Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece hunted by a Xenomorph. In 2003 — nearly 25 years after the original's premiere – Ridley Scott released the director's cut of Alien, which changed several important scenes.

The complete version of Alien's director's cut with a few extra scenes was never released, but a different director’s cut from Scott about the same length as Alien's theatrical version was released instead. Scott's director's cut remains fairly similar to the Alien theatrical cut, but certain differences have made it viewers' preferred watching experience for the sci-fi/horror film. Here's a breakdown of all the changes made to the theatrical version in Ridley Scott's Alien director's cut, and which Alien cut is better.

Alien Director’s Cut Changes Explained

The 2003 Version Of Alien Is Shorter

Scott felt adding in all the originally deleted scenes for Alien's director's cut made the film too bloated and ruined the pacing, so he went back and actually removed parts of Alien's theatrical release to make some room for the new shots. In the end, the Alien director’s cut runs about a minute shorter than the theatrical version, with the majority of the changes — bar two significant scenes — being slight variations of existing sequences from the Alien theatrical cut. Many of the changes seem to reflect a desire to give modern audiences an updated cut with quicker pacing.

Fans often point out Alien's long tracking shots are meant to shore up the atmosphere of isolation and grandiosity of space. Alien's director’s cut shortens a lot of them, forgoing subtle tension for getting to the action a little faster. The two new Alien director's cut scenes do provide interesting changes to the storyline and lore of both the film and franchise. In the first, Ripley explicitly makes the call to keep Kane locked out of the ship after he is attacked by the facehugger.

This sets her up as a strong-willed, sensible protagonist, a role that Sigourney Weaver’s character doesn’t actually fill in Alien's theatrical cut until later in the movie once Dallas gets killed off and it’s revealed she is the actual hero. The second crucial new scene in the Alien director's cut shows Ripley discovering the Xenomorph nest in the ship where it appears Dallas and Brett are being transformed into eggs.

As far as the Alien franchise's lore is concerned, that’s not part of the life cycle of the Xenomorphs, especially after seeing James Cameron’s Aliens. Since it’s an originally deleted, non-canon scene, it’s more of an interesting curiosity than anything else.

Which Version Of Alien Is Better

The Theatrical Cut Of Alien Remains The Best

Ultimately, the director’s cut of Alien doesn’t drastically change much. Even Ridley Scott himself considers the Alien theatrical release the true version of the film and representative of his vision for it. The Alien director’s cut is an interesting bonus made specifically for a collector’s box set containing alternate versions of the other movies in the franchise, but isn't superior. When considering the continuity change of Dallas and Brett's Xenomorph transformation, it may be better in the long run for viewers to watch Alien's theatrical cut when understanding the logistics of the franchise.

However, the Alien director's cut boosts the pace and action of the original film, which makes it tonally closer to James Cameron's Aliens. Considering Ridley Scott is partial to Alien's theatrical cut and the new version didn't add or detract much, the original cut is better, especially since there weren't many changes necessary to the film in the first place. The only significant change in the Alien director's cut was shortening the tracking shots and some longer sequences, whereas it can be argued that the tracking shots in Alien's theatrical cut were necessary to build the isolated conflict with suspense.

How Director Ridley Scott Looks Back On Alien's Production Journey Now

Creating The Original Alien Was A Saga

In 2003, Ridley Scott was approached by 20th Century Fox with the opportunity to release a new cut of Alien as part of the then-definitive DVD box set of all the franchise's movies. Scott is no stranger to alternate cuts of his famous films, with Blade Runner having multiple cuts over the years, but the director has so far only made two cuts of Alien. He initially intended to use Alien's director's cut opportunity to restore scenes left on the cutting room floor for fans to enjoy, where Scott would place them among Alien's theatrical version for a more complete edition of the film.

Looking back on the production of Alien, it is not surprising that he takes the opportunity to do some tinkering and adjustments even after all these years. As iconic as the movie was, Scott re a lot of problem-solving on the go when filming and he often had ingenious solutions that helped to make Alien the classic that it became.

Looking back on the production of Alien (via THR), Scott re looking at the design of the Nostromo landing leg and deciding it wasn't big enough. Instead of using the adult actors as he planned, Scott dressed three children who were on set, two of whom were his own kids, as astronauts and "Suddenly, the leg looks 80 feet."

Even the iconic chestburster scene in Alien did not go off without its difficulty. Scott had the idea to not let the rest of the cast see the design of the monster until it emerged from John Hurt's chest in the scene. However, when the scene started, Scott quickly saw a problem as the fake alien burst yet didn't come through Hurt's shirt.

Ridley Scott cleared the Alien set to maintain the surprise and explains his hands-on fixing of the problem as "I’m razor-blading the T-shirt so it will pop when the alien hits the back of the T-shirt. We went again. And it was perfect." With bumps along the road of his production, it seems Scott could still look back on Alien and see more fixes to make.

Alien Isn't The Only Entry In The Franchise With Multiple Versions

Aliens, Alien 3, And Alien Resurrection All Have Directors Cuts

1979's Alien kickstarted a franchise that's still going strong almost 50 years later, with the most recent entry being 2024's Alien: Romulus. While not every installment has seen alternate versions released, the first three movies following Ridley Scott's original — Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection — all have extended editions. For all three films, the non-theatrical cuts feature new footage and deleted scenes, though none (with the exception of the Alien 3 Assembly Cut) change their respective movies quite as much as the Ridley Scott Alien directors cut.

The Aliens: Special Collectors Edition cut was released in 1991, and adds a full 17 minutes of footage to the runtime of James Cameron's Alien sequel. Most of this footage is of Ripley and the various other human characters, adding plenty of additional dialogue to the action-heavy sci-fi. A notable new sequence shows the survivors of the LV-426 colony trying to hold off against the incoming tide of Xenomorphs using automated robotic sentry guns. It's intensely action-packed and helps humanize the tragedy of what happened to LV-426.

The extended version of Alien 3 is known as the Assembly Cut, and was released in 2003 as part of the Alien Quadrilogy box set. The runtime has been increased by an impressive 37 minutes, including the removal of 7 minutes of footage from the theatrical cut. It's a significant reworking of the movie, and adds a few notable subplots that weren't in the theatrical release. Notably, it's also the only alternate version of an Alien movie that wasn't created by the original director, since Alien 3's David Fincher had no involvement.

The Alien Quadrilogy box set also includes the special edition of Alien Resurrection. In comparison to the hefty overhaul that Alien 3 received, the extended version of Alien Resurrection only adds 7 minutes to the runtime. Much like James Cameron's special edition of Aliens, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection director's cut mostly extends moments of dialogue between the characters. It's unknown whether there will be a director's cut of Alien: Romulus, though it would definitely please fans if there were following the franchise tradition Ridley Scott's reworking of Alien started.