ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

If you're gonna bring a dead character back to life, do it in an outrageous manner.

Like they did in this movie.

Two hundreds years after Ripley throws herself into a vat of molten metal, she's back, she's bad, and she can joke about it. That's classy.

But I've never understood where the scientists in this movie got the aliens. Here's what Wikipedia says about it.
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Two hundred years after the events of Alien 3, military scientists on the outer space vessel USM Auriga create a clone of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) using DNA from blood samples taken before her death. They extract the embryo of an Alien queen that had been growing inside her at the time of her death, raise it, and collect its eggs for further use. The Ripley clone is kept alive for further study.
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I understand how they cloned Ripley from a blood sample collected before she did a swan dive into hell, but how did they "extract the embryo of an Alien queen that had been growing inside her at the time of her death"?

Apparently the various clones of Ripley included a clone of the Alien queen growing inside it, just like the real Ripley did -- which is completely illogical. Nothing in the Alien movies ever suggested that an implanted embryo changed the host's DNA so that a clone of them would also have an embryo inside!

That's just not the way cloning works.

If I'm reading this situation wrong, guys, please straighten me out. Joss Whedon wrote the original treatment, and he's supposed to be smart enough not to make mistakes like that.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rocky Jones]

When I think of the Alien movies, I like to remember Alien and Aliens then blink and open my eyes and see AVP: Alien vs. Predator, then Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. And it ends there.

[Bud Brewster]

Hmmm. I'd have to choose Alien Resurrection over Aliens vs Predator: Requiem. That one didn't appeal to me at all. Ah well. Different strokes, eh?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

I can't remember this movie that much. It was probably because I kept thinking about how the third would have been made and served as an ending for the series.

[The Spike]

Let sleeping dogs lie?

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the makers here basically stick safe to the formula of the series. This time it's a space station with space pirates and a cloned Ripley (Siggy Weaver of course) - yes! A cloned Ripley, only this time she's devoid of human compassion - kind of... The gore quota is significantly upped, which makes for some serious sci-fi terror, and some of the imagery crafted is outstanding (a clone lab sequence is shatteringly unforgettable). A tip top cast featuring Ron Perlman, Michael Wincott, Brad Dourif, Dan Hedaya and Winona Ryder, all give good shows, whilst the photography (Darius Khondji/Se7en) and art design (Steve Cooper, Andrew Neskoromny and John M. Dwyer) takes the breath away. Yet come the final straight it loses its way, sinking into a mire of over confidence, topped by a crown of thorns involving an albino baby alien hybrid. Shame that. 6.5/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has 141 trivia items for this production. The ones below were selected from the first 30 items. I haven't even looked at the other 111 yet!
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~ Sigourney Weaver originally refused to do a fourth Alien film. When asked why she changed her mind, she replied, "They basically drove a dump truck full of money to my house".

Note from me: Hopefully it wasn't all one dollar bills with a tiny layer of twenties on top . . .

~ When pre-production was underway, the original 'Alien Queen' could not be located and the molds that were used to build the original were damaged beyond usefulness. Fortunately, the original life-size puppet was located . . . in the personal collection of an avid Alien (1979) fan.

Note from me: Note that the "avid fan" is not named. Makes ya wonder who he was and how he got the puppet.

And when it says "life-size puppet" I guess that means the big one that Ripley fought! Where did the super-fan keep that big ole thing?

~ Actor Ron Perlman nearly drowned while filming the underwater sequence. At one point, when trying to surface, he hit his head on a sprinkler in the ceiling, knocking him out cold. He was rescued by nearby film crew members.

Note from me: Fortunately this is just a report about an accident on the set . . . not a description of how Ron Perlman passed away.

~ Sigourney Weaver made the behind-the-back half-court basketball shot successfully after 3 weeks of basketball practice, tutored by a basketball coach.

Her conversion rate during this time was 1 of over 6 shots, but the distance was much lower than it would be in the actual scene.

When the day came to shoot the scene, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wanted to have the ball dropped in from above, rather than wait for Weaver to sink the shot herself, which "would probably take about 200 takes." Weaver insisted she could get the shot in herself, and was allowed to do.

Though it is commonly said that she sank the basket on her first attempt, it actually took her endless takes to complete the stunt. Jean-Pierre Juenet gave her one last try to sink the basket before they would give up and use CGI or a second ball.

The very next take, Sigourney Weaver successfully managed the trick.

Ron Perlman broke character and began smiling when he saw it, and people on the set started cheering. The editors looked at the shot, and decided there was "enough room to get the scissors in."

Weaver was excited about making the shot, but Jeunet was concerned audiences would believe the shot to be faked due to the ball leaving the frame. Upon Weaver's insistence, he kept the shot as it was. Weaver described the miracle shot as "one of the best moments in her life", after her wedding day, and the birth of her

Note from me: Great story . . . and a terrific scene, especially when you know it was a genuine backwards-toss!

~ The full-size Newborn animatronic puppet was originally filmed with genitals that were a mix between male and female genitals. They had to be digitally removed on studio orders.

Note from me: That amazing creature is creepy enough without a double set of genitals!

~ The studio wanted to cut the scene preceding Ripley's encounter with the alien queen because of its rather sexual nature. They decided to keep it when Sigourney Weaver threatened to not promote the film if the scene was cut.

Note from me: Sigourney was dead right! That scene is stunning and disturbing. The way it demonstrates Ripley's conflicted emotions concerning the alien newborn is the most powerful moment in the movie.

~ Sigourney Weaver was paid $11 million to come back as Ripley, which was the entire budget of Alien (1979) (not adjusted for inflation).

Note from me: Ah-ha. I did a Google search of the question, "How many one dollar bills would fill a dump truck?"

I discovered that a semi-tractor-trailer would hold $158,000,000 in one dollar bills. A semi's trailer has a volume of 114 cubic yards, and the smaller dump truck has a volume of 14 cubic yards.

That's about 1/8th as much as a semi — which means the dump truck would hold about $19,750,000.

So, Miss Weaver's imaginary dump truck wasn't quite "full of money", as she stated. But it was over half full, since she was paid $11,000,000.

I wonder if she drove it to the bank herself. By God, I would!

~ Milk had to be added to the underwater set as the water was simply too transparent to be convincing.

Note from me: I remember the water being remarkably clear. But apparently it was just a bit cloudy if they added milk. That, however, seems like a strange choice to be used.

~ To play Ripley 7, Sigourney Weaver stuck her head up through a hole in the floor so it could be seamlessly grafted onto the grotesque body that the make-up department had created for her.

Note from me: That was a very disturbing scene.

~ In her initial scenes with the Newborn, Sigourney Weaver makes a point of not looking in its eyes. This was a lesson learned from when she made Gorillas in the Mist (1988) in not making initial eye contact with a potentially dangerous animal.

Note from me: When I watched the clip below of that scene, I noticed the way she averted her eyes.

_________ Alien: Resurrection (4/5) Movie CLIP


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___ Alien: Resurrection - Death Newborn final scene


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)