The 'Alien' Saga (2002) - full transcript

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(narrator) It waits in silence

and strikes without warning.

It inhabits its prey like a silent
time bomb waiting to explode.

(screams)

(screams)

It is the perfect
killing machine.

Released in 1979, Alien sparked
a science-fiction revolution.

It gave us the screen's first
bone fide female action hero.

Get away from her, you bitch!

And helped launch the careers

of some of Hollywood's
most noted directors.



Now go behind the scenes

of one of the world's most popular and
profitable science-fiction franchises,

and witness the
evolution of the Alien saga.

Alien began in the
mind of Dan O'Bannon,

a filmmaker whose 1973
science-fiction comedy Dark Star

had achieved a modest
degree of notoriety.

In 1975, O'Bannon was hired to
oversee the special-effects development

on a proposed French
film production of Dune,

based on Frank
Herbert's classic novel.

While working on
visual design concepts,

O'Bannon was introduced
to the disturbing work

of Swiss artist HR. Giger.

(O'Bannon) Over in Pans, I had
met a Swiss artist named Hans Giger.

It was a revelation.



I thought to myself

"If somebody could get this
guy to design a monster movie,"

"it would be like nothing
anyone ever saw."

(narrator) Unfortunately, neither
Giger's nor O'Bannon's visions for Dune

would be realized.

The production was shut
down for lack of funding.

(O'Bannon) Dune fell
through with great abruptness,

and I ended up back in L.A. with no money,
no car, all my belongings in storage.

And Ron Shusett was
good enough to take me in

and let me live on his couch

(narrator) Ron Shusett was
also a young aspiring screenwriter.

He and O'Bannon quickly realized

that they might stand a better chance of
setting a script if they worked together.

In search of the perfect story,
they catalogued their ideas

before settling on a partially
completed screenplay

that O'Bannon had
been working on.

(O'Bannon) It was the flip side of
Dark Star-instead of funny, scary.

When you make a comedy
and they don't laugh,

it's pretty devastating.

And I thought

"Well, if I can't make them laugh,
maybe I can make 'em scream."

Inspired in part by
HR. Giger's designs,

O'Bannon's screenplay told the
tale of a small group of space travelers

who are menaced by an alien
monster on board their ship.

The plot was similar to dozens
of other science-fiction films.

But O'Bannon and Shusett
felt their concept for the creature

would make the film unique.

(O'Bannon) The hardest
part of figuring out the script

was figuring out exactly what the
creature was and how it worked.

And I finally decided to move
in the direction of parasites

as they function here on Earth.

They're this for a while,

then they jump on your
dog and they burrow in

and they become
something else for a while,

and then they jump
out of your dog.

We started talking, and he said
"Yeah, it could go on his face."

"It could be a creature..." We didn't
know what the monster looked like.

"A little creature, and
it jumps on his face."

And I said "Somehow the
monster has to plant a seed in him."

”But nobody will know that till it
comes bursting out of his chest."

"Oh, my God, I think we've got
it. We've got the whole movie."

"Nobody’s ever seen
anything like this."

And it wrote itself. Within three weeks,
we had the story structure completed,

and it took us another
three months to do the script.

(narrator) Ultimately, O'Bannon
and Shusett named their story Alien.

They also hired designer Ron
Cobb to prepare concept drawings

in an effort to sell
the idea to Hollywood.

Armed with sketches and script,

the writers pitched their story to
executives at 20th Century Fox.

But the studio promptly
rejected it as being too violent.

In fact, the only person who showed
any interest at all in the project

was B-movie king Roger Corman.

(Shusett) We sent it over to him. He
loved it and said "I'll make the movie."

So we were gonna sign a contract
with him to make it for $750,000.

But just before the
contract was signed,

an old film-school friend of
O'Bannon's offered to take Alien

and pass it on to Brandy wine
Productions, an independent film company

owned by filmmakers Walter Hill,
Gordon Carroll and David Giler.

Everybody's heard about scripts
that came through the window

This one literally came
through the window.

Somebody gave O'Bannon and Shusett's
script of Alien through the window to...

Walter's desk was on an alley.

Walter read it and said

"Maybe I'm crazy, but it's got
one really great scene in it."

"I think that we maybe
should consider this one."

It was the chestburster. It was
the thing that comes out of its chest

This scene, this one
scene, is just so incredible

that it makes it worth
it to do the movie.

In the winter of 1976, Brandy
wine optioned the script for Alien

and once again pitched it to
executives at 20th Century Fox.

Fox, they took us
to lunch and said

"This is not the kind of thing
we expected from you guys."

"We know this script,
and we've seen it before."

You know, we later found out
everybody had seen it before.

Undaunted, Hill and Giler began
a massive rewrite of the project.

Two weeks tater, they
resubmitted the script to Fox.

This time, the
executives loved it.

Studio chief Alan Ladd Jr.
was ready to move forward,

but only if something
could be done

to spice up the Seeding
rote of Astronaut Ripley.

(Ladd) Women in jeopardy is lot more
frightening than men in jeopardy, I think.

I said "Let's change the
male lead to a female lead."

It was originally
written for a male.

But we had an asterisk on the
front - the title page - and it said

"Any of the roles can be changed
so there could be two women

to give it a broader appeal."

So we really just had a
secretary change "he" to "she"

and didn't do
anything different.

That is how Ripley
got to be a woman.

(narrator) Envisioning Alien
as a small $4.5 million film,

Fox sent the script
to Ridley Scott,

a prolific commercial
director from England.

Scottie first feature film, a
period piece entitled The Duellists,

had just been released and
was earning great critical acclaim

for creating a striking
visual style on a low budget.

I think I was the right
director to do science fiction

because I didn't know much about it,
and therefore I didn't believe in it.

But I was intrigued enough
by the dynamics of the story,

of the script - the outrageous
dynamics of the script -

to say "I think I can
do something with this."

So I went home and sat
at home for three weeks

and story boarded
the whole film.

And then they saw the board

and saw the additions
that I wanted to put into it,

figured that we
couldn't afford it,

so, what they did is they
presented the board to the studio

and we doubled the budget.

With Scott on board

and the budget now
increased to $8.5 million,

the next challenge was casting.

For the pivotal role of Ripley,

the studio briefly considered hiring an
established female star like Meryl Streep,

Katharine Ross or
Geneviève Bujold.

But the recent release of
20th Century Fox's Star Wars

had proven that big names weren't
always necessary to make big money.

Everyone thought the same
strategy should also apply to Alien.

So the studio launched a massive search
for an unknown actress to star in the film.

Eventually, the choice
was narrowed down

to a young New
York theater actress

whose mos! notable film experience
had been a six-second walk-on

in Woody Allen's Annie Hall.

(Weaver) I had heard it
was a science-fiction movie,

and I wasn't that
interested, I have to say.

I didn't really
wanna make movies.

I wanted to work
with, like, Mike Nichols

and Woody Allen on
movies, and that was about it.

So I almost didn't
go the audition.

Luckily, I went over.

I was wearing these very high hooker
boots, I remember, cos I really didn't...

I didn't think it
mattered how tall I was.

Usually I tried to
appear more petite.

Ironically, Sigourney
Weaver had little in common

with the blue-collar
character of Ripley.

The daughter of former
NBC chief Pat Weaver,

Sigourney had grown up on the fashionable
Upper East Side of New York City.

Needing to be convinced,

Fox executives ordered
these rarely seen screen tests...

- (man) Ashen. » "which
Ridley Scott filmed in London.

(Weaver) They
decided to test me.

And Ridley Scott,
who'd only done one film,

I think he felt like they
were testing him as well.

- (man) One, take four, scene second part.
- (man 2) And achoo.

(Weaver) So he built this
whole incredible set for me.

I mean, it wasn't like I had to do
it with a potted palm or anything.

It was this beautiful
set that I ran through.

We did a couple of scenes.

(Hesse-ft) What's
happening with those repairs?

They'll be finished in an hour.

Look, I need some relief.

Why did you wait until now'?

You keep staring out
at that thing long enough

they'll be peeling
you off the walls.

- We're the new...
- I've seen it nap pen.

We're the new pioneers, Ripley.

We even get to have
our own special diseases.

I'm tired of talking.

You waited too Mung.

Give it a try anyway.

(man) cm.

(Giler) Alan Ladd
watched the screen test

and had all the secretaries in the
building come down and watch ll,

and then everybody asked...
They got into a big argument -

did she look more like Jane
Fonda or Faye Dunaway -

and, you know, all
the rest of this stuff.

And he just said "You
can have her. She's in."

(narrator) With the
leading role filled,

filming began on July the 5th, 1978,
at Shepperton Studios outside London.

To round out the cast,

Scott assembled a team of
established veteran actors,

including Tom Skerritt,
Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto,

Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica
Cartwright and John Hurt.

But despite the breadth
and experience of the cast,

Fox was still taking
a gamble on Alien.

