'ALIEN' INVASION Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, and Sigourney Weaver try to save the ship

Alien: Everett Collection

Alien

Grimy, claustrophobic, and more haunted-house thriller than space-bound sci-fi, Alien follows a group of interstellar truckers rendered lunch meat by an acid-dripping, H.R. Giger-designed nemesis. Contrary to popular rumor, the alien-out-of-the-stomach shot was not a surprise to the actors, but Veronica Cartwright (Lambert) says that director Ridley Scott amped up the tension by keeping the cast waiting and filling the set with retch-inducing buckets of formaldehyde and fake blood. ''It's a shame that they don't have outtakes,'' she laughs. ''I got hit with a jet of blood, rapelled backwards, and flipped over the couch behind me. All you could see were my cowboy boots sticking up!''