Important reading: Everything that explains \'Alien\' and it\'s connection to \'Prometheus\'.

Here's the info file released by Fox .

 Here's the link to a high quality copy

Record keeping

This image shows the engineer watching Shaw through the window in the lifeboat door while she is inside . 

Recordkeeping

This is an image showing the different colours of the sack inside the ampule that david opens. There is a striking simularity between the green fluid and the green crystal in the ampule room.

Bigdave

They really wanted to use uncertainty as to whether David was lying when he said that it was safe to take off their helmets in jugg. Shaw is the only surviving member who was present in he ampule room when they went to fetch the 2 stooges which would imply she would have to start mutating while she is on the jugg with David but then maybe all the injections she got killed the virus ......will she become a xeno on her way to Sagitarius's Arm???

Here is a link to a thread I started showing links to Alien and Starbeast scripts

A definite must read - the scripts I mean !!!!

Posted: 18 May 2015

https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/gods-monsters/

Start quote

“When Shaw and Holloway conceived the mission, their expectation was they would discover a benevolent species that might provide answers to some of our greatest mysteries. In other words, they were hoping to meet gods. But these beings prove to be anything but compassionate. They are a dangerous race of superbeings.”
~ Michael Ellenberg (executive producer), screenslam, 2012.

End quote

The engineers are dangerous 

http://www.weyland-yutani-archives.com/archive/1068

This article explains what Ash did with the dead facehugger. Perhaps where Cameron got his idea for the medlab scene with the facehuggers in the tubes ?

http://www.weyland-yutani-archives.com/archive/1052

Interesting comments from O' Bannon on the Alien series and Cameron's direction of Aliens

The above storyboard comes from http://www.weyland-yutani-archives.com/archive/1131 .

Thanks xeno alpha 07

I have always been irritated in Alien that Ash was constantly trying to keep everyone away from Kane deliberately? I always felt Ash knew exactly what was going on. This articles hints that they wanted to shoot the above scene but didn’t. It does indicate that the writers thought was regarding Ash’s intentions. I also remember a scene where in Alien Directors Cut where Ash switches off a monitor just as the derelict comes into view from the crew helmet videos as if he didn’t want anyone to see and stop the crew from going in.

I also think this is where Cameron's idea for Burke switching of the monitor that showed Ripley and Newt trying to get out of the infirmary, came form.

http://www.weyland-yutani-archives.com/archive/1130

From this article you get from where the idea for the many acid burn holes at Hadley's Hope may have come from.

And also in Prometheus the idea for the urns being stacked to the top of the ceiling of the jugg as well as David's touching of the black goo.

Interesting article. As you see Cameron indicating that Aliens was Ripley's story from beginning to end.

Where as Alien was about the Alien.

I still think Cameron got his idea for the queen holding on to Ripley from the starbeast script as you can see the creature wrapping his tentacles around someomes leg. Newt it seems was a replacement character for the cat (even though you are staying here you little shit !!!)

Does the deacon have eyes ??

http://weyland-yutaniarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/question-i-was-recently-asked-why-was.html

Again a scene deleted with Ash the culprit - Ripley trying to prove that Ash activated the klaxion that alerted the Alien of the closing door.

That is what the skull inside the Giger Alien looks like. Scary !!!!

Ridleygrams part one

http://weyland-yutaniarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/alien-unseen-part-one-ridleygrams.html

You can see here where the hologram ideas came from .

Interesting interview with Spaihts on the why the difference in technology between Alien and Prometheus.

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ridley-scott-prometheus-alien&page=2

Quote

Ridley Scott's Prometheus Examines the Roots of Alien's Mythology

More than three decades ago Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic Alien introduced moviegoers to a menacing, insectlike, parasitoid extraterrestrial species. The film's sequels and spinoffs over time created a rich mythology of a universe in which the films' predatory antagonists and doomed heroes coexist, complete with terraformed colonies, interstellar mining and commerce, and a recurring role for the fictionalWeyland Corp., whose relentless efforts to capture and control the alien species set in motion much of the film franchise's narrative.

Scott returns to this universe on June 8 with the opening of Prometheus, a movie set in the same cosmos as the Alien films but several years earlier than the original. Although the moviemakers are keeping many plot details confidential in advance of the film's release, Scott has made clear thatPrometheus is not a prequel to Alien. Instead, the new movie centers on scientific exploration—sponsored by Weyland, naturally—on board a spacefaring vessel named for the Titan in Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans—and paid a terrible price for doing so.

The Prometheus is following a star map found at various unrelated archeological sites on Earth. The commonality of these images leads the scientists to believe that the map may help them discover humanity's origins.