The film was still
very much a B movie -

a B movie with a large budget,

an unproven director,
and an unknown star.

As the crew of the mining ship
Nostromo lies in hypersleep,

the peaceful silence aboard the
ship is broken by a distress signal.

Within seconds, the ship's computer,
nicknamed Mother, wakes the crew.

(man) Sixty-five, take six.

(man 2) Careful.
Watch the wafting.

And cue John.

(man 3) Action, John.

(narrator) On top of all the
technical and design issues

that Ridley Scott would have to face in
putting together a production like Alien,

these early scenes presented the director
with one of his biggest challenges -

working with a very
independent ensemble of actors.

(Weaver) I don't think that Ridley
quite knew what to do with us.

I would say that there were a
lot of big personalities in the cast

and different acting styles.

- Still with us, Brett'?
- Right.

- (Kane) I feel dead.
- Anybody ever tell you you look dead?

(laughing)

(Weaver) We did not rehearse,

because he wasn't really
sure how to get us to rehearse.

So we actually
rehearsed a lot on film.

It was probably the most
chaotic film I've ever done.

People were improvising
all over the place,

and people were quite
disconnected from each other,

which maybe
worked for the movie.

(Parker) I think we ought to
discuss the bonus situation.

Brett and I think we
deserve full shares.

Mr Parker and I feel the bonus
situation has never been equitable.

You get what you're contracted
for, like everybody else.

(Skerritt) Ridley's one directorial
comment that I recall was,

he was looking through
the camera and he looked up

and he kind of winced
his eyes, and he goes

"Interesting

That was his only directorial
comment that I recall - 'Write-resting."

He was so visual that he sort of
took refuge behind the camera.

He actually operated the
camera, he and Derek Vanlint.

Mother's interrupted
the course of our journey.

Why?

She's programmed to do that should
certain conditions arise. They have.

(Ripley) Like what'?

It seems she has intercepted a
transmission of unknown origin.

- She got us up to check it out.
- A transmission? Out here'?

(Dallas) Yeah.

What kind of a transmission?

Acoustical beacon that repeats
at intervals of 12 seconds.

- SOS'?
- I don't know.

- Human?
- Unknown.

These were really good actors.

And there wasn't really a lot of depth in
any one of these characters as written.

It was just a matter of
interacting with one another.

There is a clause which states
"Any systematised transmission

indicating intelligent origin
roust be investigated...”

- (Parker) I don't wanna hear it.
- We don't know...

I wanna go home and party.

Will you just listen to the man?

People always used to complain that
it was a little under-characterized,

which I absolutely 100 percent
disagree with, because first of all:

what we were doing was a certain kind
of film with a certain kind of dynamic.

Didn't wanna spend
scenes on characters,

you know, talking about
what it's like back home

and how much they miss the kids.

Money's safe.
Let's take her down.

(Lambert) What the hell
are we doing out here?

- That's not our system.
- I know that

Ridley wanted that
idea of truckers in space.

That we had been up there, and
basically what we were, were truckers.

(man) Thirty-four, take three.

- (man 2) Turbulence.
- (man 3) Turbulence.

- One kilometre on ascension
- (man 4) And achoo.

(narrator) These scenes of the
crew Sanding on the alien planet

were among the
first shot for the film.

To make the spaceship and
planet's surface appear larger,

Ridley Scott used a simple
yet ingenious device: children.

Two of my sons - who
were then 8 and 11 -

and another kid, we
built three tiny spacesuits.

So when they come down
on the elevator and get off,

I over cranked so they
wouldn't look like children,

so they looked like
big lumbering adults.

And so the set was twice
the size, twice as big.

(narrator) The spacesuits, designed by
famed science-fiction illustrator Moebius,

had a heavy, well-worn look,

fitting in with the more
realistic truckers-in-space design

that Scott wanted to achieve.

(Cartwright) They must
have weighed 75 pounds,

and we were supposed to have
little air-conditioner things in there.

Well, they forgot to put the escape
hole, so we were passing out like flies.

And when you've got all the
stuff on you, you can't get it off.

You can't do anything
cos of these hockey gloves.

I mean, it was very strenuous.

But there was an even more daunting
design challenge than the spacesuits -

the alien planet itself.

For that, Scott turned to
the man whose dark visions

had originally inspired Dan
O'Bannon to write the script -

HR. Giger.

(Scott) I met with Dan O'Bannon,
and he dug out Giger's books.

Said "What do you think of
this?" I said "My God, that's it."

Scott was captivated
by the disturbing images

that Giger himself had
categorized as "bio mechanical an."

(Giger) Biomechanical art, yes.

That's an expression I used

for my first portfolio,
which came out in '69.

They are a mixture - biological
figures in mechanical environments

from the 19th
century, a little bit.

After a creative meeting
with Scott in Zurich,

Giger arrived in
England in May of 1978

and was put in charge of designing
everything that concerned the alien creature

and the planet environment.

For inspiration, Scott focused
the artist on one particular painting

that had captivated
him: Necronom IV.

(Scott) It was kind of an
Egyptian panel of a creature

who looked part humanoid
but definitely an alien.

I was just so knocked
out by the whole elegance.

It was also a very
disturbing image.

And we chose that style

for the alien's environment.

- (Dallas) Ash, can you see this'?
- (Ash) I can.

(Shusett) Giger's
work was sexual

and that's the most mild
thing you could say about it.

The opening of the alien ship

looks like two giant
vaginas on a 60-foot set.

We built that set. It
wasn't a miniature.

Everyone goes "Oh, my God.'

(narrator) Turning Giger's sexually charged
designs into three-dimensional realities

offered a unique challenge -

one that was made even more difficult
by Giger's intense perfectionism.

Giger was very
protective about his work:

and it was very difficult to persuade
him to use anybody but himself.

We managed to get a
sculptor cal led Peter Voysey,

and Voysey and he hit it off, so Giger
trusted a lot of his stuff to Voysey.

So Giger then
would do a drawing -

a big, big, big drawing
with always an airbrush -

and Voysey would take the
drawing and then go off to make it.

(narrator) One of the largest
and most visually impressive sets

built for the production
was the spaceship interior.

It contained what appeared to
be the remains of a dead creature,

which the production crew
referred to as "the space jockey."

Working from Giger's sketch,

the basic outline of the
space jockey was constructed

using a supporting
steel-and-wood frame,

then shaped using
ribbed tubing and plaster.

The jockey himself
was modeled out of clay,

while the larger
components of his chair

were comprised of Styrofoam
and plastic foam molds.

The jockeys chamber was
simultaneously constructed

using a wide variety
of available materials.

It was a mixture of
Plasticine and real bones,

tubes, pipes, plaster
cast, different things.

When everything was ready,
the ZS-foot-high figure was moved

onto a giant turntable
at the center of the set.

This allowed Scott to
save time during shooting

by simply rotating the jockey
to get different camera angles.

Once again, Scott's
children stood in

to give the set an even
more impressive scale.

- (Dallas) Can you see anything?
- (Kane) I don't know... A cave.

(narrator) The walls of the
jockey set were later used

as the walls of the
alien egg chamber.

(Kane) The pit is
completely enclosed.

It's full of leathery objects,
like eggs or something.

Atmosphere was added with the
help of some smoke and blue laser light,

borrowed from the
rock band The Who.

In total, 130 eggs were
molded out of plaster,

with one egg given a rubber top

that was designed to
open with hydraulics.

(Scott) The egg, when it opens, is what
the butchers call "Nottingham lace,"

cos it's the covering
of cows' stomachs

I mean, you can't beat that. It looks
like the real thing. It's biological.

And it just...
There it is. It's real.

To complete the sequence in
which the facehugger attaches itself

to Kane's face,

the filmmaker shot numerous takes
of him peering into the open egg.

Then four additional
shots were filmed.

Shot 1 showed 40
feet of pig intestine

being launched with a
small explosive charge.

For Shot 2, an effects technician put
a rubber facehugger glove on his hand,

wrapped it around a plastic dome
placed in front of the camera lens,

and then quickly pulled it away.

Then the film was
played in reverse.

This insert shot represents the
interior of Kane's space helmet

as the creature's tube-like
appendage is forced down his throat.

For the last shot, a facehugger
model was attached to the actor's helmet

and numerous takes were done
of him falling away from the egg.

Once edited, the sequence lasts
a mere four seconds onscreen.

My God.

When Kane is brought
back to the ship,

the facehugger and its ingenious physiology
is revealed in more gruesome detail.

- What's it got down his throat?
- (Ash) I suggest it's feeding him oxygen.

Paralyses him, puts him in a
coma, then keeps him alive.

What the heH is that?

(O'Bannon) The whole thing was supposed to
be about the sexual life cycle of an alien.

One thing that people are
all disturbed about is sex.

Everybody is always
all in a knot about sex.

I said "That's how I'm
gonna attack the audience."

"I'm gonna attack
them sexually."

"And I'm not gonna go after
the women in the audience."

