Alien³ (1992) - Quotes

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): Even within arguably the most nihilistic franchise in cinematic history, Alien³ stands out for its consistent tone of despair. It presents a reality where even machines feel fear and agony, as when Ripley reactivates the heavily damaged Bishop droid (Lance Henriksen), its tattered face struggling to focus a sagging, milky eye as it relays Weyland-Yutani’s continued, destructive interest in capturing and weaponizing the xenomorph. Having warned Ripley, he then asks her to be shut off, saying he feels pain in his current form and fears being rebuilt into something less special and perfect than what he was. Ripley’s death drive, always present but overwhelmed when she discovers an alien embryo inside of her, is so intense that it blunts the confrontational behavior of the men around her, even Dillon (Charles S. Dutton), the prison’s religious leader whose initial hostility toward Ripley fades when he recognizes the purity of her martyrdom. The deflating alien antics of the film’s back half sap some of the power from Ripley’s ultimate sacrifice, but her final act, taking pro-choice symbolism to self-immolating extremes, is one of the most powerful images in the entire Alien franchise.

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): The alien itself is a disappointment, as the filmmakers’ intriguing idea of having a xenomorph infect and thus absorb the DNA of a quadrupedal animal is squandered on a garish puppet creation that moves in jerky, dissonant steps that completely divorce the creature from the environment. This robs the alien of even a hint of menace, barring a few close-ups that keep the image limited to the xenomorph’s face and teeth. Prefiguring an issue that’s plagued all future Alien movies in the CGI era, the depiction of the xenomorph so casually in full view saps much of the suspense that the first two films wrung out of keeping the monsters hidden or partially glimpsed. Once its definitions are set, the creature loses its amorphous, undefinable shape and size, limiting it to something comprehensible. The lackluster alien undeniably drags down the proceedings, but the film maintains a consistently bleak atmosphere that elevates it above its sloppy sequel and the more self-conscious philosophy of recent prequels by staying truest to the simple hopelessness of the original film.

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): In what’s become something of a recurring theme of the franchise since its first two entries, Alien³ arguably peaks before the alien itself takes center stage. The looming, Brutalist-style prison setting evinces a sense of decay well before the camera explores its dripping, darkened corridors and vents. The private-owned prison, more work camp than carceral institution, has a wide-open feel that paradoxically enhances the feeling of being trapped, a testament to the assurances of its builders that those who worked there would know they had nowhere, ultimately, to run. When the alien finally does begin to roam the prison, however, the environment too quickly loses its character, its labyrinthine structure and dangerous areas (a ventilation shaft with a giant fan telegraphs a gruesome human purée well before it happens) betray their usefulness to the story. No longer does the facility have its own story to tell; instead, it looks as if it were built around the alien sequences.

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): Considerable criticism, from both audiences and former cast and crew members on the series, was directed at the decision to callously kill off Lt. Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Newt (Carrie Henn) in the opening credits. Regarded on its own terms, though, their deaths fit well within the series’s bleak tone. Structured in staccato clips inserted between the credits, the scene shows off the sense of visual economy that Fincher picked up while making music videos. It plays out in ominous glimpses of a hatched alien egg, a facehugger stretching toward Newt’s cryogenic pod, a crack of glass, and seepage of blood into cloth. In seconds, all of the good feelings left over from the end of Aliens are brutally cast aside, robbing Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) of the ad hoc family she’d only just rallied together. It’s a promisingly nihilistic beginning, and Ripley’s dismay upon learning of her friends’ deaths is compounded by the revelation that she’s crash-landed near a Weyland-Yutani prison, a refinery work camp whose inmates are all men with double-Y chromosomes, a defect that enhances their aggression and leaves them more likely to rape and murder. The early scenes, of Ripley interacting with men actively afraid of her presence and what it might encourage in them, mark the film’s thematic high point, balancing Ripley’s fears of a possible xenomorph outbreak against the equally immediate worries about the rippling aftershocks of her presence on the inmates’ vows of celibacy, made in a mass religious conversion among the prisoners that occurred long before she arrived. Frequently, the men use their religion as pretense for distrust of the woman, if not outright abuse. Ripley has always had to deal with unfriendly elements, but they usually came isolated in the form of company men (or androids); here is an entire facility’s worth of people with an innate antagonism against her, one that stymies her attempts to lead them against the alien threat that breaks out shortly after her arrival.

