RIPLEY: And when we throw the switches, how long before the ship blows?
PARKER: Ten minutes.
RIPLEY: No bull***t?
PARKER: If we ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space.

After blowing up the Nostromo and escaping on a shuttle, Ripley places Jonesy the cat and herself into stasis for the long trip home to Earth.

The Who happened to be rehearsing on the neighboring soundstage and lent their laser to director Ridley Scott, who felt it would add to the scene's atmosphere.

The chestbursting scene was filmed in one take with four cameras. John Hurt (Kane) stuck his head, shoulders and arms through a hole in the mess table, linking up with a mechanical torso that was packed with compressed air (to create the forceful exit of the alien) and lots of animal guts. The rest of the cast were not told that real blood and guts were being used, so as to provoke genuine reactions of shock and disgust.

The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, best known for airbrush images of humans and machines linked together in a cold biomechanical relationship. Later he abandoned airbrush work for pastels, markers, and ink.

Aliens follows Ripley as she returns to the moon where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature, this time accompanied by a unit of space marines.