Question: How did the alien egg get on board the Sulaco? I thought it was by the Queen but she did not have that organ that she was connected to when we first see her and so she couldn't reproduce eggs.
Answer: As we don't know the precise details of the Alien reproductive cycle, we don't know for a fact that the Queen would be unable to produce eggs without the sac seen in the film. The only other possibility is that somebody got the egg up there somehow. The only possible candidate would seem to be Bishop, who would have had to somehow have got the egg from somewhere, and flown it up to the Sulaco while Ripley was off rescuing Newt. There doesn't seem to have been time for this, so the only remaining option seems to be that they did indeed arrive with the Queen in some fashion, either laid while up there or, possibly more plausibly, rescued intact from the destruction caused by Ripley and carried somewhere on the Queen's body.
Question: In the scene where Ripley is describing the new Alien, she says it 'moves different to the other ones'. I could never get a good enough look at the alien to understand what she meant. What did she mean and why does it move differently?
Answer: She means that the alien it moves on 4 legs, whereas the other aliens moved primarily on two legs. This alien came out of a dog in the theatrical version and from an ox in the Assembly cut version, which can only move on 4 legs. This hints to the fact that the alien inherits the characteristics of its host.
Question: After Ripley discovered that an alien queen was inside of her, why didn't she just kill herself immediately?
Answer: She didn't have the nerve to do it herself, especially since she doesn't have something like a gun where it can be done instantly. Even when backed into a corner by the Company, she still hesitates, she doesn't jump to her death immediately. The survival instinct is very powerful.
Answer: Early on, Ripley wanted Dillon to kill her after she learned she was carrying an alien embryo. He agreed he would, but only if she helped the inmates kill the other alien.
But the question is why didn't she kill herself as soon as she found out. As in on the spot? As soon as she discovered that an alien queen was growing inside of her, she went to find the xenomorph in hopes it would kill her but it didn't. It would have made more sense for her to take her life immediately as soon as she discovered a xenomorph queen was growing inside of her rather then wanting the xenomorph on the loose to do it or asking Dillon to.
I agree. It would have made more sense for her to just end her life right there rather going to Dillon after the fact and ask him to do it.
Question: Is it true that there was going to be a scene at the start of the movie where the Sulaco exploded, and why wasn't it filmed?
Question: Why is the ox/dog xenomorph born complete (smaller, but with arms, legs etc) and not as a classic chestburster?
Chosen answer: While no official explanation is ever given in the films, Alien canon suggests that the quadrupedal "Runner" Aliens (sometimes called "Dog-Aliens" or "Ox-Aliens" because of their animal hosts) are a weaker xenomorph variant that are physically unable to chest-burst and instead mature inside the host, eventually killing their hosts as they emerge later. This weaker xenomorph variant relies on four-legged speed, sneak attacks and the ability to spit acid at a distance, rather than on brute-force confrontations.
Question: Why didn't James Cameron return to direct? I know he made more than a name for himself after Aliens but I don't understand why the studio wouldn't ask him to return due to how good Aliens was. And why was a debut director (David Fincher) brought in with such a high budget? Wouldn't the producers think of choosing a more experienced filmmaker to deal with the budget and actors, considering how strong the previous films were?
Chosen answer: I did a little reading on this. Cameron was adamant at the time that if there was an Aliens 3 that he, and his then-wife, Gale Hurd, would not be part of it. He said by the time a decision could be made about a another sequel and a plot was outlined, they would already be on to other projects, and he did not want to invest that much time and effort into one film franchise. He stated that money was not an issue, but he simply wanted to move on to other creative projects. Fincher had at this point directed several successful and lucrative, big money advertisements. The producers had enough faith in him to believe he was capable of directing the third film, but not so much to give him total creative control. There has never been a "directors cut" of Alien 3, as Fincher had so little control, that he pretty much disassociated himself from the film after completion.
Question: Why is the animal host switched out between the theatre release and the DVD release? Does this switch have any major differences between the two versions? I've only ever seen the theatre version.
