Alien³
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- This article is about the film, for the video games of the same name see Alien³ (video game), Alien³ (SNES) and Alien³ (Game Boy).
| Alien³ | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | David Fincher |
| Produced by | Gordon Carroll David Giler Walter Hill |
| Written by | Characters: Dan O'Bannon Ronald Shusett Story: Vincent Ward Screenplay: David Giler Walter Hill Larry Ferguson |
| Starring | Sigourney Weaver Charles S. Dutton Charles Dance Paul McGann Lance Henriksen |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | May 22, 1992 |
| Running time | Theatrical: 114 min. Special Edition: 145 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50,000,000 |
| Preceded by | Aliens |
| Followed by | Alien: Resurrection |
| IMDb profile | |
Alien³ (sometimes pronounced "alien cubed") is a science fiction / horror movie that opened May 22, 1992. It was the feature film debut of director David Fincher. The third installment in the Alien franchise, it is preceded by Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens and is followed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien: Resurrection.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Having escaped from LV-426 after the disastrous Marine rescue mission, Ellen Ripley crashes on Fiorina 'Fury' 161, a penal colony inhabited only by men whose "double-Y" chromosome patterns mark them as extremely violent and dangerous offenders (an absolutely false scientifically discredited stereotype).[1][2] In order to rehabilitate — though there is really no hope of their release — the prisoners have embraced a fanatical apocalyptic, millenarian brand of religion led by Dillon (Charles S. Dutton). As inmate Morse points out, sexual relations (with either gender) are prohibited by this faith; Ripley's presence therefore has a disturbing effect on many of the prisoners.
Both Newt, the little girl Ripley bonded with as a surrogate daughter and rescued in Aliens, and Cpl. Hicks are killed off-screen in the crash landing. Only Ripley survives, with Bishop irreparably damaged, offline and discarded in a scrap pile. Ripley soon befriends and shares a mutual attraction with the penal colony's doctor Clemens (Charles Dance); Clemens is also a former inmate. The warden of the prison, Andrews, is skeptical of her tale and intimidated by her. Ripley remains anguished by the loss of Newt, who mysteriously drowned in her cryo-tube. Skeptical, she and Clemens perform an autopsy, only to find no evidence of an embryo. Ripley decides to break many of Andrews' rules that confine her to the infirmary, and shaves her head when informed of the prison's lice infestation.
During Ripley's rescue, a stowaway facehugger impregnates a dog (in the extended version it is not a dog getting implanted, but an ox. The dog is cut from the extended version, and is only used in the theatrical and original DVD versions of Alien³). During a eulogy for Newt and Hicks, who are cremated, a modified alien erupts from the dog's stomach. Ripley tries to thank Dillon and the others for their words, but Dillon angrily warns her to keep away.
Murphy, the dog's owner, is the first to find the fully grown alien. As he is cleaning, he is sprayed with acid and tumbles into a ventilator fan. Next, prisoners Boggs and Rains are killed. Golic survives their attack, but is driven insane. Ripley pleads with the warden for some sort of investigation or hunt. With no weapons at the facility, their only hope is the rescue ship coming to pick up Ripley, which may carry some sort of protection. Ripley's incessant urging bothers the warden as well as Clemens, who tells her where to find Bishop. Ripley finds the android in the scrap heaps of disposal. After being saved by Dillon during an attack from other inmates, Ripley gathers what is left of Bishop and takes him back to the infirmary. She hooks him up to the Sulaco's flight recorder to act as a channel. He tells Ripley that an alien was stowed away on the Sulaco. Bishop then asks her to disconnect him for good.
In the infirmary Ripley asks Clemens about his hinted past. He discloses his story before he gives her a shot. But suddenly the alien appears behind a curtain and kills Clemens. After "inspecting" Ripley, the creature disappears into the ducts with the doctor's remains. Ripley dashes to mess hall to alert the others. The warden is unmoved by her hysteria; he has little time to react before the alien snatches him from the ceiling, and alerting the rest of the inmates to its presence.
Ripley discovers that she too has an alien embryo, a queen, growing inside of her. She knows this is the true reason why a 'rescue' team is on its way, and the reason why the current Xenomorph will not kill her. Everyone unites in an attempt to kill the alien, and Dillon agrees to kill Ripley before the alien inside her can escape. After a failed attempt to trap the creature, resulting in several deaths, another plan is formed to kill the alien. With Ripley serving as a human shield, Dillon succeeds in trapping the alien in the lead mold by sacrificing himself. Morse and Ripley have time to pour the hot lead onto the alien. As the drenched alien attempts to escape, the fire sprinklers spray cool water over its heated body, shattering it just before the Weyland-Yutani team arrives.
The leader of the rescue team looks like Bishop, and claims to be the creator of the android. He attempts to persuade Ripley to undergo surgery to remove the queen-embryo. Ripley refuses, and Morse manages to steer her over to a fiery pit of molten lead. Bishop begs her to reconsider, but Ripley sacrifices herself for the future of humanity. The film ends with a sequence of shots showing the prison being closed down. The final scene is a shot of the escape pod playing the recording of Ripley's final lines in the original Alien.
[edit] Reception
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Upon its initial release the film was poorly received by critics of the preceding two films in the franchise. It was considered not to have advanced the story in any meaningful way, instead merely rehashing the first film's formula of a monster lurking in dark corridors killing off people one by one. This stood in stark contrast to Aliens, which presented itself as an action movie, establishing its own identity rather than trying to imitate what made Alien so successful.
