Egg that hatched ‘Aliens’ gets its place in History

WASHINGTON — The egg that spawned the freaky facehugger creatures in the 1986 sci-fi movie “Aliens” has a new home -- in one of the nation’s premier museums.

Sigourney Weaver, who starred in the movie, presented the 100-pound silvery-grayish egg to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Wednesday, along with an original script and several still photos from the movie.

“It’s a great honor for our movie,” Weaver said. “I also think that people will get a big kick out of getting that close to an egg without a facehugger jumping out at them.”

The 3-foot-tall egg doesn’t look nearly as frightening as it does on the big screen. It will eventually be displayed with other movie memorabilia, such as the ruby slippers Dorothy wore in “The Wizard of Oz” and Harrison Ford’s jacket and hat from “Indiana Jones.”

The 1979 thriller “Alien,” directed by Ridley Scott, launched Weaver’s career. She then starred as the extraterrestrial-slaying heroine Ellen Ripley in three more “Alien” movies -- “Aliens,” “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection.”

And she is talking to Scott about reprising the role.