Hi, there;
I'm writing a screenplay for 'Alien V'. What follows below is a brief intro and then a summary of the main storyline. This post is very rushed, as it's all very flow-of-consciousness' due to time constraints (I only have half-an-hour!). I just wondered what other fans thought of my idea. A lot is unexplained and there is more than I have time to scribble here (I've missed out info on a large number of supporting characters), but this is the two-dimensional bulk.
I'm in the process of writing a screenplay for the 'fifth' Alien film. I have not decided upon an original title just yet, but I do like Alien Planet. It has a very 'low-budget fifties horror film' feel about it, and is simple and refreshing. Unfortunately, I believe it has already been used for at least one fan screenplay accessible on the internet.
The story effectively concludes the Alien saga, but I do not like it to be seen as 'chapter 5'. Rather, no previous knowledge of the story-lines of the previous entries is necessary. This makes it accessible to the 'casual' viewer and new audiences.
Alien Planet takes one liberty with Alien 3. It assumes that Corporal Hicks and Rebecca "Newt" Jorden did not die when the Emergency Escape Vehicle (EEV) ejected from the U.S.C.M. Sulaco crash-landed on Fiorina 161.
In 'actuality' only Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (and the Bishop android) was ejected in an EEV. She assumed that Hicks and Newt were ejected in a separate vehicle which crash-landed on to rockier terrain – obliterating them instantly, off-screen. In reality, their unit failed to eject itself from the mother-ship.
Newt and Hicks are the protagonists (although Ripley's story isn't over just yet – read on). Newt is to be portrayed by a different actress in her mid-twenties. Hicks is to be played by Michael Biehn. His 'older' age is explained to fans as due to a defective cryogenic capsule on the Sulaco, which caused him to age physically somewhat.
Newt is the focus – the camera tries not to leave her.
The story starts with U.S.C.M. members entering a darkened 'ghost-ship' (later revealed as the Sulaco), drifting about lifelessly in deep space. Lost. Lonely. One more informed Marine mentions something about this being caused by a navigational error, and warns the others to be 'prepared for anything'. Naturally, this opening sequence has the potential to be very suspenseful, uncertain, and disconcerting. Eventually, they discover (a young) Newt and a bandaged and aged Hicks asleep in their cryo-capsules. All we learn in this film about the previous films, is that these two are the only survivors of a clash with the enemy in an auto-piloted ship.
We then fast-forward several years. A deep space station. (I did consider setting this aspect on Earth for simplicity – but I feel it would destroy the lonely/alien atmosphere in a fairly familiar setting.) This follows the Darkhorse comicbook series to an extent. Newt has grown up and is at a psychiatric institution, experiencing nightmares on a regular basis. Hicks is scarred, bitter, and socially withdrawn – getting into fights, etc. We witness the difficulties they experienced in re-entering human society after their troubles. No-one (but The Company, probably – who've also told them that Ripley died in hyper-sleep) believes their crazy stories.
Eventually, the Company 'requests' Hicks' presence, at a large 'informal' meeting. Their story is unsettling. The derelict alien space-craft on the planet he visited was not destroyed in the encounter. Although there wasn't much left of it, Company men managed to activated the navigational instrumentation – although it was far beyond their understanding, output seemed to 'point' to an place in space. The Company are excited that this may be the alien home world. They want Hicks to join the mission. Obsessed and embittered by the Aliens – he tags along. But only to officially keep an eye on the company.
He still contacts Newt from time to time, and as she knows no-one else and has no other existence, he manages to smuggle her aboard the U.S.C.M. Leviathan (name definitely not confirmed!).
There is only one down-side to this mission, that he was not told – it may take about a century to reach 'LV 1201', because it is so far away...
The Leviathan makes a small number of 'pit-stops' en route. This allows us to 'meet' the other characters. Hicks becomes darker and more isolated except in a briefing where he sneers at how the younger and less experienced marines act like he did when he first encountered the alien beasties. Newt forms a (physical) relationship with a guy, Gabriel – who is later revealed, to her horro, to be an android (a la, the comics). Having no-one else, and with Hicks always indifferent and emotionally detached, she is quick to attach herself to him. Contact cannot be made to the 'Network after the first half-century, where there is no 'signal'.
