20 Greatest Summer Blockbusters Ever Made
13. Alien (1979)
RottenTomatoes Score: 97% (9/10)
Box Office: $104.9203.6 million (yes, somewhere in that range, apparently...)
Why It's Awesome: Ridley Scott proved with Alien that not every blockbuster needed to be filled with thrill-a-minute action and peppy dialogue. His slow-moving, quietly tense sci-fi horror film mined tremendous amounts of suspense out of its claustrophobic spaceship setting and the mystery surrounding what quite had made its way on board.
Simply, it's a film full of surprises. Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is something of a stealth protagonist, given that Tom Skerritt's Dallas is originally clearly positioned to be the hero of the piece. Then there's the iconic chestburster scene, which of course kick-starts the utterly terrifying game of cat and mouse which forms the majority of the rest of the film.
The production design, effects, score, direction and script are all top-notch, though it's Weavers performance which gives the film its soul, and has made the series endure despite its numerous creative missteps over the years.