In Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror film Alien, the crew’s commercial spacecraft is called Nostromo.
The Nostromo is a commercial towing vessel operated by the fictional Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Its seven-person crew is transporting a refinery cargo of mineral ore back to Earth when the ship’s computer, Mother, redirects it toward a mysterious signal.
The name pays tribute to Joseph Conrad’s 1904 novel Nostromo, which is set in a fictional South American country. Alien’s spacecraft names draw heavily on literary and industrial sources, helping the film’s future feel used, commercial, and lived-in rather than sleek and heroic.
Viewers sometimes confuse the Nostromo with the Sulaco, the military ship featured in Aliens. Prometheus is the research vessel in the 2012 prequel, while Covenant is the colony ship in Alien: Covenant. The original film’s ship remains one of science fiction cinema’s most recognizable settings.