Re: Alien prequel (redux)

There was a post with this title (sans "redux") published on the same date that it says this was posted. This is not that post; this is written almost exactly a year later. That post has, rather Stalinistically and completely out of shame, been reverted to draft (I didn't want to totally delete it). In that post, I said the idea of an Alien prequel focusing on the Space Jockey(s) was absolutely the wrong thing to do to the saga. Of course, it eventually ended up in cinemas under the name Prometheus and was staggeringly brilliant. In it, I laid out a plan for a superior new Alien film. I still like my idea, even though it's no Prometheus. Let's see how wrong I was.

"They haven't thought this through at all." I said at the time. Ah, but yes they had.

At the time, the rumour was that it would be a straight-up Alien film: none of this "is it? Isn't it?" game that Ridley Scott was playing with us. So I said there were no decent titles left, especially after the inconsistent titling horror show of the films so far. "Alien! would work, but only if it were a musical." I concluded. Quite.

As for the subject matter of the Space Jockey, I had this to say:

"Unlike the frustrating unanswered questions in Lost, this question has been hanging around for 31 years - and nobody is tearing their hair out over it." Ooh! Look how eerily I kinda-sorta predicted Damon Lindelof's involvement? FREAKY. Well, not really. I still think nobody was clamouring for an explanation of that derelict spaceship, but then Prometheus side-stepped the issue by showing an interesting, compelling story that just happened to go and explain that big freaky mystery of Alien. Still, though, it does detract a little bit from Alien, don't you think?

And then I proposed my idea for a film. I said it should be a sequel to Alien, but a prequel to Aliens. It would feature Amanda Ripley-McClaren, Ellen Ripley's daughter, whose existence we know because of Aliens. In that film, she is said to have died in her 60s. In my film, we'd find out that that is just another fanciful concoction of the ever-lying Weyland-Yutani corporation. As for the plot, Amanda would be sent by Weyland-Yutani on a mission to recover the Nostromo, her mother's ship that went missing years ago. Only they haven't actually found it, and it's just a wild goose chase that will lead Amanda to (W-Y hopes) capturing a live xenomorph.

It's not a perfect idea, but I think my plan for the final scene would be worth trying for:

INT. USCS O'BANNON - NAVIGATION ROOM


RIPLEY is hunched over controls. She kneels down, RIPS OFF a service panel and starts fiddling with the wires. There are tools scattered about her, she doesn't have the time to deal with them. If she doesn't transmit this message, she will never be rescued. She will die.


SPARKS shoot from the control panel.


                    RIPLEY
          Shit!


She has little idea what she's doing, but that's not going to stop her. Not today.


The XENOMORPH'S DYING SCREAM erupts from nowhere, shattering the nervous silence. Ripley looks around. It's lying on the floor, wounded and dying. She reaches for her gun, pulling it closer to her - just in case.


Her attention goes back to the control panels. She slams her fist down on one of them. The screen flickers into life - but keeps flickering, it's not stable.


The xenomorph screams again, Ripley turns around and shoots it. Several times. She turns back to the screen, ready to record her SOS. But then a voice, rendered tinny and laced with static by the ill-repaired system, echoes around her:


                    ELLEN RIPLEY (V.O.)
          Final report of the commercial
          starship


RIPLEY looks confused.


                    ELLEN RIPLEY (V.O.)
               (cont'd)
          Nostromo,


RIPLEY's jaw drops. She looks at the screen, scarcely believing what she can hear.


                    RIPLEY
          Mom...?


                    ELLEN RIPLEY (V.O.)
               (cont'd)
          third officer reporting. The other
          members of the crew, Kane, Lambert,
          Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain
          Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship
          destroyed.


RIPLEY has fallen to her knees, dropped the gun, begun sobbing to herself.


                    ELLEN RIPLEY (V.O.)
              (cont'd)
          I should reach the frontier in
          about six weeks. With a little
          luck, the network will pick me up.


There is a horrifying screech. RIPLEY looks around -- a FACEHUGGER scuttling across the floor! She scrabbles around for her gun. It's too late. The facehugger leaps, wraps itself around her face.


RIPLEY writhes around the floor, grabbing at her face to no avail, still searching for the gun, too, as the final words are spoken.


                     ELLEN RIPLEY (V.O.)
               (cont'd)
          This is Ripley, last survivor of
          the Nostromo, signing off.


RIPLEY's body stops moving. She lies on the floor, doomed. A final spray of sparks fly out from the computer banks.


                        FADE TO BLACK.