What is Alien: Definition and 126 Discussions

Alien is a science-fiction horror/action media franchise centered on the film series which depicts warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her battles with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien" or Xenomorph.
Produced and distributed by 20th Century Studios, the series began with Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, and was followed by three sequels: Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron; Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher, and Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Scott also directed a prequel series, composed of Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), which follows the exploits of the David 8 android and the creators of the eponymous creatures referred to as the "Engineers".
The series has led to numerous novels, comics, video games and television series. It has inspired a number of spin-offs - most notably the Alien vs. Predator franchise, which combines the continuities of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise and consists of two films as well as various series of comics, books, and video games.

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  1. Nik_2213

    Writing: Input Wanted Alien chiral chemistry

    A lot of terrestrial biology has specific chirality, the 'Other Hand' being bio-unavailable or toxic... As 'our' set is product of aeons of happenstance and evolution, alien biology probably differs. ( I'm thinking genuinely alien 'alien' rather than eg 'seeding' or panspermia...) Can...
  2. Strato Incendus

    Writing: Input Wanted Postulating Life on Jupiter's moon Europa

    Even an offhanded remark by some character in a sci-fi story can have major implications. With my story based on a generation ship in the late 25th century, I considered it self-evident that humanity would already have explored most of the planets and moons within the solar system before trying...
  3. H

    AI Is An Alien Invasion Theory

    The Threat Of A.I. Is Already Here: “…Bill: So what is it? Can you give an example? How will it be different from these rudimentary forms of A.I.? Gideon: “The public is now getting a glimpse of it. You would want to reference the project known as OpenAI and ChatGPT. Also, Midjourney is very...
  4. ChanYeol

    I am making an alien race and need help with their biology

    I would like a reason why their blood is Cooper/ Rose gold color. They evolve from a dinosaur bird like creature but in their current timeline they are human looking. One of their most strange characteristic is they got cooper looking veins and their blood is rose-gold color. Which gave the...
  5. C

    What Caused the Strange Flash of Light in My Bedroom at 3:57am?

    (edit.. not the red light, that's my emergency power outage light in every frame, I'm referring to 3:57am and exactly 15 seconds, blink and you will miss it) turn up the volume Strange white/yellow flash appeared in my room and the sound it made when the light hit my security camera sounded...
  6. Dinarchik

    Alien spaceship wormhole gravitational waves detector

    Recently viewed video about wormholes that required negative energy to create it. Suppose hypothetical aliens have discovered this technology. Spaceship enters in first point and exit at second. To prevent spaceship destruction they might have technology to smooth gravitational waves on exit...
  7. S

    Less and more alien biopolymers

    We on extant Earth meet a certain choice of biopolymers. Structural biopolymers include proteins. Most of the rest of the structural biopolymers are polysaccharides. But with one conspicuous exception: lignin which is a polymer of p-propylphenols. The most common structural polysaccharide on...
  8. cybernetichero

    What WOULD be adequate proof of alien visitation to Earth?

    Perseverance's successful landing has scared up some UFO conspiracists online. I used to be like them and I was into Charles Forte as well, encouraged by people who should have known better (yes I AM looking at you Arthur C. Clarke) until I realized I just really wanted to believe rather than...
  9. DaveC426913

    Projection Maps for Alien World Navigation

    An ocean world navigational map will not have any reason to chop up its navigational maps into artificial pieces to accommodate continents. That disqualifies several projections to start. I want to figure out what kind of a projection they would use. Since they would be doing all their...
  10. allisrelative

    Scientists Claim to Have Found The First Known Alien Protein

    I think this is important not just for the extraterrestrial part but it can help explain how life starts on planets through Panspermia. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-claim-to-have-found-the-first-known-extraterrestrial-protein-in-a-meteorite This could really be groundbreaking. If...
  11. Z

    How to recognize transmissions from alien life?

