EXT. DEEP SPACE SILENT BLACK.
We sweep slowly across an endless tapestry of stars. Finally she comes
into view:
the U.S.S. AURIGA. A massive research vessel that sits majestically
just beyond Pluto's orbit.
We TRACK ALONG the side of the ship, and
INT. AURIGA
along the silent, empty corridors, coming at last to a door with two
guards standing rigid in front of it. Full armour, powerful
shockrifles, expressions empty and cold.
INT. MEDLAB
Along a row of screens, where we see the first signs of life readouts,
lights, data -- all shifting and collating on the blinking screens.
As we move ALONG them, a figure-in a labcoat passes through the frame,
then another,leading us along the lab to settle on what looks like a
Cryogenic tube, not big enough for a human.
Still TRACKING around it, we glimpse inside some vague, fetal mass
encased in a clear, aspic-like gel.
Tubes and cables a attached to the mass, running out of the machine.
As we still CIRCLE, the shape begins to be more coherent, till we can
see what might even be a face.
Eyes, shut tight. Sleeping. Dreaming.
ANGLE: WHEAT.
A birds eyes view of a field, the soft golden waves filling the screen.
Sharp contrast to what we have seen before.
There is a woman wandering through the field. Beside her a girl, seven
or eight, in dingey sundress. Both have black, tousled hair.
GIRL'S VOICE
My mom always said there were no monsters -- no, real ones -- but there
are.
The girl stops, looks around her. The wheat comes all the up to her
chest, and nothing else is visible as far as she see.
She looks back at the woman but the woman is already more than fifty
yards away.
The girl's expression becomes perplexed.
She slaps a bug on the back of her neck. Pulls it off and is HUGE,
wriggling fleshily in her hand. Her expression becomes even more
distraught, but she cannot muster forth a shout.
The sound of insects-fills the air. Another bug lands on her, another.
She looks down in growing horror and sees:
Blood. At her feet, rising, filling the field, rising above the wheat,
a sea of blood now, dark, thick.
The girl tries again to scream, raises her arms. She is completely
covered in insects, a skittering black shroud of them, and when she
finally does SCREAM they flood into her mouth.
CUT TO:
INT. LAB
Instruments show a jolt in heart rate, blood pressure.
Scientists note it down, look over at the thing in aspic.
We can tell that time has passed because it is much bigger, nearly the
size of a man, and in a new case.
The camera moves in on the cardiograph, then moves down, to show a
second one. Tracking a smaller, much faster heartbeat.
CUT TO:
INT. HALLLWAY
Tiny. dark, and we are moving through it at impossible speed turning
into another without slowing, up into an air vent, still moving, moving
until we reach a chamber, some place where all we can see is a mass of
dark, moving, inhuman fle it welcomes us in, envelops us...
ANGLE: RIPLEY Lying somewhere, maybe the dark-chamber -- in the dream
it keeps shifting.
She opens her eyes, but they are dark, whiteless.
She reaches for her chest and begins scratching . Hard.
Tearing at it, as blood wells up, spilling over her sides.
CUT TO:
INT. OPERATING CHAMBER
And the cause of this dream becomes apparant:
ANGLE: RIPLEY'S CHEST
being cut open with a lasersaw.
We see her body still has a layer of the aspic-slime clinging to it.
And her skin is unnaturally blue. But as we PAN from her chest to her
face her identity is unmistakable.
Around her are several men in operating masks. Cutting her GEDIMAN, a
young and enthusiastic scientist. One man, seemingly in charge, stands
a bit off, watching. This, by tag on his coat, is DR WREN.
WREN
Careful ... ready with the amnio...
Gediman finishes cutting. Another man steps in with a clamp. Sets it.
Pulls apart the chest.
GEDIMAN
There she is...
He says it like he's found a lost kitten. He reaches in an pulls out a
sleeping, fetal but nearly ready to burst ALIEN. Others work at
severing umbilical threads that tie it to Ripley's chest.
GEDIMAN
Here we go.
He holds it up and others step in with the amnio, a sort of incubator
filled with amniotic fluid.
The alien SCREAMS, its tiny mouth full with teeth, and wriggles out of
his grasp.
WREN
Watch it!
Everybody panics -- but before the thing can get completely away from
him, Gediman grabs it and sticks it in the amnio. Someone shuts the
top rapidly.
Everybody looks at each other for a moment.
GEDIMAN
Well ...
WREN
The host?
A surgeon looks at Ripley's readings.
SURGEON
Doing fine.
Gediman looks at Wren, hopefully. Wren nods.
WREN
Sew her back up.
Gediman and the surgeon get to work, as the others carefully remove the
alien.
GEDIMAN
Well, that went as well as could be expected--
Ripley's hand LASHES OUT, GRABS the surgeon's forearm. He yells in
pain as her fingers dig into him, the others scramble knocking things
over and we HEAR HIS BONE CRACKING.
SMASH CUT TO:
INT. RIPLEY'S CELL
Sudden stillness.
Ripley crouches in the middle of a small, dark chamber. She's wide
eyed, staring straight ahead in a state of near catatonia. Hair tangled
and wild. But at least she's not so blue as before.
The only light on her comes from directly above, from a thick pane of
glass in the center of the ceiling.
ANGLE: ABOVE THE CELL
A guard stands on the floor above, looking into the cell through the
square of glass in the floor, directly above Ripley.
(We see other panes of glass lining the floor, indicating more cells
below.)
ANGLE: RIPLEY
She is still for a long while. Then she lifts her hands, looking at
them.
Touches her face, her skin.
She fingers her tunic, pulls down the neck. There is a scar running
along her chest.
She fingers it thoughtfully. -
She looks at her forearm. Tattooed near the crook of her elbow is the
number 8.
She looks up, her face unreadable.
CUT TO':
INT. LAB
Ripley is sitting on a table as Gediman draws blood from her.
He deposits it in a test beaker, studies her eyes.
Wren enters, looking at a chart.
WREN
How's our number Eight today?
GEDIMAN:
Appears to be in good health...
WREN
(noticing his tone)
How good?
GEDIMAN
Extraordinary. As in, completely off our projected charts.
(shows him some photos) Look at the scar tissue. See the recession?
WREN
This is from --
GEDIMAN
Yesterday!
WREN
This is good. This is very good.
GEDIMAN
I'd like to run some tests: strength, coordination... We're not
looking at a normal cloning arc.
WREN:
Approved.
Wren goes up to Ripley, studies her face with satisfaction.
WREN
Well, it looks like you're going to make us all very proud.
She grabs his throat with dazzling speed, applying deadly pressure as
she brings his face to hers. Her eyes are burn but lost.
RIPLEY
Why?
GEDIMAN
Oh my God...
He is as wide eyed as WREN, and he isn't having his windpipe crushed.
After a moment the shock wears off and he slams his hand into the
alarm.
Klaxons, red light fire up.
A guard rushes in, levels his weapon at Ripley. After a moment of
staring him down, she opens her hand. Wren falls to his knees gasping.
The guard FIRES his rifle at her -- a powerful electrical charge lashes
out and sends her flying back into the corner.
WREN
No! No! I'm all right!
The guards keep their weapons -- 'burners', these shockrifles are
called -- leveled at Ripley. She has recovered from the shock quickly,
sits crumpled in the corner, looking at nothing in particular.
RIPLEY (wearily)
Why...?
CUT TO:
INT. OBSERVATION ROOM
Wren and Gediman watch through a one way mirror as a scientist tests
Ripley.
With them is General PEREZ, the man in charge this boat. Ramrod
straight and about as gruff as you would expect, he stares at Ripley
suspiciously.
ANGLE: RIPLEY
The scientist is holding up cards with pictures on them: house, dog,
boat.
Ripley gives answers we can't hear through the glass, looking pissed
off and bored.
WREN
It's unprecedented.
GEDIMAN
Totally! She's operating at a completely adult capacity.
PEREZ
And her memories?
WREN
There are gaps. And there's some degree of cognitive dissonance.
GEDIMAN
She's freaked.
Wren shoots Gediman a stern look at his unscientific parlance.
WREN
"It" has some connective difficulties. A kind of low level emotional
autism.
Certain reactions....
Perez looks at Ripley through the glass, then exits into the hall.
TO:
INT HALL - CONTINUOUS
The two scientists follow, pace him as he strides down towards a second
observation room.
GEDIMAN:
But the thing is, we can't terminate her. It.
PEREZ
You haven't told me what you think has caused this.
Cloned genes don't contain memory cells, not even when they're brought
to adult term. I'm right?
GEDIMAN
There's been cases..
PEREZ
Not like this.
WREN
Well, we don't have nearly enough data... but in some cases there is a
collective memory passed down generationally. At a genetic level. Like
instinct, only more complex structurally.
PEREZ
In some cases. You're talking about the alien.
WREN
Yes.
PEREZ
You promised me there wasn't going to be any crossing.
WREN
It's not like the other ones..
Perez punches code, puts his hand on the scanner and the second
observation room door opens..
He steps in, the other two right behind him.
CUT TO:
INT. OBSERVATION ROOM TWO
Darker than the first one, and with two of the heavily armoured guards
by the door.
Apart from-that, identical. Perez turns to the others.
PEREZ
But there is some genetic mix.
WREN
Yes.
PEREZ
Will there be further mutation?
GEDIMAN
Mutation isn't exactly... I don't think so.
WREN
That's one of the things we need to study.
PEREZ
All right. You can keep it. But secure, under obsorvation, and for
God's sake keep it away from here. I don't want any more surprises.
And as he speaks the ALIEN RISES RIGHT BEHIND HIM -- it's big, the
ridges on its head indicating a young queen -- it hisses and LUNGES at
the back of his head.
The reinforced plastic window between them, which we couldn't see,
stops it.
As it hits, a thin laser grid buzzes to life, sparks crackling on the
alien's face.
Its bile trails darkly on the glass as it backs off.
Perez turns to look at it with the others.
PEREZ
It took a hell of a lot to get us here.
GEDIMAN
No shit.
Wren shoots him another look.
PEREZ
How soon before this one's ovulating?
WREN
Days.
PEREZ
Is that normal?
WREN
No way of knowing for sure, but I'd say it's accelerated.
(After a moment) We're going to need the supplies.
PEREZ
They're coming. Soon.
CUT TO:
INT. MESS HALL
Ripley sits across from Gediman. He is eating at a good pace - Ripley,
however, has stopped. She is staring at her fork, her brows furrowed.
Turns it over in her hand, in her mind.
GEDIMAN
"Fork."
The memory comes, and she shakes her head wearily.
RIPLEY (softly)
Fuck....
GEDIMAN (pretending to correct her)
"Fork."
Ever so slightly, she smiles. The smile fades, and after a moment:
RIPLEY
How did you...
GEDIMAN
How did we get you? Blood samples from Fiori 16. On ice.
Do you remember that place?
RIPLEY
Does it grow?
GEDIMAN
Does it.....Yeah. Rapidly.
RIPLEY
It's a queen.
GEDIMAN
How did you know that?
RIPLEY
It'll breed. You'll die. Everyone in the ... fucking.... (searches
for the word, then spits it out) ... Company. Will die.
GEDIMAN
Company?
WREN (O.S.)
Weyland Yutani.
He has entered behind her, comes up to the table.
WREN
Our Ripley's former employers. Terran Growth conglom, had some defense
contracts under the military. Before your time, Gediman -- they went
under decades ago, bought out by Walmart. Fortunes of war.
(to Ripley)
You'll find things have changed a good deal since your time.
RIPLEY
1 doubt that.
WREN
We're not flying blind here, you know. This is United Systems
military, not some greedy corporation. The potential benefits of this
race go way beyond urban pacification.
New alloys, new vaccines ... there's nothing like this in any world
we've seen.