Eventually, they arrive. It is revealed not to be the alien home world, as if it was that simple and there was one, it died out centuries/thousands of years ago – but a 'satelitte', possibly. What they do discover, is that they location is a second derelict – a larger vaster one, torn in two with chunks missing. Orbiting an asteroid-planet. The theory of 'LV-1201' was a misnomer – it refers to the ship. The expedition leader retitles the asteroid LV1201 for convenience and the alien craft as the derelict. They explore the inside, in suits with surface-cohesive boots – empty. No crew or anything. There is a small number of fossilized and open urns (alien eggs). And two crew-members are mysteriously killed in death-traps (?). One is jettisoned into space, the other falls down a chasm – breaking his limbs. We don't actually see what happens, but he mentions something about a flooding substance – and screams as it engulfs him There is, however, a ghostly and disturbing transmission which leads them to the geostationary point on 'LV1201'.
Against Hicks' will (nuke them, etc), they visit the planet, when the dust-clouds calm. They pass through a horribly alien environment, until they reach a fossilized alien structure without realizing (a la, the scripted but unfilmed scene in Alien). After a weary trek, they approach a bulbous temple structure – like a budding flower. Fossilized and crumbling, but looks like it was alive once. With no obvious entrance, they manage to find a gap in the surrounding rock terrain which, when followed, leads into the structure.
They encounter many mysteries and indications to the aliens' past. There is a scene where the skeletal remains of what may be a space jockey 'communicates' unpleasantly, horrifically, and unclearly with Newt. Or is she hallucinating? (Although I want to keep most aspects of the Aliens a secret [for mystery and to emphasize the vastness and timelessness and lonliness of space), I do wish to refer to the Jockey's again in some form – this is just one idea and probably won't be final. Watch this space.) Of course, they eventually find the alien spore pods with unpleasant results. The General (leader) and Company's plan was to expose the bulk of the crew to the eggs, impregnate them, and return them to the Leviathan in a 'storage facility' – in a frozen state prolonging the 'pregnancy'. (I thought it might be gruesome and perverse to have the religious idiots in the comics with a desire to 'unite' with alien to be willingly stowed away – as hosts. This may not make sense, however.). Several eggs are also collected, clamped shut with special 'clips. A Queen facehugger is preserved especially.
The main alien action takes place aboard the Leviathan on its return. The General's plans go horribly wrong and Newt and Gabriel must fight there way to the front of the ship to eject its primary component from the rest. It is an all-out war at this point. Hicks becomes increaisngly suicidal and risks the lives of others to exterminate the critters. There is a particularly gruesome scene where a couple having sex are 'interrupted' by a facehugger – this scene should stop people having sex for a while... And Newt discovers Hick's 'becoming' an alien egg in a coccoon on the ceiling. She manages to free the most of him.
The three protaginsts escape in the modular part of the ship. The remining part mysetriously 'orbits' 1201 like the second derelict did...
Another century later (about the time of Alien: Resurrection!) they reach civilization. People on board the receiving space station watch as the awaiting craft docks. In the large Mess, a mysetrious figure in a shroud watches indifferently through a window whilst sipping soup. It is Ripley. After 200 years, the 'nuclear family' (and their new 'gay'/android best friend / Bishop stand-in- Gabrirel!) are about to be reunited! Not perfectly, but it's a slightly optimistic ending.
The film's main theme is sex. The alien creature and ship in the very first alien mimicked a lot of elements pertaining to human sex (read Gallardo & Smith – it's quite horrific). This film, hopefully, develops upon that with notions, ideas, and images of basic human sex, rape (horrific on their own – infidelity is a personal fear of mine!) and infidelity, and pregnancy and contrasting and worsening that with the advent of the Alien creature.