Scientific American spoke with Prometheus co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts about the film's scientific pursuits, its portrayal of late 21st-century technology and the dangers faced by humans in such a hostile cosmos.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]


Prometheus is not a prequel to Alien but both films are set in the same universe. What does this mean exactly?
If a prequel is a story that presets the conditions for another story—gives you everyone's back story and so forth—and is mated to a specific set of characters and a specific tale, then this is not that. This is a story that shares a storytelling universe with the Alien films, in particular the first film. There are also some scientific notions and some storytelling archetypes that we inherit, but we are really not telling the same story at all. We're opening up a whole new branch of science fiction mythology.

What storytelling archetypes did you inherit, and how did you weave the old and new mythologies together?
One of the things I was very aware of in composing the story is that in the Alienuniverse there are a number of dualities that leap to the fore. There's a core duality between humanity and the alien species, obviously. The Xenomorph [as the alien came to be known] wasn't just something dangerous but something demonic in the perfection of its adaptation to destroy us. And it made Ripley—the female protagonist of Alien and its sequels—feel that much more innocent, vulnerable, human, real. This conflict between human and alien is central to these films.

A secondary duality is between the human and the artificial person. Whether we're talking about Ash in the first film, Bishop in Aliens or David in the new movie, an android is always there, and there's always a tension between the human and artificial characters that seems intrinsic to these stories. And then there's also a duality between the humans and "the Company," an implacable and self-serving interest, a heartless force. Although these movies are science fiction, we can relate [because of] similar tensions in day-to-day life. People feel uneasy about our dependence on artificial intelligence and robotic appendages as machines get closer and closer to us. And there's certainly a widespread tension between us and the corporate forces in our lives. All of these forces become concrete representations in the universe where Prometheusand the Alien movies take place.

The Alien films never fully explained the origin of the Xenomorph creatures, even though the first movie presents the audience with a derelict ship filled with alien eggs that have seemingly been abandoned on a hostile planet. What approach does Prometheus take to exploring the origins of life?

One of the things that distinguishes the original Alien movie is the extent to which it doesn't even attempt to explain the alien phenomena its protagonists encounter. It's almost devoid of pseudoscience talk. If you've seen the original Alien, you've seen the remains of the enigmatic giant—whom the fan community calls the "space jockey"—who has died in the derelict wreck. This character is the great, unopened door of that original film—the great mystery. Who is that? Where did that derelict ship come from? How did that giant die?

And it's in that mystery that the story seed of Prometheus takes root. There is some inevitable kinship between the two stories in terms of xenobiology. But the titular creature of Alien is very much confined to the shadows and is not at all the focus of Prometheus, which is driving in a new direction. With Prometheus, the origin of the menace and forces that our heroes encounter is essentially the central mystery of the tale itself. So the story is very much about people prying into the shadows and trying to shed light on these mysteries.

As with any science fiction film, technology sets the tone by establishing the film's look and to a large extent determining what the film's characters can (and cannot) do. What was your vision for the technology in this film?
That it should look real. One of the things that Ridley Scott has done as a director is pioneer for us a grungy vision of the future. His films Alien and Blade Runner plus the original Star Wars directed by George Lucas taken all together showed us a future in which everything was well used, rusted and battered. And that was a real leap from the gleaming and spotless future of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Prometheus likewise wants to feel like reality. So the vessels, vehicles and tools in the movie are designed to be things that are somewhat familiar to us while also representing an optimistic vision of future technology.

Given that Prometheus is set prior to Alien, how did you devise a set of technologies that would appeal to an audience in 2012 without makingAlien's 1979 vision of the future seem outdated?
There's an inevitable trickiness around the chronology just because technology in the real world and technology in filmmaking have come so far in the years since the original Alien. But for me a lot of that is easily rationalized by virtue of the fact that theNostromo, the original ship in Alien, is an industrial tug. It's a rust bucket that itself might be 150 or 200 years old at the time that we see it. The Prometheus is a state-of-the-art scientific exploratory vessel. So it's only reasonable that it be sleeker and technically vibrant.

Along those lines, how did you invent David, the android in Prometheus? Did you take into account that he would not be as advanced a piece of technology as the robots from the Alien movies?
As with any archetype that's been touched on in previous films, you need both to honor its place in the canon and at the same time find some new insight, some new approach to it. The exciting thing about David is that perhaps there isn't yet a habitual place in society for machines like this at the time Prometheus takes place. In the sequels to Alien it's more normal to have an android on a starship crew as a matter of corporate protocol. But perhaps that's not the case in the new film. Perhaps David doesn't quite know his place in the universe, how humans will interact with androids and what's expected of these robots. And perhaps the human members of the crew are not yet accustomed to working and living with a crew member who is artificially intelligent.

End quote

The shooting script of Alien varies very much from the film it seems. The Space Jockey is fossilised outside the ship in the rock.

