35 Bits of Trivia About the ‘Alien’ Franchise That Are Not Bad — For a Human

Ridley Scott was actually fifth in line to direct ‘Alien’
35 Bits of Trivia About the ‘Alien’ Franchise That Are Not Bad — For a Human

If you’re in need of a good face hug, this franchise isn’t for you. It’s such a lovely term, but man did they take it to a terrifying new place. We envisioned a loved one holding our heads and whispering, “Everything is going to be okay.”

Well, the facehugger in Alien didn’t hold us and whisper sweet nothings. As a matter of fact, none of these horrifying little tidbits about the Alien franchise did either!

Producer Battles

Ridley Scott and the producers of Alien had some disagreements about the scene where Harry Dean Stanton's character Brett gets taken out by the Xenomorph. The producers didn't understand why chains would be dangling or why water would be pouring on the ship, but Scott wanted the adidas effects for movement in the scene, and foughtforit. CRACKED.COM

Fifth in Line

Ridley Scott was fifth in line to direct Alien. Scott was about to start working on Tristan and Isolde, but after seeing George Lucas's Star Wars, he felt he needed to do something different. Then the script of Alienlanded on his table. CRACKED.COM

John Hurt

John Hurt and Veronica Cartwright thought they were being poisoned when their Alien spacesuits malfunctioned. While filming the exterior shots of the planetoid, the tubes on their suits broke, causing an aerosol leak into their helmets. CRACKED.COM

Smoke Effect

Every set in Alien was filled with a thin layer of smoke to create atmosphere. The smoke was evenly distributed SO as not to be overly obvious. Scott did it because he wanted to capture the mood of H.R. Giger's artwork for the film. CRACKED.COM

Sigorney Weaver

Sigorney Weaver came up with the idea to sing You Are My Lucky Star. Ridley Scott said it was a nightmare getting the rights to use the song in the movie. CRACKED.COM

Al Matthews

Aliens (1986) AI Matthews, who played Sergeant Apone, helped train the Colony Marines on set. Matthews was a real Vietnam vet with 13 combat awards, making him in charge of training the British and American actors who formed the Marines. The main thing I had to teach those guys was never point a weapon at somebody, and never walk around with your finger on the trigger. We use blanks, but they can do some damage. CRACKED COM

Colette Hiller

Aliens (1986) Colette Hiller, who played Corporal Ferro, was not happy about having to cut her hair. They told me, 'It's okay, look at Jenette!' and I just bawled...I was going to get married shortly afterwards so I made them buy me a long, blonde wig! I don't know what came over me! I never actually wore it. CRACKED.COM

James Cameron (Again)

Aliens (1986) James Cameron didn't care for his English crew's tea trolley tradition. Twice daily, an old lady would bring the crew their union-mandated tea on set. Cameron saw it as losing time, and would simply grab a camera and go film something on his own, much to the annoyance of the crew. CRACKED.COM

The Sulaco Ship

Aliens (1986) The Sulaco ship was originally shaped like a sphere with antennas. ever AKEC 3232 The problem was that it had to move past the camera, and the huge sphere wouldn't have worked with the film's aspect ratio, so designer Syd Mead ended up making it a flatter, slab-like shape. GRACKED.COM

James Remar (Again)

Aliens (1986) Before James Remar was fired, he accidentally blew a hole in the set of Little Shop of Horrors. The Frank Oz production was filming on a stage adjacent to the Aliens set, and while practicing with a shotgun, Remar caused a bit of damage. CRACKED.COM

Golic

Alien3 (1992) Golic's character was severely cut from the moving thanks to a test screening. In the original cut, Golic (played by Paul McGann) released the beast after it was captured by the inmates. What happened was a test screening audience of 18-year-old kids in Long Beach, California decided that they weren't interested in what happened to Golic. They weren't interested in what he gave the movie. CRACKED.COM

