16 Trivia Tidbits About 'Alien'
![16 Trivia Tidbits About 'Alien'](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/5/771515_320x180.jpg)
It's been over 40 years since we all found that in space, no one can hear you scream. Well, that's not entirely true. Scientists that studying outer space knew that sound couldn't really travel in it. But in terms of the movie Alien, the public found out what the perfect mix of science-fiction and horror could look like.
Ellen Ripley is now a pop culture icon, becoming a feminist icon and hero to many. The horrific xenomorphs have become popular horror designs, often mimicked but never quite duplicated. In spite of the film's age, it still engages audiences with wonder, horror, and a combination of the two feelings dubbed “wondorror.”
It's amazing to think of all the odd stuff behind the scenes that went into the making of these movies. Ultimately, Alien is a movie that required a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And milk. Lots and lots of milk.
Here are 16 facts about the making of Alien from behind the scenes.
![Alien actors were often fainting on set. The fake spacesuits got SO hot on set, and the fact that they filmed in summer didn't help either. Actors were passing out SO regularly that they got a nurse with an oxygen tank to be on standby. The crew eventually adjusted the](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/3/771523.jpg)
![A German Shepherd got Jones the Cat to hiss on the Alien set. Director Ridley Scott flashed a German Shepherd in the cat's sight to get those hissing reactions. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/8/771528.jpg)
![The inside of Ash was made of pasta, caviar, milk, and marbles. It didn't help that lan Holm, who played Ash in Alien, hated milk. CRACKEDO1](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/3/0/771530.jpg)
![Dutch customs officials gave H.R. Giger grief because they thought his artwork for Alien was actual photographs. Where on Earth did they think I could have photographed my subjects? In hell, perhaps?](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/3/2/771532.jpg)
![The Facehugger was originally going to be painted green. When Dan O'Bannon saw the natural-colored tone of the thing on set, he insisted they leave it unpainted.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/4/771524.jpg)
![Roger Daltrey from The Who helped with the lightning. The singer and his crew were experimenting with laser beams pretty close to the studio where Alien was filmed, SO Ridley Scott borrowed their equipment to create the electric blue lighting in the resting place of the facehuggers.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/9/771519.jpg)
![When Ridley Scott pitched to direct Alien, he referenced a lot of cult classics. He wanted it to be 'the most moststraightsforward, unpretentious, riveting thriller like Psycho or Rosemary's Baby or even the most brilliant Blevel like Night ofthe Living Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I want it to](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/1/771521.jpg)
![Ridley Scott had to fight the studio to use the work of surrealist painter H.R. Giger in Alien. Giger, who designed all the aliens in the movie, almost didn't make the cut because the studio thought his work was too obscene. Scott got into a fight with the studio: I](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/3/1/771531.jpg)
![Sigorney Weaver came up with the idea to sing You Are My Lucky Star. Ridley Scott said it was a nightmare getting the rights to use the song in the movie. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/7/771527.jpg)
![Every set in Alien was filled with a thin layer of smoke to create atmosphere. The smoke was evenly distributed SO as not to be overly obvious. Scott did it because he wanted to capture the mood of H.R. Giger's artwork for the film.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/6/771526.jpg)
![John Hurt and Veronica Cartwright thought they were being poisoned when their Alien spacesuits malfunctioned. While filming the exterior shots of the planetoid, the tubes on their suits broke, causing an aerosol leak into their helmets. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/7/771517.jpg)
![Ridley Scott was. fifth in line to direct Alien. Scott waS about to start working on Tristan and Isolde, but after seeing George Lucas's Star Wars, he felt he needed to do something different. Then the script of Alienlanded on his table.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/8/771518.jpg)
![Ridley Scott and the producers of Alien had some disagreements about the scene where Harry Dean Stanton's character Brett gets taken out by the Xenomorph. The producers didn't understand why chains would be dangling or why water, would be pouring on the ship, but Scott wanted the effects for movement](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/9/771529.jpg)
![The Nostromo was a self-contained set. The Alien actors couldn't get out of the ship except to walk all the way through it, adding to the feeling of them being trapped and making it more realistic.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/0/771520.jpg)
![The Facehugger dissection scene in Alien was made with a plastic mold of the creature filled with raw oysters. The tail of the Facehugger was an intestine with air pumped through it.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/5/771525.jpg)
![There was almost a sexual scene in Alien between Ripley and the Xenomorph. In the scene - that wasn't filmed because they ran out of time-the alien would've examined Ripley's body in a quasi-sex scene and compare it to its own body.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/2/2/771522.jpg)