"Alien" is an important film for the science and SF buff. There are some important philosophical points made there, perhaps without the artists who made the film even realizing it. This is what I got out of it.

"Alien" put to bed forever the cutesy "ET" or "Close Encounters" alien. There will be things in space that come straight from our nightmares. The alien's life cycle is not that different than many terrestrial parasites, and biology will be a part of any chittering horror we may encounter "out there". Except they may have technology, or a highly advanced intelligence. We have to be ready to meet something that may be hostile to us, or perhaps even worse, totally indifferent.

But what I mostly got out of the movie is that even if we do run across such horrors, we must go out there and confront them. There is a risk, but to fail to take it will be racial cowardice of the highest order. As a species, we cannot afford not to go looking for the alien. It will be a Darwinian disaster on our part, and a spiritual suicide.

Could you respect a species or a civilization that was able to leave its planet and refused to do so?