> Source URL: /demos/alien-screenplay/alien.screenplay
---
title: Alien Screenplay Demo
description: A PathMX-native screenplay reading edition inspired by Alien, with one scene per block and links into a compact movie subgraph.
type: screenplay
---

[@screenplay-style]: ./screenplay.css
[@map]: ./alien.map.md

# Alien Screenplay Demo

This is a PathMX screenplay translation study using _Alien_ as the reference
work. It links into a compact movie subgraph while keeping each scene as a
navigable PathMX block.

The format reference is the [IMSDb early draft](https://imsdb.com/scripts/Alien.html).
Film metadata is cross-checked against [AFI](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53908-ALIEN)
and the [Writers Guild Foundation](https://www.wgfoundation.org/description/alien-1979).

<message>
This demo does not copy the screenplay wholesale. The scene prose below is
original/paraphrased demo text built to exercise screenplay formatting, links,
metadata, and play-mode beats.
</message>

---

title: Translation Contract
description: The screenplay conventions this demo maps into PathMX.

# Translation Contract

| Screenplay unit | PathMX shape | Why |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Scene | One block | Scenes become navigable cards and play-mode stops. |
| Scene heading | Direct child paragraph with `screenplay-scene-heading` | Keeps the beat visible to PathMX choreography. |
| Action | Direct child paragraph with `screenplay-action` | Reads naturally and can carry entity links. |
| Character cue | Direct child paragraph with `screenplay-character` | Preserves screenplay scanning rhythm. |
| Dialogue | Direct child paragraph with `screenplay-dialogue` | Keeps dialogue playable without custom parsing. |
| Entity | Linked PathMX source | Builds a movie subgraph from actors, objects, and places. |

---

title: Scene 1 - Wake Cycle
id: scene-1-wake-cycle
scene: 1
location: Nostromo - Hypersleep Vault
characters:
  - Ripley
  - Kane
  - Ash
objects: []

<p class="screenplay-scene-heading">INT. <a href="./locations/nostromo.location.md">NOSTROMO</a> - HYPERSLEEP VAULT</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The ship wakes first. Consoles glow in sequence, vents breathe out white vapor, and the crew rises into a silence that feels procedural until it feels wrong.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/kane.character.md">KANE</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-parenthetical">(testing his voice)</p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">We are early. Nobody wakes a crew early for comfort.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ripley.character.md">RIPLEY</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">Then we find the reason before it finds us.</p>

<p class="screenplay-action"><a href="./characters/ash.character.md">Ash</a> watches the instruments longer than the others. The pause is small enough to miss and large enough to matter.</p>

---

title: Scene 2 - Priority Message
id: scene-2-priority-message
scene: 2
location: Nostromo - Bridge
characters:
  - Ripley
  - Kane
  - Ash
objects:
  - Motion Tracker

<p class="screenplay-scene-heading">INT. <a href="./locations/nostromo.location.md">NOSTROMO</a> - BRIDGE</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The bridge lights come alive around empty space. A signal analysis crawls across the screens while the ship converts an unknown transmission into orders no one remembers agreeing to obey.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ash.character.md">ASH</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">The pattern is structured. It is not weather, not static, and not commercial traffic.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ripley.character.md">RIPLEY</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">Structured does not mean safe.</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">A portable <a href="./objects/motion-tracker.object.md">motion tracker</a> sits unused beside the navigation console. In this translation, it becomes a linked object: prop, interface, and future threat indicator all at once.</p>

<p class="screenplay-transition">CUT TO:</p>

---

title: Scene 3 - Surface Approach
id: scene-3-surface-approach
scene: 3
location: LV-426
characters:
  - Ripley
  - Kane
objects:
  - Facehugger

<p class="screenplay-scene-heading">EXT. <a href="./locations/lv-426.location.md">LV-426</a> - SURFACE APPROACH</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The landing party crosses a surface that refuses scale. Wind erases footprints as quickly as they are made. Every light beam finds another shape that looks manufactured until it looks organic.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/kane.character.md">KANE</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">If someone built this, they did not build it for us.</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">Inside the derelict structure, a field of dormant forms waits below the explorers. The future <a href="./objects/facehugger.object.md">facehugger</a> is still only an object in the frame, but the graph already knows it will become an event.</p>

<p class="screenplay-transition">SMASH CUT TO:</p>

---

title: Scene 4 - Quarantine Argument
id: scene-4-quarantine-argument
scene: 4
location: Nostromo - Infirmary
characters:
  - Ripley
  - Kane
  - Ash
objects:
  - Facehugger

<p class="screenplay-scene-heading">INT. <a href="./locations/nostromo.location.md">NOSTROMO</a> - INFIRMARY</p>

<p class="screenplay-action"><a href="./characters/kane.character.md">Kane</a> lies under medical light. The parasite covers his face with a calm that makes the room more frightened than screaming would.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ripley.character.md">RIPLEY</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">Protocol is not optional because the emergency is interesting.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ash.character.md">ASH</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-parenthetical">(without looking away from the specimen)</p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">Neither is survival.</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The <a href="./objects/facehugger.object.md">facehugger</a> changes the scene from discovery to containment. In PathMX, the object link gives the reader somewhere to go when the prop becomes the plot.</p>

---

title: Scene 5 - Search Pattern
id: scene-5-search-pattern
scene: 5
location: Nostromo - Service Corridor
characters:
  - Ripley
  - Ash
objects:
  - Motion Tracker

<p class="screenplay-scene-heading">INT. <a href="./locations/nostromo.location.md">NOSTROMO</a> - SERVICE CORRIDOR</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The corridor narrows around the crew. The ship that used to be workplace and shelter becomes a diagram of blind corners.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ripley.character.md">RIPLEY</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">Call out every movement. If the screen sees it before we do, we listen to the screen.</p>

<p class="screenplay-action">The <a href="./objects/motion-tracker.object.md">motion tracker</a> turns space into suspense: a dot, a pulse, a decision. It is a useful PathMX object because it connects blocking, interface, sound, and fear.</p>

<p class="screenplay-character"><a href="./characters/ash.character.md">ASH</a></p>

<p class="screenplay-dialogue">There are more signals than bodies.</p>

<p class="screenplay-transition">END DEMO.</p>


---

## Backlinks

The following sources link to this document:

- [Screenplay demo](/demos/alien-screenplay/index.path.llm.md)
- [Scene 3 - Surface Approach](/demos/alien-screenplay/characters/kane.character.llm.md)
- [Scene 1 - Wake Cycle](/demos/alien-screenplay/characters/ripley.character.llm.md)
- [Scene 4 - Quarantine Argument](/demos/alien-screenplay/characters/ash.character.llm.md)
- [Scene 4 - Quarantine Argument](/demos/alien-screenplay/objects/facehugger.object.llm.md)
- [Scene 5 - Search Pattern](/demos/alien-screenplay/objects/motion-tracker.object.llm.md)
- [Scene 5 - Search Pattern](/demos/alien-screenplay/locations/nostromo.location.llm.md)
- [Scene 3 - Surface Approach](/demos/alien-screenplay/locations/lv-426.location.llm.md)