Alien 3
Alien 3 (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20)
1992 / US-UK / 145 minutes
“When they first heard about this thing, it was “Crew Expendable”. The next time they sent in marines- they were expendable too. What makes you think they’re going to care about a bunch of lifers who found God at the ass end of space? You really think they’re going to let you interfere with their plans for this thing? They think that we’re crud- and they don’t give a fuck about one friend of yours that’s died, not one. ”
Director: David Fincher / Screenplay: David Giler & Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson, based on a story by Vincent Ward and characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett / Director of Photography: Alex Thomson / Music: Elliott Goldenthal / Production: Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill for Brandywine Productions and Twentieth Century Fox / Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley), Charles Dance (Dr. Clemens), Charles S. Dutton (Dillon), Paul McGann (Golic), Brian Glover (Andrews), Ralph Brown (“85” Aaron), Lance Henriksen (Bishop / “Bishop II”), Danny Webb (Morse), Christopher Fairbank (Murphy), Pete Postlethwaite (David), Peter Guinness (Gregor), Leon Herbert (Boggs).
According to producer David Giler, after the release of Aliens in 1986, “Everyone wanted to make the next Alien- except us”. Realising that the third Alien was going to happen with or without them anyway, Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll began commissioning the best Sci- Fi writers and filmmakers of the time to come up with story ideas.
When it looked unlikely that Sigourney Weaver would be returning as Ripley, screenwriter Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and Neuromancer author William Gibson wrote scripts focussing on Lance Henriksen’s Bishop and Michael Biehn’s Hicks. Gibson’s- set on a vast space station called Anchorpoint where “The Company” are experimenting with the aliens for use as bio weapons against another, “Space Communist” faction of humans- can be easily found online and is now considered one of the franchise’s biggest missed opportunities.
After Weaver agreed to return, the screenplays and story treatments shifted back to Ripley and an “Alcatraz in Space” idea, at one point to have been directed by Renny Harlin. This was then developed further by New Zealand filmmaker Vincent Ward, who imagined something more along the lines of The Name of the Rose in space- envisioning a literal “Wooden Planet” inhabited by an order of monks to be terrorised by the alien.
Although scientifically ludicrous even by Hollywood standards, Ward’s ideas certainly sounded unique and impressed Twentieth Century Fox enough for Alien 3 to go into preproduction. Ward, an independent new to studio politics, deals and interference, left the project and the monks and their wooden planet were ditched (although still beloved by some, concept art shows they would have looked as ridiculous as they sound). But Ward’s basic story- always designed as a proper ending and the last Alien film- was kept, only now transferred to a generic grim, industrial prison colony.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about all of these early, potential different third Alien films now is that the exercise wasn’t repeated for Alien 4, which eventually became the forgettable Alien: Resurrection in 1997 when the producers just went straight for Joss Whedon’s pretty middling script even though all the unused Alien 3 stories were still laying around. But in 1991, what they ended up using was a hastily cobbled together mix of ideas from Ward, Giler, Hill and Larry Ferguson that was constantly changing throughout production.
Rather than Harlin, newcomer David Fincher got the directing job. The producers were hoping they’d found another Ridley Scott or James Cameron (who had each done one successful film before tackling the Alien) but Fincher, a music video and commercial director, had even less patience for the studio machine than Ward.
He was also determined to subvert expectations by making a very anti- Cameron, slower paced horror film rather than an action film to return the series to it’s roots. Unlike the deliberately Americanised Aliens (shot in the UK like the original but mostly cast with Americans), Fincher wanted to make the best use of working at Pinewood Studios by going for an almost entirely British cast and having them all speak in their real accents (which, just to confuse US audiences even more, included pretty much every regional variation going).
Fox had nothing else as big as Alien 3 lined up for the foreseeable future and everyone soon came to realise that the studio were relying on this one film to be their big success of 1992. In effect, they hadn’t been hired to make a film but to make a release date. The final film (if it can even be called that as production was more or less abandoned) was dismissed as an overly dark and depressing drama when it was first released but, whilst it can’t compete with the classic original, it’s certainly more interesting than Aliens, just nowhere near as fun.
Alien 3 (especially in it’s restored, extended edition since released on DVD) is also far superior to any Alien film since, including Scott’s return to the series with Prometheus and Covenant. And whilst it might not be as frightening as the original film or as thrilling as the second, it’s emotionally and thematically stronger than either if you accept that this isn’t really a film about the Alien, it’s a film about Ripley.
Weaver gives her best performance of the series (possibly her best ever) in Alien 3. If Alien was about horror and Aliens about terror, then this one’s about despair. From the very beginning, Ripley’s fucked. The handful of survivors that escaped her last mission with her are all dead and she’s stranded with a bunch of violent criminals “At the ass end of space”. Of course, things only get worse from there with the duplicitous company bosses getting involved and an Alien showing up in the prison (Weaver had agreed to come back when it was confirmed Alien 3 would go back to having a single creature with the humans involved having no real weapons to fight it with).
