Alien Resurrection (1997)

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 The title card

Plot Synopsis

 Alien Resurrection begins with a horrifying montage of distorted teeth and various body parts that don’t seem to fit together.

The USM Auriga is a huge medical research facility used primarily by the United systems military. Inside one of it’s labs we see a clone of Ripley suspended in a gaint test tube. The scientist’s aboard the research ship perform surgery on the cloned Ripley to pull out the alien queen embryo within Ripley. Dr. Gediman(Brad Dourif) asks the head doctor, Wren(J.E. Freeman) if they are to keep the host, Ripley. Wren finds nothing wrong with that and they lock her up.

Ripley wakes up and finds the scar on her chest ad the number eight tattooed on her arm. Gediman examines Ripley as Wren walks in. They discover that her scar tissue is healing at an extreme rate. However Ripley attempts to kill Wren with her abnormal strength, the only thing that saved him was the guard just outside the door.

While they test Ripley’s cognitive skills Wren and Gedimen convince General Perez(Dan Hedaya) that she isn’t a threat even though she has some memories about what happened in the real Ripley’s past. Perez is more interested in the alien Queen that has already started laying eggs.

In the mess hall a chained up Ripley and Gediman talk about her origins. She tells him that she knows that they queen is alive. Wren joins them and tries to explain that they can domesticate the aliens. Ripley warns them that everyone will die if they do not leave.

The Betty carries a rag tag team of six members. As she approaches the military ship the crew prepares. Elgyn(Michael Wincott) helps Christie(Gary Dourdan) install his hidden guns incase there is trouble aboard the military ship. They dock with the massive military ship. As they walk on board they are scanned for weapons including Vriess(Dominique Pinon) who is disabled and has a electronic wheelchair.

In Perez’s office Elgyn makes they exchange with money and the Betty’s mysterious cargo. As Elgyn nogiates for a couple of days aboard the military vessel Call(Winona Ryder), a number member of the Betty, helps unload the cargo, frozen human bodies. The bodies are unfrozen and strung up in front of eggs to be implanted by the Facehuggers.

In the basketball room Johner(Ron Perlman) encounters Ripley. However when Johner becomes to aggressive she fights back. The rest of the Betty’s crew try to help downed mate but she takes them out easily. The small amount of blood from Ripley lands on the ground and begins to eat through it like acid.

That night the Betty’s crew relaxes as Gediman looks over the newly born aliens. He learns that the aliens are able to recognize the concept that the button to their cages will hurt them if they are unruly.

 Call

Johner and Christie kick Call out after she spills their drinks. She sneaks through the ship and hacks into Ripley’s cage. She pulls out a knife to kill Ripley but doesn’t bother when she realizes the queen has already been taken out. Call offers to stop Ripley’s suffering but she says that she isn’t in any pain and stabs her own hand. Ripley tells Call that she can feel the queen on board. However Call is captured by the military.

Wren rounds up the rest of the Betty’s crew. When Wren threatens all of their lives Christie breaks out his guns and a fire fight ensues. The only surviving soldier is Distephano(Raymond Cruz). Elgyn demands an explanation from Call.

Meanwhile the aliens kill one of their own to use it’s acid to escape their cages. When Gediman enters the cage to investigate he is pulled down by one of the aliens.

Call tries to convince her crew mates that Wren is breeding a highly dangerous alien race and she came to stop him. With the alarms going off about the aliens escaping they gather what weapons they can and leave.

As the military evacutes the ship and alien starts banging on the door to get to Ripley. Alone Vriess constructs a shotgun out of his chair and defends himself against one of the aliens. Ripley cuts her self and uses the blood to short circuit a door and escapes as well. After Perez sacrifices some of his troops to kill an alien another one rips open Perez’s skull.

As the Betty’s crew makes a run for their ship Elgyn see’s a abandoned pulse rifle down a hall way and follows it alone. However an alien grabs him from below and rips off his lower half. As the rest of the crew try to save him an alien appears behind them. They get their first glimpse of an alien. Stuck in a dead end the crew scramble to open a door before the alien gets them. But when the alien senses something it turns around and investigates. Ripley puts a shotgun in the aliens mouth and saves the crew. The crew doesn’t have a problem with Ripley joining them but Call complains saying that Ripley can’t be trusted. They ignore Call and continue on to the Betty.

As they continue on Vriess joins back up with the crew. When Ripley tells everyone that the ship is moving Distphanos and Wren say that the emergency procedure is to fly the ship to Earth. Call says that they have to blow up the ship first and then leave. 

Out of the corner of her eye Ripley sees a door labeled 1-7. Inside are the seven clones that came before her. Number 7 begs for her life. Ripley takes a flamethower and burns everything inside.

As the ship passes Jupiter the crew pases through the Facehugger room. They find all the humans dead with huge holes in their chests. They find one of them still alive named Purvis(Leland Orser). Ripley warns everyone that he has an alien embryo inside of him. Call agrues that they have time to get Purvis to the Betty and freeze him before it’s too late.

They make their way to the kitchen which is flooded with coolant. It’s the only way to get to the elevator to the Betty. Everyone dives down but the aliens follow swimming effortlessly through the water.

They make it to the elevator but it is sealed over by alien by product. Just outside are eggs wating for them. The aliens knew the plan. Christie bounces a couple of grenades into the shaft killing the alien eggs.

Wren is the first to make it to the door up the shaft and shoots Call in the stomach. Wren opens the door and leaves locking it behind him. With an alien right on top of them Christie sacrifices himself so they rest can get away. Just in time Call magically appears and opens the door from the other side saving everyone.

