Alien Resurrection - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Alien Resurrection or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Alien Resurrection

[bryan]

Originally, the fourth alien movie was to be a rendition of the popular comic Aliens Vs. Predator, which combined the Alien creatures with Predator (1987) since 1991. It took another 7 years before Alien vs. Predator (2004) saw the light.

[jamie]

The underwater segment was shot on a specially constructed sound stage on the Fox lot, which was converted into a permanent water-tank. It took nearly a week to fill it with water.

[fred]

Milk had to be added to the underwater set as the water was simply too transparent to be convincing.

[jeffrey]

The film's script was laid out similar to a comic book, with pictures on the left and dialog and descriptions on the right.

[violet]

In her initial scenes with the Newborn, Sigourney Weaver makes a point of not looking in its eyes. This was a lesson learned from when she made Gorillas in the Mist (1988) in not making initial eye contact with a potentially dangerous animal.

[sandra]

The film's model miniatures were shot at a former Howard Hughes aircraft plant in Los Angeles. Visual effects supervisor Erik Henry and visual effects director of photography Rick Fichter used an advanced motion control camera system that required constant vigilance and re-alignment as the area was prone to small earthquakes and tremors.

[marc]

H.R. Giger was openly displeased that he wasn't given a credit for his alien designs and fired off a letter of protest to 20th Century Fox.

[dustin]

Writer Joss Whedon wrote Christie's character with Yun-Fat Chow in mind. Yun-Fat's manager and producer Terence Chang turned down the role for him.

[jessica]

In the first half of all four Alien films, one or two characters are introduced and built up in a way to make the audience think that they are going to be important characters throughout the story, only to have them killed off less than halfway through. In Alien Resurrection, they are Elgyn (Michael Wincott) and General Perez (Dan Hedaya).

[morris]

Joss Whedon originally scripted the Newborn creature as a deadly spider-like four-legged, eyeless, bone-white creature with red veins running along the sides of its head. It had an inner jaw, similar to the all the other aliens. It also had a pair of pincers on the sides of his head which were used to hold its prey still as it drained the prey of blood with its inner jaw. The creature was much larger, nearly the size of the queen alien. It was fairly intelligent and sadistic, audibly laughing as it used a soldier as a human shield against incoming weapons fire. It was also very hostile towards Ripley. Whedon was not involved in later script revisions, where the creature was changed into a "more believable" hybrid of human and alien that has a love scene with Ripley.

[violet]

When the two aliens kill the third to get out of their cell, the intestines and guts and blood 'melting' through the floor was actually a descending platform with the intestines over top of it.

[morris]

Sigourney Weaver originally refused to do a fourth Alien film. When asked why she changed her mind, she replied, "They basically drove a dumptruck full of money to my house".

[kristina]

The film ends with the Newborn being sucked out of a tiny hole in the spaceship's hull, an idea that was considered as a death scene for Lambert in Alien (1979), but abandoned because of budgetary constraints. It was also proposed for dispatching a minor character in one of the drafts of Alien³ (1992).

[jesus]

Winona Ryder found the underwater sequence terrifying because Winona Ryder suffers Aquaphobia after she almost drowned in a lake and nearly dead when was 12.

[miriam]

When Perez's death was changed to the brain-examining demise he suffers in the finished film, 20th Century Fox became worried that the scene was too comedic for an Alien film and wanted to cut it, but director Jean-Pierre Jeunet convinced executives to let it stay.

[kyle]

Joss Whedon has commented on his dissatisfaction with the movie. Fans had speculated that the finished movie deviated from his original script in some fatal manner, however he put such rumors to rest. His dialogue, action and plot were essentially intact. However he had written with a playful, tongue-in-cheek tone, which didn't work when the director decided to "play it straight." Eventually, Whedon created Firefly (2002) and Serenity (2005), which was also about a group of pirates on an old space ship, and captured the tone he had aimed for in this movie. He said that he never realized the similarities with the Betty and her crew until someone pointed it out to him. As irony would have it, the series was shot on the same stages at Fox Studios where 'Alien: Resurrection' was filmed, with the Serenity built over the pit that was dug for the underwater scenes.

[caroline]

Sigourney Weaver made the behind-the-back half-court basketball shot successfully after 3 weeks of basketball practice, tutored by a basketball coach. Her conversion rate during this time was 1 of overt 6 shots, but the distance was much lower than it would be in the actual scene. When the day came to shoot the scene, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wanted to have the ball dropped in from above, rather than wait for Weaver to sink the shot herself, which "would probably take about 200 takes." Weaver insisted she could get the shot in herself, and was allowed to do. Though it is commonly said that she sunk the basket on her first attempt, it actually took her endless takes to complete the stunt. Jean-Pierre Juenet gave her one last try to sink the basket before they would give up and use CGI or a second ball. The very next take, Sigourney Weaver successfully managed the trick. Ron Perlman broke character and began smiling when he saw it, and people on the set started cheering. The editors looked at the shot, and decided there was "enough room to get the scissors in." Weaver was excited about making the shot, but Jeunet was concerned audiences would believe the shot to be faked due to the ball leaving the frame. Upon Weaver's insistence, he kept the shot as it was. Weaver described the miracle shot as "one of the best moments in her life", after her wedding day, and the birth of her daughter.

[toni]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's first solo credit as a director.