Alien (novel)

From Xenopedia

 

Alien is a 1979 novelisation of the film of the same name. The novel was written by Alan Dean Foster.

In the future, the seven crewmembers of an interstellar freighter, are woken ahead of time from their cryosleep when they receive a distress beacon from an uninhabited planet. Some of the crew are initially relucant to investigate, but company policy forces them to.

Upon investigation, they discover a vicious parasite, that attaches itself to the face of one of the crewmembers (Kane), and they return to space with him in a coma. Eventually, the parasite drops off and he appears to have returned to normal, but a short while later, a small creature bursts, from his chest, killing him.

It soon grows larger and begins killing the crew, starting with Brett. As soon as the first crewmember is lost; however, they decide to fight back, making flamethrowers and attempting to hunt it down in the air ducts. The only result of the counterattack, is that Dallas is ambushed and killed.

Lambert, the only other female crewmember besides Ripley, panics and starts arguing that they should run, but before they can discuss the course of action any further, Ripley elects to ask the ship's computer for advice. It reveals that they were considered expendable in the course of bringing the creature back to Earth. Ash, the ship's science officer, is revealed to be an android and to have deliberatley woken the crew so that they would discover the beacon. Ripley confronts him on this, and in response Ash attacks Ripley in a way which is distinctly sexual.

Parker and Lambert save Ripley before Ash can kill her, however, and the three attempt to make an escape in the lifeboat. Before they can escape, the alien attacks again, killing Parker and Lambert. Ripley retrieves her cat and makes a run for the lifeboat herself after setting the ship to self-destruct, on the way she finds the cocooned bodies of Dallas and Brett, and destroys them (only in the director's cut, however.).

She makes her way to the lifeboat and sets off as the ship detonates behind her, but finds that the alien has taken refuge in the lifeboat. She dons a spacesuit and decompresses the lifeboat, throwing the alien into space, and activates the lifeboat's engines as the alien is in the path of the exhaust, killing it.

As the movie ends, she returns to cryosleep with her cat.