All the crew — an out-of-this-world ensemble consisting of Tom Skeritt, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, and, of course, Sigourney Weaver — has is each other, so when a worm bursts from their buddy's stomach and begins picking them off one by one, the ugly, pipe-strewn walls close in.
It's the endless expanse that sets the stage, the sense that, despite being surrounded by so much open space, there is absolutely nowhere to run. There's no dialogue for the first six minutes of Alien, nor is there music. It's just ambient sound, as cold and alienating as the crowded, grimy halls of the Nostromo, cinema's most notorious intergalactic haunted house. All the crew — an out-of-this-world ensemble consisting of Tom Skeritt, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, and, of course, Sigourney Weaver — has is each other, so when a worm bursts from their buddy's stomach and begins picking them off one by one, the ugly, pipe-strewn walls close in. Director Ridley Scott embraces the claustrophobia, embedding his Xenomorph into the fabric of the ship and, by extension, our nightmares.