You should be very proud.
She laughs, bitterly.
RIPLEY
Oh, I am.
WREN
And the animal itself is wonderous. They'll be invaluable once we've
harnessed them.
RIPLEY
It's a cancer. You can't teach it tricks.
This stops Wren, and he retreats silently. Ripley repeats word to
herself, thinking.
RIPLEY
"Them" ...
CUT TO:
INT. HALL CONTINUOUS
As Wren is leaving the mess, he is accosted by an ensign.
ENSIGN
Doctor, General Perez is asking for you. We've been hailed.
CUT TO:
EXT. DEEP SPACE
We see the Auriga far in the distance Suddenly A SHIP ROARS INTO FRAME,
heading for it.
A small vessel, it is every bit dirty and jerry-rigged as the Auriga is
pristine.
To accentuate the difference, the sudden roar of its engines is
accompanied by
HEAVY, THRASHING ROCK MUSIC.
CUT TO:
INT. COCKPIT CONTINUOUS
The music is coming from nearby. Piloting the ship toward the Auriga
is HILLARD, a roughskinned woman in her forties, along with RANE, a
slight and quiet fellow.
Behind them stands ELGYN, the leader of the group.
Has the kind of authority that doesn't need to flaunt itself.
Maybe fifty, by the silver in his hair. He speaks into the vidcom
ELGYN
(good naturedly)
My authorization code is 'fuck you', son. Now open the goddamn bay or
General Perez is gonna do a Wichita stomp on your virgin ass.
He switches off.
RANE
Wichita stomp?
ELGYN
I guarantee that boy's. Never seen the inside of a woman.
(to Hillard)
Bring us in on three-oh descent, ride the parallel.
HILLARD
Darlin', it's done.
ELGYN
Don't cut thrust till six hundred meters. Give em a little fright.
He puts his hand on her shoulder, runs it up along her cheek as he
exits.
They're more than friends.
He moves through a hallway, sticks his head in a cubicle.
ELGYN
Christie! St Just! Rise and shine. We're docking.
He proceeds into:
INT. CARGO BAY - CONTINUOUS
It's the largest space in this boat, two stories high. Taking up most
of the space are two HARVESTERS, big rusty hovering threshers roughly
the size of winnebagos.
As Elgyn enters, we CRANE UP to reveal ANNALEE-CALL working atop one of
them.
She's young, tough -- at home with this motley bunch despite her youth
and prettiness.
ELGYN
Call! CALL!
The music is louder here -- it's blasting from a box in the corner.
Elgyn switches it off.
ELGYN
Call!
CALL
What?
ELGYN
We're docking! Are the cargo trucks secured?
CALL
I checked 'em an hour ago.
ELGYN
I don't want em so much as rattled. Any leakage, I take it out of your
hide.
CALL
Trust me, boss.
ELGYN (laughs)
Not my style.
He leans down, looks under the thresher. Lying on a gurneylike steel
dolly, working under the machine, is VRIESS, chie mechanic. Late
forties, in pretty good shape considering he's got no legs.
ELGYN
How's it looking?
VRIESS It's never gonna be pretty. but she'll fly. The other one's a
total fucking write-off.
ELGYN
You'll make it good.
VRIESS
Don't be so sure.
(calls out) Call! Adjust the generator plugs!
ELGYN (straightening up)
They just gotta run, Vriess. They don't gotta run far.
He exits.
CUT TO: INT. HALL CONTINTJOUS
CHRISTIE is up and mostly dressed. He is black, very large, and has
distinctly military bearing. He speaks with quiet, don't-fuck-with-me
authority.
CHRISTIE
What's our status?
ELGYN
We're coming in. Time to enjoy a little of the general's hospitality.
ST JUST
Oh great. Army food..
ST JUST ("San-Jhoost") is slim, Asian -- and the epitome of cool.
Moves quickly and silently, a sly grin playing about lips. He is
strapping a contraption to his forearm. It resembles a deringer
holder, but a very complex one.
ELGYN: We could use a rest, till the heat's off and Vriess can get
those harvesters on their feet.
This'll keep us for a couple of days, assuming the natives are
friendly.
CHRISTIE
We expecting any trouble?
ELGYN
From Perez? I doubt it. Still, let's be ever vigilant.
CUT TO: INT. CARGO BAY CONTNIUOUS
ANGLE: VRIESS working intently, the extremely nasty blades of the
thresher inches above his head.
VRIESS
I'm patched in. Check the sequence timer.
(no answer)
Call?
ANGLE: THE CONTROLS
A hand reaches in toward the ON switch.
ANGLE: VRIESS
VRIESS
Call?
The thresher GRINDS TO LIFE -- a hundred blades and claws spinning at
Vriess's head!
Vriess wheels out from under the machine in a second flat.
VRIESS
Goddamnit!
The second he's out he hits a lever and the back of the dolly flies up,
transforming it-into a wheelchair.
VRIESS Johner! You son of a whore!
JOHNER jumps down from the machine, laughing. He's thickset, mean and
ugly, with ugly scars crisscrossing his ugly bald head.
Thought I'd give you a little haircut there.
VRIESS
You fuck!
Call, who has been over on the other side of the thresher, ably climbs
up on it and switches it off.
JOHNER
You should see your face. Vriess, you must have soiled yourself.
VRIESS One of these days I'm gonna kill you. My hand to God.
JOHNER
Well, you already gave him your feet ...
CALL (jumping down)
You're a limp fucking scrotum, you know that?
JOHNER
Either of you want a piece of me, I'm less than busy.
VRIESS
Any time.
CALL
Vriess. Forget it. He's been sucking down too much homebrew.
JOHNER
Don't push me, little Annalee. You hang with us a while, you'll learn
I'm not the man with whom to fuck.
He exits, full of annoying bravado.
VRIESS
That inbred cocksucker.
He feels his forehead, comes up with a bit of blood. Realizes how
close it was ...
Call looks up at the thresher.
CALL
1 hate machines.
VRIESS
Well, now we know it works ...
CUT TO: EXT. AURIGA DOCKING BAY
As it opens to admit the proportionally tiny ship. The bay on the
bottom of the Auriga
- the doors are actually OVER the ship, which rises into the airlock.
INT. AIR LOCK
The outer doors close under the ship. Pressurized air shoot into the
airlock for a few seconds, and then the inner door opens. the ship
rising into the bay.
INT. BAY
The ship moves slowly along the huge dock to land gently at far end.
The top of the ship is nearly level with a grated platform that runs
the length of the bay.
Three soldiers in full armour stand rigid on the platform. The hatch
atop the ship slowly opens. One by one the crew files out. Seeing them
en masse, we get a clearer view of what separates them from this
Environment. They're not wearing uniforms. They're an eclectic,
fiercely indivualist group, their look varied -- spots of bright color
showing through militarian space gear. Johner's bright tuorquise
bowling shirt. Elgy's and St Just's floorlength leather dusters. Even
Vriess's chair stands out as he wheels down the platform.
What they have in common is the toughness, the wary eyes, leathery
skin. The cool readiness to kill. These guys are smugglers. A long
while ago, you'd have called them pirates
All eight of them emerge, one by one, looking around them. They file
past the silent, uniformed soldiers. The last one suddenly puts a hand
on Johner's jacket, stops him.
There is a bulge under it. A green sensor light on the back of the
soldier's glove turns red when he touches the bulge.
SOLDIER
No projectile weaponry is allowed on board the vessel, sir.
Johner opens his jacket, shows what he's packing: a large thermos.
JOHNER
Moonshine. My own. Much more dangerous.
SOLDIER
Sorry, sir.
ELGYN (to Perez)
What, do you think we're going to hijack the vessel? All eight of us?
No, I think one of your asshole crew is going to get drunk and put a
bullet through the hull. we are in space, Elgyn.
He enters from the antechamber, motions for the crew to follow him.
Vriess comes abreast of the soldier.
VRIESS
Wanna check the chair?
The soldier makes no response, simply falls in behind Call, the last of
them.
CUT TO: INT. ANTECHAMBER
The long neck that connects the bay to the body of the ship. The group
proceeds down it, the crew looking about them at the sterile grandeur.
ST JUST
This place is really clean.
JOHNER (to a guard)
Hey. You got any whores on this vessel?
(the guard remains stonefaced)
Any loose women with bad eyesight?
PEREZ
I think you'll find our accomodations somewhat spartan. Although the
cook sets a good-table.
JOHNER: That ain't what I'm hungry for.
VRIESS (to Call)
What's the matter?
She is looking around her, somewhat tensely.
CALL
I don't like army.
HILLARD
Yeah, join the fucking club.
CUT TO: ANGLE: MONEY
A stack of bills dropped down on a desk, then another. They're green,
and identifiably money. But they're square, about the size of cocktail
napkins. The face on them is unfamiliar. Thousand dollar bills.
WIDER ANGLE: INT. PEREZIS CHAMBERS LATER
A good sized suite, decorated in a sparse, military fashion. Perez is
behind his desk, the money sitting between him and Elgyn.
PEREZ
This wasn't easy to come by.
ELGYN
Neither was our cargo. You're not pleading poverty, are you?
PEREZ
We're well funded. I mean the bills. There's not many that still deal
in coin.
ELGYN
Just the ones that don't like their every transaction recorded. The
fringe element.
I guess that would include you, though, wouldn't it?
PEREZ
Drink?
ELGYN
Constantly. I'm guessing whatever you've got going here wasn't exactly
approved by congress.
Perez pours two whiskeys.
PEREZ (changing the subject)
So where do you go from here?
ELGYN
Out by the Handle. We've got a couple of harvesters, we can unload 'em
on one of the collectives if Vriess and Call get 'em working.
PEREZ
Call. Where'd you find her?
ELGYN
She is severely fuckable, isn't she? - And the very devil with a socket
wrench.
I think Vriess somewhat pines.
He takes a stack of bill, smells it. He likes the smell.-
ELGYN
She is curious about this little transaction. You can hardly blame
her, Awfully cloak and dagger...
Perez hands a drink to ELGYN.
PEREZ
This is an army operation.
ELGYN
Most army research labs don't have to operate outside regulated space.
And they don't call for the kind of cargo we brought.
PEREZ
Do you want something, Elgyn?
ELGYN
Just bed and board, couple of days worth. If we're not imposing.
PEREZ
Not at all. Keep out of the restricted areas, don't start any fights,
and mi casa is yours too.
Elgyn drinks to that.
PEREZ
I trust, of course, that you can mind your own business.
ELGYN (smiles)
I'm famous for it.
They drink.
CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - RESTRICTED AREA
The 'cargo' is rolled down the corridor, armed guards flank it. It is
wheeled into:
INT. A CHAMBER
Where Wren and a few others are waiting. Gediman looks a little
nervous, not sure this is a good idea.
The cargo is locked into place on the floor and and a guard works the
electric lock.
It springs open and the guard slides off a side panel.
They are stacked one on the other, five of them in all, cryotubes.
People sleeping inside.
One by one the tubes are hauled to one side of the room as the second
unit is wheeled in.
By the end there are ten people sleeping side by side in their tubes in
the dark chamber.
The scientists meanwhile retire to INT. AN ADJOINING CHAMBER with a
long glass window looking at the chamber.
The last of the guards leaves the chamber and we see the door lock
behind them.
Wren starts pushing buttons.
The glass tops of the cryotubes slide open. We see temperature and
lifesign gauges begin to change..
There is a thick whirring as a part of the ceiling above the tubes
lowers, lowers, and rotates slowly.
Stuck to the other side of it are ten alien eggs. The ceiling rotates
just enough so that they are aimed at the heads of the sleepers.
For a moment nothing happens.
One of the sleepers eyes flutter slightly. Opens. All ten eggs open
simultaneously.
