
28) According to Lambert, how much longer is the journey to Earth?
29) Many foods are seen on the meal table, but only a few are specifically mentioned by a character. Name them.
30) During the chestburster scene, who is sitting directly to Kane's right, and who's directly to his left?
31) When Ripley, Parker, and Brett mistake Jones for the Alien, some orange lockers are seen with numbers on them. What are they?
32) What is the number of the Special Order that reveals the Nostromo's secret mission, known only by Ash until Ripley finds out late in the film?
33) What is the Emergency Control Override number which allows Ripley to read this Special Order?
34) True or False? There is no (human) nudity seen in "Alien." (The Aliens and Jones are naked throughout, of course.)
35) True or False? The electric cattle prod-like weapon and the incinerator units are never used on anything but air, or parts of the ship.
36) How long does the self-destruct mechanism take to detonate once activated?
37) And how long do you have to abort the self destruct after activating it?
38) This may be a mistake by the filmmakers, but what time does the countdown clock show after Mother the computer says the time is t-minus 10 minutes to detonation? (Hint, it's not 10 minutes.)
39) While Ripley is prepping the shuttle for escape, and then locating Jones the cat, what task are Lambert and Parker up to?
40) What color are the alarm lights, which come on after the self-destruct is activated?
41) What color is Parker's headband?
42) What is printed on the helmet of the spacesuit that Ripley wears in the shuttle?
43) What is Ripley singing as she prepares her attack against the Alien in the shuttle?
44) In her recording at the end, what rank does Ripley say she is?
45) About how long does she say it will take her to reach "the frontier" in the shuttle?
46) What is the final spoken sentence uttered in "Alien"?
47) What number is printed on the side of Ripley's hypersleep container in the shuttle?
48) One of the movie's art directors later went on to direct the infamous sci-fi bomb "Battlefield Earth." (2000). Name him.
49) The seven actors and actresses who played the Nostromo's crew were all veteran thespians, with many other credits on their resumes. But the actor who played the Alien itself in most scenes only did this one film. Name him. (I'm not counting the stunt people who played the Alien briefly--Eddie Powell and Roy Scammell.)
50) Some of these were not specifically listed or mentioned in the movie itself, but I'll ask it anyway. Name the rank or job title for all seven of the (human) crew. (Jones's title was ship's cat/rodent control.)
Answers:
1) It's a commercial towing vehicle.
2) "Refinery processing 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore."
3) 180924609.
4) Kane.
5) The coffee.
6) Yellow.
7) 2037.
8) The Solomons. (Presumably the island chain and current sovereign country located in Oceania, to the East of Papua New Guinea.)
9) Antarctica.
10) Just short of Zeta II Reticuli. (Which is a real system, located about 39 light years away from Earth. This system is often used in fiction, probably because that's where the aliens in the real life (but very questionable, in my opinion) Barney and Betty Hill abduction case were allegedly from.)
11) Halfway.
12) Parker and Brett each receive half shares, all of the others a full share each.
13) Every 12 seconds.
14) 17 hours.
15) At least 25 hours.
16) Just under 2000 meters.
17) Some inert nitrogen, a high concentration of carbon dioxide crystals. methane, and some unnamed trace elements.
18) It's rock, with a lava base.
19) E.C.I.U. It's not revealed what this acronym stands for.
20) 24 hours.
21) It has an outer layer of protein polysaccharides, and it sheds its cells and replaces them with polarized silicon.
22) Ripley.
23) "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (Or, translated into English, "A Little Night Music") by W.A. Mozart.
24) A zombie, as in he doesn't think the dead facehugger alien is one.
25) 5.
26) 2 days before.
27) Thedus. (This is a fictional planet. Although its star system, Epsilon Reticuli, is real, and located about 59 light years from Earth, and in December of 2000 a planet was discovered there. That planet, probably a gas giant, is bigger than Jupiter, and is called Epsilon Reticuli b, or sometime Epsilon Reticuli Ab, or sometimes HD 27442.)
28) 10 months.
29) Biscuits, cornbread (which also is mentioned in the sequel), coconuts, and pineapple. The last two are said a bit quietly by Dallas, and may not be on the ship.
30) Parker is to Kane's right, and Dallas to Kane's left.
31) 1516.
32) Special Order 937.
33) 100375.
34) False. None of the crew get naked (although Sigourney Weaver gets close), but you can see some naked women in magazine pictures that were cut out and attached to the walls, off of the dining room, when Ash is attacking Ripley. Also, Ash may have tried to suffocate Ripley using a porn magazine--it's very hard to tell.
35) False. Neither of these weapons is used on the Aliens, but both are used on Ash. Lambert uses the electric prod to subdue Ash when he's attacking Ripley and Parker. And then Parker burns Ash with an incinerator unit after Ash is deactivated.
36) 10 minutes.
37) 5 minutes.
38) 10 minutes and 42.4 seconds. (If you're confused by this, well, some am I.)
39) They're getting coolant for the shuttle's air support system. Which may be another goof, since later when Ripley enters the shuttle for the final time, she has no coolant containers. So I guess they didn't really need them? Or at least one person apparently didn't.
40) Yellow.
41) Mostly it's blue, but you can see in certain scenes that some of it, the part tied behind his head, is red.
42) D-7.
43) "You are my lucky star," repeated over and over with some variants. Obviously these lyrics are very general, so it could be a lot of songs, but some think it's from the movie musical "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) which starred Gene Kelly.
44) Third Officer. (See Answer #50 for more on this.)
45) About 6 weeks. (Alas, as we learn in the sequel, it took considerably longer!)
46) "Come on cat." Said to Jones, clearly.
47) 723.
48) Roger Christian. Looking at his resume, it appears he was maybe a better art director or second unit director than director. He shared the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for 1977's "Star Wars," and shared a nomination for the same category for "Alien." To be fair, I think "Battlefield Earth" is worth seeing, but only in a "so bad it's good" sort of way. John Travolta's glorious overacting in it has to be seen to be believed!
49) The late Bolaji Badejo. He wasn't an actor by training, he was picked due to his immense height (he was six feet, ten inches tall, or 2.08 meters) and very thin physique, perfect for portraying the Alien.
50) Dallas was the Captain, Kane was the Executive Officer (2nd in command), Ripley was the Third Officer/Warrant Officer, Lambert was the Navigator, Ash was the Science Officer, Parker was the Chief Engineer, and Brett was the Assistant Engineer/Engineering Tech. I think these are in order of command, except maybe for Lambert and Ash, which maybe are switched?
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