In the movie "Alien" (1979) the spaceship "Nostromo" is attacked by a life-form encountered on LV-426, a barren Moon orbiting a gas giant in the Zeta Reticuli system, 39 light years away from Earth. According to the lore in the Alien universe, it is a world of volcanic origin, covered in rocks like granite and basalt. The moon's indigenous atmosphere was described as "primordial", consisting mainly of nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, trace particles of oxygen and small concentrations of methane and ammonia.
When Alien was released it quickly terrified audiences worldwide. Its unexpected mix of classic horror motives, a relentless predator is killing one by one the crew of a ship, and science-fiction, its a spaceship and the killer is a completely alien life-form, got at first mixed reviews, however, over the years Alien had come to be regarded as one of the best horror and science-fiction films ever made. In the early 70s Dan O'Bannon had written a dark science-fiction comedy film - Dark Star - featuring a cheap looking alien invading a space ship lost in space. O'Bannon recognized the potential of the story and wanted to do a more serious alien film. He began to work on a story involving the discovery of an alien life-form on a remote planet. During a work-related visit to Paris he discovered the artwork of Chris Foss, Moebius and especially H.R. Giger, giving him more ideas for his story. In collaboration with Ronald Shusett and using an early story involving Gremlins infiltrating a B-17 bomber during World War II. he finished the script. After noting the number of times the word alien appeared in the script the project was called Alien. In Alien the crew of a mining vessel has to deal with a fast growing alien life-form hiding inside the air conducts of the spaceship. Shusett suggested that one of the crew members be implanted with an alien parasite to explain how the life-form, discovered at first as egg in a derelict alien spaceship, came on board of the ship.
The Alien is supposedly a perfect silicon-based life form. According to canon the incarnation of the extraterrestrial xenomorph - as imagined by Swiss artist H.R. Giger - is protected by an outer silicious skeleton from environmental factors, surviving even for a short period in outer space. This resistant shell is also very useful to contain the acid blood of the creature or to merge with its mechanical environment.
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