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): Too often, Alien³ shows its seams, whether in its thematic arc or the design of the xenomorph, and at not even two hours it still feels weighed down by unnecessary exposition and padded suspense scenes. But blame for much of this cannot fall at one person’s feet, as the film was notoriously the product of years of production hell that saw the studio soliciting wildly different drafts from writers including (but not limited to) cyberpunk author William Gibson, writer-director Vincent Ward, and producer/filmmaker Walter Hill. Eventually, ideas from each version found their way into a Frankenstein monster of a shooting script, one further plagued by endless on-set rewrites that left Fincher so exasperated that even Fox’s officially released behind-the-scenes footage shows the director railing against the pressures of the studio’s poorly planned project.

“Ripley’s Got a Death Drive: David Fincher’s Alien³ at 25” (May 19, 2017): David Fincher’s Alien³ may be the only film ever made to peak with its logo. As the 20th Century Fox fanfare crescendos over the studio’s familiar logo, the music holds on the minor chord before the usual last note, replacing jubilant bombast with a dissonant groan of strings. The alteration produces an immediate sense of discomfort and unease, setting the tone for something ominous and fearsome. It’s an ingenious shot across the bow from Fincher, ushering in a feature career dotted with immaculately ordered, carefully scored works of blockbuster entertainment that veered from audience-pleasing major keys to their grim underbellies. The perversion of the Fox theme epitomizes a succinct grasp of horror that only occasionally surfaces in the film proper.

Review/Film: Alien 3; HAL, If You're Still Out There, Here's a Computer-Friendly Sequel” (May 22, 1992): Mr. Fincher, who has directed music videos for Madonna, Billy Idol and others, doesn't waste time trying to make things plausible. His direction of "Alien 3" suggests that he grew up reading instructions on how to program VCR's. He knows that most explanations, like directions, are incomprehensible, and thus irrelevant.

Review/Film: Alien 3; HAL, If You're Still Out There, Here's a Computer-Friendly Sequel” (May 22, 1992): The production is dourly handsome, with great, chunky, dimly lighted sets that suggest dungeons out of the Middle Ages. They are actually so dark that sometimes it's not easy to know who is doing what to whom. Blood looks black, which may not be all bad. The alien is seen in glimpses, but it's seen often enough so that it seems to be nothing worse than a large, dark sticky lobster claw with a terrible disposition.

Review/Film: Alien 3; HAL, If You're Still Out There, Here's a Computer-Friendly Sequel” (May 22, 1992): Fiorina 161 is a planet, but we never see much of it. Clearly, though, it is a place where the sun doesn't shine. The outside temperature hovers in the neighborhood of 40 degrees below zero. Formerly a maximum-security prison, Fiorina 161 has been decommissioned and is now home to 25 of society's worst rejects, former prisoners who have elected to remain on the planet to live lives of edgy atonement. They are members of what is called "an apocalyptic millennarian fundamentalist Christian sect." Whatever they are, they obey their own commandments.

Review/Film: Alien 3; HAL, If You're Still Out There, Here's a Computer-Friendly Sequel” (May 22, 1992): IT'S apparent during the opening credits of "Alien 3" that this is going to be a movie for the generation that finds the computer friendly. Those of us born before 1975 can't possibly comprehend all of the introductory information that goes clicking across the on-screen television monitor, spelling out time, place and imminent crises with the relentlessness of a speed-reading exam. The information is also so understated that only someone who speaks computer language realizes that life, as we know it, is about to crash. Yet again. What the computer generation knows, and the rest of us don't, is that this information isn't really necessary or especially relevant. Logic is out. Visceral sensation is the point. Unlike "Alien" (1979) and "Aliens" (1986), the new film, directed by David Fincher, puts no great emphasis on futuristic technology. "Alien 3" belongs to that branch of fantasy comics, best exemplified by the "Road Warrior" movies, in which the iron and space ages meet for dizzy results.

“Alien 3: I Was There!” (1/9/1992): I suppose you can’t really blame him, you’ve got to blame the people who want to make a film without having a script to start with. You’ve got to blame Sigourney Weaver to a certain extent, too, for having too many fingers in the pie. From what I was told she had a lot to do with the script: she was the one who didn’t want there to be any guns in the film, she was the one who decided to have the love scene. There was no reason for it other than she decided Ripley had to get into bed with someone.

