9. Trivia (Movies: Alien)
Description
This article is from the Alien Movies FAQ, by Darryll Hobsonand Eelko de Vos E.W.C.deVos@TWI.TUDelft.NL with numerous contributions by others.
9. Trivia (Movies: Alien)
"ALIEN"
<Trivia about the making of Alien>
- H.R. Giger, the man who created the alien, was also hired to make up
some scenery for Dune. This was not used, though.
- The facehugger was originally far more bigger than it turned out
eventually. The first drafts of the facehugger showed it about
one-and-a-half yards big, with a tail which made it up to (or over)
three yards. It embrased the complety head of the victim, instead of
just attaching to the front.
- The first alien Ridley Scott thought of having marching around in the
picture, was a big man with a bunch of children strapped to him,
wrapped up in rubber. This idea was thought over, but it gave too
many problems. The second idea was a robot 'alien'. This idea was
rejected because of safety reasons: there was no way of really being
sure that no one would get hurt when the robot would've been armed
(during a fight). Then the idea of a insect like alien was brought
up. The alien we all know was derived from this idea.
- The first draws of the alien showed us an alien with eyes!
- Bolaji Badejo, the man who was in the alien suit, was just picked up
from a bar by Ridley Scott. He was as big as Scott wanted the alien
to be: two metres (6ft, 7in).
- There were two alien suits: one for the effect of a HUGE alien, 6ft
7in, and one for the stuntman, Eddy Powell, 5ft 10in.
- Only due to problems with materials, the alien was "not" transparent.
Otherwise we would've been watching a transparent alien in the
trilogy...
- Now a substantiated rumour:
"None of the actors saw the alien before the shootings. This created a
genuine reaction on film."
For more information, see below: "Substantiated Rumour"
Other trivia
- H.R. Giger made an alien walking-stick handle. He took this to the
Oscar Award ceremony.
- According to the "ALIEN" box set, "ALIEN" grossed $ 40,300,000.00
- The first half of the movie was based on original ideas and a script
entitled "Memories" by Dan O'Bannon, the second half originated from
the idea of gremlins on a B-17 bomber, transposed to a spaceship.
[source: "ALIEN" box set]
- Notice the similarity between the cocooned gremlins in the movie
"Gremlins" and the alien's eggs/cocoon structure. This similarity may
have been due to the original 'gremlins on a B-17' concept for the
latter half of "ALIEN". This aspect of "GREMLINS" could've been
inspired by "ALIEN".
- It has been suggested that "ALIEN" is a rip-off from from an A.E.
van Vogt short story entitled "Discord in Scarlet". Van Voght seems
to have won a court suite about what appeared to be a rip-off of part
of this famous novella. "Discord in Scarlet" is about a castaway
alien who plants eggs in the bodies of humans.
"Discord in Scarlet" was pasted into a composite novel called
"Voyage of the space beagle".
- Dan O'Bannon, writer of "ALIEN", played the role of Pinback in the 1974
movie "DARK STAR" (by John Carpenter). In this movie, his character is
hunting a not-very-lethal alien (basically a large red beach-ball)
aboard a space ship. The filming of these scenes certainly served as
part of the inspiration for "ALIEN". (The movie is like a comical
version of "ALIEN" in retrospect.)
- "Nostromo" (a novel by Joseph Conrad) pilots a ship hauling ore out
of a turbulent South American country.
- The name of the shuttle "Narcissus" was taken from the Conrad novel
"The Nigger of the Narcissus". The plot revolves around a sailor who
brings death on board with him.
- The alien's habit of laying eggs in the stomach (which then burst
out) is similar to the life-cycle of the tsetse fly.
- The images that the computers display during the Nostromo's
separation from the Mother ship (as well as some images (ie: the
"Purge" message) used near the end where Ripley is setting up the
escape pod to blast off) are re-used in "Blade Runner" (also directed
by Ridley Scott)
- Substantiated rumour:
"Only John Hurt and the camera crew knew exactly what was going to
happen during the chest-bursting scene. The actors' only clue as to
what was going to happen was from what they read in the script, so
reactions are genuine."