Renny Harlin

Alien3 (1992) Renny Harlin was originally going to direct the third installment. After seeing his work on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Harlin was brought on to direct an Alien movie that would've seen Ripley travel to the Alien home planet. The concept was deemed too expensive, and Harlin eventually quit to direct Die Hard 2 instead. CRACKED.COM

David Fincher (Again)

Alien3 (1992) Director David Fincher clashed with producers, thanks to his on-set perfectionism and the studio's constant meddling. Fincher insisted on shooting in certain light and weather conditions exclusively, and rebelled against the studio's rushed schedule by saying they should shoot a large number of takes of a head exploding. Producer Ezra Swerdlow once said: I'll never forget Dave's complete devotion to the color of blood. CRACKED.COM

Sets

Alien3 (1992) Sets were being built even before the script was finalized. Said producer Jon Landau: The movie got greenlit based on a whole different version of the script. And David had to deal with that in a very short period of time. Не had to design the alien, design the sets, and he had to write the script, all the way into the depths of production. CRACKED.COM

Studio Battles

Ridley Scott had to fight the studio to use the work of surrealist painter H.R. Giger in Alien. Giger, who designed all the aliens in the movie, almost didn't make the cut because the studio thought his work was too obscene. Scott got into a fight with the studio: I said, are you kidding me? Obscene is good! We're doing an R rated movie. I want to make you uncomfortable, apart from the fact that it's scarier than shit. CRACKED COM

Ridley Scott

When Ridley Scott pitched to direct Alien, he referenced a lot of cult classics. Не wanted it to be the most straight-forward, unpretentious, riveting thriller like Psycho or Rosemary's Baby or even the most brilliant B-level like Night of the Living Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, butl want it to look, and I'm going to do this, like 2001. CRACKED.COM

Roger Daltrey

Roger Daltrey from The Who helped with the lightning. The singer and his crew were experimenting with laser beams pretty close to the studio where Alien was filmed, SO Ridley Scott borrowed their equipment to create the electric blue lighting in the resting place of the facehuggers. CRACKED.COM

The Facehugger

The Facehugger was originally going to be painted green. When Dan O'Bannon saw the natural-colored tone of the thing on set, he insisted they leave it unpainted. CRACKED.COM

H.R. Giger

Dutch customs officials gave H.R. Giger grief because they thought his artwork for Alien was actual photographs. Where on Earth did they think I could have photographed my subjects? In hell, perhaps? CRACKED.COM

The Inside of Ash

The inside of Ash was made of pasta, caviar, milk, and marbles. It didn't help that lan Holm, who played Ash in Alien, hated milk. GRACKED.COM

Jones the Cat

A German Shepherd got Jones the Cat to hiss on the Alien set. Director Ridley Scott flashed a German Shepherd in the cat's sight to get those hissing reactions. CRACKED.COM

Fainting Actors

Alien actors were often fainting on set. The fake spacesuits got so hot on set, and the fact that they filmed in summer didn't help either. Actors were passing out so regularly that they got a nurse with an oxygen tank to be on standby. The crew eventually adjusted the costumes. CRACKED.COM

James Remar

Aliens (1986) James Remar was initially cast as Corporal Dwayne Hicks. At the time, Remar said he had to leave the film due to family matters, but in later years he revealed that he was actually struggling with a drug addiction. Не was fired from the movie after being busted for possession. CRACKED.COM

Ricco Ross

Aliens (1986) Ricco Ross, who played Private Frost, had to choose between Aliens and Full Metal Jacket. Initially, Ross was going to do Full Metal Jacket, but the schedule would overlap Aliens with a week, and Kubrick was notorious for going over schedule. James Cameron let Ross read the script for Aliens (something Kubrick didn't allow for Full Metal Jacket-the actors only got their pages), and it sealed the deal. CRACKED.COM

