Idea: A Special Request - RIPLEY and CAPTAIN KIRK need your help...

*** A SPECIAL REQUEST ***

Personally, I’ve always wished that the ALIEN 3, ALIEN RESURRECTION, and STAR TREK GENERATIONS movies had turned out differently where certain characters were concerned…and so I’ve come up with ways that change their outcomes.

Unfortunately, although I’ve now got solutions that I’m happy with, I’m unable to produce these edits myself…so I’m posting these 2 videos in the hope that I can find someone who’d be willing to undertake either of these alternative possibilities sometime.

So if there’s anyone who’d be interested in getting either of these projects done at some point, please PM me to discuss the necessary timings and shot descriptions I’ve got in mind.  Many thanks.

**RIPLEY needs your help… - **http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O-ace_iPM

(This solution would be used for both ALIEN 3 and ALIEN RESURRECTION, and each movie would involve a ‘hybrid’ version using ‘Theatrical’ and ‘Special Edition’ footage)

**CAPTAIN KIRK needs your help… **- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP7iwQkYp48

(Unlike the ‘Next Generation’-focused KIRKLESS GENERATIONS edit which removed Kirk’s scenes (giving the impression his final mission was the STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY movie), this solution would continue to feature him throughout, except the movie ends on a triumphant note for him)

(And I’d like to say a huge thanks again to Davnes007 who kindly agreed to put these 2 videos together for me from my descriptions.  You did an excellent job)

Those both sound like fantastic editing ideas... though greatly ambitious. I can picture how Generations will have Kirk live; but, inserting Hicks and Newt would be quite an extraordinary achievement.

I unfortunately don't have the skills to edit this; however, I'm very curious on how you plan to achieve this. ImperialFighter, I'd love to see/review your Alien fan edit cut list if possible; though, I'd understand if you wouldn't want to share it.

TAF, I'm pleased that you like the notion of these edits, and we'll just have to see if someone eventually gets in touch with me who'd like to see them too.  While not everyone dislikes how things worked out in the existing versions, I know there's plenty out there who do... 

So we'll see.

But for the moment, I'd kinda like to keep the solutions under wraps, purely so that fans of these characters can get the opportunity of a little uncertainty about exactly *how* things end up resolved when they watch these versions.  (That's *if* they end up getting produced by anyone at some point, of course)

A while back, I was informed by xeno_alpha_07 that amongst a couple of previous attempts in the past to 'save' Newt, Hicks, and Bishop which came to nothing, there was also an unfinished ALIEN 3 project a few years ago where a group of editors intended to have Ripley crash-land *alone* on Fury 161 due to her EEV 'malfunctioning'...while implying that a *seperate*, 'fully functioning' EEV with Newt, Hick, and Bishop aboard, ended up 'drifting safely' into space...

However, that still wouldn't have 'saved' Ripley from her eventual ALIEN 3 outcome...and personally, I want to see her 'survive' the sequels too!

Where GENERATIONS is concerned, I don't know if you've ever seen these 2 inventive and heartening 'alternate ending' videos by a guy called Matt Kendrick or not...but I got a kick out of them, and they encouraged me to try and come up with a solution that would satisfy me using only *pristine*-quality footage from the movie instead.  Here they are -

Part I - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2JeKeVynbY

Part II - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOopmLt3X_U

And here's a version by a guy called Major Grin that certainly gave me a belly-laugh when I came across it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPUr_hDr9gs

There's no additional f/x work required for any of my proposals, only a re-arrangement of certain footage.  But giving the impression of an alternative outcome for these movies was only half the fun I had with them, as my other intention was to tweak certain moments thoughout each of them in ways I'd prefer to see too. :)

You could have Kirk come out of the Nexus and end up on the bridge of the Enterprise C, save the Klingons and escape the Romulans and still be alive long enough for Scotty to assume he saves him on that Dyson sphere thingy.

Or have him exit in the cockpit of Spock's little ship in the latest film and have Spock and Kirk both hop over into the divergent timeline.

There is plenty of ice moon footage you could pull from The Undiscovered Country.