This rumour is not a rumour anymore! In "Giger's Alien" it says that
this scene was shot three times. So everybody knew perfectly well
what they were getting into after the first shot. They had to
change their blood stained shirts every time after a shooting.
Veronica Cartwright told in an interview, that they didn't know
what was going to happen at all (the first time this scene was
shot!), only 'Kane' and the crew knew what was about to happen.
Sigourney Weaver also told us:
"Well, I had seen the pictures but in fact when the Alien was born
-it was a very funny day. In fact Ridley wouldn't let any of us see
it. As I walked on the set I remember everyone was wearing
rain-coats which should have given me a hint that something
horrible was going to happen, and they never rehearsed it. John Hurt
started screaming and because he's such a good actor, all I could
think of was what's happening, not to John but Kane, and out of
nowhere."
(from "An Interview With Sigourney Weaver" part 1, from The Alien
War Official Society Magazine, No. 1)
- In the scene from ALIEN where Dallas, Kane and Lambert are leaving
the ship, the actual actors walking past the Nostromo's landing struts
are 3 children (two of which were Ridley Scott's children) dressed in
scaled down spacesuits. This has the effect of making the ship look
even bigger.
The same thing has been done with Dallas, Kane and Lambert in spacesuits
walking near the Space Jockey, to make the creature look larger. This
scene was also done with three children.
- Watch the scene where Kane gets attacked by the facehugger
frame-by-frame. You'll see (through Kane's eyes) the facehugger jump
out of the egg, attach itself to his helmet, break through the glass
shielding and stick out three tubes through the glass, poking around
inside the helmet. This is only 21 frames long, and is quite easy to
miss during this action scene.
- Watch the scene in which Brett get 'eaten' by the alien
frame-by-frame too. You can see the alien's 'inner mouth' punch
through the front of Brett's 'Nostromo' hat and retract and partially
pulling out something red -- Brett's brain. It is quite gruesome
actually.
- An over-turned ice cube tray is on the side of Ash's motion tracking
device.
- A sex scene between Dallas and Ripley (!) was in the script, however
was not filmed. [source: "ALIEN" box set, "The Book of Alien"]
This was supposedly to take place in a glass 'bubble' on top of the ship.
During the intimicy, Kane was supposed to float by, dead, disturbing the
love couple horridly.
Not filming it, was only for the better, regarding the fact that in Aliens
Ripley is told to be married, and having a daughter. Her husband's name is
'McClarent', not Dallas, so if she had had sex with Dallas, she would've
been an adulteress.
- The front (face) part of the alien costume's head is made from a
real human skull. [source: "ALIEN" box set, "Giger's Alien"]
- Although it has nothing to do with "ALIEN", Sigourney Weaver's real
name is Susan Alexandra. [source: Who is Who in America, 47th Edition]
- A good deal of the music that Jerry Goldsmith wrote for Alien never
made it into the movie. Several tracks on the CD soundtrack don't
appear in the film, and most of them that are in the movie apparently
weren't used in the scenes they were written for, judging from track
titles. The movie uses some classical music, plus music from an
earlier Jerry Goldsmith score entitled "Freud." [refer to section [7],
MERCHANDISE for more soundtrack information]
- In Mel Brooks' Sci-Fi spoof "Space Balls" there is a scene near the end
where John Hurt (Kane) and a group of other actors made up to
resemble the crew in "ALIEN" are enjoying a drink at a space diner.
Hurt suddenly starts choking and a chestburster erupts from his chest.
John Hurt (Kane) says "Oh no, not again".
The creature then dawns a top hat and dances across the bar while
singing "Hello my baby".
< the next two points are quoted from the Blade Runner FAQ with
permission >
- Notice that both "Alien" and BladeRunner have "artificial persons",
and there is ambiguity as to who is/was a real human. "Alien" and BR
are perfectly compatible, the only problem being that Ash should have
been a replicant, as opposed to a robot.
- When Deckard enters his apartment at the end, the background hum is
the same distinctive hum as in parts of "ALIEN".