    SETI is searching for a signal from space. What is this signal supposed to say? Hi, here we are.? We were broadcasting signals into space for 50 years before we actually knew we were doing it. Those first signals are still going, but they are not traveling in a big sphere. They're going in the...
  12. B

    Can a humanoid alien race have combustible blood?

    Was wondering this for a scifi alien race I have in mind, is it chemically possible to have a race with combustible blood.? The answer: Yes, but I wonder how close the blood will be to our own? Since oxygen carrying blood like ours is preferred since it can deliver more energy for the work the...
  13. B

    Creating Humanoid Alien Sci-Fi: Oxygen Trade-Offs

    Scifi Humanoids by their very nature are'nt very alien. Where they compensate is how well they can interact with human characters. However, there are internal ways to modify them. Main question: I researched oxygen and learned that less oxygem breathed makes humans fatigued faster, while too...
  14. B

    How Would Earth Handle Alien Money?

    In the USA if you go to Mexico your money is worth a lot more over there. Likewise if you are a scifi alien with a scifi starship your money should go much farther in the USA than it would on your homeworld.The question is... how far? How much would a human nation realistically let alien money...
  15. B

    Alien Worlds.... Alien Elements?

    The perodic table we learn in school. All the stuff on it is found on Earth, and some of it (not all of it) we can find on other worlds. So it got me thinking, what about alien scifi worlds? Unobtanium is a common scifi trope, and all too often scifi humans envy aliens having unobtanium. But...
  16. B

    Which Scifi Alien Would You Rather Work With If You Had a Choice?

    This is purely for fun, as it won't affect my plot direction whatsoever. Which of my scifi created humanoid races would you prefer to work with and why? Which would you not want to and why? Based on their behavior only? Race 1: Take a positive view most all the time of situations, but can...
  17. B

    What Fictional Alien Concepts interest You the Most?

    For me it is their behavior. How it is different from humanity. Some will seek to answer the why, but I am only interested in their ongoing goals. To a large degree that fits their behavior, since in my work, each fictional race I tailor made for a specific purpose which drives them to do what...
  18. R

    B How to explain "the right hand rule" to an alien universe

    Suppose we are in communication with aliens who live in a different universe. I know, that's impossible, communication requires the exchange of mass or energy, which implies that we live in the same universe. But suppose it is true. I am wondering, can we and the aliens, via this communication...
  19. M

    I Would it be possible to observe an alien city?

    Under what circumstances would a telescope be able to observe an alien city, supposing such a structure was present on a planet? Are the requirements so high, say the mirror size, that this is simply wishful thinking or is this actually possible? More specifically, suppose our imagined telescope...
  20. BWV

    Oumuamua may be an alien lightsail?

    Discussed here https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2018/10/29/on-oumuamua-thin-films-and-lightsails/ referencing this paper by Baily & Loeb @ Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ’Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first object of interstellar origin observed in the Solar system. Recently...
  21. C

    [law] If aliens were to establish a colony on Earth

    If alien were to establish a colony on earth, do they need human permission? ----------------------------------------- let's say they show up on sky where not belong to any country and create artificial island on international water to set up their own colony. even assume that they were...
  22. jim mcnamara

    Psychology: How will we react to discovery of alien life

    Jung Yul Kwon et al, How Will We React to the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?, Frontiers in Psychology (2018). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02308 https://phys.org/news/2018-02-humans-react-pretty-news-alien.html#jCp Answer: probably well (this is a limited pilot study) The pilot study analyzed...
  23. R

    Should We Develop a Unique Terminology for Alien Lifeforms?

    https://phys.org/news/2017-12-genes-space-successfully-unknown-microbes.html While debating the issue of clickbait headlines, I remembered that recently the Russians had embarrassed themselves with such a leap of flying unicorns...
  24. G

    What caused a slimy wormlike mass to clog a dishwasher filter?