Bingowings said:

You could have Kirk come out of the Nexus and end up on the bridge of the Enterprise C, save the Klingons and escape the Romulans and still be alive long enough for Scotty to assume he saves him on that Dyson sphere thingy.

Or have him exit in the cockpit of Spock's little ship in the latest film and have Spock and Kirk both hop over into the divergent timeline.

There is plenty of ice moon footage you could pull from The Undiscovered Country.

Some interesting ideas as always Bingowings, and if you think you can come up with the exact 'cut-lists' of shots that would piece together in a completely workable way for those, then they'd certainly make for a couple of watchable versions I'm sure.

But I primarily wanted to come up with something that still maintains GENERATIONS actual storyline of Kirk returning to Veridian III alongside Picard in a joint effort to undo Soran's plans....while keeping as much of the existing footage as possible, and removing as little as necessary.  So this is the possible alternative I'd still prefer to see.

        If your still thinking about the title...

        I checked, and it seems possible that FOX might hold enough of the rights to ALIEN_NATION that it might be altered to ALIE^vATION, with a script color and possibly font change half way through the N. It could create a memorable controversy;)

        I haven't tried imagining a fan edit of GENERATIONS. I tried to imagine THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. David could live!(If someone hasn't done it already.) It would take some fancy additions to the coms to establish that the world is breaking apart because it was made of protomatter or out of a nebulea. (The klingons could go down after changing some of the subtitles.) David and New Savik could be cut out entirely. The Klingons could find Spock just as he is turning into the adult. Most of the opening stuff with the Ambassador could be cut as it's recapitulation of the previous ep. :)

       I've got some A3 imaginings. I'll post here since your main thread is off-site. Might be some small thing to be gleaned.

       Initially, I had a happy ending. I grew less certain as things went on.

       Now I'm working from the haunted ending version:

        ...Private Jonathan Hicks has received a posthumous promotion to Warrant officer of the highest grade and is recommended for the Colonial Congress Medal of Honor...and Captain Ellen Ripley...has been nominated to receive the United Worlds Medal of Humanity... for her selfless... The government has vowed that it will not attempt to reclaim this ship... We have set course for High Singapore in the hope of purchasing quasi-ligitimate registration and liscensing. This is ___ Newt ___, Acting Captain of the Rogue Ship Sulaco.... 

      Twin themes of a hyper-aggressive alien nation on a blitzkrieg for lebensraum, and the complete alienation of the characters not only from the company or military, but all humanity.

      It could be that they discover their betrayal towards the end of the film and have to ride off into the sunset. Alternatively, a distrustful Ripley might have programmed to come out of hibernation before reaching their destination and learned that the colonial, company, and military authorities have, in an act of frontier justice, sentenced them to death in absentia after assuming they fled deep.

      After any necessary prologue, we see the gang coming out of stasis and going for their meal (everyone gets a bad case of the munchies shortly after waking from stasis). Their computer woke them after recieving a distress call. A ruffled looking Bishop, with too many patches with adapted parts and losses of vital fluid, goes to investigate.

      At the meal, we get to meet the crew of the R.S. Sulaco (formerly U.S.S. Sulaco.) Maybe a few other ne'er-do-wells and possibly another android escaping slavery.  We learn of various motivations and the difficulties of keeping the ship in commission (now the ship has a 3D printer that produces parts and fittings that must be replaced too often.) We meet 18-20 Newt. She is girl-next-door pretty under tangled hair and patched overalls. Captain Ripely is an inverted Uncle Owen and Hicks is an uncertain Aunt Beru. An argument ensues. Ripley is very anxious to find a way to safely send Newt to University (authorities are afraid she is a witness.)Newt has rejected "regular" society and is very attached to ship and crew. Newt argues that she would only go to commercial pilot academy and then return to the ship anyway, so why bother? 

