Alien: One More Surprise Ending

Leading from
Alien: Making the Movie  

a) This is not where the story ends
The film was meant to be over when she goes inside the escape shuttle, takes off, signs off and even with the big bang behind her, that was sound and mixing between three cards and a wobbly camera and he was supposed to sign off there. Ridley felt he simply couldn't end the film here "No way, you can't do that, you canna possibly end there"

b) O'Bannon's original ending
Originally Dan O'Bannon had included an ending in the script where the alien was going to be blown out of the Narcissus with Ripley trailing after it. Ridley felt that it was an outrageous ending but he thought it was wonderful. He thought it had to happen but only if it could be done believably real, in a way that it was so outrageous that it would make you want to cheer and clap

c) Ridley's plan
So the actual end of the movie almost never got made, and there are a few stories about what would have been there right at the end. But Ridley's thoughts went with reintroducing as much of O'Bannon's ending as possible in a way where Ridley would close the lid on the story and then let it out again so that when Ripley goes into that shuttle, there's a moment when the audience knows that the film isn't over when you're sitting in the seat.

d) Fourth Act filmed in Four days
He told the the studio bosses "I wanna spend X to give you a fourth act. "

They replied "How much? 

He added "it'll take us four days"...  

They replied "Four Days!" 

Ridley responded "you really don't even know what I'm going to do yet, let me explain to you what I'm going to do, then you'll go "how can you do that in four days?" as opposed to "four days!" 
We're not finishing the film when she jumps in the shuttle, there's a fourth act,"

They said "what do you mean, the film's over when she jumps in the shuttle and takes off and bingo!"

But Ridley's next response was "no, there's a fourth act in there that will change the way films are made"

e) See also: The Creature In The Wall

Source Quotes 

1. Fantastic Film: The original ending was different. Can you explain it for us?Ridley Scott: The alien was going to be blown out the door of the Narcissus with Ripley trailing after it. It was an outrageous ending, but I thought it was wonderful. I thought it had to happen, but only if it could be believably done that it would be real. It had to become so openly outrageous that it wouldmake you want to cheer or clap (interview from Fantastic Films as  Reproduced in "Ridley Scott: interviews")
   
2. (1:38: 19 /1:41:50) Ridley Scott: Now the film was meant to be over when she goes inside, ah, you take off, you do the signing off. Now clearly you can not end the film (1:42:00) here, even with a big bang behind her. And you know, the big bang's then are not the big bangs we could do today, but you know what, today it'd be CGI, this is all real inside the... inside the studio on the set which is you know, only firewood. Okay so this is all design as the end of the movie. So there's a one megaton thing going to go off in a second, and graphic design, interesting uh. Just a flat card , nothing happening, (01:39:00) it's just the sound and mixing between three cards, and I figure you've got to have two or three, but this, I've go... I've got the wobbling down now pretty good. Nobody's really wobbled the camera 'til this moment you know I remember til that, so I'm literally wobbling the camera. Bit unsure about the red ball. (1:43:00) And score. Now, this would be the end of the film. But that.. that's it, you would do a signing off there, and I had to say "no way, you can't do that, you canna possibly end there"
   
   Here we made it for 8.6, which even in those days was cheap
   
   (1:39:41 / 1:43:30) Sigourney Weaver: I didn't know that, I thought it was $14
   
   (1:39:43 / 1:43:32) Ridley Scott: 8.6
   
   (1:39:44 / 1:43:30) Sigourney: Aah, Wow!
   
   (1:39:45 / 1:43:32) Ridley Scott: Yeah, So at the end I said "I wanna spend X to give you a fourth act. "
   "How much? 
   And I said well, "it'll take us four days"...  
   "Four Days!" 
   I said "you really don't even know what I'm going to do yet," so I said, "let me explain to you what I'm going to do, then you'll go "how can you do that in four days?" as opposed to "four days!"(01:40:00). I said "we're not finishing the film when she jumps in the shuttle, there's a fourth act," And they said, "what do you mean, the film's over when she jumps in the shuttle and takes off and bingo!"
   I said "no, there's a fourth act in there that will change the way films are made" because at at , I think until this moment, it's almost fair to say, there's probably going to be some small independent film saying to me "you know, you're full of bull", but you know, today we've got an interesting idea of "now, the end, then the end and then the end, and by the way here's the other end", right and I always wanted to close the lid and then suddenly let it out again, babbam, okay. So when Ripley goes into that shuttle, there's a moment when you know that the film isn't over where.. when you're sitting in the seat.(alien anthology/quadrilogy A;ien commentary)
    

Alien: Life cycle of the alien

leading from

Ridley Scott's Alien Monster

a) Short Lifecycle
Ridley went along wth the idea that alien creature has a limited lifespan like that of the life cycle like that of a butterfly or an insect. He wanted it to have a sort of timelessness. The thing that came out of the egg, the Face Hugger which was also known the "perambulatory penis", is the father. It is an abstract entity, in a sense, because all it does is plant a seed, and once having conceived, it dies.
Once it jumps out of the egg, it has to reproduce and spread as fast as possible, maybe in a cycle of perhaps only four days

b) Genetic traits
The alien creature lived to reproduce and so what the next generation would be doing would reflect that.