Ash says the Alien is an 

Encephalopod

according to mother but Ripley is surprised that it can adapt so quickly as it is a lower animal.

Cephalopod from wikpedia showing octopoid link

It seems as if Ripley doesn't believe him because of the fact that the Alien adapts so quickly to breathing oxygen and since Cephalopods are lower animals -  they shouldn’t adapt so quickly.

But it might explain where Spaight’s came by his idea that the face huggers were Octopoid creatures as Octopoids are part of the Cephalopod family.

One of the reasons why the Alien was so hard to catch might be because all the cameras was out on b and c decks and no communication possible.

Ash says the Alien has adapted to breathing oxygen and it seems is capable of breathing nitrogen.

The tracking devices used small differences in air pressure to detect movement it has different settings for tracking different things or keys as Ripley calls it.

The "ill go" scene (where Bishop says he will go to setup the transmitter to bring down the other dropship) in Aliens came from an unused idea where Ripley says she will go into the air duct after the Alien but Dallas says no. Ash wanted to know afterwards why Ripley couldn't go. The reverse happens in Aliens - the android goes not a human.

Cameron used a shitload of unused ideas in Aliens.

Ash lies about getting the master computer key from Dallas. But she knows it. With Ash's head severed Ash begs not to be disconnected and he says they won’t kill the Alien without his help. This obviously where the David's head "getting ripped off and being reliant on a human" idea came from that was used in  Prometheus.

Well worth a read.

www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien_shooting.html

http://www.tgdaily.com/entertainment/66733-what-went-wrong-behind-the-scenes-of-prometheus

 Start quote

Prometheus should have been one of the greatest films of the decade, yet it fell flat for many fans. Original screenwriter for the film, Jon Spaihts, offers some insight into what happened. 

 Prometheus was a beautiful film, but that's nearly all it had going for it. The characters were idiots, the premise was confused, and the plot went so far off the rails that one can hardly believe that it passed the pre-production approval stages.

 As I noted in my review, it seemed like the film was being made with too many conflicting ideals, like the director wanted  two different things with the film, and ended up doing neither very well.

As it turns out, that's almost what really happened. In an interview with Empire, Spaihts explains how the film came to get so mixed up, and it reads like a filmmaker's nightmare.

It started with Spaihts being hired to write an actual Alien prequel. "The head of [Scott Free] brought up the notion of an Alien prequel and asked if I had any thoughts on it." he told Empire, "I hadn't prepared for that and hadn't developed a story, but I found in the moment that I had a lot of opinions about it. I thought there was only one way you could go. So I started riffing in the room and held forth for 30 to 35 minutes on what the shape of the story should be and what kind of things we could do that hadn't happened before."

Spaihts wrote a first draft that included a lot of the elements that wended up in the final film, including the Medpod scene, which is one of the most visually and conceptually interesting scenes in the film, despite not making any sense where it is. Scott Free loved it. Director Ridley Scott  loved it. So, Spaihts was hired. He wrote several drafts of the film with Scott's help, all the while creating a prequel to the original Alien film, filled with Xenomorphes and Facehuggers.

"I did have facehuggers in my original draft," Spaihts continues. "David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn't deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber, is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship. In my draft, he returns to his cabin, is embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love. And it's while they're making love that he bursts and dies. So that lovemaking sequence echoed my original lovemaking sequence where he explodes! It was messy."

 That sequence actually makes sense, as well as the remainder of David's plotline.

"Subsequently, David, fascinated by these creatures, begins delaying the mission and going off the reservation on his own, essentially because he thinks he really belongs with the Engineers. They're smart enough and sophisticated enough, great enough, to be his peers. He's harboring a deep-seated contempt for his human makers.

"So at one point Shaw goes to stop him and David ties her up and deliberately exposes her to a facehugger. He caresses an egg open and out comes a facehugger. David doesn't smell like a person - his breath isn't moist - so he can handle the thing like a kitten. It doesn't want him; it's not interested. But then he exposes it to her and it goes for her like a shot. He toys with her for a bit and then lets it take her. That, in my draft, was how Shaw was implanted with the parasite that she had to remove with the medpod sequence."

That sounds like a great bit of filmmaking. David's motivations are more clear, and the medpod scene actually fits with the remainder of the film. The early versions of the film were coming together well. So what happened? Another vision entered the arena.

The studio changed its mind about the film after 8 versions of the script. They no longer wanted an Alien prequel. Instead they wished the film to be a standalone production. Spaihts was not asked to write another version. Instead, Damon Lindelof was brought on to de-Alien the Alien prequel. He was to rewrite the script, keeping all the major elements, but removing the Xenomorphs and Facehuggers.