"I'm gonna attack the men."

"And I'm gonna put in
every image I can think of

that I know will make the men
in the audience cross their legs."

"Homosexual oral rape. Birth."

"The thing Pays its eggs down
your throat." The whole number.

(narrator) While Giger
supervised the production

of the full-sized
alien-creature costume,

a sculptor named Roger Dicken was hired to
modify Giger's initial facehugger design

and tum the
concept into a reality.

The central part of the facehugger
was sculpted in Plasticine.

Then a rubber mold was made.

Eight fingers were
created from another mold

and then given aluminum
joints so they could bend

and fit around the
sides of the actor's face.

The tail was a flexible cord
covered with loam and latex.

It was tightened
around the actor's throat

by simply putting on
an off-screen piano wire.

(Dallas) It's not coming off
without tearing his face off with it.

But the facehugger also had
an internal design component

that is revealed when the creature
mysteriously removes itself from Kane.

Kane'? Dallas?

(screams)

(Dallas) Are you OK?

- (Ash) I didn't see it. Was it in the overhead?
- It was up there somewhere.

- My God - (Dallas) Cover
the damn thing, will you?

- It's alive.
- That's a reflex achoo.

(Scott) We created a
cup for the facehugger,

and from the fishmonger's,
I ordered shellfish.

So when he turns it over to examine it,
you're really staring at oysters and clams.

They were fresh,
so it didn't stink.

(narrator) Perhaps the key
sequence in the entire film is this one,

in which the crew celebrates
Kane's recovery from the alien attack.

(O'Bannon) That's the big
moment. That's the kicker.

It's laid its eggs inside of our guy:
and it comes out through the chest.

I said "And I'm gonna
have it happen at dinner."

"While they're all sitting around, it's
gonna land right in the middle of the food."

Unlike the other phases
of the alien's life cycle,

Giger had a difficult time conceptualizing
the chest-bursting creature.

His first sketches
looked like bloody turkeys

and were more
comedic than terrifying.

Once again, Roger Dicken was
brought in to help refine the design.

Using Plasticine, he constructed
a sleeker, simpler creature

that could be manipulated with wires,
an aluminum rod, and a hand grip.

It also featured arms that
were eventually removed

at the request of Ridley Scott.

In order to ensure a surprised
and terrified reaction from his actors,

Ridley Scott chose to prep the pivotal scene
with only John Hurt present on the set.

We should've known
something was gonna happen

because everyone was
wearing raincoats on the set,

including Ron Shusett and Dan
O'Bannon, who were the original writers,

who had come up with
this chestburster concept,

and they were, like, over on
the side: like, hee-hee-hee.

Like this, like it was
Christmas or something.

They were very merry.

And I see Sigourney
looks really scared.

I thought "Boy, she's
really getting into character."

I said "Good, Sigourney,
you're really up for this."

She said "No,
I'm pretty scared."

"I know it's gonna happen live

because the cameras
have cellophane over them."

"There's gonna be a lot of
blood, isn't there?" I said: "Heh."

What's the matter?
The food ain't that bad.

(Ripley) What's wrong?

(coughing)

This is serious.

Kane, what's wrong?

(Weaver) For us, it was
almost as if it happened.

And John's work, too, the
way he totally committed

and was, you know,
in so much agony.

(screams)

It was like watching him
be in a terrible accident

and then the creature coming out

(screams)

(Lambert sobbing)

(Lambert) Oh, God'.!

(Skerritt) I kind of suspected
the way he was gonna do it.

What I didn't see, though,

was the intestines of a cow
that were going to be coming out.

So that was fresh
and delicious for me.

(screeches)

(Cartwright) Quite
a shock, actually.

I mean, we were looking at this
sort of gray penis. Can I say that'?

One seventy-five, take four.

(man) Leaning in, and
turning, and action, and now.

(Shusett) And I remember
Yaphet Kotto's wife telling me

for two weeks after that, he
came home and he had the creeps.

- (Ash) Don't touch it!
- (man 2) Two.

(Shusett) He would sit in a
room for a couple of hours

before he'd talk to anybody.

(man 3) Cut it.

That was the moment
they were so into this movie

that they were scared.

They knew this just
wasn't some schlock movie.

This was gonna scare
the hell out of anybody.

(Brett) This is just an ordinary
prod, like a cat tie prod.

It shouldn't damage the bastard
unless its skin is thinner than ours

But it will give him
a little incentive.

Now we just have to find him.

(narrator) Deck by deck, the hunt for
the alien begins aboard the Nostromo.

To design the
interior of the ship,

Scott instructed concept artist Ron Cobb
and production designer Michael Seymour

to come up with something
that would be different

from anything seen in the
science-fiction genre before.

(Scott) We wanted to keep away from
Star Wars because Star Wars was so good,

and we wanted to keep away from
2001 because that was so good.

And so we had to create our
own... Find our own formula.

And also, we were on
a kind of limited budget.

(Cobb) It was kind of funny. It had
an industrial look from a past age

Even at that time, we had transistors
and touch screens and all that stuff,

but none of that in Alien.

We went back practically
to vacuum tubes, you know,

so actually, it was
very retro technology.

Ridley was always saying he wanted it
to look like a World War ll submarine,

you know, with the low ceilings.

Also, the idea that it might
look like a tramp steamer

and that it'd be sort of
grimy, and it carries ore.

He had buyers go out and buy tons
and tons of RAF surplus aircraft parts.

(Scott) We went out and
bought two old Vulcan bombers,

and they just pulled
them apart for parts.

So the corridors became
lined with aircraft parts.

So the process
was more sculptural

You would go out and see a big
bunch of machinery out of a jet engine

and turn that into a column or a
device that you'd put on the wall.

Hundreds of empty television
cases sitting at the back of the stage,

and you'd wonder
what that's for.

About a day later, you'd see
them all stapled to the wall

as sort of vents and things,

just salvaged and turned upside
down, painted this weird color,

and they add a hose
and stick it on the wall.

And you'd get the benefit
of all that machining,

you know, that you wouldn't have
to duplicate in wood or Styrofoam,

and it looked so real.

(narrator) The Nostromo set was
constructed as one interconnected piece,

allowing the actors to move
easily from room to room.

(Cobb) You couldn't
walk through a wall ever.

You would have to enter a real
hatch and go down all the real corridors

to get to wherever you
were shooting that day.

And you saw
nothing of the stage.

You know, everywhere you looked
you would see spacecraft, spacecraft.

And all the lighting was practical, inside
the craft like you were on location.

So it felt like you were on a
spaceship shooting a movie, you know

It's in this locker.

In where?

(Cobb) And it really
helped the actors

because it was very claustrophobic,
and it was also very isolating.

(hisses)

- Don't let him go!
- (Parker) What the heH are you doing?

It's the cat

(Parker laughs)

Jonesy?

Here, Jonesy.

(narrator) The most frightening aspect of the
film, however, was the alien monster itself.

(Brett) Here, kitty, kitty.

To maintain the maximum
amount of tension,

Scott's plan was to reveal the creature
only in short, shadowy glimpses.

(meowing)

First thing I wanted to see was
something you didn't understand.

Come on, baby.

That's a kitty.

(Scott) So when Harry Dean
Stanton goes after the cat,

I figured I'd just bring
him in from upside down.

(hisses)

Which was basically just a tail
coming down behind his back.

(Brett) Come on.

(Scott) Then the kind of jellified,
almost like aspic forehead.

(growls)

Then he turns around. Then
it comes up, you see the face.

(chuckles)

And then you knew
you were in real trouble.

(screaming)

(narrator) Because the adult alien
was based on HR. Giger's Necronom IV,

designing the
creature was simple.

Bringing it to life, however,
presented some unique challenges.

(Scott) We went through
all sorts of weird things first,

where I got in
some contortionists,

trying to make a shape
that you couldn't understand

by combining three bodies.

Then the one underneath was
always staggering all over the place,

so then we developed to two

So then we developed
to a midget contortionist

with a normal guy underneath

so you didn't quite know
what you were looking at.

And then I figured that wouldn't work
because we couldn't get the head on.

As Ridley Scott
pondered the problem

of who or what could convincingly
play Giger's alien creature,

he went to a local pub and spotted
a 7-foot-tall African design student

named Bolaji Badejo.

I said "Why don't you pop over to him,
ask him if he wants to be in movies?"

And the guy thought
we were joking,

and he then worked for the
next six months as the alien.

Bolaji was perfectly suited
for Giger's ambitious design,

and the artist was able to
literally sculpt the alien creature

onto the young man's body.

(Giger) So they made
a plaster cast of him.

This plaster cast
we had from Bolaji

then was covered with
Plasticine - just a fine skin -

and then I could just
model the details in.

Once Giger's final model was completed,
a rubber body suit was cast from it.

Then Carlo Rambaldi, famous
for his work on King Kong

and Close Encounters
of the Third Kind:

was brought in to
animate the alien's head.