“Alien 3: I Was There!” (1/9/1992): [Special effects supervisor] The way it worked was that we’d start making something for the film and it would be written out, so we’d stop making it. Then it would be back in again, so we’d start making it again – the same thing happened with the sets. George Gibbs reportedly built this huge set for the ending of the film on the 007 stage at Pinewood, and they changed one aspect of the script so he had to tear it down and start again. We also spent a huge amount of time and money making an Alien suit and some other guys did the same, making an alien puppet, and the two things just don’t match up, they don’t look like the same Alien. Again, that was because it got to the stage where it just had to be done, so consequently they don’t look like each other in the final movie.

“Alien 3: I Was There!” (1/9/1992): The original Alien had these kind of pipes sticking out the back that took it away from just being a man in a rubber suit, but creature designers Alec (Gillis) and Tom (Woodruff) hated them, so we left them off. The very first day we took our Alien on set, Fincher said, "Where are the stove pipe things on the back?", so he had us make some foam ones and glue them on. We made them overnight and they were strapped on with string – this is on a multi-million dollar movie – and when we got on set with them he just said, ‘Take them off’. It was extraordinary.

“Alien 3: I Was There!” (1/9/1992): Alien 3 was a very silly movie to work on. It had already been going for four months by the time I started, and they hadn’t even begun thinking about making the Alien. The script wasn’t even finished by that point, and I don’t think there was a director either. All there was was a bunch of models of the characters that were going to die – the Alien didn’t get made until five or six months later. In fact, the Alien was the last thing to be considered out of all the effects. On my first day, they weren’t even sure what the Alien was going to look like – there were all kinds of different drafts of the script, and at one point it was a glass planet so they were talking about having a glass Alien, and then it was going to be all wood and they were talking about having a wooden Alien because it was supposed to adapt to its surroundings. They had done the facehugger which you see at the beginning of the film, because that was the thing they were least worried about. There was another super-facehugger, a clear one, that took us about three months to make, on and off; that was kicked out just after we’d finished it. We also built a huge ox that the Alien burst out of, but David Fincher didn’t like that. Eventually they went back to America and reshot it anyway; now it’s a dog. It was a colossal waste of money.

Taglines: Three times the suspense. Three times the danger. Three times the terror.

Taglines: Our worst fears have come true. It's back!

Taglines: This time it's hiding in the most terrifying place of all...

Taglines: The Bitch Is Back

Ripley: Don't come any closer!

Aaron: Wait. They're here to help...

Ripley: Stay where you are!

Bishop II: [removes his sunglasses and steps forward] Ripley.

Ripley: Bishop?

Bishop II: I'm here to help you.

Ripley: No more bullshit. I just felt it move.

Bishop II: Do you know who I am?

Ripley: You're a droid, same model as Bishop. Sent by the fucking company.

Bishop II: No. I'm not the Bishop Android. I designed it. I'm very human. The company sent me here to show you a friendly face, to demonstrate how important you are to us... to me.

Ripley: You just wanna take it back.

Bishop II: We want to kill it and take you home.

Ripley: Bullshit.

Bishop II: You're wrong. We want to help.

Ripley: What does that mean?

Bishop II: We're going to take that out of you...

Ripley: ...and keep it.

Bishop II: We can't allow it to live. Everything we know would be in jeopardy.

Ripley: You don't wanna take it back?

Bishop II: Ripley, time is important. Let us deal with the malignancy. We've got a surgical base set up on the rescue ship. Come with me.

Medic: It's very quick. Painless. A couple of incisions... you'll be out for two hours.

Bishop II: And then it's over. You still can have a life. Children. And most important, you'll know it's dead. Let me help you.

Ripley: What guarantee do I have, once you've taken it out... that you'll destroy it?

Bishop II: [approaches her] You have to trust me. Please? Trust me?

Bishop II: [a soldier shoots Morse in the leg] What's this going to achieve? STOP!

Morse: AHHH! Oh, Jesus!

Ripley: Morse, will you help me?

Morse: What do you want me to do?

Bishop II: It was a mistake! There was no need for any of it!

Aaron: [picks up a large wrench, then hits Bishop II over the head with it] Fucking android!

Bishop II: I'M NOT A DROID!!

Bishop II: [to cameraman] Ripley, think of all we can learn from it! It's the chance of a lifetime! You must let me have it! It's a magnificent specimen! No pictures!

