Parker’s final line in Alien is a little hard to understand, leading viewers to hear several different versions. The original cut of Alien was a little bloodier and gorier than the one that hit screens. For example, the death of Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) was longer and featured the titular monster crushing his skull first before dragging him away. While the creature suit in Alien looks fantastic, director Ridley Scott opted not to show the monster in profile much, as it would only highlight it was still just an actor wearing a costume. Another scene that got heavily trimmed was the deaths of Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright).
As originally filmed, the Xenomorph made a more elaborate entrance and crawled along the floor like a crab toward Lambert before standing up. Parker was also due to have a longer fight sequence with the Star Beast, with the monster finally crushing his head before killing him with its inner jaw. The sequence was heavily trimmed both for pacing and to avoid gore, but Parker’s garbled final line has led to some debate among admirers of the original Alien movie as to what he’s actually saying.
1 “Goddamn You!”
In his final moments in Alien, Parker is trying to save Lambert from the creature, but she’s too paralyzed by fear to move. After a struggle, the alien pins Parker to a wall, where blood is streaming out of his mouth. Just before he’s killed by the creature’s inner jaw, Parker yells out, but the blood in his mouth makes his words a little unclear. Many viewers have interpreted it as “Goddamn you!” and given his persona, this would be a fitting final line from Parker to the monster that’s killing him.
As YouTuber Alien Theory points out, there’s some evidence backing this one up. In the official screenplay for Alien, Parker’s final line really is “Goddamn you,” though this is said when he’s fighting the monster. In Alien’s novelization by Alan Dean Foster, Parker yells “Goddamn you!” to the creature, while the Alien graphic novel adaptation has a paraphrased reading of the same line. Again, it’s very in keeping with Parker’s personality to curse out the alien, so it makes sense some viewers would interpret his final words that way.
2 “Get Out Of The Road!”
Some viewers of Alien instead hear Parker’s last words as “Get out of the road!” While the muffled delivery might make it hard to decipher, it’s probably safe to assume that’s not what Parker is saying. In space “no one can hear you scream” and there are also no roads to speak of, and unless Parker was so terrified in his final seconds that whatever he was trying to say came out totally wrong, he’s unlikely to warn Lambert (or the alien) to step off a road in that particular moment.
3 “Get Ready To Roll!”
Just like “Get out of the road!” Parker’s final Alien dialogue has been translated as “Get ready to roll!” This sounds like an oddly casual line to drop as Parker is literally staring death in the face, so it’s safe to discount that reading of Kotto’s line too. The only way it could work is if he’s trying to motivate Lambert to get moving, as he knows once the beast kills him, it will quickly move to her. “Get ready to roll!” might have snapped her out of the mortal terror that gripped her, but sadly, she wasn’t able to overcome her fear and became Alien’s final victim soon afterward.
4 “Get Out Of The Room!”
Aside from “Goddamn you!,” many hear Parker’s last words as “Get out of the room!” This appears to be the official reading too, as the subtitles for most editions of Alien read it this way. Parker knows he’s already doomed, so it makes sense his last moments would be spent pleading to Lambert to get out while the creature was still distracted. Kotto was known for going off script during filming, so he likely improvised many different readings of Parker’s last words, but making a plea to Lambert to run away feels fitting. In the original screenplay, Parker was supposed to suffer a different demise.
In a storyboard Ridley Scott himself drew for Alien, the creature was to sneak up behind Parker and grab him. A terrified Lambert would then raise her flamethrower and burn Parker to death trying to hit the alien instead. In a movie filled with disturbing deaths, the dual demise of Parker and Lambert still hits hard. The former has been shown to be one of the most capable members of The Nostromo – having previously taken down android Ash (Ian Holm) – but even he proved almost powerless against the creature. Lambert’s palpable terror and her agonized screams the monster kills her off-camera, make for one of Alien’s most nightmarish moments.
Source: Alien Theory
