Nostromo Chestburster (Alien)

The Chestburster first appeared in 1979’s Alien when it burst out of Kane.

Story

In 2122, the crew of the Nostromo intercepts a distress signal coming from a then unknown planetoid which is later designated LV-426. Three of the members Kane, Dallas and Lambert explore the area and find a Derelict Spacecraft. They explore deeper into the ship the fossilized remains of the pilot of the ship. Nearby is a a burnt hole and Kane is lowered into the massive cargo bay. He finds hundreds, perhaps thousands of alien eggs covered in a blue mist.

Kane approaches one of the eggs and shines his torch on it. He sees something moving inside. The egg opens up and Kane peers into the egg. All of a sudden, the Facehugger jumps out, burns through his space helmet and subdues him. Dallas and Lambert manage to get an unconscious Kane back to the dropship. When they get him to the Med Bay, they remove his helmet and find the creature wrapped around his head.

Later, the creature falls off by itself after implanting an alien embryo and Kane appears to be fine. When Kane and the rest of the crew have a meal before entering hypersleep, Kane starts choking and going into convulsions. All of a sudden, the Chestburster bursts out of Kane and the rest of the crew are in shock. Parker is about to stab it when Ash tells him not to touch it. The Chestburster scurries off into the Nostromo. Parker, Ripley and Brett go in search for the creature using a makeshift motion tracker. After finding Jonesy the cat, Brett lets it go, much to Ripley and Parker’s dismay. Brett goes to find Jonesy but by this point, the Chestburster has molted into an adult Xenomorph. It kills Brett and drags him away into the vents.

Behind-The-Scenes

Initially, Ridley Scott told H.R. Giger to look at Francis Bacon’s art for inspiration. Scott was particularly impressed with one piece:  Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion which shows three creatures with jaws on the end of their necks. Giger was already a fan of Bacon’s work so Giger’s first design of the Chestburster was inspired by his artwork. H.R. Giger had produced his design but it was met with ridicule. Despite this, Roger Dicken created a prop which was faithful to Giger’s design but it resembled a “degenerate plucked turkey” and it was too big to fit in somebody’s ribcage.

Given that the Chestburster scene was going to be such an important part of the film, Ridley Scott was worried it would be met with laughs instead of screams so they started from scratch. Scott wanted more of a link between the Chestburster and the final adult creature. He also wanted it to be very smooth as the previous design was very wrinkled. Giger got to work on another design which did turn out to be quite similar to the final design – it had fangs and a strangely-shaped body.

The Chestburster that we see in the film was designed by director Ridley Scott and created by special effects artist Roger Dicken. It had a banana-shaped body with the head similar to Giger’s design. They tried giving it various tails before they found one they liked. There were originally going to be arms on the creature but they were removed from the final design.

There were three variations of the Chestburster built by Roger Dickens. The first was the one that would be thrust up from Kane’s chest, the second was the one snarling at the characters and the third is when it escapes.

There was an artificial torso filled with blood and matter and actor John Hurt had his head and arms poking through the top of the table. A hard plaster version of the Chestburster prop was used for the actual emergence which was being held by Roger Dicken. The first few takes failed because the prop couldn’t puncture John Hurt’s shirt. As a result, the shirt was made weaker with acid and razor blades.

The actors knew a creature would burst out of John Hurt after reading the script but they weren’t prepared for the amount of flake blood and animal entrails that would spray everywhere. The crew set up the scene to simulate the Chestburster emerging. Three cameras had been set up to capture their reactions from all the angles. The cameras and all the crew were covered. Actor John Hurt was laid under the table for about four hours in preparation for the scene. The crew brought the cast in when they were ready and they saw everything covered in tarps and the hydraulic machines. Their reactions captured on film were genuine as they never anticipated what was about to happen. Veronica Cartwright particularly got covered in blood and she fell backwards.

Inside of the second Chestburster prop, there was a curved metal rod with a hand grip below which allowed Roger Dicken to move the puppet. Half way up the prop, there was a flexible steel spring and then the rest of the rod went up to the head and then underneath the jaw. There was a wire through a series of eyelets along the length of the rod and down into a ring which Roger Dicken fit around his finger. When he pulled the ring, the flexible spring would make the top part bend over. The creature’s jaws and arm stubs could be moved by the use of air and larger air pockets could animate the sides of its head to make it look like it’s breathing.

The table was split with a 6-8 inch gap, there was a man on a dolly underneath holding the puppet and there was another person who pulled the Chestburster on some rope. As the Chestburster moves, they wanted the tail to whip about. The put a tiny plastic tube down the end of the tail where air came out causing the tail to thrash about.

After looking at the footage. the crew were concerned that it was too graphic and would be rejected by 20th Century Fox. Fox was worried about the scene but they allowed the scene to stay. The Chestburster scene had a huge impact – it was one of the most memorable scenes of the film and in films in general.

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