“I never acted inappropriately towards Ms. Lambert.” -Xenomorph

I had always assumed that the Alien killed Lambert in a suggestive way to fuel the overriding themes of the film, but that it's primary desire was not sexual in nature and that any violations that may have transpired were not "rape" as in a conscious act of sexual aggression, but simply an act of lethal brutality. The Xenomorph drone is never seen to sexually reproduce in any of its film appearances.

Veronica Cartwright is so underrated and always delivers a strong screen presence. She was phenomenal in this.

that crabwalk made me really uncomfortable

That scream is honestly the best/worst noise I've ever heard in a horror movie. I can't imagine what the fuck was happening to her because I've never heard anyone make a noise like that before. Whether her death was sexual or not, it was definitely excruciating and creative.

Most disturbing scream in film history.

I always thought Lambert was violated because the alien was made from Caine and Caine clearly had some affection for her. As the aliens hold some genetic memories it may have had some desire for her as Caine did. Imho

Lambert's screams followed by the alien roaring then silence always scares the hell out of me.

I feel like Lambert was the punching bag of the movie. Each script had A different, more brutal death for her like geez give the poor girl A break!

I read a theory that Kane had romantic feelings for Lambert. And since the xenomorphs adapt a part of their hosts' DNA, it was suggested that the alien not only did that but also adapted even emotional traits... This could mean that Kane's alien had similar feelings for Lambert. That's why it engaged in a sexual way... Sounds interesting for sure.

Any fear and discomfort I felt as a result of the Alien and this theory can be easily neutralized by watching that crab walk.

I have always believed she was just killed by tail impaling. However this theory does hold some ground.

Grateful for the reminder of how great Veronica Cartwright is in this, the fear in her voice, the way her face contorts with fear in that almost childlike way, she was a big part of the impact of this movie when I first saw it, made it so visceral

The screams go on for a longtime, that along with her not having any pants on afterwards seems clear Lambert was violated. Ridley's commentary on the Alien being attracted to Ripley when she was in her underwear supports this. It is also implied throughout the series that the Aliens enjoy sadistically causing harm to everyone even there own.

If you have read the comic novel of alien, you would see how the alien uses his tail like that on Brett but it uses it to push through his back while it grabbed his head and chewed him up. I believe that’s what happened to Lambert.

I think it's absolutely great that the movie left this ambigious. You just see some small glimpse of what might have happend which leaves a lot of room to your imagination. Movies particularly horror movies, don't do this anymore today, or well only rather rarely.

I wish they would do a sequel to Alien: isolation

When I first heard about this theory a while back, I actually had to rewatch the scene because I totally thought she was still wearing her pants and shoes. When I saw her bloody legs I was like "Huh....theory might have credibility!"

I actually did a blog about this subject on Xenopedia and honestly, I don't think Lambert was reailly "Raped", Xenomorphs can detect pheromones from their prey and other Xenomorphs, and the scent of their prey's fear when confronted may determine the behavior and hostility of Xenomorphs when they attack. When a Xenomorph senses that their victims are terrified, they may perform excruciating, bloody kills while cleaner, faster kills take place when the prey either doesn't notice the Xenomorph or is less aware of its presence. I also just so happen to know that while playing specimen 6 in AVP3 (2010), one of 6's Attacks/kills involves shoving her speared tail up your victims asses and the spear tail exits the mouth, so with that, I can finally conclude that Lambert, given the position that she was in, was giving off alot of fear and the Alien, sensing that fear, kills her in an excruciating way by shoving It's speared tail up Lambert's Vigina and slowly up her mouth, where doing so, lifted her body upwards and the collar of her shirt got caught on the chains and her cowboy boots fell off. And because the Alien's tail was making its way up Lambert's mouth slowly, Lambert felt every agonizing pain going up her body, which would explain all the screaming. The Alien then runs off leaving behind the bodies of Parker & Lambert. But hey, that's just what I think happened to Lambert personally -\_( "/ )_/- I could also just be bias as I view Xenomorphs as All female even though I know they're asexual, but still, I really don't think lambert was "Violated" so much as I think she was just killed in slow and painful way because of the fear she gave of... But again, that's just what I think happened Personally

I like to think that the Xenomorphs tail crept up her back in order to pull her towards it. But having the Xenomorph violate her makes it much more terrifying. And for the reason she is hanging I like to think she was hanging out of the ventilation shaft from getting pulled in.