It was cast from
soft polyurethane,

providing flexibility for the fleshy,
moving parts of the alien's face.

Six stretched and shredded
condoms doubled as tendons.

The lips could be curled
to revealed vicious teeth

fashioned out of polished steel.

Oil was rubbed into the head to
give ii a sweaty, reflective shine,

and the jaws were smeared with K-Y
Jelly to give them a slimy appearance.

(Scott) I wanted it to be insect-like,
like an ant, because if you examine an ant

under a microscope, they're
kind of elegant you know,

and I wanted him to be
very elegant and dangerous.

Am I dear? I wanna
get outta here.

(beeping)

Move! Get out of there!

(over radio) ifs
moving towards you.

Move, Dallas!

Move, Dallas! Get out!

No, the other way!

(screeches)

(narrator) With budget pressures coming
from the Fox home office in Los Angeles,

cast and crew soon found themselves
working six and even seven days a week.

The grueling schedule took
a heavy toll on everyone.

It was one of the hardest
things I've ever done.

I mean, just physically,
it was exhausting.

Every day, you would get
squirted down with your glycerin,

and you felt
grubby all the time.

And it ended up being
one of the hottest summers

they've ever had in England.

The Alien production team
choked on the heavy incense smoke

fit to give the film its
eerie, diffused atmosphere.

In some scenes,

the strobe lights were intense
enough to cause nausea in the actors.

The discomfort - the
wet, the heat, all of that -

was nothing compared to what these
people were actually going through,

so it was sort of fun: I
thought, like boot camp.

Despite the difficulties, the crew
was capturing some amazing scenes,

including one memorable sequence

involving the Nostromo's
chief science officer, Ash.

(Grunts)

(Parker) Gm her up.

Get her up, get her up.

It's a robot. Ash is
a goddamn robot.

After the chestburster,

there was nothing we
had that was as amazing,

but with that robot's head, we came
close, and it was late in the movie.

It was like 20
minutes from the end.

I think you needed some moment like
that - as amazing - to balance it out.

(Ripley) Ash, can you hear me?

And that was Giler's and Hill's idea. I
credit them for that extra touch of brains.

It just took it to a new level.

(Ripley) Ash!

What was your special order?

You read it. I
thought it was clear.

Bring back life
form, priority one.

Ali other priorities rescinded.

The damn company.
What about our lives, you"?

I repeat, all other
priorities are rescinded.

(Ripley) How do we kill it?

(Ash) You can't.

The perfect organism.

Its structural perfection is
matched only by its hostility.

You admire it.

I admire its purity.

Last word.

- What?
- You have my sympathies.

We're gonna blow up the ship.
We'll take our chances in the shuttle.

(narrator) It is Ripley's
confrontation with Ash

that signals the pivotal
change in her character.

(computerized voice over PA) The ship
will detonate in T minus ten minutes.

(Weaver) She had
to really take over,

and I fell that she was really
sort of a young ensign type

who pretty much
went by the book,

and that the movie was a journey

from her going from
the book to pure instinct.

(Ripley) Where are you?

Get out of the way

(alien screeching)

I remember talking to
Ian Holm. I said "Gosh."

I said "Do you think that she thinks
what she's doing is right all the time?"

"Do you think she's that
sure of herself?" He said "Yes."

And I said "You know, I think
she's totally winging it all the time

and hopes no one can tell," which,
of course, was what I was doing.

It was basically my first film,

and I was learning by the seat of
my pants, and I guess so was Ripley.

(narrator) Finally, in October 1978,
after four months of sweltering heat,

suffocating smoke,
and physical exhaustion,

principal photography
was completed on Alien.

The actors and most of
the crew were sen! home.

But for Ridley Scott, the
production was far from over.

The director had yet to film
the special-effects sequences,

and there were still several months
of editing and post production ahead.

Relocating to Bray Studios,

Ridley Scot! joined
his special-effects crew,

who had spent the previous four months
shooting the elaborate miniatures.

In fact, Scott scrapped most of the shots
that had been filmed prior to his arrival.

I mean, if we start level, almost nose
down, as she starts to hit the strata,

can you do that'?

They told him he couldn't put smoke
in. There was no way he could do that.

Well, he did it. He did it fine.

And he reshot those, and
then we redid a lot of them.

The Nostromo, which
had been painted yellow,

was repainted dull gray.

Several pieces of the
ship were also redesigned.

The miniature-builders found
themselves on such a tight schedule

that they often used
commercially available mode! kits

from local hobby shops.

We were raiding
plastic kit parts,

and as can happen of course
we'd go into a model shop

and the first mastic kit part there
was Darth Vader's TIE fighter.

We'd buy 50 Darth
Vader TIE fighters,

and we had the whole of the
bottom of the refinery to cover.

And so we got a staple gun and
were stapling on bits of TIE fighters.

This is how quick it was done.

(man) Take four.
Ready and action.

Filming the miniatures
was tedious work,

especially under Ridley
Scott's meticulous watch.

Shots that lasted only seconds on-screen
could take up to three days each to shoot.

(Giler) I would
watch Ridley do this.

Camera moves one frame every
two seconds or something like that.

And it was like watching, you know,
dry-cleaning or something like that.

(man) Take one, A camera.

(man 2) All right, clear
the shot. Thank you.

While Scott filmed at Bray Studios,
his editors worked on the film.

(man) Cut it.

But when the first cut clocked
in at well over two hours,

the director stepped in and began
to make a series of strategic trims.

The edits heightened the tension

by keeping the alien's screen
time to an absolute minimum.

(Ladd) That's why the alien isn't seen
until one of the last shots of the movie.

You see parts of him,
but you never see him

until he's exposed at the end.

(Ripley) Oh, my God.

When he came out of that
position, it was extraordinary.

It was like seeing something
coming out of a Chrysalis.

(screams)

(screeching)

(man) Get that
hose out, Jonathan.

(narrator) But when Fox executives
saw the film for the first time,

they were unhappy with whet they felt
was an excessive degree of bloodshed.

(screaming)

The Fox executives saw
it, and they were appalled.

It was just wall-to-wall
gore and blood everywhere,

and, you know, it was
almost pornographic.

Bret"!

(man) Take nine.

(Ladd) We asked Ridley
to take out all the blood.

Under the Hitchcock theory,
it's much more frightening

when you don't see the event,
them doing the bloody thing.

(man) Action.

Another infamous deletion
from the final version is this one -

when Ripley comes
upon the chamber

where her fellow crew mates
have been cocooned alive.

Dallas.

What did it do'?

Kill me.

What. .? What did it do?

Brett.

It just held it up,

and when the dynamic is really
running, you just don't wanna do that.

It's important to know
when it's good enough

and not just go
on and on and on.

I'll get you out of here.

I'll get you up to the shuttle.

Kill me.

What can I do?

Kill me.

I felt sorry for him having to sit there
all day with the maggots crawling on him.

We always had... We had
so many maggots on the set.

It was just vile.

- (man) Ready, Derek?
- (man 2) Hold it.

- I mean, wait till I move, okay?
- (man 3) Yes, I will. Okay ready? Action.

It's just a matter of the job.
You take the job, you do the job.

So it's not a matter of
discomfort or anything else.

(narrator) Alien was new a sleek and
suspenseful one hour and 56 minutes.

Yet despite the many trims,
the film still received an R rating

from the Motion Picture
Association of America.

Such a rating threatened to strip the
movie of its most important audience -

teenaged science
fiction and horror fans.

In an effort to brand Alien into
America's collective social consciousness,

20th Century Fox began an impressive
multimillion-dollar advertising campaign.

(Giler) This guy, Richard Greenberg:
came over with the space letters,

with the, you know, "In space
no one can hear you scream,"

with the egg, with everything.

We all took a look at this and thought
"No, this is great. Done: settled."

When Alien premiered,
audiences lined up around the block.

Critics lauded the film, caning
it stylish and spellbinding.

Some reviewers
claimed that Alien

had the horror and
suspense of The Exorcist,

the epic quality of Star Wars

and a monster that made the
shark in Jaws look like a goldfish.

Somebody once put it... They
said Star Wars was the Beatles

and we were the Rolling Stones.

We were the nasty version. Heh,
heh. I always liked that description

In spite of being
hobbled by an R rating,

Alien grossed over $4.7
million in its first week of release.

It did a lot for my career.

They wanted me on all these magazines,
and basically, I said "No, thanks."

I wasn't sure how I
felt about being famous.

I hadn't really anticipated that I would
be on the cover of Newsweek overnight.

I think, at the time, I was
more of a control freak,

and I wasn't sure what
that would do to my life.

Alien proved so popular

that Fox quickly launched a
series of toys and other merchandise

aimed, ironically, at
children and teenagers,

a target audience technically
too young to see the movie.

One toy, however, would
become infamous for its failure -

an 18-inch action figure of the
Alien monster issued by Kenner Toys.

That toy was sold to children,

who hadn't seen the film: didn't
understand what it was about.

