First interesting tidbit: the artist H R Giger, who designed the alien(s) does opium. Not so he can be inspired, but so he can escape from his own creations. Apparently they terrify even him.
Second interesting tidbit: Sigourney Weaver was nominated as best actress for her role as Lt Ripley in Aliens.
As for the movies, if you're more then a casual fan you need to get
Alien Quadrilogy. It has all 4 movies both in the original version as well as a SE or director's cut. Much more importantly is the inclusion of numerous hours of behind the scenes featurettes. If you sit and watch them you really can begin to understand how a low budget movie that no one thought much of scared the shit out of everyone, was followed by a big budget movie that is regarded as one of the greatest SF films ever made, and how it all fall apart due to studio pressures.
If nothing else you have to watch the featurettes on Alien 3 where Vincent Ward tells about his original script for Alien 3
The story takes place on a man made world inhabited by a group of monks. The world is a sphere approximately 3 miles wide and is virtually self sustaining. it has an atmosphere, farms, water and despite the obvious use of high trechnology to create gravity and maintain atmosphere, the monks are decidedly anti-technology. The EEV carrying the survivors of the Sulaco crash lands there and everyone is dead except for Ripley and one alien which had burst from Hicks or Newt.
When the monks see the alien, they think of it as the devil, and blame Ripley for bringing them face to face with it. They look at this as a spiritual battle as well as a physical one and if they can capture Ripley then perhaps they can defeat the devil himself. She is captured but escapes. The movie then pits 3 sides against one another, the alien, Ripley and the monks and although Ripley doesn't want to harm the monks they certainly want to kill her and the alien wants them all dead.
Being monks they have no weapons and there are battles in wheat fields (think scenes from JP II when the raptors snuck thru the large fields and took down the human prey...) as well in their churches and their wine making areas. Eventually the creature is trapped in the glass making equipment and is destroyed. Ripley, knowing she carries an alien as well, walks into a burning field of wheat to her own death, and that image is how the movie ends.
There's a LOT of issues with this, namely how can you have atmosphere on something only 3 miles wide? How does the technology work that allows this thing to move, (it's almost like a Death Star)? How can this "planet/space vehicle" be self-sustaining? The world is made from wood, so where do they get the wood from, and why is it made from wood? Also... there are several plot elements that involve intentionally setting fires. Fires on a planet made from wood. In space. I detect some problems there.
All of those issues aside, I love the concept. I love how this is no longer simply an action film or a tension/terror movie, but it operates on a seperate level psychologically. You can see how the basic concept made it thru into the final movie, but the entire tone and *meaning* is changed. The original script writer left and the movie actually started filming with David Fincher at the helm when the script wasn't even finished because it was still being re-written.
A lot of people hated this movie (and with good reason) but at the end of this I can't help but feel bad for everyone involved. The studio was dead set on a release date and kept proceeding despite the fact that they there was a revolving door of directors and writers and the simple fact is that it's amazing the movie didn't suck even worse.
What's truly telling is that these featurettes really give you a glimpse into what it was like making the movie, how things evolved (for example Ash being a robot was never in the original Alien script, that was an idea by a hack brought into to re-write it and it was the one brilliant thing he did apparently). What's missing is David Fincher. This was his first film and if there ever was a poster child for trial by fire this has to be it. Unfortunately he refused to be involved in the behind the scenes featurettes and it really is our loss. I can't imagine what he would say now about the experience, but I guess he figures "Best not to say anything lest I really say what I am thinking and piss people off" I can not imagine for a moment that he has anything nice to say about the executives at Fox.
Do yourself a favor and go get this collection. It's 9 discs and is worth every penny of the $49 it'll cost you on Amazon.