Plot

The plot centers around a series of murders that take place in a Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 Desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

 near Groom Lake

Groom Lake

Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at elevation is ~ from north to south and from east to west at its widest point...

, Nevada that have been going on for two years.

The movie opens as a woman is chased through the desert by an unseen creature and wakes up, revealing this to be a nightmare.

Following this, a girl named Traci and her boyfriend Gibson are driving through the desert at night. Gibson keeps talking about Area 51, but Traci is only interested in reaching Las Vegas. In order to give Gibson incentive to shut up and keep driving, Traci takes her top off and straddles Gibson's lap while he is driving. because of this he runs over something and blows a tire out. Gibson gets out of the car to change the tire and immediately vanishes. Traci looks for him, but only finds his bloody tire iron. She runs back to the car, lights a cigarette and drives off. However, she soon is in an accident and is trapped by the seatbelt. The monster finds her cigarette outside the car and uses it to ignite the gasoline leaking from the car, setting the car and Traci on fire.

Several people are attacked at a small carnival, by an alien-like creature. This draws the attention of Dr. Cleo Browning(played by Phoebe Falconer) who is determined to stop it.

The story continues when an animal rights

Animal rights

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...

 activist Roxanne, and her boyfriend Albert, overhear Dr. Browning planning with Sheiff Sam Cash (played by Sean Galuszka) to kill the alien. Roxanne thinks that if they instead capture the alien they can reveal to the world what the government is doing to animals. In the meantime, three of the carnival workers, set out to find the alien and add it as a sideshow attraction.

Cash and Dr. Browning arrive at the house of Cletus (played by Matthew Christopher). Cletus speculates that the alien is living in some caves in the mountains. While they are in the house, Roxanne attempts to slash the sheriff's tires, with Albert acting as lookout. Unable to cut the tires, she looks for Albert's help, but is unable to find him. She after a short search she finds his body. She screams and starts to run away, but she too is killed by the alien.

The next day, Dr. Browning and Cash go searching for the alien. They find its "home", a small underground tunnel. Cash lowers Dr. Browning down on a rope. Browning finds and takes the alien's child, and sending it up to Cash. The carnival workers arrive and hold a gun to Cash's head, demanding the alien child. He gives it to them and they push Cash down into the tunnel.

Cash and Browning escape and return to the carnival. They interrupt the show and steal the alien back. They attempt to drive away but one of the workers shoots one of their tires. The carnies then lure Dr. Browning near the "Mother" alien, which had just arrived. Dr. Browning is attacked by the alien but is able to fight back. One of the carnies fight with Cash, eventually shooting him. Dr. Browning, in her fight with the alien, stabs it and the alien collapses to the ground. A woman carney asks Browning if the alien is dead. As she walks away she says it is. The carney bend sover the alien, which promptly kills her.

Response

Viewers' responses to Alien 51 are generally negative. Many viewers criticize the film for the acting, believability of the plot, and the dialogue.