textfiles/sf/alien3a.txt

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Although I've learned to accept Alien3 as a part of the Alien's Universe,
it has been a long and difficult road to reach that point. On its own,
I've always found it to be a visually gripping film. Ripley, as the
center-piece, has, IMHO, her finest moments in Alien3. Yet, the rest of
the package has never seemed quite up to snuff. Many fans of Alien hold
Aliens in comtempt for abandoning the horror-scifi genre and "selling
out" to the more profitable action-adventure-scifi format. I've never had
that problem as I love both films and have always viewed the transition
as a natural one that simply expanded this particular universe of the
future.

At the same time, I've had an equally difficult time reconciling the
transition from Aliens to Alien3...The leap from 1 to 2 always made
sense...The jump from 2 to 3 has not. So, I've always wanted to know,
"How did we get from there to here?" If you've read the rest of the FAQ,
then you know about the whole sordid Vincent Ward episode that sent us to
Fiorina in the first place...But, what came before that and why was it
abandoned in favor of the final script? Unless you've got an inside line
to Walter Hill and his production company, we'll never know the whole
story and most of it will remain speculation. That's not all bad, as
speculation is the life-blood of documents like this FAQ. So, why not add
some fuel to the fire?

I've had my hands on a copy of William Gibson's original script for
"Alien III" for quite awhile now and it seems like a good time to
contribute a synopsis which may explain a few things (such as how the
eggs were supposed to have gotten onto the Sulaco), and may just add more
confusion to others. I've been very careful in preparing the synopsis to
include as much detail as is possible, including direct quotes, and still
remain within the bounds of the fair-use doctrine and copyright laws.
(Everything encased in parentheses, except for dialog notes, is my
writing...Everything else is Gibson's.) If you have questions about
specific scenes that I've just outlined, e-mail me and I'll try to give
you more details. The script has given me hope that somewhere out there a
chance may exist for another sequel in this series that I love so much.
If StarTrek could recover from number 5 with a film as good as ST VI: The
Undiscovered Country, then perhaps the "Alien" can recover from number
three...

Enjoy!

-Steve Copold

________________________________________________________

FADE IN:

DEEP SPACE - THE FUTURE

The silent field of stars -- eclipsed by the dark bulk of of an
approaching ship.

CLOSER.

ANGLE ON THE HULL

A towering cliff of metal, Sulaco.

(The script then cuts to an inside tracking shot of the hyper-sleep vault
and the line of open and empty capsules. We finally track across 4 closed
capsules - Newt, Ripley, Hicks, and finally Bishop. Bishop's capsule,
however, is covered with a "hothouse" mist and condensation.)

CLOSER

A tear of fluid streaks the condensation.

An alarm sounds.

A monitor begins to scroll data.

(We then hear the computer announcing that Sulaco has experienced a
navagational error and entered the territory of the U.P.P. [Union of
Progressive Peoples - A clear analogy for the late U.S.S.R. - A subplot
which probably contributed to the demise of this script.] We cut to an
exterior shot of the Sulaco and witness the approach of a UPP interceptor
ship carrying commandos. They dock with the Sulaco and board her. They
enter the ship though an airlock near the cargo bay. As they enter, they
find Bishop's twisted and tangled lower torso. They see the blast damage
on the drop ship and exchange knowing looks...It is apparent these are
combat veterans. As the commandos enter the hyper-sleep vault, the
computer announces a security breach. They move down the line of capsules
and stop at Bishop's.)

INTERIOR HYPER-SLEEP VAULT - LEADER'S POV (point of view)

The chilly aisle of capsules.

Commandos move down the line, guns poised. They peer in at Newt, Ripley,
and Hicks, but the lid of Bishop's capsule is pearl white. (text deleted)
The lid rises. A dense pale mist flows out, spilling over the edges of
the capsule, revealing the ovoid of a gray alien egg. Rooted in the
center of Bishop's synthetic entrails, the egg instantly ejaculates a
face-hugger, which strikes the leader's faceplate in a spray of acid.
(lots of text deleted)

(At this point, one of the other commandos, a young Vietnamese woman,
attempts to shoot the facehugger without killing the leader. Things go
wrong and his head is literally destroyed. They throw him out the airlock
and leave with Bishop's remains.)