Lambert's death exemplifies what's so beautifully horrific about the first film; the most awful, horrifying things in this story are left unexplained. The scene with Ripley running down the hall, finding the corpses of her teammates and reacting, was beautifully ambiguous. With just a small glimpse of the corpses, we see it all in Ripley's face--what could elicit this level of horror? Whether by design or circumstance, whatever the hell was happening to Lambert was left completely unexplained so in a sense Ridley Scott was employing the Val Lewton technique of horror. Leaving it up to our imaginations was so much more awful than explaining it to death. And I'm certain that this would not be allowed to play out the same way today; modern horror is so dumbed down, so played to the lowest common denominator (I'm looking at you, "The Conjuring") that studios would never allow this level of ambiguity to remain intact in a modern release.

Here's my hot take of the day: Alien is scarier for adults than it is for kids. To a kid this is just a horrible monster killing people. As you get older though, you start to see more and more of the implications behind the Alien and what it does. Not only do you feel terror, but revulsion at what it does that creates a pit in your stomach prompting a binge watch of funny cat videos after the fact to forget about it.

Lambert's scream was one of the first things heard by the emerging fleshy alien. Does it possibly recognize her? Are there identifyable electro-bio waves given off by mammals that allows the aliens to distinguish? Later movies where an Alien spares Ripley provides enough evidence that they do have senses beyond conscious human senses.

You've brilliantly covered all the angles here in this video . But even before KZfaq came along, I always believed the alien raped & killed Lambert. There are sexual undertones everywhere because the whole movie was born out of an idea of an alien screwing an astronaut, which happens via the facehugger effectively raping Kane to reproduce & violently gives birth from him, there are phallic symbols all over the alien itself, its head shape & inner jaw, Lambert is the first woman it attacks but studies her intensely first, the fact that she's transgender may intrigue it, the tail seemingly venturing into her genital area, the implied sexual grunts, presumably naked with blood running down her legs. It all spelt rape to me. Plus a monstrous alien vaginally raping a human woman on screen would cause incredible furore even today, much less in 1979, so no wonder they did it off screen.

See now this is what fascinated me about the Alien, the talk of violation, the darkness of it. It's much more disturbing than anything that came from later movies and this is one reason why Alien is my favourite of the original trilogy. This was a time when the whole thing was shrouded with mystery....

Holy crap did anyone else catch that Parker’s body is in a lotus position? I doubt that he did it himself when his head got chomped which leaves the Alien as the culprit. I don’t know if it arranged his body like that to mock Ripley, but if it did that’s chilling…

I personally think it put it's tail inside of her. It's heavily implicated both by the director and the film itself. You can actually hear Lambert breathing like she is in lamas class before she really starts screaming. Considering how much HR Giger and Ridley Scott fought for many of the images of Giger's work on the film to actually make it into the film I would have to say that a full on shikibob rape/murder would have been too much over the top for the studio and the censors to take. So all you see of Lambert is her naked legs dangling and dripping blood from unseen wounds. Subtle and tastefully done in my opinion.

I’m assuming the Alien killed Lambert with its tail by penetration but I don’t necessarily see it as an attempt at reproducing... Definitely think her death was different from Parker’s and Brett’s (teeth to the skull), hence why it’s offscreen

I would like to compliment you on your scripting/dialogue. I am not an expert, but you don't appear to "take sides", just reporting as you see it. I understand more of "story" now, rather than just another Sci-Fi whatever. Thank you.

Never thought you'd get around to this one.

@alientheory I enjoy all your videos but this one is especially good. I've seen Alien I don't even know how many times but have never noticed these nuances/themes. Thanks for bringing them to light. Its a dark, cringy subject but you handled it very well with your script and voice over. Kudos my dude. Looking forward to more!

Dat crab walk tho was very telling.. It was almost as if for the first time the Alien was taking on a submissive role. Maybe in the presence of an Alien Queen (a dominate figure) the drone would behave in a submissive manner. Think, Prey Mantis or Black Widow mating, the male is the submissive one. Never seeing a female before, perhaps the Alien initially was following some genetic behavior to act in such a manner around a female.

