Alien3 (1992)
Director: David Fincher
Genre: SciFi/Body Horror/Suspense
THE MOVIE
I grew up with the Alien movies. As a small child, I saw Alien on TV and loved it. When I was a little older my uncle took me to see Aliens and it became one of my favorite movies. As a seventeen year old, I was crazy psyched to see Alien3. Early looks at the movie promised that the Aliens would come to earth, the ads promised “three times” everything, and that “the bitch” would be back. I was already conditioned to expect any sequel to be twice as big and spectacular as the last one, much in the same way that Aliens was pumped up balls out version of Alien. However, Alien3 turned out to be a completely different creature than the other two movies. Instead of a hardcore action movie like its predecessor it is a moody and existential suspense movie that killed off most of the characters you came to care about in the previous movie. In fact, it has more in common with Ridley Scott’s movie than with James Cameron’s. For that reason, many people don’t like it; they feel that Alien3 is a step backwards in the series. But you have to admire a movie that is ballsy enough to give you something other than what you want or expect. One of the strengths of the Alien series is that each movie was worked on by a different gifted director with a different take on the material.
In this movie, Ripley often looks as though she is going to break out into "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Alien3 was the first feature of director David Fincher, who went on to make such movies as Fight Club and 7 both of which share a certain grimy visual style with his first movie. Alien3 was an extremely troubled production from the beginning. It had literally gone though a half a dozen distinct stories and over a dozen writers before settling on the final story. An early draft was written by science fiction writer William Gibson and focused on Hicks and Bishop and an alternative reproduction cycle for the Aliens. At one point, another version of the the movie was to be directed by Vincent Ward and to have taken place on a wooden planet on which lived a population of monks. At one point, the monks were going to be dwarves and there were going to have been seven of them. I suspect at some point there may not have been an Alien in the movie at all.
So the final script for Alien3 was distilled from many different sources, apparently by committee. And even the later drafts must have been significantly different, as proved by the teaser trailer that indicated that the movie would be set on Earth. So, Fincher was ultimately hired as an inexperienced director who would likely be easily controlled by the studio and to this day he doesn’t talk about the movie at all. He was the only series director to refuse to do a commentary for the Alien Legacy DVD boxed set.
Even the movie as it was filmed would have been significantly different. I remember at the time that Charles Dutton had said something to the effect that “The movie in the theater was not the movie we filmed.” Luckily you can now get a glimpse of this in the great Alien Legacy and the Alien Anthology Bluray set which includes an alternate and in many ways superior “Assembly Cut” of the movie which is about a half hour longer and includes numerous subplots and alternate story points.
I've been on this date. It's not fun.
The decision to have Ripley host the Alien was controversial but I think ultimately a good way to (at the time) end the series. It also brings the body horror of the Alien to the forefront. The movie then becomes about mortality and existential horror. Even the briefly reanimated Bishop gets emo: “I’ll never be top of the line again. I’d rather be nothing.” This is another horror movie that addresses the AIDS epidemic in an allegorical way as it is a story of someone who has a malignant presence in their body that will ultimately kill them. In 1992 that would have been a clear reference to the epidemic.
For me, as a teenager, the movie actually appealed to me in a totally different way than the others. I actually thought it was really cool. It was very dark and vaguely goth and punk. It was a very early ‘90’s kind of movie. And while the ending was a downer it was also very beautiful and tragic. Although it is clearly a flawed movie, Fincher’s brilliance shines through and I will always have a special affection for Alien3.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
The Alien got a redesign in this movie, the justification being that it came from a quadruped host. This Alien, while smaller than the others, was the fastest and most deadly yet. This movie actually boasts the best Alien effects we would see until Alien vs. Predator twelve years later. A common misconception was that this movie featured an early version digital Alien but it was actually a combination of suitmation and a rod puppet that was digitally composited into live action shots.
It also returns to the smooth-domed Ridley Scott style head as opposed to the Cameron head ridges. Here, the body is a roachy brown color which goes well with the rusty prison facility. The back tubes from the previous movies are gone for a more streamlined effect.
This movie is widely available on DVD on its own or in few different Alien boxed sets. As I stated above the Legacy and Anthology sets features the “Assembly Cut” which is definitely worth seeing. And I believe it is available in the single two-disc version as well.
The “Assembly Cut” is different in a few ways:
A lot the shots having to do with Ripley’s crash are much different. In the assembly cut she and the escape pod wash ashore. The pod is pulled back to the facility by oxen and it gives the planet a low tech effect.
There is a newly designed facehugger found, meant to represent the queen facehugger.
The chestburster comes out of an ox and not a dog.
There is an elaborate scene in which the prisoners succeed in capturing the Alien until it is let loose by the crazy prisoner.
The Alien does not hatch from Ripley’s chest as she dives into the melting pit at the end.
There are more character scenes overall in the assembly cut.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
I like the scene (in the theatrical cut) in which the Alien hatches from the dog which is intercut with Hicks and Newt being thrown into the melting pit as Dillon eulogizes them.
SEQUELS
Alien Resurrection 1997
TEASER TRAILER
Misleading, Alien-style teaser.
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