Answer: There are two quite different versions of the film, due to problems behind the scenes while shooting. The director, David Fincher, was repeatedly subjected to studio interference, culminating with them effectively locking him out of the edit suite and creating the final cut of the movie themselves - this became the theatrical version, with the dog being used as the alien host. Some years later, a new version of the film was created using footage that Fincher shot that was rejected by the executives; known as the "Assembly Cut", the result was much closer to Fincher's original intent and contains a number of significant differences from the original - it's this version of the film that uses an ox as the alien host. Most box-sets of the film series will contain both the original theatrical cut and the assembly cut.
Question: In the infirmary, when the Alien gets close to Ripley, and then (we realise why later in the movie) pulls back and leaves her, because she is carrying the queen chestburster, why doesn't the Alien hold her, take her with him, into the vent system and cocoon her like we see the others do to all those other humans in Aliens? It seems to be remiss of the creature to let her run around, as opposed to guarding her, especially since it seems to be a "guard."
Answer: Well at the time I'm sure it was just to keep the story moving but as far as the lore, this alien is a different breed (A Runner). They are meant more for acquiring food for the hive were as the drones (from Alien and Aliens) create the hive and the cocoon to hold incapacitated people. The drones can also be used for defending the queen/hive, scouting or gathering hosts for the facehuggers.
Chosen answer: 2 Reasons; 1. The entire rest of the prison was trying to find it and kill it. The Alien is fast and strong but if spent most of its time hovering around Ripley, it would be outmatched and killed. 2. The Alien probably knew that Ripley was an ally of the prisoners. They weren't trying to hurt her, so she didn't need guarding.
For 1) No, not yet they weren't trying to kill it, at this point in the movie noone believed her except possibly a deranged convict (lotssa help he'd be in any case) 2) That one is a little harder to dispel, but nevertheless, the alien would probably want to drag her, hide her, somewhere in the depths of the complex, just to be safe, and certainly to be present and available as a guard when the chestburster actually hatches.
Question: When the Xenomorph is mere inches from Ripley, how was it able to know there was a queen inside of her?
Answer: Most likely by smell or other sensory perception. We already know that the aliens inside the hosts adapt and take on DNA and characteristics from them, like most being humanoid from the humans or the one in Alien 3 being more canine since it came from a dog. It's likely that the creatures inside also alter the host's body chemically to better suit their growth in such a short amount of time. This would also be necessary in other situations where the aliens are catching humans or the humans are being exposed to eggs, and the aliens wouldn't kill them or take them again knowing they already have a young one inside them. Now in Alien 3, it's not necessarily the case that the alien knew that it was actually a Queen inside Ripley, but at the very least, it knew one of its own kind was already inside her and knew not to harm her.
Question: At the start of the film when the facehugger tries to get into Newt's cryotube, why does it use brute force instead of acid to gain entry?
Answer: It does use acid, but it has acid for blood so it needs to harm itself first to produce the acid.
In the first Alien, didn't the facehugger use acid to get into Kane's helmet? It wasn't bleeding acid.
It actually isn't shown exactly how the acid was used to get into Kane's helmet. The creature jumps on his helmet and Kane falls over with the creature on the outside and next we see, the creature has melted its way into the helmet. So it could be it cut itself, just as the creature does in Alien 3.
Question: Is it the same facehugger for Ripley and the dog/ox, or were there two different ones?
Answer: It was a special type of facehugger known as a "Royal facehugger", which carries two embryos. One is a queen embryo, the other is a drone to protect the queen.
Answer: Two different facehuggers. They die after implanting the xenomorph embryo in the host.
There was only one egg on the ship.
One egg but not necessarily one Facehugger. One already emerged from an egg could have attached to the Queen on the planet (and flattened against her body making it practically invisible) then scurried away out of sight during the fight with the PowerLoader. Dislodged as a result then hidden away, ready to strike later.
We only SEE one, doesn't mean another one wasn't on board somewhere.
Question: This is about the assembly cut. Why does Dillon go from not caring if the company gets the alien to wanting to kill it, despite the rescue team being only a few hours away?