DISSOLVE TO:

IN DEEP SPACE - VARIOUS ANGLES

A station the size of a small moon, and growing; unfinished sections of
hull are open to vacuum. A vast, irregular structure, the result of of
the shifting goals of succesive administrations.

(This is our introduction to Anchorpoint which serves as the setting for
about 75% of Alien III. I see it as a cross between the Deathstar and
Deep Space 9. It is huge and well-used like the Deathstar, but it is by
run civil administrators and company reps, with only a military attache
and a few troops. Like DSN, it has shopping malls, schools, and the type
of stuff associated with a colony rather than a military base.

At this time we are introduced to Tully, a civilian lab technician, and
the station's ops officer, Jackson. Tully is written as sort of a
malcontented doctoral student. He's very smart, very good at his job, and
has some degree of contempt for authority. Jackson is a really neat
character. She is a "tough broad," much like Ripley, but carries none of
the baggage that Ripley is saddled with. They have a lengthy conversation
at this point which sort of brings the audience up to speed. I've
included just a small portion.)

JACKSON
The Sulaco. Departed gateway four years ago with a compliment of fifteen.
A dozen marines, an android, a company representative, and the former
warrant officer of a merchant vessel...

TULLY
So?

JACKSON
So, the bio-readout gives us the warant officer, one -- count him --
marine, and a nine-year-old girl. Makes you wonder what happened out
there, doesn't it?

TULLY
So ask'em. Wake'em up and ask'em. Them not me.

JACKSON
But That's the GOOD news, Tully. Three hours before Sulaco turned up, we
docked a priority shuttle out of Gateway. Two passengers. Milisci, Tully.
Weapons Division.

TULLY
That the bad news?

JACKSON
They want the ship pulled in with full biohazard precautions, by
oh-eight-hundred hours. BioLab techs are priority for the deck squad.
that's you Tully.

The phone screen goes blank.

TULLY
(heartfelt) Shit!

(We are then introduced to Spence, who is I think Tully's girlfriend.
That part's not real clear as events overtake the issue very quickly from
here on out. The next five pages of script are dedicated to a WONDERFUL
sequence of scenes where Tully and other lab techs, accompanied by
marines from Anchorpoint are seen in an enormous docking bay where they
board Sulaco. I'll put in the last page of it here.)

SECOND MARINE
Yessir. Lights on in there.

The officer presses a button.

The door slides open. Bright white. The aisle. Empty. The row of
capsules. Tully's marine is first through the door, gun ready, slow,
careful. Tully steps in after him, raises his instrument, takes a sample.

INT. HYPER-SLEEP VAULT

The other two marines move past Tully. Soft scuff of their boots on the
deck. Tully doesn't know quite what to do. Lowers his sampler, hesitates,
The first marine reaches Newt's capsule. He lowers his rifle. (something
startled, almost gentle in his voice)
They're here...

Eight inches of razor-sharp serrated tail plunges out through the back of
his suit as he's lifted off his feet by something we can't see. Ugly
RIPPING noise as the alien withdraws its stinger (Gibson clearly refers
to the tail as a stinger at several points in the script) -- blood tidily
contained by the translucent membrane of the biohazard envelope.

The stinger of a second alien whips around the neck of one of the other
two marines; the alien is clinging to the ceiling. He screams. Tully's
marine sags against the foot of Ripley's capsule, his arm across the
controls -- the green indicator lights go out -- as the first alien
lunges up into view.

CLOSE

On the jaws.

ANGLE ON RIPLEY

Her eyes snap open

RIPLEY'S POV

As the beast mounts her coffin, terminal nightmare.

ANGLE

RIPLEY
No-ooooooooooooooooooooo!
Her hands claw frantically at the smooth curve of the plastic canopy.

The remaining marine, crazy with adrenialine and terror, unleashes his
flame thrower. The first alien and Ripley's capsule vanish in a napalm
fireball. the marine spins, screaming incoherently, and liquid fire hoses
the second alien, which drops its victim and falls burning into the deck.

The vault is an inferno. Ripley's capsule is sagging, melting.

