ALIENATION: AN ALIEN 3 REBOOT

        I got to suggesting things for an ALIEN3 fan-edit and went past what could be accomplished there. This is a more appropriate forum.

        I just couldn't accept A3. It has some interesting concepts, but it descended too deep into the dark. What was done to Newt was downright offensive to me. I don't know what they were thinking, but if I had known that was coming I wouldn't have given a penny.

        A:RES was a valiant effort to pick up from that point, but it was thrown off by half a beat. A:R had the best terror-action sequence (swim) in the franchise, imo. The creature design was the best yet. I thought the concept of the android who loved humanity and despised itself because it was not human was a fantastic subplot. Too bad there wasn't any time to develope it. 

        This thread is for any concept related to rebooting the franchise after ALIENS. How?

        Where I'm at thus far...

        The fantasy film would look as though it was made in '88 (When A3 should have been produced.) Any CGI would look like a practical effect. Film grain and set design all from that era. It would have a "Third Act of the Trilogy" sort of structure. Twin themes of a hyper-aggressive alien nation on a blitzkrieg for lebensraum, and the total alienation of the characters from all humanity.

        The Prologue includes Ripley bombing the derelect from space after some samples were somehow removed by the company and/or military. To cover their tracks, they blame Ripley and Hicks for sabotage of the reactor and loss of the squad. They have reports from Burke and data recorders that make it seem most incriminating. Newt is in danger because she is a witness and they are willing to kill to keep their operation secret. Ripley and Hicks are sentenced to death in absentia by the colonial and company and military authorities.

        They live as fugitves aboard the Sulaco out on the fringe. Maybe the ship was carrying hard currency to support a large military and recovery operation. Maybe they pick up a few other ne'er-do-wells, runaways and rejects possibly including an android escaping slavery and interpreting it's basic imperatives in a very questionable way.

        The political situation is that sectors of space are owned by nations and corporations. They exploit the resources and terreform worlds to colonize. The U.S. sectors are sold to corporations and are run out of the Department of the Exterior, Bureau of Colonial Affairs. The Bureau maintains a federal administration with a military (StarFleet and Colonial Marines) and there is a Colonial Congress to represent the common concerns of the settlers. The corporations have broad authority in their sectors. The United Nations maintains a United Worlds Organization to represent the common concerns of humanity in space.

      After the elimination of the derelect, we could see a "false start." Ripley and Bishop could wake early to prepare the ship for docking. Ripley could hard wire Bishop into the ship and eat while getting ready. She checks the networks for news of the Sulaco and the world? She discovers they are betrayed and asks bishop about the funds on board.

      After the prologue, we see the crew waking from stasis and going for the obligatory meal. Here we piece together the situation from bits and pieces of the conversations. The ship needs maintainance, some of the basic character traits and conflicts. Above all, they want to make things safe for Newt to go to University.

       Newt is about 18. She has been kept in stasis about twice as long as the others who must maintain the ship and business. She is very attached to ship and crew. She has rejected the"regular" society that has rejected them. She's frustrated with being out of the loop. Ripley is an inverted Uncle Owen and Hicks is an uncertain Aunt Beru. They want her to go to school. They want her to denounce them now that she's old enough so that she will be safe. An argument (good-natured and dismissive by Newt, stern and insistent from Ripley.

       We learn (possibly a separate address) they are running low of money. They can't keep on like this forever. We learn that the ship has been put on course to a company owned colony in the company sector. Ripley and Hicks heard there is proof that would exonerate them or at least take most of the heat off. After that, they want to go to High Singapore to purchase registration and licenses.

       We learn from a ruffled looking Bishop that a distress call has gone out from the colony. Why isn't clear. They need every ship in range to come to orbit. Their plan is to evacuate children too young to fight along with their mothers. The Sulaco could sustain more than a thousand in orbit. Once it takes refugees, the ship is effectively trapped in orbit. They can be arrested and put to death. Newt argues that it must be a trick and they'd never tolerate terrible criminals to run the ship with their children aboard. Ripley and Hicks decide to cut a deal and go.

      Continuing...

      When they arrive, the company-civil leader comes aboard flanked by two Colonial Marines (or militia-men) and some people to help prepare the ship. The Governor lets Newt know that they will not try to reclaim the ship and has/will have a formal, notarized guarantee from the Department of the Exterior stating that they never will try (the old ship would be more trouble than it's worth to them, anyway.) This might be conditioned on helping the refugees and witness against Ripley and Hicks. Part of the agreement transmitted was that Newt agrees to turn them in (the Bitch;)

      There is argument and Ripley cuts Newt off. The corporal gets into it and shows Hicks the unit tatoo on his forearm and tells them how glad he is this scum won't be taking places that could go to refugee children. He could tell Hicks he hopes he survives the aliens so that he could be the one to frag him. They take them along with any crew volunteers and those too questionable to remain. They could be armed as part of the agreement for coming in or they could be shackled and have to earn release down on the colony. 

