How ‘Alien: Romulus’ Cinematographer Filmed Iconic Chestburster Scene

The cinematographer behind Alien: Romulus has revealed how he captured the terrifying chestburster scene in the movie without “one frame of CGI.”

Alien: Romulus is the latest installment in the science fiction movie franchise that began with Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film Alien.

As well as being considered one of the most influential science fiction and horror movies of all time, Alien has become famed for its iconic and terrifying chestburster scene.

In the standout sequence in Scott’s original movie — which has been described as one of the most shocking scenes in cinematic history — Kane (played by John Hurt) starts choking and convulsing during a final crew meal aboard a commercial starship.

A small alien creature, called a Xenomorph, then horrifically bursts from Kane’s chest, killing him and invading the ship.

The latest film, Alien: Romulus, pays homage to the famed chestburster scene in the original Alien movie. Likewise, in Alien: Romulus, a chestburster violently emerges from the body of space shuttle pilot Navarro, who is played by Aileen Wu, killing her.

Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez told Entertainment Weekly that “there’s not one frame of CGI” in the chestburster sequence in the movie and described filming the scene as similar to “the best theme park ride.”

Now Alien: Romulus’ cinematographer Galo Olivares has shared more insight into how they filmed the new movie’s gruesome chestburster scene.

Making The Chestburster Scene Look and Feel Real

In an interview with Variety, Olivares reveals that the entire chestburster sequence took over a week to shoot. The cinematographer says he spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the sequence look and feel real.

He tells the publication that he captured Navarro’s fate on Arri aspherical lenses.

“We started with wider lenses, but as the movie goes on we started going tighter and tighter,” Olivares says.

“I don’t usually use longer lenses, so my longer lens was 75mm at some point. The aspect ratio was 2.39:1 on the aspherical lens.”

With Alien shooting on anamorphic lenses and the 1986 sequel Aliens on aspherical, Olivares and Álvarez settled on a combination that they felt was “the perfect balance” visually to plant the film where it belongs in the franchise between those two films.

Lighting

Without using CGI, Olivares explains that executing the scene was a complex task especially as all the filming took place on a set of the cockpit of the Corbelan ship. The set was built to scale to make everything look as real as possible.

As a result, only 10 people were able to work in the confined space on the set, including Wu and the chestburster puppeteer and Wu.

According to Variety, the Alien: Romulus set was built on a gimbal to depict the out-of-control effect of the space shuttle being on a collision course with a space station.

Olivares also designed a large lighting rig outside that had to function for all the scenes taking place on the shuttle. The cinematographer says that the rig was connected to a console that offered endless possibilities to light the film.

“We had the best gaffer Krisztian Paluch who did Dune and Terminator,” Olivares tells Variety.

“The Corbelan crashes, all those lights were not going to be there at the end of the scene, but we started shooting, and it was like, ‘You can’t take this out.’ It gives this frenetic thing. In the end, we loved it.”