Alien(s)
- Thread starter UncleRogi
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I'd ignore 3 and 4 and go for a "continuing story" from 2. There's a bit where one of the Company suits says something about planets being terraformed and no hostile lifeforms being found. Well maybe they go to another planet and find some... like the Aliens home planet maybe?
Are these creatures natural, or genetically modified? And if so, who and why...?
Are these creatures natural, or genetically modified? And if so, who and why...?
I think he should ignore The Last Stand.
I thought he was doing a remake, and not a straight sequel.
If so, he shouldn't ignore any of the films. They may suck, but the average moviegoer is not going to understand what is going on if he ignores some movies and not others.
If so, he shouldn't ignore any of the films. They may suck, but the average moviegoer is not going to understand what is going on if he ignores some movies and not others.
Neither, actually. He's just making a new movie that may or may not be loosely related to the Alien saga.
I agree. I hate the idea of ignoring movies in a series. I would much rather a clever writer find a way to "repair" whatever they think needs fixing while still continuing with the same story.
Isn't the new movie reckoned to provide more background on the alien race to which the mummified pilot of the derelict in Alien belonged - the so-called "space jockey"? 30 years ago, I might have thought that was a neat idea - now, I just think wtf are they smoking? Here's hoping it won't suck.
It would be good to have a fifth and final movie, and maybe Prometheus will give Fox a go-ahead to commission it. Sigourney may be keen, but I think they should keep with tradition and have a different director. Ridley Scott is great at what he does but get someone else to add their direction to it.
And yeah, it should be final and deal with the Alien homeworld (or basically their origin).
And yeah, it should be final and deal with the Alien homeworld (or basically their origin).
I'm pretty sure that's just a fan theory.
Ripley's story should have finished with Aliens. She was a great character, one of the greatest movie heroines but their decision to wipe out all her achievements in Alien3 was horribly misguided. If they'd accepted sooner that the movies are about the aliens, not about Ripley, the franchise could have chugged along quite happily for years.
The ease of continuing the story in a non-convoluted way depends on whether you think Ripley is an essential character to the continuing film franchise or not.
If you think it would do okay without her, you can just tell a pretty straightforward story set between 'Alien 3' & 'Resurrection' where Weyland-Yutani is still looking for new sources of Xenomorphs for their bioweapons research division. Eventually they find some after a long search, either on the Xenomorph's homeworld or in a destroyed breeding facility of the Space Jockeys (who perhaps created them to conquer other species before they turned on their masters). They steal the Xenomorph eggs they need, nuke the planet to maintain their exclusive ownership of the alien biotech, and take their spoils back to Earth for further research and development.
As always, the Xenomorphs eventually get loose, and over the course of one or more films with new heroes and villains you can finally fulfill the promise of Alien 3's teaser trailer by having the aliens destroy Earth. This explains why Weyland-Yutani is a non-entity whose research was bought by the military in Resurrection, and why Earth is a "shithole" that was either mostly or completely destroyed in the extended edition (see Paris below). Presumably the entire planet was nuked to prevent the aliens from escaping the hive-covered surface by stowing away on refugee ships trying to leave quarantine.
If you do think Ripley is essential to continuing the story, it gets a lot more difficult, since you have to justify her presence through more convoluted means.
I'd keep the same general premise as above, but alter it to say that the Space Jockey's ship (barely) survived the nuke explosion on the surface of LV-426. The egg chamber survived, and having a telepathic connection to their Queen, the Facehuggers recognize Ripley as the slayer of their Queen. Weyland-Yutani realizes that they can use this to motivate the aliens to attack on command, so they create a Synthetic Ripley using her downloaded memories and consciousness from the abandoned hypersleep chamber (used to give the occupants lucid dreams) escape pod recovered on Fiorina "Fury" 161 after Alien 3.
This Ripley is a new breed of Synthetic that doesn't realize what they are and are biologically indistinguishable from humans except at the molecular level where the nanites that house their distributed processors are, but even these conceal themselves from scans and appear to be normal cells. It's the same type of android Charles Bishop Weyland has been using to stay alive, in addition to the digital memory transfer reverse engineered from the Predator ships and tech which has kept his consciousness intact for centuries (from the modern era of AvP). These Synthetics have the full range of emotions, age normally, can reproduce, and are not subject to the Three Laws of Robotics like the Bishop android was. It can be implied that they eventually become the "machines building machines" that rebelled against their human masters and gave rise to the Autons like Call in Resurrection.
To keep nuRipley tied to Earth in case they need her for the future, they also create Synthetic Replicants of Newt and Hicks so they can live as a family on Earth. Over a period of 25 years (to age them with the actors) while Weyland-Yutani is conducting their research and building an army of Xenomorphs, they live their lives unaware of what's going on. Newt/Rebecca is now an adult with kids of her own, and Hicks and Ripley are an older married couple. That's when Weyland-Yutani finally comes for Ripley and kidnaps her to use her to motivate their alien army to conquer the Arturians or Space Jockeys or one of the other species mentioned in the series who Earth is about to go to war with.
Of course, things go wrong, aliens are released on Earth, yada yada yada (see above). You could use this as a transition film to have whatever actor is playing adult Newt take on the role as the new heroine of the succeeding films, replacing Ripley partially or completely. Like I said, it's a lot more convoluted that way, and it's much easier to just go ahead without Ripley's character, but that might be a hard sell to producers and audiences alike.
I think Ripley's importance to the story really depends on the story you want to tell. If you want to tell a Ripley, you shouldn't ignore the things that have happened to Ripley in the other movies just because you don't like them. If you want to tell an Alien story without Ripley, that's fine, too.
In my opinion, the Alien movies can be broken down thus:
The Ripley Saga
The Alien vs. Predator Saga (ugh)
If you want to introduce another series or some standalone movies to the franchise, I'm all for it. It would just be another part of the universe. I mean, even the Ripley saga takes place over several hundred years. There's plenty of Xenomorphy goodness that might have happened while she was in hypersleep.
In my opinion, the Alien movies can be broken down thus:
The Ripley Saga
The Alien vs. Predator Saga (ugh)
If you want to introduce another series or some standalone movies to the franchise, I'm all for it. It would just be another part of the universe. I mean, even the Ripley saga takes place over several hundred years. There's plenty of Xenomorphy goodness that might have happened while she was in hypersleep.
Amen!As for Ridley I think he should just leave Ripley alone and solve the mystery of the derelict with a fresh set of characters
Bleugh! I much prefer Alien 3 to that! The Alien series was never about happy endings, which is why Aliens sticks out like a sore thumb.
Hicks and Newt had to die. Only way forward.
Except in the first movie, when the most likable character (plus cat) survives, and the second movie, where the three most likable characters (plus part of Bishop) survive...
Except in the first movie, when the most likable character (plus cat) survives, and the second movie, where the three most likable characters (plus part of Bishop) survive...
It should be Ripley surviving by herself. Bishop and Hicks should've died. Or maybe Newt too; that would've really torn Ripley's sack.
Besides, Kane was the most likeable character in Alien; it's just that he died first meant we never really got to know him.
You are Joss Whedon, and I claim my five pounds.
No, Joss Whedon can write unlike the morons behind Alien3, that's why in four he gives Ripley her happy ending, she get's her ship, little girl and crew/pseudo family all back. And becomes the female version of Mal Reynolds
How much of Whedon's script actually ended being filmed for Alien Resurrection as opposed to the other credited writers? He does have a reputation for putting his characters through the grinder just when they think they're home free.
What does this even mean?
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