What happened to weapons?

I completely agree with you dallas! dallas!, why are allowing cats into space with their potential for taking over mankind in the first place! :p

Cats and horror movies defy all logic. It is an immutable law of nature, right there with objects in motion staying in motion. In a horror movie, one must never question a cat's ability to get people killed. My god, where would horror directors be without cats?

I presume the Pistol was dropped by Kane when he was facehugged. as such it would still be in the egg silo in the derelict

They wanted to herd it rather than kill it directly because they knew the first one bled acid. But Jonesy...hmm...I might have to go watch it again now lol.

No weapons used on the Nostromo because 1- guns can cause holes in the hull 2- acid blood, see 1. What do you mean Jonesy lying on the floor? Have I missed something? Damn, I don't want to pick up the DVD and watch it right now! :D

Disturbing...Most disturbing.

there was a BIG RED sign in the Nostromo that reads: [b]ATTENTION IN CASE OF ACID FOR BLOOD ALIEN ATTACK DO NOT USE FIREARMS BLOW IT TO SPACE INSTEAD! SAFETY FIRST, ANDROIDS LATER.[/b]

LOL!! I didn't see that sign myself, but it gets the point across!!! They were right about that too, when Ripley shot the Alien with the grapple, it did appear to bleed acid, but since it was being sucked out the acid did not damage the Narcissus. Also when they first started hunting it they thought they were looking for a little thing that could really run fast, and I remember my surprise and shock back in 1979, when it attacked Brett and how big it was!!. Don't forget Brett's quote when he demonstrated the cattle prod, that it shouldn't damage the little b*****d, unless his skin is thicker than ours, but it will give him a little incentive...(might not be the exact quote).

With all obvious entertainment value aside, fire is eminently more dangerous to the Nostromo crew because of oxygen depletion,liquid,solid and electrical based combustion, Class Delta fires that cannot be contained by normal methods,reduction of ship structural integrity,damage to shipboard systems and smoke inhalation. In the end only the cattle prods could have been used.

Yeah remember when Parker torches the remains of Ash, it seemed they just left the fire burning and that whole table and the area around it was all afire, I always wondered why they just left it burning, but at that point they figure they are going to take their chances in the shuttle so no point in putting out a fire that small if they are going to blow the whole ship anyway?

If a Bulk freighter "space"-frame(?) is anything like an airframe, it's extremely light and thin (our current spacecraft are incredibly thin). If a gun as we know it was discharged, it could easily penitrate every bulkhead and start an uncontrolled decompression. In space, this would SUCK (literally). That being said, I'd shoot that nasty B@Zt@rd and take my chances, acid and all. Perhaps if they could have isolated in the C-deck area (lower) they could have killed it there, sealed it off and limped home. Their plan didn't go so well and I'm not convinced a 2 second burst of flame would have stopped it before it incapacitated the user. Of course, they didn't know what they were dealing with until it was too late. Also, let's not forget it's just a movie and the crew had to lose. I was pulling for Dallas and Parker all the way though.

Id love to see someone put a hole in THAT hull.......space freighters dont need to be light do they? They live in space so defy the gravity laws. The hull can be 10 feet thick if they want.

Well, a 10 foot thick hull made of whatever kind of metal would have no weight in zero G, but it still has mass, mass that needs to be accelerated and then decelerated whenever the ship travels. Moving all that mass burns fuel, so they would construct the ship in the lightest way possible to do the job. Lighter ships means the company could move more ore/product for the same amount of fuel. As far as penetrating a hull, there have been frangible bullets available since the mid 1960's for use by Skymarshals onboard aircraft. They will do terrible damage to the human body, but will not penetrate the fuselage of an airliner. You would think that if the Nostromo had firearms, they would have a future equivalent of the frangible bullets of today. But, that goes back to the other problem of shooting an alien and having it's acid blood eat throught the hull... Besides, flamethrowers are more fun anyway!

The acid for blood is the major issue here. Assuming it doesn't manage to burn through the hull, what about electrical systems? Suppose you just wounded the thing, and it went tearing off, bleeding everywhere? What if the acid burnt through avionics, navigation, hypersleep control, reactor controls, oxygen systems, Mother subsystems, or anything else. They were months from earth, if hyperdrive was damaged, that could change to centuries! So, a lot of downsides to using firearms on the Nostromo - also the reason that instead of grabbing a pulse rifle at the climax of Aliens, Ripley used the powerloader.