Unfortunately, that's not what Scott wanted for his film, so the Xenomorphs were removed, but this extra plot was left in, keeping the Alien prequel connection. David was made more malicious, but less "bloody-handed" and his motivation for betrayal became mostly unclear.

Finally, Spaihts talked about his ideas for where the future films would have gone, had he remained on as the lead writer. " I did have a plan for multiple films and the conversations I had with Ridley was about a new franchise, from the beginning. We talked about a possible trilogy, or a duology, but more often as a trilogy. And I did have pretty broad notions as to how we were going to get from this world to the original Alien - the baton pass, closing the circle, if you will. So yes, I did have plans for two other films. I came up with an even more twisted sequence than the Medpod, but I cannot tell you what happens...

 "My vision of the trilogy would have involved the arrival of the Yutani Company and a couple of other major plays around the Engineers themselves: the revelation of an additional grand Engineer design, and the possibility of seeking an Engineer homeworld. That shot of the ship flying at the end offers a lot of creative ways to play with this. But it feels like it brackets you into the search for the Engineer homeworld and home civilization. That's an interesting challenge."

The original ending had Shaw and David still on the planet, rather than flying away.

If the films had been left with Spaihts original vision, perhaps it would have been the classic it was meant to be, or at least would have not been quite so derided as it is now. Not that Lindelof isn't a good writer; he was just given an impossible job, trying to reconcile those two visions. No one could have made a good movie out of that situation.

The main thing to take away from this, for me anyway, is that it's not Scott's fault that Prometheus was so bad, maybe he hasn't lost his touch after all, and maybe we really can trust him to still make good sci-fi. I guess we'll see with his next genre film.

End quote

Now this interview with Jon Spaihts quite clearly shows that Ridley wasn't happy about the removal of the xenos and facehuggers. It was not ridleys idea to hire Lindeloff. And Linedeloff it seems was given an impossible task of making an Alien prequel mixed with a new mythology:: this Spaihts words not mine. Thank you Sir Ridley - I see now you wanted to do the right thing - but too much brandy too much wine had you outfoxed !!

Finally something to put the record straight !!!

Update 12 May 2015

Apparently Ridley may have been against using the xeno. In a interview on youtube he claims the xeno is done to death.

So is Spaihts lying or is there mis interpretation from my side or was Ridley just interested in the origins when considering the stasis fields that held 8 different kind of eggs and not actually showing the xeno ??

Yes BigDave

P2 will decide a great deal but how much of it will be to Ridley's liking ?

I now wonder how much say Cameron had in Aliens' final shooting process ???

Politics.....after money the root of all evil !!!

Bugs or Gods?

In this thread I explain why the Alien in Alien was much harder to kill then in Aliens from information I have gathered from the 4 alien drafts. 

Spaihts or Lindelof's Draft?

This is BigDave's Spaihts vs Lindelof's Thread.

This quote comes from the May 28 1985 draft of Aliens by James Cameron :

105

Gorman has plastered himself against a wall, as far from the door as possible. A latch lever behind his head turns. The small hatch against which he was leaning is ripped away and SOMETHING snatches him out the opening He disappears to the waist with a shriek, legs kicking. The alien clings to the roof, pulling him out. Its tail whips over, scorpionlike, and buries a four inch stinger in Gorman's shoulder. Hicks grabs a joy stick at the FIRE-CONTROL CONSOLE and turns it rapidly. On the roof the alien looks up as servo-motors whir. A remote control turret cannon, a 20mm chain-gun, swivels toward it in a curt arc. VOOM. The creature is blasted off the vehicle's armored back and tumbles away. Gorman, slumped unconscious, is dragged back inside.

107

HICKS He's alive. I think he's paralyzed.

VASQUEZ He's fucking dead!

She grabs Gorman by the collar, hauling him up roughly, ready to pulp him with her other fist.

VASQUEZ (to Gorman) Wake up pendejo! I'm gonna kill you, you useless fuck!

Hicks pushes her back. Right in her face.

HICKS Hold it. Hold it. Back off, right now.

Vasquez releases Gorman. His head smacks the deck. Ripley opens Gorman's tunic, revealing a bloodless purple puncture wound.

RIPLEY Looks like it stung him.

123 INT. MED LAB 123 ECU Gorman, his eyelids slitted open like those of a corpse, but with the eyes tracking erratically. The only sign of life.

RIPLEY (voice over) How is he?

Ripley stands over the Lieutenant, who is lying motionless on an examining table. Bishop looks up from his instruments nearby, the light of a single gooseneck lamp giving his features a macabre cast.

BISHOP I've isolated a neuro-muscular toxin responsible for the paralysis. It seems to be metabolizing. He should wake up soon.

RIPLEY Now let me get this straight. The aliens paralyzed the colonists, carried them over there, cocooned them to be hosts for more of those...

