Gerhard Weinberg – who edited and annotated the original German edition, and one of the two published English editions – speculates that the Zweites Buch was not published in 1928 because Mein Kampf did not sell well at that time and Hitler's publisher, the Franz-Eher-Verlag, may have told Hitler that a second book would hinder sales even more.[2][3]Zweites Buch was written after the Nazi Party's poor showing in the 1928 German elections, which Hitler believed was caused by the public's misunderstanding of his ideas.[4]
There are a number of similarities and differences between Zweites Buch and Mein Kampf. As in Mein Kampf, Hitler declared that the Jews were his eternal and most dangerous opponents. As in Mein Kampf, Hitler outlined what the German historian Andreas Hillgruber has called his Stufenplan ("stage-by-stage plan"). Hitler himself never used the term Stufenplan, which was coined by Hillgruber in his 1965 book Hitlers Strategie. Briefly, the Stufenplan called for three stages. In the first stage, there would be a massive military build-up, the overthrow of the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles, and the forming of alliances with Fascist Italy and the British Empire. The second stage would be a series of fast, "lightning wars" in conjunction with Italy and the United Kingdom against France and whichever of her allies in Eastern Europe—such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia—chose to stand by her. The third stage would be a war to obliterate what Hitler considered to be the "Judeo-Bolshevik" regime in the Soviet Union.
In contrast to Mein Kampf, in Zweites Buch Hitler added a fourth stage to the Stufenplan. He insinuated that in the far future a struggle for world domination might take place between the United States and a European alliance comprising a new association of nations, consisting of individual states with high national value.[5]Zweites Buch also offers a different perspective on the U.S. than that outlined in Mein Kampf. In Mein Kampf Hitler declared that Germany's most dangerous opponent on the international scene was the Soviet Union; in Zweites Buch,
Hitler declared that, for immediate purposes, the Soviet Union was
still the most dangerous opponent, but that, in the long term, the most
dangerous potential opponent was the United States.[6]
Habitat argument
In the first two chapters Hitler claims the balance between population and natural resources to be the main focus of any nation.
The starting point of his analysis is the "struggle for daily
bread" (food production) as the basis of human society. From this need
for self-preservation, he develops his central idea of the relationship
between the population and the size of the habitat of a people. If the
habitat cannot provide sufficient resources for survival, degeneration
and a decline of the nation results. Hitler raises the struggle for
adequate habitat to a central principle of human history. Hitler points
out that this battle is often enforced militarily, as history has
adequately demonstrated.
As solutions to the struggle for living space, Hitler considers
birth control, emigration of the population, increased food production,
and increased exports to buy additional food. All of these alternatives
he finds problematic. Birth control and emigration he believes leads to a
weakening of the nation, as people are the true life-blood of the
nation. The increase of food production he declares to be fundamentally
limited by a finite amount of productive land. Greater exports he
discards because it leads to increased market competition with other
nations, making Germany dependent on outside nations and therefore
leading to the situation Germany faced with the start of World War I in
1914. Hitler revisits these arguments several times in subsequent
chapters.
Foreign policy
In the other chapters Hitler developed his thoughts on the future
National Socialist foreign policy that serves the struggle for living
space. As in Mein Kampf, Hitler claims that the Jews are the
eternal and most dangerous opponents of the German people; he also
outlines and elaborates on his future political plans.
Hitler states that National Socialist foreign policy was to be based on Lebensraum for the German people:
The National Socialist Movement, on
the contrary, will always let its foreign policy be determined by the
necessity to secure the space necessary to the life of our Folk. It
knows no Germanising or Teutonising, as in the case of the national
bourgeoisie, but only the spread of its own Folk. It will never see in
the subjugated, so called Germanised, Czechs or Poles a national, let
alone Folkish, strengthening, but only the racial weakening of our Folk.[7]
Ideas on international relations
Of all of Germany's potential enemies comprising the eventual Allies of World War II, Hitler ranked the U.S. as the most dangerous. By contrast, Hitler saw the United Kingdom as a fellow "Aryan"
power that in exchange for Germany's renunciation of naval and colonial
ambitions would ally itself with Germany. France, in Hitler's opinion,
was rapidly "Negroizing" itself. In regard to the Soviet Union, Hitler dismissed the Russian people as being SlavicUntermenschen
("sub-humans") incapable of intelligent thought. Hitler consequently
believed that the Russian people were ruled by what he regarded as a
gang of bloodthirsty but inept Jewish revolutionaries.
