Alien's trailer is so iconic that even if you've never seen it you'll still be aware of its constituent elements. The crack in the egg, the gradual forming of the letters and, best of all, that unforgettable tagline, "In space no one can hear you scream." And that's pretty much the whole thing; there's Star Wars-style pans of what appears to be an alien landscape, slowly revealed to haunting music to be an egg, before fading to the distant space winds. You have to remember there was a time when the title Alien didn't immediately conjure up images of xenomorphs, instead bringing with it an air of mystery; the film was named to make you curious. The trailer only furthered this feeling, making the audience desperate to find out what the silent terror would be. A subsequent trailer would run longer, adding some quick cut footage from the film, but even then it added little in the way of understanding, only pushing up the dread. It's exemplar of top notch trailer editing; you can watch it over and over and not be able to piece together the film itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFxgr8NTD20
