10 Secrets Behind Alien's Nostromo Ship You Didn't Know
Alien's iconic ship was originally painted yellow. Gross.
Ridley Scott's Alien is unquestionably one of the greatest and most iconic sci-fi films of all time, and while it's inarguably best defined by both Sigourney Weaver's gutsy heroine Ellen Ripley and the blood-thirsty Xenomorph, it'd be totally remiss to ignore the focal spaceship, the Nostromo.
Arriving in an age where the overwhelming majority of sci-fi ships were impossibly sleek and gorgeous, Alien's Nostromo was a more ramshackle, nuts-and-bolts vehicle - powerful for sure, but lacking the finesse and stopping power of its heroic contemporaries.
It's fitting, of course, given that the Nostromo was a commercial towing vehicle more comparable to a delivery truck than a battleship, and yet one which served as the stage for one of the most unforgettable showdowns in sci-fi history.
But given that the Nostromo appeared in just a single movie before being scuttled by Ripley, there are many finer details you probably don't know about the ship.
Thanks to both official schematics and interviews with crew members who worked tirelessly to bring the Nostromo to life, we can dig deep into the ship's nitty gritty...
10. It's 334 Metres Long & Weighs 60,000 Metric Tons
Though the dimensions of the Nostromo aren't mentioned in Alien itself, reference materials tells us that the vessel measures in at a mighty 334 metres in length, 215 metres wide, and 98 metres high.
Though its stature is nevertheless dwarfed by some of sci-fi fiction's most iconic vessels - Star Trek: The Next Generation's Enterprise-D, for example, is a staggering 642.5 metres long and 145 metres high - it still weighs a hefty 60,000 metric tons minus cargo due to the three decks, four holds, various stores and engines, and also its onboard escape pod the Narcissus.
Again, it's a decidedly more compact vessel than some of its iconic genre brethren, though it's also important to remember that the Nostromo is a commercial hauler, capable of tugging gigantic vessels containing at least 200 million tons of cargo.