United Kingdom
In Zweites Buch, Hitler called for an Anglo-German alliance
based on political expediency as well as the notion that the two
Germanic powers were natural allies. Hitler argued that the alleged
British striving for a balance of power leading to an Anglo-German
alliance would not conflict with his goal of Germany being the dominant
continental power because it was wrong to believe that "England fought
every hegemonic
power immediately", but rather was prepared to accept dominant states
whose aims were "obviously and purely continental in nature".[8]
Hitler went on to write that "Of course no one in Britain will conclude
an alliance for the good of Germany, but only in the furtherance of
British interests."[9]
Nonetheless, because Hitler believed that there was an ongoing struggle
between the "Jewish invasion" and the "old British tradition" for the
control of the United Kingdom, Hitler believed the chances for
Anglo-German alliance to be good provided the "Jewish invasion" was
resisted successfully.[10] Hitler hedged somewhat, however, by claiming that:
The instincts of Anglo-Saxondom are
still so sharp and alive that one cannot speak of a complete victory of
Jewry, but rather, in part the latter is still forced to adjust its
interests to those of the English. If the Jew were to triumph in
England, English interests would recede into the background.... [But] if
the Briton triumphs then a shift of England's attitude vis-à-vis Germany can still take place."[10]
A new translation by Krista Smith was published in 2003 by Enigma Books, a small press, under the title Hitler's Second Book, once again edited by Weinberg.[13][12]
Set immediately after the events of Aliens (1986), Ripley and an Alien organism are the only survivors of the Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco
following an escape pod's crash on a planet housing a penal colony
populated by violent male inmates. Additional roles are played by Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Ralph Brown, Paul McGann, Danny Webb, Lance Henriksen, Holt McCallany, Pete Postlethwaite,
and Danielle Edmond. The film had a troubled production, facing
numerous problems, including shooting without a script and the
attachment of various screenwriters and directors. Fincher, in his feature directorial debut, was eventually brought in to direct after a proposed version with Ward as director was canceled during pre-production.
Shortly after escaping the planet LV-426,[a] the Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco is travelling back to Earth with Ellen Ripley, Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, Cpl. Hicks, and the damaged androidBishop in cryonicstasis. An alien egg hatches on board, releasing a facehugger
that attacks the crew. A fire starts and the ship's computer ejects an
escape pod with the crew still in their stasis chambers. The pod
crash-lands on Fiorina "Fury" 161, a foundry and maximum-security correctional facility inhabited by male inmates with a genetic predisposition for antisocial behavior. The inmates recover the crashed pod and its passengers. The facehugger approaches inmate Thomas Murphy's dog, Spike.
Ripley is awakened by Clemens, the prison's chief medical
officer, who informs her that she is the sole survivor. The prison
warden, Harold Andrews, says that her presence may have disruptive
effects. Ripley insists that Clemens perform an autopsy
on Newt and that her and Hicks's bodies be subsequently burned, fearing
that Newt may be carrying an Alien embryo. Despite protests from the
warden and his assistant Aaron, the autopsy is conducted and no embryo
is found. The funeral proceeds with spiritual leader Dillon eulogizing
the deceased as their bodies are dropped into the furnace. Elsewhere in
the prison, a quadrupedal alien bursts from Spike.
Ripley finds the damaged Bishop in the prison's garbage dump
before being cornered by four inmates and almost gang-raped. After being
saved by Dillon, Ripley returns to the infirmary and re-activates
Bishop, who, before asking to be permanently shut down, confirms that a
Facehugger came with them to Fiorina, under knowledge of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Growing to full size, the alien kills Murphy, Boggs, and Rains. The
shock returns outcast prisoner Golic to his previously psychopathic
state. Ripley informs Andrews of her previous Xenomorph encounters[b]
and suggests everyone work together to hunt down and kill it. However,
the facility is without weapons; their only hope is the rescue ship
being sent for Ripley by Weyland-Yutani.
The Alien ambushes Ripley and Clemens in the prison infirmary,
killing him, and cornering her. However, it mysteriously spares her and
retreats. Ripley rushes to the cafeteria to warn the others. Andrews
orders Aaron to take her back to the infirmary, but the warden himself
is dragged into the vents and killed by the Alien. Ripley rallies the
inmates and proposes they pour flammable toxic waste into the
ventilation system and ignite it to flush out the Alien. However, its
intervention causes a premature explosion and several inmates die. With
Aaron's help, Ripley scans herself using the escape pod's medical
equipment and sees the embryo of an Alien Queen growing inside her. Upon this discovery, she realizes that there were two facehuggers on the Sulaco, and that Weyland-Yutani plans on capturing the alien incubating inside her in hopes of turning it into biological weapons.
The Alien will not kill her because of the embryo she is
carrying, so Ripley begs Dillon to do it; he agrees only if she helps
the inmates kill the Alien first. They form a plan to lure the Alien
into the foundry's molding facility, trap it, and drown it in molten lead.
The bait-and-chase plan results in the deaths of every remaining
prisoner but Dillon and Morse. Dillon sacrifices himself to position the
Alien towards the mold as Morse pours the molten lead onto them.
Although the Alien is covered in molten metal, it escapes the mold.
Ripley activates the fire sprinklers, blowing the Alien apart from thermal shock.