Once the derelict and the silo had been merged together the scenario was that a Space Jockey was infected and the spores in the basement of the derelict were what became of the other crew of the derelict.

However perhaps the idea of what the alien life form was doing as a concept was still evolving. One concept that Ridley talked about was that the next generation that followed the Face Hugger was the result was a combination of the original creature and whatever host it uses.

Ridley also talked about how the next generation took on the characteristics of its last inhabitant and its new host, so in effect, the creature known as Kane's son had the space jockey as a grandparent and took on some of its features. The host is in effect the mother even if it is a male

So in that way,  if the Face Hugger had hit the cat, it would have been a hybrid of the Space Jockey and the cat, if it could have been a dog, there would be a dog version of the alien. If it impregnates a man, the you get a man version of an Alien. Eventually the idea became that the space jockey was the pilot of a vessel that had been carrying the spores in its hold since the start of the journey.

c) A further dimension to the beast
And so Gordon Carrol and Ridley talked about it many times, should they indicated that the alien has intelligence , perhaps even great intelligence. Was it just a sort of a time bomb or even just a war machine?

Perhaps it was another form of society adjusting itself like ants, and as Ridley understood, ants had no sense of beginning or end, which goes back to his idea about the alien having a sort of timelessness.

Perhaps they were just born, run around doing this thing like everybody else in the community and then dies, and Ridley thought that this may have been the alien, and if that is so, then the alien had no intelligence except pure intuition about survival.

But there was the added question of what would you have if you're given the fact that this creature that's making use of a man's brain capacity.

Ants

d)  Getting on with its lifecycle
This idea helped explain why the Alien didn't attack Ripley in the Narcissus, when Ripley kills it, the idea was that it would have died anyway.

Like a chameleon, it had found a protective corner in that ship and was working itself in there to die. It has to be provoked to attack because it had to get on with its life cycle.

Slime emanated from its body as if it were sealing itself in again like a cocoon, and perhaps it was transforming into a chrysalis, it's physical volume would decrease and it would transform into an egg and hibernate again.

This might seem to be a strange direction of thought because when humans become spores, Ridley talked about them being eaten away by the alien young and so grows the spore.

Does this mean the alien becomes consumed by its own biology in a similar way?

