Alien³
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since November 2006. |
- 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 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 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 Pete Postlethwaite |
| Music by | Elliot Goldenthal |
| 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 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Alien³ 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. It is sometimes referred to as "Alien Cubed" due to the use of a superscript 3 in the title font, although the IMDB listing for the film does not list this as an official alternative title.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Having survived the events of Aliens, the spaceship Sulaco, carrying Ellen Ripley, Newt, Corporal Hicks, and the damaged Bishop android in cryonic stasis, experiences an onboard fire and launches them in an escape pod. The pod crashes on Fiorina 'Fury' 161, a mining facility/penal colony inhabited by all-male former inmates with "double-Y" chromosome patterns. As the inmates recover the pod's passengers, an alien facehugger is seen approaching their dog. Ripley is taken in and awakened by Clemens (Charles Dance), the facility's doctor, and learns that she is the only survivor of the crash. Many of the ex-inmates have embraced an apocalyptic, millenarian religion which forbids sexual relations, and Ripley is warned that her presence among them may have extremely disturbing effects.
Suspicious of what caused the escape pod to jettison and what killed her companions, Ripley demands that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt. She fears that Newt may be carrying an alien embryo in her body, though she does not share this information. No embryo is found in Newt's body, however, the colony's warden becomes increasingly angered that Ripley's unusual behavior is agitating the prisoners. They perform a funeral for Newt and Hicks in which their bodies are thrown into the facility's gigantic furnace. In another part of the facility the dog goes into convulsions and an adult alien erupts from its body. The alien soon begins to attack members of the colony, killing several and driving one insane. Ripley tells the warden of her previous encounters with the aliens and demands that the group hunt it down, but he does not believe her and informs her that there are no weapons at all in the facility. Their only hope of protection is the rescue ship being sent for Ripley by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Ripley recovers and reactivates the damaged Bishop, who reveals that there was an alien facehugger stowed away with them on the Sulaco.
Back in the facility's infirmary Clemens is killed by the alien, which also approaches Ripley but does not kill her. She runs to the mess hall to warn the others, only to witness the alien kill the warden. Using the Sulaco's medical equipment Ripley discovers that she has the embryo of an alien queen growing inside her. She also finds that what the Corporation really wants is the queen embryo and the adult alien, hoping to turn them into biological weapons. Deducing that the alien will not kill her because of the embryo she carries, Ripley begs Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) to kill her. He agrees to do so only if she will help the inmates kill the alien first. After a failed attempt to trap the creature that results in several deaths, they form a plan to lure it in to the facility's lead mold and drown it in molten lead. Dillon sacrifices himself to lure the creature into the mold, but the alien, covered in molten lead, escapes. It is killed when Ripley sprays it with water from the fire sprinkler, causing it to cool rapidly and shatter.
Just as the alien is killed the Weyland-Yutani team arrives, including a man who 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 commits suicide, throwing herself into the gigantic furnace just as the alien queen begins to burst forth from her chest. The film ends with a sequence showing the facility being closed down, and a shot of the escape pod playing the recording of Ripley's final lines from the original Alien.
[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] Reception
From its initial release to the present day the film has incurred mixed reviews by critics, generally being unfavourably compared to the preceding two films in the franchise.[1][2]
In later years, critics of the film have become 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 written by 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]
A number of cast and crew associated with the series, including Michael Biehn and James Cameron, expressed their frustration and disappointment with the film's story. Cameron, in particular, regarded the decision to kill off the characters of Bishop, Newt, and Hicks "a slap in the face" to fans of the previous film. 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 his role in Aliens.[4]
The bonus disc for Alien³, in the 2003 Quadrilogy set, includes a documentary on the film's production but lacks Fincher's participation. TheDigitalbits.com directed 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]
In Roger Ebert's 1999 review for Fincher's Fight Club he calls Alien3 "one of the best-looking bad movies I have ever seen." [1]
[edit] Special Edition DVD
An alternate version of Alien³ (officially titled the "Assembly Cut") with over 30 minutes of additional footage was released on the 9-disc Alien Quadrilogy box-set in 2003. Nearly 3/4 of the scenes in this version contain footage not included in the 1992 theatrical release. Director David Fincher, although giving 20th Century Fox permission to release this enhanced version to DVD, was the one director from the entire franchise who declined to participate in the box-set, even to record a commentary track.
The Assembly Cut edition has several key plot elements that differ from the theatrical release. The alien gestates in an ox rather than a dog, and one of the inmates discovers a dead facehugger which is visually different from those seen in the previous films (photos of this could be seen at the time of release in some of the marketing material). In this version the inmates succeed in their attempt to trap the alien, but it is released by the disturbed inmate Golic. There are some differences in the final scene as well, including the alien queen not bursting from Ripley's chest as she falls into the furnace.
[edit] Writing
A very early script treatment was written by 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. 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)."[6] In copies of Gibson's treatment, unlike almost all other Alien-related material, instead of "chestbursters" erupting out of human hosts, humans become alien warriors, through an unspecified method that apparently works similarly to a virulent, contagious disease.[7]
Other notable screenwriters whose names were linked with the project were Eric Red, David Twohy, John Fasano and Rex Pickett. Scripts in the names of some these writers can be found on various online script sites.[2]
[edit] Soundtrack
Elliot Goldenthal composed the films soundtrack with heavy input from Fincher. It is considered by many to be one of his most inventive works.
[edit] Adaptations
A novelization, which includes many scenes cut from the final film, was written by Alan Dean Foster.
Dark Horse Comics released a 3-issue comic book adaptation.
[edit] Visual effects
The alien is played by Alien Effects Designer Tom Woodruff, Jr. wearing a costume designed by himself and Alec Gillis, and also appears in the form of a rod puppet filmed against bluescreen and optically composited into the live-action footage. A mechanical alien head was also used for close-ups.[8]
Director David Fincher suggested that a whippet be dressed in an alien costume for on-set coverage of the quadrupedal alien, but the visual effects team were dissatisfied with the comical result and the idea was dropped in favour of the puppet.[8]
A small number of shots contain CGI elements, most notably the cracking alien head. Other CGI elements include shadows cast by the (rod puppet) alien, and airborne debris in outdoor scenes.[8]
[edit] Video game
The official licensed video game was released for multiple formats by Acclaim and Virgin Interactive, including Amiga, Commodore 64, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Sega 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
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes review collection
- ^ IMDB ratings
- ^ 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)
- ^ Criticism of Bonus Disc. The Digital Bits. Retrieved on December 15, 2006.
- ^ William Gibson talks about the script. WilliamGibsonBooks.com. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ Draft of Gibson's script on Scifiscripts.com
- ^ a b c Fredrick Garvin (Director). The Making of Alien³ [DVD]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
[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
- Alien Movies Resource - Large Alien films resource, including unused Alien³ scripts, music, trivia, and much more
| Films directed by David Fincher |
|---|
| Alien³ • Se7en • The Game • Fight Club • Panic Room • Zodiac • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