DISSOLVE TO:

(We see Ripley's damaged capsule being rolled into a very elaborate
medlab and doctors go to work on her. Then we cut to Hicks sitting on the
edge of a hospital bed in a dressing gown lighting a cigarette. Spence
comes in and has a brief conversation with him. He asks about Newt and
Ripley and Bishop. She tells him that Newt and Ripley are fine, and that
she doesn't know who Bishop is. Newt comes running in chased by an
orderly. He grabs for Newt and Hicks almost assaults him, but is stopped
when Spence calls off the orderly. They demand to see Ripley. Spence
takes them to her room. She is in a deep coma)

NEWT
Is Ripley DREAMING?

SPENCE
I don't know honey.

NEWT
It's better not to.

CUT TO:

EXT. RODINA, THE U.P.P. STATION - VARIOUS ANGLES

Smaller than Anchorpoint

INT. RODINA - CYBERNETICS LAB

CLOSE on Bishop. He stares straight ahead, the corner of his mouth
twitching mechanically.

(The UPP scientists are downloading all of Bishop's data and are learning
all about the aliens. The young Vietnamese commando is present and
confirms the image of the facehugger -- They all stare in horror at the
image of the adult alien. The young woman shakes her head and says she
has not seen this. The two adults on the Sulaco are never explained and
neither is the fact that the capsules were left alone. There is a
possibility that there may have been live animals, or animals such as
dogs on the Sulaco in hypersleep. This may account for the adults as well
as the dog thread in the screen version. Lab animals are turned into
aliens later in the Gibson script. The egg in Bishop's entrails is
explained in great detail.)

INT SULACO - CARGO LOCK

TECH WITH PROBE
You getting this on tape Miller?

SECOND TECH
You bet your ass. Orders.

TECH WITH PROBE
That's good because I'd swear I just saw a piece of this shit move...

On the monitor, the tip of the probe trembles, brushes one of the
globules. The second tech takes it, inserts it in a plastic tube, seals
the tube in a small metal cannister, and writes #17 on the side in red
grease pencil.

SECOND TECH
Since when do androids get diseases?

TECH WITH PROBE
I dunno. Sure looks like something got to this poor bastard...

(This is a key scene in the script as it introduces the alien "spores"
and "DNA" samples which are capable of spreading the species like a
disease. Even androids can act as a host at least to the extent of
producing a viable egg with a facehugger inside. The effects on a living
host are entirely different as we'll see shortly.

At this point in the story, we are introduced to Col. Rosetti, local
commandant of the colonial marine detachment at Anchorpoint. We also meet
Kevin Fox and Susan Welles. They are the Weyland-Yutani scum-yuppies from
the weapons division sent by the company. They are real knock-offs of
Burke, only not so endearing...Yeeech! We also meet Shuman, the diplomat.
He is involved now as the UPP is making a stink about the Sulaco entering
their space. The four of them debrief Hicks in a "security bubble" and
learn what he knows. They do not tell him about the aliens found on the
Sulaco. In the bubble we also meet Trent, the head bio-geneticist at
Anchorpoint. He quizzes Hicks about the alien's life-cycle. They realize
that Hicks doesn't know anything about the genetic material they have
discovered in the hyper-sleep vault. They also fail to tell him they are
experimenting with it and trying to clone it. They do tell Hicks about
the UPP grabbing Bishop.

At this point there is a complex and important scene in the Tissue
Culture Lab with Tully and Spence. It involves lots of high tech goodies
and what would have been some terrific CGI sequences as they examine the
alien samples. It all culminates with them looking #17 under extreme
magnification we see the sample brought into focus...)

EXTREME CLOSEUP - MONITOR

As the screen fills with an image that might be a bizzare landscape, its
lines and textures recalling the interior of the derelict ship in "ALIEN."

(This sequence is followed by a long set of scenes with Newt and Hicks as
Newt prepares to return to earth aboard the Sulaco which has been
sterilized. Ripley is still in a coma and Newt makes her a map of her
Grandparent's home in Oregon so she can find her when she wakes
up...Lot's of cuteness and string-pulling as Newt departs Anchorpoint.

