The Alien Teaser Trailer Was So Iconic They Keep Remaking It

Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror sci-fi hit Alien jumpstarted an iconic scary movie franchise (that has since expanded to video games and Noah Hawley’s upcoming series Alien: Earth), won an Academy Award, and inspired endless genre filmmakers. However, the movie itself wasn’t alone in impacting the future of horror. The renowned Alien teaser trailer has its own fanbase and is considered by many to be one of the best horror trailers ever. The teaser trailer, as seen below, promised viewers a terrifying experience in theaters while also serving as a mini horror short for fans to chew on for decades to come.

The teaser trailer impacted cinematic history much like the film, influencing other filmmakers and inspiring how certain elements are used in movie trailers, especially regarding sound design, repetition, and pacing. The Alien teaser also proved how clever editing can ratchet up a trailer’s tension and leave viewers wanting more.

A Feline Through Line Connects Flawless Editing and Sound Design

Jones, more commonly known as Jonesy, is the ship’s cat aboard the Nostromo, and he makes a significant appearance in the Alien teaser trailer. The ginger feline and the now famous siren sound synonymous with the franchise are used in repetition to build tension gradually. Roughly partway through the teaser, after the film’s title has been constructed, quick shots of the movie begin to flash by from various scenes. However, the trailer also begins to show a particular close-up moment with Jonesy, returning to the cat a couple of times before implying a possibly upsetting fate for Nostromo’s pet.

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The repetitiveness of Jonesy’s face in the back half of the trailer, in addition to the sound design, works in tandem to raise the tension of everything we are experiencing while witnessing — and listening to — the confusing events. The slow build then erupts into jarring disarray, with the sound feeling more intense as increasingly violent and chaotic images flash by. One of the first (and only) sounds we hear outside of the sirens is Jonesy’s growls and cries when the scene is carefully edited to indicate in the teaser that the cat is being attacked. Fans wouldn’t find out until seeing Alien that Jonesy is one of the movie’s lone survivors.

The decision to use Jonesy as a brief through line, in addition to the siren sound, careful editing, and loudly growing suspense that threatens to spill over but suddenly ends in silence, all pushed the Alien teaser trailer to iconic status. Furthermore, it helped that the unsettling and mysterious trailer revealed essentially nothing to audiences besides the promise of terror, space, and death.

The Alien Teaser Trailer Keeps Getting Re-Used

The more recent additions to the Alien movie franchise were eager to pay homage to the original teaser trailer by either largely remaking it or utilizing similar elements. During the initial marketing for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus project, the director was adamant the movie was not a prequel to Alien. He told BBC News the film was inspired by an unanswered question about the franchise’s mysterious Space Jockey, otherwise known as The Pilot, and that the story existed in a “new universe.”

Many audience members were unaware of any connection Prometheus had to the world of Alien until the reveal of the Xenomorph in the final shot (as fans have discussed at large, like in this Reddit thread). Still, fans of the first movie who were aware of the Alien teaser trailer with its siren sound would have known immediately upon watching the Prometheus teaser trailer that the 2012 film was indeed an Alien prequel of sorts — or, at least, in the same universe. The movie’s title is slowly revealed on-screen in a similar fashion to the original, and repetitive sounds are played over random, oft-disturbing shots from the film. Then, the same siren sound from Alien concludes the teaser in the final few seconds.

Alien: Covenant went a bit of a different route, though its official trailer still contains details reminiscent of the Alien teaser trailer. Specifically, the notable use of repetitious sounds, first with gentle piano notes before transitioning into more sinister tones as the suspense ramps up.

The return to the franchise in 2024 with Alien: Romulus brought fans a teaser trailer that immediately enthralled fans. The teaser brought back the classic Alien siren sound and disturbing imagery, as well as the terror of the unknown evocative of the 1970s trailer.

Components of the Alien trailer were also replicated in horror trailers outside the Alien franchise. Take, for example, the teaser trailer for A24’s It Comes at Night, starring Joel Edgerton (Dark Matter) and Wolf Man’s Christopher Abbott.

The official teaser relies on the same tropes of repetitive sound and unnerving visuals to support a steady pace until the buildup quickens and crescendos into a jarring mess of images. The trailer gets under your skin and sufficiently hooks the viewer’s curiosity.

The Alien Teaser Inspired Future Filmmakers

The first Alien film and its teaser trailer created a singular experience, undoubtedly inspiring the likes of James Cameron (Aliens), Paul W.S. Anderson (Alien vs. Predator), and Fede Álvarez (Alien: Romulus), who all continued the Alien franchise with their distinct takes. Some filmmakers, such as Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel, Thanksgiving), have credited both the trailer and movie as jumpstarting their desire to scare their own audiences one day.

“I’ll never forget this Alien trailer,” Roth told Deadline in 2018 about one of his favorite scary trailers. “To me, it was like a combination of Jaws and Star Wars, my two favorite films. The sound, the imagery, the way the camera moved across the terrain of this strange planet — it was the scariest trailer I had ever seen in a theater. After begging my parents to take me, I spent the last 10 minutes of the film standing in the aisle in a runner’s sprint, half-watching the screen, frozen, wanting to run but unable to look away. That was the night I decided I was going to make movies. I went out in the lobby and threw up and said, ‘I’m going to do this to other people.’ I was 8 years old.”

Alien is available to stream on Hulu.