10 Things You Learn Re-Watching Alien
4. The Adult Xenomorph Doesn't Show Up For 68 Minutes
Every Alien fan worth their salt knows that the adult Xenomorph appears only infrequently throughout the film and takes a good while to show up first.
That said, it's easy to forget just how long Ridley Scott makes us wait considering how over-exposed we've become to the creatures in subsequent sequels and spin-offs.
In the Director's Cut (which Scott deems the definitive version of the film), it's 68 minutes before the fully-grown Xeno shows up and kills Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), more than half-way through the film.
But you know what? Scott does such a fantastic job with pacing and characters that it doesn't feel like a slog getting there, and the second half full of payoff feels very much "earned".