Ripley: You're crazy.

Bishop II: What are you doing?

Bishop II: [as Ripley falls into the furnace below, a queen Chestburster pops out, but Ripley holds her captive and both of them get engulfed in the furnace] NOOOOOOOOO!

Ripley: Now!

Dillon: What about you?

Ripley: I'm staying.

Dillon: Bullshit! There's gonna be ten tons of hot lead in here!

Ripley: I'm telling you, I wanna die!

Dillon: We got a deal, remember?! It dies first, then you! I'm not gonna move without you! Now get going!

Ripley: Dillon!

Dillon: I've gotta hold it here.

Ripley: What about me?

Dillon: God will take care of you now, sister!

Ripley: No!

Dillon: [he takes off his glasses and turns to the alien; the alien attacks him; to the alien] Pour the lead! Fuck you. Pour it, Ripley! Go on! Goddamn it! Pour the lead, Ripley! Pour it now! Come on! Come on! That's all you got? Is that as hard as you fight, motherfucker?!

Ripley: [waves to Morse] Morse! Over here!

Morse: Ripley!

Ripley: [Morse positions the machine over the pit] Pour the lead! Pour the lead! Pour it!

David: Have you got some sort of plan?

Dillon: This is a leadworks, isn't it? All we got to do is lure the fucking beast into the mold. Drown it in hot lead.

Morse: Oh right... and how do we do that?

Gregor: Yeah. What are we gonna use for bait?

Kevin: [realizes] Aw, fuck!

Dillon: We're all gonna die. The only question is when. This is as good a place as any to take your first steps to heaven. The only question is how you check out. Do you want it on your feet, or on your fucking knees... begging?! I ain't much for begging! Nobody ever gave me nothing! So I say fuck that thing! Let's fight it!

Morse: Fuck it! Let's go for it!

Dillon: This is the choice. You die sitting here on your ass or to die out there. At least we take a shot, we owe it one! It's fucked us up. Maybe we can get even for the others. So how do you want it?

Morse: What the fuck are you talking about?

Dillon: I'm talkin about killing that big motherfucker.

Aaron: Hold it, hold it. The rescue team is on its way. We could just sit this out.

Ripley: Rescue team for who?

Aaron: For us.

Ripley: They just want the beast. You know that.

Aaron: I don't give a damn what they want. They're not gonna pick us off one by one, are they?

Ripley: I wouldn't be so sure.

Aaron: Come on, they're gonna take us home.

Dillon: They're not gonna take us home.

Morse: Still doesn't mean we should go out and fight it. Jesus Christ, give us a break!

Aaron: You've gotta be fucking nuts! Look, I've got a wife and a kid--

Dillon: Nobody give a shit about you, 85. You're not one of us, you're not a believer. You're a fucking company man!

Aaron: [the prisoners yell insults and profanities at him] Yeah, okay. So I'm a company man, I'm not a fucking criminal. You keep telling me how dumb I am. Well I'm smart enough not to have a life sentence on this rock! Yeah, and I'm smart enough to wait for some firepower to show up before we fight this thing! Right?

Dillon: Okay, fine. Just sit here on your asses.

Morse: [sarcastically] How about if I sit here on my ass?

Dillon:: No problem. Oh, I forgot. You're the guy that's made a deal with God to live forever, huh? And all the rest of you pussies can sit it out too. Me and her will do all the fighting.

Morse: Okay, look. I want the same thing as you. I want to see it dead, I hate the fucker! It killed my mates too! Why can't we just wait for the company and have some guns on our side? Why do we have to go on some fucking suicide run?!

Aaron: Right!

Ripley: Because they won't kill it. They might kill you just for having seen it, but they're not gonna kill it.

Aaron: That is crazy! That is horseshit! They will not kill us!

Ripley: When they first heard about this thing, it was crew expendable. The next time they sent in marines; they were expendable too. What makes you think they're gonna care about a bunch of lifers who found God at the ass-end of space? You really think they're going to let you interfere with their plans for this thing? They think we're crud, and they don't give a fuck about one friend of yours that's died. Not one.

Dillon: Why should I put my ass on the line for you?

Ripley: Your ass is already on the line. The only question is... what are you gonna do about it?

Aaron: This is where we keep it. Forget what the stuff's called...

David: Quinitricetyline.