Answer: Ripley tells the prisoners after the disastrous attempt to lock it in the nuclear waste tank, that when the "rescue team" arrives, they will likely kill everyone and take the xenomorph back. This prompts everyone to attempt to kill the creature, as everyone is going to die anyways, why not try?
Question: Towards the end of the film after Ripley refuses to give herself up and tells "No" to Bishop and closes the gate, Bishop and the men in white go back down the stairs. As we cut to the long shot, we see one of the men in white running up to the metal fence and grabbing hold of it as though he is trying to climb over it carrying what appears to be a shoulder mounted camcorder. He is not part of the production crew because he is wearing the same costume as the other actors, but this is not dwelled upon so it seems like a pointless prop. Was this to add a similar feel to the previous films of recording footage on the planets?
Chosen answer: While no details are given in the film, he's presumably present to document their interactions with Ripley for future reference - this is, after all, a very important moment for the company, where they believe that they may finally get their hands on the specimen that they've been waiting for for years.
Question: How did the ox (or dog) get the alien inside of it? Did it get facehugged or something? If so, how did the facehugger survive the escape pod and come to land?
Answer: The facehugger came down in the escape pod and survived the crash - as has been previously established, they're tough little critters. In the theatrical release, we see the dog standing in the escape pod while it's being moved, with the facehugger moving towards it. With the Ox, the 'hugger presumably left the pod and impregnated the first creature that it came across.
Question: I know that an regular alien comes from a face-hugger, but how do they make a queen alien?
Answer: There are a couple of methods according to the novelizations and movie supplements. None are "official", but they all make sense. 1. A queen can lay a "queen egg" if she needs to. 2. When enough drones are hatched, they will sense the need for a queen and one of them will spin a cocoon and transform into a queen over a few days. 3. When a hive reaches a certain size, a few aliens (they where called "nurses" in the books) would hatch and feed a substance into certain eggs causing the facehugger to carry a queen embryo. As the aliens are based on certain types of wasp, originally, these methods are all pretty logical.
Question: I noticed Ripley has one normal eye and one red eye in the early parts of the movie, what type of injury is that generally indicative of and what causes it?
Answer: Busted blood vessel in the eye. It can be caused by several different things, stress, impact, etc. It's painless and heals in a couple of weeks. In Alien the first host was seen with one blood shot eye, the same as Ripley. Gives a hint early on that she could be infected.
Question: I've been told that the original script for Alien 3 was quite different then it turned out to be, but due to costs/times it was revamped. Is this true?
Chosen answer: There are umpteen different scripts for Alien 3 available on the net, some of which are very different to what was eventually made - some of the early ones are set in a monastery, rather than the prison colony that was eventually used.
Question: 2 things. 1) The escape pod with Ripley inside is heading for land in the overhead shot on its way down to the planet's surface...how does it end up ditching into the sea? 2) Who does the bleeding garment belong to at the beginning of the film? If an alien had burst from Newt or Hicks wouldn't that have shown up in the autopsies? And where did THAT alien go? And it couldn't have been Ripley her chest is obviously still intact.
Answer: During the opening scenes, there was a quick image empty egg sack below the bulk heads. The Queen, from "Aliens," layed it before she was blown out into space. That "alien" laid a "Queen" egg inside of Ripley. They later performed an autopsy on Newt and Hicks and there was no eggs inside of them. As for landing in the ocean it wasn't programmed to properly land. It was purposely dropped there so the "Corporation" couldn't explain the loss of the colony on the alien planet.
Doesn't explain the blood stained garment still. Who did it belong to?
Answer: Agreed the Queen could have stowed the eggs away on her body as Alien bodies, especially one her size, could easily have a couple of eggs hidden upon her, and we would not know. They are masters of disguise these creatures and can merge in with their own environments or others...what's to say an egg can't look like part of the Queen's body? In addition, could Facehuggers not attach themselves to the Queen's body and merge with it somehow? Flatten themselves against her skin maybe?