We jump back to Rodina Station and meet a bunch of new characters. Braun,
Rodina's Chief of R&D, Colonel-Doctor Suslov, the Head of the station,
and several military and diplomatic officers. The scene is basically a
discussion of where are we? - where are they? re: the development of the
aliens as a weapon, and what to do about Bishop? They decide the best
course of action is not to overplay their hand, but to sterilize Bishop
and send him back with no traces of the alien spores or any memory of his
time at Rodina. They rebuild him (with inferior UPP technology - this
later becomes a plot element and a running joke in the script) and return
him to Anchorpoint.

CUT TO:

INT. ANCHORPOINT - TISSUE CULTURE LAB

Trent, head of biolab, Rosetti, and Fox wait, seated, as Tully wheels a
holographic Display Module into position. The lights dim. A faint,
ghostly cube shimmers in front of the three men.

TRENT
Initially this was merely routine, you understand. We attempted to
determine its compatibility with terrestial DNA.

FOX
What kind of DNA Doctor?

TRENT
Human, of course.

Something shivers and shakes and takes form in the cube of light: a
double helix threaded with green and red beads of light.

TRENT (continuing)
Watch closey, please.

The alien genetic material looks like a cubist's vision of an art deco
staircase, its asymmetrical segments glowing day-glow green and purple.

ROSETTI
That's a biological structure? More like part of a machine...

The alien form makes contact with the human DNA. The transformation is
shockingly swift, but its stages can still be followed: the thing seems
to pull itself into and THROUGH the coils, and for an instant the two are
meshed, locked, and then the final stage. A new shape glows, a HYBRID;
the green and red beads have been altered beyond recognition.

FOX
Like a high-speed viral takeover...! What's the real-time duration on
this, Trent?

TULLY
(from the shadows beyond the glowing cube) That was it. What you see is
what you get. That's how fast it is...

(Several scenes follow that I'll just encapsulate for you. They are all
important, but only in that they introduce characters or minor plot
elements.

#1 Hicks meets Walker the foreman of the Anchorpoint machine-shop...He is
a tough customer.

#2 Jackson, Shuman, UPP Diplomatic Officer discuss Bishop's return.

#3 Bishops arrives at Anchorpoint.

#4 Hicks meets Tully in a bar on the Mall and Tully reveals that Fox and
Welles have ordered the lab to experiment with the alien DNA.

#5 Rosetti, Fox, Trent, and Welles in the security bubble discussing the
progress of the experiments. Rosetti raises minor objections, but wimps
out when Fox threatens his career.

#6 Bishop being checked out by a medlab tech and jokes about his shitty
UPP polycarbonate knee joints. This is followed by a long scene with
Hicks and Spence where she fully spills the beans about the "research.")

INT. CONSTRUCTION ZONE CHAMBER
(lots of text deleted)

SPENCE
Maybe I don't either. It's just...We've got to tell somebody...Now
there's a rumor somebody came in on a UPP ship today, somebody off
Sulaco...

HICKS
Bishop...

SPENCE
I don't know.

HICKS
Maybe Progressive Peoples'll get their own alien too. Maybe they'll grow
some...

SPENCE
(horrified) Shit! You'd better hope not...

HICKS
Why's that?

SPENCE
Their lab gear's five years behind ours. they'd never be able to control
it

HICKS
Think you can, huh?

SPENCE
I don't know...

(More scenes follow:

#1 Tully complains to Jackson that there are problems with one of the
stasis systems in the lab.

#2 Rodina - BioLab:  Braun and Suslov are discussing the alien as a
weapon in front of a large stasis tube. Scene ends with a closeup on the
tube showing a "chestburster suspended like a fetal dolphin."

#3 Long scene where Bishop tells Hicks about Ripley and the queen on the
Sulaco. He also warns Hicks to watch him carefully as the UPP may have
reprogrammed him and he would not know it.

#4 Long scene in the culture lab with Tully and Welles. Ends with the
stasis system failing and the contents spraying all over Welles and
Tully. They are immediately taken to a "de-con" unit. Welles is seriously
pissed off!

#5 Bishop and Hicks sneak into the tissue culture lab and destroy all of
the alien cultures. Ends with both of them in white plastic restraints as
they are placed in separate cells. The next scene is the beginning of the
proverbial shit hitting the fan.)

INT. THE BUBBLE

Meeting of the full Anchorpoint Directorate, including Welles and Fox and
a number of new faces. Welles is white lipped with fury.

