Tossup
Description acceptable. The first shot of this in-film location’s exterior was originally intended to resemble an inverted Gothic cathedral. Ubiquitous images in this location include glyphs from a “Semiotic Standard” with red outlines and an image that costume designer John Mollo adapted from a temple carving of the wings of Horus. Brian Johnson designed this location’s exterior from sketches by Chris Foss and Ron Cobb, who created a name displayed in this location by combining the name of a defunct British auto manufacturer with his Japanese neighbor’s surname. A director’s belief that gift shops are everywhere inspired a set of toy drinking (*) birds in this location. This was the first film location that a director named in homage to the author who inspired his debut, The Duellists. Roger Christian’s aircraft scrap dressing for this location was inspired by the slogan “truckers in space.” For 10 points, the Weyland-Yutani corporation owns what vessel whose crew encounters the Xenomorph? ■END■
ANSWER: Nostromo [or the spaceship from Alien; accept vessel, ship, tug, rig, or spacecraft in place of “spaceship”; prompt on the set of Alien by asking “which large portion of the set?”; accept specific subsections like the infirmary or cockpit of the spaceship from Alien; prompt on Narcissus by asking “of what larger location is that a part?”; reject “the planet from Alien”] (Johnson used spare R2D2 leg parts from his work on Star Wars to design the clamp that attaches the refinery to the Nostromo. The wings of Horus motif inspired the logo of Weyland-Yutani, whose name was inspired by British Leyland and Ron Cobb’s neighbor with the surname Yutani.)
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= Average correct buzz position
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