Stanley Kubrick ingrained audiences with his technical refinement with 2001: A Space Odyssey, a brilliant if a bit cold around the edges sci-fi epic. Making the intangential tangible isn’t easily afforded in science fiction, especially a space-cum-horror tale; but the Nostromo crew is unlike the body count lemmings that populate elimination horror.

Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto have the gruff, jokey playfulness that reminds of your favorite mechanic, your dad, and uncle who are working on the family car. Tom Skerritt as Dallas is the perfectly humble leader, reluctant to the derelict vessel's distress signal, but he’s following company orders. John Hurt, the “first one to go,” feels the least deserving, whose innocence and sheer helplessness is heartbreaking (especially in light of his recent passing), and there’s a Christ metaphor if you want to pick that up. In what might be one of the film's many nerve-fraying moments is the milk white gushing reveal of science officer Ash, whose indifference to human life can only be the actions of an android (well, the A/2's were always a bit twitchy...).

In his CPU, the xenomorph is a perfect organism. Scott and Bannon’s dehumanizing of what was the no-nonsense mindset embodied by former science officers (a la Spock from Star Trek) achieved by taking ‘human’ out of the equation entirely. Ash is wonderfully realized by the icier than thou Holm; his literal meltdown is one of the most imaginative and scary sequences. Showcasing how darkly expressionistic Scott could be as a director so early in his career.

While Cartwright’s Lambert has been on the short side of fan response, she might actually be the most human character in the film. Is there any rational person think they’d behave any differently to seeing their fellow crew member's chest explode, and the rest consumed by an unstoppable killing machine? Veronica Cartwright doesn’t have the easiest job but her performance is committed and unrightfully scorned.