CUT TO: INT. CONFERENCE HALL
A huge room, used for assemblies and events. It has a chain basketball
net set up at one end, crude court lines taped to the floor. Ripley
stands beneath the net with a ball, dribbling absently.
At the other end are set up tables and folding chairs. The crew of the
Betty, sans Elgyn, are filing in to eat here. Johner spies Ripley,
smiles.
JOHNER
Ooh.
Johner comes up to Ripley. Her expression makes it clear how much she
enjoys having him in her face.
JOHNER
How about a little one on one?
She keeps dribbling, says nothing.
JOHNER
What do you say?
RIPLEY
Get away from me.
JOHNER
Why should I?
RIPLEY
Because pain hurts.
He falters a moment at her quiet threat, then:
JOHNER Are you gonna hurt me then? 1 think I might enjoy that.
He smiles his ugly smile. She smiles back.
She hits, him solidly in the chest -- and he flies back ten feet,
landing badly on a group of chairs.
His mates fly into action, Christie grabs a standing ashtray. Hillard
jumps Ripley from behind. She throws her off with e -- chucks the
basketball at her hard enough to pop the air out of it.
Christie swings at her and SMASHES her right in the face.
She arcs back... and right back up, at Christie's throat before he has
a chance to react, squeezing, batting away the ashtray just a trickle
of blood coming down her nose --
Johner cames at her again and she leaps on him, throws him to the
ground, snarling,
SHE'S GONNA RIP HIS THROAT OUT WITH HER TEETH.
WREN
Ripley.
Ripley looks up and four guards are pointing burners at her. Wren and
Gediman behind them.
Call, standing to one side with Vriess, reacts visibly to the name.
Everybody is slowly backing off. St Just stands with his hands behind
his back, as if concealing something.
Call watches in rapt silence.
WREN
Don't let's have a scene.
Ripley lets go of Johner, stands.
RIPLEY
He... smells
WREN
I imagine he does.
JOHNER (barely breathing)
What the fuck are you?
She looks down on him - in both senses of the phrase. - Look around at
everyone staring at her.
She wipes the bit of blood from under her nose, flicks it away. Exits.
WREN (to Gediman, amused)
Social skills, less than a hundred' percent.
ANGLE: RIPLEY'S BLOOD
The few drops she flicked away sizzle on the floor -- not eating
through, but melting a small patch.
TO: INT. LABS - LATER
A large metal box is being wheeled next to an observation pen. Soldiers
surround it, weapons at the ready. Not one of them at ease.
Wren and Gediman watch intently.
WREN
What's the status on the Queen?
GEDIMAN
We still haven't detected the origin of the reproductive anomalies. But
the egg laying stage appears to be over.
WREN
Did we do something wrong?
GEDIMAN
I don't know. I think we covered everything. But these redundancies...
A soldier lifts a panel in the pen and then doors to the cage come open
automatically.
Everyone waits.
A fullgrown alien suddenly bolts into the pen. The soldier shut it as
quickly as humanly possible.
WREN
Father, check security status, observation pen six.
Father, the voice of the ship, replies after a moment in a dulcet,
comforting tone.
FATHER
Pen six secure, security systems functional at 100%.
WREN
Good. Now the others.
CUT TO: INT. SLEEP CHAMBERS - NIGHT
We see VARIOUS ANGLES of people at night:
Rane, in, a chamber on the Auriga.
Hillard and Elgyn, in a slightly more lush one.
Perez, in his quarters.
VRIESS, rolling about the Aurigals engine room, looking it over.
Christie, St Just, Call and Johner, all playing poker in the mess hall.
CUT TO: INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - RIGHT
A sleep cycle is indicated here by the low lighting and the near
emptiness of the room.
Gediman alone is in here, writing observations down in a notebook as he
watches the pen.
Inside are three aliens. Two of them seem to be hibernating, curled up
in the corner, but the third faces the glass, tilting its head and
hissing at it.
Gediman sits right up close to it, his face just inches away from the
beast's. It draws back its lips, opens its mouth. The metallic tongue
issues slowly forth, dripping with slime.
GEDIMAN (softly, fascinated)
Is that a distended externus lingua ... or are you just happy to see
me?
The creature hisses. retracts the tongue. Gediman scribbles few notes.
Something moves in the dark behind him. Before he can notice, a hand
closes on his shoulder.
It's Ripley. She steps forward, eyes locked on the cage. Gediman seems
only mildly surprised.
GEDIMAN
How did you get in here?
RIPLEY
Beautiful, aren't they?
GEDIMAN
Yes. Yes they are. I've been monitoring their interaction.
He points at a audiograph by the wall, blips and waves interrupting the
vibrating line, indicating sound.
He notices that her hand is still on her shoulder.
GEDIMAN
They communicate. Through ultrasonic soundwaves. Sort of like bats.
RIPLEY
I know.
She looks at him.
RIPLEY
I can hear them.
GEDIMAN (smiling)
Amazing ...
She runs her hand through the back of his hair, gently urging him up
off his chair.
GEDIMAN
Ripley...
RIPLEY
Shhhhh.
She pulls him close, kisses him. Lightly at first, then deeply -
holding his head with both hands. He responds with surprising warmth,
the kiss drawing out, pulling slowly apart.
She looks at him, smiles.
An alien tongue SHOOTS out of her mouth, burying itself in his face.
SMASH CUT TO: INT. RIPLEY'S CHAMBER
As she suddenly awakes, eyes wide, breathing hard.
She has been sleeping, we see, in the same position she was before:
squatting in the middle of the room. She looks about her, recovering
from the nightmare... Her breathing slows. With a somewhat fatalistic
look, she settles back to sleep.
CUT TO: INTERIOR MESS HALL - NIGHT
Christie, Call, St Just and Johner are still at their all night poker
game, stacks of bills, peanuts and liquor scattered the table.
They are in a tense hand, the pot impressively high.
JOHNER
I'm in.
CHRISTIE
All right.
ST JUST
Raise you two hundred.
JOHNER
Oh, fuck you!
CALL
That's it. I'm out. I'm fucked.
She throws down her cards, takes a swig of Johner's patented moonshine.
It tastes horrible.
CHRISTIE
That takes me down, too. Johner?
JOHNER
Uh, Uh, fuck it. I fold.
(to St Just)
What do-you got?
St Just calmly shuffles his cards back into the deck.
ST JUST
You'll always wonder.
JOHNER
You asshole.
CHRISTIE
Johner, your deal.
CALL
Deal me out. It's not my night.
She tries to stand up, takes a spill over her chair. The others laugh.
CALL
Jesus, Johner, what do you put in that shit, battery acid?
JOHNER
Just for coloring.
ST JUST (producing a small vial)
I got something that'll take the edge off that.
CALL Thanks, I'll walk it off.
She stumbles out of the room. Johner shuffles the deck.
JOHNER
Bitches should not play with the boys, they will get cleaned out.
(dealing)
Eight card throwback, fuck your sister and the sevens are wild.
CUT TO: INT. HALL
As soon as she is out of sight, Call straightens up, completely sober.
She looks around her and takes off toward the restricted areas.
She comes to the door and making sure no one is around, star punching
in code on the keypad.
CUT TO: INT. CELLBLOCK - MOMENTS LATER
As Call pads silently down it, looking for one cell.
TO: INT. RIPLEY'S CELL - CONTINUOUS
The cell door opens silently. Call hesitates a moment, then slips in,
shutting the door behind her.
Ripley is sleeping, still in the squatting position in the middle of
the room.
Call approaches.
She stares down at Ripley a moment. A shadow passes as a guard walks
above them,
Call tenses till he is gone. Look's back down at Ripley -- still
sleeping.
Call extends her hand, flexes her wrist. The meanest lookin stilletto
you've ever seen extends from out her sleeve. it, gotta be a foot long,
and sharp enough to shave with.
She lifts back her arm, the better to punch it through Ripley's heart.
Ripley shifts slightly. Call stops.
ANGLE: RIPLEY'S CHEST
Her shirt is open enough to show a good portion of the scar. Call
hesitates, staring, realization flooding her face.
RIPLEY
Well?
Call starts, moving back a pace.
RIPLEY
You gonna kill me or what?
CALL
There's no point, is there?
A flick of her wrist and the stilletto whips back up her sleeve.
Ripley sits up.
CALL
It's already out of you. Christ... Is it here? Is it on board?
RIPLEY (smiling)
You mean my baby? CALL
I don't understand. If they've got it, why are they keeping you alive?
RIPLEY
Curious. I'm the latest thing...
CALL
Those sick fucks.
She raises her arm, the stilletto gliding out again.
CALL
I can make it stop. The pain... this nightmare.. That's all I can
offer you.
Ripley holds her palm up, presses it against the point of the blade.
RIPLEY
What makes you think I would let you do that?
Ripley pushes her hand out - the blade goes RIGHT THROUGH HER PALM. She
keeps pushing her hand out slowly, a good five inches of the blade
sticking out the back of her hand before she stops. Call stares at
her.
CALL
What are you?
RIPLEY
Ripley, Ellen, Lieutenant first class, number 36706.
CALL
Ellen Ripley died two hundred years ago.
Ripley pulls her hand back suddenly, grimacing at the pain.
RIPLEY
What do you know about it?
CALL
I've read Morse -- I've read all the banned histories. She gave her
life to protect us from the beast. You're not her.
RIPLEY
If I'm not her. What am I?
CALL
You're a thing. A construct. They grew you in a fucking lab.
RIPLEY
But only God can make a tree.
CALL
And now they've brought the beast out of you.
RIPLEY (smiling)
Not all the way out.
CALL
What?
RIPLEY
It's in my head. Behind my eyes. I can hear it moving. The beast.
The smile is gone, some real vulnerability showing through. Call
softens, trying a different tack.
CALL
Help me. If there's anything human in you at all, help me stop them
before this thing gets loose.
RIPLEY
It's already loose.
Call's expression changes. Those words terrify her, but she's not sure
if Ripley means what she thinks.
Ripley raises her hand at Call's head -- Call flinches but Ripley stops
a few inches away.
Then touches her forehead gently, almost sensually.
RIPLEY
Once the thought .... the hope for it ... grows here.... it has found
its way.
It will come, because... man will bring it. Bring it forth.
CALL
You want that.
RIPLEY
I've come to terms with the fact of it. It's inevitable.
CALL
Not so long as there's breath-in me.
Ripley LASHES OUT and GRABS CALL'S THROAT. Call swings wit the blade
but Ripley has her arm pinned before she can connect. Ripley squeezes
the girls neck.
Ripley looks at the girl with a world of sadness.
RIPLEY
I can... make it ... stop...
Call's eyes are pleading, terrified. Ripley finally lets go and she
drops to the ground gasping for air. RIPLEY
Go. They're coming for you.
As soon as she can move, Call scrambles up and heads out.
CUT TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
Call comes out and before she can move a RIFLE BUT hits her the head.
She goes down but not out as two guards grab her. Wren is with them
and three more.
WREN
I think you're gonna find that this was ill advised.
(to the men) Where are her friends?
GUARD
Mess hall, most of them.
WREN
Sound the alarm. I want them rounded up. Now!
TO: INT. MESS HALL - MOMENTS LATER
ANGLE: THE CARD TABLE
Being kicked over.
Elgyn, Hillard and Rane are pushed into the room, sleepy and confused.
Christie, St Just, and Johner are all being herded in by soldiers.
Call is thrown into the group as well.
ELGYN
What the fuck is going on here?
CHRISTIE
Looks like a doublecross, boss.
WREN
Where's the other one? With the chair?
JOHNER (to a soldier)
Get your fucking hands off me!
ELGYN
Do you mind telling me what the fuck you're up to?
WREN
Shut up!
(to a guard) Get the general. Wake him up.