The Weyland–Yutani team arrives, including commandos and a man who looks identical to Bishop who says he is Bishop's creator.[c]
He tries to persuade Ripley to undergo surgery to remove the Alien
Queen embryo, claiming it will be destroyed. Ripley refuses and steps
back onto a mobile platform, which Morse positions over the furnace. The
Weyland–Yutani team shoots Morse in the leg to stop him; Aaron strikes
the Bishop look-alike with a wrench and is shot dead by the commandos.
Ignoring pleas to give them the embryo, Ripley throws herself into the
furnace, holding captive the infant queen as it erupts from her. The
facilities are closed down. Morse, the sole survivor, is led away as
Ripley's final logbook recording from the Nostromo plays.
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, reprising her role from the previous two Alien
films. Ripley crash-lands on Fiorina 161 and is once again burdened
with the task of destroying another of the alien creatures. Weaver
approved of David Twohy's script and signed on, but demanded a larger
salary of $4–5 million, plus co-producing credit. She also requested for
the action not to rely on guns.[4]
Charles S. Dutton
as Leonard Dillon, one of Fiorina's inmates who functions as the
spiritual and de facto leader amongst the prisoners and attempts to keep
the peace in the facility.[4]
Charles Dance as Jonathan Clemens, a former inmate who now serves as the facility's doctor.[4]
He treats Ripley after her escape pod crashes at the start of the film
and forms a special bond with her. Before he is killed by the Alien,
Clemens laments to Ripley why he was originally sent to Fiorina,
describing it as "more than a little melodramatic". Fincher initially
offered the role to Richard E. Grant, hoping to reunite him with Withnail and I co-stars Ralph Brown and Paul McGann.[9]
Brian Glover
as Harold Andrews, the prison warden. He believes Ripley's presence
will cause disruption amongst the inmates and attempts to control the
rumors surrounding her and the creature. He rejects her claims about the
existence of such a creature, only to be killed by it.[4]
Ralph Brown as Francis Aaron, the assistant of Superintendent Andrews. The prisoners refer to him by the nickname "85", after his IQ
score, which annoys him. He opposes Ripley's insistence that the
prisoners must try to fight the Alien, and repudiates her claim that
Weyland–Yutani will collect the alien instead of them.[4]
Paul McGann
as Walter Golic. A mass-murderer and outcast amongst the prison
population, Golic becomes very disturbed after being assaulted by the
Alien in the prison's underground network of tunnels, gradually becoming
more and more obsessed with the Alien. In the Assembly Cut of the film,
his obsession with and defense of the creature lead to murder and his
own demise, and his actions jeopardize the entire plan.[4]
Danny Webb
as Robert Morse, an acerbic, self-centered, and cynical prisoner.
Albeit wounded by the Weyland–Yutani team, Morse is the only survivor
from the entire Fiorina 161 population (including Ripley).[4]
Lance Henriksen as the voice of the damaged Bishop
android, as well as a character credited as Bishop II. He appears in
the film's final scenes, claiming to be the human designer of the Bishop
android, and wants the Alien Queen that was growing inside Ripley for
use in Weyland-Yutani's bioweapons division.[4] The character is named as "Michael Bishop Weyland" in certain tie-in materials.[7][8]
Tom Woodruff Jr. as the Alien known as "Dragon".[10]
This Alien is different from the ones in previous installments due to
its host being quadrupedal (a dog in the theatrical cut, an ox in the
Assembly Cut). Initially a visual effects supervisor, Woodruff decided to take the role of the creature after his company, Amalgamated Dynamics, was hired by Fox.[11]
Woodruff said that, following Sigourney Weaver's advice, he approaches
the role as an actor instead of a stuntman, trying to make his
performance more than "just a guy in a suit". He considered the acting
process "as much physical as it is mental".[12]
Pete Postlethwaite as David Postlethwaite, an inmate smarter than most who is killed by the Alien in the bait-and-chase sequence.[4]
Holt McCallany
as Junior, the leader of the group of inmates who attempt to rape
Ripley. He has a tattoo of a tear drop underneath his right eye. In the
Assembly Cut, he sacrifices himself to trap the Alien as redemption.[4]
Peter Guinness
as Peter Gregor, one of the inmates who attempts to rape Ripley; he is
bitten in the neck and killed by the Alien during the bait-and-chase
sequence.[4]
Danielle Edmond as Rebecca "Newt" Jorden,[13]
the child Ripley forms a maternal bond with in the previous film who
briefly returns as a corpse being autopsied. Carrie Henn, the original
actress, was unable to reprise the role due to her age so Danielle
Edmond took over the part for the brief shots of Newt in her cryotube
and the later autopsy scene with her corpse.[14]
With the success of Aliens, 20th Century Fox approached Brandywine Productions on further sequels. But Brandywine was less than enthused with an Alien 3 project, with producer David Giler later explaining he and partners Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll
wanted to take new directions as "we wouldn't do a repeat of one and
two". The trio opted to explore the duplicity of the Weyland-Yutani
Corporation, and why they were so intent in using the Aliens as biological weapons.[9] Various concepts were discussed, eventually settling on a two-part story, with the treatment
for the third film featuring "the underhanded Weyland–Yutani
Corporation facing off with a militarily aggressive culture of humans
whose rigid socialist ideology has caused them to separate from Earth's
society." Michael Biehn's Corporal Hicks would be promoted to protagonist in the third film, with Sigourney Weaver's character of Ellen Ripley
reduced to a cameo appearance before returning in the fourth
installment, "an epic battle with alien warriors mass-produced by the
expatriated Earthlings." Weaver liked the Cold War metaphor, and agreed to a smaller role,[18] particularly due to a dissatisfaction with Fox, which removed scenes from Aliens crucial to Ripley's backstory.[19]: 2
"I felt that Ripley was going to become a burden to the story ... There are only so many aspects to that character you can do."
