Alien (franchise)

The Alien film franchise (known as Aliens in most media) is a science fiction horror film series consisting of four installments, focusing on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her battles with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien". Produced by 20th Century Fox, the series started with Alien (1979), which led to three film sequels, as well as numerous books, comics and video game spin-offs.

Related to the franchise is the two part Alien vs. Predator series which combines the Aliens with the Predators from the Predator film series. Prometheus, an indirect prequel to Alien released in 2012, is also related.

On February 18, 2015, director Neil Blomkamp revealed he was officially working on a fifth Alien movie, with Weaver soon confirmed to reprise her role.

Development

After completion of the film Dark Star (1974), writer Dan O'Bannon thought to develop some of the ideas (especially the theme of "alien hunts crew through a spaceship") and create a science-fiction horror film. Provisionally called Memory, screenwriter Ronald Shusett collaborated with O'Bannon on the project, adding elements from a previous O'Bannon script, Gremlins, which featured gremlins causing mayhem aboard a World War II bomber and wreaking havoc with the crew. The duo finished the script, initially entitled Star Beast, which was later changed to Alien after O'Bannon noticed the number of times the word "alien" occurred in the script. The writers imagined a low-budget film, but the success of Star Wars inclined 20th Century Fox to invest millions on the production.

In the original script, the ship has an all-male crew (though the script's 'Cast of Characters' section explicitly states that "The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women"), including the Ripley character, who would be played by actor Tom Skerritt. Later, when producers Alan Ladd, Jr., Walter Hill and David Giler heard rumors of Fox working on other titles with strong female leads, Sigourney Weaver was cast as Ripley and Skerritt became Captain Dallas. Shortly before filming began, Veronica Cartwright was set for the Ripley role, but Ridley Scott opted for Weaver following screentests. Cartwright played Navigator Lambert in the movie, the final crew member to be killed.

Swiss painter and sculptor H. R. Giger designed the alien creature's adult form and the derelict ship, while French artist MÅ"bius created the look of the spacesuits and Ron Cobb provided most of the on-set design.

While the first film of the series, directed by Ridley Scott, was successful, Fox did not consider a sequel until 1983, when James Cameron expressed his interest to producer David Giler in continuing the Alien story. After Cameron's The Terminator became a box office hit, Cameron and partner Gale Anne Hurd were given approval to direct and produce the sequel to Alien, scheduled for a 1986 release. Cameron wrote the screenplay from a story he developed with Giler and Walter Hill.

Following the second film, Aliens, Weaver was not interested in returning to the series and so producers David Giler and Walter Hill commissioned a third Alien film without the Ripley character. The premise was to return Ripley in a fourth installment, but Fox's president Joe Roth did not agree with Ripley's removal and Weaver was offered a $5 million salary and a producer credit to make Alien 3. Released in 1992, the film was troubled from the start, with production beginning without even a finished script. Having already spent a million before then, music video director David Fincher, the third director considered for the film, was hired to helm the project. Giler, Hill and Larry Ferguson wrote the screenplay, based on a story from an earlier script by Vincent Ward. After production was completed in late 1991, the studio reworked the film without Fincher's involvement or consent. The death of Ripley was designed to bring closure to the Alien franchise by killing off the main heroine.

While fans and critics did not initially receive Alien 3 well, the film still did well at the box office worldwide and piqued Fox's interest in continuing the franchise. In 1996, production on the fourth Alien film, Alien Resurrection, began. Ripley was not in the script's first draft, and Weaver was not interested in reprising the role, though later joined the project after being given a reported $11 million salary and more creative control (including being able to approve director Jean-Pierre Jeunet). The script ended reviving Ripley via human cloning. The film, released in 1997, experienced an extended production and was described by screenwriter Joss Whedon as having done "everything wrong" with his script.

Main films

Alien (1979)

On its way back to Earth, the US commercial starship Nostromo is diverted to a desolate planetoid after receiving a cryptic signal from a derelict alien spacecraft. While exploring the alien ship, one of the Nostromoâ€Š'â€‹s crewmen discovers the remains of the ship's pilot and also a large chamber that contains thousands of egg-like objects. One of the eggs releases a creature that attaches itself to his face and renders him unconscious. They break quarantine to bring him back aboard the ship, the parasite dies and the host wakes up, seemingly fine. Soon afterwards, an alien organism bursts out of his chest and grows extremely rapidly into a terrifying eight-foot tall creature, and starts killing off the crew one by one.