    OK, probably not extraterrestrial, but it did pique your interest. :) After my dishwasher recently stopped working I learned that it has a small filter/strainer located just before the water inlet valve so I disconnected the water supply and found this slimy wormlike mass completely clogging...
  25. G

    'Alien' biosphere immune system effects

    Hello, Suppose we humans traveled in a spacecraft to another Earth like planet with the same gravity and atmospheric composition as our own Earth. Suppose we landed on the surface. Suppose we opened the door of the craft, and walked onto the planet surface. Suppose we did not wear a...
  26. Y

    Design Alien Skeleton w/ Copper, Calcium & Element: Tip?

    Could calcium and copper and say - boron, be joined into one substance? If not boron, then which element? I am trying to design an alien skeleton with copper, calcium, and ? I love copper and part of the idea is its distribution throughout the universe. I am asking for a tip about where to look...
  27. S

    B Neutrino Blast Dangers Exposed: Alien: Covenant & Beyond

    Last night I was watching the latest Alien: Covenant movie, where the crew and colonist are brought out of cryosleep to repair damages to the ship caused by a "neutrino blast". This didn't sit well with me, so I did some searching and thought I'd share what I found: Lethal Neutrinos...
  28. S

    Rakka's" Alien Tech: How Far From Real?

    What alien technologies are in Neill Blomkamp's "Rakka" and how far they are from real?
  29. enorbet

    Finally Some Answers - Alien: Covenant

    Have you guys seen the trailers yet for Alien: Covenant? While I'm not overly fond of the Horror genre I have to admit that the first time I saw the alien pilot corpse in the original Alien I couldn't help but to want to know more... much more about his/her/its backstory. The newest episode...
  30. Noisy Rhysling

    Food for thought: What type of alien have you NOT seen ....

    ... in a syfy story that you think would be fun? I was imaging a race of quasi-crabs who entered the Empire of Man after having met only one human, an Oxford don type who gave them some ... interesting ... ideas of what the rest of the human race was like.
  31. P

    B Alien Perception of Time: Can Time Go Backwards?

    Can we please revive this thread with better references: My source for the Through The Wormhole Episodes is Wikipedia: Season 6 No. 2 : Can Time Go Backwards. There is a Youtube link: I was asking: "In Through the Wormhole Episode no.2 of the 6th series named Can Time Go Backwards (it starts...
  32. P

    Alien Perception of Time - Can Time Go Backwards?

    In Through the Wormhole Episode no.2 of the 6th series named Can Time Go Backwards (it starts in the 6th minute what I am referring to), it is claimed by a university professor that it may be possible (especially by alien beings) to perceive and experience the passing of time not right now but...
  33. R

    Exploring Alien Microbes: Will We Survive?

    Suppose a group of astronauts traveled to another Earth-like planet. They get off their space-craft, take off their space suits and begin sunbathing, unclothed. As their immune system has not evolved on this planet, would they immediately die as a result of exposure to alien microbes? So, even...
  34. pac0master

    Alien technologies as portrayed in Sci-fi

    This is something that got me thinking for a while. Especially after learning the basic of physics and chemistry. Basically, pretty much every movies, novel, etc that feature an advanced race of aliens(or any alien in general), they gives them some sort of technology or their organic...
  35. allister109

    B Does water pressure decrease in zero gravity?

    me and my friend were talking on facebook and we couldn't think of an answer to the question, would water pressure decrease in zero G, you can see how far along we got before getting stuck in the picture belowhttps://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/105576
  36. newjerseyrunner

    Could our digestive system handle alien meat?

    In lots of sci-fi desperate survivors often eat native creatures on alien planets. Besides the obvious dangers like it having poison sacks or something, what would happen if we tried to eat it? Is our digestive system tied closely to the evolution of Earth life, or would it universally be able...
  37. Garth

    B 'Strong signal' from sun-like star sparks alien speculation

    Hear me now? 'Strong signal' from sun-like star sparks alien speculation Interesting... Wait though With only one signal you just can't tell, and it certainly doesn't come up to scratch as "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.". It might have been just the cleaner in the...
  38. G.K. Masterson

    Writing: Input Wanted Travel to an Alien Sky: Far in Milky Way?