It seems Cameron had some idea for the alien's tale being scorpion-like all along.

This is from the June 1978 draft for Alien.

This shows they had laser guns in this draft but that it wouldn't have killed the alien and also what ash meant when he said it was the perfect organism but the creature is ultimately kill able albeit very hard to do so.

49 INT. MAIN AIR LOCK - DAWN 49

Dallas, Kane and Lambert enter the lock. All wear gloves, boots, and jackets. Carry laser pistols. Kane touches a button. Servo whine. Then the inner door slides quietly shut.

INT. MESS 133 the remaining crew assemble. Long faces.

LAMBERT Now what.

PARKER Blast the rotten bastard with a laser and take our chances.

RIPLEY No. At its present size it's holding enough acid to tear a hole in this ship as big as this room.

ASH it wouldn't do any good. It's self-regenerating. You saw that when we operated on it.

RIPLEY The only plan that's going to work is the same one we had before. Drive it into an air lock and blow it out into space.

PARKER Drive it...The son-of-a-bitch is huge.

LAMBERT For once he has a point. How do we drive it?

RIPLEY The science department should be able to help...

ASH According to Mother, he's a primitive form of encephlepod...

LAMBERT How come it's a he.

ASH Just a phrase. As a matter of fact he's both, bisexual or hermaphrodite to be precise.

DALLAS Skip its sex life. How do we kill it?

ASH It seems to have adapted to an oxygen-rich atmosphere and it's certainly adapted well for its nutritional requirements. The only thing we don't know about is temperature.

RIPLEY Curious isn't it...That the Alien is an encephlepod...

ASH what’s so curious about that.

RIPLEY It's curious because lower species can't adapt as quickly as higher ones. And this one's doing very well. A real survivor. Might even have as good a chance as we do.

ASH You're getting paranoid again.

RIPLEY All right. What about the temperature. What happens if we change it.

ASH Let's give it a try. Most animals retreat from fire.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

LAMBERT Tell me...What the hell's going on.

Pause.

RIPLEY Let's find out. Wire him back up.

PARKER What kind of crap is that.

RIPLEY Do it.

They set to work. Begin to reassemble the wiring in Ash's head.

RIPLEY Ash let it on board. Ash let it grow inside Kane. Ash blew the warning signal.

LAMBERT Why.

RIPLEY Special Order 937.

PARKER What's that.

RIPLEY That's what I want to know. Ash's head is placed on the table. His eyes flicker into consciousness.

RIPLEY What is Special Order 937.

ASH You know I can't tell you that.

RIPLEY Then there's not point in talking to you. Pull the plug.

ASH Special Order 937 in essence asked me to direct the ship to the planet, investigate a life form, possibly hostile and bring it back for observation. With discretion, of course.

RIPLEY Why. Why not tell us.

ASH Would you have gone.

PARKER It wasn't in the contract.

ASH My very point

RIPLEY They wanted to investigate the Alien. No matter what happened to us.

ASH That's unfair. Actually, you weren't mentioned in the order.

LAMBERT Those bastards.

ASH See it from their point of view. They didn't know what the Alien is.

RIPLEY How do we kill it.

ASH I don't think you can. Not in this ship, given its life support systems. But I might be able to.

RIPLEY How.

ASH I don't know quite yet. I'm not exactly at my best at the moment. If you would reconnect...

RIPLEY No way.

ASH Don't be so hasty. You'll never kill it without my help.

RIPLEY We've had enough of your help.

ASH You've barely got any oxygen left. If you don't go into hyper sleep, you'll die with or without the Alien.

RIPLEY Nice try, Ash.

ASH I will do whatever I can to help you. I swear it.

PARKER Pull the plug.

LAMBERT I agree.

ASH You idiots. You still don't realize what you're dealing with. The Alien is a prefect organism. Superbly structured, cunning, quintessentially violent. With your limited capabilities you have no chance against it.

LAMBERT You admire it.

ASH How can one not admire perfection. I will kill it because I am programmed to protect human life as you know.

RIPLEY Even if you have contempt for it.

ASH Even then. Bitter and angry.

RIPLEY Sorry Ash. I don't buy it.

ASH You egocentric morons. You'll be ripped to shreds, destroyed and...

Ripley make a movement. Ash softens...

ASH I can only with you well...

Ripley pulls the plug.

PARKER He was probably right. We do need him.

RIPLEY He was conning us.

Its interesting to note that in the 1983 and 1985 May drafts of Aliens they have drones and warrior aliens.

The drones are I think slightly smaller albino versions that does the cocooning and the Aliens took material from Hadleys Hope to do it with.

Also did you notice the pleading of Ash like David (or at the very least dependancy on humans being damaged) and people not coming if they had known the true nature of the mission?

Sounds very Prometheus to me.