Mothers were with them, going "You're
not buying that, that's horrible."

So it didn't succeed.

Nevertheless, Alien earned the
respect of the Hollywood film industry.

It was nominated for
two Academy Awards -

one for best art direction
and set decoration

and one for best visual effects,

which the Alien design
team most deservedly won.

Alien went on to gross
over $165 mil/ion worldwide

in its first theatrical release.

A sequel seemed inevitable.

But in June 1979,

Alan Ladd Jr. resigned his post as
head of production at 20th Century Fox.

The future of Alien, for
now, seemed in doubt.

(narrator) For four years,
producers Walter Hill and David Giler

searched for the right
person to bring Alien 2 to life.

Their search led them to a
young Canadian writer director

named James Cameron.

Cameron had earlier worked

for Roger German's
New World Entertainment.

There, he earned a reputation
as a jack of all trades.

By 1983, Cameron had graduated
from B movies to A-list films,

when he landed the-job
writing Rambo: First Blood Part ll.

Another script,
entitled The Terminator,

brought him to the attention
of producer David Giler.

We had an idea for another project
that was about a gladiator tn space,

and so we were talking
to him about doing that.

He knew a lot about
Alien - really, a lot.

Ridley Scott made this film
that I think just stunned the world.

And I was one of the people who
was stunned by it when I saw it.

And a few years later, when I
was asked to write the second one,

I saw an opportunity
to make a film like that.

Cameron worked out a
treatment in just three days.

And while he preserved the
main ingredients of the first film,

namely Ripley and
the alien creature,

he took the concept
in a new direction.

By setting the story
on the alien planet,

Cameron could give his
characters an arsenal of weapons.

He also released not one,
but dozens of alien creatures.

The first one was the haunted house
This one should be the roller coaster.

There was no point in trying to
do the same kind of scary movie.

He had to do a different
kind of scary movie.

Although Cameron's treatment
was universally praised,

it gathered dust at
20th Century Fox -

that is, until August 1984,

when producer Lawrence Gordon
took over as head of production.

Fox hired Cameron, fresh off
the success of The Terminator,

to write and direct Alien 2,
now simply dubbed Aliens.

But luring Sigourney
Weaver back as Ripley

proved a task more
difficult than first imagined.

In the years since Alien,

Sigourney Weaver's career
had taken off with starring roles

in films like The Year of Living
Dangerously and Ghostbusters.

To sign her, Fox now had
to pay the actress $1 million,

a far cry from the $30,000 she had
received for her performance in Alien.

It was a fantastic sort
of tour-de-force part.

I liked Jim Cameron right away.

We had a very good
dynamic working together.

He was very respectful
of whatever I thought,

and Must thought his whole
take on it was wonderful.

In July 1985, preproduction
began at Pinewood Studios.

There, Cameron reunited the team that
made his Terminator film so successful.

His wife, Gale Anne Hurd,
would serve as producer,

and special-effects masters Stan
Winston, Robert Skotak, and Dennis Skotak

would expand upon the original
film's already impressive visuals.

But even these loyal supporters
couldn't insulate Cameron

from problems
with the British crew.

(Weaver) I think one of the
things that was difficult for Jim

was that there was a big
pro-Ridley feeling on the set

cos we were working in England,

and who was this upstart
Canadian kid, you know?

And he arranged several
showings of Terminator

so the crew could see, you
know, I think how good he was,

and no one ever showed up.

Unfazed, Cameron pushed ahead.
Cameras rolled in September 1985.

I only need to know
one thing where they are.

- Go Vasquez. Kick ass.
- (Vasquez) Anytime, anywhere.

Right. Right.

Are you finished?

I hope you're
right. I really do.

The Marine ships and
hardware were created

with the help of designer Ron
Cobb, a veteran of the first film.

(Cobb) It was a
Vietnam allegory.

There were a lot of references to
Vietnam in the way everything looked

and the way people talked.

I sure wouldn't mind gettin' some
more Arcturian poontang Remember?

- Yeah, Frost but your one was a male.
- Doesn't matter when it's Arcturian

Jim and I brought each actor
in and then sat there with felt-tip

and scribbled
comments on their outfits,

you know, just the way
the Vietnam soldiers did

Trust me

(narrator) Using the
conventions of war films,

Cameron populated his
production with likeable characters.

There was the soldier
with false bravado.

How do I get out of
this chickenshit outfit?

The soldier with a lot to prove.

(man) Have you ever
been mistaken for a man'?

No. Have you?

The unseasoned officer.

How many drops is
this for you, Lieutenant?

38.

Simulated.

And the quiet good guy.

We all kind of bonded, and,
you know, there's something like...

When you're young and, you
know, you're walking around

and everybody's got their
pulse rifles and this armor on

and their helmets and their
gear and their walkie-talkies,

and it's like being a
kid -just a lot of fun.

Ready to get it on.

Go.

In an effort to humanize

and further develop the
character of Ellen Ripley,

Cameron made her a mother.

Amanda Ripley-McClaren -
married name, I guess - aged 66.

And that was at the
time of her death.

I'm real sorry.

I promised her that I'd
be home for her birthday.

Her 11th birthday.

Hey. Shh.

It's all right.

The director also gave
Ripley a young companion

in the person of
10-year-old Newt -

(Ripley) Don't be afraid.

The sole survivor
of the human colony.

It was a great
pleasure, I think,

to play a woman achoo
hero who has this other costs.

For Ripley to be able to think
about someone else besides herself

and what's happened to her and everything
was a great idea for the script

and a great joy for Ripley.

- Don't go. Please.
- I'm gonna be right in the next room.

I'm not gonna leave
you: Newt. I mean that.

You promise?

- I cross my heart.
- And hope to die.

And hope to die.

(Henriksen) Sigourney took her
over. That was really her child.

Wherever she was, Newt was.
Wherever Newt was, she was.

And always looking out for her,
and Jim was looking out for her too.

And achoo.

(Henriksen) She was this
wonder-M real innocence on the set

They were so nice to me all the time.
They would come over and play with me.

I had my table on the
side, and Pd have clay and ..

It's kind of weird now,
looking back and thinking

Sigourney Weaver was sitting
next to me, making clay figures.

I had to do.. I had to go
where my strengths were,

which was in
character and action.

So I created this interesting hybrid of
the suspense and horror of the first film

and the action I brought to it.

- Movement.
- What's the position?

Talk to me, Hudson.

Multiple signals.
They're closing.

Unh. Aah!

(Vasquez) Let's rock!

- Get them out of there!
- (man) Shut up!

- Do it now!
- Shut up!

(man 2) They're coming
out of the goddamn walls!

(narrator) In Cameron's film,
killing the aliens was easy.

(man 3) Eat this.

But killing dozens of
them at a time wasn't.

Come on, you bastards!

Come on, you too. Oh,
you want some of this?

- Aah!
- Hudson?

Due to budget constraints,

the director had to portray the alien
hordes using only 12 monster costumes.

(yelling)

But it is the film's depiction
of the human characters

that makes Aliens more than
just an exciting action film.

I want you to put this on.

- (Ripley) What's it for'?
- It's a locator.

Then I can find you anywhere
in the complex on this.

- Thanks.
- It doesn't mean we're engaged or anything.

Just nice little, subtle little... You
know, like "I like you, you like me."

"You know: maybe when we get rid of killing
all these aliens, we'll get together."

But that was never
meant to be, I guess.

Show me everything.

I can handle myself.

I noticed.

(narrator) Although Sigourney
Weaver handled her firearms

with the steady hand of a pro,

the weapons made the
real-life gun-control advocate

more than a little
uncomfortable.

I had to do so much
shooting. I had to shoot bullets.

And then also the flamethrower
part of it, and then also a bazooka.

And that was hard for me.

I think there are other, shrewder
ways of figuring things out.

Flamethrower, fine,
but... You know?

Remember, short
controlled bursts

Eight metres.

Can't be. That's
inside the room.

It's readin' right. Look.

What the heH?

Oh, my God...

(yelling)

(Biehn) There were a lot of
dangerous setups in that movie.

Run.

There was a lot of fire, a lot of gunfire.
There was a lot of automatic weapons

Of course, Jim's
always using full loads.

We really kind of
had to be on our toes.

They would have, like, these
stunt guys - real stunt guys -

and then dummies that
I'd have to incinerate.

I look back and I think "Jeez: they
trusted me so much," because...

I never got it wrong, thank God,

but what if I'd incinerated
a real stunt person?

They all look the same.

(screams)

' (Newt) Ripley!
' (Ripley) Newt!

(narrator) For Carrie Henn, some
of the stunts were downright fun.

In this scene, the young actress had
to slide down a three-story air shaft.

(Henn) It took like a
zillion takes to do it.

But it was cool cos
there was a huge chute -

It had to have been
two or three stones high -

and there was a huge
mattress at the bottom.

So I kept wanting to mess up cos I
kept wanting to go down the chute.

