Alien

[lancastercat]

Just watched the first disc of my new alien boxset, and had a browse through the deleted scenes afterwards.

Most were average and you could see why they were deleted from the film(irrelavant conversations, unneccessary details,etc.). However the last scene, "Cocoon sequence" (I won't go into details about it for fear of starting a spoiler slanging match) was great, and I can't understand why Ridley Scott decided to cut this out of the film.

Anybody know why or have any ideas?

Cheers

[The Beyond]

Apparently he felt it slowed the pace down too much (think he mentions as much in the commentary.)

You had this frenetic race against time with Ripley setting the self destruct and running towards the shuttle...
then she stopped and chatted with Dallas for 10 mins. :D

[Jimmyboy]

It also reveals alittle too much about the Aliens lifecycle.
Something Cameron didnt care about when he made Aliens but you have to remember that there wasnt a sequel planned when Alien was first released.

[SqueakyG]

Another interesting thing to note is that James Cameron *changed* the life-cycle of the aliens, so if this deleted scene from Alien were to be re-inserted, it would create a huge contradiction.

If you look carefully at the deleted scene, Dallas and Brett are in the process of being turned into eggs! Brett is nearly totally an egg, and Dallas is just beginning to turn into an egg. This is a drastically different type of life cycle for the aliens.

[dangermouse]

The only difference between the region 1 and region 2 Alien sets is that on the R1 there is a commentary option for the coccoon deleted scene.

From what I remember, Scott basically said he took it out because it slowed the film down so much, as it came right in the middle of the frantic dash from the alien and destroyed the pacing.

(btw - the Region 2 box set is still the better of the 2 regions to have because the of the 5th disc that comes with the UK version - so I dont think this missing commentary is too much of a loss)

[thespook]

Originally posted by SqueakyG
If you look carefully at the deleted scene, Dallas and Brett are in the process of being turned into eggs! Brett is nearly totally an egg, and Dallas is just beginning to turn into an egg. This is a drastically different type of life cycle for the aliens.

This makes sense as I always wondered why there were no more petrified corpses in the crashed Alien spaceship at the beginning, and loads of eggs downstairs.

I also watched Alien last night including the deleted scenes:)

[Ravenger]

Originally posted by SqueakyG
Another interesting thing to note is that James Cameron *changed* the life-cycle of the aliens, so if this deleted scene from Alien were to be re-inserted, it would create a huge contradiction.

It's not necessarily a contradiction, after all there was only one alien brought back to the colony in Aliens. I think you could rule out the alien going back to the alien ship for more eggs, so it must have had some way to reproduce without a queen, otherwise there would have been only one alien to attack the whole colony.

So perhaps a lone alien can produce a limited number of eggs on its own (using the method in Alien), one of which will turn into a queen?

[lancastercat]

Just checking through IMDB, see if I could find anything about this. Couldn't find anything relevant, but I did find out that the working title for "Alien" was "STAR BEAST"! good job they changed the name, eh?

[Mozley]

Originally posted by thespook


I always wondered why there were no more petrified corpses in the crashed Alien spaceship at the beginning, and loads of eggs downstairs.

Can't remember if I heard this on the commentary or read it in some magazine, but apparently Ridley Scott always entertained the idea that the race that owns the crashed spaceship were at war with another race. The idea is that one of these races created the Aliens as a form of biological warfare to use against the other (if it was the 'petrified corpse' race that created them then they obviously couldn't control it).

This is why I still think AvsPredator should get made: the predators could be the race that the 'petrified corpses' were fighting. They created the Aliens as a form of biological warfare AND as a form of sport: if they fancied a challenge they could just drop a Queen egg onto a planet, wait a couple of weeks and then go on safari.

Whatcha' reckon?

[Just Call Me Wanda]

It's not necessarily a contradiction, after all there was only one alien brought back to the colony in Aliens. I think you could rule out the alien going back to the alien ship for more eggs, so it must have had some way to reproduce without a queen, otherwise there would have been only one alien to attack the whole colony.

Either the face hugger that attaches itself to Newt's father becomes the queen Ripley meets later and therefore creates the other eggs under the cooling towers; or more likely, the colonists decide to investigate themselves and bring back more eggs from the downed alien ship. - That's the way I read it anyway. :)

[Just Call Me Wanda]

However the last scene, "Cocoon sequence" (I won't go into details about it for fear of starting a spoiler slanging match) was great, and I can't understand why Ridley Scott decided to cut this out of the film.

Didn't like it, mainly because it would destroy Cameron's version, but as mentioned it would slow the pace of the finale. I did think the way it was shot, especially the way it was lit was brilliant, but it was best left out.

I also didn't like the way we meet Dallas again. He's dead and gone, yet we stop to find out how he's getting along with his new ET friend.

Also, the newly forming eggs looked a little out of place. In the alien spaceship the surroundings and the eggs were much subtle in the way they were created, yet these new eggs had a little too much 'slime' and would affect the overall tone - IMO.

[Just Call Me Wanda]

Whatcha' reckon?

No no no, those metal type guys with the 'Knight Rider' style flashing lights for eyes from the brilliant 'Battlestar Gallactica' created them because they just, for the life (or lack of) in them couldn't win even one battle.