"ALIENS"
- Look closely at the readouts about the Nostromo crew in back
of Ripley during the Inquest. There is, if you look closely,
some interesting (and accurate) detail about the characters.
(any information about this is appreciated)
- In the Special Edition, we get to see Ripley's daughter, Amanda
McClarent Ripley, on a colour printout of a computer. The woman
protrayed in this picture is in fact Sigourney Weaver's own
mother Elizabeth Inglis. (from an interview with S. Weaver)
- James Cameron was offered, after Terminator, two film projects -
one was a futuristic version of Spartacus, the other was what
was then called Alien II. He chose the latter.
- When, in the Sulaco, the Marines are being thawed out - look
at the screen - nearly without exception, the names listed
have as the character's first initial, the actor's first initial.
- Tip Tipping, who played Private T Crowe, was actually a stuntman
and stunt coordinator. He died about two years back in a tragic
parachuting accident...
- Also there's a wonderful visual pun - when the Mother Alien
"stings" Bishop, "Queen takes Bishop!!"
- "Peace Through Superior Firepower" is written on Frost's T-shirt.
- "El Riesgo Siempre Vive." is written on Vasquez's chest plate armor.
In Spanish, this literally means "the risk lives forever", and
figuratively means (it's a saying) that taking risks is necessary to
survive.
- Hudson's line, "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linnen" is a quote
from an AC/DC song entitled "Shake a Leg". [album: Back In Black]
- British Aerospace was [secretly] contracted to design the weaponry
and spacecraft for Aliens. The dropship is a composite of the cockpit
from the Apache helicopter, and engine cowling from old British planes
- also the Sulaco is based on the pulse rifle.
- "...It was [Jeanette] Goldstein's (Vasquez) outside that needed an
overhaul, largely because blue eyes and Huck Finn-style freckles
didn't quite fit the job description. 'The makeup took an HOUR,' she
sighs. 'The makeup woman said I had the most ornery freckles she had
ever seen.'...They also gave her dark contact lenses, and rather
unceremoniously, whacked off most of her waist-length hair." [from
STARLOG #115, Feb.1987]
- "The introduction to the marines, [...], as they awoke from hyper
space and gnawed on breakfast, was filmed at the production's end.
That way, the cast had several months to get acquainted." [from
STARLOG #115, Feb.1987]
- "Loco" is written on the back of Vasquez's shirt. [from STARLOG
#115, Feb.1987]
- Goldstein : "'It's never mentioned in the film, but in the
characters' background, she and Drake are recruited from juvenile
prison, where they're under life sentences.
'Therefore, they were different from the others, who were on a time
limit. Hudson was supposed to get out of the marines in four weeks,
which is what made him flip.'
That also explains the back of Hudson's vest, tailored by actor Bill
Paxton to read, 'Contents under pressure. Do not puncture.'" [from
STARLOG #115, Feb.1987]
- Ferro has "Fly the Friendly [Skies]" written on her helmet. You can't
read the last word, as it's covered, but presumably she is making a
joke with the United Airlines motto.
- On the side of the first drop ship is an insignia of an eagle with
big sneakers on, sort of completing a jump. Just above this is the
text "Bug Stompers" and just below is "We endanger species".
- The second drop ship is called "Smart Ass" and just below is "We aim
by P.F.M." (ie: Pure Fucking Magic)
- "Adios" is painted on Vasquez's smart gun.
- The smart guns used by Drake and Vasquez are mounted on them via set
of hydraulic arms. These arms take most of the load of the guns and
keep them stable. Virtually the same technology is used by camera men
on outside broadcasts, where they are used to keep the cameras steady.
The hydraulics absorb most of the energy created by a camera man
running down the road leaving a very steady picture.
- An ammunition clip for the M41-A pulse rifle holds 95 rounds.
Comment:
Looking at the size of the magazines being loaded into the pulse rifles,
this may not be possible, unless the mags have 3 rows, which is unlikely
looking at their width. If the rounds are each 10mm in diameter, a
staggered magazine (like those found in most modern military weapons)
including the spring or some similar feed mechanism would be about 90cm
long! Even a triple stacked mag would be 35cm and it would present a few
engineering challenges concerning the feed mechanism.