e) See also: The Creature In The Wall

f) See also: Human to Spore

Source Quote

1. Ridley Scott: The thing that I was always frustrated about was the absence of sense of smell with the beast. It's a real element with him, because his odor must have been incredibly powerful. I wanted a sense of a timeless, slightly decaying creature that, maybe, only has a limited life cycle of, maybe, four days like an insect. The alien life form lived to reproduce and in reproducing took on the characteristics of its last inhabitant and its new host. Thus the alien on board the Nostromo had the characteristics of the space jockey on the derelict and Kane. If the facehugger had hit the cat, it could have been a hybrid of the space jockey and the cat. When Ripley blasts off from the Nostromo with the alien aboard, it's dying which is why it moves so slowly. She kills it, but it would have died soon anyway. It's like a butterfly (Fantastic Films #12, "Alien from the inside out", An exclusive interview with the Director of Alien, Ridley Scott, part two by James Delson p30)
2. Ridley Scott: A way of explaining what had happened on the derelict [spaceship] and what was now happening on the NOSTROMO. And I think it provided some explanation for the Alien's killing spree -- like a butterfly or an insect, it has a limited lifespan in which to reproduce itself.  It also helped explain why it didn't attack Ripley in the Narcissus.  It's days were over.  Like a chameleon, it had found a protective corner in that ship and was working itself in there to die. ("Creating an Alien Ambience", Alien : The Special Effects)
3. Ridley Scott: I want to show that the Alien has a limited life cycle, like a butterfly.  And within that period of time once it decides to expose itself - to coin a phrase - once it jumps out of the egg, it has to reproduce and spread fast as possible, maybe in a cycle of only days.  And so in the last sequence, you see slime emanating from the big Alien's body because we're trying to convey that maybe he's sealing himself in again, like a cocoon.  Also, by that point, he has to be provoked to attack, because he has to get on with his life cycle. (Book of Alien, by Scanlon and Gross)
4. Ridley Scott: So whatever it impregnated, it could have been a dog and you would have had a dog version of alien. Impregnated with a man you get a man version of Alien. Which therefore maybe is even more lethal particularly if you’re picking up on man’s brain capacity as well. Because we never could work out…Gordon Carrol and I talked about this many times, you know, should we indicate the alien has intelligence. Or great intelligence. Or is it just a time bomb, just a time bomb, is it just a war machine? You know,…are those eggs simply war machines or are they ways of…another form of society adjusting itself like ants really…ants have…I think ants have no sense of beginning or end. They just are born, run around doing this thing like everybody else in the community and die. And I think that may have been the alien. So maybe the alien had no intelligence except pure intuition about survival. Right?  ( report from the interview with Ridley Scott carried out for the Alien Evolution documentary, 2001)
5. Ridley Scott:  Je voulais que l'extra-terrestre change continuellement de forme. Quand il apparaît dans les machines vers la fin, il pourrait très bien être en train de mourir, terminant là son  cycle de vie très limité, peut-être même se métamorphosant en chrysalide de telle sorte que son volume physique diminue afin qu'il puisse revenir sous forme d'un œuf et hiberner à nouveau. Translation: I wanted that the alien continually changes shape. When it appears in the machines at the end, it could very well be dying, finishing there its very limited life cycle, maybe even metamorphosing into a chrysalis so that its physical volume decreases so that it could return in the form of an egg and hibernate again. (L'Ecran fantastique # 11, p12)
6. Ridley Scott: Je voulais qu’Alien possédât au plus haut point cette force sexuelle. A un moment, dans le film, il apparaît si mince, si élégant, qu’il en devient presque trop humain. Mais, c’est normal; si la substance de l’œuf s’était répandue sur un chien, Alien aurait ressemblé à un chien. Dans le cas présent,  sa “mère“, c’est bien le personnage joué par John Hurt, il est donc logique qu’il ressemble à un homme. Translation: I wanted that ALIEN possessed the highest point this sexual force. At one point in the film , it seems so slim, so elegant, that it becomes almost too human. But this is normal ; if the substance of the egg had spread on a dog , Alien would have looked like a dog. In this case , his "mother" , it is the character played by John Hurt, so it makes sense that he looks like a man (Telerama n1548 12 septembre 1979)
7. Ridley Scott: The thing that came out of the egg,  - the "perambulatory penis", as we used to call it - is the father. It is an abstact entity, in a sense, because all it does is plant a seed. Once having conceived, it dies and the next generation takes on characteristics of whatever life form it landed on. It could have been a dog, in which case, the Alien would have taken on a dog form. The result is a combination of two elements, the original creature and whatever host it uses. (American Cinematographer, August 1979, p842)
8. Charley Lippincott: A creature that evolves into different shapes, not chameleon like, but like the caterpillar into a butterfly.(Rolling Stone May 31, 1979, p31)

Alien: The Creature In The Wall

Leading from
Alien: Making the Movie  

and
Life Cycle of the Alien 
and

One more surprise ending
and
Bolaji Badejo
and 
October 1978

 

Alien continuity polaroid from blu-ray set

a) One more amazing thing

Originally the alien was to be found in the closet of the escape shuttle that would later be named the Narcissus. Ron Shusett thought that it would be a great moment if it was done right, Ripley would run, get to the safety boat, and its launched, the ship explodes and it's in the escape shuttle with her in the closet, this would have been the payoff.

After Dan O'Bannon had returned to the US, Ron and Ridley were having a chat , perhaps two thirds through the movie production. The command module of the Nostromo as seen in the opening sequence had been economically converted and redressed so that it became the interior of the Narcissus which was the escape pod.

Ridley said to Ron "You know, wouldn't it be great if we had one more surprise because you've got a chestburster, and the robots head coming off. If we could have one more amazing thing in the lifeboat"

In view of the original alien in a closet ending, Ridley said "Can't we beat that?" Then he came up with another idea "She's somewhere, he's somewhere and she is there, but it's with her, can't it be somewhere she and the audience can't see it, it's camouflaged so well, and it just emerges!

"Right, okay, so where's the alien going to be?"

"The roof?",

They agreed "No, that's too easy because people don't look at the roof, it should be hiding in plain sight"

Besides that Ridley had already filmed the scene where the alien comes down like a bat on Brett, and wouldn't have been able to tolerate repeating himself

Ridley's view was " It should be that the audience can see it, but they don't know where they're seeing it."

Ron said "Ridley you're absolutely right"

Ridley replied, "okay, let's work on this"

Ivor asked "What if the alien is like a chameleon, and he's going into another stage? Giger's concept was biomechanoid, so if you front lit the alien, so the audience could see it, that would be an amazing coup. "

Alien continuity polaroid from blu-ray set

Alien continuity polaroid from blu-ray set

Alien continuity polaroid from blu-ray set

b) The creature in the wall
This idea went down well, was further developed, and so Ridley went with this idea because he figured out that like an insect. this biomechanoid alien would go for the cold pipes, and it was like a chameleon,  and it would have the sense was to look around and ask where it was the most safe, and so crawl into a place where it could be the most safe like all chameleons, and a chameleon will lie on the ground and change his colour according to the terrain, and so the alien would integrate itself with the surrounding machinery and the top of its head would be indistinguishable from the surrounding pipes even close to.

