"Alien"

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who encounter the eponymous Alien, a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.

Alien premiered May 25, 1979, as the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival, presented in 70mm at midnight before receiving a wide release on June 22, and was released September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with critical acclaim and box-office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations. It has been consistently praised in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science-fiction genre, and as the 33rd-greatest film of all time by Empire.

The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver's acting career, providing her with her first lead role. The story of her character's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, which includes Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). A prequel series includes Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), both directed by Scott.

The commercial space tug Nostromo is on a return trip back to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash, and two engineers, Parker and Brett. Detecting a transmission, the ship's computer, Mother, awakens the crew. Company policy requires any potential distress signal be investigated, so they land on the moon, sustaining damage from its atmosphere and rocky landscape. Parker and Brett repair the ship while Dallas, Kane, and Lambert head out to investigate. They discover the signal comes from a derelict alien ship and enter it, losing communication with the Nostromo. Ripley deciphers part of the transmission, determining it to be a warning, but cannot relay this information to those on the derelict ship.

Meanwhile, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large, egg-like objects. When he touches one, a creature springs out, breaks through his helmet, and attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. As acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash overrides her decision and lets them inside. Ash attempts to remove the creature from Kane's face, but stops when he discovers that its blood is an extremely corrosive acid. It later detaches on its own and is found dead. The ship is partly repaired, and the crew lifts off. Kane awakens with some memory loss, but is otherwise unharmed. During a final crew meal before returning to stasis, he chokes and convulses. A small alien creature bursts from Kane's chest, killing him, and escapes into the ship.

The crew attempts to locate it with tracking devices and capture or kill it with nets, electric prods, and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat Jones into a landing leg compartment, where the now-fully-grown alien attacks Brett and disappears with his body. After a heated discussion, the crew decide the creature must be in the air ducts. Dallas enters the ducts, intending to force the alien into an airlock, but it ambushes and kills him. Lambert implores the others to abandon ship and escape in its small shuttle, but Ripley, now in command, explains it will not support four people and says they will continue the plan of flushing out the alien.

Now with access to Mother, Ripley discovers Ash has been secretly ordered by the company to bring the alien back, with the crew deemed expendable. She confronts Ash, who tries to choke her to death. Parker intervenes and clubs Ash, knocking his head loose and revealing him to be an android. Ash's head is reactivated, and they learn he was assigned to ensure the creature's survival. He expresses admiration for the creature's psychology, unhindered by conscience or morality, and taunts them about their chances of survival. Ripley cuts off his power; as they leave, Parker incinerates him.

The remaining crew decides to self-destruct the Nostromo and escape in the shuttle. Parker and Lambert are killed by the creature as they gather supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence, but finds the alien blocking her path to the shuttle. She retreats and attempts unsuccessfully to abort the self-destruct. With no further options, she makes her way to the shuttle and barely escapes as the Nostromo explodes.

As Ripley prepares for stasis, she discovers that the alien is aboard, having wedged itself into a narrow space. She puts on a spacesuit and uses gas to flush the creature out. It approaches Ripley, but before it can attack, she opens an airlock door, almost blowing the creature into space. It manages to hang on by gripping the frame. Ripley shoots it with a grappling hook, but the gun catches as the airlock door closes, tethering the alien to the shuttle. It pulls itself into an engine exhaust but Ripley fires the engines, blasting the creature away into the depths of space. After recording the final log entry, she places Jones the cat and herself into stasis for the trip home to Earth.

Arista Records

Arista Records, Inc. (/əˈrɪstə/) is an American record label owned by Sony Music, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by Bertelsmann Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis. Along with Columbia Records, RCA Records and Epic Records, Arista is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels.

After being fired from CBS Records, Clive Davis was recruited by Alan Hirschfield, CEO of Columbia Pictures, in June 1974 to be a consultant for the company's record and music operations. Shortly after his hiring by CPI, Davis became president of Bell Records, replacing the departing Larry Uttal. Davis's real goal was to reorganize and revitalize Columbia Pictures's music division. With a $10 million investment by CPI, and a reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix, Colgems, and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures's new record division, Arista Records, in November 1974. ultimately owning 20 percent of the company. The label was named after Arista, New York City's public secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member at Erasmus Hall High School). In early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, except David Cassidy (left for RCA Records), Tony Orlando and Dawn (left for Elektra Records), and the 5th Dimension (departed for ABC Records). Others, such as Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate, were farmed out to the Bell/Arista-distributed label, Big Tree. Several Bell acts, such as Barry Manilow, the Bay City Rollers, and Melissa Manchester continued with Arista. The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista. The label was immortalized in the 1978 Rockpile song "They Called It Rock," in the lyric, "Arista says they love you/But the kids can't dance to this."

In addition to Outlaws, Patti Smith, Eric Carmen, Air Supply, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Alan Parsons and Dionne Warwick, Arista signed Aretha Franklin in 1980, after her long relationship with Atlantic Records ended. The label's most significant acquisition came in 1983 when Davis signed Warwick's cousin, Whitney Houston. Houston would eventually become Arista's biggest-selling recording artist, with sales of 200 million records worldwide, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Arista had an imprint label in the 1970s called Arista Novus, which focused on contemporary jazz artists. It distributed two other jazz labels, Arista Freedom, which specialized in avant-garde jazz and, until 1982, GRP Records, which specialized in contemporary jazz and what came to be known as smooth jazz. A country music division, Career Records, was merged into the Arista Nashville division in 1997. Arista Austin was used in the late 1990s as a country label. Additionally, Arista was the North American distributor of Jive Records from 1981 until 1987. During the 1990s, Arista also distributed Logic, Rowdy and Heavenly Recordings.