ELGYN
Look, if there's a problem tell me what it is. We can work this out,
there is no need to get emotional ...
St Just is silent, standing in the same position he was when Ripley
attacked Johner.
Hands behind his back.
ANGLE: BEHIND ST JUST'S BACK
As Elgyn speaks, two guns..slip out of his sleeves and fill his hands.
CALL
They got nothing to do with this, Wren.
ELGYN (to Call)
To do with what?
WREN I don't give a fuck. It's way too late for that. You're all
looking at a firing squad.
You hear me?
ELGYN
I do. St Just?
With lighting precision, St Just raises his hands and blows of the
guards away.
He takes out a third to his left without even looking that way.
One guard gets off a shot with his burner, frying Rane before Hillard's
elbow knocks his teeth well into his throat.
Christie tackles the next as Johner presses a latch on the bottom of
his thermos -- the top half flies off, revealing handle of a gun
inside. He grabs it and another guard runs. Johner doesn't have time
to pull the gun-out of the the so he SHOOTS right through it, sending
the guard flying..
CUT TO: INT. ALIEN OBSERVATION LAB - CONTINUOUS
Alarms, flashing red lights. Gediman looking in a video monitor.
GEDIMAN
What the fuck... You three! Go! Sector two.
All but one of the guards rush out to investigate. Gediman works the
surveilliance screen, trying to see what's happening
CUT TO: INT. MESS HALL - CONTINUOUS
When the smoke clears, There are two guards still standing. They point
their weapons inneffectually. St Just a has gun to wren's head and a
gun on the guards, who are also covered by Johner.
ELGYN
Nice and easy, boys ...
Call starts to take off.
CALL
I'm gonna finish this.
Elgyn grabs her by the hair, roughly pulls her back.
ELGYN
You're going nowhere, Annalee.
CUT TO: INT. OBSERVATION LAB - CONTINUOUS
ANGLE: IN THE PEN
The three aliens have picked up the energy. are stalking back and forth
like tigers in the dim light of their pen.
ANGLE: THEIR POV
We see Gediman and the guard, their backs to us. The aliens-stop
pacing. One of them, to the right, looks at the one on the left.
Something passes between them. They look back at the humans. At each
other.
They SET ON the middle alien, TEARING IT APART. It lets out piercing,
insectile SHRIEKS as they tear it limb from limb.
Gediman spins in terror, the guard bringing up his weapon. Gediman hits
the lights inside the pen and as they blink to shocking brightness we
see:
The remains of the third alien on the ground as a giant pool its blood
EATS A HOLE IN THE FLOOR.
GEDIMAN
Oh, God
He bolts for the failsafe but it's too late as the blood eats all the
way through - the two aliens DIVE through the hole. just as Gediman
hits the button -- freezing gas fills the chamber but there's nothing
to freeze.
GEDIMAN
No no no!
He hits another sequence and the door slides open. He rushes in,
kneels by the hole and looks down.
ANGLE: HIS POV
Their blood has already eaten through two levels.
GEDIMAN
Christ. They could be anywhere.
He looks up at the guard -- and an alien FLIES UP at him through the
hole.
It was hanging on the ceiling below and it pulls him through before he
can breathe a decent scream.
The guard just stares, shaking.
CUT TO: INT. MESS HALL
The mexican standoff is getting even more heated.
CHRISTIE
Who gives a shit! We have to get out of here.
ELGYN
If Call's got something going here I want to know what it is!
WREN
You brought her here..
Two more guards rush in. Johner shoves' his gun in Wren's mouth.
JOHNER
Drop them! I'm not fucking with you!
CHRISTIE (indicating the dead soldiers)
Boss, we got bodies here. It doesn't matter what Call's up to, we're
all fucked now.
CALL
I have to stop him. If I don't we'll all die.
WREN (pulls his mouth away)
Elgyn, tell me what you know. If she's alone in this.
HILLARD
In what?
Johner puts his gun to Call's temple now.
JOHNER
Does anyone want me to make this simple?
Far away, a SCREAM. Everyone stops. Wren turns slowly in the direction
it came from.
WREN
No...
CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY BY LABS
A technican RUNS screaming just as an alien LEAPS on him from behind.
The CAMERA RUSHES AWAY, frenzied as the scene, to pick up a guard in
the next hall firing wildly at the ceiling as an alien dissappears up
an airvent. There are three bodies lying dead before us.
ANGLE: IN THE PENS
We see that the aliens have been freed. Smoke, dead bodies, the
plexiglass partition to one 1 cage is cracked and open.
CUT TO: INT. RIPLEY'S CELL - CONTINUOUS
Ripley sits in the dark, the noise of Chaos just beginning filter in.
And she just can't help herself.
She is LAUGHING.
CUT TO: INT. PEREZ'S QUARTERS CONTINUOUS
He is mostly dressed, still shaking off sleep. He stands at the
command console, bringing up visual. Everything on the screens is
smoke and noise.
PEREZ
Ensign! Damage Report! Ensign!
Nothing. On one of the screens, an alien is briefly visible. Perez
stiffens at the sight of it.
He punches up a different sector. The labs, and here is a badly wounded
lieutenant.
PEREZ
Status!
LIEUTENANT
Containment is impossible, sir... I think they swept the barracks.
PEREZ (to himself)
A military strike.... Christ Jesus ...
After a beat, he starts punching in the emergency override codes.
CUT TO: INT. BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS
It's worst here -- the aliens have taken out a dozen men in their
sleep, and everyone awake is screaming. One soldier runs for the
weapons cabinet -- an alien hits him from behind and SMASHES him into
it, falling in a tumble of guns.
Over the chaos, the emergency lighting comes on, floor light like an
airplane's indicating the nearest exit. Father's voice is
excruciatingly calm:
FATHER
Emergency. Initiate evacuation procedures immediately. All hands. This
is not a drill.
One soldier gets a bead on an alien with his burner - fries italong
with two of his friends.
They're out of commission, but the alien is hurt only momentarily. It
bounds forward, takes out his face.
FATHER
Emergency. Initiate evacuation procedures ...
CUT TO..
INT. HALLWAY BY ENGINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
The noise is too far above to be heard down here, but Fathers droning
voice and the emergency lighting are on.
Vriess wheels slowly into the hall, concerned. He spins slowly,
checking out his surroundings.
ANGLE: DOWN THE HALL
There is nothing.. Just the floor lights pulsing in succession towards
the exit.
Vriess follows their lead, wheeling out.
CUT TO: INT. NEXT HALL - CONTINUOUS
Nothing here either. But Vriess's fur is up -- he moves slowly,
carefully.
And was that a noise? He looks around, up at the ceiling.
A drop of alien blood is eating through right above him. It drips down
-- and he rolls out of the way just in time, back up as the blood plops
to the floor, eating casually through.
CUT TO: INT. LIFEBOAT BAY ONE - CONTINUOUS
Men are rushing into one of the lifeboats. They sit facing each other
in the tiny vessel and strap themselves in. Pere is here, hurrying
the soldiers in, pushing back the few who try to crowd in after.
PEREZ
Bay three! Go!
The late soldiers make for the next boat as Perez seals the hatch. He
hits the eject button and steps back.
CUT TO: EXT. THE AURIGA - CONTINUOUS
As the lifeboat FIRES out of the side of the giant craft.
CUT TO: INT. BAY THREE - CONTINUOUS
Men crowd into this one too -- it's nearly full and an alien suddenly
LEAPS into it.. starts feeding on the men strapped down - they are
screaming.
Perez runs in as a soldier outside the lifeboat fires his burner,
hitting the alien, the men, the controls -- a shower of sparks as the
alien-turns, about to spring on the soldier as he rolls in a grenade.
The doors shut and and a soldier hits the eject button.
TO: EXT. AURIGA - CONTINUOUS
The second lifeboat comes shooting out and moments later. EXPLODES.
CUT TO: INT. MESS HALL - CONTINUOUS
The noise of the explosion - and of a few inside as well - is all
around the group.
Father's voice still urges evacuaticion
WREN
NO!
(to Call)
What have you done?
CALL
Nothing. Not a goddanm thing. You thought you could control it.
ELGYN
All right. We make for the Betty. Can he walk?
He is pointing at Rane, who nods, standing.
HILLARD Betty's all the way across the ship! Who knows what's in
between?
CALL (indicating Wren)
He does.
One of the soldiers steps forward. DiStephano.
DISTEPHANO (to Wren)
Sir, we have to go.
(to Elgyn) Let him go. No quarrel.
ELGYN
You can have him when we're off. Not before.
They start out, dragging Wren along. Guns still on Call and the
soldiers.
What about Vriess?
JOHNER
Fuck Vriess!
CUT TO INT. FALL - CONTINUOUS
Vries enters, looking around. He is getting seriously wigged.
The lights on the floor still pulse. Urging him forward. He obeys.
Something stirs in the rafters. Coiled about the pipes.
Vriess stops, still a good thirty feet from the beast. Strains to see.
It starts MOVING, climbing at him upside down on the pipes. FAST.
Vriess starts wheeling himself back away but SLOWLY, agonizingly slowly
compared to the beast.
He turns the corner, spins around.
The hall is fifty feet long. At the far end a few soldiers running
through.
SERGEANT
Seal off that sector!
A soldier runs to obey, working the door controls.
VRIESS
No!
The soldier sees him, but the fear on the boy's face telegraphs his-
decision.
Vreiess starts pumping toward the door. He's strong, picking up speed,
but the alien rounds the corner and bolts after him.
Vriess can't even look back as the thing gains on him. The door begins
to come down, the soldier finishing the sequence and running off.
Vriess rolls, face set -- the alien a few feet behind, reaching for him
An EXPLOSION far away ROCKS THE SHIP -- the hall tilted momentarily,
Vriess gets a boost as he rockets downhill, the beast still on him,
the door closing, too low for him to clear. He gets there and SLAMS a
lever, his chair FLATTENS out to a dolly position, his head just
CLEARS the closing door as the alien SLAMS into it, Vriess spinning out
and flying off the chair it tilts, landing in a heap next to him.
Lying still on the ground, he listens as the beast slams against the
door a few more times, then fades off.
VRIESS
Fuck everything....
He reaches up for the chair and from the back of it he pulls out a
shotgun.
CUT TO: INT. LIFEBOAT BAY 5 - CONTINUOUS
Perez is trying to maintain order. He is failing. Grabs a corporal.
PEREZ
Muster a squad to search for survivors!
CORPORAL
Fuck no! Fuck no! Fuck you!
Perez slams him to the ground with his fist.
An ALIEN LEAPS OUT at him from the ceiling. The soldiers scatter, Perez
just leaping out of the way --
PEREZ
Shoot it! Fry it!
A couple of men fire their burners, to little effect.
One soldier runs up to the action. His head is bloodied, his expression
vengefully grim.
The soldier whips out a pistol, private.issue, he takes a bead on the
thing --
PEREZ
NO!
And the soldier FIRES -- pumps three bullets into the beast sends it
flying back toward the window.
Perez is riveted by the sight of: ANGLE: DROPS OF BLOOD
big ones, hitting the window. Everything seems to move slowly now - the
alien, struggling as the soldier pumps two more bullets into it, the
other soldiers, Perez -- the monster falls and the BLOOD EATS THROUGH
THE WINDOW..
PEREZ
Get out! Everyone! Now!
Soldiers are beginning to get it.. The window CRACKS, begins to SHAKE
as the blood is almost through it.
Even the soldier who shot the alien has stopped, his face frozen in
horror at what he's about to accomplish.
Perez shoves him, herds the rest out, looking back --
PEREZ
Clear the sector!
at the window, the blood is almost through --
Men are pouring out of the hall -- some move down a side hall and SLAM
the door shut behind them, but most are making for the main exit
anyway.