Rob Cobb

Aliens (1986) Artist and designer Rob Cobb wanted the colony to resemble the scientific bases in Antarctica. Cobb explained that the open and exposed spread of Hadley's Hope didn't really make sense given the weather on the exomoon, but they decided to choose aesthetics over detailed accuracy. CRACKED.COM

William Hope

Aliens (1986) Actor William Hope got a lot of flak for playing Lieutenant Gorman. A friend of mine did two tours in Vietnam, and he was furious. Не saw the movie and said, 'You call yourself a fuckin' Marine?!' But my passion is acting. I couldn't care less about that American obsession with looking good. CRACKED.COM

The Alien Queen

Aliens (1986) The Alien Queen was based on one of James Cameron's paintings. The director says he took inspiration from H.R. Giger's work. I took the biomechanoid concept, which was very phallic in the creature created for Alien, and turned it around and tried to make it female. So, I gave her very long, elegant tapering legs and almost a kind of high-heel look, and then she turned into this creature that was hideous and yet somehow beautiful. CRACKED.COM

Bishop

Aliens (1986) Bishop was almost scarier than the Alien. Actor Lance Henriksen, who played Bishop, explained: I thought maybe when Bishop got alerted to something, two pupils would appear in his eyes, and I had some contact lenses made up. When Jim saw the dailies he said, 'Jesus, we can't use that. You're more frightening than the Alien!' CRACKED.COM

The Queen

Aliens (1986) The Alien Queen was originally going to be stop motion. Due to time constraints, they had to build the biggest marionette in motion picture history using rod puppets, hydraulics, radio controls, and wires. Miniatures of the queen and Ripley in the Power Loader were also used during the big final battle scene. CRACKED.COM

James Cameron

Aliens (1986) The Terminator script was responsible for James Cameron coming on board. While searching for a writer to do the sequel, development executive Larry Wilson came across Cameron's script, and couldn't put it down. It was electrifying. I put the script on David's (Giler) desk and said, 'This is the guy. GRACKED.COM-

The Final Ending of Alien3

Alien3 (1992) The final ending was shot four days before the premiere. As much as he tried, Fincher wasn't happy with it. I said 'whatever happens she has to be in peace at the end.' It has to be a sigh rather than gritting teeth and sweat. So we talked about it and went over and shot this blue-screen element. We were shooting that shot four days before the film opened, a completely ridiculous mess. I don't know if it works. CRACKED.COM

The Alien That Came Out of Ripley

Alien3 (1992) Fincher never wanted the Alien to come out of Ripley in the end. Не was forced to reshoot the scene after Terminator 2 came out with a similar ending. I never felt it was necessary to show the creature. I was very much against this and dragged my feet and said 'I don't believe in it, I don't think it's important to see the monster but if we're going to do this we're going to have to do something that has a little bit of top spin to it, something else going for it. CRACKED.COM

Alien3 Memes

Alien3-(1992) The famous scene that spawned a meme was done with just the Xenomorph's head. Tom Woodruff Jr., who played the creature in a suit, said that while filming the scene he struggled to keep his distance from Weaver because he could only see out from the neck of the suit. Fincher told him to rather remove the head and stand next to Weaver outside of the shot, and let the puppeteers control the jaw and tongue mechanics. CRACKED.COM

David Fincher

Alien3 (1992) Ridley Scott visited the set, much to the delight of fanboy David Fincher. Lewer The two shared a moment of mutual grievance. Ridley asked how it was going and I said 'Really bad' and he said, 'It never goes well, this is not the way to make movies, make sure you make a little film where you have some control while they're beating you up.' And all he did was tell me he still hasn't seen a dime from the first Alien. CRACKED.COM

Killing Off Ripley

Alien3 (1992) Sigourney Weaver insisted they kill off Ripley. Weaver said that when she heard about the studio's plan to do Alien VS. Predator it depressed her, and she wanted out. She claims that it's the same reason Ridley Scott didn't return for Alien 3. CRACKED.COM

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