They decided against showing the ladies topless during the awakening?

Meh, I’m guessing they just happened to not be in the shots they ended up using. It’s a circular structure and some characters weren’t going to be as on screen as others.

Also, the film initially tricks you into thinking Ripley is a minor character and that John Hurt was the lead, so there was an agenda to keep the focus on Hurt and away from the likes of Ripley.

That's too bad. I love Alien, but would have appreciated the eye candy there. Particularly from Veronica Cartwright.

Why do they always make a big deal about showing the nipples with these topless shots? Like "what difference does it make!?" They're not really censoring anything (they do the same thing in anime). Like, what!? "Milk me?" As my best friend would say 😁

UPDATE: On my most recent watches of the movie I actually did spot Sigourney or Veronica during the awakening lying topless (save for the white band covering her nipples). It's when Kane (played by John Hurt) is getting up out of his chamber, to his right you have Ash (Ian Holm) and to his right you have Ripley/Lambert.

Can't believe I never noticed a topless woman in this flick over all these years, I'm quite eagle eyed about these things. It's because Kane is the focus of the shot and the only one moving, he draws your attention whilst one of the ladies is lying motionless of to the right of the screen.




From looking at the images I posted in the OP. It would seem like it's Veronica Cartwright who is to the right of Ian Holm, at least in those BTS stills. The ordering could have been swapped about during several takes.

If you watch/listen to the director's commentary, Ridley Scott says they shot the scene both ways--clothed and unclothed--but for "obvious reasons" they had to go with the clothed take (against his wishes). I assumed he was referring to the film's rating when he said "for obvious reasons" but the movie's already rated R so I don't really get that reasoning. It's not like the movie would've suddenly jumped to an X rating simply because of some tits and flaccid penises. Or am I wrong? God, Americans are prudes. SNAP OUT OF IT!

I believe in the recent "Making of Alien" book it was decided against showing the topless female crew because in certain more religious countries they'd risk a higher rating.

It should be noted that in many countries film age ratings prohibit anyone at all underage from attending, where as MPAA ratings generally still allow underage patrons if they're accompanied by an adult. Also in some countries ratings are determined by a government censor board while MPAA ratings are a film industry self-regulation (as in you're not actually breaking any laws or anything if you violate them), so there are places that take ratings a lot more seriously.