This is from the 1983 draft from aliens.

ACHERON – IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE In a tractor, prospector RUSS JORDEN grins and turns to his wife/ partner, ANNE. He gloats over the fat, juicy signal as they home in. The tractor roars across corrugated rock onto a plain of volcanic ash sloping up to a vast cinder-cone in the distance. IN THE BACK SEAT Their two kids play among the heavy sampling equipment. NEWT, the little girl, who is about six, argues heatedly with her older brother, TIM. Their mother tells them to knock it off as the tractor rolls to a stop. “Holy shit” Russ says, awed. They’ve found more than a vein of ore. DIRECTLY AHEAD A bizarre rounded shape projects upward, recently exposed by the wind. It is the tip of the bone-like extra-terrestrial ship recognizable by its bio-mechanical surface ribs and veins. Jammed against upthrusting rocks by volcanic ash, the hull is buckled in one spot, with a black rent in its side almost large enough to drive the tractor into. RUSS AND ANNE Think they’ve really scored big. They pull on exposure suits and head off to take a look. The kids watch from the cab as they disappear inside.

TRANSITION. INT. TRACTOR 9. Night. The wind howls around it. Newt sleeps curled up in the driver’s seat. Tim wakes her up. He’s scared. Starting to cry. Mom and Dad didn’t come back. Suddenly, a dark form slams against the door. Newt screams. The door is ripped open. Anne, panting and terrified, grabs the dash mike and starts calling “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”

TRANSITION. EXT. EXTRA-TERRESTRAIL SHIP – LATER The site is bustling with activity. A score of men with lights and ropes are assembled at the gash in the hull. Newt watches apprehensively from the cab as her mother leads the searchers onto the ship.

INT. EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL SHIP Through the Bio-mechanoid corridors. They pause briefly to shine their lights over the body of a huge alien, extra-terrestrial (not to be confused with the Alien – this E.T. was discovered by the Nostromo’s crew sixty years before) fossilized in his command seat. The figure has been half-submerged by an inpouring of volcanic ash. ANNE Shows them where her husband slipped and tumbled down a slanting rib into a vast dark chamber. She says they searched independently for a way out, because visually separated, lost radio contact. An ominous blue energy layer covers the bottom of the egg chamber.

INT. CHAMBER The Searchers gear up. Fire ram-sets into the deck with power-guns. Check their radio headsets. Rappel down the sloping walls. Walk among the thousand leathery eggs.

LEADER Don’t touch anything

(CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 10. They spread out across the floor chamber.

1SST SEARCHER Hey, this thing’s moving!

He watches the top of an egg opening.

2NND SEARCHER Found him!

Another Searcher stands over a motionless body, face down.

3RRD SEARCHER All of them are starting to move now. More eggs open, flower-like. The man who found Jorden turns the body. Something is on his face. We know what it is So will they in a second. The eggs erupt. One. Two. Three. Then a volley. Screams are muffled by the face-hugging creatures. All the eggs are hatching. The floor of the chamber comes alive with scuttling spider-hand nightmares. The men above start hauling up the Searchers’ lifelines. Screams echo, escalate... The chamber is a writhing, living horror.

This is from the unmarked early 1978 draft for Alien.

This where Lambert remarks as to where the rest of the crew is originated from as well as where the term Space Jockey came from -

I think ......

Quote:

EXTERIOR. PLANET.. DAY. The trio still moving through a dark limbo. Lambert stops again. Studies the direction finder.

LAMBERT It's close.

DALLAS What's the reading.

LAMBERT We should be almost on top of it. I just can't quite ...

A large shape looms through the dense clouds. The rain clears slightly. Reveals a space ship rising from the rock. Black metallic surface.

INTERIOR. BRIDGE. BAY.

Ash listening. Watching intently .

KANE'S VOICE God damn look at that thing.

LAMBERT'S VOICE. . Is it one of ours.

DALLAS' VOICE Sure. Look at the markings. It's just a warmed over L-52.New model I heard they were working on. Big waste of money. 

Pause.

DALLAS' VOICE No signs of life. No lights .... No movement...We're approaching the base.

EXTERIOR. SPACECRAFT. DAY. A hatchway yawns open.

CUT. 

INTERIOR. SPACECRAFT. DAY. The doorway a glowing geometric blur of light. Dark chamber beyond. Dallas, Kane and Lambert appear silhouetted against the open archway. They switch on their datasticks. Step inside. Pick their way past indistinct machinery.

DALLAS Let's find the control room.

Move their lights around. Bulkheads and ceiling full of huge, irregular holes. Kane shines his light into an opening above.

KANE Looks like somebody was firing a disintegrator in here.

DALLAS Climbing gear.