— Sigourney Weaver, concerning the future of Ripley.[18]
Although Fox was skeptical about the idea, they agreed to finance the
development of the story, but asked that Hill and Giler attempt to get Ridley Scott, director of Alien, to make Alien 3.
They also asked that the two films be shot back to back to lessen the
production costs. While Scott was interested in returning to the
franchise, it did not work out due to the director's busy schedule[18] (he was then working on 1492: Conquest of Paradise).
William Gibson script
In September 1987, Giler and Hill approached cyberpunk author William Gibson to write the script for the third film. Gibson, who told the producers his writing was influenced by Alien, accepted the task. Fearful of an impending strike by the Writers Guild of America, Brandywine asked Gibson to deliver a screenplay by December.[18] Gibson drew heavily from Giler and Hill's treatment, having a strong interest in the "Marxist space empire" element.[20] The following year, Finnish director Renny Harlin was approached by Fox based on his work in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.[21]
Harlin wanted to go in different directions from the first two movies,
having interest in both visiting the Alien homeworld or having the
Aliens invading Earth.[9]
Gibson mockingly summed up his script as "Space commies hijack alien eggs—big problem in Mallworld".[18] The story picked up after Aliens, with the Sulaco
drifting into an area of space claimed by the "Union of Progressive
Peoples". The ship is boarded by people from the UPP, who are attacked
by a facehugger hiding in the entrails of Bishop's mangled body. The
soldiers blast the facehugger into space and take Bishop with them for
further study. The Sulaco then arrives at a space
station–shopping mall hybrid named Anchorpoint. With Ripley put in a
coma, Hicks explores the station and discovers Weyland-Yutani are
developing an Alien army. In the meantime, the UPP are doing their own
research, which led them to repair Bishop. Eventually Anchorpoint and
the UPP stations are overrun with the Aliens, and Hicks must team up
with the survivors to destroy the parasites. The film ends with a teaser
for a fourth movie, where Bishop suggests to Hicks that humans are
united against a common enemy, and they must track the Aliens to their
source and destroy them.[18]
The screenplay was very action-oriented, featuring an extended
cast, and is considered in some circles as superior to the final film
and has a considerable following on the Internet.[22]
The producers were on the whole unsatisfied with the screenplay, which
Giler described as "a perfectly executed script that wasn't all that
interesting",[9]
particularly for not taking new directions with the initial pitch. They
still liked certain parts, such as the subtext making the Alien a
metaphor for HIV, but felt it lacking the human element present in Aliens
and Gibson's trademark cyberpunk aesthetic. Following the end of the
WGA strike, Gibson was asked to make rewrites with Harlin, but declined,
citing various other commitments and "foot dragging on the producers'
part."[18] On July 12, 2018, it was announced that William Gibson's unmade screenplay of Alien 3 would be adapted into a comic series.[23] As part of Alien's 40th anniversary, on May 30, 2019, a full-cast audio drama of William Gibson's unproduced screenplay of Alien 3 was released and made available on Audible, with both Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprising their film-roles.[24] Both are based on the second draft. 2021 saw another adaptation of the screenplay, this time as a novel written by Pat Cadigan from Titan Books[25] and based instead on the first draft.
Eric Red script
Following Gibson's departure, Harlin suggested screenwriter Eric Red, writer of the cult horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark. Red worked less than two months to deliver his draft in February 1989,[18] which led him to later describe his Alien 3
work as "the one script I completely disown because it was not 'my
script'. It was the rushed product of too many story conferences and
interference with no time to write, and turned out utter crap."[26] His approach had a completely new set of characters and subplots, while also introducing new breeds of the Alien.[18] The plot opened with a team of Special Forces marines boarding the Sulaco
and finding that all survivors had fallen victim to the aliens.