Looking to stave off bankruptcy, Columbia Pictures sold Arista to German-based Ariola Records, a unit of Bertelsmann, in 1979. But after Arista lost $12 million in 1982, Bertelsmann sold a 50% interest in the company to RCA Records in 1983. In 1985, RCA and Bertlesmann merged their music operations to form RCA/Ariola International; RCA owned 75% and Bertlesmann owned the remainder. After General Electric absorbed the RCA Corporation in 1986, GE sold off various RCA assets, including all of its interest in RCA/Ariola to Bertlesmann, and it was renamed Bertelsmann Music Group, though Arista's U.S. releases would not note BMG until 1987.

Into the 1980s, Arista continued its success, including major UK act Secret Affair. Over the years it acquired Northwestside Records, deConstruction Records, First Avenue Records, and Dedicated Records in the UK. In 1989, Arista entered into a joint venture with Antonio "L.A." Reid and Babyface in the creation of LaFace Records, record company of Toni Braxton, Usher, and TLC, which it acquired in 1999. In 1993, Arista also entered into a joint-venture with Sean "Puffy" Combs to form Bad Boy Records. In 1997 Arista acquired Profile Records, the home of Run-D.M.C. and Poor Righteous Teachers.

In 1989, Arista signed Milli Vanilli, a duo consisting of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan that was based in Germany. The label released its debut album, Girl You Know It's True, which was a remixed and re-edited version of All or Nothing, which had been out in Europe the previous year. The album was certified sextuple platinum in the U.S., and charted five top-ten singles, three of them reaching the number one position. In 1990, Milli Vanilli won two American Music Awards and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Carol Decker, lead singer of the band T'Pau, was interviewed after their performance on MTV and said that Milli Vanilli had used a Synclavier and were not singing. Later that year, Frank Farian, Milli Vanilli's producer, said that the duo hadn't performed a single note on their album. This revelation caused a firestorm in the music industry, as recording artists, particularly bubble-gum pop acts that heavily relied on electronic processing and over-dubbing (what they referred to as "studio magic"), were now under scrutiny and subsequently forced to cut back on lip-synching to show that they were authentic. Milli Vanilli's Grammy Award was subsequently revoked. Clive Davis promptly released the duo from its contract and deleted the album and its masters from their catalogue—making Girl You Know It's True the largest-selling album to be deleted. A court ruling in the U.S. allowed anyone who had bought the album to get a partial refund.

In response to the scandal, Arista's position was that the company had been completely unaware of Morvan and Pilatus having not themselves recorded their album. In a post-debacle interview, Morvan defended himself by saying, "[Before Milli Vanilli] I was working at a McDonald's. What would you have done?"

At the end of 2000, following its 25th anniversary, BMG pushed Davis out as label head and promoted L.A. Reid as its new President and CEO. Under Reid, the label had success with newer acts such as Avril Lavigne, Pink and Adema, as well as legacy acts like TLC and Usher. Reid, however, seemed to lose focus when it came to promoting its established acts such as Whitney Houston, who had been the label's biggest seller over the years. Reid's extravagant spending, meanwhile, caused the company to lose money. After the formation of the joint venture of BMG and Sony Music Entertainment (the former CBS Records) in 2004, Reid was let go. Arista, always an independently managed front line label at BMG, was merged with J Records in August 2005 and began operating under the newly formed RCA Music Group—of which Davis had become CEO, and thus again became in control of Arista. The Arista label continued to be used for new releases, although heavily scaled back, while its reissues are released through Sony Music's Legacy Recordings. Also, as a result of the Sony-BMG merger, Arista once again became related to Columbia Pictures, which is fully owned by the Sony Corporation of America (through Sony Pictures Entertainment) - who would buy out BMG's share in 2008.

After L.A Reid left for Def Jam over at Universal Music, Arista began to operate weakly; while at the same time the label began losing numerous artists, original Arista acts such as Avril Lavigne were moved to RCA Records, at the same time LaFace Records was revived, this time operating under the JIVE Label Group. The revival of LaFace caused most or if not all of its original acts to return to the LaFace label, acts such as Pink, Usher, YoungBloodZ, TLC, Kenny Lattimore, and Chante Moore.

During the summer of 2011, the RCA Music Group underwent a restructuring that saw the elimination of the Arista name later on that year, along with sister labels Jive and J.[6] RCA Records started releasing all RCA Music Group releases under RCA Records.[7][8][9] Arista Nashville continued to operate through Sony Music Nashville and was not affected by the closing of Arista Records.

Arista Records France was founded in September 2012, making it initially the last active remnant of the label.

In July 2018, Sony Music revived Arista as a frontline label, making it the fourth flagship record label alongside Columbia, RCA, and Epic. The company has hired former Island Records president/CEO David Massey to lead Arista.