Sigourney Weaver talks Alien 5... again...

[Reverend]

On the subject of the extra scenes in Aliens, I feel like learning about Ripley's daughter is incredibly essential to understanding Ripley, what she's lost, what motivates her, why the time she lost in cryosleep matters, why Newt comes to matter so much to her so quickly, and especially why the maternal bond she has with the aliens in Alien Resurrection is meaningful. It adds a new layer of depth and pathos to Ripley that makes her a deeper more developed character.

Those scenes make the film *better*, but they're not what I'd call "essential". If they were, then the Theatrical Cut would be rubbish, which it isn't.
For example, yes, knowing about her daughter gives you a deeper understanding of Ripley's motivations. However, not knowing doesn't make her actions non-nonsensical. The nightmares, trauma, need for closure and general concern for the families out there is sufficient.
As I said, Cameron knows where to cut a film without ruining it. Where what Scott did to Prometheus felt more like butchery, Cameron's cut of Aliens was more like micro surgery.

^By that point, the human genome would have been mapped for the best part of half of a millennium. I don't think any competent geneticist would have trouble distinguishing between human and alien DNS strands.

The only thing that makes any kind of sense is that Ripley's DNA was already mutated when she was ejected from the Sulaco.

I assumed there was some kind of damage or deterioration of her DNA and that of the alien but it's only one of the many flaws the movie had to explain why/how they needed her DNA to get the Xenomorph DNA in the first place.

Like I said, even fragmented, I can't see them mistaking one for the other unless they've been fused together. That's not something that happens spontaneously.
Besides, in light of what we've since seen in Prometheus, that seems entirely consistent with the technology.

I can't see the Engineers offering them much in the way of good sport.

Well unless the create some good sport for them, I mean they did create the Aliens so they could probably create even more horrific things.

While their motivations are obscure, I can't see them having a reason to do that. Hell, for all we know, they created the Predators too. They've certainly been around long enough and it'd account for a third race with the same basic humanoid shape....that is *if* I thought they exist, which I don't.

 

[Candlelight]

yeah, the first time I saw Aliens Special Edition I was totally blown away. It completely changed Ripley's character, giving her so much more depth and meaning.

There is only one additional scene plus a few extra lines of dialogue in the special edition, plus a few other minor sequences that didn't appear in the special edition either that feature the mother/daughter arc.

It doesn't really add *that* much to her character.

(for those that don't know, the scenes can be found on the Anthology Blu-Ray release, details can be found here)

 

[Deckerd]

I didn't think it added anything to her character at all.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I can't see the Engineers offering them much in the way of good sport.

Well unless the create some good sport for them, I mean they did create the Aliens so they could probably create even more horrific things.

While their motivations are obscure, I can't see them having a reason to do that.

I would think wanting to test the effectiveness of their bio-engineered killing machines would be a good one.

 

[Reverend]

Well unless the create some good sport for them, I mean they did create the Aliens so they could probably create even more horrific things.

While their motivations are obscure, I can't see them having a reason to do that.

I would think wanting to test the effectiveness of their bio-engineered killing machines would be a good one.

Given that their biological killing machines managed to breach containment and kill *them* on at least two occasions, I'd say their effectiveness is already fairly well tested. Indeed, if anything needs further testing it's their control and containment systems.

 

[borgboy]

There's a video game, Alien:Isolation, coming out soon, with Ripley's daughter Amanda as the lead character. It looks and sounds pretty good.

http://www.alienisolation.com/en_us/

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Wonder if they'll work that special edition scene into the game somehow, apart from the character that is.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Still, while the Xenos may or may not have been specifically designed with humanity in mind, the black goo (an apparently related, possibly more advanced technology) was clearly intended for deployment on Earth. That's kind of the point of the film.

I think it was on a far grander scale. The black goo was in thousands of those cannisters, scattered throughout the ship and the installation. I got the impression that the Engineers were into seeding the entire galaxy with their DNA, hence the comprehensive star maps and astrogation systems. I liken them to the Preservers or "The Chase" aliens in Trek. But the goo would not just be used to create life, it could also destroy it, much like the Genesis Torpedo, but not quite so mechanical.

Like with families in the 19th century and prior, they had a lot of kids assuming a handfull would die off by various means; the Engineers would seed thousands of seemingly compatible worlds, assuming that most life they started would die off, but a handfull like we humans might survive, find the signs and messages they left behind and maybe one day be advanced enough to return home. Putting all their eggs in one basket (Earth) doesn't make any sense, considering the scope of what they were doing. The staggering amount of research that it must have taken to create something like the black goo (or black oil, to borrow from an X-Files plot device with a startlingly similar purpose - coincidence?) that instantly breaks down and recombines ecosystem-compatible DNA could not have been all for just one experiment on our world.

Re: The Predators, they may or may not be Engineer creations, as they are recognizably humanoid - insofar as they have 2 arms, 2 legs, a head and all that comes with it, but the comparitively harsh conditions of their world sent the evolution of their DNA in a vastly different direction than we took.

I, too, had heard of rumors that Ridley Scott might want Blade Runner and the whole Alien/Prometheus thing to be in the same universe. By that logic, and based on Ed Olmos' comments, NuBattlestar Galactica could be tied in (with Adama being Gav's long-distant ancestor and Replicants being our world's next generation of Cylons), all in the same universe. All very convoluted, at that point.