In the Alien3 novelization, you've mentioned, there's an exact descripion of Ripley's nightmare being raped by Alien. A nightmare is being worse because (as the author writes) in the cryosleep, human body significally slows down it's processes, so dreaming a nightmare can take a months or years... She later expains to Dillon that embrion of the alien queen is different, so it needs a different "enviroment" to grow. So... Lamber could have been raped by Alien as well. It seems to be a common behavior for that species, however we know nothing about it from Aliens. Neither the film, neither novelization. Good work as usual my friend.

Hey man, just found your vids. I'm liking them. Your voice and the way you tell it is dark and chilling. Excited to watch more.

In the novel there's a part where it says "when Parker sees what the alien was doing to Lambert it almost made him go mad" 😐

Even when I watched Alien the first time and saw this scene, something in the back of my mind always told me Lambert had been, in some way, violated just from the way the tail slowly wrapped around her leg alone. Legit one of the darkest and scariest scenes of the franchise.

Like the idea that this is the first female, the alien encounters. Whether it notices through different pheromones, or not , I’m not sure, the idea that it wants to ‘investigate’ this different human, but ultimately discards her when it realises, she cannot reproduce, is particularly brutal. The crab walk with the tail extended is very creepy!!

The phallic positioning of the tail in the deleted crab walk sequence in Alien reminded me of the rape scene from the movie Splice. Both of which made me very uneasy and a bit nauseous.

That was a hellavu "explaining video". After 43 years, never knew/heard any of this. Thanks for the upload!

Great video. I believe that Lambert was brutally killed by the Xenomorph off screen. We can only imagine how exactly it killed her by her horrific screams.

Of all the iterations mentioned here, my favourite is that the Xeno tried to procreate with Lambert by having sexual intercourse with her, but once it realized that she didn't have a proper female reproductive system, it killed her, because any humanoid on the ship was a potential threat. And then it didn't try to kill or try to reproduce with Ripley at the end of the movie because it knew she was its only chance for Survival. It needed a human pilot to maintain and navigate the ship. Impregnating her would potentially kill her during the birthing process.

Listening to her scream when she gets killed still gets to me

In an interview with starlog magazine, Veronica Cartwright stated that she believed that Lambert was in fact raped by the alien, which is why she was shown naked from the waist down, that the alien’s intent was to mate with her not kill her, but being human she didn’t survive the interaction thus killing her and possibly impregnating her, giving more of a reason for Ripley to blow the ship….and her struggle over the speakers kinda suggests it in a way

Is it possible that Kane had a thing for Lambert and the alien inherited similar to what was portrayed in Reserection

You sir are a scholar. Your research is extensive and compelling. Thank you so much for this.

darkest and scariest sound in movie history

I really wish that crab walk scene was left in, IT'S SO CREEPY!!!(I love it)

I don't consider Alien 3 as Canon. It's like Neil Blomcamp said: it's just a very bad dream some of the Survivors of Aliens have in Hypersleep.

This kind of thing is what makes the first Alien so great. There is so much to talk about, so many unanswered questions, so much mystery....it's why I love it so much. I don't care so much for the prequels as they take away some of the mystique imo. This death has always disturbed me the most, I love how the Alien is in no hurry at all and just studies Lambert for a bit before... well... we'll never know. But we hear it. Pure brilliance

When I first saw Alien, my thoughts went in that direction but I didnt want to share it with anyone, partly because i didnt want that to be the true case. There are alot of rough ways to go...and that is definitely under the top 5.

I respect how you don't push one theory over another and you directly reference the editing tricks done to bring Brett's death scene earlier to complete this last one.

Thank you so much for all the different perspectives on the scene. Only true Alien fans will know what this means.

The Xenomorph has to make a banger of an apology for this one.

The Xeno has Harvey Weinstein tendencies

"There's nothing in the film, novelization, or story boards to support this theory, but we're going with it anyway."