Aliens (1986)

After 57 years in hypersleep, the sole survivor of the Nostromo, Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, awakens aboard a medical space station orbiting Earth. Her story of the Alien terror she encountered is disbelieved and she learns that the planetoid from the first film (now designated as LV-426) is now home to a terraforming colony. When contact with the colony is lost, Ripley accompanies a squad of high-tech Elite Colonial Marines aboard the spaceship Sulaco to investigate. Once there, they discover the colonists have been wiped out after they had found the derelict alien ship (and its deadly cargo) from the first film.

Alien 3 (1992)

Due to a fire aboard the Sulaco, an escape pod carrying the survivors of the second film is automatically jettisoned. It crash-lands on the refinery/prison planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, but Ripley is the only one to survive the crash. Unbeknownst to her, an alien facehugger parasite was also aboard the ship. Before long, a full-sized Alien is then loose in the prison, killing the inmates one by one. Ripley also discovers there is an Alien queen growing inside her, and must not only kill the rampaging Alien but also herself in order to save humanity.

Alien Resurrection (1997)

Two hundred years after the events of the previous film, Ellen Ripley (and the Alien queen she was carrying) are cloned. The Alien queen is surgically removed from her body as the United Systems Military hopes to breed Aliens to study on the spaceship USM Auriga, using human hosts kidnapped and delivered to them by a group of mercenaries. The Aliens escape their enclosures, while Ripley 8 (a clone who contains some Alien DNA herself) and the mercenaries attempt to escape and destroy the Auriga before it reaches its destination, Earth.

Alien 5

Joss Whedon had written an Earth-set script for Alien 5, but Sigourney Weaver was not interested in this setting, and sought to return the story to the planetoid from the first film. Weaver has remained open to a role in a fifth installment on the condition that she likes the story. Before 20th Century Fox greenlit Alien vs. Predator, James Cameron had been collaborating on the plot for a fifth Alien film with another writer. Learning of Fox's plans for a crossover, he ceased work on his concept. Before he saw the film, Cameron had stated that it would "kill the validity of the franchise", and that "it was Frankenstein Meets Werewolf" â€" like "Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other". Although he liked Alien vs. Predator, Cameron ruled out any future involvement with the series.

In a 2002 interview, Ridley Scott stated that a new Alien project "would be a lot of fun", but that "the most important thing was to get the story right". Scott's concept for the plot was "to go back to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created". In late 2008, Weaver hinted in an interview with MTV that she and Scott were working on an Alien spinoff film, which would focus on the chronicles of Ellen Ripley rather than on the Aliens, but the continuation of Ripley's story has not materialized. Instead, Scott worked on a prequel that explained the "Space Jockey" found on the derelict spacecraft from Alien, titled Prometheus and released in 2012.

In 2014, Sigourney Weaver hinted that she was interested in returning to the role of Ripley, considering that the ending to Resurrection "feels incomplete to me. I wish it didn't, but it does. We left it hanging. And there's a way to finish this story that I think would be satisfying to me and the many fans." The actress also stated regarding the hybrid character that "had we done a fifth one, I don't doubt that her humanity would have prevailed."

In February 2015, director Neill Blomkamp posted concept art on his Instagram feed, saying in an inteview that he had been "wanting to make an Alien film for like years and years" and had developed the story and artwork after working on Chappie with Sigourney Weaver. In response, Weaver stated that she would be willing to reprise her role as Ripley in a new Alien film if Blomkamp was directing. It was confirmed on February 18, 2015, that that a new Alien movie would be made, with Blomkamp directing.

Characters

Recurring characters

Spin-offs

Prometheus (2012)

Some 30 years before the events of Alien, scientists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map among the remnants of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, they journey aboard the spaceship Prometheus and arrive on a distant world in the Zeta² Reticuli system, the same region of space that the planetoid from Alien is found. There they discover the remains of an advanced civilization (the same race as the dead pilot from the derelict ship in Alien) who were developing horrific biological weapons which could cause the extinction of the human race.

Development of a fifth film in the series began in the early 2000s when both Ridley Scott and James Cameron began developing ideas for a story that would explore the origins of the Alien. By 2003, the development of Alien vs. Predator took precedence, and the fifth Alien film project remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. Jon Spaihts wrote a script for an Alien prequel, but Scott then opted for a slightly different direction. In late 2010, Damon Lindelof joined the project to rewrite Spaihts's script, and he and Scott developed a story that precedes the events of Alien but is less of a direct prequel to it, concentrating more on discovering the advanced race that created the titular Aliens rather than the Aliens themselves (though variants of the Alien in its facehugger and full-sized form are seen in the film). According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus explores its own mythology and ideas. So, Prometheus, while canon, does not count as an installment in the Alien franchise, but rather as a spin-off or an indirect prequel. Prometheus was released in 2012 and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, and Charlize Theron. The film grossed over $400 million worldwide, and had positive reviews despite criticism on the script's obliqueness and predictability.