 

[Reverend]

Wonder if they'll work that special edition scene into the game somehow, apart from the character that is.

Hard to see how. The scene is just Burke telling Ripley that her daughter died from cancer, childless and only in her 60's. Not really something they can use considering the game is about Amanda as a young woman trying to find out what happened to her mother.

Still, while the Xenos may or may not have been specifically designed with humanity in mind, the black goo (an apparently related, possibly more advanced technology) was clearly intended for deployment on Earth. That's kind of the point of the film.

I think it was on a far grander scale. The black goo was in thousands of those cannisters, scattered throughout the ship and the installation. I got the impression that the Engineers were into seeding the entire galaxy with their DNA, hence the comprehensive star maps and astrogation systems. I liken them to the Preservers or "The Chase" aliens in Trek. But the goo would not just be used to create life, it could also destroy it, much like the Genesis Torpedo, but not quite so mechanical.

Like with families in the 19th century and prior, they had a lot of kids assuming a handfull would die off by various means; the Engineers would seed thousands of seemingly compatible worlds, assuming that most life they started would die off, but a handfull like we humans might survive, find the signs and messages they left behind and maybe one day be advanced enough to return home. Putting all their eggs in one basket (Earth) doesn't make any sense, considering the scope of what they were doing. The staggering amount of research that it must have taken to create something like the black goo (or black oil, to borrow from an X-Files plot device with a startlingly similar purpose - coincidence?) that instantly breaks down and recombines ecosystem-compatible DNA could not have been all for just one experiment on our world.

Re: The Predators, they may or may not be Engineer creations, as they are recognizably humanoid - insofar as they have 2 arms, 2 legs, a head and all that comes with it, but the comparitively harsh conditions of their world sent the evolution of their DNA in a vastly different direction than we took.

I, too, had heard of rumors that Ridley Scott might want Blade Runner and the whole Alien/Prometheus thing to be in the same universe. By that logic, and based on Ed Olmos' comments, NuBattlestar Galactica could be tied in (with Adama being Gav's long-distant ancestor and Replicants being our world's next generation of Cylons), all in the same universe. All very convoluted, at that point.

Well if you desperately needed to tie those things together then the humans of Kobol would be another world seeded by the engineers, which means it wasn't a total co-incidence that the Colonials found a world with a near identical species of humans....but that's really stretching things.

The Blade Runner connection is much easier to make. Indeed I think there was an easter egg/in-joke buried in the promotional material for Prometheus that has Weyland being mentored in his youth by Tyrell and that he deliberately took a different tack with his androids vs. Tyrell's replicants.

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ I think Ed Olmos was angling for a BSG/Blade Runner spinoff, myself, or at trying to secure his position in a new Blade Runner movie. Man's gotta eat...

 

[Reverend]

Meh. It's all rather redundant considering everything already exists within the imagination of Tommy Westphall anyway.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Meh. It's all rather redundant considering everything already exists within the imagination of Brother Benny.

Fixed that.

 

[Reverend]

Who the what-now?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's real!!!!!111!!!!1111

Tempted as I am to post the It's a Fake vs It's Real video, I shan't succumb.

Benny Russell

 

[Reverend]

Pretty telling how long it's been since I've bothered watching any Trek that I *totally* blanked on that.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Heh.

 

[Reverend]

^"Have an edge"? Did you even see 'Aliens'? They got their arses kicked up one side and down the other!

Also, that sounds like a horribly derivative plot in a boring and contrived setting...so it'd be perfect for an AvP moive!

 

[Reverend]

^You're absolutely right of course. After that first sneak attack they knew exactly what they were dealing with so they dug in...and all got slaughtered again! But at least a few centuries later, a whole cruiser full of well armed solders knew full well what they had on board so when a mere handful of the things got loose...they all ran away or were slaughtered. Hmm. I'm sensing a pattern.

 

[Tiberius]

^You're absolutely right of course. After that first sneak attack they knew exactly what they were dealing with so they dug in...and all got slaughtered again! But at least a few centuries later, a whole cruiser full of well armed solders knew full well what they had on board so when a mere handful of the things got loose...they all ran away or were slaughtered. Hmm. I'm sensing a pattern.

They were still unprepared, because they lost all their supplies after the dropship crashed and destroyed the APV.

If they knew what they were facing and were able to develop proper tactics to face the zenomorphs, then they would have kicked arse. Which they would have done with the nuke from orbit tactic.

 

[Reverend]

^What are they now, Batman? "Given time to prepare"? Nah. They were outnumbered, out thought and out gunned despite the aliens not actually having any guns. They were swarmed. That's the strength of the Xenos. They infest. They hunt. They stay hidden and then they kill all the things.

Anyway, pretty sure that a nuke would work on a Predator too (hell, they'll do it themselves given half a chance) which was kinda the point of the argument. Hell, nuking from orbit works on just about anything.

Also, none of that applies to the crew of the Auriga. Fully equipped military force (numbering around 50 IIRC) that knew what they had. All slaughtered seemingly in minutes. They barely even put up a fight.