The supporting cast playing the prisoners (who also look very similar due to their shaved heads) are all recognisable from British film, TV and theatre and give UK audiences the still very rare experience of seeing an impressively produced fantastical world populated with people that feel completely real and familiar from everyday life. And despite Alien 3’s reputation for being the most miserable of the series, there is a fair bit of- admittedly very dark- humour between the colony’s inmates.
Danny Webb’s Morse demonstrating the correct way to hold scissors in the middle of the climatic chase is a particular highlight (“Don’t hold them like that- hold them like this. You could kill someone, you fucking moron”)! In fact, at times it’s more like Porridge in space than The Name of the Rose in space, especially with Brian Glover’s casting as the prison governor.
The final act, in which Ripley takes charge of the survivors and unites them against not just the Alien but the company too, is the most uplifting moment of the entire series. Everyone in the prison knows their individual chances are slim and that even together they may not make a difference but they all agree to give it a go. All of the prisoners sacrifice themselves to save people they’ll never meet and a planet they’ll never see again, each of them going out in a blaze of redemptive glory to protect a society that’s long since condemned and abandoned them.
As with Predator 2, Alien 3’s reputation has drastically improved with time as critics have revised their opinions to take into account that it was actually terrifically daring and refreshingly different and is certainly vastly superior to anything with the same brand name that’s appeared since. Unfortunately, there’s no officially approved director’s cut (Fincher still won’t get involved and remains bitter about how much the studio messed him around) but the “Assembly Cut” adds a wealth of great character moments and makes sense of a lot of the theatrical version’s inconsistencies.
Fincher would become a major director almost immediately after his grim Pinewood winter, smashing out four more great films over the next decade with Seven (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999) and Panic Room (2002). His more recent films, whilst still critically acclaimed, have been less impressive and I’d say his best work in the ’10’s was on the US House of Cards (2013 - 2018) but that’s pretty much been stricken from the historical record now after the accusations surrounding Kevin Spacey came out.
For anyone who has never bothered with Alien 3 on the strength of bad reviews from misguided critics, unfavourable comparisons with Alien or for spoiling the ending of Aliens (the one major criticism I do sympathise with), check out the most complete version you can your hands on and give it a chance. Just sort your settings to deal with the sound design first (I remember the VHS being almost inaudible) and whack your subtitles on if you can’t understand the prisoners.
1992 / US-UK / 145 minutes
“When they first heard about this thing, it was “Crew Expendable”. The next time they sent in marines- they were expendable too. What makes you think they’re going to care about a bunch of lifers who found God at the ass end of space? You really think they’re going to let you interfere with their plans for this thing? They think that we’re crud- and they don’t give a fuck about one friend of yours that’s died, not one. ”
Director: David Fincher / Screenplay: David Giler & Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson, based on a story by Vincent Ward and characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett / Director of Photography: Alex Thomson / Music: Elliott Goldenthal / Production: Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill for Brandywine Productions and Twentieth Century Fox / Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley), Charles Dance (Dr. Clemens), Charles S. Dutton (Dillon), Paul McGann (Golic), Brian Glover (Andrews), Ralph Brown (“85” Aaron), Lance Henriksen (Bishop / “Bishop II”), Danny Webb (Morse), Christopher Fairbank (Murphy), Pete Postlethwaite (David), Peter Guinness (Gregor), Leon Herbert (Boggs).
According to producer David Giler, after the release of Aliens in 1986, “Everyone wanted to make the next Alien- except us”. Realising that the third Alien was going to happen with or without them anyway, Giler, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll began commissioning the best Sci- Fi writers and filmmakers of the time to come up with story ideas.
When it looked unlikely that Sigourney Weaver would be returning as Ripley, screenwriter Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and Neuromancer author William Gibson wrote scripts focussing on Lance Henriksen’s Bishop and Michael Biehn’s Hicks. Gibson’s- set on a vast space station called Anchorpoint where “The Company” are experimenting with the aliens for use as bio weapons against another, “Space Communist” faction of humans- can be easily found online and is now considered one of the franchise’s biggest missed opportunities.
After Weaver agreed to return, the screenplays and story treatments shifted back to Ripley and an “Alcatraz in Space” idea, at one point to have been directed by Renny Harlin. This was then developed further by New Zealand filmmaker Vincent Ward, who imagined something more along the lines of The Name of the Rose in space- envisioning a literal “Wooden Planet” inhabited by an order of monks to be terrorised by the alien.
