Meryl Streep as Ellen Ripley, done by Lurch Jr on Deviantart
Alien(1979)
The cast included Harrison Ford as Captain Dallas, Meryl Streep was cast as Ellen Ripley(OTL the death of her boyfriend John Cazale has died and Scott chose not to approach her), and Brad Davis as Kane. Ripley and Melkonis(Lambert OTL) are in a relationship as Director Ridley Scott believed the future would have more sexual freedom. The only one not in a relationship was Ash, a line of which alludes to him not being interested. Another element is the future technology on display. Other details added are small robots called "Mice' running through the ship to fix things"(Cut OTL for budget concerns). Parker and Brett also used a small vehicle affectionately called the "Flying Bedstead" where Parker noticed one of the seals damaged, later causing problems with the Nostromo landing on the planet Acheron(LV-426 OTL). Melkonis also had a holographic computerized map inside the space suit.
The plot begins when the crew discover a derrelect Engineer ship on the planet Acheron, which was investigating a strange alien pyramid and brought alien eggs from the ship abroad before things seemed to go wrong. The interior of the Engineer ship also has a blink and you'll miss it easter egg of a mural depicting a Xenomorph's life cycle. The mural was made by H.R.Giger.
An alien lifeform is brought onboard when a facehugger attaches to one of the crewmates, which lays an egg in the form of a Chestburster, which escapes and reappears full grown. The creature's next victim is Harry Dean Stanton, who is given some humorous lines while looking for the ship's cat such as "Kitty, kitty, kitty", and "Fucking cat". Brett was killed when the Alien's inner jaw, plunged into his chest and tore out his heart.
Ford as Dallas was given a scene of confronting Ash with his suspicions and Dallas sending Ash into the vent against the alien possibly to see if the alien would kill him and refusing to give him the key to shut down Mother. The alien begins to kill off the crew. A Decapitation is shown on screen and described as "horrible, like a chicken". The alien also used a human as a shield against a flamethrower.
After Dallas is seemingly killed and Ash takes the Computer key from him, Ripley confronts Ash about the missing computer access key and Ash says Dallas never gave it to him. Ripley sneaks into Ash's room to search for it and is startled when Kane's corpse bangs against the window, having become caught in an antenna array. When Ash attacks Ripley, Lambert and Parker confront him and discover he is a robot after decapitating him in a fight. Ash reveals that they cannot kill the alien as its acid blood would damage the ship and kill them all and that there are eggs onboard that would survive.
Melkonis is killed next when the alien tries to drag her through a vent but she dies of a heart attack, with the alien said to have eaten her according to Dallas when he is found alive in the nest by Ripley. Dallas and Brett are implied to be turning into eggs. Ripley mercy kills them and escapes on the shuttle known as the Narcissus after setting the
Nostromo to self destruct. When Ripley discovers the alien stowed away on the shuttle the fight scene begins when both are nearly sucked out into space with Ripley managing to shoot the creature in the head. the alien survives this and tries to claw at the hatch after Ripley gets back inside but is incinerated by the engines. The sequel hook is an egg shown on the craft.
Storyboards by Ridley Scott himself of the final battle.
Aliens(1986)
Ripley is discovered and brought to Earth Station Beta. She reunited with her elderly daughter, who she has a videophone conversation where her daughter blames Ripley for abandoning her. Ripley has a nightmare about being attacked by the alien on the
Nostromo. She is then introduced to her lawyer Carter Burke(Stephen Lang). Burke tells Ripley to act calm and controlled during the court hearing. No one believes her(the Alien egg stuck onboard appeared to have been forgotten but it is then revealed that the egg's discovery is being kept hidden by Weyland Yutani. Meanwhile the planet Acheron now has a colony which contact is lost with, with a rescue team sent there being jumped by facehuggers. Ripley joins the second team sent, which includes the android Bishop, who was created by the Tyrell Corporation[1]. The mercenary group also includes one other woman Vasquez(Linda Blair). Ripley briefs the team and even lampshades the sexual design of the creatures, calling the facehugger "essentially a walking sex organ", to which Hudson quipped, "Sounds like you, Hicks".
