"Mother wants to talk to you."

Can we talk symbols, here?

A computer named Mother (nudge, nudge) awakes the cryo-sleeping crew (her "children") and informs them that she is receiving a distress call from a nearby planet. The crew takes a tug-module down to the planet's surface to investigate.
Three of them set out, wearing spacesuits because of the harsh environment. The crew discovers the source of the transmission; a very organic-looking alien spacecraft. This introduces one of the main themes in the film, that of technology (which is equated with masculinity) versus nature (which is equated with femininity). The tug is all hard angles and edges, the alien craft is composed of rounded biotic shapes.

In a procedure remarkably like reproduction, the white-spacesuited "sperm" enter the alien craft, and walk through a long "vagina"-like tube. Once inside, they find a dead elephantine alien, which like a stillborn child, warns our intrepid heroes that this "womb" can only breed death.

One of the crew, Kane, descends down a smooth vertical shaft, a "fallopian tube," and finds an "ovary," a massive egg-filled chamber with a mist-covered floor. Kane examines an egg (and here's where it gets strange) and it abruptly launches its contents into his face. Kane is symbolically "raped" by the beast inside, a creature which forces a tube, a penis-like appendage into his mouth. Its effect is not only shocking, but disgusting. Why? Because suddenly with the "rape," the symbols of feminine procreation, already portrayed as darkly foreboding, are now inverted.

An egg, symbol of fertility and creation, has been turned inside-out to become a symbol of parasitism, destruction, and ultimately, death. In addition, the egg has penetrated the sperm; another inversion.

When the crew brings the unconscious Kane back to the tug-module, Ripley refuses to let Kane on board, citing infection protocols. She rightly puts the safety of the ship and crew before that of the wounded man. This is part of her arc, as you will see below. She displays logic, rather than emotion, and shows her male side. Ash, the science officer, ignores her order, and lets the crew back on board.

Ash discovers that the creature is keeping Kane alive. He tries to remove the creature, which holds fast to Kane's face, but finds it has acid for blood, so it can't be cut off.

In a seeming bit of good fortune, the creature simply leaves his face, then dies.

Kane seems fine, but dies spectacularly in another inversion of symbols, as the alien baby bursts out of his chest in a mockery of birth. Because the alien baby is the byproduct of a rape, and born of a man's body, the "pregnancy" is completely unnatural. Thus, its birth is an extension of the twisted process, and becomes a mockery of the real thing, and causes the death of Kane. Birth has become death.

Our hero is Lt. Ellen Ripley, the second-in-command of the Nostromo, an ore ship that looks permanently pregnant, with belly-like ore-bays which hang from its undercarriage. The ship's interior is also incredibly womb-like, with dark, moist alcoves and dripping, ridged passages.

Ripley is a woman who acts like a man. This has nothing to do with her sexual preference, but everything to do with her character arc as it relates to the theme. Ripley is a woman who lacks femininity, which includes demure behavior, soft-edged beauty, and nurturing skills. In other words, she lacks the qualities which society expects women to have. Ripley is afraid to show femininity, which might be interpreted as weakness. This internal dichotomy becomes her arc.

Ash describes the alien as "bisexual or hermaphrodite to be precise." This could also serve as a symbolic description of Ripley. What better adversaries that a masculine woman versus another creature of ambiguous gender, a creature which destroys like a male, with piercing tail and phallic stabbing jaw, yet procreates like a female?

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