Christie's death : totally avoidable

[Local Trouble]

He suicided.  Understandably, massive pain and all that.

If that's true, the actor really undersold it.  He looked downright bored.

[BigDaddyJohn]

He suicided.  Understandably, massive pain and all that.

If that's true, the actor really undersold it.  He looked downright bored.

That's what i kinda thought, despite him being a really cool character and overall well interpreted.

I would love to read it actually.

One draft, he shoots an Alien that's too close and it sprays blood on him.  Vriess keeps climbing, but Christie dies and Hillard cuts him free.  A later draft, he cuts himself loose and takes the Alien - apparently still alive despite being shot a couple of times - with him.

Ah thanks for the info !

The man did have an exquisite jawline, and he knew all Johner got with his ugly mug was bot-sex.

Death was preferable.

The way it's presented in the movie is just flat-out bad. The intent is clear - that he kills himself to save Vriess - but you don't get any sense that he actually needs to do that, so his death just comes off as pointless.

First off the Alien is barely even hanging off his foot and looks like it's about to slide off at any second. If Christie had just moved his leg or foot in any way whatsoever it would have fallen. That alone kills any sense of "their combined weight is just too much for Vriess to hold for much longer." It would have been far better if its hand was actually wrapped around his ankle, but it comes across as a case of 'that's the best they were able to do on the day.'

But on top of that, I just never got the sense that he was so badly injured by the acid that he knew he was just dead weight and that that was his only option. The injury was unpleasant sure, but not debilitating to that extent. It would no doubt have hurt and messed up his vision, but that would be about it. He was still able to unclip himself and then unsheathe and use a knife to cut through the rest of the straps, so clearly he could still move. Sure you could say "well maybe the acid was slowly paralysing him or something", but I feel like any time you have to be that speculative about something that should be clear it's usually a sign that the movie has done a bad job of portraying it.

Not to mention neither the fall nor the water would have killed him either. Having another Alien coming after him definitely would have improved it a lot. It would have made it a situation of "I could save myself, but there just isn't enough time, so I'm going to sacrifice myself to save my friend" rather than "well, I guess this is the part in the script where it says I die. Best fall in the water then, I guess."

You perfectly said what i had in mind creating this topic !

[BishopShouldGo]

Yeah, Christie should've cut himself loose while the alien was opening its mouth. Then him and the alien could both fall in the water, with the alien killing him, then the alien could jump back on the ladder where Johner shoots it.

[Dingbat]

I never undestood why Chrisitie actually killed himself, thanks for explaining this to me.

[machines1047]

Yo dude I wanted JUST gettin ready to write this topic myself. Wtf? He caught some acid to the face, yea, THAT sucks. But in the end... If this was a video game, he would have still had 70/60% health left. NO REASON to commit suicide.
The book describes the alien hanging on to him to have a vice like death grip around his ankle, but even still, if everyone who just stood around and watched and did nothing more than forget, if they indeed helped, they coulda figured it out.
   All this was was an easy and CHEESY way to get rid of one more.
           TOTALLY UNECESSARY!

[BigDaddyJohn]

yes i think they could have portrayed it better, maybe wound him more or something like that

[SM]

It wasn't a video game.

[judge death]

According to me and my idea why he didnt try to remove the alien or move at all and seemed paralysed is:
The xenomorph might be able to spit acid that is venomous or paralyses its victims. So he was getting slowly paralysed and knew he had to cut himself free and fall down and drown so that the other could survive.

Why the others didnt try to help is poor writing.

[JungleHunter87]

It wasn't a video game.

With all those ricochet bullet kills, you could've fooled me. 

In all seriousness is was dumb. Honestly, I'm not sure why they couldn't have changed the scene ever so slightly. So as to make Christie's death seem more plausible. Rather than the confusing and laughable end result.

[SM]

There was a lot of things that weren't properly realised.  Too much standing around talking instead trying to get away from the Aliens; going from the bottom of the ship in the kitchen to the top in the span of about 4 levels, despite there being over 30 levels on the ship; the confusing number of actual Aliens; confusing geography of the Auriga, etc.

This scene makes sense more or less, but could've been presented a lot better.  Some of the films issues are due to the script; some due to budget cuts, and I wonder if others were were lost in translation.

[whiterabbit]

Personally A|R seems to be more of a comic book movie than video game movie. Therefor Christie should have inherited some l33t alien powers from the acid burns.

[Local Trouble]

The perfect marriage of French kooky and Whedon goofy.

[SM]

French kooky saved it from Whedon goofy.

[Local Trouble]

Who gets the blame for Perez?

[whiterabbit]

Might as well just blame Turk.