# Alien 1979, deleted scene and the eggs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136 "2012-06-14T14:21:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JMH125](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/21 "2012-06-18T19:18:54Z")
Was Obannon that bad? i didn’t realize his version of the alien script had been changed so much. i’m curious to read it now… EDIT: oh, lookey > **[Alien script by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien_early.html)** > > Alien script by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett ---
**Author:** ![JMH125](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/22 "2012-06-18T19:27:20Z")
Wow, the Nostromo was originally called SNARK. Maybe it’s better they did rewrite this story!!! ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/23 "2012-06-18T22:45:50Z")
> [@grude](#): > > 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. I read the novelisation, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the scene. The crew were glued to the wall with eggs in front of them - they were not turning into eggs, they were stored hosts - once the eggs matured, they would get facehugged, and chest-bursted. The aliens, like many social insects, can modify themselves based on the social situation. The lone emerged alien can lay eggs to propagate. If there are lots of aliens and hosts, and a social structure develops, then a drone becomes an egg-producing Queen, as in Aliens. Si ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/24 "2012-06-18T23:43:38Z")
> [@JMH125](#): > > Wow, the Nostromo was originally called SNARK. Maybe it’s better they did rewrite this story!!! “Captain Chaz Standard”? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/25 "2012-06-18T23:44:39Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > I read the novelisation, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the scene. > > The crew were glued to the wall with eggs in front of them - they were not turning into eggs, they were stored hosts - once the eggs matured, they would get facehugged, and chest-bursted. > > Si You are [mistaken](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS5MtzrW1vU). ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/26 "2012-06-19T00:04:31Z")
How interesting. It is my interpretation that the crew is glued to the wall and are acting as stored hosts. I read the novelization as a kid and when I watch the youtube link provided, it looks like Dallas is behind an opened egg (implying he has an alien inside him and that’s why he begs for death). I’m open to a new interpretation, but I’m not sure how a person would turn into an egg? ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/27 "2012-06-19T00:11:05Z")
> [@Glory](#): > > How interesting. It is my interpretation that the crew is glued to the wall and are acting as stored hosts. I read the novelization as a kid and when I watch the youtube link provided, it looks like Dallas is behind an opened egg (implying he has an alien inside him and that’s why he begs for death). I’m open to a new interpretation, but I’m not sure how a person would turn into an egg? Brett is next to him and is nearly dissolved into the egg. My fanwank is the alien implants a facehugger larvae into/attached to Brett and Dallas and it feeds off their bodies growing and building an egg case around them. If you notice Brett’s ‘egg’ is smaller than Dallas’ and both are larger than a traditional completed egg, which shrinks as it absorbs the host’s bodies. ---
**Author:** ![JMH125](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/28 "2012-06-19T12:23:40Z")
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JgSRKY8ctjI/hqdefault.jpg "Sideshow Queen Facehugger Life-Size") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgSRKY8ctjI) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/29 "2012-06-19T13:15:58Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > You are [mistaken](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS5MtzrW1vU). I agree, I was mistaken as to the film version. I’ll have to see if I can find the novelization, to see how that played it. Then maybe I can blame _Alan Dean Foster_. Si ---
**Author:** ![JMH125](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/30 "2012-06-19T13:34:15Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > 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. Well, i’ve read over half of the script by Obannon. It does read very, very similar to the movie. I absolutely see why he was given the script credit, the movie hits most of the beats and menace implied in the screenplay. Yes, the names were all changed. A lot of the dialog (but not all) was changed. The characters were made much more believable, and Walter Hill added the whole subplot with the android. They find the facehugger in a separate pyramid from the crashed derelict ship (which reminds me of Prometheus). When the facehugger dies it actually decomposes into acid and they have to throw the carcass out of the airlock. They later capture the growing alien inside food storage and try to poison it with gas. Not only does the xenomorph eat their food supplies, it is also seen gnawing on a human thigh bone and a human arm, something that was removed from any future iterations of the xenomorph. The survivors also have a plan to corral the alien into the lifeboat and detonate it remotely. The spore/egg room where survivors are kept (the deleted scene from the movie) is intact in the original screenplay. And here’s the end of the screenplay: INTERIOR - LIFEBOAT - LATER ``` The boat is re-pressurized and Roby is seated in the control chair. He seems calm and composed, almost cheerful. The cat purrs in his lap. ROBY (dictating) ... So it looks like I'll make it back to the Colonies on schedule after all. I should be to the frontier in another 250 years or so, and then with a little luck the network will pick me up. I'm not as rich as I was a couple days ago -- but I'm not exactly broke either. Incidentally, I did manage to salvage one souvenir out of this whole mess. He reaches down into the carrying bag he brought on board, and pulls out the ALIEN SKULL. ROBY (CONT'D) Poor Yorick here should go at least partway toward proving I'm not a crank. I wish it was him we'd met in the first place -- things might have turned out different. He puts the skull down on a shelf and locks a glass lid over it. ROBY (CONT'D) This is Martin Roby, executive officer, last survivor of the commercial vessel SNARK, signing off. Come on, cat, let's go to sleep. Roby leans forward and switches off the recorder. Then he rises and, carrying the cat, walks to the hypersleep freezer, which stands open. He climbs in and stretches out on his back, holding the cat against his chest. With one hand, he presses a switch, and THE LID CLOSES OVER HIM. CLOSE-UP OF THE ALIEN SKULL, watching sentinel over the slumbering Roby like some dead, melancholy pixie. EXTERIOR - OUTER SPACE The lifeboat -- SNARK 2 -- sails away toward its rendezvous with Irth, 250 years from now. As SNARK 2 drifts past camera, we suddenly see that A SPORE POD IS ADHERED TO THE UNDERBELLY OF THE CRAFT. ROLL END TITLES & MUSIC. THE END ``` ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/31 "2012-06-21T02:15:37Z")
Everything I’ve read and seen about Dan O’Bannon makes me think that he essentially _is_ the character Sgt. Pinback from [Dark Star!