There is a deleted scene on the Alien DVD where Ripley finds the still living crew members “cocooned” and in the process of being turned into facehugger eggs, Dallas begs her to burn them all with the flamethrower before it happens.
Assuming this had made it into the film was this supposed to be the origin of the eggs in the hold of the derelict? I always assumed it was clear by their placement and the laser alarm over them that they were cargo being hauled, instead of the crew of the derelict turned into eggs by the xenomorph that burst out of the famous pilot?
Aliens (the movie) kinda retconned the Alien’s actions into just cocooning them to the wall. Sort of an instinctive behavior which would result in more aliens if there was an egg to place in front of them.
Incidentally, if you buy the Blu-ray quadrilogy, that’s not a deleted scene anymore. It’s been professionally remastered and inserted into the film.
yeah, that scene is in the official director cut. But it takes place on the Nostromo, not on the planet or in the derelict, so it would have no connection anyway.
The idea that an egg-laying queen alien even exists was introduced in the sequel. The original concept was for eggs to be produced directly from the bodies of victims. As noted above, the scene showing the Nostromo crew being transformed into eggs was removed, leaving Cameron a bit more freedom in expanding on the xenomorph life cycle.
I think the batch of eggs on the alien ship were meant to be what’s left of the derelict crew, but there’s clearly enough ambiguity that all sorts of explanations can be retroactively inserted.
You should always remember that the original Alien is gothic horror first, scifi second. Even if the egg scene had been left in, its primary purpose was to be horrifying, not to pander to fanboys’ interest in back story. Ridley Scott, having made two of the biggest fanboy films ever (the other being Blade Runner) makes a point of steering clear of any such discussions. It’s just not something he’s interested in (witness his constant statements that although, yes, they exist in the same fictional world *Prometheus *is not an Alien prequel film).
I always though the ‘nest’ scene tied in nicely with Ash’s belief that the alien was ‘perfect’. It’s sole purpose was reproduction and by turning it’s victims into eggs, it was simply perfect in design, function and execution of that goal.
Just wanted to note that the “official director’s cut” of Alien isn’t really. Scott DID make the cut, but he said it was just an alternate cut the studio wanted to renew interest. The original theatrical cut of Alien is his “director’s cut” and is the film as he would still prefer to present it.
*Ash: You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Lambert: You admire it.
Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor… unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality *
Interesting reading, thanks for linking those articles.
Did anyone else think that Giler came across as a complete jerk in his interview? He was pretty harsh in his treatment of Dan O’Bannon. I don’t how much truth there might be in his statements, but he was remarkably free of tact. I guess the producer doesn’t have to treat a lowly writer with any degree of diplomacy. . .
Do you think it’s possible to have the deleted scene with people turning into eggs, AND the Queen laying eggs? what if a single alien, without the presence of a queen, has the ability to propagate the species? Albeit slowly. the Queen is much, much more efficient.
It’s a prequel in the sense that it’s set in the same universe and takes place prior to the events of Alien. It’s obviously related in some ways. It’s not a prequel in the sense that it necessarily directly sets up the events of Alien.
That was always my personal way to unify the two processes. The first alien collects material (hosts) to create a queen facehugger. Once she’s ‘born’ and matures, she takes over the reproduction and begins laying eggs en mass.
This works because if there’s not enough hosts to support a hive, then a queen isn’t needed and is wasted; but an egg will have been created to release a queen when/if the need arises.
They are held to walls for a dual purpose: one is to keep them still so the facehuggers can get easy access to them and then they are held so that they can’t escape/or kill the alien that is growing inside them.
He did come across a bit harsh, but O’Bannon really was a hack writer. I think it was a matter of how poorly his script came across. Having read some of the original script ideas, it appears they turned a horrible retread of bad 50s SF and instead redefined the genre, with some help from brilliant visual designers and Ridley Scott, of course.
haha.