FATHER
Warning. Potential hullbreach. Clear sector.
The blood eats a hole in the window -- the nearest soldier is sucked
back against the window -- he SCREAMS as he is sucked through a hole
no bigger than his fist.
Still men are falling over each other, Perez herding them out.
A huge CRACKING sound, and Perez shuts his eyes.
The window explodes outward, the air blowing everything int space.
Debris, vehicles, men, all tangled and dead as they blown out into the
black.
ANGLE: THE SECTOR DOORS
SLAM shut instantly one cutting right through a soldier halfway out.
ANGLE: AIR VENTS
Gates slam down here as well.
ANGLE: ELECTRICAL DUCTS
Foam SHOOTS into them, hardening instantly, sealing the breached
sector.
FATHER
Breach contained. Sector five nonfunctional.
CUT TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
As the crew moves quickly through. They come to a shut door, red
lights along it indicating it's locked.
ELGYN (to DiStephano)
Open it.
DISTEPHMO
I can't.
Johner puts his gun to the soldier's head.
WREN
He can't! The sector's closed. The hull's been breached!
ELGYN
Okay, which way?
WREN
We'll have to go through the holding cells. Here.
ELGYN
All right.
They turn left, entering
INT. CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
that leads to the holding cells. The room is big, a railing at one end
looking over another chamber two flights down.
A shut door separates the chamber from the cells.
ELGYN
Can you get that one open?
It comes from the rafters, dropping down on Elgyn in a heartbeat. He
barely has time to scream before it shoots its tongue through the back
of his skull.
Hillard has time. She SCREAMS as her lover's brains come out his
mouth.
The beast leaps at the group, scattering them like bowling pins as it
claws into one of the guards. Everybody else is scrambling for cover.
St Just tries to escape by running past the beast - its tail lashes
out, tangling his feet and tripping him up, his head smashing against a
pipe.
Another guard hits it with the burner -- it shrieks and lands on him.
Johner shoots at it but is far too panicked to hit it.
Call has backed to the far wall -- she desperately works the controls
to open the door.
It starts to rise.
CALL
Christie! Hillard! Come on!
The door rises fully. Ripley stands behind it.
Call starts back, not sure what the woman will do.
Ripley surveys the scene.
The Alien, burrowing its head into the belly of the guard, stops.
Looks up.
Everyone watches as the two creatures sense each other. ThE alien
hisses. rears back.
Ripley looks away, contemplative We see a gamut of emotions cross her
face, but her posture passive, sacrificial. She does not move.
Everyone watches, too afraid to breathe.
The alien LUNGES at her, leaping across the room in two bounds. It's on
her -- and she SPINS, GPABBING IT, and HURLS IT AWAY.
It lands in a tangle but is up again in a microsecond, jumps at her,
knocks her back into the room, on her, its claws digging into her skin,
piston tongue at her face, inches away.
She locks an arm around its slick, long head and pulls back we hear its
tendons strain, snap.
CALL (to a guard)
Shoot it! Shoot them both!
She grabs his gun and BURNS them both. Two less-than-human SCREAMS
fill the room as they briefly disentangle, thrown apart.
The beast recovers first, dodging the next blast and going for Ripley
again.
Ripley, on her back, reaches behind her, grabs a table leg and with
inhuman strength brings the table down on the monster's head.
She dives at it as it comes out from under....
Call shoots as Ripley hits the alien, they're both fried as Ripley's
momentum sends them over a railing and they FALL TWENTY FEET -- the
Alien lands with a spine snapping crunch,
Ripley only slightly better.
A few crew members rush to look over the railing. Christie starts down
the spiral staircase to that level.
JOHNER
Where are you going?
The creature rolls back onto Ripley, grabbing her with its dying
strength. Her face is rigid with pain and anger as she holds it off...
its jaws open, dripping shaking...
The tongue SHOOTS OUT and Ripley GRABS IT. HOLDS IT.
A scream wells up in her throat. A totally animal killshriek that she
SCREAMS, victorious, as she RIPS THE ALIEN'S TONGUE OUT OF ITS FACE.
She stands, bellows another warrior cry. The crew has gathered near.
They watch her, awed, wary. Ripley walks slowly up to them -- up to
Call. Ripley looks a tad pissed.
Call tenses, maybe wishing she hadn't shot Ripley as well.
Ripley takes Call's hand, puts the tongue in it. walks on.
Call looks at the dripping souvenier. The pincers at the end still
twitching.
CHRISTIE
What the FUCK is going on here?
RANE
What was that thing? Are there more of that thing?
JOHNER (to Call)
Make a hell of a necklace...
ANGLE: HILLARD
on the upper level, kneeling by Elgyn's body. No tears, but terribly
quiet.
What do we do?
CHRISTIE
Same thing we were doing. We get the fuck.
RANE
What if there's more? Let's stay here and let the army guys deal.
Someone will come... I mean, where are the fucking army guys?
St Just is very calmly looking up at the rafters, guns drawn
CHRISTIE
Doctor. You know what that thing is?
WREN
I do.
CHRISTIE
And there's others. How many?
The doctor looks around, almost guiltily.
WREN
Thirty.
JOHNER
Thirty! We are fucked in our pink bottoms if there's thirty of those
things.
RIPLEY
There'll be more.
Everyone looks around at her. She is squatting in the corner facing
away from them.
RIPLEY
They'll breed. In a few hours there'll be twice that number.
(she stands, approaches them)
So who do I have to fuck to get off this boat?
CHRISTIE
You bought your ticket when you killed that thing. welcome aboard.
CALL.
Are you fucking crazy? She doesn't care if we....
CHRISTIE (fiercely)
You got no authority here, Call!- Now secure it!
It's the first time Christie has raised his voice, and it has the
desired effect.
After a silent moment, Call starts again softly.
CALL
Christie, she's not human. Wren cloned her because she was carrying an
alien in her.
She could turn --
JOHNER
Nobody cares about your opinion, you bitch, you fucking mole --
CALL
She'll turn on us! Just like that!
CHRISTIE
I don't give a syphallitic fuck whether you people can get along or
not. If we've got a wish to live then we work together, and that
includes bug-lady.
CALL
You can't trust her.
CHRISTIE
I don't trust anyone. CUT TO: INT. CHAMBER/CELLBLOCK - A BIT LATER
The group is still in the adjoining chamber, but looking here into the
cellblock where
Ripley had been. DiStephano and St Just come first, guns ready,
looking about them.
They are followed by Christie and Wren.
WREN
There's a console in the guards, station. We can punch up a diagnostic
of the ship and plan a route. To your ship.
CHRISTIE
That likes me fine.
He signals for the others to follow, everyone moving cautiously.
ANGLE: HILLARD
Gently lays her coat over Elgyn's face. Johner looks down a moment.
JOHNER
Via con Dios, man.
Hillard stands. Call puts ahand on her shoulder but Hillard moves away,
a distrustful look on her face.
Ripley, bringing up the rear, watches the whole group with a sort of
fascinated detatchment.
Call looks back at her. Ripley smiles, coldly.
ANGLE: IN THE CELLBLOCK
The group makes their way slowly, quietly. They approach a bank of
elevators, but Wren points down an adjoining doorway. They are about
to go there when the elevator door lights up, indicating arrival.
The group backs up, spreads out. Those who can find cover take it. guns
drawn.
The elevator doors open. It is too dark inside to see:
Suddenly sparks fly from the broken overhead in the elevator and a
figure appears in the light.
Everyone jolts, about to fire. before they realize it is
VRIESS
Who sits in his chair, a shotgun in each hand, eyes wide. twitchier
than they.
JOHNER
Oh, fuck...
CALL
vriess!
VRIESS (mock casual)
Hey, whatchyou guys doing? Hey, Annalee.
CHRISTIE
Thought you were toast for certain.
VRIESS
You've seen that fucking thing?
WREN (suspiciously)
Where were you?
VRIESS
I was down by -- what do you mean? I was in maintenance, checking out
your oxidation systems.
JOHNER
Doc's got a bug up his ass 'cause Call's a mole and he thinks we're a
conspiracy.
VRIESS (looking at Call)
She's a what?
JOHNER
A mole. A fucking spy.
Vriess looks hit harder by that information than anyone.
CHRISTIE
We got'a mission here, people. Let's keep moving.
They do.
CUT TO: INT. GUARDS, STATION - MOMENTS LATER
ANGLE: THE CONSOLE
A hologram of the ship appears above the screen. It looks a solid as
the ship itself, except that parts of it occasional break themselves
down to show interiors.
The group looks it over. Parts of the ship are simply not there, the
sections around those holes red. Wren points them out.
WREN
We've had hull breach by the lifeboats, here on level five, and down --
Jesus, right by the engine room. We're very lucky.
ST JUST (sarcastically)
Lucky we.
CHRISTIE
What about the Betty? Our ship.
WREN
The dock seems to be intact.
CHRISTIE
Then we head for it.
JOHNER
Can we track those fucking things?
WREN
No.
JOHNER
We could get to the Betty and they could be all over it!
RANE
Are you toting a better fucking idea?
WREN
All of the activity seems'to have been in the aft-sector, by the
barracks.
There's no reason to suppose they'd move
RIPLEY
They won't.
Everybody looks at her.
RIPLEY
They're breeding. They've got new bodies to work on. They'll stay
close. If they send anybody out, it'll be here. Where the... meat is.
CALL
'The meat' . Jesus.
ST JUST
They're breeding. How long does that take?
RIPLEY
Hours.
WREN
Or less. The process has accelerated, something to do with the cloned
cells.
CHRISTIE
Faster we get from here to there, the better.
ST JUST
With all the devils of hell in between.
JOHNER
Well, if we want to make decent time I say we ditch the cripple.
(to Vriess)
No offense.
VRIESS (giving him the finger)
None taken.
HILLARD
Nobody's left behind, Johner. Not even you.
Her voice is quiet, mourning still thick in it. Nobody backtalks her.
CHRISTIE
So what's our route?
WREN
I'm trying to figure it. we can cut through the labs, but we're blocked
on both sides here,
I'm not sure
DISTEPHMO
Sir? There is the lift.
WREN
Show me.
DiStephano works the console and the hologram splits, the route he's
indicating revealed.
DISTEPHMO
The lifts. They run straight from the top of the ship down to
engineering. No stops, but if we can get in the shaft, there's a
maintenece access tunnel here
(points to the center of the shaft)
that runs above level one deck. Take us right to the dock.
CHRISTIE
Sounds reasonable.
DISTEPHANO
I don't have the code for the access tunnel door.
WREN
I can override.
DISTEPHMO
(indicating the route)
Then we head through the labs, then down to the kitchen. To the bottom
of the shaft.
Up, through the tunnel, and onto the ship. Home free.
ANGLE: VRIESS
Is unloading additional ammo from inside his chair. He toss one of his
shotguns to Hillard.
VRIESS
They never check the chair...
He pulls out a grenade launcher. It's so compact it's almost cute,
cradled one handed like an uzi.
VRIESS
Call.
She looks around and he tosses it to her. The gesture is not
acconmpanied by any show of warmth.
VRIESS
Try not to shoot your foot off.
WREN
You people should know --
ST JUST
We.won't shoot at the windows, Doc.
WREN
No. The aliens, they bleed molecular acid.
CHRISTIE
That's right, I saw that.
VRIESS
So did I.
JOHNER
We can't shoot them? Fuck that, I'm shooting them.
WREN
This is a big vessel, and for the most part we should be okay. But if
we get anywhere near the outer hull and start strafing them...
He indicates the hologram, the sections of the ship missing. Everyone
gets it.
CHISTIE
If we're clear then let's get on it. We'll go by twos --
RIPLEY
We're moving.
CHRISTIE
What?