    How far in the Milky Way would one have to travel to land upon a planet where the night sky would have zero familiar stars? Basically, I'd like to set up a world somewhere so far from our section of the galaxy that the only things that are the same are distant galaxies (which I'm assuming would...
  39. newjerseyrunner

    Colors of Alien Blood: Oxygenation Chemistry Explained

    I have an alien in one of my stories that bleeds. I want to use science to determine what the range of possible colors would be. It's an oxygen breathing alien, so it's blood has to be efficient at transporting it. I know our blood is red because we use iron to do that. I don't know enough...
  40. Noisy Rhysling

    What do you consider to be the most interesting alien race?

    I have a fondness for the Moties from The Mote in God's Eye and it's sequel, The Griping Hand. They are a hierarchical society with a biological necessity to reproduce or die. This leads to incredible population pressure and resulting societal collapse. Being "trapped" in one solar system they...
  41. H

    Can a human and an ammonia-based alien coexist?

    Writing a sci-fi story, thinking of making the alien species ammonia-based. Obviously there are problems with that. On Earth, ammonia is a liquid under cryogenic temperatures. I think -28 degree Fahrenheit is its boiling point. Obviously, this is too cold for a human to survive for very long...
  42. Rickswan

    What colors and attributes could alien flora & fauna have?

    So I'm writing this comedy Sci-Fi story and I want it to have some realism. One of the main characters is a sentient alien, and I want to do a little better on the Sci-Fi hardness scale than "rubber forehead alien." The chances are high for any alien life we encounter to be synthetic, so to...
  43. P

    Weird Defensive Force Field of Alien Space Probe

    In a rather bad science fiction movie, astronauts Susie (mass 60 kg) and Fred (mass 86 kg) are investigating an alien probe. All of a sudden, the probe starts to produce a weird defensive force field. Their space ship's board computer scans the field and produces the above plot of the potential...
  44. @PK nd

    What are the ways we can search for alien life?

    Are we alone AND what are the ways we can search alien life?
  45. Greg Bernhardt

    NASA: We'll find signs of alien life by 2025

    I'm getting some popcorn! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/08/nasa-alien-life_n_7023134.html
  46. K

    Left/Right Communication with Alien Race by Richard Feynman

    Hi all, I was thinking about the problem and can someone verify my solution : 1) Set up a Magnetic field going from down to up, i.e north pole is at the bottom. 2) Use the triboelectric series to charge some small particle positive (hair or glass with teflon) 3) Throw that particle in forward...
  47. N

    Might alien technology evolve similar to our own

    I've pondered this a lot recently. I am an amateur electronics enthusiast. Recently I've been trying to build my own capacitors, resistors and radio/tv receivers/transmitters from scratch. A thought occurred to me, what would alien technology look like? and would it evolve the same way ours did...
  48. hatfair

    Perception of other dimensions

    Uneducated writer here looking for a discussion on the perception of other dimensions, including time: If the fabric of our universe is space/time, I understand that as humans, we can only really perceive space, that is I can see space all around me. However, I can only perceive this actual...
  49. G

    Alien bio-acid, does it have any plausibility?

    In Aliens movies, the xenomorphs blood is such a strong acid, that if they are shot, they damage the surroundings. Does it have any plausibility, that an organic biological lifeform could create such a strong acid, have claws that could cut through metal?
  50. AotrsCommander

    Help with orbital mechanics for an unusual alien planet

    I wonder if I might pick the brains of the forum's experts? I am embarking on creating a new gaming campaign world, something I've wanted to do for years but never quite manged: an entirely alien world (i.e. not populated by humans or the like), yet with the same sort of technology as you'd...
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