The derelict
In Alien, the crew of a spaceship from Earth respond to an extra-terrestrial distress signal, land on a planet and find an enormous, derelict spaceship, on which the passengers are all dead. The design of the alien spaceship is one of the finest displays of Giger’s style and his evocative notions of organic technology, which leave viewers wondering if it is a human creation or not. Once again, the idea was for Hans Ruedi’s drawings to be used to make models for the set, and this time they saw the light of day. At Shepperton Studios near London, Giger made models that gave his vision three-dimensional form. The curved walls were made of wood covered with latex. They were built using pieces that were made in advance and then put on top of each other. Layers of plasticine were added and Giger painted them by hand himself. Giger actually stated “I’ve never worked on big films. Perhaps all of this could be done with scale models, but if someone has to walk in a room, a life-size one needs to be built.”