So I just watched Alien 3 yesterday and I was thinking again on the debate of whether there are 25 prisoners or 25 total people. I'm not sure if this is still in contention, but I wanted to plead my case anyway. The thing that has always gotten me is when Andrews specifically says "we have 25 prisoners here," or whatever the exact line is. I don't think there's any way he would associate himself with the prisoners, so I don't know why he would include himself in their numbers. He obviously hates them all. Clemens says the prison has been reduced to a "custodial staff of 25." I also don't think he would count himself among prisoner numbers as he seems sensitive about no longer serving time. That's just me, but I decided to list out everyone to see if it made sense that there were 25 prisoners.
I'm going to take the theatrical version as canon here, which I do anyway, and apply it to this "study." In the theatrical version I believe Dillon says "this makes ten" when he finds Arthur's body, totaling the victims of the explosion to ten people. In my opinion, that would leave fifteen other prisoners. I'm going to assume that the first person killed in the bait and chase sequence is indeed this "Vincent" character, even though he's not named in the theatrical version. It's not William because he pops up for a second after the shot of the Alien eating the guy. Also, I'm not going to count Frank in the number of explosion casualties, as I'm assuming that the Alien pulled him up into the vent and...ate him or something. I suppose if he fell off the ladder he would've been counted in the casualties though.
With 16 credited actors playing prisoners, there should be nine more prisoners in the mix from my standpoint. 6 names that don't have faces in the movie, and then three more who are unnamed period.
This is the total list of all named characters (if I'm not mistaken) from the film credits and from the script/novelization. I don't think I'm missing anyone, but anything's possible. So, if there are only 25 people there, everyone has a name.
1 Andrews
2 Aaron
3 Clemens
4 Dillon
5 Morse
6 Gregor
7 William
8 Troy
9 Eric
10 Jude
11 Kevin
12 David
13 Vincent
14 Ed
15 Christopher
16 Lawrence
17 Martin
18 Janni
19 Boggs
20 Rains
21 Golic
22 Murphy
23 Frank
24 Arthur
25 Junior
Now let me tally up the numbers of prisoners not killed in the explosion scene (theatrical version):
1 Dillon - lead mold
2 Morse - n/a
3 Gregor - bait and chase
4 William - bait and chase
5 Troy - bait and chase
6 Eric - bait and chase
7 Jude - bait and chase
8 Kevin - bait and chase
9 David - bait and chase
10 Vincent - bait and chase
11 Boggs - "foraging"
12 Rains - "foraging"
13 Murphy - fan
14 Frank - ladder
People killed in the explosion when going off of Dillon's "this makes ten" statement:
1 Ed
2 Christopher
3 Lawrence
4 Martin
5 Janni
6 Golic
7 Arthur
8 Junior
9 Unknown
10 Uknown
With Frank on the list of people not counted in the explosion casualties, this makes 24 total inmates at the prison with two not being named. So, Andrews might possibly be counting Clemens among the prisoners when he says there are 25 of them, and leaving himself and Aaron out. Clemens might actually be counting himself as well. If Frank was included on the list of explosion casualties, then there would only be 23 prisoners total, and one unnamed person, so in this case Andrews and Clemens are both just ballparking a figure which seems unrealistic for people who maintain accountability of inmates.
Thoughts?