# Alien
Alien is a science fiction horror franchise built around the Xenomorph, an extraterrestrial creature designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger for Ridley Scott's 1979 film. The design, the chestburster gag, and Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley became core reference material for horror imagery, cosplay, and internet edits across the following decades.
## Overview
Alien is a science fiction horror franchise built around the Xenomorph, a biomechanical extraterrestrial designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger for Ridley Scott's 1979 film[3]. The creature has an elongated eyeless skull, acid blood, and a second inner mouth on an extendable stalk, a look Giger pulled from his own 1976 painting Necronom IV[2]. The chestburster and facehugger stages of its life cycle turned into their own set of recurring horror visuals used well outside the films themselves.
The franchise spans four original films through 1997, two Predator crossovers, comics, novels, and a long list of games, all held together by that single creature design. Fan communities on Reddit and Fandom wikis kept the property in constant circulation between releases[1].
## How It Spread
The franchise crossed with the Predator property in Alien vs. Predator on August 12th, 2004, and again in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem on December 25th, 2007[3]. Games followed steadily: Aliens vs. Predator on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in February 2010, Aliens Infestation on Nintendo DS in September 2011, and Aliens: Colonial Marines in February 2013, with a trailer for Alien Isolation dropping in January 2014[2].
Fans built out their own reference material alongside the releases. The Xenopedia wiki opened on May 26th, 2006, and a dedicated Alien Anthology Wiki launched on February 29th, 2012[2]. A Facebook page created on November 16th, 2007 grew to over 2.9 million likes by mid-2014, and the /r/LV426 subreddit, named for the moon in the first film, opened on October 27th, 2010[1].
Merch carried the design into the physical world too. In November 2013, ThinkGeek began selling a Xenomorph plush with an extendable inner jaw, turning the film's inner-mouth gag into a stuffed toy[2]. Casual dictionary entries from the same era show how the word "alien" is still tied both to the Xenomorph and to extraterrestrials in general[4].
## How to Use
The Alien template on the internet typically pulls from a small set of instantly recognizable stills: the facehugger clamped onto Kane's helmet, the chestburster rearing out of a torso, or the full Xenomorph silhouette with its inner jaw extended. Edits often paste the chestburster into other franchises for shock or joke value, and Ripley reaction shots are commonly used as a stand-in for exhausted, done-with-it energy. Cosplay and fan art typically stick close to Giger's biomechanical, ribbed black surface rather than reinventing the creature.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Alien?
Alien is a science fiction horror franchise centered on the Xenomorph, an extraterrestrial creature designed by H.R. Giger for Ridley Scott's 1979 film of the same name[2].
### Where did Alien come from?
The first Alien film, directed by Ridley Scott, was released in 1979 and introduced the crew of the Nostromo battling a creature that hatches from an egg found on the moon LV-426[4].
### What does Alien mean?
In the franchise, Alien refers specifically to the Xenomorph life form, though the word is also used casually for any extraterrestrial being[4].
### How do you use Alien?
The Xenomorph, facehugger, and chestburster stills are commonly reused in horror edits, reaction images, and cosplay, and fan communities on Reddit like /r/LV426 collect and remix screencaps from the films[1].
### Is Alien still popular?
The franchise built long-running fan infrastructure through the 2010s, including the /r/LV426 subreddit opened on October 27th, 2010 and multiple Fandom wikis dedicated to the series[1].
## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/]()
2. [https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Xenopedia]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alien]()
4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Alien]()
---
Source: https://meme.com/memes/alien
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library