I've heard theres an Extended version and/or directors cut?
I watched the movie the other day and there was a scene I dont remember.
There were many actually , but I think I'd remember this one ....
Right at the end as Ripleys torching the ship , she comes across Dallas , and a couple of others cocooned up on the wall to be hosts.
was that scene always there ?
The coccoon scene was not present in the original 1979 theatrical version.
The Director's Cut version was included as bonus material in the 2003 Alien Quadrology DVD release. From Wikipedia:
"The "Director's Cut" restored roughly four minutes of deleted footage, while cutting about five minutes of other material, leaving it about a minute shorter than the theatrical cut. Many of the changes were minor, such as altered sound effects, while the restored footage included the scene in which Ripley discovers the cocooned Dallas and Brett during her escape of the Nostromo."
I never watched the DC myself, but I am fairly certain the only added scene was the cocoon scene itself. Here it is on YouTube in its entirety:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuTk4Qc7JGI
Checking the length of the video reveals that the sequence is a bit more than 4 minutes long. That covers the added four minutes, and as described above, all the other changes in the film are minor.
Ridley Scott considers the original TC "perfect" and I tend to agree with him, with this one exception - the cocoon scene is great, atmospheric and horrifying, he should have included it. If he simply just moved it to before Ripley activates the self-destruct sequence, the pacing issue would have been solved - and witnessing this horrific tableau would have given Ripley extra motivation to destroy the ship (apart from killing the alien, she is actively avoding the scenario of an alien-infested ship drifting abandoned in space, potentially endangering more people encountering and boarding it (scavengers, etc.)).
In Aliens, James Cameron's queen idea would have worked all the same the two methods of reproduction (egg transformation / queen) could work alongside each other, they are not mutually exclusive. For example a lone alien is going for cocooning and transforming his first victim to an egg, and all subsequent victims will be facehugged to eventually produce a queen - or something like that.
thanks for the info!
witnessing this horrific tableau would have given Ripley extra motivation to destroy the ship (apart from killing the alien, she is actively avoding the scenario of an alien-infested ship drifting abandoned in space, potentially endangering more people encountering and boarding it (scavengers, etc.)).
very good point
As it was we had to wait for the sequel to see that cocooning.
It would have lent more weight to Ripley's expertise in the sequle too , like when she said "You cant help them they're being cocooned like the others "
As it was Ripley had only ever seen cocoons a few minutes earlier and worked it out , It'd be better if she'd seen it back on the Nostromo
As it was Ripley had only ever seen cocoons a few minutes earlier and worked it out
Good point, but it works either way.
Remember, that Hudson remarked that Apone and some others are still alive, but their life signs are "really weak". Considering that "leave no man behind" is standard practice in the USCM, the idea to return and rescue them is floated. And you are right, if we assume Ripley never witnessed the cocooning on the Nostromo, then she deduced it on the spot. But as I said it works, since it can be assumed / deduced by anyone at that point. The marines are agitated to bring their men back, but Ripley shuts them down, having a different perspective on their situation. So her expertise worked "on the go" as well as historically.
If we assume, she did witness the cocooning on the Nostromo, then the scene makes sense - but not more sense, just in a different way - IMO.
I also remember the added scenes from Brett's death, the cre replaying the computer translation of the Space Jockey distress signal, Lambert batch slapping Ripley for keeping the bay door locked, Ash scanning Kane's body in the medical bay, and they cut out a brief shot of Jonesy preening himself.
shareYou're right, it was not there in the original.
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