When Ripley lands she cannot bring herself to leave the APC but she then realizes being alone is worse and runs to the rest. She is jumpscared by Wierzbowski putting his hand on her shoulder as Hicks asked him to keep an eye on her and both go inside where the aliens attack them but Ripley discovers a young girl named Newt, the sole survivor. There are also different breeds of alien, including albino versions that sting and cocoon people called "Warriors" while the black ones are "Drones". the pilot Gorman is paralyzed by a Xenomorph as the APC prepares to leave, though he turns the APC's turret gun and blows apart the Xenomorph before he is pulled away and the APC crashes, leading to the famous "Game Over Man! Game Over!" from Hudson.
The team battles the Xenomorphs, including climbing through the complex airducts while fighting them off. Ripley encounters the Warrior Xenomorphs while rescuing Newt. Ripley, Newt and Hicks escape after being cocooned and are rescued by Bishop, though the Xenomorph Queen stows away and is shot out of an airlock by Ripley after a battle with the Power loader. The epilogue reveals that Weyland-Yutani has been shut down as Bishop, Ripley, Hicks and Newt prepare to return to civilization, unfortunately the film ends on a dark cliffhanger, revealing that the base near Earth where Ripley was taken after her discovery is now under siege as the egg that stow awayed with Ripley hatched.
The game also had a notable Video Game adaptation by id Software which allows the player to control either Ripley or Hicks. The Game was used as the basis for the
DOOM franchise, as ID Software wanted to own an original copyright[2]
Alien Invasion(1992)
Ridley Scott returned to direct. Several writers created drafts including William Gibson, Eric Red, David Twohy (think
Pitch Black with Xenomorphs) and Vincent Ward.
Gibson's script began with a Commando team boarding the Sulaco and getting attacked by facehuggers and then following Hicks and a rebuilt Bishop where a virus with alien DNA becomes virtual and turns a space station into a Xenomorph before Ripley returned.
Eric Red' script began with the commando team finding everyone dead and the action moving to a small US town where the Xenomorphs invaded before the town is revealed to be in a biodome with the alien virus plot involved.
Twohy's script was set on a prison planet with inmates being experimented on and an inmate named Styles trying to escape.
Vincent Ward's script had Ripley crashland on a planet made of wooden inhabited by monks, with one of them giving Ripley CPR to drive a chestburster out of Ripley's body and into his. The monks also used communal toilers with no doors and one eaten by an alien as it emerged from a toilet.
The Final story was a combination of all these scripts. All four survivors returned, namely: Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop. The four are brought into the Space Station which is shown to house many different facilities, being a small colony above Earth. It includes a small town, a church, and a prison, effectively being a space station city, allowing many different ideas to be used as the Xenomorphs overrun the place. The new character of Clemens(Richard E.Grant) is introduced as a Doctor that treats the survivors when they arrive amidst the chaos. Ripley is plagued by several terrifying dreams, one of a chestburster emerging from Newt and one of a Xenomorph attacking Ripley in the shower.
Brand new Canon fodder is introduced except rather than Marines they are inhabitants of the space station. The lives of the inhabitants were saved when the base went into lockdown and so they have not seen the aliens and don't believe Ripley and her group when they try to warn them. Instead a gang of criminals that were freed in an attack on the prison led by the Sadistic Golic has been attacking and the survivors until he is subdued and restrained. The other new members: Andrews, Aaron, Dillon and Morse go into tunnels in search of two other survivors: Boggs and Rains after Golic has been restrained. They find no bodies but there are scratch marks on the walls and blood, some of which drips from the vents. Dillion and Morse begin to believe Ripley about the alien but Andrews does not. Ripley talks to Celemens, who reveals his backstory of being a doctor that euthanized his own pregnant wife when she was in a terrible accident that left her in a coma with no chance to recover, giving him a motivation to help Ripley and Newt.