RIPLEY
The ship is moving. 1 can feel it.
RANE
I don't feel shit -- what, do you mean they're piloting this fucking
thing?
VRIESS
This ship has stealthrun, even if we were moving there's no way she
could feel it.
CALL She's right.
Call is working the computer now.
CALL
The ship's been going since the attack.
WREN
It's uh, it's standard, I think.
DISTEPHANO
That's right. If the ship takes on any serious damage it autopilots
back to homebase.
CALL (to Wren, pissed)
You were planning to let us know this?
WREN
I forgot.
HILLARD
What is homebase?
WREN
Earth.
CALL
Oh, God. Oh, you bastard...
JOHNER
Earth? I'm not going to that fucking slum.
CALL
If those things get to Earth, It'll be...
RIPLEY (not very concerned).
The end.
ST JUST
That's not our problem.
CALL
We've got to blow the ship.
CHRISTIE
We don't have to do anything till we get off it. How long till we get
there?
CALL
Three hours. Almost.
CHRISTIE
Then that's what we got. Let's move.
CALL
Don't you understand what this means?
CHRISTIE
I understand my hide. And I like it on me. Let's go.
(to Ripley)
What are you called, Ripley? You mind taking point?
She moves to the head of the line, and they start.
CUT TO: INT. LABS - LATER
As they progress. Everyone with a gun has it at the ready. Ripley is
a few yards in front.
She stops, sniffs. Listens.
RIPLEY
Clear.
Johner moves up next to her.
JOHNER
You've come up against these things before?
RIPLEY
Yes.
JOHNER
So what did you do ?
RIPLEY
I died.
He lags behind a bit, thrown.
JOHNER
That wasn't really what I wanted to hear...
DiStephano points to a door.
DISTEPFANO
This way.
And Ripley leads them in.
CUT TO: INT. LAB - CONTINUOUS
As Ripley enters, we can see that this lab has been trashed. Ripley
surveys the wreckage calmly, keeps moving. As the others file in, their
horrified expressions lend contrast to her lack of one.
Among the debris are three bodies, chests exploded outward.
JOHNER
Fuck me ...
CHRISTIE
Let's keep moving.
The door to the next chamber is ajar. Christie and Vriess in, then St
Just, then Ripley.
INT..NEXT CHAMBER
Something LEAPS at Ripley from out of the shadows -- a metal bar SLAMS
into her side, throwing her off balance.
St Just and Christie spin, weapons up, and almost shoot the figure
cowering in the corner.
Everyone else rushes in as he swings the bar before him, eyes wild with
terror.
PURVIS
Get away from me!
CHRISTIE
Drop the rod, man. Do it!
PURVIS.
Get away...
But the energy is out of him. The rod falls with a hollow clatter. He
looks weakly from face to face.
PURVIS
What's going on?
St Just looks at his name, stitched in his coveralls.
ST JUST
Purvis. What's going on is that we're getting the fuck off this ghost
ship.
PURVIS
What ship? Where am I? 1 was in cryo on the way to Xarem, work crew
for the nickel refinery...
I wake up, I don't understand... I saw something... horrible ...
CALL
Look, you come with us. It's dangerous here.
Ripley SNIFFS. Cocks her head.
RIPLEY
Leave him.
CALL
Fuck you. We're not leaving anyone on this boat.
RIPLEY
He's carrying..
JOHNER
He's what?
RIPLEY
He's got one.... inside him. I can smell it.
PURVIS
Inside me? What?
JOHNER
Shit, I don't want one of those things birthing anywhere near my ass.
VRIESS
It's a bad risk.
CALL
We can't just leave him.
VRIESS
I thought you came here to stop them from spreading.
CALL (to Wren, torn)
Isn't there a process, can't you stop it?
ST JUST
We've got no time for that.
WREN
I couldn't do it here. The lab's torn apart.
ST JUST (quietly)
I could do him. Painless, back of the head. Might be the best way.
CALL
There's gotta be another way. If we freeze him --
PURVIS
WHAT'S IN-FUCKING-SIDE ME?!?!?
They all look at him, a bit sheepishly.
WREN
A parasite. A foreign element that ....
Ripley steps in front of the doctor.
RIPLEY
There's a monster in your stomach. They (indicating the smugglers)
hijacked your cryotube and sold you to him (indicatingWren) and he put
an alien in you. In a few hours it will punch its way through your
chest and you'll die. Any questions?
Purvis is wide-eyed, stunned. After a moment he stammers
PURVIS
Who are you?
RIPLEY
I'm the monster's mother.
She starts heading out of the chamber. Call turns to the others.
CALL
He comes with us. We can freeze him on the Betty and get the doctor to
remove it later.
WREN
All right.
JOHNER
Since when are you in fucking charge?
CALL
Since you were born without balls.
VRIESS
Ease off, people.
CHRISTIE (to Purvis, herding him along)
Come with us. You might even live. Get twitchy on me and you will be
shot.
They move out.
CUT-TO: INT. HALL - LATER
still in the same general area, still looking around every corner.
It's been too quiet too long, and the group senses that & They move
into
INT. OBSERVATION ROOM TWO - CONTINUOUS
It's in bad shape, so we might not recognize it as the chamber the
queen was in.
WREN
She's gone.
ST JUST
Who?
WREN
The Queen.
JOHNER
Good.
He is loooking into the room.the queen was kept in. A residue of slime
is all that's left here.
Beyond the queen's chamber is another observation room. Wren indicates
that they have to go through.
Suddenly a burner blast FIRES at them, just missing them as they duck.
They hear more blasts, not aimed at them, and screams.
SOLDIER (O.S.)
Pull back! Pull back!
OTHER SOLDIER (O.S.)
It's on me!
Ripley looks up and can just see two aliens making short work of a
group of soldiers.
Call instantly moves to attack, and Ripley grabs her, holds tight.
CALL
We've got to help them!
RIPLEY
Can't.
CALL
You bitch, let go of me!
She does, and Call rises.
The noise is gone. What she can see of the soldiers-is parts.
She is shaking at the vision when an alien RISES in front on the
soldiers. Call ducks back down, terrified.
Christie hisses at her.
CHRISTIE
You want to get yourself killed, then you run solo.
ST JUST
How many?
RIPLEY
At least two.
ST JUST
Think they heard us?
RIPLEY
Yep.
HILLARD
Fine by me ...
JOHNER
Yeah, let 'em come.
CHRISTIE
Wren. Any other way around?
Wren shakes his head.
CHRISTIE
We can't just walk in there.
WREN (thinking)
No. No, but they can.
CHRISTIE
Say again?
WREN
The cages all have failsafes. Liquid nitrogen. Get 'em to come to us
and I can freeze em.
CHRISTIE
Excellent. Get-ready.
Wren goes over to the failsafe button. The others look out at the
aliens.
CHRISTIE
Okay... (calls out) Hey!
VRIESS
Hey, guys!
JOHNER
Here, kitty...
The aliens react, start for the cage. Four 'of them. They reach the
edge of it and stop.
Look around, at each other..
But go nowhere.
DISTEPHMO
They're not coming.
JOHNER
Hey! Fresh meat here!
RIPLEY.
They know it's a trap.
RANE
Oh, bullshit!
CHRISTIE
What do we do?
JOHNER
Shoot the fucking things!
VRIESS
There's too many, and we don't have the angle.
RIPLEY
Bait.
CALL
What?
RIPLEY
Give em a reason to go in there. Throw somebody in.
HILLARD
Fuck you!
RIPLEY
DO we want to live? Give em her.
She indicates Call, who looks around, nervous at the lack of protest
about this idea.
Ripley points at Rane.
RIPLEY
Or the skinny one, it doesn't matter. We can't resist the smell of
meat.
CALL
We ?
JOHNER
Fuck, I'm with her! Give 'em Annalee!
CHRISTIE
Now hold on
DISTEPHMO
You people are insane.
JOHNER
Now you're not exactly in the club either, soldier.
People start pointing guns at each other.
RANE
Fuck you all, I'm not dying for you.
CALL
Stop this.
Ripley grabs her. Looks at the others.
RIPLEY
Come on! Do you want to live or not?
(to Call) It won't hurt long.
CALL (terrified)
Noo...
RIPLEY (to Wren)
NOW!
Wren hits the button just as three aliens are bounding across the cage
-- they're almost to the posse, people screaming, scrambling, when the
freezing gas hits, turning the beasts to statues.
The forth one sees this and flees, but St Just stands and put four
bullets in it from forty yards. It slumps over.
Everyone is silent, stunned. Breathing hard.
VRIESS (realizes)
Fear.
Ripley nods.
VRIESS
That's how they knew it was a trap. They couldn't smell the fear.
RIPLEY (looking at Call)
So I gave them some.
JOHNER (gleefully)
Son of a bitch!
He pops up and FIRES at the frozen aliens - - they EXPLODE into
fragments.
CUT TO: EXT. AURIGA
Gildihg through space, passing Jupiter's moons with dazzling speed.
CUT TO: INT. HALL LATER
Ripley and Call are on point. Ripley looks down the hall. Call is
staring at her, and
Ripley can feel the girls eyes on her back.
RIPLEY(without looking around)
Did you think I was going to... feed you to them?
CALL
I think you still might.
Ripley smiles. She may be right.
RIPLEY
I want to live.
CALL
And you don't care about anything else.
RIPLEY
No.
CALL (bitterly)
I guess you're more human than I thought.
RIPLEY
Why did you come here?
CALL
To kill you, remember? (after a beat) Because somebody has to.
RIPLEY
well it's not me. I did my time. Now I just want to...
She stops dead, staring at a door.
CLONING STORAGE FACILITY is written on it. Stencilled beneath that is
`numbers 1-7`.
Ripley stares. Tries the door, which opens.
DISTEPHMO
That's not the way.
CHRISTIE
Ripley, we got no time for sightseeing.
Ripley is looking down at her arm, at the 8 tattooed on it.
She looks at Call. Looks back at wren.
WREN
Ripley... don't.
She enters.
CUT TO: INT. CLONING STORAGE FACILITY - CONTINUOUS
She stands a moment, staring, before proceeding through it. Call
stands in the doorway, others crowding behind her. Every face registers
the horror of what they are seeing, but none more so than Ripley's
Numbers one through seven. The first failed efforts to clone Ripley.
They are lined up like museum exhibits -- or side show freaks.
Here is the fetal Ripley, the fetal alien visible through its
translucent chest.
In a jar.
Here is a prematurely old, diseased Ripley, withered blue skin cling to
Collapsed bones.
Here is an attempt to separate the alien and grow it without the host -
- boneless, bubbling tissue, weak and useless mouth rigored in midmew.
Each one more horrifying than the last, and the last the worst of all.
Ripley approaches, and stares at number seven.
A complete mixture of alien and human DNA.
A tortured, disgusting hybrid, half Ripley, half nightmare.
Hooked up wires and machines, it lies on the tilted-table, its head
nearly level with
Ripley's as she finally approaches it.
When it opens its eyes, they are hers.
it tuns its head ever so slightly to look at her. Recognises her.
Ripley cannot even speak. She begins to shake slightly looking at
number seven.
NUMBER SEVEN
Kill ... us ...
Ripley's eyes go saucered as it speaks speaks out of nothing resembling
a mouth.
Ripley staggers back a step, shaking now. This is too much to bear...
CALL
Ripley!
Ripley turns, slowly, still in a fever dream.
Call cocks the grenade launcher with a loud CRACK. Her eyes meet
Ripley's.
Call tosses it to Ripley as the crew steps back and even a catches it
Ripley FIRES, a grenade chugging to the end of room and BURSTING in
fire and noise, she FIRES another, tissue and steel exploding into
flame, she turns to number seven, hand shakes momentarily...And she
FIRES, the poor creature dissolving in a cloud of flame.
