A Complete Guide To The Alien Cinematic Universe

Alien 3 (1992)

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Vincent Ward, Larry Ferguson, Walter Hill, David Giler
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Paul McGann, Danny Webb, Lance Henriksen, Pete Postlethwaite, Holt McCallany, Peter Guinness.
Significant characters introduced: Bishop’s creator.
Notable universe developments: Ripley incubates an Alien Queen; Weyland-Yutani continues to seek the Xenomorph for its bioweapons division; Ripley sacrifices her own life while killing a newborn Alien Queen.

A fire spreads through the USS Sulaco and the ship’s computer ejects its sleeping occupants – Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop – in its escape pod. As the computer scans the stasis pods, a face-hugger is clearly visible attached to one person – but it’s not clear who it is. The pod crashes on Fiorina “Fury” 161, which is a foundry that doubles as a penal colony for men identified as having a specific chromosomal mutation that makes them pre-disposed to extreme violence. The occupants of the pod are recovered by inmates, but the face-hugger is no longer attached to any of them. Instead, it approaches a dog belonging to an inmate.

Ripley wakes in the medical suite of the colony and is informed by the prison doctor, Clemens (Charles Dance), that she’s the sole survivor of the Sulaco. Ripley is concerned that Newt’s incubating an alien and demands that an autopsy be performed – but nothing’s found. Hicks and Newt are cremated, as the Prison Warden, Harold Andrews (Brian Glover), explains the nature of the facility, and that Ripley’s presence – as a female – is highly dangerous. He requests that she remain in the medical suite until the Weyland-Yutani rescue ship they called for arrives.

An alien bursts from the dog and kills a number of prisoners, while elsewhere, Ripley has defied the warnings of the Prison Warden and left the medical suite to retrieve the remains of the android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) from the crashed pod. As she heads back, a group of prisoners try to rape her, but are prevented from doing so by prisoner Dillon (Charles S. Dutton). Back in the lab, Ripley wakes Bishop, who informs her that a face-hugger was indeed present in the pod on their journey. As Ripley explains to the gathered humans the nature of the alien and her past encounters with it, she clashes with the sceptical Prison Warden, who points out that the facility holds no weapons anyway. They’re then attacked by a Xenomorph, who kills Clemens and approaches Ripley – but backs away after examining her.

As the alien continues its killing spree, and repeatedly confounds attempts to kill it, Ripley uses medical equipment to scan her abdomen – finding that she herself is incubating an Alien Queen. Knowing that Weyland-Yutani are still planning to turn the Xenomorphs into biological weapons, she begs Dillon to kill her, but he makes her agree to help the survivors kill the loose, adult alien first. Ripley and the prisoners set a trap for the alien in the foundry molding area, with a view to killing it with molten lead. Many die in the endeavour, but when the Weyland-Yutani team arrive – led by Bishop’s creator (also Lance Henriksen) – they try to persuade Ripley to allow them to surgically remove the alien so she can live. In spite of their pleas, and with the help of a prisoner, she throws herself off a high platform and into the molten lead. As she falls, the alien bursts from her chest and she grabs it, taking it down with her.