By this time, it towards the end of the September, and on the 21st and 22nd, according to the  schedule, they had filmed the scene when Ripley remembers the cat and goes to collect it, heads for the engine room and then heads towards the Narcissus with flame thrower and cat box, hurls the cat box into the corner in the shuttle and then hits the launch button. The alien was originally going to come out of the closet. Now when Ripley blasts off from the Nostromo with the alien aboard, it was dying which is why it moved so slowly. Like a chameleon, it had found a protective corner in the ship and it was working itself in there to die. So while she killed it, it would have died soon anyway.

So with the new idea, there was only one wall in the background that had to be changed , they had the alien hidden in there and they kept redressing it.

c)  Giger's concerns
Ridley started off using the Necronom IV image showing the alien creature with its tail over its head as his model.

Giger had thought that this scene wasn't going to be something that Bolaji Badejo would be happy about because it would surely be very uncomfortable. Giger felt for the situation that the suit performers found themselves in very much since these suits were not very comfortable

They agreed "okay, this is what we'll do, let's have the alien lay down in here longways, he's seven feet tall."

Ridley had drawn a sketch as a guidline, but by Giger's view it showed exactly the opposite of hiding the creature,  but this sketch was executed by six men over the weekend. However when Giger brought it to Ridley's attention by Monday, October 2nd, Ridley didn't want to make a fool of himself and change it any more since this would upset the workers.

Giger made a sketch and asked Ridley for permission to change it his own way, which would mean removing all of the tubes that had been painstakingly attached. However Michael Seymour got mad with Giger, and accused him of creating confusion and told Giger that he should beat it and so they kept on following the wrong track.

Necronom IV

d) Shot by their own arrow
They kept building the wall up so that it looks like the alien, and every night at the end of a days shoot, they would shoot the wall with him in it and see if they could see the alien hidden in there.

For about a week they made fools of themselves because every time they shot it. She was standing there, and they could see in front of her, a foot or two away, the alien

They were saying words such as "it's ridiculous!" and "This is stupid; we’ll never disguise it." . 

They knew that they couldn't chance it, it had to be invisible or they were going to make complete fools out of themselves. If they couldn't get it to work perfectly, they would have to have it come out of the closet again or from the roof and the viewer didn't see see it. But the best thing was to make it work here, and they kept rebuilding it every day and they would sit there for hours. Ridley and Ron would look at the wall separately and Bolaji would sometimes get so tired that he'd go on a coffee break in the monster suit.

Finally they had one version of the wall that they thought might work. They realised this because together Ron and Ridley were looking at it and Ridley said to Ron "Looks good to me, I think once Bolaji gets in there, it's going to be completely invisible. Let's put him in there now and then maybe we'll shoot it"

And so they called him, they yelled for him but to their surprise, he was in the wall next to them. They were shot by their own arrow and virtually jumped a mile

Their response was "God! Jesus, he's there, oh my god, it worked!"

e) Evolution of The Filmed Scene
They got around to shoot it on Wednesday 4th October, Giger painted up another costume for Bolaji to wear and it worked just as it was on the screen. It wasn't any particular person who discovered the solution to the person, it evolved, they figured it out, the set people figured it out. The secret though was the alien creature's head and when someone came up with the idea to put air ducts that were shaped enough like the head, two above it and one below it, and its mouth turned in so it couldn't be seen. When the viewer saw these air ducts, it was full of biomechanical patterns and ribbed pipes, and so on placed there by Ridley himself, and suddenly the first thing that one saw was the arm come out and over. It was as if the alien was behind the pipes but when the viewer looked, they'd find it was inside the pipes as one of the air ducts suddenly one of the air ducts turned and it had a mouth on it and that was that. Giger thought that the effect was enough like one of his biomechanoid paintings, he was very pleased with the way that Ridley did it, but since the scene was very dark, it was not something that Giger could take good photographs of.

Filming the alien hiding in the wall

f) Bolaji in the suit
As they filmed the scene, bursting out of that compartment wasn't easy.  It put a lot of strain on the suit Bolaji must have ripped it two or three times coming out and each time he'd climb down from the bulkhead, the tail would rip off! But it wasn't much of a problem for them, because they had more suits.  He did about fifteen takes of the shit and it got to a point where he finally said "No more!" There was a lot of smoke, it was hard for him to breathe, and it was terribly hot.  But as Sigourney watched Bolaji in his alien suit coming out from between the cooling pipes, she thought it was like seeing something coming out of a chrysalis.

g) See: Sex and the Alien

source quotes

1. HR Giger: The Narcissus, the rescue aircraft of the mother ship Nostromo, which was built up in the C stage, is the reason for R. Scott's visit today. Usually, he stays at home on the weekend. It's about the scene in which Ripley, the sole survivor of the crew, escapes to the rescue aircraft and shortly thereafter discovers Alien III in a tangle of tubes and machinery parts. For this living image, Scott is using the image of the Necronom again with the tail above his head as a model. Poor Bolaji, who is caught inside Alien III, will not be happy about this beautiful, but for him very uncomfortable, scene. (HR Giger's Alien Diaries, Saturday September 30th, 1978)
   