Freezing gas jets fill the room, extinguishing potential spread, but
the heart of the firestorm continues to rage in the chamber.
She backs out, the crew waiting for her outside.
The launcher falls loudly to the ground. Ripley turns to Wren, her
face rigid with pain.
Wren backs up a step, looking around him for protection that the others
have no thought of providing.
CALL
Ripley... Don't do it.
Ripley stops. weariness suffusing her expression.
RIPLEY
Don't do what?
The tension pases. Wren breathes a little sigh of relief.
Call PUNCHES him across the jaw, his head whipping around as collapses
to the ground.
Call starts down the hall, not even looking at him.
CALL
Don't do that.
Feeling his jaw, Wren actually smiles at the absurdity of all this.
It's kind of winning.
Christie helps him up.
CHRISTIE
Had it coming, Doc.
Johner looks in at the burning lab.
JOHNER
What's the big deal? Fucking waste of ammo.
ST JUST
Let's move before anything comes to check out the noise.
JOHNER
Chicks, man....
DISTEPHANO
We go down from here.
CHRISTIE (to Vriess)
We got to lose the chair. Vriess.
VRIESS
I know.
CHRISTIE
Kawlang maneuver, all right?
Vriess is pulling a coil of cords from the chair.
VRIESS
Just like old times...
CUT TO: INT. ROOM - LATER
A hatch opens. Ripley drops down, surveys the scene. Quiet dark,
empty.
Ripley comes up, Call behind her. Ripley sniffs, listens. Closes her
eyes. After a beat she starts further in and Call motions for others to
follow.
Slowly, they make their way down the corridor. Ripley, Cal ,Hillard ,
guns drawn.
Bringing up the rear is Christie, toting a shotgun.. He turn slowly,
alert, and we see that Vriess is strapped to his back facing the other
way, also with a shotgun.
CALL (to Ripley)
That lab... 1 can't imagine how that must feel.
RIPLEY
No. You can't.
Ripley looks down. The floor here is covered with a foot or so of dark
water.
Ripley steps into it, moves up a few paces. The others gingerly follow.
Vriess is facing the back. He looks up.
VRIESS
The cooling tanks. They must have blown during the trouble.
ANGLE: THE COOLING TANKS
We see the round underbelly of two huge tanks. There are gaping,
twisted holes in them.
JOHNER
The nasties couldn't have done it, could they?
HILLARD
What for...?
WREN
Down here. He is at the front with Ripley and-Call, where the water is
waste deep.
He looks down at a stairwell, just the top of the railing visible above
the murky water.
RIPLEY
There's no other way?
WREN
We're at the bottom of the ship. Some of the worst damage is down
here.
Most of the sections are sealed off.
RIPLEY
You're sure?
WREN
There's the noncom's entrance back there, but it's flooded too, and
it's a longer run.
CALL
He's right. We're gonna have to do it this way.
WREN
It's just through the kitchen, then up, maybe seventy feet.
RIPLEY
I don't like it.
ST JUST
What's to like?
CHRISTIE (to vriess)
You ready to get wet, partner?
VRIESS
Oh yeah.
HILLARD
You sure about the distance?
WREN
Yes.
CALL
No locked doors?
WREN
It's an open hall. Just keep left when you hit the bottom of the
staircase.
JOHNER
This sucks.
ANGLE: DI STEPHANO
He flips caps over the barrel of the gun, slides a panel over the
digital readout.
The burner is ready to go, watertight.
DISTEPHMO (to St Just)
You should secure'your weapons.
St Just holds up his two guns.
ST JUST
These are disposables. They can take it.
DISTEPHANO
Disposables. I heard about those. How many rounds?
ST JUST
Twenty. Split points, give you a good hole even at the smaller caliber.
DISTEPHANO
Cool.
ST JUST
They're big with hitters. 'Cause you throw em away after the job.
Nobody likes throwing away a weapon they're attached to. You know?
He smiles at Di Stephano, who looks a little uneasy about the turn the
conversation has taken.
He joins the others who are getting ready to dive..
CALL
Do I have to tell everyone to take a deep breath?
A couple of the guys smile.
VRIESS
Christie, do me a favor. When we hit the surface on the other side...
no backstroke. Okay?
CHRISTIE (laughing)
You'll be forever blowing bubbles. On three...
He counts down, the two suck in enormous breaths -- and dive right
behind Call and Ripley.
One by one the entire crew slips down into the black water.
CUT TO: INT. STAIRWELL\KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS
It's all underwater. Visiblity is poor. The crew move swiftly and
gracefully down the stairs and into the kitchen.
In here it's a tad labyrinthian, and the size of the room it darker.
Wren heads straight for the other end.
They swim. Safety is a good fifty feet away.
They are tense, concentrated. Swimming past dark spaces. Anything
could be hiding here.
Johner looks about him, very nervous. Dark spaces. He looks behind.
Three aliens are right behind him.
Panic blows half the air out of his mouth as he swings around and FIRES
at them, tags one as the other two swim off into shadows with horrible
ease.
Ripley, all the way to the stairs, sees. She hurries the others past
her.
They swim frantically for safety, Hillard Wren, Christie and Vriess.
Rane is coming along and alien hands grab at him from the darkness,
pull him into it.
Hillard FIRES in that direction, Johner bringing up the rear still
firing at the third one, wounding it but not scoring killshot.
Call is swimming up ther staircase, the growing light above indicating
the surface.
She is almost to it when she is IN THE WEB.
A net of translucent alien goo, it is spread just six inche below the
surface.
Call struggles the goo sticking to her she's running out of air -- as
Wren and Christie enconter the same thing -- they all try to tear
through it, but they are getting weaker.
Ripley looks back as the last of the crew is passing her, aliens close
behind.
She looks up to see the situation ab and quickly makes for the surface
-- but an alien GRABS her foot, holding her down. Now SHE is running
out of air KICKS at it, it lets go.
The others are fighting, Call pops her stilletto and cuts through, but
it's tough, she still can't get her head up --
--Di Stephano, off to the side, is drowning. Takes in a huge mouthful
of water and begins thrashing.
Ripley swims past everyone and grabs the hole Call cut, pulls it apart
with a mighty heave, she glides up through --
CLOSE UP: RIPLEY'S FACE
Just BREAKS the surface, she takes in a huge GASP of air, FACEHUGGER
CLAMPS DOWN ON HER.
Ripley goes back under, pulling at the thing as others break the
surface.
Wren comes up and a hugger LEAPS right at him ,but Call nails it in
four shots.
Christie and Vriess break surface and both begin FIRING, back to back,
in a circular sweep.
They decimate a number of eggs
ANGLE: UNDERWATER
Ripley pulls the face hugger with all her might -- it comes off, its
fingers singeing the sides of her face, leaving marks like warpaint.
Worse, its probing fleshy member pulls last of her throat, thrashing
horribly.
In utmost disgust, Ripley PULLS it APART. and the three aliens are
COMING RIGHT AT HER.
ABOVE - THE SURFACE
Most of the crew has gotten up out of the water. Christie holding a
facehugger inches from his face, others screaming, taking a bead on it.
CHRISTIE
Get it! Kill it!
CALL
The blood'll burn you! Throw it!
He does, and Johner nails it in midflight.
Hillard and Johner pull Di Stephano out of the water, but he is not
breathing.
ANGLE: UNDER THE SURFACE
Ripley is grabbed by an alien -- and St Just comes up behind her and
shoots it.
They swim up and away from the spreading, lethal bloodpool.
ANGLE: ABOVE THE SURFACE
They come up out of the water, and an alien rises right behind them.
Everyone who can, shoots it. It falls back into the water.
CHRISTIE
A trap! They set a goddamn ambush!
JOHNER
Give me that!
He pulls the burner off Di Stephano's body, even as Call is giving him
mouth to mouth.
Johner flips the gun open and FIRES at the water, the whole thing
SMOKING and sizzling with the electrical charge. we hear an alien wail
bubble from below the surface.
JOHNER (grinning feverishly)
Okay! Everybody out of the pool!
VRIESS
Let's get the fuck!
Di Stephano sputters back to life. Ripley picks him up with one hand,
HILLARD (to Wren)
Which way?
WREN
Up here.
He takes off, the others following.
WREN
Up through the lift shaft!
He stops at a pair of sliding doors, starts working the panel. Ripley
come up to the doors and pulls them apart with a grunt.
ST JUST
Company!
He's refering to the noise and shadow of approaching aliens.
She herds them into the shaft.
CUT TO: INT. LIFTSHAFT - CONTINUOUS
It goes down about four stories, and up seemingly forever.. Enough room
for or three
elevators, one of which is two stories below.
WREN
UP!
He starts climbing. It's not that hard -- there are ladders in each
shaft section.
Call comes up behind him. Ripley and others pair off on other ladders.
They climb fast, they're three stories up before the aliens begin
POUNDING on the metal door, it buckles under their might.
JOHNER
Move!
WREN
Not far!
Still POUNDING -- one alien gets its head in, looks up, hisses, pulls
it out.
ANGLE: LIFT
Wren comes to a cralwspace ledge. He climbs on. Set back a few feet
from the shaft is a small maintenance access door. works the keypad
beside it as Call climbs up behind him.
The aliens SMASH through the door, one of them SAILING across the shaft
to grab a pipe on the other side. Instantly four of them are swarming
up the walls, moving much faster on pipes and ridges than the humans
on ladders.
On one of the aliens a facehugger crawls, constantly moving about on
the adult alien's head like a frightened spider.
CALL
Hurry!
WREN
It's jammed! Shit! Gun!
She hands him her gun and without hesitation he SHOOTS HER THROUGH THE
CHEST.
She flies back and DOWN THE SHAFT, lands HARD on an elevator six
stories below.
Eyes wide and empty.
VRIESS
NOO!
He fires up at Wren, but Wren has punched in the code and slipped
through the opening door..
Ripley LEAPS through the air and grabs the ledge, hauling herself up
just in time to see the door shut. The lock lights turn red.
She SLAMS against the door, but to no avail.
The aliens are getting closer. St Just, the closest to the bottom,
suddenly lets go of the ladder. His knees hooked over a rung, he
drops, hangs up side down, his guns filling his hands.
He blows several holes in the nearest alien.
Ripley is furious, maybe surprised just how so. Suddenly an alien
RISES OVER THE LEDGE, it's not three feet away from her and she
SCREAMS, HURLS herself at it and they both go
FLYING OFF into-space, they hit the wall on the other side, they fall.
RIPLEY GRABS a pole, it practically tears her arm out of her socket but
she holds on, the alien isn't so lucky, it plummets unable to find
puchase. We see it fall past the unmoving body of Call.
ANGTE: CALLS FACE
As the facehugger CLAMPS onto it. Pauses. Pushes off a bit, two digits
probing Call's nostrils. Sensing no breath, the thing scurries away to
find a better host.
Another alien is fast approching Christie and Vriess. Vriess
frantically tries to reload.
VRIESS
It's on us!
Christie turns, aims -- Vriess grabs the ladder as Christie FIRES, but
the alien is too close, it grabs Christie, spurting blood all over him.
He SCREAMS, lets go of the ladder
Vriess takes the weight of both as Christie fires again, the alien
flying off and down the shaft.
HILLARD
We gotta go!
The last alien suddenly starts scurrying back down after his brothers.
RIPLEY
We're locked in.
JOHNER
Fuck!
PURVIS
How far to the next door?
DISTEPHANO
All the way.
RIPLEY
Then we climb.
They start, moving as fast as they can.
VRIESSS (to Christie)
You just hang on, man. I'll get us there.
He starts climbing up, impressively fast considering the burden hanging
from his back.
JOHNER (to Ripley)
Are they going for reinforcements?
RIPLEY
Fucked if I know.