Afterwards, it moved into a small-town U.S. city in a type of bio-dome
in space, culminating in an all-out battle with the townsfolk facing
hordes of Alien warriors. Brandywine rejected Red's script for deviating
too much from their story, and eventually gave up on developing two
sequels simultaneously.[18]
David Twohy script
Writer David Twohy was next to work on the project, being instructed to start with Gibson's script. Once the fall of Communism
made the Cold War analogies outdated, Twohy changed his setting to a
prison planet, which was being used for illegal experiments on the
aliens for biological warfare.[18] Harlin felt this approach was too similar to the previous movies, and, tired of the development hell, walked out on the project, which led Fox to offer Harlin The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.[27]
Twohy's script was delivered to Fox president Joe Roth,
who did not like the idea of Ripley being removed, declaring that
"Sigourney Weaver is the centerpiece of the series" and Ripley was
"really the only female warrior we have in our movie mythology".[28] Weaver was then called, with a reported $4 million salary, plus a share of the box office receipts.[19]: 1
She also requested the story to be suitably impressive, original, and
non-dependent on guns. Twohy duly set about writing Ripley into his
screenplay.[28]
Start-up with Vincent Ward
Once Hill attended a screening of The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, he decided to invite its director, Vincent Ward. Ward, who was in London developing Map of the Human Heart,[18]
accepted the project only on the third call, as he at first was
uninterested in doing a sequel. Ward thought little of the Twohy script,
and instead worked up another idea, involving Ripley's escape pod crash
landing on a monastery-like satellite. Having developed this pitch on
his flight to Los Angeles, once Ward got with the studio executives he
saw his idea approved by the studio. Ward was hired to direct Alien 3, and writer John Fasano was hired to expand his story into a screenplay.[9]
Once Twohy discovered through a journalist friend that another script
was being written concurrently with his, he went after Fox and
eventually left the project.[29]
Ward envisioned a planet whose interior was both wooden and archaic in design, where Luddite-like
monks would take refuge. The story begins with a monk who sees a "star
in the East" (Ripley's escape pod) and at first believes this to be a
good omen. Upon arrival of Ripley, and with increasing suggestions of
the Alien presence, the monk inhabitants believe it to be some sort of
religious trial for their misdemeanors, punishable by the creature that
haunts them. By having a woman in their monastery, they wonder if their
trial is partially caused by sexual temptation, as Ripley is the only
woman to be amongst the all-male community in ten years. To avoid this
belief and (hopefully) the much grimmer reality of what she has brought
with her, the monks of the "wooden satellite" lock Ripley into a
dungeon-like sewer and ignore her advice on the true nature of the
beast.[30]
The monks believe that the Alien is in fact the Devil. Primarily
though, this story was about Ripley's own soul-searching complicated by
the seeding of the Alien within her and further hampered by her largely
solo attempts to defeat it. Eventually Ripley decides to sacrifice
herself to kill the Alien. Fox asked for an alternative ending in which
Ripley survived, but Weaver would agree to the film only if Ripley died.[9]
Empire
magazine described Ward's 'Wooden Planet' concept as 'undeniably
attractive—it would have been visually arresting and at the very least,
could have made for some astonishing action sequences.' In the same
article, Norman Reynolds—the
production designer originally hired by Ward—remembers an early design
idea for "a wooden library shaft. You looked at the books on this wooden
platform that went up and down". 'Imagine the kind of vertical jeopardy
sequence that could have been staged here—the Alien clambering up these
impossibly high bookshelves as desperate monks work the platform'.[28]: 156 Sigourney Weaver described Ward's overall concept as "very original and arresting".[28]: 153 Former Times journalist David Hughes included Ward's version of Alien 3 amongst "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made" in his book of this title.[31]
However, the concept was divisive among the production crew. The
producers at Brandywine discussed the logical problems of creating and
maintaining a wooden planet in space, while Fox executive Jon Landau
considered Ward's vision to be "more on the artsy-fartsy side than on
the big commercial side" that Ridley Scott and James Cameron employed.
Ward managed to dissuade the producers of their idea of turning the
planet into an ore refinery and the monks into prisoners, but eventually
Fox asked for a meeting with the director imposing a list of changes to
be made. Refusing to do so, Ward was dismissed from the project. The
main plot of the finished film still follows Ward's basic structure.[9]
Walter Hill and David Giler's script
Hill and Giler did a first draft trying to enhance the story
structure on the Fasano script, and feeling creatively drained, hired Larry Ferguson as a script doctor.
Ferguson's work was not well received in the production, particularly
by Sigourney Weaver, who felt Ferguson made Ripley sound like "a
pissed-off gym teacher". Short on time before filming was due to
commence, Hill and Giler took control of the screenplay themselves,
melding aspects of the Ward/Fasano script with Twohy's earlier prison
planet screenplay to create the basis of the final film.[18]
Sigourney Weaver had also had a clause written into her contract
stating the final draft should be written by Hill and Giler, believing
that they were the only writers (besides James Cameron) to write the
character of Ripley effectively.[9] Fox approached music video director David Fincher to replace Ward.[32] Fincher did further work on the screenplay with author Rex Pickett,
and despite Pickett being fired and Hill and Giler writing the final
draft of the screenplay, he revised most of the work done by the
previous authors.[33] Fincher wanted Gary Oldman to star in the film, but the pair "couldn't work it out".[34]
Filming
Blast Beach near Dawdon in England was used for exterior shots of the planet Fiorina "Fury" 161.