2. HR Giger: Giger causes confusion once again, Alien III is supposed to be integrated into a wall in the Narcissus. After Ridley Scott made a [illegible word] sketch that showed the exact opposite of hiding it, and the entire thing was executed by six men over the weekend. It's impossible, after realizing that he's on the wrong track, to change it again. He didn't want to make a fool of himself and to annoy other workers. I made a sketch showing how I imagined the thing and asked Scott if he'd give me permission to change it my way. That would mean  removing all the tubes that had been painstakingly attached, Michael Seymour got mad and accused me of creating confusion, and that I should beat it. Although everyone present agreed with me, they kept tinkering on the wrong track. They can lick my butt. No on, least of all [...] can ever admit that they made a mistake. (HR Giger's Alien Diaries, Monday, October 2nd, 1978)
3. HR Giger: Painted a new costume for Bolaji, i.e. the arms as well as Watling's mechanized tail.  (HR Giger's Alien Diaries, Wednesday, October 4th, 1978)
4. HR Giger: In the afternoon Bolaji will be filmed as Alien III in the C stage. Bolaji is now built entirely into the wall and garnished with tubes and cables by R. Scott himself. He did it very well. It looks like one of my biomechanoids. Unfortunately the scene is rather dark, which is not exactly conducive to taking photographs. (HR Giger's Alien Diaries, Wednesday, October 4th, 1978)
5. Ridley Scott: When Ripley blasts off from the Nostromo with the alien aboard, it's dying which is why it moves so slowly. She kills it, but it would have died soon anyway. It's like a butterfly. (Fantastic Films)
6. Ridley Scott: .... like a butterfly or an insect, it has a limited lifespan in which to reproduce itself.  It also helped explain why it didn't attack Ripley in the Narcissus.  It's days were over.  Like a chameleon, it had found a protective corner in that ship and was working itself in there to die. ("Creating and Alien Ambience", Alien : The Special Effects)
7. Cinefantastique: Did you ever contribute to the plot or the script of Alien in any way?
   
   Ivor Powell:  I can very discreetly claim some credit for the film's ending. In most forms, the ending of the script had Ripley in the shuttlecraft, leaning in the back of the chair relaxing, when suddenly the alien's hand appears over the back of the chair.. She runs into the locker but the alien gets distracted by the cat box and begins to rip it to shreds. Ridley could never bring himself to film the Alien sequences in the way he had done before. He always resisted that sort of shock effect, where a door opens and there's the alien. When Ridley had the idea of the alien coming down from above like a huge bat, that took the film up another notch for me, and that ending had the same kind of approach.. They both fall out of the airlock, both hanging on a cord,  Ripley scrambling to get in, the alien leaking acid everywhere.  It gets its hand caught in the door as she closes it. You couldn't do that logically - the acid would eat through the airlock.
   
   So I said, what if the alien is like a chameleon, and he's going into another stage. Giger's concept was biomechanoid, so if you front lit the alien, so the audience could see it, that would be an amazing coup. I got team points for that idea, though the tragedy is that so few people realise it's there, amongst the machinery.  (CFQ vol9:1,  p32)
8. Interviewer: what about hiding him in the wall? How did you hid that guy in the wall?
   
