How smart was the Alien?!

Good question, though in the end i think ridley scott and dan o'bannon Might just wanted to have that as the "Surprise" showdown between ripley and the alien. i dont think that the alien understood What mother said.

Smartness requires a lot of conciousness, and like Ash said, the Alien is not irritated at all by useless thinking about other things than fulfilling it's task to survive. So I always thought the Alien is mainly driven by it's instincts - it just senses where the prey is and what to do in order to survive. Since Ripley was the last prey to hunt for it followed her actions and knew where Ripley wanted to go. It didn't need to understand mother. Not sure if there is a lot of smartness involved to take the life boat - it may be just good instincts. Rats are leaving a sinking ship, too and while being able to work and interpret information better than other animals to survive, I wouldn't call rats "smart". (Don't hurt me rat lovers ;-)) )

If the xeno's are created from humans or robots then it would make sense that they have some conciousness. My theory has been for a long time that the Engineers are in trouble with breeding and use Shaw to make babies..... (not that I blame them). I also believe that there will be a lot of genetic smarts handed over through DNA. This seems to happen with the Xeno's whether it be instictual or conciousness. I know certain fractions on here don't like to link any of the other films to Alien (I love all of the films - warts and all, and get annoyed by people picking at them), but the Xeno's must have been smart to turn off the electric and navigate safely past the robot guns to the marines, but also pretty dumb not to find Newt.....

@BellaisanAlien Smartness transfer via DNA? Good point! (not for robots, but for biological lifeforms). But passing the robot guns in Aliens was not so smart. It wasn't like one Alien showed up, got shot and the others learned from it. Many Aliens died in the gunfire before they came up with trying another route. Not that smart, eh? Outsmarted by Newt, too, yes. Shutting down the electric was not necessarly a smart thought, maybe they just felt like destroying something...

In aliens. Ripley says "They Cut the Power" Hudson replies "How Could they cut the power man their animals". I believe they have some form of intelligence. Mostly Instinct but smart enought to cut power, avoid turrent guns and find another way in to its Food and More hosts for the Queen.

The Aliens are as smart as they need to be

If you are able to, freeze one of the stills from the Director's cut of the movie ALIEN at the 1 hour -- 33 minute -- 09 second mark. I could be wrong, but if you look closely as Ripley is working frenetically to shut down the Nostromo's primary cooling systems, you can see on the other side of an enclosing observation window what appears to be the silhouette of the Alien creature watching intently Ripley's actions. One of the many mysteries surrounding the Alien creature as implied by the story of the film is that despite its formidable anatomical structure and fierce predatory nature, it might have been a sentient being whose intelligence was greatly underestimated by the crew of the Nostromo. I think it was able to connect the dots as to what might be transpiring in the utter chaos of the moment and was smart enough to follow Ripley's intentions as to making an escape vis-a-vis the Narcissus life-boat/escape shuttle. Just my $0.02. Cheers

Well you can't have this debate without inevitably drawing comparisons between the films in the anthology. Clearly, the creature in Alien is only really matched in intelligence by the Queen from Aliens. In Alien, we see a 'natural survivor', biding its time to systematically divide and conquer the outnumbering human crew. In Aliens, the Queen knows how to operate elevators, so no doubt could also work behind a bar pulling pints. Every other alien depicted was just a grunt. Anyway, I for one am not of the opinion that the alien in Alien understood that the mother ship was about to be blown up and took refuge in the Narcissus. Instead I think the noise and smoke and instability caused by switching on the self-destruct mechanism ushered the alien into the nearest, quiet and peaceful abode available, which was the liferaft craft. And just to add, I think the fact that it allegedly raped Lambert and toyed with Parker also indicates intelligence of sort because these acts were unnecessary and served no utilitarian purpose - to me it was merely indulging its sadistic curiosity, which is a derivative of cognition.

BioMechanoid - Regardless of whether you are right or wrong mate, the idea of what you are suggesting seriously creeps me out. The idea that the Alien is simply lurking in the background, quiely observing, trying to comprehend and waiting for its chance is much more in line with the original creatures method anyway. Much much scarier than gangs of marauding Aliens anyday. I am going to check out the Directors cut later so will try and spot what you are referring too.

very very smart, It knew and understiood it's own life cycle enough to know it had 4 days and on day 4 stuffed itself into the Narcisuss DELIBERATLY TO DIE...and not to fight with Ripley... which was consequencial to that.

also and just FYI, it was suggested in the Video game Alien VS Predator for the PS3 that they{The Xenomorphs} use Sonic technology as well as Thermal technology to track their prey, incuding heart beat identification and resonation identification.