Filming began on January 14, 1991, at Pinewood Studios without a finished script and with $7 million already having been spent.[19]: 3 While a majority of the film was shot at Pinewood, some scenes were shot at Blyth Power Station and the beach near Dawdon (known locally as "the Blast" or "Blast Beach") in the UK.[35] The purpose of these shots was to show the exterior of the planet.[36]CinematographerJordan Cronenweth, in deteriorating health following a diagnosis of Parkinsons Disease a decade earlier[37] worked only for two weeks before becoming too ill to continue. He was replaced by Alex Thomson.[38] Actor Charles Dance said that an alternative ending had been filmed due to fears that the original ending was too similar to the ending of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, released the previous year, but was not used.[39]
Visual effects
Stan Winston, responsible for creature effects in Aliens,
was approached but was not available. Winston instead recommended Tom
Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis, two former workers of his studio who had
just started their own company, Amalgamated Dynamics.[11]
Even before principal photography had begun, the practical effects crew
was developing models of the Alien and the corpses of the Sulaco victims. Richard Edlund's Boss Film Studios was hired for compositing and other post-production effects.[9] A small number of shots contain computer-generated imagery,
most notably the cracking alien head once the sprinklers cause thermal
shock. Other CGI elements include shadows cast by the rod puppet alien,
and airborne debris in outdoor scenes.[40]
David Fincher wanted the alien to be "more of a puma, or a beast"
as opposed to the upright, humanoid posture of the previous films, so
the designer of the original alien, H. R. Giger,
was contacted to generate new sketch ideas. His revisions included
longer, thinner legs, the removal of "pipes" around the spine, and an
idea for a sharp alien "tongue" in place of the secondary jaws. Working
from his studio in Zurich, Giger produced these new sketches, which he
faxed to Cornelius de Fries, who then created their model counterparts
out of plasticine.[41]
The only one of Giger's designs that wound up in the final project was a
"Bambi Burster" Alien that had long legs and walked on all fours. ADI
also built a full-scale Bunraku-style
puppet of this design which was operated on-set as an in-camera effect.
Scenes using this approach were cut from the final release due to the
limitations of chemical compositing techniques, making it exceedingly
difficult to remove the puppeteers from the background plate, but can be
seen in the "Assembly Cut" of the film.[42]
The Alien is portrayed by both Woodruff Jr. in a suit and a rod puppet filmed against bluescreen and optically composited into the live-action footage, with the rods removed by rotoscoping. A mechanical alien head was also used for close-ups.[40] The suit adapted the design used in Aliens so Woodruff could walk on all fours.[11] Woodruff's head was contained in the neck of the suit, because the head was filled with animatronics to move the mouth of the Alien.[12] Fincher suggested that a Whippet be dressed in an alien costume for on-set coverage of the quadrupedal alien, but the visual effects team was dissatisfied with the comical result and the idea was dropped in favor of the puppet.[40]
The rod-puppet approach was chosen for the production rather than stop-motion animation,
which did not provide the required smoothness to appear realistic. As a
result, the rod-puppet allowed for a fast alien that could move across
surfaces of any orientation and be shot from any angle.[42] This was particularly effective as it was able to accomplish movements not feasible by an actor in a suit. The 1⁄3-scale puppet was 40 inches long and cast in foam rubber over a bicycle chain armature for flexibility.[43]
For moving camera shots, the on-set cameras were equipped with digital
recorders to track, pan, tilt, and dolly values. The data output was
then taken back to the studio and fed into the motion control cameras
with the linear dimensions scaled down to match the puppet.[42]
To make syncing the puppet's actions with the live-action shots
easier, the effects team developed an instant compositing system using LaserDisc.