   Ridley Scott: I figured he’d go for…like an insect he’d go for either cold pipes, everything was cold, and he…it was like a chameleon. The idea of being a chameleon where he would crawl into, because he’s biomechanoid. So his sense of also being a chameleon was to look around and say where can I, where am I most safe? Like all chameleons. And so a chameleon will lie on the ground and change his colour according to the terrain. And so that was the idea. (Alien Evolution)
9. Ron Shusett: Yeah, there’s a great serendipity that goes with the ending of the movie. We never had the idea when the script was written or even halfway through the filming, that idea was not in the movie that the creature would be disguised as part of the wall. Originally it was in the closet, it was a great classic moment that works if you do it right, where you run, you get to the safety boat, and it gets off, the ship explodes and it’s in the boat with her in the closet. And that would have been good enough we thought for a pay off. But halfway through the movie Ridley and I we’re just talking about it one day, Dan had already gone back, I’d say maybe two thirds of the way through the movie, and Ridley was saying, you know, wouldn’t it be great if we had some kind of a one more surprise because you’ve got the chest-burster, unquestionably the chestburster and the robot’s head coming off and being hooked up were the two most amazing things, if we could have one more amazing thing in the lifeboat and we were thinking yeah, what could it be and the obvious thing was well, she’s somewhere, he’s somewhere and she is there, but it’s there with her and we don’t see it’s camouflaged so well! And we said well where can it be and we thought the roof first, we thought, no, that’s too easy because people don’t look at the roof, it should be hiding in plain sight. It should be that the audience can see it, but they don’t know they’re seeing it. So I said, Ridley you’re absolutely right, he said ok, let’s work on this. Let’s say, and we’d already shot I guess part of this scene, but it was only one wall - the backdrop we had to change. We’d shot a lot of other action in it. And it was gonna come out of the closet. But the one wall, although it was shot, we could change it any way we wanted that one wall, we just had the alien hidden in there, so we kept redressing it.
   We said ok, this is what we’ll do, let’s have the alien lay down in here. Longways, he’s 7 feet tall, I played him, and build and keep building the wall so that it looks a lot like him and every night at the end of shooting, regular shooting, we’ll shoot it. The wall with him in it and see if we can see it. So for about a week we made fools of ourselves cos every time we shot it it was like Mad magazine. She’s standing there, you can see right in front of her, a foot away, is the alien. She’s going hmmmm, all this stuff, you’re saying you boom, it’s ridiculous! So we knew really that we couldn’t chance it it had to be invisible or it was we were complete fools out of ourselves and at the last moment fumbling at the goal line. So we thought it’s a great idea but if we can’t get it to work perfectly we’ll have to have it come out of a closet rather than - or from the roof and you just didn’t look. But the best thing, if we could only make it work here. And we kept rebuilding the wall every day and we would sit in there for hours. And Ridley and I would look at the wall separately and sometimes he’d get so tired he’d go on a coffee break in the monster suit.
   And so we finally had one version of the wall that we thought might work. I’ll tell you why it did later. It worked perfectly, but this is how we found out if worked. So we were looking at it and Ridley said looks good to me, he said I think once he gets in there it’s going to be completely invisible. Let’s put him in there now and then maybe we’ll shoot it. And so we called him. I think Badejo was his name, I forgot the name. Something like that. So we yelled for him and he was in the wall, he was next to us, not, as close to where you are to me now and he just kept right on the wall and we were shot by our own arrow. We’d go oh God! Jesus, he’s there, oh my God, it worked. And sure enough, we shot it and it worked just like you saw it on the screen! He was completely invisible and disguised, even in real life if you were two feet away. And the secret was one thing. I don’t know,  no one person discovered it, it just evolved, we figured it out finally, the set people figured it out. The secret was his head. We put air ducts, shaped like his head, two above it and one below it and his mouth turned in so you didn’t see it. And you saw these air ducts, it was full of these biomechanism things, and you saw this, first thing you saw was the arm come out and over. But you thought he was behind it and he shoved his arm - where is he? He’s back there! But then it was like double twist. And then all of a sudden one air duct turned and it had a mouth on it and that did it. And that was the only way we got it to work.
   Every day we thought we were gonna make fools of ourselves and we were about to give up on the idea until it worked on us in real life and it worked perfectly and that was serendipity. It was some inspired, sometimes the stars are all in the right place. Sometimes you do that and you do it wrong again and that wrecks the end of the movie. Or you never think of that one idea. So that was a mutual contribution creatively of Ridley and I both and the team made it work, they disguised it so well.(Report from the conversation with Ron Shusett for Alien Evolution documentary)
   
10. Wmmvrrvrrmm: Okay, I've got a question, but... in the Alien comic book story, um, at the end there's a scene where the alien has kind of curled up into like a box shape, and um, nobody actually has seen any photographs of it, I wondered if you know anything about it?
    Ivor Powell: No I don't know anything about it, in Alien or anything that happened to a box., no i don't. The only story I know about the alien at the end, we were all standing having converted very economically, the erm the command module of the ship that you see in the very opening sequences, we converted that and redressed it into the Narcissus which is the escape pod, and we were all standing there thinking "right, okay, this is, so where's the alien going to be', and I remember just very timorously saying, "what if it's like a chameleon?" or something like that, and er, it was one of my few good ideas that got actually picked picked up upon on development and so they made the alien basically sort of like integrate itself, because it was biomechanoid, it was part organic, part... that was Giger's thing, so I guess it became part of the machinery, so as it, it wasn't a box, it was actually a chameleon (Alien Q &A, Genesis Cinema, August 23rd 2014))
11. The shuttlecraft sequences at the end of the film were some of the most interesting and difficult shots of Bolaji, and provided most of the useable Alien footage. Climbing into the cramped shuttlecraft bulkhead and then out again for each take put a lot of strain on the suit, which kept splitting. "Bursting out of that compartment wasn't easy" exclaims Bolaji"  I must have ripped the suit two or three times coming out and each time I'd climb down, the tail would rip off! But it wasn't much of a problem for them, because they had more suits. I remember that I had to repeat the action for about fifteen take. Finally, I said "No more!" There was a lot of smoke, it was hard to breathe, and it was terribly hot." (Cinefantastique vol 9, no.1, p30)
12. Ron Shusett: There were two things in that movie that weren’t in the very first script we wrote. During filming we decided that we wanted one more twist. Originally, we thought the alien would be hiding in the closet in the lifeboat [for the surprise ending]. But then Ridley said, ‘Can’t we beat that? Can’t it be somewhere she [Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver] and the audience can’t see it and it just emerges?’ So at the end of shooting every day, we changed the set around the monster. He’d lay in there and we’d rebuild the set over and over. Every time, it looked like Mad magazine – you could see [the alien] was two feet away from her! The guy who played the monster would lay there for hours and hours and we’d shoot it and look at it the next day and say, ‘This is stupid; we’ll never disguise it.’ The trick that really made it work was the [shape of the alien] head. Finally, somebody got the idea, We’ll put an air vent that looks like its head above and below it, so when the hand comes out, it’s not coming from behind anywhere – he’s in the wall. We had just built that. We didn’t know if it worked. So Ridley said, ‘Let’s get the guy back in here.’ We yelled for him – and he was in the wall! We were shot with our own arrow – we jumped a mile! So we filmed it, and it worked perfectly. (http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/09/executing-alien/)
    