That was the coolest part.

(Newt screams)

Newt! No.

At the time: I didn't really
realize how dangerous it was.

I actually did most
of my stunts myself.

(screams)

(Cameron) Because
the alien is so powerful,

because our weapons
are SO useless against it,

because the differential in strength
between a male and a female

is so inconsequential

compared to the differential in strength
between the human and the alien,

it's the great leveler.

Men and women are on
equal footing before the alien.

(narrator) Although the sinister and deadly
alien eggs were featured in the first film,

one question was left for
Cameron's script to resolve:

just who or what
was laying those eggs.

The answer: the alien queen.

Like a queen bee,

she is both mother and ruler of a
hive of worker and warrior aliens.

Based on HR. Giger's original
design from the first film,

Cameron drew upon his
special-effects experience

and designed the
alien queen himself.

He came to Stan Winston's with
these beautiful color renderings

that he himself had
done of the queen alien.

While she looks like she is of
the same family as the warrior alien

has a more elegant
flow to her design,

and he extrapolated
the lines of the alien

but expanded on them, made it
more elegant and son of feminine,

which was a really
brilliant move.

When built, the queen was
20 feet long and 12 fee! (all.

Her tail alone was
nearly 10 feet long.

Working the suit
required two men inside

while up to 16 puppeteers
worked the muscle controls via wire.

(Giger) That was really great.

I like the queen.
It's really great.

I thought "I mean, it can't..."

It would work out also
without me very well.

The end result was a terrifying monster
that even HR. Giger could appreciate.

And Ripley's explosive
encounter with the alien queen

set up a climax that pushed the boundaries
of special effects as never before.

(explosion)

The audience gets very
wound up in an action sequence

where there's jeopardy to
characters that they care about.

So you have to release that, so
now you have to chill people out.

- You did OK.
- I did?

Oh, yeah.

(Cameron) Then shock 'em again.

(grunting)

We wrapped cables around the
upper and lower half of the body

so that as the cables were
pulled, it would twist and throw.

(narrator) The android blood
was made of milk and yogurt,

a sickening combination
under the hot lights of a film set.

(Henriksen) I got sick as a dog
the first day of shooting in that stuff,

and we had to keep going.

I was just dying.

You don't wanna hear the gory details,
but I could barely, like, keep my head up.

In an effort to top his gripping
planet-escape sequence,

Cameron staged the
ultimate cinematic showdown:

Go. Move.

A battle to the death between
Ripley and the alien queen.

No, here!

Here.

Cameron's eye for detail was crucial
to successfully capturing the battle.

The director carefully story
boarded the entire sequence?

Which required live action
mixed with miniatures.

(Gillis) When we shot the scene
with the full-scale queen alien,

we only shot maybe for two days,
and that was for the entire sequence

And I remembered thinking
"How's he gonna pull this together?"

"This is... There's
just not enough stuff."

Get away from her, you bitch!

(snarling)

With James Cameron's careful planning
and the work of puppeteer Doug Beswick,

the miniatures cut together
flawlessly with the live-action footage.

Come on!

The fight between the power
loader and the queen alien

is still, to me, one of
the premier examples

of the effectiveness of editing
miniatures intermixed with full-scale.

(screams)

(Ripley screams)

Ripley!

(grunting)

(screams)

(screaming)

(screeching)

(narrator) In January 1986, James
Cameron began editing on Aliens.

But his first cut was thought to be too
long by the film's executive producers.

Cameron began trimming.

He even deleted entire scenes,

including the sequence that
referred to Ripley's daughter.

That was sort of the linchpin, to
me, of my whole performance -

that she, you know,
seeing this little girl:

doesn't really wanna get close
again, be hurt again, but does anyway.

And we went to the premiere.

That whole thing had been cut
out, and I was furious and so hurt

because, to me, that was whole
point of the whole character,

was that she had this inside.

Another cutting-room
casualty was this scene,

in which Newt's family has their
first deadly encounter with the aliens.

What is it Dad?

I'm not sure.

Let's see if we can't get a closer look,
maybe through that crack down the side.

- (mother) Shouldn't we call in'?
- Let's wait till we know what to call it in as.

That's about as close as we can
get. Shall we take a look inside?

- Bye.
- (mother) Bye.

Timmy, they've been
gone a Mung time.

It'll be OK, Newt. Dad
knows what he's doing.

Mayday! This is Alpha Kilo Two
Four Nine-r calling Hadley Control!

This is Alpha Kilo Two Four Niner. Alpha
Kilo Two Four Niner calling Hadley...

(screams)

(narrator) Numerous other trims and deletions
helped bring Aliens' total running time

to a lightning-paced two
hours and 17 minutes.

Studio executives loved the film
but felt that ii was still loo long.

They begged Cameron
to make further cuts,

but this time the
director held his ground,

insisting that any further edits
would compromise his creative vision.

In the end, an
agreement was reached.

The film would remain
at its current running time

and Cameron would direct
two more movies for the studio,

The Abyss and True Lies.

On July the 78th,
7986, Aliens premiered.

It was an immediate monster hit.

It was a different kind of reach
on than Alien. It was more fun.

(whoops)

It wasn't the kind of deep
terror that Alien provoked.

This was the roller-coaster ride

If a filmmaker sets out to
make a terrifying experience:

to make the ultimate
monster movie,

and people don't scream

or they don't jump when
something happens,

then you've failed

So it certainly is with a sense of
satisfaction that I watch people react.

(announcer) Aliens:
This time, ifs war.

(narrator) Aliens grossed $10
miff ion on its opening weekend,

eventually grossing nearly
$200 million worldwide.

The film was even nominated
for seven Academy Awards,

including one for Sigourney
Weaver as the year's best actress.

Not bad for a human.

Well, it was a big
surprise to all of us.

And I'm still a bit surprised.

I really think it's
to Jim's credit.

He wrote the role, and the role
was a: you know, big, powerful role.

And I'm grateful to the
Academy for putting it in

with all those other
great performances.

So it was a great honor to
squeak through and be nominated

You wanna know what I think
my chances are'? Very slim.

(narrator) On Oscar night,
Aliens claimed two awards -

one for best visual effects

and another for best
sound-effects editing.

Alien was now a
full-fledged franchise.

There were action
figures, novelizations,

comic books, model
kits and trading cards.

There was even a highly successful
Alien vs. Predator comic book

and merchandising series.

Within weeks of
Aliens' ref ease,

it was obvious to everyone
another Alien sequel was inevitable.

The only questions that remained

were where, when, and how.

(narrator) During the four years
that followed the release of Aliens,

20th Century Fox spent $13
miff ion on 10 different writers

in an effort to put a fresh
spin on the Alien saga.

There was a script at one point

that had 20 power loaders
fighting 20 queen aliens,

and that would have
been a $200 million movie,

and it was just not doable.

Studio executives finally thought
they had found the right idea

in a story by Vincent
Ward and John Fasano.

Their script, set in
a space monastery,

tried to recapture the claustrophobic
terror of the first Alien film.

I think the alien
attacked one of the monks

as he was sitting on
the toilet or something -

sort of every person's nightmare
if they're gonna think about Alien.

I thought it had a good setting.

The monastery-in-space
thing was cool, I thought.

But white Fox had a script,

luring back Sigourney
Weaver proved more difficult.

Following her success in Aliens,

Weaver had been nominated
for two more Academy Awards -

one for her performance
in Working Girl

and the other for her portrayal
of naturalist Dian Fossey

in Gorillas in the Mist.

The actress now
wanted more than money.

She wanted creative control.

Fox readily agreed and hired
her as a co-producer of the film.

Production was scheduled to begin in
October of 7 990 at Pinewood Studios,

with a $50 million budget

and with relative newcomer
David Fincher hired to direct.

Fincher was known
for crafting music videos

for stars like Paula Abdul,

Aerosmith and Madonna.

He had never before
directed a feature film.

But even before one
frame of film was exposed,

production problems
began to surface.

(Giler) David and I and
this writer went to London.

We got a draft of the script, and
everybody said they weren't gonna do it.

By now, we were building sets,

and there had been a considerable
amount of money invested in it.

The production essentially shutdown
while the script was being finished,

so we were kind
of there, you know?

What do we work on?
What do we do, you know?

We can't lose the crew.

(narrator) With the
crews still on the payroll,

producers Walter Hill and David
Giler stepped in to rewrite the script.

(Weaver) The tricky thing about
writing a character like Ripley

is that one of
the first instincts

is to write her like some
kind of butch gym instructor.

You know, "AH right, people,
let's get out." You know, like that.

And she's really, I think,
a lot cooler than that.

I knew with Walter
Hill and David Giler

that they would just
write a straight character.

(narrator) The new script changed
the story's setting from a monastery

to a prison colony fitted
with rapists and murderers.

The cast was rounded
out with Charles Dance...

I think it might
be better if I left.

...Pete Postlethwaite...

This was her idea.

...Charles S. Button...