After watching all the various alien incarnations, I've come up with this personal theory; You have a Queen, laying eggs, when there's a queen. When a drone's alone, it tries ANYTHING to procreate, (that's it's only purpose when it's by itself separated from a queen) and since it's birth host was human, and it has human dna incorporated within it, why would it not attempt to violate Lambert? The alien takes on the characteristics of each host to some extent, perhaps these characteristics get past along, (including ones that involve procreation) from one generation to the next - from every host it's race has encountered - literally giving it limitless ways to procreate. You have egg morphing one moment - then you have the predalien implanting eggs down the throat of pregnant women the next. When there's a queen, it's back to egg laying. Each time, adding something to the species, ensuring the next generation's survival. BTW - LOVE your channel.

Aren't xenomorphs supposed to be hermaphroditic without genitals. ? Also a good vid to scare you before bedtime

Sexual tension was very common HG Gigers art, so it wouldent suprise me if that was the main idea for that scene

Awesome beginnings with the sounds!!

Awesome video dude

Nah. I don't think this theory holds up personally. I'm pretty sure that, of the Xenomorphs could procreate that way, the Alien franchise would be a very different series. ...Like a series that would only show up on Pornhub. I also think the xeno raping Lambert would too overtly sexual. This series has always bee more subtle than that.

Revisiting this i have one huge piece of evidence: In nearly all encounters, the number of Xenomorphs VASTLY outnumbers that of human hosts. If strictly only one xeno can be birthed per host, this raises the question where do these other potentially hundreds come from? A special "breeding" xenomorph? Perhaps the nest is more than we think and functions like the Zerg of Tyranids, creating genetic copies from broken down biomass? Or, the option no one wants to talk about; a secondary, non lethal life cycle using the natural reproductive cycle of the xenomorph's original host species?

Woo , Oh Yeeah , Love your work !

An interesting video. The opening sound is nicely done.

You get to see Lambert's dead body in Alien Isolation: Last Survivor. She still has clothes on and it's not as bad as you can imagine. As the game is considered semi-canon, would have been nice if you included that.

After Alien: Isolation, now for Alien: Violation.

Great job!

1:08 I could never make out exactly what I was seeing of Lambert and Parker's bodies in the film, this photo however paints a much more sinister image as to how they were killed.

There is a comic that actually shows what happens to her. The Xeno uses the tail and stabs it in her back, pushing her towards it. It then tears her apart.

Then cameron came along and threw all the things that made the alien unique and chucked it out the window

If the Xeno really did try to impregnate her, wouldn't she need to live through the encounter so the alien inside her could survive? That's why Ripley wasn't killed in Alien 3 and what what was later done in Aliens as well. The 'cocooning' process made more sense but since that part was ultimately cut, I think Scott edited the film in a way to show how the Xeno's could reproduce... at least in theory but it still wouldn't answer my question of how it could survive through a dead host.

great video man

I thought it was this from the first time I saw it. Also you’ll notice that the shot of the leg is not Lambert’s, it is Harry Dean Stanton’s character (sorry drawing a blank,) it was very intentional that they inserted the shot.

Felt lambert was the one that things were most unfair to. She never wanted any part of it, she wanted to bug out every time, she wanted to leave. She was still killed. The alien either killed her violently or dragged away, glued to the walls waiting for a face hugger

I really enjoy this channel.

For 40 years I thought that the limb swinging in the foreground of that shot was Lambert's bare arm. Not her leg. It made sense to my eyes and Lambert was seen a little earlier rolling her sleeves up. But when I finally realized what I was looking at. It freaked me out!! Lambert was indeed sexually assulted. Her pants and socks...and shoes!! were gone.

I wonder, How many Newtons of Force Is a Headbite?

03:38 Yes, struggles often cause one to lose their pants, shoes, and socks. Happens all the time.

Narrator's is so calm and collected, comfortable to listen 🙂

great video most of the stills i never seen before, i think the alien wanted to examine lambert as a curiosity

One thing I find strange about Lambert's personal history is the whole sex reassignment idea. From the short bit of research I did into it, the sources imply that this procedure was performed at or shortly after birth. Perhaps the movie meant that she was born intersex/hermaphroditic instead, with her parents requesting surgery to remove the male features? Or perhaps in this dark future, it's not uncommon for parents to alter the sex of their child at birth to fit their own desires for their children. Whatever the case, it's a strange yet interesting detail. Anyhow, great and informative video here!

Lambert's death disturbs me the most.