Several barnyard animals and animals in Zoos are the host of Xenomorphs, allowing new designs for the alien[3]. The biggest and most impressive is nicknamed the Dragon Xenomorph, seemingly from a Crocodile. Grolic is able to escape and release the Dragon Xenomorph by accident. After learning the Dragon Xenomorph is free, William, Eric and Christopher seal off the room and spread disinfectant and plantkiller hoping to keep it away only for a smaller Xenomorph to get in and kill them. The main group try to lure a new large Xenomorph known as" the Dragon" into a toxic waste dump area but many are killed in the process even though the plan succeeds. It is discovered that a hive is being made and to reach it the group must go underwater. For the underwater scene H.R.Giger designed an aquatic facehugger capable of swimming with webbed digits. Newt almost drowns in the film in a hard to watch moment but Ripley is able to save her.
The crew discover the killing caused by Golic in the abattoir and a traumatized Eric but also the eviscerated corpse of Babe. They then find Golic cocooned to the wall by the Dragon and leave him when the Dragon comes, supposedly to his death, but he is able to escape.
Ripley's group enters the Hive. Dillion and Morse find a cocooned Andrews, who begs to be killed. When they are attacked, Dillon pushed Morse through a door before it closed to save him from Xenomorphs, who then kill Dillon. Morse refuses to go and battle the dragon out of fear and flees, meeting a team sent to recover the creature from the fledging Weyland Yutani. The team also meets Golic, who promises to take them to Ripley through the abattoir littered with the people he killed. Bishop confronts the team and asks about the rest, which Golic claims were killed by the Dragon but that one of the crew has a Queen inside them, which the Weyland-Yutani team brought a cage to contain. In the final battle Morse sacrifices himself to destroy the Nest and the Weyland-Yutani team while Hicks sacrifices himself after he is infected. Ripley, Newt and Bishop escape to earth with the space station exploding behind them, preventing the aliens from reaching the planet. The Epilogue shows Newt being adopted and saying goodbye to Ripley.
The film has a novel adaptation written by Alan Dean Foster(OTL he turned down the job as he tried to rewrite the film to have Newt survive).
Alien vs Predator(1997)
Almost ten years after Freddy vs Jason, a second Horror Crossover graced the screen. An Adaptation of the the first storyline of Alien vs Predator from Dark Horse Comics, released in 1989. The film is set on the planet of Ryushi, which has recently been colonized. Unknown to the human inhabitants, the Predators or Yautja tribe use the planet as a hunting ground and introduce the Xenomorph species there, likewise not aware humans are not present. The protagonist is Machiko Noguchi, the Weyland Yutani administrator there who is shown to be far friendlier and laid back to the workers than they expected. The people on Ryushi raise cattle to export to other solar systems. Cattle which are soon infected by Xenomorph eggs as the Yautja brought a Queen to the planet. An encounter with a humans leads to one Yautja being killed and the other Yautja vowing revenge, despite the protests of the older and wiser member of the party, an experienced hunter nicknamed "Broken Tusk". By the way all of the scenes involving the Predators are conveyed without dialogue. "Broken Tusk" teams up with the humans to protect them, teaming up with Machiko to survive the fighting and kill the Queen and rogue Predators. In the end, the settlement is dead as is the Queen and all the Xenomorphs. Broken Tusk lies dying and uses a broken Xenomorph finger to leave a mark on Machiko so that the Predators will identify here. Some time later, Machiko, living alone on the planet with the head of the Queen tied to the front of her house is approached by a group of Predators, who recognize Broken Tusk's Clan symbol and bring her with them into the hunt[4]
After this film, both killers seemed to enter cryostasis for more than a decade. Though the Universal Studios them parks did release the nightmare fuel inducing
Alien: Encounter Ride. Likely the closest you could get to a true Xenomorph experience.
Alien: Engineers(2012)
Jon Spaihts completed his script in 2009. The script would make the film a direct prequel to
Alien. Spaihts convinced Scott not to hire Damon Lindelof, believing that Lindelof would just complicate things.
