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(3 of the Nostromo crew step out of the spacecraft, onto planetoid LV-426 'Acheron'.)

1. (One of them, Dallas perhaps, gives a thumbs-up.) "My suit's AOK. Let's go troops."
2. (Dallas, Lambert and Ash survey the alien landscape. "Hell -- what a place!"
3. (They see a strange, huge alien construction: The alien 'derelict' or 'Juggernaut' spacecraft) "What the..?" one of them gasps.
4. "I don't believe it -- it's a building!" says Ash.
5. "That's our signal-sender" one replies as we see the hammerhead shape of part of the ship. "Let's get closer" urges another.

Commentary Below

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It's a Building [05]

Art Notes: "I say, anyone for Cricket?"

Luckily, there were some images of the spacesuits in the novelisation. A curious blend of astronaut, Samurai and Cricketer.

nostromo space suit

See the cricket pads - above? I wonder of Ridley ever had it in mind to look up Francis Bacon's work when researching a visual style for the film.

francis bacon cricket pads

Francis Bacon Study of The Human Body, 1982. Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris

I wouldn't like to bluntly class Bacon's work as horrific but his Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion certainly are.

bacon crucifixion

Francis Bacon (Detail of) Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c.1944 Tate Galley, London

Severed Head?

crew of nostromo setting off

You know, in that novel there was a puzzling and weird photo of Ripley in her space helmet - showing some of that interesting costume design - but which I could never quite figure out, as a kid. Before I read the actual text of the novel, I saw the photo and immediately assumed that it was some horrific part of the story in which a victim's severed head was somehow being kept alive inside a special chamber. I couldn't see where her neck could be. The caption "And in space no one can hear you scream" ran underneath. A terrified, disembodied live head - silently screaming. Jesus!

alien derelict