Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver became a household name — and the embodiment of kick-ass, female strength — when Ridley Scott's Alien launched into theaters. The Academy Award-nominated sci-fi action hit follows one vessel's journey into space and the struggles it endures when it confronts a malicious, mysterious foreign life-form. Few films create the sort of stir Alien sparked, and even fewer sci-fi pictures impress us the way Alien so brilliantly does.