Bishop (Aliens)
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| Bishop 341-B | |
|---|---|
 Bishop, as portrayed in Aliens. |
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| First appearance | Aliens |
| Last appearance | Alien 3 |
| Created by | James Cameron |
| Portrayed by | Lance Henriksen |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Bishop |
| Occupation | Officer onboard the USCM spaceship Sulaco |
| Title | Executive Officer |
Bishop 341-B is a fictional character from the science fiction films Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992), portrayed by actor Lance Henriksen. In both films Bishop is an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. In Alien 3 Henriksen also plays a character named Bishop II who claims to be the android's designer. In Alien vs. Predator (2004), which serves as a prequel to the Alien series, Henriksen plays Weyland Industries CEO Charles Bishop Weyland.
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[edit] Fictional background
Bishop is a "synthetic" (he indicates in dialogue that he prefers the term "artificial person"),[citation needed] an android assigned as executive officer to the Colonial Marine vessel Sulaco. Like other synthetics, Bishop possesses strength and hand-eye coordination superior to humans, as shown by his ability to stab a knife in between his spread fingers at high speeds. He does not engage in combat, however, instead acting as a medic and tending to other support functions of the mission. Bishop made his first appearance in Aliens when the Sulaco was ordered to investigate the loss of contact with a terraforming colony on LV-426, with Ellen Ripley serving as an advisor on the mission.
During the events of the previous film, Alien (1979), Ripley was attacked by Ash, another android that was commissioned on her ship the Nostromo as a science officer. Ash had been ordered in secret to bring back the Alien life form at the expense of the crew and ultimately had to be destroyed by the Nostromo's crew. Due to this experience Ripley is at first disturbed by Bishop's presence, but comes to accept and trust him through the events of Aliens.
[edit] Aliens
The team of Marines from the Sulaco, along with Ripley, Bishop ,and a company executive set down on LV-426. Ripley first notices that Bishop is a synthetic when he cuts his finger and some of his lubricating fluid leaks out, and demands that Bishop stay away from her due to her experience with Ash, even though Bishop reassures her that Ash's model was flawed and that his programming does not permit him to directly harm or let any harm come to a human being through his own inaction. After arriving on the colony where the Aliens have killed almost all of the humans, Bishop's calm, selfless bravery throughout the crisis gradually wins Ripley's trust. Bishop saves Ripley and Newt from the Alien hive by piloting their dropship out of the exploding atmosphere processing station, but upon landing on the Sulaco he is ripped in half by the Alien queen that had attached itself to the dropship. When Ripley opens the airlock to expel the Alien queen into space, Bishop is able to save himself and Newt by grabbing onto a vent in the floor with one hand and holding onto Newt with the other. Afterwards he is placed in hypersleep on the Sulaco with the rest of the survivors so that he may be repaired later.
[edit] Alien 3
In the opening scene of Alien 3 (1992), a fire onboard the Sulaco causes the four survivors from Aliens (Ripley, Bishop, Newt, and Corporal Hicks) to be launched in an Emergency Escape Vehicle (EEV) while still in hypersleep. Ripley is the only survivor when the EEV crashes down on Fiorina "Fury" 161, the site of a penal colony. The prisoners indicate that Bishop was smashed beyond repair, but he makes a brief appearance when Ripley finds his remains and partially repairs his speech and memory functions. He reveals the events that followed the conclusion of Aliens, including that an Alien facehugger was aboard the Sulaco and that a fire was the cause of the passengers being ejected. He then asks Ripley to disconnect him permanently, saying, "I can be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again. I'd rather be nothing."[citation needed] Ripley complies with his request.
[edit] Bishop II
In the final scene of Alien 3, a squad of Weyland-Yutani soldiers arrives to retrieve Ripley and the Alien queen gestating inside her. With them is a man identical to the android Bishop (also played by Lance Henriksen and listed in the film's credits as "Bishop II"). Though Ripley at first believes him to be another android, Bishop II claims that he is in fact the man who designed the Bishop series, sent by the company to show Ripley "a friendly face."[citation needed] When prisoner Morse is shot in the leg by one of the soldiers, Mr. Aaron ("85") attacks Bishop II with a monkey wrench, calling him a "fucking android".[citation needed] Though the theatrical edition of the film is not clear on whether the character was human or an android, the "Assembly Cut" released with the Alien Quadrilogy boxed set in 2003 shows Bishop II bleeding red blood and groaning in pain, with a flap of ear and skin hanging from his face. Reeling from the injury, he reasserts that he is human by screaming, "I'm not a droid!".[citation needed] This portion, however, was cut from the theatrical release of the film.
The 2004 film Alien vs. Predator cast Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland, CEO of Weyland Industries. Though Henriksen had previously declared in the commentary track of Alien 3 that Bishop II was human,[citation needed] he later went on record, along with Alien vs. Predator director Paul W. S. Anderson, to clear up the matter, stating that Bishop II was an android.[citation needed] However, Alan Dean Foster's Alien 3 novelization gives Bishop II the name "Michael Bishop" and clearly indicates his status as human.[citation needed] He is also listed as human in the shooting script of the film.[citation needed] Due to the conflicting sources and implications, the question of whether the Bishop II character is a human or an android remains ambiguous at best.
[edit] Alien vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator (2004) features Henriksen in the role of Charles Bishop Weyland, the founder and CEO of Weyland Industries. He and his team conducted a search inside an ancient pyramid under the ice of Bouvet Island after the company's satellites detect a heat source there. It is later revealed that Weyland is terminally ill and views the discovery of the pyramid as his last chance to make his mark on history. He is eventually killed by a Predator while attempting to distract the creature from pursuing the rest of the team.
[edit] In academia
Bishop (often in contrast to Ash) has been the subject of literary and philosophical analysis as a high-profile android character conforming to science fiction author Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and as a model of a compliant, potentially self-aware machine.[1] The portrayal of androids in the Alien series (including Ash in Alien, Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3, and Call in Alien Resurrection) has been studied for its implications relating to how humans deal with the presence of an "Other",[2] as Ripley treats them with fear and suspicion and a form of "hi-tech racism and android apartheid" is present throughout the series.[3] This is seen as part of a larger trend of technophobia in films prior to the 1990s, with Bishop's role being particularly significant as he redeems himself at the end of Aliens, thus confounding Ripley's expectations.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Buttazzo, G (May 2000). "Can a Machine Ever Become Self-Aware?". R. Aurich, W. Jacobsen and G. Jatho Artificial Humans, an historical retrospective of the Berlin International Film Festival 2000: 45-49. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Nishime, LeiLani (Winter 2005). "The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future". Cinema Journal 44 (2): 34-49. University of Texas Press.
- ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (Spring 2004). "HAL-o-phobia: Computer Horror in the Pre-1990 Popular Cinema". Sincronía. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (September 2003). "Technophobic themes in pre-1990 computer films". Science as Culture 12 (3): 341-373. doi:.