Aaron: I knew that. Right, I've got to get these section arrangements organized with Dillon for the paintbrush, so...

David: David.

Aaron: Yeah, you can get these drums organized.

David: Right, 85.

Aaron: [starts walking away; leaves] And, uh... don't call me that.

Ripley: What's this 85 thing?

David: [about the chemicals] Couple of us sneaked a look at his personnel file the day he arrived. It's his IQ. I saw a drum of this stuff fall into a beachhead bunker once. The blast put a tug in dry dock for 17 weeks. Great stuff.

Aaron: [showing Ripley a nuclear waste storage room] Never been used. They were gonna dump a lot of nuclear crap in there. Never got around to it. Clean as a whistle inside.

Ripley: This is the only way in or out?

Aaron: That's right. Walls are six feet thick, solid steel. They really knew how to build these babies.

Ripley: You're saying we get something inside... there's no way it can get out?

Ripley: It's like a lion. Sticks close to the zebras.

Aaron: Zebras? Oh, right. But look, running around down here in the dark - are you kidding? Once you get out of this main shaft, there's no overheads.

Ripley: Don't we have flashlights?

Aaron: We've got thousands of them, but no batteries. I told you, nothing works.

Ripley: Torches? Do we have the capacity to make fire? Most humans have enjoyed that privilege since the Stone Age.

Aaron: No need to be sarcastic.

Dillon: Give us strength, O Lord, to endure. We recognize that we are poor sinners in the hands of an angry God. Let the circle be unbroken until the day. Amen. What the fuck is happening here? What the fuck is this bullshit that's coming down? We got a murder. We got a rape. We got brothers in trouble. I DON'T WANT NO MORE BULLSHIT AROUND HERE!! NOW WE'VE GOT PROBLEMS!! WE STAND TOGETHER!!

Andrews: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Dillon. All right. Once again, this is rumor control. Here are the facts. At 0800 hours, prisoner Murphy, through carelessness on his part, was found dead in vent shaft 17. He seems to have been sucked into a ventilator fan. At about 2100 hours, prisoner Golic reappeared in a deranged state. Prisoners Boggs and Rains are missing. There seems to be a good chance that they have met with foul play at the hands of prisoner Golic. We need to organize and send out a search party; volunteers will be appreciated. I think it's fair to say that our smoothly running facility has suddenly developed a few problems. I can only hope we are all able to pull together over the next few days until the rescue team arrives for Lieutenant Ripley.

Ripley: [runs into the room, breathless and panicking] It's here! It got Clemens!

Andrews: [loses his temper] Stop this raving at once! Stop it!

Ripley: I'm telling you! It's here!

Andrews: Aaron, get that foolish woman back to the infirmary!

Morse: [holding a chair, after the panic subsides in shocked silence] ...FUCK!

Andrews: We commit this child and this man to your keeping, O Lord. Their bodies have been taken from the shadow of our nights. They have been released from all darkness and pain. The child and the man have gone beyond our world. They are forever eternal, and everlasting. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Dillon: Why? Why are the innocent punished? Why the sacrifice? Why the pain? There aren't any promises. Nothing's certain. Only that some get called, some get saved. She won't ever know the hardship and grief for those of us left behind. We commit these bodies to the void... with a glad heart. For within each seed, there is the promise of a flower. And within each death, no matter how big or small, there's always a new life. A new beginning. Amen.

Dr. Jonathan Clemens: [explaining his prison barcode tattoo, to Ripley; pause] After my student years, despite the fact that I had become secretly addicted to morphine, I was considered to be most promising. A man with a future. Then during my first residency, I did a thirty-six hour stretch on an ER. So I went out and I got more than a little drunk. Then I got called back. Boiler had blown on a fuel plant, and there were thirty casualties... and eleven of them died. Not as a result of the accident, but because I prescribed the wrong dosage of painkiller. And I got seven years in prison and my licence reduced to a 3C. At least I got off the morphine.

Dillon: We give you thanks, O Lord. Your wrath has come and the time is near for us to be judged. The apocalypse is upon us! Let us be ready! Let your mercy be just! Amen!

Ellen Ripley: I will be damned if I'm going to let those idiots from Weyland-Yutani take it back to Earth. They just might succeed, and that would be it for the rest of mankind. Maybe for all life on the planet. I don't see why these things wouldn't be able to reproduce in any animal of a size larger than, say, a cat.