This allowed takes to be quickly overlaid on the background plate so
the crew could observe whether any spatial adjustments were required.[42]
Laine Liska was hired to lead a team of puppeteers in a new
process dubbed "Mo-Motion" where the rod puppet would be simultaneously
manipulated and filmed with a moving motion control camera.[42] Depending on the complexity of the shot, the puppet was operated by 4–6 people.[43]
Sparse sets were created to provide freedom of motion for the
puppeteers as well as large, solid surfaces for the puppet to act within
a three dimensional space.[42]
The crew was pushed to make the movements of the Alien as quick
as possible to the point where they were barely in control, and this led
to, according to Edlund, "the occasional serendipitous action that made
the alien have a character". The ease of this setup allowed the crew to
film 60–70 takes of a single scene.[42]
Hoping to give the destroyed Bishop a more complex look that
could not be accomplished by simple make-up, the final product was done
entirely through animatronics, while a playback of Lance Henriksen's
voice played to guide Sigourney Weaver.[9]
Scenes of the Emergency Escape Vehicle were shot with a 3.5-foot miniature against a blue-screen and composited onto large scale traditional matte paintings
of the planet's surface. To make the clouds glow from within as the EEV
entered the atmosphere, the painting's values were digitally reversed
and animated frame by frame. The scene in which the EEV is moved by a
crane-arm (also a miniature) was created by projecting a video of actors
onto pieces of cardboard and then compositing them into the scene as
silhouettes against the matte-painted background.[42]
The film's composer, Elliot Goldenthal,
spent a year composing the score by working closely with Fincher to
create music based primarily on the surroundings and atmosphere of the
film itself. The score was recorded during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which Goldenthal later claimed contributed to the score's disturbing nature.[44]
Release
Home media
Alien 3 has been released in various home video formats and packages over the years. The first of these were on VHS and LaserDisc, and several subsequent VHS releases were sold both singly and as boxed sets throughout the 1990s. A VHS boxed set titled The Alien Trilogy containing Alien 3 along with Alien and Aliens was released in facehugger-shaped carrying cases, and included some of the deleted scenes from the LaserDisc editions. In 1997, Alien 3 would premiere on a THX certified widescreen VHS release, along with its predecessors.[45] When Alien Resurrection premiered in theaters that year, another boxed set of the first three films was released titled The Alien Saga, which included a Making of Alien Resurrection tape. A few months later, this set was re-released with the Alien Resurrection film taking the place of the making-of video. In 1999, Alien 3 was released on DVD, both singly and packaged with the other three Alien films as The Alien Legacy boxed set. This set was also released in a VHS version and would be the last VHS release of the film. In 2003, Alien 3 would be included in the 9-disc Alien Quadrilogy DVD set which contained two versions of the film (see below). The first three films were also later packaged as the Alien Triple Pack DVD set (this release was identical to the 1999 Alien Legacy set but excluding Alien Resurrection). Alien 3 was first released on Blu-ray in 2010, as part of the 6-disc Alien Anthology boxed set which included all of the features from the Alien Quadrilogy
DVD set and more. The film was also released as a single Blu-ray Disc
in 2011. Fincher was the only director from the franchise who declined
to participate in the box-set releases.[46]
The bonus disc for Alien 3 in the 2003 Quadrilogy
set includes a documentary of the film's production that lacks Fincher's
participation, as clips where the director openly expresses anger and
frustration with the studio were cut.[46][47] The documentary was originally named Wreckage and Rape after one of the tracks of Goldenthal's soundtrack, but Fox renamed it simply The Making of Alien 3. These clips were restored for the 2010 Blu-ray release of the Anthology set, with the integral documentary having a slightly altered version of the intended name, Wreckage and Rage.[48]
Assembly Cut
When Fox wanted to assemble a director's cut of Alien 3 for a
home-video release, Fincher refused to participate. Instead, an extended
cut called the "Assembly Cut" was created based on his editing room
notes and released on the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set, overseen by producer Charles de Lauzirika.
This version of the film runs 144 minutes, and includes over 30 minutes
of extended, alternate, and previously deleted scenes, as well as
alternative key plot elements. One example of the plot differences is
that in the theatrical version, the Alien bursts out of a dog, while in
the Assembly Cut the Alien bursts out of a dead ox. Another example is
that in the theatrical version, Ripley and the inmates fail to trap the
Alien in the toxic waste room, while in the Assembly Cut they actually
succeed. Golic, the crazed prisoner who becomes fascinated with the
Alien, then escapes from the infirmary, kills the prisoner standing
guard, and lets the Alien loose at the expense of his own life. This
fills what is arguably the most obvious plot hole in the theatrical cut,
as in that version he simply disappears from the film entirely after
Clemens's death in the infirmary. In addition to Golic, more of the
minor characters' fates are revealed, filling more plot holes.[46][49][50]
Unlike the 2003 DVD release, in the 2010 Blu-ray version the additional footage went through post-production, receiving color correction and sound mixing to match the rest of the film, which included bringing back some cast members to re-record dialogue.[51]
Reception
Box office
Alien 3 was released in the United States on May 22, 1992. The film debuted at number two of the box office, behind Lethal Weapon 3, with a Memorial Day weekend gross of $23.1 million.[52] It screened in 2,227 theaters, for an average gross of $8,733 per theater.[2] The film was considered a disappointment in the United States and Canada with a total of $55.5 million, although, according to Box Office Mojo, it grossed $104.3 million internationally[53] for a total of $159.8 million. It outgrossed the original theatrical run of Alien, and had the 28th-highest domestic gross in 1992.[2][54] In October 1992, Fox claimed it was the highest-grossing of the franchise, with a worldwide gross of $175 million.[5] By the end of 1992, Variety reported its worldwide gross at $180 million.[6]
Critical response
In 2009, director David Fincher (pictured here in 2010) disowned the film, saying, "No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me."[55]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives Alien 3 an approval rating of 44% from 125 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Alien3
takes admirable risks with franchise mythology, but far too few pay off
in a thinly scripted sequel whose stylish visuals aren't enough to
enliven a lack of genuine thrills."[56]Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 20 critics, signifying "mixed or average" reviews.[57] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.[58][full citation needed]
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film two thumbs down on their show At The Movies,
feeling it was repetitious. They criticized the drawn-out chase scenes
near the end as well as the lack of suspenseful action, though they
praised the art direction and Weaver's performance, with Ebert calling
it "probably the best-looking bad movie I've seen in a while".[59] In his review of Alien Resurrection, Ebert later wrote "I lost interest [in Alien 3], when I realized that the aliens could at all times outrun and outleap the humans, so all the chase scenes were contrivances."[60]
A number of cast and crew associated with the series, including actor Michael Biehn, director James Cameron, and novelist Alan Dean Foster,
expressed their frustration and disappointment with the film's story.
