On their way back to Earth, the crew of the space freighter Nostromo is roused from hibernation to answer a distress signal from a desolate planet. While exploring an abandoned ship swarming with strange eggs, one of the crew is attacked by a creature, and unknowingly they carry aboard a threat that will grow and claim their lives one by one in the ship's narrow corridors. With officer Ripley emerging as the improbable survivor, Ridley Scott delivers a masterpiece of horror and science fiction, claustrophobic and atmospheric, that turned space into the perfect setting for the most merciless nightmare.