(lots of dialog omitted)

FOX
You have no more material to work with, Trent. In any case, it's become
obvious that you aren't the man for the job. We took the precaution of
obtaining our own samples. they're on their way to Gateway. (Wow! Does
this open a lot of possibilities...Like "Earth Hive" for instance.)

WELLES
(with cold satisfaction)...and everything, every move each of you have
made, since our arrival, is going to be gone over with a fine toothed
c-c-c-c-c--

As Welles begins to stammer, her eyes betray a terrible consternation.
She rises from her chair, lurches forward, catching herself on her hands.
The c-c-c-c- phases into a chattering palsy as a thick strand of
blood-streaked drool descends toward the table. Fox, seated to her left,
has instinctively shoved his own chair back, ready to run. Everyone else
is frozen with shock.

As the chittering tooth-burr becomes a shrill SHRIEK of inhuman rage, the
transformation takes place. Segmented biomechanoid tendons squirm beneath
the skin of her arms. Her hands claw at one another, tearing redundant
flesh from alien talons. then the shriek dies. She straightens up. And,
rips her face apart in a single movement, the glistening claws coming
away with skin, eyes, muscle, teeth, and splinters of bone...The sound of
ripping cloth. the new beast sheds its human skin in a single sinuous,
bloody ripple, molting on fast forward...An instant of utter silence as
the featureless mask moves. From side to side. Scanning.

Trent vomits explosively. the marine guard snatches his pistol from its
holster and fires wildly across the table. Blind screaming chaos.

OVERHEAD SHOT

As the Directorate plunges, like a single panicked organism, to the far
side of the bubble. The thing is on Fox before he can get up from his
chair.

CLOSE

On his scream as the sucking, fanged tounge plunges through the orbit of
his eye.

ANGLE

A marine with a flamethrower bursts through the door, torching Fox and
the new beast, setting fire to the bubble's acoustic foam baffles.

(Clearly, this script was destined to get an "R" rating...From this point
on the script becomes an Aliens-like war movie. Many brief cutting scenes
follow:

#1 Spence finds Tully's contaminated lab badge.

#2 Rosetti gets Hicks and Bishop out of their cells and enlists their
help.

#3 Hicks (in full combat armor) and Walker driving into the construction
zone in a jeep searching for Tully.

#4 Jackson, Spence, and Bishop tracking them on monitors from operations.

#5 Hicks and Walker find and kill the alien that was Tully.

#6 Closeup of Spence as Tully's locator dot blinks out.

#7 INT. RODINA Mass confusion as we see the commandos fighting their way
through what has obviously become a war-zone. Then we see the result of
Suslov's genetic tinkering: It's a new type of alien - "bigger, meaner,
faster, able to reproduce more rapidly." The commandos swarm through a
hatch and seal the thick steel door. We hear slamming and pounding as the
steel begins to buckle.

All of this is followed by a really long scene with Hicks, Jackson,
Bishop, Shuman, and Rosetti in operations. We find out the closest ship
is the transport Kansas City which is 20 hours away. the following
exchange takes place in the midle of it:)

ROSETTI
We abandon the station.

HICKS
Destroy the station, man! We got nukes?

ROSETTI
Outlawed under the strategic arms reduction treaty.

JACKSON
We can fiddle the overrides on the fusion package. Baby nova.

BISHOP
We're dealing with a new form Colonel. We know nothing of this new mode
of reproduction. Others may have already become hosts.

ROSETTI
What are you suggesting?

BISHOP
Inorder to be ENTIRELY certain, Colonel, it would be necessary to
override the fusion package now.

Jackson looks up at Bishop; he's suggesting mass suicide.

HICKS
I thought you were programmed to protect human life?

BISHOP
(with android blandness) I'm taking the long view.

(I believe this would have become one of the classic lines of the film.
The scene ends with an incoming message, actually a warning, from Rodina.
A technician explains what they have done and that all experiments must
be terminated as they cannot be contained...No shit! There is a lot of
funny reparte about "the Soviet space brothers" in this scene. Jackson
almost takes on the air of a Hudson, except she's pretty gutsy. At the
very end Jackson gathers everyone near the monitors as they notice that
something huge is blocking the cameras in the air-scrubber chamber. Many
scenes follow:

#1 Spence sitting in the eco-module...Birds begin to sing...The calm
before the storm.

