Harry Andrews

Superintendent Harry Andrews was the warden of the Fiorina “Fury” 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit. When Weyland-Yutani closed down the prison,

Andrews, along with prisoner officer Aaron, stayed behind when the inmates chose to remain on Fiorina 161. He was killed by the Runner Alien. Andrews appears in 1992’s Alien 3 and is played by Brian Glover.

Biography

Fiorina 161

Andrews was working in the prison when it was closed down by Weyland-Yutani in 2175 and chose to stay when the inmates chose to stay there.

Ripley’s Arrival

An EEV, ejected from the USS Sulaco, carrying Ellen Ripley, Corporal Hicks, Newt and Bishop the android crashed onto Fiorina 161. Andrews sends a transmission to Earth to tell them what happened and that Newt and Hicks were killed in the crash but Ripley survived.

After this, Andrews gathers the prisoners together to tell them about the crash and that one of the survivors is a woman. He says that a rescue team is on their way and they’ll be there inside of a week.

Andrews was annoyed about Ripley’s presence too as he knew it would cause issues among the prisoners. He later caught Clemens doing an autopsy of Newt without his permission. Andrews says that Ripley shouldn’t parade around in front of the prisoners and that Clemens should tell him if there was any change in her physical status.

Ripley insists that the bodies be cremated. Andrews immediately refuses but Clemens reminds him an outbreak of cholera would look extremely bad on a report. The bodies of Newt and Hicks are cremated in the furnace. Andrews performs an eulogy.

A number of strange incidents then happen around the prison. Murphy is suddenly killed in the air vents. Andrews and Aaron summon Clemens to the scene of his death.

Andrews puts his death down to carelessness but Clemens thinks otherwise. Andrews asks Clemens to meet him in his office in 30 minutes. Andrews gets a transmission from Weyland-Yutani telling him that Ripley is the highest priority to them.

When Clemens comes to Andrews’ office, Andrews confronts him about his close relationship with Ripley. After an argument, Clemens leaves. Later, Boggs and Rains are assumed to have been killed and Golic is covered in their blood. Clemens, Aaron, Andrews and Dillon restrain Golic in the mess hall and he is confined to the infirmary.

Andrews thinks that Golic must have murdered them but Golic claims it was a Dragon that killed them. Ripley corroborates Golic’s story. Ripley meets Andrews in his office and tells him about the Xenomorph. He refuses to believe her and tells her to stay in the infirmary.

Andrews gathers the prisoners in the mess hall and tries to get a search party to find Boggs and Rains. In the infirmary, Clemens is killed by the Xenomorph and Ripley rushes to the mess hall to inform everybody. Ripley tells them it’s here.

Andrews refuses to listen to her and orders Aaron to detain her. Just then, the Xenomorph emerges from an overhead vent, grabs Andrews and pulls him into the vent, with his blood falling to the floor.

Personality and Traits

Andrews was quite standoffish and ran the prison with an iron fist. He made it clear that he didn’t like things that made “ripples in the water” and upset the balance. He wasn’t happy that Ripley had crashed onto the planet and was freely walking around the prison.

Even before Ripley came to the prison, Andrews had an issue with Clemens. When Andrews confronted him about his relationship with her, Andrews described him as “insolent, possibly dangerous”. Despite the strange events and Ripley telling him about the Xenomorph, he refused to believe such a creature existed. If he had listened to her, it might have saved his life.

Behind-The-Scenes

Superintendent Andrews was very much based on a character called The Abbot from Vincent Ward’s Wooden Planet script for Alien 3. The Abbot was in charge of the monastery. He was authoritative and fought with Ripley, refusing to listen to any suggestions that a creature could be on the loose.

Early Drafts

Originally, the Xenomorph was going to create a hive in the assembly hall where Dillon and Morse find lots of prisoners cocooned alive. One of those cocooned was going to be Superintendent Andrews. He begs them to kill him and Dillon sets fire to the hive with a flare.

Other Media

Alien 3 Novelization (1992 Novel)

In the Alien 3 novelization by Alan Dean Foster, Andrews appears as in the film. The novelization mostly follows the same path as the Alien 3 Assembly Cut.

Alien 3 Comic (1992 Comic)

The Alien 3 Comic is a mixture of the theatrical and assembly cut with some new additions.

Trivia

• There is a drinking bird on Andrews’ desk which is a callback to the first Alien.
• There was a photograph of Andrews with his family on his desk. This wasn’t seen in the film but can be seen in a production still.

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