Other unfavorable comparisons to Aliens were made, especially in the way Alien³’s large supporting cast of prisoners lacked any individuality, being perceived as little more than stock characters whose sole purpose was to be killed by the Alien. In Aliens, while many of the Colonial Marines could be considered stereotypes, director James Cameron still took pains to make most of them defined characters.
In later years, some fans of the franchise became more sympathetic to Alien³ as the story of its troubled production came to light. David Fincher was brought into the project very late in its development, after a proposed version with Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come) at the helm fell through. Fincher had little time to prepare, and the experience making the film proved almost agonizing for him, as he had to endure incessant creative interference from the studio.[3]
However, the film is still seen as a disappointment to some fans of the series as even the original script (with Ripley landing on a spherical space station inhabited by low-tech colonial farmers) still killed off Newt, Bishop and Hicks and still would have killed off Ripley (as Sigourney Weaver had grown tired of the franchise). Furthermore, a number of cast and crew associated with the series, including Michael Biehn and James Cameron, have expressed their frustration and disappointment with the film's story. Cameron, in particular, has called the decision to arbitrarily kill off Bishop, Newt, and Hicks "a slap in the face" to fans of the previous film and the characters. Biehn, upon learning of his character's demise, demanded and received as much money for the use of his likeness in one scene as he had been paid for Aliens.[4]
The bonus disc for Alien³, in the 2003 Quadrilogy set, includes a documentary on the film's production, but again, lacks Fincher's participation. Digitalbits.com posted a harsh criticism of this disc, pointing out that the studio had cut the documentary to delete a handful of behind-the-scenes clips in which Fincher openly expresses his anger and frustration with the studio. [5]
[edit] Special Edition DVD
An alternate version of Alien³ with over 30 minutes of additional footage was released on the 9-disc Quadrilogy box-set. Many fans and critics judge this version to be vastly superior to the original and some even regard it to be the "definitive" version of the film.[citation needed] Yet, Fincher himself, although giving 20th Century Fox his blessing in releasing this enhanced work print to DVD, was the one director from the entire franchise who declined to participate in the DVD set, even to record a commentary, as he is still reportedly deeply bitter about the experience.[citation needed]
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Sigourney Weaver | Ellen Ripley |
| Charles S. Dutton | Dillon |
| Charles Dance | Clemens |
| Paul McGann | Golic |
| Brian Glover | Andrews |
| Ralph Brown | Aaron |
| Danny Webb | Morse |
| Christopher John Fields | Rains |
| Holt McCallany | Junior |
| Lance Henriksen | Bishop II |
| Christopher Fairbank | Murphy |
| Carl Chase | Frank |
| Leon Herbert | Boggs |
| Vincent Nicoli | Jude |
| Pete Postlethwaite | David |
| DeObia Oparei | Arthur |
[edit] Writing
A very early script treatment was written by noted science fiction author William Gibson. At the time of his involvement, Sigourney Weaver "seemed doggedly unwilling to participate," so the main narrative focus became Hicks and Bishop. It is considered by many to be a superior script. The version available on the Internet is, according to Gibson, "about thirty pages shorter than the version I turned in. It became the first of some thirty drafts, by a great many screenwriters, and none of mine was used (except for the idea, perhaps, of a bar-code tattoo)." [1]
Other notable screenwriters to work on the project were Eric Red, David Twohy, John Fasano and Rex Pickett. The proposed scripts from all these writers can be found on the Internet.
[edit] Visual effects
The movie contains two CGI shots of the alien's head cracking apart and a brief scene of sunset shortly after Ripley is rescued. Other alien effects were created with suits, animatronics and rod puppets composited optically. In the Special Edition DVD, a shot of the Oxburster was completed using CGI.
[edit] Video game
The official licensed video game was released for multiple formats by Acclaim and Virgin Interactive, including Amiga, Commodore 64, Super Nintendo, Mega Drive and Master System. Rather than being a faithful adaptation of the film, it took the form of a basic platform action game,where the player controlled Ripley using the weapons from the film Aliens in a green-dark ambient environment.
[edit] References
- ^ Allanson, Judith E.; Graham, Gail E. (2002). “Sex chromosome abnormalities”, in Rimoin, David L.; Connor, J. Michael.; Pyeritz, Reed E.; Korf, Bruce R. (eds.): Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics, 4th ed., London: Churchill-Livingstone, pp. 1184-1201. ISBN 0-443-06434-2.
- ^ Milunsky, Jeff M. (2004). “Prenatal Diagnosis of Sex Chromosome Abnormalities”, in Milunsky, Aubrey (ed.): Genetic Disorders and the Fetus : Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment, 5th ed., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 297-340. ISBN 0-8018-7928-0.
- ^ Wreckage and Rape: The Making of Alien³ – Stasis Interrupted: David Fincher's Vision and The Downward Spiral: Fincher vs. Fox (Alien³ Collector's Edition DVD)
- ^ Wreckage and Rape: The Making of Alien³ – Development Hell: Concluding The Story (Alien³ Collector's Edition DVD)
- ^ Citicism of Bonus Disc. The Digital Bits. Retrieved on 2006-12-15.
[edit] References in other works
- In an episode of the animated Comedy Central series Drawn Together, Princess Clara has a vagina that appears to look like a cross between a snake and an octopus. While in a rage, the monster creeps under a door where the other housemates are hiding and hisses at Xandir and taunts him with its inner jaws.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Alien³ at the Internet Movie Database
- Alien³ at the All Movie Guide
- The Big Picture—article portraying Alien³ as an AIDS allegory in Issue 203 of Socialist Review, December 1996
- Alien³ script drafts - including proposed scripts by William Gibson and others
| Films directed by David Fincher |
|---|
| Alien³ • Se7en • The Game • Fight Club • Panic Room • Zodiac |
