Neill Blomkamp has just posted a brand new picture on Instagram – this time instead of concept art from his new Alien movie, we get to see a prop of the Pulse Rifle! The M41A Pulse Rifle was, of course, the iconic weapon that the Colonial Marines used in James Cameron’s Aliens so it’s implied we’ll be seeing lots more of them in his yet untitled Alien sequel. Blomkamp’s caption reads: “We all knew there would be pulse rifles. Obviously. Now with added RIS.” RIS stands for Rail Interface System which is the term used for attaching accessories to weapons such tactical lights or scopes.
The Pulse Rifle is a lightweight pulse-action assault rifle firing 10x24mm rounds with a 30mm over-and-under pump action grenade launcher. We saw Ripley put it to good use when she rescued Newt from the Alien hive. The gun made another appearance in Alien 3 with the Weyland-Yutani mercenaries but by the time the events in Alien Resurrection happened 200 years later, the weapon was obsolete. You can read the full technical details of the weapon over on the AvP Wiki. Thanks to Ultramorph for the news.
Like I said, do what you want to it but keep the movie noises and sounds. Please.
We live in a world where the best selling game about "realistic" (used loosely) warfare game is worshiped by a population that consists, namely, of immature 10-15 yr olds that shouldn't be playing it and frat house-style bros that shame the gaming community. I could bash this franchise all day because it has systematically ruined the gaming industry and turned it into a Hollywood-like institution where we find fewer and fewer gems among the piles of crap each year. CoD-ifying has ruined many things and I don't want that stupid game series touching our Alien franchise.
I am legitimately concerned that "upgrading" a gun that was futuristic 30 years ago to look like weapons of today will look too out of context, thus hurting the fantasy aspect of the film. Attachments are real. But doesn't it just seem like a cheap attempt to garner attention to slap some optics and/or other bits and bobs to "keep it the same but different?" Last time the PR got an upgrade, it got an additional flamethrower attachment
That seems to be something people are projecting onto it though. Attachments like this do exist outside of Call of Duty and related games.
Yeah but that's cause they're real weapons. Here, it's sci-fi. They have the freedom and the... "excuse" to do more than propose the same exact design, and they should, in my opinion.
Then, liking the looks of the attachments is another story. I just don't agree on complaining about their presence itself. Even though I got nothing particularly against this design. Corporal Hicks made some good points on the matter. But that's all about taste, you know, when it comes to how things look. And there's no point in arguing over taste, which is what I saw some people do a few pages back.
And it was one of the few things that it did right.
Seriously, I can understand those who complain about the look of these attachments, "Too modern, it's supposed to be da future!!!", and all that, but not at all those who complain about the attachments' presence altogether. It ain't true that it makes no sense for Marines to have them. If anything, it wouldn't make sense for them not to have them at all.
That argument just feels like unhealthy Aliens worshipping. An extreme.
I love the Pulse Rifle, it's a classic, but I wouldn't like to see it unchanged in a new movie. Would be boring to see the exact same design from 30 years ago again, unchanged and untouched. Especially on a gun that doesn't have that much going on for it like the Smartgun and its targeting system, for example. So bring on dem attachments please. Just, I agree on making them more interesting, I like the idea I read earlier, to have a motion tracker screen mounted on it. Something like that.
Same. And while I know the quality of that game has no bearing on the film they're making, it's still an unpleasant connection to make.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Basically they need to be redressed in order to appear more in line with the existing equipment. Because in their current state they scream what they are and its boring and uninteresting as a result.
My idea:They catch them and bring them back to LV 426 by the backup marines but the marines also becomes prisoners and they wanted them to be hosts or use them for experiments to train the aliens.So they team up with Rip to defeat the company.When they later break out and finally they explode the Derelict and the whole facility that gives the reason WYC need Ripley in Alien 3 again.And i think Bishop is cooperative with Hicks and the others but if the company giving him an instruction he will bring that egg on board in the final minute because thats how he was designed.
But that would work only if the actors have rejuvenating make up.
I think something like that would be better than a full retcon what i hate.As nowadays almost every franchise has a reboot prequel or soft reboot..if someone dont like the idea of between Aliens and Alien 3 that person could think this movie is not connected to the third and forth (as Jurassic World not mentions the last 2 film).The fifth Alien could exist as a third movie but also gives solution for the fans who like the last two film to be canon.
I'm hoping the one in the pic's just a testbed and anything like that in the actual film would use specially created "future" add-ons.
The point I believe I was trying to make wasn't that adding accessories/attachments that have a practical use was sacrilege, but rather that if there ARE ones to be used, they need to fit the aesthetic of the era/universe they belong to.
Don't forget there's a potterfield vs weyland joke in there somewhere.
I'd have a lot more respect for the film if it just ignored Alien 3. I'd have even more respect if it didn't have the oldies in it. Is anyone even confident Weaver and Biehn can carry a film these days?
Exactly. Either have the balls to do the full retcon or do a completely different film without the old characters. No time travel. No cloning. No android imposters.
People keep coming out with ideas like this without ever bothering to ask why. Why the hell would Weyland-Yutani kidnap them only to set them on their way again and then later be so desperate to recover Ripley on Fury? It makes no sense. Same as the silly cloning idea that's been suggested. There's no logical endgame.
Maybe the bulky motion tracker's inner workings can be in place of the grenade launcher, so then we have completely alternate versions of the pulse rifle with the same primary firing mode... On that note, take a page from the xm8, same weapon platform with multiple layouts available depending on the operator's role in the squad.