In the Story, an alien race known as an Engineer sacrificed himself to infuse his DNA on human caveman in 12,000 BC, in a ritual where black scarab like bugs ate the Engineer alive. The Engineers resembles the Space Jockeys from the first Alien film and were earless. In the future setting, The Engineers were being investigated by Weyland Industries, who sent a ship called the Magellan(OTL's
Prometheus) with the film's action occurring on Archeron, the location from the first film. The crew included Jocelyn Watts(Shaw OTL), Martin Holloway(Charlie Holloway OTL) played by James Franco, technicians Chance and Ravel and the mercenary Shepherd. There is also the film's antagonist, the Android David. The crew use white Astronaut Suits and the Magellan can split into parts.
Compared to OTL, most of the more idiotic character moments are butterflied away due to most being introduced by Lindeloff and then Scott cutting out explanations for them. Fifield and Millburn, who are not in charge of mapping the Engineer Facility, become lost due to having no signal. Another example is that David is shown to have been reading the bible and decided to read all of humanity's religious texts, which led him to have a low opinion of Humanity. It's also implied that Vickers wanted to sabotage Weyland Industries and chose an incompetent and unqualified crew on purpose, setting them up to fail.
Fifield became infected with black scarabs which turned him into a human/Xenomorph like creature, though he broke a Xenomorph's neck one handed, but could still speak. When Fifield was shot, another crewmate Vickers, was killed by acid from his wounds and Fifield was killed by Watts soon after losing his mind.
Deleted Scene to provide some idea of the Fifield as a human/Xenomorph monster
The crew then discover the Engineers wished to terraform the planet and Weyland industries wanted to obtain their terraforming machines to terraform Mars. the crew also discovered the Engineer rooms were not empty and gloomy but filled with Holograms only the Engineers could see, and the android David. Unfortunately, the Engineer Crew has come into contact with the Xenomorphs after finding them inside a pyramid structure belonging to the Yautja and the Xenomorphs are unleashed. Several new fan nicknamed species emerge due to the Engineers being infected including an "Octo-Facehugger", a "Beluga-Xenomorph" and an "Ultramorph". A member of the crew, Holloway, is killed by a chestburster while having sex with Watts. The Engineers also began killing the crew with alien technology including guns. Watts, the sole survivor, departs the planet, choosing to keep the discoveries there secret, kicking off the events of
Alien.
Dakota Fanning as Newt
Hicks not looking so good.
Alien: Awakening(2017)
Directed by Neil Blomkamp, who created concept art for the film as well. The film depicts the Earth being devastated by Xenomorphs and old versions of Newt and Hicks(who's death was only implied in Alien Invasion) trying and failing to stop the aliens arriving on Earth, only to once more team up with one of the survivors of the aliens attacking Earth, Ellen Ripley. Special praise went to Dakota Fanning for playing an older Newt[5].
Footnotes
[1]OTL the reference was meant to be to Cyberdyne Systems from Cameron's own Terminator series but it was realized that if the implication was that the two were set in the same world than Judgement Day may have already occurred and Cyberdyne Systems likely would not survive after Skynet was taken down due to their hands in creating it. Tyrell Corporation on the other hands was more likely to still be around.
[2] I couldn't bring myself to butterfly away Doom, which was meant to be an Aliens game. My logic is that if their licensed game was such as hit, the company would want an IP they actually own. You know to make all the prophets.
[3] Giger was really enthusiastic about returning and submitted and built new alien designs that were ignored even as the filmmakers claimed to want to make something "more Giger than Giger" so it felt fair to in this version with so many new Alien designs to bring him onboard as a sort of "I'll take em....Which ones?.....All of them" moment.
[4] Alien vs Predator from what I can tell was changed due to Isaac Perlmutter OTL so without his involvement the original idea is used.
[5] It is suspected that the short film Zygote is the closest we got to Blomkamp's planned Alien film, complete with Hicks and Newt expys.