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_%28film%29) Which is really cool in terms of being a fan of his work, but probably less so for people who have to actually deal with him on a day-to-day basis… ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/32 "2012-06-21T15:55:44Z")
Interesting, I’d never caught that part with the one guy turning into an egg before, even though I had seen the deleted scene. I had always assumed that the first alien to be “born” if not already a queen, would change sex to become a queen and then go about the egg laying. It still doesn’t answer why they are still gluing them to the walls in Resurrection, with a queen right there in the same room. ---
**Author:** ![JMH125](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/33 "2012-06-21T16:09:36Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > It still doesn’t answer why they are still gluing them to the walls in Resurrection, with a queen right there in the same room. Well, a) i’d say for restraint so they can’t escape, and b) by the time part 4 rolled around the series had lost all credibility. It was not making a whole lot of sense. When i think about it…they took Ripley’s blood sample, and used that to clone her AND the alien? Why would the alien’s DNA be in ripley’s blood? It’s a parasite. They don’t share blood, one has acid for blood, it’s lethal. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/34 "2012-06-21T16:25:59Z")
> [@JMH125](#): > > When i think about it…they took Ripley’s blood sample, and used that to clone her AND the alien? Why would the alien’s DNA be in ripley’s blood? It’s a parasite. They don’t share blood, one has acid for blood, it’s lethal. Movie three suggested that the alien parasite ends up looking a little like whatever host it was implanted in. (Dog alien.) Fanwank: That suggests that there might be some exchange of DNA during the incubation stage. Most hosts get chest bursted, so usually the host doesn’t have time to derive any benefit from this exchange. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/35 "2012-06-21T16:30:45Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Interesting, I’d never caught that part with the one guy turning into an egg before, even though I had seen the deleted scene. I had always assumed that the first alien to be “born” if not already a queen, would change sex to become a queen and then go about the egg laying. I’d never seen that scene, either. The only “extended” movie I have is the second one, which is not only the best of the four, but also my favorite movie of all time. In the original _[Colonial Marines Technical Manual](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061053430/104-1216846-4812709?v=glance&n=283155&tag=5336612429-20)_ (there’s what looks like a [newer reprint](http://www.amazon.com/Aliens-Colonial-Marines-Technical-Manual/dp/1781161313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340295575&sr=1-1&keywords=colonial+marines+technical+manual) available, too), which, although beautiful is hardly canon (and with _AvP_, who can tell what is any more?), I seem to recall the implication that a single drone/warrior alien could manage to squeeze out or cobble together one egg (as **JMH125** suggests), which might then hatch a queen able to start a new colony. > [@](#): > > It still doesn’t answer why they are still gluing them to the walls in Resurrection, with a queen right there in the same room. Like **holmes** said, it’s an adaption to make sure that your hosts don’t leave or find some way to prevent or remove the implanted alien. Of course, that didn’t work for John J. Mericheck anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/36 "2012-06-22T01:55:39Z")
> [@JMH125](#): > > 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. That’s what I thought. A perfect organism, evolved (or designed?) to survive no matter what, would have several different options for reproduction, and would resort to whichever was optimal under the circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/37 "2012-06-22T05:35:48Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Movie three suggested that the alien parasite ends up looking a little like whatever host it was implanted in. (Dog alien.) It’s pretty strongly suggested in Alien. Ash refers to the alien as “Kane’s son.” . ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/38 "2012-06-22T05:59:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That’s what I thought. A perfect organism, evolved (or designed?) to survive no matter what, would have several different options for reproduction, and would resort to whichever was optimal under the circumstances. Have you seen AvP? Boy do they have options. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/39 "2012-06-22T06:04:48Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Have you seen AvP? Boy do they have options. The queen pumps out eggs in conventional fashion in AVP. But in AVP:R there is a scene in which the PredAlien pumps a bunch of embryos down the throats of pregnant women. The Strauss brothers said this was a method for a queen to quickly establish some protection before she sets up a nest. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136/40 "2012-07-02T15:27:14Z")
In Alien, didn’t the facehugger somehow get through the helmet faceplate? They didn’t seem to carry this trait forward in the later films. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-1979-deleted-scene-and-the-eggs/625136.md?page=3)