We’re now six movies deep in the “Alien” franchise (including the forthcoming “Alien: Covenant,” not including “Alien vs. Predator”) and as Ridley Scott has said himself, it’s the kind of property that could go on forever. However, had things gone differently during the making of the original film, it’s arguable that might not have even been a sequel, let alone multiple films.
While die hard fans may already know this story, some might not realize that Scott had initially pitched a much more brutal finale to “Alien,” one that studio executives turned down. We all know that in the finale, Sigourney Weaver harpoons the Alien into outer space. But in Scott’s dark imagination, he thought that maybe it wouldn’t have been enough to kill it.
“I thought that the alien should come in, and Ripley harpoons it and it makes no difference, so it slams through her mask and rips her head off,” he said.
“After that, the tentacles of the alien would’ve been seen pressing buttons on the dashboard. “It would mimic Captain Dallas [Tom Skerritt] saying, ‘I’m signing off,’ ” Scott added.
The director says his finale was “a bit Hitchcock,” and concedes that maybe it’s better they didn’t go that way. However, one can only assume that David getting his read ripped off by the Engineer in “Prometheus,” was Scott’s way of finally making the scene he wanted to do in the first “Alien” movie.
On one hand thank fuck that didn’t happen or we’d never have had Aliens. On the other, i wish it had happened so we wouldn’t have so many shit sequels and Ridley Scott constantly banging on about it 38 years later. I’m hoping the media just imposes a blackout on reporting on Ridley Scott’s plans, i’ve never heard a director talking so much crap about what his next films will be, it changes hourly with Scott.
Dude … you’re forgetting that James Cameron is the Sequel Master – well … the EVERYTHING Master really – and he could have come up with a blockbuster sequel even under those circumstances! In fact it probably would have inspired him to even greater heights???
😀
In all seriousness though, Aliens could still have been pretty much exactly the same as it is, except that Ripley would have had to be replaced – which would have been a shame – but it probably wouldn’t have made that big a difference really…