How ALIEN’s Nostromo Became a Space Big Rig | Making ALIEN

Alien won the Academy Award for best visual effects for its intense and gruesome alien effects as well as its amazing use of miniatures. One of the coolest spaceship designs ever put on film is the Nostromo, where most of the story takes place. But coming up with the look of the ship’s exterior was a bit of a nightmare. No one had made a movie like Alien before and finding the right design that would be both realistic and stylized would be very tricky to pull off. Perfecting the outer design of the Nostromo would take the blood, sweat, and tears of Scott, the chief concepts artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, and a few other characters who might surprise you.

There were a gazillion designs for the Nostromo, but how and why did they go with the one that appears in the movie and how did they make it look so realistic?

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#Alien #RonCobb #RidleyScott

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Sources:

(Rinzler) The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler
(Nathan) Alien Vault: The Definitive Story Behind the Film by Ian Nathan

Music:

Epidemic Sound

[lolglolblol]

I love how the Nostromo feels real. It feels lived in, like a real work place with history. Every imperfection only strengthens that, like any damages had been repaired with a macgyver'd solution.

[nealwhaley]

Making the ship a rig opened a lot of doors for the story: it’s not a vessel designed to make first contact, nor is the crew trained to do so. It’s the first time they have to actually deal with outer space as opposed to just sleeping through it. And they discover they are not up to the task.

[planetdisco]

The Nostromo detaching from the payload and subsequent landing is still one of my favourite sequences in any movie ever. They truly made it seem and feel massive. And Ron Cobb is a legend…

[hendrsb]

I recall a hilarious quote from sci-fi artist Chris Foss when asked what inspired the unique designs of his spaceships. He jokingly answered that he took pictures of them whenever he saw them flying by. 😅

[the_lost_navigator]

17:10 - I agree with Mr. Scott. As a young model-maker back then, the crooked lights made me scream, though nobody heard me...

[qarljohnson]

"It all began in 1975 Paris, with Jodorowsky's DUNE."
That pre-production crew is the actual genesis of what eventually made as "Alien".

[ianbauer]

Amazing job as always. In my mind, Chris Foss was THE sci-fi illustrator of the 1970s and brought a lot of that decade's highly creative futurism (and fantasyism, if that's a word) into great films like "Alien."

[FiliusFidelis]

I LOVE this ship, can't offhand think of a single spaceship more impressive than this one, outside and in. It has.. presence. And yeah, you'd think, especially by today's standards that the de-coupling scene, landfall and landing would be boring.. it is not, even now after several decades it is mesmerizing and thrilling.

[guard]

17:11 "It always bothered me that the lights underneath, that we couldn't get in a straight line, that drove me crazy but we eventually had to shoot."

The lights being very off of straight was one of the details that most made it feel realistic and lived in to me. The fact that it looks like it's obviously been banged up and repaired haphazardly a few times helps to offset the interior occasionally seeming too perfectly well maintained. I remember when I first saw this movie as a kid, that landing shot, with the screwed up lights, really was the point where I bought into the world. Before that, it was too retro-futuristic to me.

[dmdcykey]

One of the (many) fascinating things in your videos is how we get to see the seemingly endless, small yet crucial aspects it takes for a film to reach final release. One tiny alteration in concept, design, or intent at any stage and the entirety of the film changes from what we have always known and loved to something...alien.

Superb content, Tyler.

[BrokenCurtain]

Thanks for shining a spotlight on concept artists like Ron Cobb and Chris Foss.

I hate how their work and creative genius constantly gets ignored. Movies like Alien and Star Wars wouldn't exist without people like them.

[notforglory]

I love everything O'Bannon and Cobb ever touched. Truly unrecognized geniuses (and very obvious sci-fi freaks).

[buzzfunk]

I love that period of fim. Blade Runner, Alien and Empire strikes back. My 3 favs! Forever!

[orangelion]

Got to love good practical model effects! Even knowing it was a model, you felt the Nostromo was massive!

[Ruylopez]

One thing that comes across with Kubrick, Scott, Coppola (and Lucas) is how a singular vision can steer an unwieldy and abstract project through a sea of chaos and elevate it from something potentially cliched to the truly magical, but also how the chaos and constraints or failures become part of the beauty. It's so compelling to see how much happenstance and self doubt or uncertainty there is in these iconic movies.

1979 at the drive-in, the Nostromo landing was the coolest shot I had ever seen. No amount of CGI today could out-do what those artists did with practicle effects.

[rdbury]

17:55 "Traveling matte" - After nearly 40 years I finally "got" the pun with the name of the uncle in Fraggle Rock. The best kind of pun are the ones that go over the heads of most people, and then, maybe, decades later they put it together with something else and finally realize there was a hidden meaning.

[NSAspyvans]

This video is amazing
thank you
Alien is my favorite movie of all time
I love the retro future look of all the cockpits, computers, clothes, ships and computer sounds. The CRT monitors and displays are so good. I am so happy that Alien Romulus kept this.

[SaturnCanuck]

Another great video in this series. I have “The Book of Alien” which came out during the movie’s release, as well as Ron Cobb’s "Colorvision” that details his movie work, so I am familiar with the design process. I actually used Ron Cobb’s “Snark” design as the basis for one of my own projects. Cobb was a true visionary and he is sadly missed.

[CannonRanger]

RIP Mr. O'Bannon. You were a true visionary. Thanks for posting! ❤️