Frank Ellis

Frank Ellis was one of the inmates in the Fiorina “Fury” 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit and stayed on after Weyland-Yutani had closed the prison down.

Frank was killed by the Xenomorph when he was laying quinitricetyline in the air ducts. Frank appears in 1992’s Alien 3 and is played by Carl Chase.

Biography

Ear;y Life

Frank was serving a 20-year sentence for murder.

Ripley’s Arrival on Fiorina 161

An EEV, ejected from the USS Sulaco, carrying Ellen Ripley, Corporal Hicks, Newt and Bishop the android crashed onto Fiorina 161 in 2179. There was just one survivor – Ellen Ripley.

Frank, along with some other prisoners, uses several oxen to bring the crashed EEV to shore. Frank explores the inside and sees the bodies of Hicks and Newt. Their bodies are recovered and the EEV is brought to the facility.

In the prison’s abattoir, Frank and Murphy bring Babe, one of the oxen who has suddenly died so they can feed it to the prisoners later. Murphy asks Frank about what he’d say to Ripley given the chance.

After the prisoners witness Superintendent Andrews get killed by the Xenomorph, the survivors come up with a plan to use flammable quinitricetyline to lure the creature into the toxic waste disposal unit.

Frank took part in the plan and was one of the prisoners spreading the quinitricetyline in the air ducts. While going up the ladders, he was carrying a detonator in his teeth which he dropped carelessly. It landed on a ledge which he managed to descend and retrieve.

While going back up, the Xenomorph attacked him, and he dropped a bucket of quinitricetyline and the detonator which caused the quinitricetyline to ignite and started a chain reaction, which resulted in the deaths of many inmates.

Personality and Traits

Frank had a lot of banter with Murphy when discussing what he’d like to do to Ripley if he was alone with her.

Behind-The-Scenes

The Special Edition of the film contains more scenes of Frank. It shows him and other prisoners using oxen at the start to pull the EEV to shore. Frank then explores the inside and sees the bodies of Hicks and Newt.

In the theatrical cut, Frank finds Ripley still in her stasis tube while the Special Edition has her found on the beach by Clemens. There is a further scene in the abattoir where Frank and Murphy pull a dead ox into there. These scenes were cut when the ox was changed to a dog.

Other Media

Alien 3 Novelization (1992 Novel)

In the Alien 3 novelization by Alan Dean Foster, Frank appears as in the film. The novelization mostly follows the same path as the Alien 3 Assembly Cut. There’s some more dialogue when Murphy finds the dead Facehugger. Frank suggests it’s some kind of jellyfish.

Alien 3 Comic (1992 Comic)

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

Trivia

• In the film, the character is called Frank but the Weyland-Yutani Report book says that his real name is Carl and Frank is an alias.

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