       Bishop returns and we learn of the great dilemma. A colony world of hundreds of thousands has sent a distress signal. They are not specific, but it sounds like Earnest T. Doublesmiles. Their plan is to evacuate all children too young to fight with their mothers and they require all ships within range to come to orbit. Newt argues it must be a trick. The moment they take on refugees they will be trapped in orbit. The Sulaco could sustain more than a thousand refugees in orbit. If they go to the planet, the phoney case is so strong against them that they will be arrested and put to death. Ripley and Hicks decide to answer the call on condition that they be allowed to go to the surface with weapons and help the colonists and that the Sulaco will remain under Newt's control with any crew that decides to stay with the ship. 

        When they reach the surface they discover that the planet has only a loose militia to discourage small raids, some police, a couple of Marines manning a communication post or something, and no hunting weapons because there is nothing to hunt. Maybe it's the moon of a gas giant going into eclipse or has slow rotation or they build underground to hide from cosmic rays or something. They get a rough welcome. The Marines want to frag Hicks. A young corporal alot like Hicks stops it because he doesn't have time to train the civies but vows to frag him when it's over. 

        The usual festivities. We learn that the Aliens have a way to escape and spread like wildfire if not stopped here. It's a company owned colony. Newt and Bishop show up in the drop ship. Bishop downloads info on the company plan to spread the aliens. More fighting. Hicks sacrifices himself to save Newt and the corporal. Ripley sacrifices herself to stop the spread to other worlds. Newt and the corporal must face whats left.

       That's it in broad strokes. :) 

      EDIT: A cylander or generation ship are alternatives to a planet.

      Newt could decide to head off to college as Ripley had wished in a full resolution. Alternatively, she could head off in an unregistered ship. The President could (in the novelization;) issue a full pardon to the crew for all crimes related to the seizing of the Sulaco and vow that the government won't try to recover the ship. Maybe both. She goes off with the corporal on his G.I. Bill and the surviving crew takes care of the ship.;) 

      The other android is an ambiguous and ambivalent character. We don't know which way it's going to turn. It interprets it's basic imperatives in it's own questionable way. Robot means slave. Shades of ST, SW, AI, IR.... 

      For interest in the colony, there could be a political divide. On the one side is the Libertarian sort of colonists backed by the company sponsored government as long as all are kept dependent on the company store, on the other are some Neo-Marxists fed up with it. Both sides make some good points and both represent grave errors. The Libertarians look the other way from company abuses and drugs and prostitution surrounding their families for the sake of their "get away from it all" ideology. The Neo-Marxists want to tear down without thinking about what would enevitably follow as going that way produces a horrifying totalitarian machine dedicated to stamping out any deviation from the central plan. The libertarians are too trusting of the company. The N-Ms hate the company and militarism and try to believe that it's possible to live in peace with any system. They admire the Marxist nature of the hive and try to make peace and co-exist.

       Of course, every message must serve the story and never the story serve the message. Popular entertainment and all that. :)

       Edit: Yeah, uncluttered and haunting is probably best. I'm a little anxious that everything be easily understood;) Newt could be encouraged to denounce them in order to finally protect herself. There's the same problem Cameron faced with prologue. Drop in ALIEN style? More time to establish the situation before introducing the Great Dilemma?

       Edit: As has been pointed out around here, the passage of time is relative with stasis pods. Newt might be kept in hibernation longer than the others who must tend to the ship and problems.

       Edit: Yeah, get things up front and let the audience connect the dots. It might look like they will be allowed to stay with the ship. Once the first wave of refugees are on with the authorities they could be arrested. A message was sent ahead and they have an agreement that Newt will run the ship and denounce them in a witness statement now that she is 18 (the bitch;)  An arguement with Ripley cutting things off and they go down in shackles where they have to earn their release? They would have to be away from a place where they could just jump ship when they get the call.

       Ripley nukes the derelect from orbit?

       "I don't know what that "Logistics" is, but I want some of it." ;)

     I'll finish up some thoughts and return your hijacked thread ;)

     I suppose the corporal could have recently completed his enlistment and returned to the homestead. Little brother or sister might give him extra motivation. The other Marines would be unnecessary elements and he could be a militia leader based on his active experience. If he saves Newt after being saved by Hicks, he could be killed-off. Edit: He could have a tatoo on his forearm to show Hicks. He could rig small canisters of compressed air or gas as improvised concussion grenades.