Kane draws out a pressure gun. Aims it up into the hole and fires. A graplon is launched into the darkness. Thin wire trailing after. A dull clunk, the wire dangles. Dallas attaches it to a powered gear box on the chest of his suit. Presses a button. With a mechanical whine, he is pulled up into the hole.

INTERIOR. CONTROL ROOM. BLACK SPACECRAFT. Totally dark as Kane arrives at the top of the hole. Unclips hicself from the climbing wire. Dallas already tracing his beam through the hanging dust. Lambert now arrives .. Kane st1JlJlbles. Shines his light downward, sees ... A large, glossy urn, tan coloration. Round opening at the top, eopty within. Suddenly, Lambert lets out a grunt of shock. Her light has illuminated a skele~al shape. Seated twenty feet beyond them in the control chair. A human being, terribly disfigured. A few moments of shocked silence . . Then Dallas shines his light on a nearby console. Moves closer.

DALLAS Over here.

They approach the panel. Train their lights downward. A machine. On the mechanism, a small bar moves steadily back and forth. Sliding noiselessly in the grooves.

KANE Still functioning.

Lambert looks down at her direction finder.

LAMBERT Automatic recording.

DALLAS Yeah. I'll get the log.

Pause. Looks at Kane.

DALLAS The rest of the crew is probably below decks ...We have to go look.

CUT.

EXTERIOR. THE NOSTROMO. SUNSET. Atmosphere turing the color of blood. Then the sun is down . The ring of floodlights on the ship comes to life. Feebly combatting the darkness and continuing storm.

 CUT.

INTERIOR. BRIDGE. NIGHT. Ash hovers over a readout panel. Dallas and the rest of the search party move across the screens.

DALLAS One dead space jockey, no sign of the other crew members. the old L-52's generally went up with a complimem: of seven ... 

LAMBERT  They're probably scattered out on this plain.

DALLAS Maybe;

ASH Hey, I think I've got something.

Dallas continues walking forward on the video images.

DALLAS Yeah.

ASH North, northwest, thirteen degrees ... an irregular shape.

DALLAS On our way.

EXTERIOR. PLANET. NIGHT. Three human shapes move across the plain. They stop. stare at the vast semicircle of rock above them. A steam geyser explodes upward nearby. They move on.

CUT. INTERIOR. BRIDGE. Ripley walks in, joins Ash.

ASH I was scanning the horizon to see what I could pick up: ..

Screen two. Ash enlarges the image. The screen shows a range of hills on the near horizon. One hundred meters high. Reddish lava rock and dark obsidian. Ripley stares at the viewscreen for a long-moment.

CUT. EXTERIOR. NOSTROMO. NIGHT . With a shriek, the storm returns. The space ship again becomes completely obscured.

CUT.

EXTERIOR. PLANET. NIGHT. Dallas, Lambert and Kane. They move around another rock formation. Stop, look ahead. A RED CYLINDER... On the horizon. One hundred meters high.

THE TRIO.

KANE Who built it.

DALLAS Probably some kind of government installation.

LAMBERT Installation of what.

DALLAS Ammunition depot, landmark, hothouse, how the hell do I know.

KANE Maybe the rest of the crew is in there waiting to be rescued

DALLAS Don't hold your breath.

The rain increases.

EXTERIOR. NIGHT . The trio moves to the base of the cylinder. Pushing at an angle through the wet Wind.

KAIN We can't make out any details or features yet.

INTERIOR. BRIDGE. DAY. Ripley and Ash.

CUT.

DALLAS' VOICE There's only one thing I can ...

Dallas' voice disappears. As do the images on the viewscreens.

ASH Los t their signal. He shakes the console in front of him. Ripley turns. Looks at him.

EXTERIOR. BASE OF CYLINDER. NIGHT. CUT.  The trio at the base of the massive structure.

LAMBERT Maybe it's buried. Could be under our feet.

Dallas looks upward through the rain. ·Staring at the crest of the Cylinder.

KANE This is a governent Model 503. Concrete.

DALLAS I knew what it is. I just want to know what the hell it's doing out here.

KANE It's got an entrance on top. I volunteer.

Kane looks at Dallas. A long pause. Then Dallas smiles. Why not.

DALLAS Yeah. I'm more valuable and she's the navigator ... So you· can go inside, after I take a look. .

Dallas takes out the graplon gun. Fires the hook up toward the top of the Cylinder. - It catches. He again looks back at Kane. Then clips himself to the wire. Dallas turns on the climbing device. Begins to walk up the side of the Cylinder.

DALLAS Climbing the Cylinder. Wind and rain breaking over him.

EXTERIOR. TOP OF THE CYLINDER. NIGHT. No seams other than the lip along the edge. Dallas arrives at the top. Pulls himself over onto its surface. Sees a wheel recessed into a contiguous pillbox. Spokes shaped to accept a clutching hand. Dallas pulls the spokes. The wheel slides out of the pillbox. Turns and locks on its axle.

