Script To Screen: “Alien”
Here is a memorable scene from “Alien” (1970), screenplay Dan O’Bannon, story by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
Setup: There is an alien on board the spaceship Nostromo. The ship’s captain Dallas has entered the air shaft to find the alien and kill it using a flamethrower. The other crew members are tracking Dallas’ location:
INT. AIR SHAFTCompletely dark.
Dallas turns on his helmet light.
Flips switch on throat mike.DALLAS
Do you receive me. Ripley.
Parker. Lambert.INT. EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AREAThe hum of vast cooling plants.
Large air shafts run off in different directions.
Parker and Lambert stand ready by a duct.
Lambert hits the wall amp button.LAMBERT
We're in position. I'll try
and pick you up on the tracker.Parker hefts his flamethrower.DALLAS
(voice over)
Parker, if it tries to come
out by you, make sure you drive
it back in. I'll push it forward.PARKER
Right.INT. AIR LOCK VESTIBULENear the starboard air lock.
Ripley pops open the hatch.
The air lock now open and ready.
She moves to the air duct opening.RIPLEY
Air lock open.DALLAS
(voice over)
Ready.RIPLEY
Ready.INT. AIR SHAFTDallas begins to crawl forward.
The tunnel is narrow...
Only a foot or two wider than his shoulders.
DALLAS
I'm under way.Turns a corner.
Several more tight turns.
Instinctively Dallas pulls back.
Raises the flamethrower.
Fires a blast around the corner into the darkness.
It roars loudly in the confined tube.
Smoke drifts back into his face.INT. MAINTENANCE LEVELA large rectangular duct in one wall.PARKER
That's where it's got to come
out, if it leaves the main shaft.He throws a switch.
A metal pane rises and seals off the opening.LAMBERT
Let's keep it open. I'd like
to know if anything's coming.Reluctantly, Parker again throws the switch and raises the
metal pane.INT. AIR LOCK VESTIBULERipley waiting.INT. AIR SHAFTDallas still crawling on hands and knees.
Ahead the shaft takes an abrupt downward turn.
He moves toward the corner.
Fires another blast from the flamethrower.
Then starts crawling down, head first.INT. EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AREALambert sees something on the tracker.
LAMBERT
Beginning to get a reading on
you.INT. AIR SHAFTThe shaft makes yet another turn.
Puts Dallas into an almost immobilized position.
INT. FOOD STORAGE LOCKER NUMBER 12Ash staring at the ventilator opening.INT. AIR SHAFTDallas against a wall of the shaft.
Clutching his flamethrower.
Whispers into his throat mike.DALLAS
Ripley.INT. AIR LOCK VESTIBULERIPLEY
Read you clear.INT. AIR SHAFTDALLAS
I don't think this shaft goes
much farther... It's getting hot
in here.He readies the flamethrower.INT. EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AREAParker readies his weapon.INT. AIR SHAFT - DOUBLE-TIERED PASSAGEWAYThe air shaft tributary opens into a larger two-tier air
tunnel.
Dallas crawls out and stands.
Moves to a catwalk floor. Looks about.
Moves forward. Reaches a repair junction.
Sits.His feet dangle beneath the catwalk floor to the next level.DALLAS
Lambert, what kind of reading
are you getting.INT. MAINTENANCE LEVELLambert huddled over her tracker.
Puzzled.LAMBERT
I'm not sure. There seems
to be some kind of double
image.INT. AIR SHAFT DOUBLE-TIERED PASSAGEWAYDallas sitting.
His feet still dangling in the dark beneath the catwalk.DALLAS
It may be interference. I'll
push on ahead.Dallas begins to rise.
From below, a gentle movement toward the hanging feet.
A hand reaches up.
Misses his leg as Dallas moves ahead.Further on.DALLAS
Lambert, am I coming in any
clearer.LAMBERT
(voice over)
It's clear all right, but I'm
still getting two blips.
(pause)
I'm not sure which one is
which.Dallas stops.
Turns around.
Looks back down through the catwalk.
Lowers the nose of the flamethrower, his finger on the
trigger.
From behind him, the hand reaches up.
The Alien is the front signal.INT. AIR LOCK VESTIBULERipley bends forward.
Hears the sounds of the struggle...
And Dallas' screams.
She cries out.RIPLEY
Dallas...Dallas...INT. EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AREALambert and Parker.
Hearing it all.RIPLEY
(voice over)
Oh my God.Then silence.
And here is the scene in the movie:
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
[Originally posted July 13, 2011]