The story everyone repeats about the chestburster scene is that the cast had no idea what was coming. They did — they had read the script. What the director withheld was how much blood there would be. Under the table sat a false chest packed with organs from a butcher, several cameras ran at once so nobody would have to do it twice, and when it burst a jet of blood hit Veronica Cartwright in the face and knocked her backwards. She goes down in the finished film. The decision was not to frighten his actors. It was deciding an audience can tell the difference between fear and the performance of fear.
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I saw it in Port Townsend Washington with some high-school mates
Oh yes, I remember the scene
One thing is look scared, but to add shock and panic is the sauce 👌
I saw the premiere in the York Theatre in Montreal, which was an old operatic movie house. After this scene, the audience broke out in a loud applause.
Dang. I was 17 years old when this movie came out. And it scared the crap out of me.😱🫣
Sometimes the best work comes from the actors giving a genuine reaction instead of a scripted response.
I wouldn’t have told them anything in order to get the right response I really wanted.
All the actors were walked through it. Repeatedly. Ridley scott is known for his obsessive blocking. They were also shown the effect prior. This is the most lied about scene ever
That scene their reaction was so authentic and priceless. I would never have changed the thing I wouldn’t even have told him so that it’s even more authentic and zero acting. !😈😈😈😈
I took a very sweet young lady to that movie. I would say that she was a bit naive, though. She asked me how they did that scene (I knew because of understanding a fair amount of magic.) I told her, well, they can only do that scene once. – I learned later about the surprise for the actors, later. But it turned out that I was more correct than I ever thought I was.