     Another alternative to A3 was having the Sulaco simply met by an outbound ship. They could take on Ripley while she's still in stasis and/or Hicks and/or Bishop or they could have taken over the Sulaco and sent Newt back to Earth in their transport. Ripley and/or the others could wake up back in the sh**. Military and/or company and/or civil government investigators wanting to figure out WTF. They could use threats and/or the promise to help in the adoption of Newt. Maybe the colonists sent some samples somwhere else before being overrun.

     For a more practical fan-edit, Ripley's pod could detect a medical problem and could be ejected towards the nearest help along with the dropship to automaticaly grasp and haul to the help and/or because something wrong was detected in the dropship. The Sulaco could be abandoned with the characters in stasis because of contamination or the powers setting up Hicks to take a fall with no witnesses.  :)

thejediknighthusezni said:

     I'll finish up some thoughts and return your hijacked thread ;)

No worries.  I meant to point you to where the 'Script Writing and Re-writing' forum was at the time, but I see you found it eventually anyway.

___________________________________________________

And here's a little update regarding the ALIEN 3/ALIEN RESURRECTION thing - a well-known fan-editor contacted me for some details of what I had in mind to keep Ripley and co. 'alive', so I sent him my intended scenario along with some screenshots. 

Well, the good news is that he's now kindly offered to undertake this project at some point in the future, once he's cleared a couple of things out of the way first.  :)

I won't reveal who it is quite yet, but he's previously released some well-regarded edits, and is certainly technically capable of doing an excellent job.  So I'll be starting to send him the complete descriptions and timings soon, and if everything pans out okay, then I'll update our progress with it.

I thought I'd add another update to this thread before this year ends -

Just so everyone knows, TMBTM (TheManBehindTheMask) was the talented fan-editor who contacted me ages ago to kindly offer to cut those proposed ALIEN 3/ALIEN RESURRECTION re-edits on my behalf, at some point.  Considering the work involved in these things, that was very generous of him, and I'd like to thank him very much for that again.  And once again, I'd also like to thank the others who responded quickly to my PM's at the time too.

But...a couple of things arose around that time just shortly after TMBTM's offer of help -

Firstly, I soon realised that e-mailing all the necessary detailed descriptions of the many precise cuts and timings I required for those would just take up too much of my spare time in the end...and that some would prove especially problematic for me to get across to someone else.  There were just too many moments that needed a LOT of written descriptions to get across properly, it turned out... 

Secondly, however...at around the same time, I had actually started to make my first faltering steps at messing about with some ripping and editing software for the first time ever...and soon discovered that I was able to re-edit shots together in far less time than it would have taken me to write out all the detailed descriptions to TMBTM.  On top of this, I also realised that I had several more 'cut-lists' ready-and-waiting for certain other movies I equally wanted to re-cut too...but I couldn't expect TMBTM (or anyone else) to undertake those for me too, at the end of the day.  So I eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing else for it...I would just have to try and make time to brush up on this whole editing malarkey *myself* if I was ever going to have a chance of seeing all my own versions realised one day.

So that's what I ended up deciding to do, and I let TMBTM know this at the time.  I'm getting there bit by bit, and seeing my first short practise clips in motion was great fun.  I've now managed to reach the stage where I've been able to cut the entire, much shortened version of Peter Jackson's KING KONG that I wanted to see (a mix of the 'Theatrical' and 'Extended' versions, with numerous re-edits throughout), which took a lot of time to achieve, but has proved immensely satisfying for me. :)

Finally, I hope to show a 'visual' step-by-step of what I've come up with for that at some point during 2015.  There'll also be plenty of clips showing various possibilities for other movies included too, including a heap of my own proposals for those three bothersome 'Star Wars prequels'.

(Oh, and just so you know...unlike RIPLEY and CAPTAIN KIRK, I'm sorry to say that KONG still cops it in my version...) :p