Alien 3 (1992)

"When they first heard about this thing, it was "crew expendable". The next time they sent in marines... they were expendable too. What makes you think they're gonna care about a bunch of lifers who found God at the ass-end of space?"

- Ellen Ripley

Alien³ is a 1992 science fiction horror film. It is the third installment in the Alien franchise and the debut of director David Fincher. It is a sequel to James Cameron's Aliens, itself a sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, the original film.

Plot
Following the events on LV-426, the Sulaco experiences an onboard fire and ejects Ripley, Newt, Corporal Hicks and the damaged android Bishop, who are all in cryonic stasis, in an escape pod. During the launch, the ship's medical scans of the crew's cryotubes show a Facehugger attached to one of the crewmembers. The pod crash-lands on Fiorina "Fury" 161, a foundry facility and penal colony inhabited by all-male inmates with "double-Y" chromosome patterns. After some inmates recover the pod and its passengers, a Facehugger is seen approaching Spike, the prison's guard dog. Ripley is taken in and awakened by Clemens, the prison's doctor and is told she is the only survivor of the crash. Many of the ex-inmates have embraced an apocalyptic, millenarian religion which forbids sexual relations, and Ripley is warned by the prison warden, Superintendent Andrews, that her presence among them may have extremely disruptive effects.

Ripley begins to suspect a Xenomorph may have played a part in her arrival on Fiorina 161 and requests that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt, but conceals the true nature of her concerns from him, claiming she is infected with a contagious strain of cholera. Despite protests from the warden and his assistant, Aaron, the autopsy is conducted and Ripley's fears that Newt may be carrying a Xenomorph embryo in her body turn out to be unfounded. Clemens also proclaims she simply drowned in the crash. Meanwhile, Ripley's casual mingling with the prisoners begins to frustrate the warden and agitate the inmates.

A funeral is performed for Newt and Hicks in which their bodies are cremated in the facility's furnace. Meanwhile, Spike suffers convulsions and a new species of Xenomorph known as the Dragon erupts from the dog's body. The Dragon soon begins a killing spree, slaying several members and returning an outcast prisoner Golic to his former psychopathic state. Ripley finds the damaged Bishop in the prison's garbage dump, but just as she is leaving the area, she is cornered by four inmates and attacked, but inmate leader Dillon intervenes and beats the others with a crowbar and Ripley punches the last man in the face. Seeking answers, Ripley returns and reactivates Bishop, who confirms that there was indeed a Xenomorph lifeform on the Sulaco and that it came with them to Fiorina in the escape pod. She informs Andrews of her previous encounters with the Xenomorphs and suggests they will work together to hunt it down and kill it. Andrews rejects her story, blaming the deaths instead on the unrest amongst the inmates, and explains that the facility has no weapons. He also reveals that a rescue ship has been sent for Ripley by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

Back in the prison infirmary, Clemens is killed by the Dragon and it intends to kill Ripley, but mysteriously spares her. She runs to the mess hall to warn the others, only to see the Dragon murder Andrews. Ripley rallies the inmates and proposes they pour highly flammable toxic waste, which is stored at the facility, into the ventilation system and ignite it to flush out the creature. The prisoners reluctantly agree to the plan, but the mixture is ignited prematurely by the creature's intervention, resulting in the deaths of many humans.

Suffering from pain in her chest and fearing internal injuries, Ripley scans herself with the medical equipment on board the Sulaco's escape pod and discovers the embryo of a Xenomorph Queen growing inside her. She also discovers that Weyland-Yutani intend to capture the Queen embryo and the Dragon, hoping to use them as biological weapons. Deducing that the mature Dragon will not kill her because of the embryo she carries, Ripley begs Dillon to kill her, who agrees to do so only if she helps the inmates kill the adult creature first. They form a plan to lure it into the foundry's lead works facility using themselves as bait, where the monster can be drowned in molten lead. The bait-and-chase plan results in the deaths of all the remaining prisoners except Dillon and Morse. Dillon remains in the mold and allows himself to be killed by the alien as Morse pours the molten lead onto them. However, the Dragon, covered in molten metal, survives and escapes the mold, but Ripley finally kills it by turning on the fire sprinklers and sprays the beast with water, causing it to explode.

Suddenly, the Weyland-Yutani team arrive and are met by Aaron. They go to the lead works and the team's unnamed leader, who looks identical to the Bishop android, introduces himself to Ripley and claims to be the android's creator, sent to show Ripley a familiar face. He tries to persuade Ripley to undergo surgery to remove the Queen embryo, which he claims will be destroyed. Ripley refuses and steps back onto a mobile platform, which Morse positions over the furnace. The company soldiers shoot Morse in the leg, while Aaron clubs the team's leader over the head with a large wrench, believing him to be an android. The soldiers shoot Aaron dead, while their leader reveals his true intentions — to recover the Xenomorph specimen inside Ripley. Ripley defies them by hurling herself into the gigantic furnace, just as the Queen erupts from her chest. As she dies, Ripley grabs the creature and holds it to her to ensure it enters the fire with her.

Following the failure of Weyland-Yutani's mission and the death of all but one of the prison's inhabitants, the facility is closed down and the sole surviving inmate, Morse, is led away. On board the Sulaco's escape pod, Ripley's closing distress call plays one final time.

Production
Alien 3 had a difficult production, with various screenwriters and directors getting involved in the project, and shooting began without a finished script. The film was the big-budget debut of a young David Fincher, who was brought into the project after a proposed version with Vincent Ward at the helm was cancelled well into pre-production. Fincher had little time to prepare and the experience of making the film proved agonizing for him. Besides the need to shoot and rewrite the script simultaneously while fitting in sets, that had already been built, filming was also plagued by incessant creative interference from studio executives, who overruled many of Fincher's decisions and dictated a large part of production. Adding to Fincher's burdens was the pressure to create a film worthy of the previous two and their revered directors. Upon completion, the studio dismantled and reworked the film without Fincher's consent, including a teaser trailer, that suggested the film would take place on Earth. Fincher has since disowned the film, citing the aforementioned reasons. A heavily-revised version of the film, known as the Assembly Cut, was released in 2003, which Fincher refused to be involved with.

Reception
The film was released to mixed reviews, and is generally considered the most divisive entry in the series. In recent years, however, Alien 3 has built up a reputation as a cult classic among certain critics and audiences and the extended Assembly Cut, first released as part of the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set in 2003, has also received generally favorable reviews.

While under-performing at the United States box office, it earned over $100 million outside of North America and was considered a financial success. The Visual Effects were nominated for an Academy Award, losing to Death Becomes Her. The film was also nominated for seven Saturn Awards and a Hugo Award.