10 Secrets From The Set Of Ridley Scott's Alien
4. Ridley Scott Helped Sigourney Weaver With Some On Set Tunes
Sigourney Weaver produced one of the most impressive breakout performances of all time during this 1979 masterpiece, leaving you well and truly on the edge of your seat as her brave badass successfully made it off the Nostromo alive.
To help the star unleash that believable and gripping work on camera, though, Ridley Scott provided a little musical assistance on set.
During a third act that saw Ripley fending off the alien killing machine, the director decided to do something quite interesting. As the last woman standing made her way onto the shuttle at the end of the movie, Scott chucked 15 speakers onto the set and asked his star if she'd like a bit of help.
When she told him "yeah," he then began playing out a song from Isao Tomita's 'The Planets' album: Mars, The Bringer of War (via Alien Explorations). According to Scott, "having that massive orchestration around her" helped Weaver in those closing moments.
Throw that often thunderous and ominous tune on for a few minutes and it's not hard to see why Scott felt this was the best way to power Weaver through that pulsating final act.