Although scientifically ludicrous even by Hollywood standards, Ward’s ideas certainly sounded unique and impressed Twentieth Century Fox enough for Alien 3 to go into preproduction. Ward, an independent new to studio politics, deals and interference, left the project and the monks and their wooden planet were ditched (although still beloved by some, concept art shows they would have looked as ridiculous as they sound). But Ward’s basic story- always designed as a proper ending and the last Alien film- was kept, only now transferred to a generic grim, industrial prison colony.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about all of these early, potential different third Alien films now is that the exercise wasn’t repeated for Alien 4, which eventually became the forgettable Alien: Resurrection in 1997 when the producers just went straight for Joss Whedon’s pretty middling script even though all the unused Alien 3 stories were still laying around. But in 1991, what they ended up using was a hastily cobbled together mix of ideas from Ward, Giler, Hill and Larry Ferguson that was constantly changing throughout production.
Rather than Harlin, newcomer David Fincher got the directing job. The producers were hoping they’d found another Ridley Scott or James Cameron (who had each done one successful film before tackling the Alien) but Fincher, a music video and commercial director, had even less patience for the studio machine than Ward.
He was also determined to subvert expectations by making a very anti- Cameron, slower paced horror film rather than an action film to return the series to it’s roots. Unlike the deliberately Americanised Aliens (shot in the UK like the original but mostly cast with Americans), Fincher wanted to make the best use of working at Pinewood Studios by going for an almost entirely British cast and having them all speak in their real accents (which, just to confuse US audiences even more, included pretty much every regional variation going).
Fox had nothing else as big as Alien 3 lined up for the foreseeable future and everyone soon came to realise that the studio were relying on this one film to be their big success of 1992. In effect, they hadn’t been hired to make a film but to make a release date. The final film (if it can even be called that as production was more or less abandoned) was dismissed as an overly dark and depressing drama when it was first released but, whilst it can’t compete with the classic original, it’s certainly more interesting than Aliens, just nowhere near as fun.
Alien 3 (especially in it’s restored, extended edition since released on DVD) is also far superior to any Alien film since, including Scott’s return to the series with Prometheus and Covenant. And whilst it might not be as frightening as the original film or as thrilling as the second, it’s emotionally and thematically stronger than either if you accept that this isn’t really a film about the Alien, it’s a film about Ripley.
Weaver gives her best performance of the series (possibly her best ever) in Alien 3. If Alien was about horror and Aliens about terror, then this one’s about despair. From the very beginning, Ripley’s fucked. The handful of survivors that escaped her last mission with her are all dead and she’s stranded with a bunch of violent criminals “At the ass end of space”. Of course, things only get worse from there with the duplicitous company bosses getting involved and an Alien showing up in the prison (Weaver had agreed to come back when it was confirmed Alien 3 would go back to having a single creature with the humans involved having no real weapons to fight it with).
The supporting cast playing the prisoners (who also look very similar due to their shaved heads) are all recognisable from British film, TV and theatre and give UK audiences the still very rare experience of seeing an impressively produced fantastical world populated with people that feel completely real and familiar from everyday life. And despite Alien 3’s reputation for being the most miserable of the series, there is a fair bit of- admittedly very dark- humour between the colony’s inmates.
Danny Webb’s Morse demonstrating the correct way to hold scissors in the middle of the climatic chase is a particular highlight (“Don’t hold them like that- hold them like this. You could kill someone, you fucking moron”)! In fact, at times it’s more like Porridge in space than The Name of the Rose in space, especially with Brian Glover’s casting as the prison governor.
The final act, in which Ripley takes charge of the survivors and unites them against not just the Alien but the company too, is the most uplifting moment of the entire series. Everyone in the prison knows their individual chances are slim and that even together they may not make a difference but they all agree to give it a go. All of the prisoners sacrifice themselves to save people they’ll never meet and a planet they’ll never see again, each of them going out in a blaze of redemptive glory to protect a society that’s long since condemned and abandoned them.
As with Predator 2, Alien 3’s reputation has drastically improved with time as critics have revised their opinions to take into account that it was actually terrifically daring and refreshingly different and is certainly vastly superior to anything with the same brand name that’s appeared since. Unfortunately, there’s no officially approved director’s cut (Fincher still won’t get involved and remains bitter about how much the studio messed him around) but the “Assembly Cut” adds a wealth of great character moments and makes sense of a lot of the theatrical version’s inconsistencies.
Fincher would become a major director almost immediately after his grim Pinewood winter, smashing out four more great films over the next decade with Seven (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999) and Panic Room (2002). His more recent films, whilst still critically acclaimed, have been less impressive and I’d say his best work in the ’10’s was on the US House of Cards (2013 - 2018) but that’s pretty much been stricken from the historical record now after the accusations surrounding Kevin Spacey came out.
For anyone who has never bothered with Alien 3 on the strength of bad reviews from misguided critics, unfavourable comparisons with Alien or for spoiling the ending of Aliens (the one major criticism I do sympathise with), check out the most complete version you can your hands on and give it a chance. Just sort your settings to deal with the sound design first (I remember the VHS being almost inaudible) and whack your subtitles on if you can’t understand the prisoners.
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