Safe for a moment Call reveals that she is a second generation android, built by other androids. With all the doors locked Ripley convinces Call to hack into the ships computer and activate the self destruct and open a safe path to the Betty. Call locates Wren and locks him out of the computer, she then broadcasts his location over the ship sending the aliens after him.

As they make their way to the Betty Ripley tells them that they are near the alien nest. As they make a run for it Ripley stays behind because she can feel the Queen is in pain.

Everyone makes it to the Betty including Wren who takes Vriess as a hostage. Purvis starts to feel his Chestburster coming threw and uses it to kill Wren.

In the nest Gediman is still alive and explains that the alien Queen is part human as well and is trying to give a live birth to a new alien species. The queen gives birth and turns on the queen killing her. The hybrid turns to Ripley and recognizes her as the mother. Distracted by Gediman the hybrid is pulled away from Ripley who makes her escape to the Betty.

Before they can take off the hatch is still open. Call goes to the cargo bay and tries to close it but the Hybrid ambushes her. As the ship hits turbelence Call escape the Hybrid. As they fall to earth Distephano goes to the cargo bay to help with fixing the ship but is killed by the Hybrid.

Ripley stops piloting and realizes that they Hybrid is on board. She uses the fact that the Hybrid thinks of Ripley as a mother and distracts it. She cuts her self and flings the blood onto a window. The acid blood eats through the window and sucks the Hybrid out.

As the military ship bows up impacting the earths atmosphere Call and Ripley watch the sun rise on the blue planet.   

The making of Alien Resurrection

 Pre Production

At first David Giler and Walter Hill outspokenly opposed the making of Alien 4 and actively tried to shut down the production. Neither of the producers where even aware that Whedon had written a script for Fox. Once they read the script the two producers that it would ruin the franchise forever.

Winona Ryder signed on even before Weaver did and was very happy about working with Weaver and being in a new Alien film.

All they needed now was a director to head up Alien Resurrection. First up was Danny Boyle, but Boyle wasn’t interested in the project. Second was actually Peter Jackson however he wasn’t interested in the Alien franchise anymore. After the Usual Suspects Bryan Singer was also approached but declined the opportunity.

Finally Jean-Pierre Jeunet was signed on to take the reigns. At first he thought the franchise was over and another sequel was not a good idea. At the meeting Jeunet asked why the studio wanted him. He didn’t want to make Hollywood films and Jeunet felt that Alien Resurrection was exactly that. Jeunet was honored that they had chosen them and was finally convinced to do the project. Jeunet took the idea that he would just be directing a very long commercial and would give the studio exactly what they wanted.

Whedon and Jeunet collaborated on the ending of the film which had many parts that were impossible to shoot. After going through several versions of the end the two of them agreed on what ended up on screen.

To make the film Jeunet brought most of his team from France over to LA to work on the film which included a visual effects supervisor, Pitof, an editor, Herve Schneid, and cinematographer, Darius Khondji. Jeunet also wanted his art director, Marc Caro, but he felt that the art deco Jules Verne style would not go over well with the studio. Caro was still asked to came out and design some of the costumes. Bob Ringwood, the costume designer, used many of Caro’s designs.

Jeunet also wanted to come back to H.R. Giger’s original designs. Copies of Giger’s book was given to the cast and crew. Jeunet’s biggest worry was the injection of humor into a series that had always taken itself very seriously.

Many of the sets where designed by Nigel Migel who made the sets so that they could be lit very easily. Fox was very proud of the sets and constantly brought their VIP’s through the set.

Due a lot of high budget films being made in LA it was very difficult to find stages to shoot the film.

Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis’s production studio handled Alien 3 and were brought on for Alien Resurrection. They changed the design of the aliens slightly so the creatures were able to fulfill the needs of the story. For example the tail was changed to give the alien a tool to swim with. They also helped create the hybrid and the various clones that are seen in the film.

Production

The first sequence that was shoot was the underwater sequence. The big concern was of course getting oxygen to the actors. All the actors had to be scuba trained before anyone get to the set pool. Pete Romano was the head photographer for the underwater shots. Instead of moving the production to San Diego they built Fox a brand new set with a tank in it. The set ended up being around fifty yards long. Romano built the first ever underwater florescent light boxes. It took around three weeks to shoot the entire scene. 

Ernie Orsatti was the stunt coordinator on the film and was instrumental on making all the underwater stunts work and insured the safety of everyone involved. Even with all the safety precautions there were several times where the actors were left without air. Thankfully everyone was watching out for each other.

Once again Tom Woodruff was the man in the suit but this time he had to do it underwater. Without the use of his hands Woodruff’s safety diver had to put the breather directly into his mouth. The suit also cut off Woodruff’s other senses and he had to complete trust the safety divers.

During the basketball scene Weaver wanted to make the behind the back shot herself. Since Weaver didn’t make the shot during rehearsel they decided to CGI the ball going into the net. On the day of filming the scene Weaver took the shot and made it in the first take. The entire crew and cast went nuts and nearly ruined the shot.

The New Born puppet was one of the most complicated puppet that was built up to that date. Jeunet wanted the New Born to actually seem like a character and wanted his face to be expressive. Originally the New Born had reproductive organs but in the end it was too much and they had to digitally remove them.

Post Production

John Frizzell was picked to score the film even though he had very little experience. Frizzell tried to bring an element from the all the films previous scores into Alien Resurrection. He also felt the film had a lot of eroticism in it and brought that to his score as well. He took about seven months to write the full score even though Frizzell began writing pieces as the dailies for the film came in. It took around a month just to score the underwater scene.

At the time they still didn’t feel CGI was not up to task for creating the ships in the film.   All the ships were elaborate miniatures. They also built a full stage for the shooting of the miniatures. Another miniature set was that of the rotating lab seen in the film where the aliens where being kept.