       I don't know how much they would be involoved in crime beforehand. It's pretty out there as-is.

        A more toned-down version would be that Ripley is forced to get work on lesser ships. Newt somehow goes along and now she is kept in stasis longer. I'm trying to keep Ripley, Hicks, Bishop and Newt together on one ship. I suppose Ripley could afford to purchase a terribly damaged android that was about to be scrapped anyway.

        She might be on a crusade to hold the company accountable and heads out to the colony for evidence. Maybe Hicks was badly treated upon returning and wants to set things right for his squad. They are on the colony world when things go to hell. 

        This story line was developed out of an earlier iteration.

        In the first version, the derelect is destroyed and the ship heads home. Along the way, there is a distress call from another company owned colony. The ship automatically wakes Ripley and Bishop and they go to answer. Once there, they wake Hicks and fix him enough for action. Bishop is also repaired well enough to help. If Newt's appearance was too different, she could be left in stasis.

       They take on refugees and go down in the dropship to save more and get stuck on the surface. Once there, they learn that the company has obtained eggs from the derelect and it has spun out of control. The usual festivities, and it comes to the climax.

       Earlier, shortly after getting stranded, they come across an atmospheric processor. They express concern that it could blow and are told that it is a different type and that nothing that could detonate atomically is allowed on the planet because of the composition of the atmosphere. Hopefully, this little exchange passes by quickly as just concern about being caught in another meltdown. Hopefully everyone has forgotten about the destruction of the derelect at the start.

        All the settlers are evacuated as confirmed by their personal locators. Ripley gets desperate at the climax and manages to launch a nuke while in the weapons bay of the Sulaco (possibly while an alien is crawling on it;) and the entire company owned planet goes up in flames. 

        ALIEN featured the destruction of the company ship then blowing the creature into space. In ALIENS, the destruction of the company processor and then blowing the queen into space. A3, as the culmination, would have to top that and cause the company more spectacular damage. They owned entire planets. I remembered the concerns of the early '40s.

        There is the ALIEN style and the ALIENS style. This first version of the iteration in ALIEN style would have had Hicks or Bishop and probably both dying. I gave much more attention to ALIENS style.

        More and more it started to seem like the 18 year old Newt thing was the way to go. ALIEN style seemed more and more workable, but I still prefered ALIENS style. I gave very passing consideration to other crewmembers.

         By the time A:RES came, I moved to ALIEN style and finally settled on the storyline. It featured 18Newt and taking the Sulaco deep. Hicks would sacrifice himself for Newt and maybe a friend, Ripely would sacrifice herself to stop the company from taking the aliens offworld and Newt would return to Sulaco and blow the planet. 

        That done, I went back to ALIENS style to see whether I could do better.

        I still lean towards ALIEN style, but I might not be thinking like a movie marketer ;) 

         The rest goes according to formula...

         Chaos by the landing platform. They could have the fathers of children and their mothers who are yet to be evacuated provide the security around the pads for some "humans turning on each other" action. It's a descent into hell. Scientists of the company. Opposing groups. The planet had a loose militia to discourage small raids from other human powers.

          Bishop could come down here or later. The other android could be there. Newt would have to be drawn down and stuck. They could go on missions to rescue stranded families. It would all end with them making it back to the ship. They help each other against at least 3 aliens who have gotten aboard from another shuttle.

         This would be between 105 and 120 minutes, so it's not as though there'd be any shortage of material ;)

         With emphasis on the WWII analogy and the fact that these are not poor put upon creatures who are only trying to live in peace on their own homeworld,  I'd be inclined to stick with a Libertarian versus Neo-Marxist divide (or at least I'd be too tired to try to find anything better;) The people who founded the colony might have had a get-away-from-it-all ideology. The N-Ms might be some descendants and recent immigrants sick of the company store. If there are going to be colonists, they have to have character and conflict. Polar extremes. They both should make good points and both be catastrophically wrong.

          The Libs created a Wild West environment with drugs and prostitution surrounding their families, overdependence on the company and the idea that they can do whatever they like and be totally unprepared to deal with problems with their isolationist loose little militia. The NMs try to believe that their program would lead to anything other than an unworkable, Orwellian totalitarianism. They try to believe they can live in peace with any system other than Free-Enterprise and greatly admire the Marxist nature of the hive. These opposites could be embodied in their respective leaders for quick presentation. Both would die gruesomely, of course ;)    Message serves the story- NEVER story serves the message!

       The Colony:

        It's a Sci-Fi movie, the colony should have a unique and interesting environment.  Underground? I suppose that could work. A mining colony? Rare minerals? Ties back to the original movie. The planet could have once been volcanic. The geology is such that there are enormous world spanning networks of undergroud caverns and vents. They could have processed a breathable atmosphere. The surface could have a cosmic-ray problem. An hour up without shielding is like an X-Ray, a month is very dangerous. Not enough water to keep the surface covered for long. Water flows down in underground springs and waterfalls to underground pools and lakes. Vast caverns and narrow vents everywhere.