History YMMV / Alien

** "Lambert is transgender." This theory is based on a piece of fluff text (which may not have been meant as canon in the first place) from her profile in the sequel stating she had a sex change as a baby, but the only context it gives is that there may be "suppressed trauma related to gender alteration", which makes it sound more like a botched circumcision like David Reimer rather than anything close to the modern conception of gender identity. Furthermore, the notion of Lambert being transgender wasn't intended while making the first film since it conflicts with ''another'' set of profiles created by Ridley Scott himself that lists all the crew as either "Male [Natural]" or "Female [Natural]", implying transgender people are common in the future but that Lambert isn't one of them.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: While Creator/SigourneyWeaver as Ripley is the lead character and Creator/TomSkerritt as Dallas is the Creator/DecoyProtagonists, several other characters and performances have gotten high praise:

** Many, even professional film critics, will insist that the Alien kept getting bigger throughout the film, kept changing and was never the same shape twice, or both. It obviously grew from the relatively-tiny Chestburster to the human-sized adult (and the Facehugger could be counted as a different form of the same creature), but only one adult Alien costume was made and, for the most part, only one actor wore it. This most likely comes from the subtle way Ridley Scott filmed the Alien, drawing focus to different bits of it each time its seen and never really letting you take a good look at it. When the adult first appears to kill Brett, the focus is quite obviously on the NestedMouths. The second time, when it grabs Dallas, the focus is on the arms and claws. The third, when it attacks Parker and Lambert, pays a lot of attention to the tail, using it to [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom smack Parker across the room]] and...whatever it was doing to Lambert. It's only when Ripley's finally all alone with it in the shuttle that you see all these elements together, but still only in quick cuts that never linger. But the suit and actor were the same every time the Alien was shot, its size and design is consistent from the first appearance of its adult form to the end of the film. (A stuntman wore the costume rarely, notably for the Alien's final demise of hanging off the back of the shuttle and getting blasted by the engines, but excepting scenes where a stuntman was necessary, Bolaji Badejo was the only one in the Alien costume.)

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: In a cross with MisaimedMarketing: Kenner had huge profits with ''Franchise/StarWars'', so they got the rights for licensed toys on the next Fox sci-fi movie. [[http://www.plaidstallions.com/kenner/alien.html Ooh boy]].

* MisaimedMarketing: The Alien is one of the creepiest, most disturbing and most sexual monsters ever invented and most of the films of the series contain enough gore and horror to scar some kids for life. Yet, it hasn't stopped them from being merchandised, both as toys AND plush aliens and ''chestburster'' aliens. The Creator/{{Kenner}} toyline had such variations as Bull, Mantis, Crab and Jaguar aliens, making it one of the few toylines based distinctly around BizarreAlienBiology.

** Creator/IanHolm's eerie performance as the cold, manipulative Ash put him on the map as one of the UK's best classically-trained character actors.