Quote from: Stitch on Jul 13, 2023, 01:01:46 AMQuote from: ralfy on Jul 13, 2023, 12:12:43 AMQuote from: Stitch on Jul 12, 2023, 03:43:24 AMBurke was working for the company, yes.
Burke was also working alone.
He sent the Jordens out to check whether Ripley's story had any merit, because the result of the board meeting showed nobody else did. His actions alone caused the Hadley's Hope incident.
When the comms went down, he knew that Ripley was telling the truth, so wanted to make sure he was on the mission in order to secure proof that these aliens existed (because the rest of WY didn't believe Ripley), so he could bring them back, show WY, and get a big fat promotion and paycheck.
Both working for the company, and working alone.
We have the following info:
According to Cameron, Burke was the "Special Projects Director for Weyland-Yutani (Space) Corp's Special Services Division":
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Carter_Burke#cite_note-A2-3
And it manages research programs of W-Y:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Weyland-Yutani_Corporation#cite_note-A2-2
In which case, one can argue that he worked for the mission because he is the head of the research division of the company. Whatever he discovers can then be analyzed in the company labs and then engineered and produced by the bio-weapons division.
None of that contraindicates anything I said.
So he's head of Special Projects, so what? He's still not head of W-Y as a whole, and the review board scene shows that the higher ups don't believe Ripley.
He was acting of his own volition. Hell, the fact that he's Director of Special Projects means he's more likely to be working alone so that he can have the alien in his own division, rather than being beholden to anyone else. That way his team gets the glory, and he gets a big fat paycheck. That he doesn't want to share. Because he'll screw his own kind over for a percentage.
There's some confusion about the meaning of "working alone".
There's working alone, i.e., working without the company knowing because it doesn't care, and managing to tag along a military rescue contingent (given the claim that the military was alerted about colony communications going down). That's the claim given by several in this thread: he was working as a private citizen and not even as a company liaison or head of his division, and wanted all of the revenues for himself (as opposed to percentages, paychecks, etc.). The company and government didn't care about Ripley's report and only thought that the colony comms went down for some other reason. That's a cartoonish view.
And then there's working alone, i.e., making their own decisions, but still for the company. He acts on his own volition because he's head of Special Projects, which means he does not need to be prompted by higher ups (the ones who appointed him Director and probably even asked him to be the company representative during Ripley's hearing) to investigate this matter, but he still works for higher ups and the company. That also shows that the claim that the company didn't care doesn't make sense. That's my view, and it's more realistic.
It also helps that you also mention that he "gets a big fat paycheck" and would screw others over a percentage, as the paycheck and assigned percentage would be given by W-Y. In short, he was never working alone, i.e., independently of W-Y.
Some more points to consider (and some of these are recaps), and all of these come from the movies, what Cameron said, and a manual:
Burke is head of the research division. That means it's his job to collect alien tech and organisms for company labs. From there, anything discovered can be engineered and manufactured by the bioweapons division (probably working with an engineering division), which in turn has the military as a main customer. Meanwhile, Ripley works for the mining division, together with the Jordens. There's a separate terraforming division with colony services. The government handles administration and security, plus owns territory that's occupied, like LV-426. Finally, anyone, like the Nostromo crew and the Jordens, get a share from anything discovered, and in case of Ripley, required by the company to investigate potential finds.
Given success, Burke would have been given a very nice bonus, Ripley her share with interest, etc., and the company high revenues via bio-weapons and reverse-engineering divisions, plus the military their bio-weapons coupled, and probably improved weaponry and machinery for many industries from alien tech.
The presence of a bioweapons division, Bishop following orders from Burke and analyzing the organisms, and the Marines having "state-of-the-art firepower" needed to deal with "bugs" show the complete opposite of the company and the government didn't care. What likely happened is that company wanted to show Ripley that they didn't care so that they can make it appear to her and to the feds (one of the board members during the inquiry) that they don't have a protocol that makes their personnel expendable, to the ICC (of which van Leuwen is an official) that they don't have a policy of routinely violating quarantine protocols (which is what happened in the first movie, and which they were planning to do for the second), to the insurer (another board member) that they don't have a protocol that makes their insured assets (like the Nostromo and its expensive cargo) expendable, and to ECA (another board member, of which one official pointed out that they found no indigenous organisms in over three hundred worlds) that they wouldn't compromise colony personnel, either.
In this article, Cameron himself shares some more points:
http://www.alienscollection.com/jamescameron.htmlThat is, Burke could have gotten the alien ship location from the flight recorder.
Keep in mind that all board members had access to the same, and it would not have been difficult for any of them to ask the colony to investigate the location. Why did Burke do it, then? Because he's the W-Y rep in the board, and W-Y is operating the colony in LV-426. The ECA rep administers the colony, but it has no authority to send W-Y personnel to investigate finds. Van Leuwen couldn't investigate the matter as well because he works for the ICC. The feds couldn't have acted because the only personnel on LV-426 that could investigate is a colony that's under the authority of another agency, the ECA. Neither could the insurer because his only concern is what happened to the Nostromo and its cargo.
These points imply that if the government didn't care, it's because they had no capacity or authority to investigate the matter. Only W-Y would, and they would step in only if something went wrong.
Notice, too, that given Cameron's point, of all officials, the company chose to send Burke as its representative during the inquiry. Why? Because according to Cameron, he's head of Special Projects, the division that's precisely tasked with acquiring discoveries.
Why is Burke able to give orders to the colony manager? Because he's head of Special Projects and works for W-Y, together with the colony manager, and the colony consists of W-Y employees with personnel from ECA acting operating as the local government on the rock.
Last, some asides from Cameron:
The reason why the alien distress beacon stopped working was because it was damaged by volcanic activity.
Aliens generally capture those who are weak and unarmed for cocooning while killing those who are armed and considered a greater threat to them.
The tactical nature of the aliens, with orders coming from the queen, was included to show that they are highly intelligent while the presence of the queen explains their life cycle rather than just repeat what was done in the first movie, i.e., with a storyline involving aliens coming from facehuggers that in turn came only from the eggs in the alien ship.
Alteration of the aliens, including the presence of "warriors," was meant to show that the aliens also operate in complex groups, and with specialization.
The main folly of humans is curiosity, e.g., given the presence of the dead, sole passenger on the alien ship not deterring the Nostromo crew or the Jordens.
One possible reason why Ripley got used to her surroundings after being gone for almost six decades is because technology plateaued. (Implicitly, this would have strongly motivated W-Y about her discovery, especially given the point about not seeing anything beyond simple organisms in hundreds of worlds. It also strengthens the point that the company didn't care and that Burke was some sort of Dick Dastardly as cartoonish.)
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About giving "unpopolar" views, it helps if it turns out that Cameron's script, commentary, and a manual that's routinely used in this forum as reference backs them up.
More important, popularity doesn't count when it comes to analysis, and what's popular is a cartoon villain view of the movie.