- The mechanism used to make the facehuggers thrash about in the
stasis tubes in the science lab came from one of the "flying piranhas"
in one of James Cameron's earlier movies: Piranha II - The Spawning.
It took 9 people to make the face hugger work, one person for each leg
and someone for the tail.
- Hicks was originally played by actor James Remar, but Michael Biehn
replaced him a few days after principal photography began, due to
"artistic differences" between Remar and Cameron.
- Partly as a joke and partly to leave the ending open for subsequent
sequels, James Cameron added the sound of an egg opening/face hugger
scuttling about at the end of the film credits. (different sounds
were appended to different versions of the movie)
- "She thought they said 'illegal aliens' and signed up..." - Hudson
This quote (directed towards Vasquez) was an "inside joke" to the
actors of the movie. (quoted without permission from an interview
with Jeanette Goldstein [Vasquez] that appeared in STARLOG magazine)
''...she answered an ad for a film role in the local trades. It
read simply, "Genuine American actors, British Equity, for
feature film, ALIENS, 20th Century Fox," she relates, over lunch
near the old homestead in Beverly Hills.
"I had seen ALIEN, but I had NO idea this was a sequel.
It had been so long ago, it didn't even occur to me.
"I thought it was about actual aliens, you know,
immigrants to a country. I was wondering why they wanted
Americans. I figured the movie was about lots of different
immigrants to England."
Since she didn't have an agent at the time, she answered
the ad on her own, with rather surprising results. "I actually
came in wearing high heels and lots of makeup, and I had
waist-length hair," she says.
Other auditioners, who had advance notice from THEIR
agents, were decked out in military fatigues --- Goldstein's
first inkling she would be reading for the role of a marine...''
- One track of music from Goldsmith's CD for "ALIEN" appears near the
end of "ALIENS", during one of the big scenes of the Queen stomping
around the colony. Even though this music was used in "ALIENS",
Goldsmith's name was not mentioned in the closing credits.
- Ripley's shoes are Reebok sneakers. You can see this when she's driving
one of the cargo loaders.
- In Aliens, Bishop said Ash was one of the Hyberdyne Systems 120-A/2.
In the first draft of the script, the name 'Cyberdyne' was used.
Terminators are from Cyber Dynamics, also called 'CyberDyne'. Maybe
James Cameron threw in a little connection between the two.
- Adrian Biddle, the cinematographer for Aliens, has had a longtime
collaboration with Ridley Scott. Apparently, Biddle was not
the original cinematographer. In Alien3, Jordan Cronenweth was
slated to the the cinematographer, but poor health forced him to
turn the task over to Alex Thomson. Biddle had already worked on
"ALIEN", although only as a focus puller.
- To get an idea of the wonderful attention to detail that was paid
in the Alien films, freeze when Hicks is programming the Sentry guns.
The screen depicts exactly what such a futuristic weapon would have
-interrogation modes, choices of "soft, hard, semi-hard" targets, and
IFF options - which means "Identification, Friend or Foe."
- The actor who played Newt's brother Timmy was (is) her brother in real
life too, judging from his name.
- Hudson's "game over MAN" was used as a sample when you died in the game
Test Drive II by Electronic Arts. At least in the Amiga version.
- The Powerloaders were supposed to have been built by Caterpillar
Tractor. If you look at the scene in Aliens where they're using the
Powerloaders to load the ammo, you'll notice a very brief view of the
Cat logo in one of the closeup shots. It's only a few frames long, so
it's easy to miss. It's probably one of those corporate promos that
Hollywood likes to use to add authenticity.
- Though Ash and Bishop are considered to be androids, this is not the
case. They both are robots. This can be deducted from the
observation that their heads can operate seperately from their
bodies. This cannot be the case with androids. Androids and
cyborgs are essential holistic systems: the head wouldn't
function on it's own. The fact that bits of both Ash and Bishop
can be re-activated suggests that they are robots, not androids.