Cameron regarded the decision to kill off the characters of Bishop,
Newt, and Hicks as a "slap in the face" to him and to fans of the
previous film. He eventually blamed 20th Century Fox for the film,
saying that Fincher got handed "a big mess on a plate". Upon learning of
the original plans during the production for his character to be killed
off by using a life-sized dummy based on his likeness from which an
alien would have emerged, Biehn, who had not been asked for the
permission to have his likeness used, demanded and received almost as
much money for the use of an archival picture of him in the EEV Crash
Report sequence that appears in the theatrical cut as he had been paid
for his entire role in Aliens.[61][62][63][16][17]
Fincher has since disowned the film. He told The Guardian in 2009, "No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me."[55] He also blamed the producers for not putting trust in him.[64][46][65]
While Weaver has stood by the final film and expressed that she "loved
working with" Fincher, she heavily criticized the treatment of him by
20th Century Fox, stating: "That was a transition moment when studios
stopped being about 'let's make great films' and started being about
'let's not lose money.' They had the great idea to put David Fincher
aboard for his first film, but then not to support the guy was very
idiotic."[66]
Charles Dance also stood by the film, considering it better than its
predecessor, and also praised Fincher's direction: "I remember walking
on this huge set at Pinewood Studios and Fincher comes up and fires off
his shot list for the day. Here's this guy young enough to be my son who
knew all the crew's jobs, all the shots he wanted, and where he was
going to make the cuts in the film, and I thought, 'My God, this guy is
going to go far.'"[67]
Several critics have regarded the Assembly Cut as superior to the theatrical release.[49][50][46][68]
Journalist Nick Schager called it a "fascinating, often fantastic"
film, its additional scenes a "disdainful critique of religion".[69] Critic Tim Brayton remarked it "feels much fleeter and more driven even though it's a solid 30 minutes longer".[70]
A novelization of the film was authored by Alan Dean Foster, writer of the novelizations of Alien and Aliens.
Foster's adaptation includes many scenes that were cut from the final
film, some of which later reappeared in the "Assembly Cut". Foster
wanted his adaptation to differ from the film's script, which he
disliked, but Walter Hill declared he should not alter the storyline.
Foster later commented: "So out went my carefully constructed
motivations for all the principal prisoners, my preserving the life of
Newt (her killing in the film is an obscenity), and much else.
Embittered by this experience, that's why I turned down Alien Resurrection."[76]
Comic books
Dark Horse Comics also released a three-issue mini series.[77] Created by writer Steven Grant
and artist Christopher Taylor, the comic was a faithful adaption, with
only a few deviations. One such deviation is that Ripley and the
convicts succeed in capturing the Xenomorph in the waste-tank, only for a
deranged prisoner named Golic to release it afterward. Later, when they
believe they have destroyed the Alien, Ripley begs Dillon to kill her,
but he can't bring himself to do it. The Xenomorph suddenly appears, and
tosses Dillon into the smelting furnace.
An animated series titled Operation: Aliens was conceived by Kenner Toys and Fox to coincide with the release of Alien 3 but was ultimately abandoned. Animation on the series was to be carried out by the Korean animation studio AKOM, but the series was scrapped for fears it would run afoul of the Children's Television Act and because Fox, intending to produce further Alien films, was concerned an animated series for children would dilute the franchise's appeal to the older demographic.[81]
William Gibson's Alien 3
In 2018–19, Dark Horse released William Gibson's Alien 3, a
five-part comic adaptation of Gibson's unproduced version of the
screenplay, illustrated and adapted by Johnnie Christmas, colored by
Tamra Bonvillain.[23]
As part of Alien's 40th anniversary, on May 30, 2019, Audible released an audio drama of Gibson's script, adapted by Dirk Maggs, and with Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprising their roles.[82] The production had music by James Hannigan.[24]
In 2021, Pat Cadigan published Alien3: The Unproduced First-draft Screenplay by William Gibson
(Titan Books). This novel is based on Gibson's first draft, as opposed
to the second draft used for the comic and audio drama adaptations.[25] The novel won the Scribe Award for Best Adapted Novel.[83]
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