Alien: Ash the Robot

Leading from 

Alien: Conceiving the story

Ian Holm as Ash the robot

Having the android idea
a) Giler and Hill conceive the idea,
 b) Ron's approval, c) Dan's disapproval

The Russian Spy Idea

 Development of Ash via Six Million Dollar Man?

Unleashing Human Disguised Androids
i). The Future Eve, ii). Metropolis, iii). Westworld,
iv). The Six Million Dollar Man: Day Of The Robot,
 v). The Million Dollar Man: The Return Of The Robot,
 vi). The Stepford Wives, vii). Maskatron action doll, viii).  FutureWorld

Casting Ian Holm as Ash 

Self Awareness

Industrial Paranoia

The Unraveling of Ash
a). Convulsion , b). Response,  c). Sweating Milk
 d). Do humanoids have sexual urges?, e). Show of Strength, f). The Head

The Robot head speaks

The Incineration of Ash's head

Alien: Having the android idea

Leading from 
Ash the Robot

a) Giler and Hill conceive the idea
Hill and Giler introduced into the story of alien a character who was an android named Ash. They don't actually remember which of them had come up with the idea but it came as a joint decision and a cheap idea.  However as Giler remembered it, Walter Hill said, "I have what I think is a dreadful idea or a really good one. What do you think of this? Suppose , in this part, whack! his head comes off and he's a robot."

Giler replied "Well terrific, let's do that, and we'll put it on a table and  we'll have the head talk."

So they went back and made the subplot work for that, David Giler actually wanted the first words from the robot on the table to the the Kipling poem "If you could keep your head about you."

b) Ron Shusett's approval
Ron Shusett loved the idea and would be eternally thankful to David Giler and Walter Hill for adding that idea. He felt it was the next thing that one needed after the shock and horror of the chestburster scene he thought it was close to being as amazing, and it kept the third act from being a let down.

c) Dan O'Bannons's disapproval 
The general idea of what constitutes a suspense story was an issue of some contention amongst the producers and Dan lost a couple of those battles. There was no Ash in his original script and Giler and Hill added it in his opinion just for the sake of a sub plot because having a single plot was by itself for them inadequate. However Dan thought that Ian Holm gave a brilliant performance and it was brilliantly directed by Ridley but Dan saw nothing so interesting about the revelation that someone was a robot.

 source quotes

1. Fantastic Films: He's not an ordinary robot is he?
   
   David Giler: Walter Hill and I were writing the script - we were working the script and we had invented the subplot of this dodging character. And Hill said,  I have what I think is a dreadful idea or a really good one. What do you think of this? Suppose , in this part, whack!, his head comes off and he's a robot. " Well terrific ," I say, "let's do that. And we'll put it on a table and then we'll have the head talk." So we went back and made the subplot work for that. Actually at one time I wanted the first words from the robot on the table to be the Kipling poem, "If you could keep your head all about you..." (Fantastic Films #13, p60)
2. Ron Shusett: They contributed one thing that was one of the best things in the movie and I will eternally be thankful to them, not only for starting the ball for financing but to contributing this to the movie, what they invented was the robot, that was not in the movie,  but the robot, Ash is a robot and his head comes off, that whole idea and scenario was theirs  (Developing The Story, Alien Quadrilogy DVD) 
3. Ron Shusett: This is Giler and Hill's concept , it's the only thing that wasn't in the orginal script of Dan's and mine and the reason I knew it'd work because you needed something after the chestburster that was at least close to it as amazing and that is this, when the head is knocked off and you don't realise he's a robot and that kept the sec... the third act from being a let down. Oh god, shit, Jesus christ   ( Bluray version of the Alien Quadrilogy commentary at 1:21:10,)
4. Dan O'Bannon: "The general idea of what constitutes a suspense story was an issue of some contention amongst the producers and I lost a couple of those battles. There was no Ash in my original script, they added that, the idea being here that all...all scripts must have a sub plot, simply to have a single plot by itself is inadequate, all stories must have subplots. So they created a subplot. Ian Holm gives a brilliant performance, it's brilliantly directed by Ridley, but if you stop and think about it, if it wasn't in there what difference would it make one way or the other, who gives a rat's ass, so somebody is a robot. (Alien commentary, Quadrilogy, 01:17: 29 - 01:18:29.)
   