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalsecurity.org%2Fmilitary%2Fsystems%2Fground%2Fimages%2Fxm8-poster.jpg&hash=3de82c6000d91e5e823806a8d24f50edbc85fc39
knowing that it's hard not to think that adding modern accessories everywhere isn't more than a decision coming from a really basic videogames-focused inspiration
overall a pretty small "bad sign" though and i'm expecting some good concepts will still come out later for this movie (please drop the alien suit)
Maybe a few scenes like in TGenysy they get a younger look just to explain what happened to them.
But if takes between AS and A3 as a second part of Aliens the movie could explain how the eggs getting on board of Sulaco or why the cryo tubes are different.Maybe thats an another Sulaco which first picks up Ripley and the folks (we have a half Bishop as well)and than they go to the Derelict which is still in place after the detonation and theres a laboratory too as the concept shows.That would explain Wyc exactly knows where was the Derelict and the colony was there to have people to be hosts.
They weren't meant to be WWII-era guns though... Sure, that's what Bapty used to build them, but their fictional specs were very much futuristic technology (to the point where caseless ammunition still hasn't really been cracked).
But as I said before, there's nothing wrong with adding rails to it. It's unfair to call it "COD" fanboy wankerisms or whatever as it is what modern rifles are doing. It is realistic and it is happening in the real world and it's not due to Call of Duty (and I hate that game too). And again, as I said before, there's a level of restraint to be had and for me that is the unnecessaryness (yes, I know it's not a word) that is the PEQ box.
There's nothing saying this isn't following the Aliens aesthetic. We've seen one prop so far that is undeniably a Pulse Rifle with added realistic flavour. I'm hoping this isn't the final look for the thing as I'm not fond of some of what's on the picture but to condemn the film based on a little tease is unfair.
My favorite weapon was the smartguns though, with the steadicam vests. So meta. XD
Prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to do it for an entire movie.
this is awesome!! i cant what to see this them41a pulse rifles are back!!
thank god i loved the guns in aliens..
i just hope corporal hicks is back to
Again, we really dont know enough but we've all seen the concept art. Clearly we are in for some adjustments.
No I didn't mean it in a negative way. I just know that Aliens as a film specifically has a very passionate following.
Why not? The last film I've seen that used that technology was Terminator Genisys. For the scenes that took place in the 80's Arnold looks flawless. I think that it could and should be done.
I believe that as long as the story was good it wouldn't matter. A film set between Aliens and Alien 3 could be a good send off for those characters and fill the void that many Aliens fans have. Specifically, seeing a return of the militaristic themes that weren't carried over into Alien 3 &4. This way the fanbase gets their Aliens sequel and also keeps the series continuity intact.
We're all fanboys here (fangirls too). I hope you don't mean that term in a disparaging way.
The solution presented above can't work. The actors are 30 years older. It would make sense to digitally de-age them for a few scenes, but for a whole movie? Methinks no.
In addition, fitting a story in between the films would be like trying to milk everything possible out of the Aliens aesthetic with the understanding that the ending of the story is fixed. The main characters would be doomed. Aliens fans will be satisfied when the continuity is severed and the story possibilities are open-ended with a new continuity direction created.
I think Blomkamp's film being set between Aliens and Alien3 would be a perfect solution. This way the Aliens fanboys get to have their dream follow up film to Aliens and it wont affect the continuity of the rest of the series.
lol i no rite! what an ass hole
Back on track though, hopefully the smartguns also make a return, motion trackers, the whole cm deal.
Thoughts broken into coherent sentences.
For the retcon/not retcon thing i think its very much important for the fans if its always topic, and we all fans knows what happend in A3 and Ressurection no matter how old a fan is and who havent seen the last two i think not a real fan.
It was mentioned it shouldnt include Ripley and Hicks and would be easier to do a stand alone spin off of course but its all started as Sigourney wanted to finish Ripleys story in a proper way and she dont wanted to continue from wher Res left that movie would made aroun 2001 there was a script but she dont wanted to do becaudlse Eart setting or who knows why...so the only way to follow up is after the Aliens/Alien 3 era which i like but i still like A3 and Res and i dont want to get retconned or multiverse..so what could be the solution makes everyone happy?
It's the one from Aliens.
This is actually a solid point. CA specifically duplicated the look and tech of Alien regardless of how technology has advanced in the mean time, and it helped that game immeasurably. Altering things just because you can feels unnecessary.
Of course, maybe there are reasons in Blomkamp's script, but I think hfeldhaus' raises a good point.
It's not the 80s anymore. As much as I love the PR, I hate that it doesn't have any sights. The handle could/is/maybe supposed to be iron sights but it's poor. One of the very very very very few things A:CM did right was having attachments. It should be able to field more than whats on it. The future is about modular weaponry. What grounds Alien and Aliens so well is that it seems futuristic but modern at the say time.
Nothing wrong with this being a M41-B Pulse Rifle.
That said...I do dislike the PEQ box and the flash-hider. The PEQ box seems redudant as the Sight Mark on the rifle atm has a dual sight version with a laser sight as well as the reflex itself and it ruins the flow of the weapon too much. The flash hider I just don't like the asthetic.
This. He would be perfect for a AVP movie, a proper Alien sequel will need a director like Denid Villeneuve to pull it off succesfully. I know that i may come off as a negative nancy around here, i just hope we get something that has substance next to the pretty tech and explosions. NB could very well surprise us, he is still better than most young directors out there and District 9 is still ace. To early to tell but seems like he isn't on the same level as Scott, Cameron, Fincher or Jenuet, but well see. Hope for the best.