Alien: ResurrectionEven death isn't the end. Two hundred years after the fatal conclusion of Alien 3, the shadow of the xenomorph is cast once again over the human race, contrary to the most dedicated sacrifice of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Ultimately, she opted to kill herself rather than let the evil species fall into the hands of the immoral Weyland-Yutani company, whose efforts to obtain the alien for their bioweapons division were thwarted by her resistance again and again. But the legend remained, and with it, the desire in like-minded individuals--mad scientists and power hungry generals--to raise up that terrible specter of death once again.
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In Alien: Resurrection, Ripley is cloned from blood samples ostensibly taken during her brief stay on Fiorina "Fury" 161 (called "16" in this film), when she was host to what turned out to be a queen alien embryo. The scientists who have tried again and again to perfect their genetic experiment--this clone is, it turns out, the eighth iteration--have done so because they wish to surgically remove the alien from her, for reasons not much different than the (now defunct) company's ambitions. The idea that cloning Ripley not only allows her to retain a significant portion of her memories, but also reproduce the presence of the alien embryo within her suggests more about the nature of cloning than of aliens even. Effectively, the implication is that memories are genetic material, and that the xenomorph is more than just a parasite, it is also a mutation, a bit like cancer, bonded deep within the DNA of the victim...a fundamental redefinition of the alien. The result of this mutation on Ripley gives her a psychic link with the aliens, and other characteristics we can associate with them: heightened senses, superior strength, even acidic blood. This is a Ripley unlike what we have been exposed to in the preceding Alien films, one who carries herself with an easy confidence and maybe a bit of a cruel streak. This Ripley feels unsettling, her mannerisms modeled after the xenomorph, with slight tilts of the head and other animal-like behavior, the manifestation of the genetic experimentation performed on her. Ripley rightly observes to these callow scientists--unprepared to deal with the evil they have dug up from the depths of Hades--that they will all die; it is their hubris which is their greatest shortcoming, believing that they can domesticate the alien, conjuring up whatever ideal to justify their twisted experiments.
The scientists also attempt to domesticate their clone of Ripley, believing that they too can control her, use her like any tool, convinced in their arrogance that they are superior, comfortable at the top of the food chain. The film is called "resurrection", carrying biblical import; these scientists attempt to play God by cheating death and fabricating life and they fail because they meddle in things they do not understand, and cannot control what they have wrought. This feeling is mirrored in Call (Winona Ryder), a young adventurer and scrapper with a hidden agenda stowing away aboard "The Betty". Her captain, Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), has brought a hijacked collection of samples to facilitate the alien research for the unscrupulous General Perez (Dan Hedaya). Elgyn and most of his crew supposedly know little of the horrors awaiting the unwitting sleepers, but Call knows enough to warrant her seeking Ripley out independently, sparking a showdown and firefight which unleashes chaos across the USM Auriga. Call also hides a secret about herself which reveals her to have a lot more in common with Ripley than initially suspected, a secret which also stirs some seated animosity in Ripley, but one which quickly gives way to a sense of kinship between these two women. The Betty's crew bears some superficial similarities to that of the Nostromo and the Sulaco. In the case of the Nostromo, it is clear that these people are just trying to make a living--even if it requires more unsavory tasks in transporting "precious cargo"; the crew has enough boisterousness (and even firepower) for them to bear no small resemblance to the proud colonial marines of the Sulaco. Call is, in some ways, a surrogate for Ripley, a member of the crew like Ripley was on the Nostromo, a tough girl getting by among the grimiest of galaxies; but Ripley takes to her, in part out of a renewed (if warped) sense of motherhood. As Ripley and company make their way through the passages of the Auriga, she discovers the horrifying extent of the experimentation, while her connection to the xenomorphs fosters an uncomfortable sympathy with the creatures. She seems to be the perfect amalgam of the two species' genetic makeup; is it any coincidence then that her numeric designation--the number "8"--shares a resemblance with the symbol for "infinity"?
Recommended for: Fans of a science fiction story about the terrifying aliens from the Alien series, one that also raises questions about the nature of genetics, of memory, of living on beyond death in our cells. And there is the constant that mad scientists are always bad.
The scientists also attempt to domesticate their clone of Ripley, believing that they too can control her, use her like any tool, convinced in their arrogance that they are superior, comfortable at the top of the food chain. The film is called "resurrection", carrying biblical import; these scientists attempt to play God by cheating death and fabricating life and they fail because they meddle in things they do not understand, and cannot control what they have wrought. This feeling is mirrored in Call (Winona Ryder), a young adventurer and scrapper with a hidden agenda stowing away aboard "The Betty". Her captain, Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), has brought a hijacked collection of samples to facilitate the alien research for the unscrupulous General Perez (Dan Hedaya). Elgyn and most of his crew supposedly know little of the horrors awaiting the unwitting sleepers, but Call knows enough to warrant her seeking Ripley out independently, sparking a showdown and firefight which unleashes chaos across the USM Auriga. Call also hides a secret about herself which reveals her to have a lot more in common with Ripley than initially suspected, a secret which also stirs some seated animosity in Ripley, but one which quickly gives way to a sense of kinship between these two women. The Betty's crew bears some superficial similarities to that of the Nostromo and the Sulaco. In the case of the Nostromo, it is clear that these people are just trying to make a living--even if it requires more unsavory tasks in transporting "precious cargo"; the crew has enough boisterousness (and even firepower) for them to bear no small resemblance to the proud colonial marines of the Sulaco. Call is, in some ways, a surrogate for Ripley, a member of the crew like Ripley was on the Nostromo, a tough girl getting by among the grimiest of galaxies; but Ripley takes to her, in part out of a renewed (if warped) sense of motherhood. As Ripley and company make their way through the passages of the Auriga, she discovers the horrifying extent of the experimentation, while her connection to the xenomorphs fosters an uncomfortable sympathy with the creatures. She seems to be the perfect amalgam of the two species' genetic makeup; is it any coincidence then that her numeric designation--the number "8"--shares a resemblance with the symbol for "infinity"?
Recommended for: Fans of a science fiction story about the terrifying aliens from the Alien series, one that also raises questions about the nature of genetics, of memory, of living on beyond death in our cells. And there is the constant that mad scientists are always bad.