THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We all have our breaking points when we’re tired of being chased and we gotta make the last stand. In a way, Alien 3 proved that feeling.
PLOT
The 1992 film takes place only months after the events of Aliens where Ellen Ripley survived another alien attack. Her ship the Sulaco crash lands on a foundry used as a correctional facility for anti social males, Florian Fury 161. When she wakes up, she is told by the chief medical officer Clemens that she is the only one to have survived, meaning fellow human survivors Newt & Corporal Hicks died from a fire on the ship and the android Bishop is completely destroyed compared to before. Due to the fire that caused them crashland, Hicks got impaled by a safety support beam and Newt drowned in her cryo tube. Worried of child having an embryo inside her, she convinces Clemens to perform an autopsy just incase, much to the dismay of warden Harold Andrews and his assistant Aaron. With thankfully none found from the autopsy, Newt & Hicks are given a funeral proceeded by spiritual leader Dillon. Elsewhere, another xenomorph merges from the dog Spike and quickly kills one inmate named Murphy (Christopher Fairbank), pushing him into a fan after spitting acid blood at him. Ripley later finds the remains of Bishop intending to activate him again, who confirms a face hugger came with them on Florina under the knowledge of Weyland-Yutani Corporation. At his request, she shuts him down for good. As that happened, the xenomorph continues its trail of blood by killing more inmates that include the likes of Boggs (Leon Gerbert) & Rains (Christopher John Fields). Another named Golic (Paul McGann) witnessed the creature which triggers him to return to a psychotic state when he shares to the others what he saw. Ripley backs up his claim and insists all should work together to kill it. This is deemed difficult to pull off as there are no legit weapons to defend themselves and their only hope is a rescue ship by Weyland-Yutani being sent for her, according to Andrews. When the alien ambushes her by killing Clemens, and it ends up sparing her. When trying to warn the others at the cafeteria, Andrews also gets killed by the creature. With everyone witnessing such a beast, this gives Ripley a chance to rally them up to stop it. They end up narrowing down to trapping it in a nuclear waste containment room and destroy it with explosive chemicals. As they set up the trap, almost a dozen inmates get killed as the alien causes a premature explosion. As Ripley starts feeling unwell, she she scans herself with the escape pod’s medical equipment to confirm she is with child, as a new xenomorph queen is growing inside her. She wants Aaron to signal the rescue team on turning around, knowing Weyland-Yutani still wants to weaponize the alien, but he rejects it as he wants to return to his family. When she walks away to find a new solution, he gets a message from Weyland-Yutani to keep Ripley until the rescue ship arrives. Ripley pleads with Dillon to kill her in order to prevent the birth of the new queen, but he suggests using it as an advantage against the alien lurking in the facility, agreeing to kill the alien before her. They form a new plan to lure it in the molding facility and drown it in molten lead. Despite the casualties of other inmates, Dillon sacrifices himself for Ripley and another inmate named Morse to position the creature towards the mold and pour the lead onto it. Although covered in the metal, it escapes the mold until it explodes from thermal shock. That happens due to Ripley activating the fire sprinklers. The rescue team arrives led by the real Bishop Weyland the android was based off of. He tries to persuade Ripley come with him, promising to destroy the embryo if she undergoes surgery. She refuses to give chance and decides to set herself up to jump into a furnace. As Morse helps her, a commando shoots him and another shoots Aaron who tries to attack them out of response to Morse. As she’s far enough from Bishop to stop her, Ripley jumps into the furnace as the infant queen erupts from her chest. The film ends with Morse being taken away while Florina Fury 161 gets shut down entirely.
