An excerpt from Reals’ script review for Alien 3 which will be available 08/20/24:
What Worked
The Length – 96 pages (including the title page) was a pretty solid length for this story. I will say that hardcore fans might have wanted more lore or a deeper dive into the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation and all the sketchy things they are involved in, but I thought this was a satisfactory length for what the script was trying to do.
NOTE: Now, having read the full script, I do want to say that I think there were a lot of things that were missed or ignored completely. A longer page count may not have helped, but this script really did choose the wrong things to focus on.
The White Space – Though I don’t agree with all of the formatting choices in this script (which, to be fair, may be a scan) I did like the fact that we have a lot of white space and that the writers use mini scene headings and one or two sentence descriptions to keep the action moving.
The Setting – It is an interesting setting : a rundown prison facility with a minimal staff on duty. This allows for lots of creepy scenes and that same feeling of isolation that the first Alien movie was so good at crafting.
The Kills – It initially felt like the script took awhile to get going, but I went back and checked and the first time we see the Alien is on Page 23 when it kills (SPOILER) Murphy (SPOILER) in a pretty brutal way involving acid spit and a fan cutting him to pieces.
This is just the first kill (if you don’t count Newt and Hicks), so it was a gruesome way to start and to kick us into the action.
The Intrigue – I’m not sure if that’s the best way to describe it, but I like that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation contacted the prison to make sure that Ripley was being cared for.
It adds another layer of distrust between the people in the facility and Ripley, and makes us (the readers / viewers) interested to see what, exactly, the corporation wants from her.
And then, on Page 39, we get the chilling line from Bishop:
BISHOP
The company knows everything that happened on the ship.
Meaning that the company (Weyland-Yutani) knows everything that has happened to Ripley and they are aware that an Alien is running loose, but haven’t bothered to warn anyone.
The Twist – SPOILERS – On Page 69 we find out that Ripley has a baby Queen Alien growing inside her.
I’m not sure exactly when that happened (we get a hint, but I’m still not totally convinced) or how a normal Alien can release a Queen Alien egg into a subject, but it is a cool twist.
It is also surprising the writers would do this to their lead, because, as far as I know, there is no way to recover after you get attacked by a Facehugger and get an Alien egg inside of you.
Want EARLY access to our videos, uploads, and movie/script reviews? Members get them FIRST! Follow this link to our Discussion Forum.