#2 EXT. RODINA - No movement. INT. - We see the Vietnamese commando
sitting on the floor cradling her gun, the acid burned corpse of her
partner is beside her.

#3 A series of very rapidly cut scenes where Hicks puts Ripley in a
lifeboat and launches her into space. Bishop questions him about this as
she might be infected. Hicks replies, "I owe her one."

#4 Great combat sequence as Hicks leads a group of "green" marines to the
scrubber room where they find a huge mutant queen alien. The place look
like the queens chamber on LV-426, only more grotesque. Lots of the new
aliens come crawling out the walls. The marines destroy the new queen and
kill lots of the drones, but as the Queen pulls loose from the framework
that is supporting her, an enormous cloud of spores is released and then
sucked into the air circulation system. Hicks has Bishop close the vents.

#5 INT. RODINA HUB - The commando works her way through the core of the
station. She discover the almost the entire crew of the station, maybe a
hundred people all cocooned in a multi-story column...A bas-relief of
human bodies and glittering resin. A closeup of Braun and Suslov is shown.

#6 INT. OPS - Jackson, Rosetti, and Bishop are watching the approach of
the UPP cruiser Nikolai Stoiko at Rodina (How they are doing this is not
explained other than as some form of survelience system. It's clear that
it's not direct video, but some form of remore imaging.).

#7 INT. RODINA - The commando gets into an interceptor and escapes from
the station. We see her blast away.

#8 EXT. RODINA - We see the Stoiko launch a missle and a nuclear blast
destroy the station.

#9 INT. OPS - Jackson says, "I don't believe it! They send for help, and
their own people nuked'em! Hicks replies, "Maybe they asked for it."

The following scenes are a real combat-fest.

#1 Walker on the Mall blasting aliens and taking pulls from a jug of
liquor. In the end he becomes an alien.

#2 INT. ECO-MODULE - Spence enters and gasps at what she sees. The
primates have been cocooned in the trees.

#3 Hicks on the Mall...scenes of carnage everywhere.

#4 INT. OPS - Jackson, Hicks, Rosetti, Spence, and Bishop. Hicks wants to
blow the fusion package immediately. Jackson says it doesn't matter as
Hicks has destroyed the scrubber and with all the fires, they'll only
have air for a few more hours anyway. One of the marines falls down in
agony, only he doesn't become an alien. His chest bursts open and about
half a dozen new model chestbursters pop out and run in all different
directions. Hicks evacuates everyone.

#5 INT. CORRIDOR - Bishop heads off to rig the fusion package. Hicks
gathers all the survivors to take them to the lifeboats. A few new
characters are introduced at this point...All minor.

#6 Bishop in the Mall encounters yet another queen and her drones in the
process of cocooning victims. Bishop runs for the elevator with the queen
after him.

#7 Lots of cross-cutting between the group heading for the lifeboats
fighting their way through the aliens and Bishops staving off the queen
in the elevator. Bishop escapes by ripping up the floor of the elevator
showing his android strength. The lifeboat party emerges from a wall of
smoke to find the passage blocked by a wall of resin, human bones, marine
helmets, rifles, etc. What follows is just too complex to distill and too
long to copy and still be fair to Mr. Gibson. Let me just say that it's
an incredible sequence of the lifeboat party taking alternate routes to
the bay as the aliens keep blocking their path. Lots of explosions,
shootouts, mucho violence...Really keen stuff!

#8 Bishop arrives at the fusion package and proceeds to rig it to blow.

#9 We rejoin the lifeboat party at the crew quarters where we see even
more carnage including what's left of a children's preschool. Memebers of
the party freak out at this point. Spence and Hicks calm everyone down
and they move on.

#10 Bishop exiting the fusion complex...One of his polycarbon knees gives
out. He is now dragging one leg behind him.

#11 Spence is separated in a service shaft and trapped by an alien. She
has a huge flare pistol and kills it. She rejoins Hicks and the others.

#12 Bishop climbing the elevator shaft and checking his watch: 21:40.
They agreed he would set the fusion unit to blow at 22:00.

#13 Hicks and Jackson have it out with Rosetti who is not handling things
very well. Basically,  they kick his ass. One of the party, Tatsumi is
bitten, but survives. They dress his wound and move on.