I remember reading the alien 3 novels by ADF. and I am sure in that Ripley describes a dream where she remembers being violated by the alien....where she at first thought it was a dream, she realizes its a memory

Youre fantastic at these breakdowns!

Wow I'd have been incredibly impressed with what she said was the original version. There's something very Cuthulu about the Xenos. Very "Shit we weren't meant to know". It would have truly driven that idea home, AND been a darkly thematically appropriate end to the character, had she hidden, successfully, only to LITERALLY die.... Of FRIGHT. Imagine Ripley finding her. No blood. No wounds. No pulse. Just what used to be Lambert, face and eyes locked in a rictus of overwhelming existential horror.

I always believed that the alien did, or perhaps had ever intention of violating Lambert, but perhaps it realized that Lambert was not a "true female" due to the gender modification mentioned in the special features.... Perhaps it realized this after removing Lambert's clothes and in a fit of.... perhaps the closet thing the Alien can feel to rage, the Alien killed the now nude Lambert...who really knows? Now this doesn't really explain why Lambert is hanging from the ceiling in the movie.... But it's fully possible that the scene could imply that the Alien was still there climbing into an air vent and the corpse of Lambert was still stuck to it's tail... Or Lambert's body got caught on some cables when the Alien discarded it.

Talk about synchronocity, was wondering why you haven't done a video on her death!

Another masterpiece ❤️

I think the original idea during primary photography was the alien violently tried to force her into an air duct and was only partially successful. There may have been for instance a snag or other similar problem. The sequence in my head is: impale, drag to vent in the wall, pull her partially through, pelvis gets stuck (perhaps the vent prematurely closes), and the alien either rips her torso off due to it’s strength or then head bites her. The dangling legs are what remains visible out of camera. The alien can’t easily get back to the scene because the vent is blocked. I favour this over the rape theory because it’s more consistent with the Alien’s goals. At this point in the overall production and cannon the crew’s organic matter is used to produce more eggs (like the derelict -- “I wonder what happened to the rest of the crew”). Live or dead doesn’t seem to matter as in the case of Brett vs Dallas. It would make sense to eventually use both Parker’s and Lambert’s bodies. Also the stills clearly show that they wanted to convey lambert hanging or dangling from something. Alien isolation tries to represent this with lambert bent backward over a crate but this is not consistent with the film footage because of the way her feet are dangling. My two cents and I think there are many ways to interpret this scene. I’m glad Rawlings and Ridley left it ambiguous and suggestive. What you don’t see off camera is truly horrifying. As a side note, I definitely think they made the right choice in rejecting the “dying of fright idea.” The alien would tear that locker door off in seconds.

You forgot to mention the infamous shower scene in Alien: Covenant. But this is what I wanted to know.

Nice review ...good stuff

I never got that impression from watching Alien but I did get that impression from the shower scene in Alien Covenant, which was a similar scene with the tail coming up under the couple.

I believe that lambert was killed as a result of the alien trying to get her to its nest through it's way of moving around...the air ducts. Maybe she suffered major trauma because she didn't fit along with the alien as it tried to pull her thru, and that's why it left her, but either way it was probably an awful death as she was frozen with fear.

Seriously thought the title said "Lambert's vacation" at first.

Even as a young teen when I first watched Alien I was left unnerved by that scene as I knew that it didn't just kill her as it was not like the other attacks we had seen were it quickly overpowered and bit them in the forehead.... It took its time with her and seeing her pantless and seemingly slumped over the fuel canister trolley when Ripley finds the scene pretty much confirmed the violation to me at least

Possibly the scariest part of the film for me. Ripley's shudder when she sees their bodies feels so realistic, so primal. It felt like watching a snuff film for a second.

Ok, here's a theory for everyone, this accounts for lambert being trans. The alien mistook lambert as female and wanted to rape or breed with her but found out she's trans and the alien killed her the most viciously and most painful way as punishment for not being a true female, meaning no womb. The idea the alien is a metaphor for a serial rapist killer or maybe a true female gives better warriors or breeds a certain type or maybe since the alien came from a male host, it wanted to rape a female. Just my 2 cents.

Happy Valentine's Day Lambert. Love Xeno.

Great video now I can't sleep.

Pretty interesting and gruesome Alien Theory episode !