Alien : The Development of Ash via Six Million Dollar Man

leading from 
Ash the Robot
and 

The Six Million-Dollar Man tv series

a) As it goes the idea was semi fresh. No one said anything about it but it was basically a reused idea from the Six Million Dollar Man TV series from an episode in 1976 called "The Return of the Robot Maker".

b) Dr Chester Dolenz has created a new robot more advanced than the previous, and this one has been created to look like Oscar Goldman, we see the entity without its face but with exposed circuitry before the face is finally fitted onto the front of the head. Dolenz kidnaps Oscar Goldman at his OSI office and takes him back to his laboratory in a trailer to have all the memories from his brain extracted by a computer. He has placed in his office the android that has already started to take up its role as Oscar Goldman.

c) Dr Chester Dolenz: This robot eats and drinks, I've installed an incinerator to burn up all of the fuels and foods ingested by the body. It blinks and it can even simulate breathing

d) Everything it sees with its eyes, such as documents, it can transmit that to a computer elsewhere. The android almost appears to work as a physical extension to a computer back in Dolenz's trailer.

e) The robot tells Steve Austin that he has to test out the defense system of the Brahmin because a computer says that he is most likely able to break through the defenses, and he requires Steve Austin to divert the attention of the security people while it photographs the Rahman blueprints. The robot maker also wants to eliminate Colonel Steve Austin because he's the only person who could expose the robot as a robot.


f) Steve is brought faced to face with the robot and Oscar Goldman, and with his bionic eye notices a specific detail that shows the difference, the robot and Steve Austin enters a fight with the machine. The battle is ended when the robot is decapitated with a karate chop delivered by Steve Austin. The decapitated head remained inanimate using a fake head and also the real actors head with the rest of his body remaining invisible, the effects look cheap but good enough for television and in Alien, they brought up to a much more superior level in relation to the time. 

g) Oscar Goldman: By the way, out of curiosity, how did you know which one of us was me?

Steve Austin: Very simple Oscar, robots don't sweat when they're nervous.

Oscar Goldman: Hmm! 

h) Indeed Ash the android appeared to be a very much more advanced machine who sweats, but being a milk like fluid it is not the right sort of sweat for a human and once again a giveaway

Ash' Self Awareness

leading from: 

Ash the Robot 

a) Whether Ash knew what itself was.
They wondered whether they should let Ash know that he was a robot or have him programmed to think that he was a human. In this instance Ridley decided that Ash knew that he was a robot and perhaps he has been woken first by the Company and then goes through the theatre of pretending to be human.

b) Fictitious backgrounds
If they had kept that fact that he was a robot from him, there were all kinds of things that they could have done from programming him to know at a certain point, like an emergency, or even putting a complete memory tape in him that would give him a complete background , background involving where he was born parents, schooling, which university he went to,  brothers and the whole thing but kept off the years and so for this reason Ian Holm was given a fictitious background for his character as he thought he was a human being. Ridley didn't really know which year Alien was set in, although 2075 was seen to be when they might have space colonies but they never pinned it down.

source quotes

1. Fantastic Film: What did you give to Ian Holm for Ash?
   Scott :For Ash, I created a fictitious background
   Fantastic Film: : Did he know he was a robot?
   Scott: That was a consideration I had to deal with. There are a number of ways of approaching it, but the possibilities come down to either letting him know or programming him so he thinks he's human. All the space in between was open, but we went with letting him know. If we had decided to keep it from him, there were all kinds of things we could have done, from programming him to know at a certain point, like an emergency, or even putting a complete memory tape in him that would give him a complete background - parents, schooling, brothers, the whole thing
   Fantastic Film:What did Ash know about his past?
   Scott: I told him the university he attended, what he read in, where he was born and so forth, I tried to keep off the years because I didn't quite know what year Alien was set in. Maybe it was about 2075, when we'd have space colonies, but it was never pinned down. We should have colonies by then, and it'll escalate from there.
   Fantastic Film: But Ash definitely knows he's a robot
   Scott: He does in this instance
   Fantastic Film: Did Ian Holm go along with your suggestions?
   Scott: They all did.
   (Fantastic Film #13, Ridley Scott interview pt 2, p28-29) 
2. [Ridley] "and his writers debated whether Ash actually knew he" himself "was a  robot."  "He does in this instance, ' was Scott's conclusion. In fact the director pictured him sitting alone in the Nostromo, sleeplessly awaiting a message from another civilisation. "Or he could have been woken first by The Company.' he speculates, ' then goes through the theatre of pretending to be who he was..." (Alien Vault by Ian Nathan, p75, it's possibly from the authors personal interviews with the director but really the book doesn't go into that sort of detail)