Prometheus 2

A Prometheus sequel is currently in development for a possible March 4, 2016 release date. Scott is set to return as the director, along with actors Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. Writer Michael Green is currently writing the script based on a first draft from Jake Paglan. It will return to a more horror-like genre than the original Prometheus.

Crossovers

Following an easter egg in the film Predator 2 in which an Alien skull was seen on a Predator trophy case, attempts to create a shared universe between the Alien and Predator franchises followed, initially through comics and video games, until a film franchise was launched with the release of AVP: Alien vs. Predator in 2004. The future of the franchise remains uncertain due to a largely negative critical response. The Alien vs. Predator films were consciously ignored in the subsequent Prometheus and Predators films. However, a 2014 Dark Horse comics series called Fire and Stone merged the Aliens vs Predator series with the Prometheus franchise.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

In 2004, a Predator ship arrives in Earth's orbit to draw humans to an ancient Predator training ground on BouvetÃ¸ya, an island about one thousand miles north of Antarctica. A buried pyramid which gives off a "heat bloom" attracts humans led by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), who unknowingly activates an alien egg production line. Three Predator hunter initiates enter the structure, killing all humans in their way with the intention of hunting the newly formed alien warriors. Two Predators die in the ensuing battle, while the third allies itself with the lone surviving human, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan) in order to battle the escaped Queen Alien. The Queen is defeated, but not before she fatally wounds the last Predator. The orbiting Predator ship uncloaks and the crew retrieve the fallen Predator. A Predator elder gives Alexa a spear as a sign of respect, and then departs. Once in orbit it is revealed that a chestburster was in the corpse, though this specimen has Predator mandibles.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Set immediately after the previous film, the Predalien hybrid on board the Predator scout ship, which just separated from the mothership from the previous film, has grown to full adult size and sets about killing the Predators on board the ship, causing it to crash in Gunnison, Colorado. The last survivor activates a distress beacon with a video of the Predalien, which is received by a veteran Predator, who sets off towards Earth to "clean up" the infestation. When it arrives, the Predator tracks the Aliens into a section of the sewer below town. It removes evidence of their presence as it goes by using a corrosive blue liquid. It uses a laser net to try to contain the creatures, but the Aliens still manage to escape into the town above. The Predator fashions a plasma pistol from its remaining plasma caster and hunts Aliens all across town (accidentally cutting the power to the town in the process). During a confrontation with human survivors, the Predator loses its plasma pistol. The Predator then fights the Predalien single-handedly, and the two mortally wound one another just as the US military drops a tactical nuclear bomb on the town, incinerating both combatants and the few remaining humans in the city. The salvaged plasma pistol is then taken to Ms. Yutani.

Home video releases

There have been dozens of stand-alone releases of the individual films on various formats, including Beta, VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD, though so far the Blu-ray format has only seen a boxed set of the complete series which houses all the various versions of each film (a total of eight, see Alien Anthology below). The multiple single releases on VHS were generally the original theatrical cuts of each film, though at the very end of the format there was a sole release of the Aliens: Special Edition (see below).

Laserdisc saw single releases of all theatrical versions, as well as two so-called "box sets" which only contained one film (there were two single releases, one each for Alien and Aliens) but had multiple discs and a large amount of supplemental material with a high retail price tag (around $100USD). The Aliens set included a new "Special Edition" cut of the film completed by James Cameron just for this release, which was a significantly extended version of the film.

On DVD initially the films were only available as a boxed set (see Alien Legacy below) but were then released separately (and Aliens was only available in its "Special Edition" cut, not its original theatrical cut which did not make it to DVD until the next boxed set). The same pattern was followed when the two-disc special editions of the films came out after the Alien Quadrilogy set (see below), as each film got individual two-disc releases which contained the content of each film from that set. Since then, there have been multiple issues and reissues of the films, in both their theatrical or extended version, though some single releases include both.