THOUGHTS
With the first two films being deemed masterpieces, it’s a given to say expectations were very high on how this was gonna turn out. And although I can admit this one is flawed, which I’ll dissect later, I think David Fincher was creating something very intriguing for the most part in his directorial debut. A lot of the strength of this movie goes to the practicality of it all. You already know that the xenomorph’s practical design is still breathtaking years later to the point where it aged better than the computerized frames of it. The way it moves like a dog due to being born out of one is a very great detail. And the production design on the whole foundry is stunning because it gives an accurate feeling of stressful hopelessness because you’re not sure how the nightmare ends until it does. What I think makes this entry differ from the others is how it tells us you got to narrow down what’s more important between doing something for yourself or for others. Ripley is still a great protagonist because she is all about the latter. Sigourney Weaver accurately shows her to be worn out on all she’s gone through and wants it all to be over for the greater good. Due to being pregnant with the spawn of a new queen, she knows she’s doomed but needs to find a solution where there is no other victim after her. She had to rely on the most unlikely of individuals for her help since she knew Weyland-Yutani was never gonna listen to her and it appeared to work because they took her sacrifice so personal they shut down the foundry out of spite. Although this wasn’t officially the end of her journey as shown in Alien: Resurrection, it would still prove her efforts weren’t in vain. Due to how she was in a position where she accepted she wasn’t invincible, it’s a surprise she got help when it was most needed. I dug Charles Dance as Clemens because he’s the biggest outsider compared to everyone else he resided with. He had his own regret due to accidentally getting people killed on the job and had to punish himself, until meeting Ripley helped him let down his guard because he was able to accept what happened was an accident before he bit the dust. Due to Brian Glover presenting Andrews as the most dense of an authoritative figure compared to how Lance Hendriksen made the real Bishop dismissive of real danger, there had to be someone who brought true leadership to the scenery and it’s crazy to see how Dillon is able to pull off a feat. For a man who lived a violent past, Charles S Dutton makes a big impression on making him on one who’s living on an era of repent which he proved when defending Ripley and sacrificing himself to defeat the alien. He’s definitely the toughest character to ask the beast if that’s all it got as it’s annihilating his body. I also respected Morse to be the last survivor of the foundry because although he was about as cynical as the rest of the population he was living with, David Webb showed him to be one who had his own flair in focusing on what mattered, which he expressed when allowing Ripley to move forward in her sacrifice. Last but not least, Aaron had his own big impression because Ralph Brown showed him as a guy who didn’t know where to embrace any form of confidence until it mattered most. He proved that when also giving Ripley time as he attacked Bishop in his dying effort. Although she never knew these people long enough, similar to how she bonded with Newt, there is no doubt how grateful she was to know some people are willing to listen to the truth when it mattered most. While I respect the perspective that was set up, there were a lot of things that held it back from being better. Like why does the face-hugger wait so long to escape the pod? If it wants to find a host like Spike, it shouldn’t hesitate because they never have before. And while it is an interesting twist for it to sneak onto the ship the whole time, why didn’t they detect it? If Bishop knew, he should’ve said something since he proved loyalty in Aliens by not abandoning Ripley. I even think it was dumb for Andrews to give instructions towards Clemens in front of the other inmates without even trying to whisper. If he doesn’t want them to know their intentions to protect Ripley, fucking whisper. He definitely messes that up when allowing them to be part of the funeral. Since Clemens was assigned to prevent Ripley from interacting with the others, he could’ve giving her food at the infirmary if she was hungry. He even makes a rookie mistake as a nurse by touching the after effects of the acid blood without wearing any gloves. Same can be said when he doesn’t rub alcohol on Ripley before the last time he gives her medicine. He so had a death wish for doing shit like this. I also think Ripley should’ve been upfront to Clemens about her alien theory when requesting for Newt to have an autopsy. At the very least, she could’ve a parasite possibly infected the body during the trip if not drowning. And why does Bishop II park his ship so far away? Forget dramatic effect, he should be parked to the closest door if he wants to take the alien for himself. I also think it’s dumb for him to try talking Ripley into keeping the embryo when it literally bursted seconds before falling into the surface. If he really wanted to stop her from getting rid of it, he should’ve waited it out and not make a false promise. Due to how it’s been almost a century since Ripley survived the first time, he should’ve known it was gonna happen at any moment and he could’ve cuffed Morse before they even moved. Other than that, I respect everything they’re going for. In short, Alien 3 is a moderate sci fi horror film for shaking up the vibe in order to differ from predecessors. If the first two blew you away, I hope you respect what this one is/was going for.
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