DALLAS I've found a wheel. It's not part of regulations.

LAMBERT'S VOICE A what.

DALLAS A wheel. Come on up. Dallas tries the wheel. No resistance: The wheel rotates effortlessly through a full turn. A few meters away an opening appears in the Cylinder's surface. Dallas leans over and looks into the hole. Only blackness. He unclips his light from his belt. Shines it down into the hole.

DALLAS It just goes down ... Smooth walls. I can't see the bottom light won't reach.

Kane and Lambert come over the side. Continued.

Scramble to the top of the Cylinder. Dallas begins unclipping gear from his belt.

DALLAS Let's take a look.

Kane and Lambert exchange a glance.

DALLAS Just for a preliminary look around ...

Looks at Kane.

DALLAS This is your big chance. 

KANE Okay.

DALLAS Don't unhook yourself from the cable. Be out in less than ten minutes. Read me.

KANE Aye aye.

Dallas rigs a tripod across the mouth of the opening. Unspools a couple feet of wire. Kane attaches the end of it to his chest unit. Climbs over the lip and drops into the hole. Now hanging by the wire ... Head and shoulders out of the opening. Kane activates the climbing unit. Lowers himself into the fissure.

INTERIOR. CYLINDER OPENING .. Kane braces his feet against the wall of the vertical shaft. Switches on his light, points it into the depths. The beam penetrates only thirty feet or so, then is lost in darkness. KANE Hotter in here. Warm air rising from below. He starts down, paying out the line. Descending in short leaps. Stops to catch his breath.  Breathing rasping loudly in his helmet. A little sunlight filters from above. Looking up, Kane can see the mouth of the hole ... A glowing spot of light.

DALLAS You okay in there.

KANE Haven't hit bottom yet.

LAMBERT'S VOICE I lost you, do you hear me.

KANE This is work. Can't talk now.

He kicks off and continues down. Taking longer and longer hops as he gains confidence. Pausing for a moment to regain his breath, he shines the light on his instruments.

KANE I'm below ground level.

EXTERIOR. TOP OF CYLINDER. NIGHT.

DALLAS What'd he say.

LAMBERT I don't know. He's too far in.

CUT.

INTERIOR. BRIDGE. NIGHT. RIPLEY The whole area. around the is dead to transmission. we should go after them. Cylinder I think

ASH I don't think so. We can't spare the personnel We've got minimal takeoff capability right now. That's why Dallas left us on board.

Ripley looks steadily at Ash.

CUT.

INTERIOR. CYLINDER. Kane resumes his downward climb. Suddenly, his feet lose their purchase as the walls of the shaft disappear. The tunnel has reached its end. Below him is dark, cavernous space. Deep breaths due to his violent exertion.

KANE Tunnel's gone. Cave or something below me. Feels like the God damn tropics in here ...

He consults his instruments.

KANE ...high nitrogen content. no oxygen ...

Still puffing, he releases his purchase on the stone ,walls . . Begins to lower himself on power. Now Kane is dangling free in darkness. Spinning slowly on the wire as the chest unit unwinds. Then his feet hit bottom. Kane grunts in surprise, almost loses his balance. He flashes his light. The beam reveals that he is in a large room. Row after row of metal cases stretch from floor to ceiling.

KANE It's like some kind of storage area. Is anybody there. Do you read me.

CUT.

EXTERIOR. TOP OF THE CYLINDER. NIGHT.

Dallas and Lambert.

DALLAS How long till sunrise.

LAMBERT Another hour. How long do we give him down there before we go after him.

CUT.

INTERIOR. CYLINDER. Kane approaches the center of the room. Moves near a large, broad pedestal. On the plinth are rows of leathery jars . .He walks around the urni. Shines his light on one. Then lays a gloved hand on the surface.

KANE I don't know if you can hear:.me, but the place is full of large bottles or jars, like the one we found on the other ship ... except these are sealed ... soft to the touch.

He peers closely at the leathery object .. Turns away. Raised areas begin to appear where his fingertips touched theum. . Kane moves his light along the rows of cabinets, Turns back to the urn he was examining. Something has changed. Now there is a hole in the top. Kane shines his light on the floor at the base of the urn. Sees the stopper that had filled the hole. He picks it up, studies it. The interior surface spongy ·and irregular. Kane turns back to the now open urn. Shines the light inside. With shocking Violence, a small creature smashes outward. Fixes itself to his mask. Sizzling sound. The creature melts through the mask, Attaches itself to Kane's face. Kane tears at the thing with his hands. Falls backward.

End Quote

A lot of Prometheus in these 2 excerpts above.