In addition to the single releases, there have been seven complete box sets of the series at various points in its history. With the exception of the DVD version of the Aliens Triple Pack, each release contained all films that had come out at the time the sets were released. The seven box sets each had unique characteristics and features which were then sometimes reused in later sets or single releases in one form or another, most notably the Blu-ray set which includes a detailed archive of many previous releases, including the rare Laserdisc box sets.

Alien Triple Pack (VHS version), released on VHS in 1992 containing the first two films in the series and a third cassette with a 23-minute preview of the then upcoming theatrical release of Alien 3. (Not to be confused with the 2008 DVD set of the same name, see below.)
Alien Trilogy, released on VHS in 1993, a three-cassette packaging of the original theatrical cuts of Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.
Alien Saga, a UK VHS boxed set released in 1997 with the first three films plus a "Making of Alien Resurrection" cassette. It was released again in 1998 with the Alien Resurrection film included. It is also the name of a Japan-exclusive Laserdisc pack containing the first three films was released in 1999 (a planned U.S. version was canceled as DVDs were quickly taking over the much smaller domestic Laserdisc market in that country).
Alien Legacy, a four-volume set released on both DVD and VHS in 1999, containing the 1991 Laserdisc "Special Edition" cut of Aliens (for the first time on another format), the theatrical versions of the other three films, and on DVD it had various supplemental materials that were either re-used from Laserdisc or newly created.
Alien Quadrilogy, released only on DVD in 2003, considered one of the most exhaustive box sets of the DVD era in terms of content and special features, is spread over nine discsÂ : four discs (one disc each) for the theatrical and extended cuts of each film (new "2003" cuts of Alien, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection and the previously released 1991 "Special Edition" cut of Aliens), four discs containing special features specific to each film, along with an extra disc of documentaries and other supplemental content.
- The films were later re-released as 2-disc individual titles as part of 20th Century Fox's Collector's Series.
Alien Triple Pack (DVD version), released on DVD in 2008 is a 3-disc package including the theatrical cuts of Alien and Alien 3, as well as the "Special Edition" of Aliens, reusing the name of the 1992 VHS set (this was an unusual release in that Alien: Resurrection was not included, making this the first franchise box set it had not appeared in since its release).
Alien Anthology, a 2010 Blu-ray Disc exclusive six-disc release, which features two versions of each film (theatrical, and the same new cuts used in the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD set â€" except for additional work done on the 2003 Alien 3 "Workprint" version which included having some original voice actors come back to re-record poorly captured dialogue in newly inserted extended scenes, and fixed production errors on the "special edition" of Aliens.) and virtually all special features and supplements from the previous releases (including an archive of the special edition Laserdisc box sets with all their image galleries and other unique content). As with the Quadrilogy DVD, the two versions of each film are housed on a single disc each, while the storage capacity of Blu-ray means the previous five discs of special features are included on the remaining two discs in the set, which hold approximately 60 hours of bonus video content and over 12,000 still images. Most subsequent releases of the films on the Blu-Ray medium are repackaged versions of the Blu-Ray disks contained in this box set.
Alien Anthology, a 2012 Blu-ray Disc discount four-disc release, still with two versions of each film, but without the two additional discs of bonus features.
Alien/Aliens Dual Pack, released on DVD. This set includes the theatrical cuts of both Alien and Aliens.
Prometheus to Alien: The Evolution is a 2012 box set, containing a Blu-Ray version of all of the Alien Films, and a copy of Prometheus, along with a bonus material disk for Prometheus.
All of the Alien films, including Prometheus, have been released in special Steelbook Blu-Ray editions of the films, although do not come in a boxed set. While the Alien Steelbooks themselves contain the Blu-Ray disk on its own, the Prometheus Steelbook contains both Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray 3D versions of the film, as well as a bonus feature Blu-Ray disk with seven hours of bonus features. With the exception of Prometheus, the previous four films had been released as DVD Definitive editions, which featured Steelbook casing and contained both DVD versions of the films and a bonus feature disk.
Alien: The 35th Anniversary Edition box set was released in 2014, to mark the 35th anniversary of the release of the film, containing both a Blu-ray and a Digital HD copy, a reprint of Alien: The Illustrated Story and a series of collectible art cards containing artwork by H.R. Giger related to the film. The disk itself is the same as the respective disk on the 2010 Anthology Blu-Ray release, and contains MU-TH-UR mode, despite the lack of the required bonus disk. A reprint of the novel by Alan Dean Foster was also released, along with reprints of all other novels, with the Alien: Resurrection novel being available for pre-order, available in May 2015.