Quick, easy and parolees.

...and Lance Henriksen.

Please? Trust me.

Although the characters of Newt
and Hicks had escaped with Ripley

at the end of Aliens,

the filmmakers decided not to
bring them back for the third movie.

I was incredibly
disappointed and very hurt

and, you know, didn't understand why
they needed to kill my character off.

I was really hurt by that.

One thing I actually loved
about Fincher, you know,

was that he just killed
everyone she was ever close to.

I mean, it was..

It was: I thought, very
appropriate in an odd way.

(Giler) We just felt that
Sigourney coming back by herself

was the most powerful
image that we could have for 3.

- Where are the others'?
- They didn't make it.

- What?
- They didn't survive.

I have to get to the ship.

Gotta get to the ship.

- You're in no condition for that
- Wanna get me some clothes,

or should I go like this?

Given the nature of our indigenous
population, I would suggest clothes.

(narrator) As the production
began to take shape,

it was obvious that Fincher
was infusing his movie

with a visual style similar
to that of the first film.

The prison, built from the
original monastery sets,

was moody and claustrophobic.

Fincher's visual direction also included
a startling new look for Ripley.

(Weaver) What I loved
about what Fincher was doing

was that it was so utterly different from
what the other two directors had done.

He said "Well, how do
you feel about Dam?"

And I thought... You know, I
thought "This guy's got guts."

How do you like
your new haircut?

It's OK.

(Henriksen) She shaved her
head: but she still looked feminine.

She still radiated this woman.

She's one of the people
that can shave her head

and still have that nice effect.

(narrator) As in the first film, Alien
3 had only one alien on the loose,

but this time in an environment

in which there were no
conventional weapons.

This is a
maximum-security prison

and you have no
weapons of any kind'?

The script called for the creature
to gestate inside an animal

and mutate into a
hybrid of its host.

The theory being
that in the last film,

the creature was
essentially a bipedal creature

because it gestated
inside of a bipedal human.

Originally, the filmmakers planned
for the alien to hatch from an ox.

For this, Fincher
turned to HR. Giger

to create fresh concept
drawings for the new monster.

The Alien 3, that was a
big disaster because...

I don't know, really,
what happened there,

but they made this certain
thing, and then it was stopped.

And I only was
engaged about a month.

Giger's designs
were groundbreaking,

but producers felt they strayed
too far from audiences' expectations.

Fincher next turned to
Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.,

a special-effects house operated

by former Stan Winston employees
Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.

(man) Roll cameras. Go.

(Gillis) We shot
it We built an ox.

We shot the scene of
this creature coming out,

but I think he felt, ultimately,

that, you know, an ox is
sort of a cumbersome animal

Fincher replaced the
unwieldy ox with a rottweiler

so that the new monster could take
on the canine is more vicious qualities.

What kind of animal
would do this to a dog'?

(whimpering)

Initially, Gillie and Woodruff planned on
building an alien suit onto a real animal.

(man) Yeah, how
do you like that?

Ultimately, the canine-alien
hybrid was played by a puppet.

So really what we were
trying to do was to say

"Generally speaking,
this is a four-legged alien."

"What would that look like if
it was running on all fours?"

"How would it behave?"

- It's here! It got Clemens!
- Stop this raving at once.

I'm telling you! It's here!

Aaron, get that foolish
woman back to the infirmary.

(screaming)

- (man) What is that?
- (man 2) Move it!

For close-ups
of the adult alien,

it was Tom Woodruff Jr.
himself who donned a rubber suit.

I've always wanted to be
the guy in the monster suit.

(man) Action.

(Woodruff) Sigourney
Weaver came up to me

during one of the shots and
said "We should talk about this.”

"What is it that the alien's
gonna be doing for this thing?"

It was more than just, you know,

"Where are you gonna be
so I don't get hit by the taxi?"

She actually said "You gotta
think of this as an acting thing."

And I really hadn't
up till then, you know'?

It's a little bit of acting, but it's also
getting to be a monster and all this cool stuff.

(narrator) As the
story of Alien 3 unfolds,

the alien monster strikes from the
shadows, killing everyone in its path.

(alien screeching)

Everyone except Ripley.

(screams)

(whimpering)

(Weaver) I find that
such an amazing moment.

I think ifs the only Mme
she's been that close

where, for some
reason, she's not dead.

(narrator) Because the prisoners
of Alien 3 have no weapons,

they must use themselves as bait

to lure the alien to a fiery death
in the prison's blast furnace.

Come on! Come and
get me, you fucker!

It's started.

With the help of computer
animation and special effects,

Fincher was able
to put a fresh spin

on the now-traditional
alien-chase sequences.

There we go.

(man) A7 closed!

Over in the east
wing. Door B7 safe!

The idea in 3 was that you were
gonna be able to really see the alien.

And we wanted to have one
where you could really see this thing.

Pour it!

(narrator) Eventually, the
/one alien is trapped and killed.

But a new alien queen
still lives inside Ripley.

What is it?

I think you've got
one inside of you.

That's not possible.

We want to help.

What does that mean?

We're gonna take
that out of you.

Let me help you.

What guarantee do I have,

once you've taken it out,

that you'll destroy it?

You have to trust me.

No.

(Bishop) Ripley!

Think of all we
could learn from it.

It's the chance of a lifetime!

You must let me have it.
It's a magnificent specimen.

I felt that it was important
for Ripley to die in this movie.

This whole idea of
death and self-sacrifice,

all of that made perfect sense
in terms of the world of the film.

I knew that she would rather die

than cooperate with
these bad people.

What are you doing?

No!

I don't know, for some reason, I
felt it was a good thing to end it,

and great death scene.

(screeching)

(narrator) With Ripley de ad,

the future of the Alien
franchise seemed in doubt.

But Fox's marketing department
had more immediate concerns.

How do you market a film
where the hero dies at the end?

Their answer was to make Alien 3
look like James Came-rods Aliens

in the film's
promotional campaign.

The result was
a series of trailers

for a film that audiences
would never see.

(screams)

(announcer) The bitch is back.

No!

It's here!

(man) Run as fast as you can!

Ripley!

(announcer) Alien 3.

(narrator) At a final
production cost of $50 million,

Alien 3 brought in a disappointing
$55 million at the box office.

3 was not much liked in America. I
think people were disappointed in it.

I don't know if it was
too cold of a movie.

People walked out of that
theater like "Oh, man." You know:

It was like... Probably
like having a party at Attica.

(Gillie) From what I understand,
however, in Europe and the U.K.,

the film was much
more warmly received

because the people
were interested

in some of the subtext
that was going on there.

And I think over time,
it has done quite well.

It ended up doing as
well as the rest of them:

but it did it in
different places.

(narrator) Although many fans criticized
Alien 3 for its downbeat ending,

the film was rewarded
for its unique style

with an Oscar nomination
for best visual effects of 1993.

Concerned that the future

of their once-lucrative Alien
franchise was in jeopardy,

Fox quickly began
developing another Alien script.

But with Ellen Ripley dead,
where else could the story go?

(narrator) In 1993, 20th Century Fox
hired 29-year-old screenwriter Jess Whedon

to map out a fourth Alien movie.

The young writer had already
made a name for himself

creating the hit film
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I wrote a treatment, and
they said ”This is interesting."

"We'd like maybe to make this,

but you have to put
Sigourney Weaver in it."

Because originally,
she had been dead.

And so I wrote a completely new
one: and that became the script.

In order to solve the dilemma created by
Ellen Ripley's death in the previous film,

Whedon created a whole new character
by bringing Ripley back as a clone.

I didn't expect to like it.

I expected really just to say "It's fine:
go ahead and make a movie without me."

But I didn't realize I would be brought
back from the dead against my will

and that they
would've screwed it up

so that, in fact, I wasn't
playing Ripley anymore,

I was playing some
new and improved Ripley.

In addition to the promise
offered by playing a new character,

Fox also lured Weaver
with an $11 million paycheck

plus a percentage of the film's
gross profits and co-producer credit.

Let me see the rehearsal.

French filmmaker
Jean-Pierre Jeunet,

the man behind the critically acclaimed films
Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children,

was hired even though he had never
before helmed an English-language film.

He didn't really speak
any English at all,

and I thought that would
be tough: you know,

to make a movie in
someone else's language.

But there was something about
him and he loved the Alien series,

and so in the end, I thought
it was a very good choice.

Winona Ryder was cast
as mechanic Annalee Call

in hopes that her character might help
lure a fresh, young audience into theaters.

Rounding out the cast were a
team of established character actors,

including Ron Per/man,
Dan He day a and Brad Dourif.

We weren't handed a
script. Nobody got a script.

We got, you know, one
of those shot-by-shot...

That has dialogue in it,

but you basically see
drawings of the frames.

And that was strange.

- (man) Take two.
- Action.

(narrator) When Alien Resurrection
began shooting in November of 1996,

it became the first
of the Alien movies

to be filmed at the 20th Century
Fox studios in Los Angeles.

