Alien 4: Critics Version

[Alien5]

Ok I see that there a lot of people that completely hated Alien Resurrection, and you are all entitled to you're own opinions. I personally liked it. My question for all of you is if Alien Resurrection never existed and you were chosen to write a script for Alien 4, what would you have done? And it has to include Ripley!

[Pax]

Two words: Android Ripley

-Pax

[Alien5]

Cool idea, never thought of that before.

[Vader the White]

It would involve time travel instead of cloning (with that, no Newborn!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

[Predator82]

i like the movie but make me hate a lil bit
the alien comes out from water throw acid on his face like a dragon
2nd the queen becomes a baby like humans without eggs
and then came a white "alien" out of them
i hate this ending

[Corporal Hicks]

Bah. No time travel, no clones, no droids, no Weaver. We should have gone somewhere new.

[SiL]

I'd have Ripley's ashes being shot out into space.

Then the rest of the movie would be a dark, gritty noir thriller, with an out-and-out PI helping a busty dame deal with Tony Two-Rats and his illegal Alien-smuggling operation. A rollercoaster ride, dealing with the human condition, depression, the depths to which a man will go for his greed, corruption, and the heartbreaking disillusionment of the human soul. The Aliens are symbols, angels without wings, without mercy, to cleanse the world of wrong, reigning down holy justice with tooth and claw. They are unstoppable, unreasonable, illogical killing machines. Man falls before them, and only God can save them now.

...Holy shit, I've gotta make a script out of this.

[Vader the White]

Bah. No time travel, no clones, no droids, no Weaver. We should have gone somewhere new.

I only said time-travel because the topic said it inculde Ripley.

[Meathead320]

Ok, how to involve Ripley. We have her name referenced. That is all.

This way we don't have to spend 20 million dollars of the budget on Weaver.

The movie would take place in space, or an isolated planet, actually both.

The source of the Aliens could even be the derelict, which would not have been destroyed.

The story would be about a salvage team, similar to the ones who found Ripley in deep space at the Beginning of A2, and they would find another ship, where a similar event like on the Nostromo had taken place, only this time, it would be the entire ship, as the crew was killed before they could blow it.

Onboard would be a nest of Aliens, complete with a Queen. We would later learn what happened onboard, and find out they started with a single Adult Alien after one of the crew was infected, and then it had made several eggs out of some of the other crew members, including at least one that was Queen bearing.

Some crew members would have been used as hosts, and now there is a fully functioning hive on board.

The salvage ship would be huge, like a fully functioning city in deep space. Many different things to run, from the power supply to the food. For the deep space operations would have to be fully functioning communities in deep space, because supplies would not be able to be brought out so far on a consistent basis.

The movie would be about a fight for survival as the Aliens take over. Dwindling despair as those who are left are trying to lock themselves away from the Aliens.

Near the end would be the morbid realization of what they had done by sending out a distress signal.

The giant ship would make an emergency landing on some barren planetoid (not LV-426, but a different one) and the movie would end with the Aliens winning.

The audience would be stuck with the realization that this must have been what the events were like on the Derelict in the first Alien film.

At the end, this giant city in space, the deep salvage ship, would end up becoming just like the Derelict.

It would be a hive on a distant world, and with a continuous Distress signal being sent out.

And a warning.

[FACEBOX]

Sigourney would play the part of one of Ripley's kin.
Maybe a niece, granddaughter.. you know. Then...off to the Hive-world we go.

[Pax]

That could be a good movie, Meathead (feels like I'm insulting you), and it would be far preferable to the A4 we actually got, but it doesn't seem new and interesting enough.  For a while there, Aliens movies were moving forward, exploring new terrority, but this idea is really just combines A1's setting with A2's monster count, and if you have a full hive on a ship, they're just going to tear through the salvager crew, not skulk around and be sneaky.  What are the people going to do, shoot them?

I agree on ditching Ripley though.  I just mentioned Android Ripley because that was one of the starting conditions of this thread.

I would want more of a road trip, with a more complex plot.  The Aliens are there, but they aren't the point; they may be a major factor, and the main antagonist, but something else drives the movie.  We explore a well-thought out science fiction universe and end up far from the known, someplace completely, dare I say it, alien? 

I'd like to see something interesting done with the Pilot race as well.  I don't care what's been intended in the past, they are a fascinating plot hook with a lot of potential, and it be awesome to see someone come up with a good story for them.

-Pax

[Meathead320]

Pax,

I agree it would not be very groundbreaking, but does it really have to be?

The salvage crew could have weapons, even military stationed there.

Now the "problem" is the movie would be more like A2, and that is about the only problem.

Keep in mind it has been 21 years since A2 came out. So is it really a problem if the movie has a similar plot and theme?

I would hate to see a "re-make", so I thought up a movie with a similar theme, but the story is slightly different, and it would end up being a similar feeling movie, but with new characters, a new ship, same aliens, with more special effects techniques to bring the aliens to life than were avialable in 1986.

We could add in a new sinister human bad guy too. More active in his role than Burke was in A2.

My take on this is that for modern movie goers, Aliens feels dated. I still love it, and so do its loyal fans, but most movie goers with ADD today just would not be able to sit through the slow moving parts.

The old story, or theme, could be updated, and given a polish, and made again, to terrify this generation the way A2 did, while also giving the excitement too.

I would not want a re-make of A2, as it has a very solid place in the continuity.

That is why I came up with an idea that although fitting with the Alien setting and conservative in not messing with the Alien lifecycle, it is still nothing really new. It is a very similar event to A1 and A2, sort of an in-between like when the Aliens took over Hadley's hope.

It is hard to do something really new, as the Aliens have an elegantly straightforward lifecycle. We learned after A:R that messing with this is a bad idea. You can provide different hosts for some new variation but they are still regular aliens.
             New castes of aliens or mutants cannot really be added as they just ruin that elegant cycle already setup.

If you can think of some good changes to add in here and there to the rough story I just posted before this; I encourage you to do so.

Maybe if we combine some good ideas we could come up with a good idea for A5.

Some general guidelines I like to follow:

1.   No Ripley, as I think the creatures are more of a draw than she was.
2.   No messing with the Alien lifecycle with mutations like the "Newborn"
3.   Each stage of the Alien should be represented in the movie.

Have at it.

[Pax]

I can see the argument for that.  A kind of series re-start without actually doing a remake or venturing into an "Aliens Begin!" kind of silliness.  I suppose it would be useful, too, to serve as a recap.  Dang kids these day know only about dog bursters and mutie hybrid abominations.  Still, seems like kind of a waste to spend an entire movie on recap.  But, hey, as long as it was done well, which is the goal of any movie, really, I sure as hell wouldn't mind.

-Pax

[FACEBOX]

I like your idea Meathead320

[Meathead320]

Thanks guys.

That idea did not take me too long to come up with, I have several others too.

When I have the time I will post more of them.

I think they would work for an A5 too.