Reception

Box office

Reviews

IGN listed Alien as the thirteenth best film franchise of all time. Alien was nominated for two Academy Awards, winning for Best Visual Effects. Aliens received seven nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver, and won for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects. Alien 3 was nominated for Best Visual Effects. Alien was also inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for historical preservation as a film which is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The American Film Institute ranked Alien as the sixth most thrilling American movie and seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, Ripley was ranked eighth among the heroes, and the Alien was fourteenth among the villains.

Accolades

Other merchandise

There have been numerous merchandise products released in various media including several video games and print publications. These include:

Novels

A novel series has been released alongside novelizations of all four films in the series.

Comics

The comic book addition to the franchise:

Aliens

There have also been numerous comic book crossovers with other franchises:

Aliens vs. Predator
Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator
Batman/Aliens
Green Lantern Versus Aliens
Judge Dredd vs. Aliens
Superman/Aliens
Superman and Batman versus Aliens and Predator
WildC.A.T.s/Aliens

Video games

Alien games

The first game based on the franchise was Alien (1982) for the Atari 2600, a game heavily based on Pac-Man. Another Alien game based on the first film was released in 1984.

Aliens was adapted into four different video games: two different 1986 games titled Aliens: The Computer Game, a collection of minigames by Activision and a first-person shooter by Software Studios, as well as two different games titled Aliens, a 1987 MSX platformer by Square and a 1990 arcade shoot 'em up by Konami.

Acclaim released three different games based on Alien 3, two different run and gun platformers (one for various platforms in 1992, another for the SNES a year later) and a Game Boy adventure game in 1993; Sega also released a light gun arcade game Alien 3: The Gun in 1993.

Acclaim's first-person shooter Alien Trilogy was released in 1996. The last video game adaptation of an Alien film was 2000's Alien Resurrection, a PlayStation first-person shooter.

Other Alien games include Mindscape's adventure game Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure (1995), the first-person shooter Aliens Online (1998), the Game Boy Color action game Aliens: Thanatos Encounter (2001), the mobile phone game Aliens: Unleashed (2003), and the arcade game Aliens: Extermination (2006).

In 2006, Sega struck a deal with Fox Licensing to release two new Alien video games on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. One of them, a first-person shooter by Gearbox Software, Aliens: Colonial Marines, was released on February 12, 2013, in the United States of America on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. The game has also been announced for release on the Wii U later in 2013. (It is unrelated to the different game titled Aliens: Colonial Marines, which was canceled in 2002.) Sega also released a Nintendo DS game Aliens Infestation in 2011.

In 2014, Sega published Alien Isolation. Developed by The Creative Assembly the game launched on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms on 7 October 2014. It was directed by Alistair Hope and produced by Jonathan Court and Oli Smith. Part of the Alien series, the game is set in 2137, 15 years after the events of Alien and 42 years prior to Aliens. The game follows Amanda, who is investigating the disappearance of her mother Ellen Ripley. Amanda is transferred to the space station Sevastopol to find the flight recorder of the Nostromo only to discover an Alien has terrorized the station and killed the vast majority of the crew.

Alien vs. Predator games

An Alien vs. Predator arcade beat 'em up game was released by Capcom in 1994. Two other Alien vs Predator games were also published by Activision for the SNES and Game Boy in 1993. There were also several Alien vs. Predator mobile games, and two cancelled titles for the Atari Lynx and Game Boy Advance.

In 1994, Atari Corporation released the Rebellion-developed first-person shooter Alien vs Predator for the Atari Jaguar, in which one could play as a Marine, Predator or Alien. Rebellion then went on to develop the similarly themed 1999's Aliens versus Predator for the PC. This was followed by, among others, Aliens versus Predator 2 and the expansion pack Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt. In 2010, Sega released Aliens vs. Predator, a multiplatform remake first-person shooter also made by Rebellion.

In academia

The Bishop character has been the subject of literary and philosophical analysis as a high-profile android character conforming to science fiction author Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and as a model of a compliant, potentially self-aware machine. The portrayal of androids in the Alien series â€" Ash in Alien, Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3, and Call (Winona Ryder) in Alien Resurrection (1997) â€" has been studied for its implications relating to how humans deal with the presence of an "Other", as Ripley treats them with fear and suspicion, and a form of "hi-tech racism and android apartheid" is present throughout the series. This is seen as part of a larger trend of technophobia in films prior to the 1990s, with Bishop's role being particularly significant as he redeems himself at the end of Aliens, thus confounding Ripley's expectations.

Alien (franchise)

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Alien (franchise)

Development