Pressure suit

"We'd need suits to handle the temperature even if the air were breathable. If there's anything alive out there, it's tough."

―Ash (from Alien (novel))

Pressure Suit Nostromo — Captain Dallas wearing a pressure suit as seen in the 1979 film *Alien*.

Pressure suits, also known as vacuum suits, compression suits, or EVA suits, were two-piece spacesuits manufactured by Weyland-Yutani that consisted of a full body suit and a helmet meant for extravehicular activity (EVA) and were available on most commercial starships.

Overview[]

Variants[]

Multicolored pressure suits, white emergency pressure suits, thin emergency pressure suits.

History[]

When the USCSS Nostromo intercepted a transmission of unknown origin, Dallas, Lambert and Kane donned pressure suits to explore the surface of LV-426 in search of the transmission's origin. They discovered that the signal was coming from a derelict ship and inside, Kane discovered a Xenomorph Ovomorph which a Facehugger emerged from and attacked Kane, melting through his helmet's visor and attaching to his face. Back on board, Kane's suit was easily removed wile his helmet needed to be cut off with a laser cutter. Later, after the Alien had killed all of the crew except Ellen Ripley, Ripley put on a white emergency pressure suit without a flashlight on the top of the helmet stored in the emergency supply locker aboard the Narcissus to kill the Alien (which had snuck aboard the shuttle). After the Alien was blown out the airlock, Ripley removed her pressure suite and went into hypersleep.

Behind the scenes[]

Original design[]

The initial design for the space suit came from initial production art by the legendary French comic artist Mœbius, who also designed the crew uniforms and insignia for Alien.^{[citation needed]}

Helmet[]

The helmets were made out of fibreglass and are "quite heavy." For the white helmet worn by Ripley at the end of the film, Lambert's helmet simply had its light removed and was painted white so they wouldn't have to make a new helmet. The inside of Lambert/Ripley's helmet has "tons of little lights and stuff that all light and worked", according to collector Bob Burns, who currently owns the white helmet.^[1]

The helmets were detailed with parts from an MPC Space: 1999 Hawk model kit (likely an in-joke, as the original helmets were detailed by Martin Bower, who co-designed and built the original Hawk models for Space: 1999) and a 1/12th scale Tamiya F1 race car kit^[2] (likely a Texaco Marlboro Mclaren M23).^[3]

Trivia[]

Although somewhat difficult to make out on-screen, the suits worn by the ground team in Alien are different colors for each character. Dallas' suit is pink, Kane's suit is yellow and Lambert's suit is blue.
Similarly, the suits worn by the crew of the Anesidora in Alien: Isolation are likewise color-coded — Foster's suit is pink, Heyst's suit is blue and Meeks' suit is yellow. Marlow's suit is never seen outside of first-person view and so its color (if any) is never revealed.