"ALIEN^3"
There were at least 12 "scripts" for "ALIEN^3" (derived from the May
1992 issue of PREMIERE) :
1. William Gibson wrote his based on a brief treatment given to him by
Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll. It was set in a Soviet
space station ("It was sort of like a Cold War in space, with genetic
manipulation of the alien replacing nuclear war," says Gibson). The
1987 writers strike interrupted the process, so Gibson went back to
work on a novel. "Only one detail survived. 'In my draft, this woman
has a bar code on the back of her hand,' he says. 'In the shooting
script, one of the guys has a shaved head and a bar code on the back
of his head. I'll always privately think that was my piece of
ALIEN^3.'"
2. Eric Red was hired for a "five-week" job to convince Fox to dole
out more development money. He collaborated with Renny Harlin.
According to Red, "HE came up with the gene-splicing idea. 'In the
third film, you needed a new alien. I suggested doing genetic
experiments on the alien.' Red says that Hill and Giler were
disorganized and irresponsible. 'They had no story or treatment or
any real plan for the picture,' he says. Hill and Giler say the
problem was Red's script; when Harlin read it, he quit the project."
3 - 4. David Twohy had a draft set in a penal colony in space without
Ripley in it (since Hill and Giler planned to bring her back in the
fourth film). But Joe Roth (head of Fox) insisted that he wouldn't
make the film without Weaver. Twohy had just started to write Ripley
into the script, when "one of the most transparent bits of studio
treachery I've ever heard of" took place. At the same time Twohy was
working, Fox hired Vincent Ward to collaborate with John Fasano to
develop the script involving a community of monks (remember the seven
dwarfs?). When a Los Angeles Times reporter called Twohy about
"competing drafts of Alien^3", Twohy dumped the script and went off to
do his own film. Fox insisted that Ward's script was for Alien 4.
Twohy: The old adage is true: Hollywood pays its writers well
but treats them like shit to make up for it.
5 - 9. Greg Pruss was hired next to rewrite Fasano's script (he had to
leave to cowrite ANOTHER 48 HRS). Pruss did "five arduous drafts".
Everyone moved to London where the crew was already beginning to
design and build sets even as the script was being written. But the
studio began having trouble with Ward, "who was less interested in
Ripley or the alien than in his monks. 'The movie's called ALIEN
because it's about the alien,' says Pruss. 'I couldn't get that
across to Vincent.'"
10. Pruss quit and Ward was fired. Once David Fincher signed on as
director, Fox hired Larry Ferguson(Beverly Hills Cop II) to do a
"four-week emergency rewrite." Ferguson continued more or less with
Ward's ideas and hence, the horrible idea with the seven dwarfs and
Ripley as Wendy. Weaver and Fincher hated the script and the movie
"almost fell apart".
11. Hill and Giler were paid to do another emergency rewrite. They
moved the story back to Twohy's prison and the religious element
evolved into what exists in the final draft. The studio and Weaver
liked the script but Fincher had a few reservations.
12. After much bureaucratic bickering over the budget and schedule
plus the firing of key participants, Rex Pickett was hired to
collaborate with Fincher for yet another rewrite. This occurred when
Hill and Giler were going on vacation. "It all blew up when Pickett
wrote a memo salvaging Hill and Giler's script."
- Prior to its release, "PREDATOR II" came out in the theaters (which
had an almost identical story to the original idea for "ALIEN^3") near
the end of "PREDATOR II" we see a trophy case of different skulls, one
of which is the skull of an alien.
- Boss Film campaigned hard to win the effects job for Alien3,
which is surprising - usually when you beg for a contract, you do a
damn good job. They did all of the miniatures, space scenes, and
even created a way of superimposing a computer-generated alien
into the film. This is most visible when after killing Clemens the
creature scurries after Ripley, straightens itself out, and then (in
close-up next to her face) we see the subtle change in the
texture of the creature, that tips us off to the transition from
CGI to latex model.
- The commandoes that search the Fury-161 complex are armed with
pulse rifles, yet they sound different when fired.
- In Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien3, the "rescue" ship that
Bishop II arrived in was called the Patna, From the novel Lord Jim
by Joseph Conrad.
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