#14 Quick scene of Bishop back on the Mall putting a patch on his leg and
then moving to rejoin the others. The queen is no longer there.

#15 Hicks and company arrive at the lifeboat bay. Closeup of Tatsumi's
leg wound leaving a trail of yellow drops. Rosetti opens the door and the
bay is filled with fresh new aliens. Hicks provides cover fire and they
get the door closed again. They all pile into an office. It's Trent's,
and they find him where he's already killed himself. Spence finds that
the back wall of the office is actually an airlock. Sounds of the aliens
throwing themselves against the door to the office. Hicks checks his
watch it's 21:46.

#16 As they prepare to enter the lock, A chestburster crawls out of
Tatsumi's wound and more erupt from his chest. The survivors enter the
airlock. They all suit up and the color of their suits is important.
Rosetti gets in a yellow suit.  Shortly after they exit the lock Rosetti
goes through the change inside his suit. He kills a lab tech and then
Hicks kill him. Only Jackson, Hicks, and Spence are left alive. Hicks
looks at his watch 21:59...22:00...Nothing! They move across the outside
surface of Anchorpoint toward the external portion of the lifeboats.

#17 Outside shot of the lock shows the aliens following them...They are
unaffected by the cold and the vacuum.

#18 Outside the lifeboat, Spence and jackson work on opening the hatch
with a bypass. Hicks continue to kill aliens.

#19 Hicks sees a yellow spacesuit moving across the hull...Rosetti? No,
it's Bishop. he has emerged from another lock. Bishop "greases" all the
aliens that are left on the outside. He tells Hicks that he gave them an
extra half hour of time.

#20 As they are getting in the lifeboat, the second queen emerges and
leads a charge of new aliens toward them. They run out of ammo as the
aliens close in on them.

#21 Cut to the UPP interceptor: shot of a port opening revealing a
"viscious looking gattling style pulse cannon" (I could almost hear the
audience cheering in my head as I read this scene). The interceptor wipes
out the aliens.

#22 The commando lands the interceptor near them and takes them on board.
Jackson is killed by the aliens in this scene. The aliens are coming up
behind the ship. She fires the engines and fries them!

#23 The interceptor streaks away as the reactor overloads and blows.

The last scene is in the interceptor and it's too long for fair-use,
although, I'd love to put up the whole thing. Instead I'll just give you
the gist of it and one very important extract.

INT. INTERCEPTOR

(dialog omitted, but Bishop determines that none of them are infected or
they would have already begun to change. The commando has had a lethal
dose of radiation and will only live a few more hours.)

BISHOP
You're a species again, Hicks. United against a common enemy...

HICKS
Yeah?

BISHOP
The source, Hicks. You'll have to trace them back, find the point of
origin. The first source and destroy it.

HICKS
I don't know, Bishop. Maybe we oughtta just stay out of their way...

BISHOP

You can't, Hicks. This goes far beyond mere interspecies competition.
These creatures are to biological life what antimatter is to matter.

HICKS
How do you mean?

BISHOP
There isn't room for the both of you, Hicks, not in this universe.

HICKS
That's crazy, Bishop...

BISHOP
No. You're already at war, Hicks. War to extermination. The alien knows
no other mode.

HICKS
Hell, man, we been at war all my life. Near enough, anyway. With her (he
looks down at the Vietnamese commando). With all her brothers and
sisters. That's what got us into this shit in the first place!

BISHOP
But now you've seen the enemy, Hicks. So has she. She's not it. Neither
are you. This is a Darwinian universe, Hicks. Will the alien be the
ultimate survivor?

Hicks doesn't answer. He just looks at Bishop. Bishop goes back to
repairing his circuitry.

CLOSE ON:

Spence's sleeping face and the face of the dying commando.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. SPACE

Approach of a large ship.

The PING of homing radar.

ANGLE ON THE HULL

As it slides past, enormous letters: KANSAS CITY

EXT. SPACE - ANGLE UP

From below Kansas City  as a wide bay opens up.

The interceptor comes into frame and is drawn up into the brightly lit
hold.

The bay closes.

EXT. SPACE

Kansas City. Receding. Gone.

The stars.

FADE OUT

THE END