(man 2) Drop your weapons
or I blow his head off!

The soul of the piece is
her process of waking up,

finding out she's alive,
and finding out who she is

and if she's what she was, and
if hot, is she still strictly human?

And so that sort of ..

The whole movie revolved
around Ripley's problem.

Ellen Ripley died 200 years ago.

You're mother.

I'm not her'?

(sighs)

- Who am I?
- You're a thing, a construct.

They grew you in a lab.

And now they
brought it out of you.

Not all the way out.

I felt that she should kind of be
as if someone had put, you know,

like, super-octane
gas inside of her.

(grunting)

(narrator) To show off Ripley's
new found dexterity and strength,

Joss Whedon devised a scene

in which the genetic a fly engineered
character confronts the smugglers.

(grunting)

The scene was to end with
Ripley making a half-com shot

with her back to the basket -

a shot Sigourney Weaver
wanted to make herself

without the aid of camera
tricks and special effects.

Well, we try and
we try and we try,

and there is just no
way that this basketball

is gonna go anywhere
near to in the basket.

After nearly a full
day of shooting,

Jeunet told Weaver she had
one more chance to make the shot.

You know, the crew just
exploded with cheers and screams,

and to my absolute astonishment
you know, I had gotten a basket.

You know, it was just swish.

Something of a
predator, isn't she?

Yes, she continues to
make us all very proud.

Jean-Pierre said "Well, yes, but you
know, it left the frame for a second,

so no one will think
you got the basket."

And I said "Yes, they will

because I'm gonna tell everybody
lever meet that I got this basket."

(narrator) Of course, Ellen Ripley
wasn't the only character in the film

to be affected by the
genetic engineering.

The aliens are now more vicious
and cunning than ever before.

(screeching)

What we wanted to do was to
make the creature look more ferocious

and more aggressive.

We really sloped the forehead
back and moved the chin forward

so they look more evil.

(roars)

We gave it the
triple-jointed leg

but also a tail with a sort
of blade-like structure to it

that would allow it to swim.

So we made a number of changes that:
hopefully, you know, improved the look of it

without making it
unrecognizable from the first film.

I heard you, like, ran
into these things before.

That's right.

(Johner) So, like,
what did you do?

I died.

(narrator) in one of the most
disturbing sequences in the film,

Ripley confronts the
horrors of her own cloning.

There, in front of her,

are the fatted efforts of the
scientists to bring her back to life.

(Weaver) The clone
situation was really amazing.

I love it when it can
really get into science

and take, you know, the audience to
places that we can only dream about.

Then I think it really works.

The clones were sculpted by
Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.

from molds taken
of Sigourney Weaver.

(Gillie) She was the one
who wanted to put herself

into these positions as a clone

where she would just
look absolutely horrible.

She has no problem getting
down and dirty and slimy and grimy.

Kill me.

(crying)

(narrator) One of the most physically
challenging moments in the movie

was the underwater sequence

for which a special 36-foot-deep
tank was constructed.

(Gillie) Very complicated
scene to shoot.

We must have
been there for weeks.

There was always
an issue of safety.

- You ready to get wet, partner?
- Yeah.

(Weaver) Some people were able to stay
down and have some air and keep going,

but I always had to come up.

So that was certainly, for me, the
most frightening thing I'd ever done.

I mean, I've dealt with fire and
explosives, and, you know, it's fine,

but the underwater
thing was creepy.

(narrator) The sequence was
especially frightening for Winona Ryder,

who had a dread fear of water
after nearly drowning at age 12.

Although she spent weeks
working on the underwater scenes

and training with divers, Ryder
found the experience terrifying.

(man) Panic, panic.
Cut, cut. Get 'em.

Safety divers were especially
important for Tom Woodruff Jr.,

who had to perform
underwater in the alien suit.

Remember, he's blind,
so we have to help him in.

Unable to see through
the cumbersome mask

and burdened by
the heavy costume,

Woodruff could not surface
even in an emergency.

Between shots, safety
divers fed the actor air,

but during each take,
he was on his own,

holding his breath for up
to two minutes at a time.

- (man) We're still rolling.
- During one take, he nearly drowned.

(Woodruff) And the shot's over, and
Pm just in the dark, I'm just waiting.

I have my hand
up, my safety signal

And I'm waiting and
waiting. I'm thinking

"I know I can hold my breath.
How long can I hold my breath?"

And I'm just thinking of all this stuff.
I'm thinking "it's taking way too long."

And then, finally, the safety diver's
there to put the mouthpiece in.

(narrator) Ultimately, Woodruff's creature
was augmented by digital animation

courtesy of Blue Sky Studios.

Blue Sky's animators patterned
the underwater alien's movements

on reference footage
of sea Iguanas.

They wanted to
create the impression

that the alien was propelling
itself forward with its tail.

But as ingenious as
the underwater alien was,

Jeunet's most notable contribution
to the alien's onscreen evolution

was the sequence in which Ripley
and her alien-queen counterpart

share the birth of
the new alien child.

(screeching)

(roars)

Half human, half alien,

the mutant child is a fearsome
and loathsome creature to behold.

(Weaver) I felt because they have this
bond - sort of mother-child whatever -

that there would be this
immense tenderness between them

that was also erotic, that was
sort of in that questionable area.

Mostly tenderness, but
because it was tenderness

it would seem, you know, like you
couldn't get enough of each other,

I think the way you
do feel about a baby.

The last thing she wanted

would be for this creature to
fall into the wrong hands, to be...

Land on Earth and be
put in some horrible place

and experimented with.

80, you know, in an odd
way, she's doing it to save him.

(sizzling)

(screeching)

(screaming)

(narrator) With stunning
visuals, a fresh script,

and two leading female stars,

Fox had high hopes
for Alien Resurrection

I think it stands up.
People on the street loved it.

It was so full of surprises

and kind of juicy
characters and stuff.

The film earned $160
million worldwide,

a promising improvement
over the third installment,

but disappointing enough

to call the future of the
Alien franchise into question.

Since the premiere of
the first Alien film in 1979,

the Alien franchise has grossed
$600 million at the box office.

There's that equipoise
between the great human forces

of the fear of going
into the unknown

and the curiosity to see what's in
there, what's around that corner:

what's in that shadow.

They are still scary.

I don't know, it touches some
kind of, you know, visceral note.

(Weaver) I really have
to thank Ridley Scott

for giving us that kind
of gritty, real beginning.

I think he transformed the way
we look at space completely.

And M's been a fantastic
opportunity for me as an actor

to be able to come back to
a role with more experience

and a different perspective
and a different kind of hunger

It's been a good gig,
you know. (laughs)

(narrator) The Alien saga
fives on through home videos,

books, graphic novels
and video games.

Studio executives even
considered the possibility

of making an Alien
vs. Predator movie.

(announcer) The deadliest
creatures in the universe

will meet their match:

each other.

Fox is talking about making.

They wanna make
Alien vs. Predator,

which, to me, is like Godzilla
and Mothra or something.

(announcer) "Aliens vs.
Predator" from Fox Interactive.

(narrator) The advent of
digital video technology

has allowed the director's
original vision to be examined,

evaluated...

Dallas?

Wand appreciated.

(screams)

But for the loyal fans of the Alien
saga, four films just aren't enough.

They clamor for a fifth movie.

In February 2001,

rumors of Alien 5 hit
the mainstream press

and quickly traveled the globe.

Suddenly, people will
ask me about Alien 5.

They were quite delighted.
I was a bit surprised.

But as always, developing
the right storyline is key,

and nearly everyone
involved in the series

seems to have their own ideas
about where the franchise should go.

I think what was interesting
that was touched on in Alien 4

was this idea of mixing
of human and alien DNA.

(Weaver) There is something about
it that feels a little unfinished to me

because I don't know
which side was gonna Wm,

for instance, with Ripley.

I always felt that to
really finish the series,

you'd have to go back to the
planet from which the alien originated

and get rid of it at the source.

Who are you?

I'm the monster's mother.

(Woodruff) What draws the
audience? I think it's Ripley.

I think it's Sigourney Weaver playing
Ripley that brings people to see the films.

Get away from her, you bitch!

(snarls)

Is there more to be mined
from the whole thing?

Probably there is.

And do I sometimes
miss science fiction? I do.

You know, I love getting
dirty and rolling around in slime

and stuff like that and...

80, you know, I said no
like 50,000 times before:

and now I've sort of
learned not to do that,

cos it is science fiction
and anything can happen.

What happens now?

I don't know.

I'm a stranger here myself.

(narrator) Four films.

Four separate experiences
in science fiction,

action-adventure and terror.

Alien conjures our
worst nightmares

and preys on our deepest fears.

It burst upon the big screen
and seized our imaginations.

And now it lurks
in our living rooms,

always ready to strike again.

(man) Running dry.
Ready'? And action.

- (man) Oh, yeah.
- (Weaver) Okay, back on.

(laughter)