Do I even need to describe the iconic scene in question? The chest-busting moment in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” is easily one of the most shocking scenes in movie history.
We all know how the scene goes down. Kane (John Hurt), a crew member of the commercial spaceship “Nostromo,” has a nasty alien latching onto his face and impregnating the poor guy with a murderous parasite. Eventually, the facehugger detaches itself, and Kane shows up in the the dining room. Everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves…and then something horrible rips out of Kane’s chest.
Above is an image from an “Alien” test-screening which occurred in early 1979. Everyone looks freaked out and then there’s that guy in the back who is enjoying it a little too much, he’s probably uttering to himself “that’s awesome.”
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Dahmer on the right there isn't remotely fazed. He’s been to the darkness and back, you can just tell. Or he just saw much worse shit in ‘Nam.
About that iconic scene, no one on the set knew it was going to happen except Ridley Scott and actor John Hurt. So the actors’ on-screen reactions were very real. The panic was genuine. They knew something was going to happen, but not that specifically. They actually thought Hurt’s character was a heart attack.
Stanley Kubrick wanted to know the secrets of the practical effects. “I remember Stanley Kubrick called me up saying, ‘How’d you do that?’” Scott told LA Times in an interview. “He said, ‘I’ve run it through slowly, I can’t see the cut.’”
Scott talked Kubrick through the details, “[Kubrick] said, ‘OK, I got it. I got it, it worked.’”
As expected, Snyder's latest is being torn apart by TIFF attendees. No mercy given. The film, which had its world premiere this evening, is being called by some one of the worst movies to ever premiere at the festival.