They climb.
And climb, the minutes stretching out, still no door. Ripley easily
ahead of the rest.
Finally:
RIPLEY
I think I see the door.
PURVIS (exhausted)
Great.
Vriess is having increasing trouble. Hillard notices him lagging
behind, and why.
HILLARD
Vriess! Jesus!
Vriess is moving very quickly, considering. But the effort is becoming
too much.
VRIESS
We're coming...
Johner scrambles down next to Vriess.
he checks the pulse in Christie's neck.
Vriess, man... he's dead.
Refusing to hear it, Vriess struggles to climb further.
VRIESS
We'll get him to medlab... just a little while ...
Johner looks over at Hillard. Without saying a word, she pull out a
good-sized hunting knife, flicks it open.
She slices through the cord holding them together, and Christie's body
falls free.
Vriess shuts his eyes, feeling it. ANGLE: DOWN THE SHAFT
There is silence as Christie's body drops down the black abyss
Until, from up the shaft next to where he fell, we see two ALIENS
COMING UP.
PURVIS
Fuck! Company!
Hillard looks up the shaft.
HILLARD
How much further?,
JOHNER
Too fucking far. Let's G0 !
They start to climb, but the aliens are making much better time.
A loud CLACKING sounds from the bottom of the shaft. A few of them
look down.
ANGLE: DOWN THE SHAFT
The aliens are still coming, but suddenly the lift passes them heading
up at high speed.
JOHNER
They can work the elevators? Is there anything fucking else we should
know about them?!
He's addressing this at Ripley, but she's as puzzled as the rest of
them.
The lift comes up to them, stops suddenly as emergency brake is
flipped.
They wait, guns ready. Out of the hatch pops Call, not especially dead.
CALL
Get on!
A moment of stunned silence, then they all jump on top of the lift.
Call drops back down inside.
An alien comes up level with the lift, prepares to jump. St Just
shoots the shit out of it.
HILLARD
Where are the others?
CUT TO: INT. LIFT - CONTINUOUS
Call flips the brake off, and the lift shoots up. She is holding her
jacket closed around her chest wound, but it doesn't seem to bother
her particularly much.
ANGLE: ON TOP
Everybody holds on as the lift flies up the shaft.
ANGLE: INSIDE
Call waits for the signal to stop and an alien PUNCHES THROUGH the
bottom of the lift. Call yells as it gets its head and an arm through,
clawing for her.
ANGLE: ON THE BOTTOM
We see the other half of the alien clinging to the lift.
ANGLE: ON TOP
Ripley sees the door approaching
RIPLEY
stop!
ANGLE: INSIDE
Call hits the emergency button and the lift stops halfway in front of
the door -
- giving both Ripley and Call access. Bu the alien is still grabbing
for her --
Ripley pries open the doors again, the crew pouring out into the hall.
Ripley follows, jumps down and opens the lift doors
The alien hisses at Ripley as she pulls Call out -- the -alien grabs
Call's ankle, but
Ripley wrenches her free.
They roll out but the alien is still fighting, Pulling itself inside
the lift.
Ripley grabs Hillardl's shotgun. Levels it at the cables holding the
lift. FIRES.
The lift PLUMMIETS, the alien still halfway in.
It shoots down the shaft -- picking up the second alien on its way
down, neither beast able to get its bearing and get out of the way as--
The lift SMASHES into the bottom of the shaft, crushing both the Aliens
to jelly.
ANGLE: UPPER DOOR
Johner triumphantly sticks his head in the shaft.
JOHNER
Eat that, fuckneck!!
They all breathe hard, exhausted, before they can muster for the next
stretch.
Call stands with her back to them.
VRIESS
Baby, am I glad to see you. I thought dickbag took you out for sure.
Are you, hurt?
CALL
I'm fine.
DISTEPHANO
You got body armour on?
CALL
Yeah. Come on.
Ripley isn't buying.
RIPLEY
You were Gunshot. I saw.
CALL
I'm fine!
Ripley spins her around. Call stares at Ripley, sullenly a small
trickle of milky white fluid comes from her nostril. Ripley looks down.
ANGLE: CALL'S CHEST
Wren has indeed made a messy hole here, but where blood and bone should
be there is a tangle of synthorganic wiring. To state the obvious:
A robot.
JOHNER
Call's a goddam sythetic!
HILLARD
Son of a bitch. Little Annalee's just full of surprises.
RIPLEY (quietly)
I should have known.
ST JUST
Couldn't smell this one out?
RIPLEY
No, I mean... all that crap about being human - there's no one so
zealous as a Born Again.
VRIESS (to Call)
You're an LM7, aren't you? Is that it?
CALL
Leave me alone.
Her voice shocks her more than anyone her vocal track slip affected by
the wounds.
The voice is a shade slow, and echoes strangely.
VRIESS
Call ....
CALL (bitterly)
Yes.
ST JUST
LM7? Shit. That explains a lot.
YRIESS (to Ripley)
The latest and best. They were supposed to revitalize the synthetic
industy.
Instead they buried it.
Ripley looks at the girl.
RIPLEY
They were-too good.
VRIESS
Oh yeah. Overrode their own behavioral inhibitors. Didn't feel like
being told what to do.
The government ordered a recall. Fucking massacre.
HILLARD
1 always heard there were a few that got out alive, but man... I never
thought I'd see one.
Johner starts laughing.
JOHNER
Oh, Christ. Doing fucking nickel and dime border runs, selling second
hand junk to the farm belt... and we're carrying the most expensive
piece of contraband in the system.
That's rich.
PURVIS (getting anxious)
It's great, she's a toaster oven... Can we leave now?
Vriess tries to touch Call's wound.
VRIESS
Let me see.
Call pulls away.
JOHNER
Yeah, get your socket wrench, Vriess.
Maybe she just needs an oil change.
RIPLEY
Let's go.
They start off again, Johner and St Just bringing up the rear
JOHNER
Can't believe I almost fucked the thing.
ST JUST
Yeah, like you've never fucked a robot.
ANGLE: RIPLEY
Letting DiStephano lead.
RIPLEY
DiStephano. Where are we?
DISTEPHANO
Upper decks... Storage... the chapell's up here, not much else.
RIPLEY
Can we get to the ship?
DISTEPHANO
Well, we're a ways out,of the way, but I think we can get through to
the garden.
From there, it's down a few levels, it's do-able.
What if the fucking doctor gets there first?
VRIESS
It's a good point.
DISTEPHANO
Shit.
They have reached an access door. Debris blocks the way.
RIPLEY
Another way?
DISTEPHANO
Uh, yeah. Through the wall. We'll have to get one of these panels
off. It'll take a while.
(to Vriess) You got tools?
VRIESS
Yeah, but no torch.
JOHNER
Fucking blow the door!
HILLARD
Assface, We're on the top of this thing.
(pointing to the ceiling)
That's hull.
VRIESS
What about Wren? if he gets in the computer he can really fuck us
around.
RIPLEY
We have to get in too.
DISTEPHANO
There's no access console on this level. We'd have to-backtrack.
HILLARD
Fuck that.
DISTEPHANO
And I don't have the security access that Wren does anyway.
Ripley turns to Call.
RIPLEY
Call.
CALL
No. I can't.
JOHNER.
Bullshit. She's a damn well talking machine.
CALL
There's another way.
DISTEPHMO
Just tell her to access it on remote.
VRIESS
Shit, that's right. Any of the new model droids can access the
mainframe.
JOHNER
Just by blinking.
CALL
I can't.
ST JUST
No time to get coy, Annalee.
CALL
I can't. I burned my modem drive. We all did.
VRIESS
You can still patch in manually. You know that.
Call looks over at the group, staring at her. She knows she doesn't
have a choice.
DISTEPHANO
There's ports in the chapel.
RIPLEY
Come on.
(to the others)
You get started on that wall.
CUT TO: INT. CHAPEL - CONTINUOU@
Ripley and Call enter the small room. Ripley sits in one of the pews,
pulls out a bible.
it somewhat resembles a Newton Under the leather flap is a screen
reading.:
HOLY BIBLE. PRE START.
Ripley pulls out the cord from the bible's port, holds it up
CALL
Don't make me do this.
RIPLEY
Don't make me make you.
CALL
I don't want to go in there.
RIPLEY
Get over it.
CALL
It's like... your insides are liquid. It's not real.
RIPLEY
You can blow the ship. Before it reaches Earth. Kill them all. Just
give us time to get
out first.
That convinces Call. She pulls up her sleeve, and begins. pushes a
part of her forearm,
just below the crook of her elbow. It has a spring release catch, and
a small panel rises
up with two computer ports on it. She takes the cable from Ripley and
plugs it in.
It looks almost like she's mainlining heroin.
She cocks her head.
CALL
Dammit.
RIPLEY
Anything?
CALL
Hold on.
She reaches in her chest, reconnects some tubes. She twitches then
shuts her eyes.
It's beginning.
She begins speaking very rapidly, eyes still shut.
CALL
Breach in sector seven sector three sector nine unstable -- engines
operating at eighty
six percent -forty six minutes until earthdock.
Her voice has a slight mechanical quality as she rattles this off. Her
eyes open.
CALL
We burned too much energy -- I can't make critical mass. I can't blow
it.
RIPLEY
Then crash it.
TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
As the crew works at getting the wall panel off,.
TO: INT. CHAPPEL A BIT LATER
CALL
Ground level recalibrated... new destination 760, 403. Done. Forty
one minutes until impact.
RIPLEY
Try to clear us a path to the ship.
CALL
Tracking movement in sublevels six through nine. Video is down.
Attempted rerouting
nonfunctional, wait, partial visual in waste tank 5, unauthorized
presence...
VRIESS
Unauthorized?
CALL
Nonhuman.
RIPLEY
How many?
Please wait.. emergency override on. console 45V, level one...
handprint ID...
(like herself)
It's Wren. He's almost at the Betty.
RIPLEY
And how do you feel about that?
CUT TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
Wren is holding his hand to the scanner, just as Call described. The
red light turns
green and we hear the locks the door crack open.
FATHER
Emergency override validated.
The door begins to rise. Looking around him, Wren waits to through.
The door grinds to a halt, still too low to climb under. The lights go
out, only the faintest glow coming from various instrument panels.
wren's expression drains.
WREN
Father, reboot systems on 45V, authorization 'starling'.
Nothing happens. Wren looks about him, beginning to sweat.
Did the aliens do this?
WREN
Father, locate power drain, report.
Father?
CALL - (on the system)
Father's dead, asshole.
Wren spins in shock at the sound of Call's voice. it,s everywhere
around him.
She has downloaded her vocal matrix place of Father's.
(She's not just speaking over a PA, she is the PA.)
The door SLAMS back-down, locks clack into place. The doors behind him
open up,
emergency lighting pulsing along toward him.
CALL\SHIP
Intruder on level one... all aliens please proceed to level one.
Wren is freaking. He turns back down the corridor, looking about him
wildly.
CUT TO: INT. CHAPEL - CONTINUOUS
Call pulls the cord out of her port.
RIPLEY
You got a mean strak.
CALL
It's done. That should hold the fuck.
This as her voice track slips even more. She works the wires in her
cheest, trying
to fix it.
RIPLEY
Let me see
CALL
Don't touch me.
Ripley backs off.
CALL
You must think this is pretty funny.
RIPLEY
Yes. But I'm finding a lot of things funny lately. And I'm not sure
they are.
CALL
Why do you go on living? How can you stand it? How can you stand...
yourself?
Ripley shrugs.
RIPLEY
Not so hard. Not much choice.
CALL
At least there's part of you that's human. I'm just... fuck. Look at
me....
She looks at the hole in her chest, the white and sticky fibers.
CALL
I'm disgusting.
Her voice is at its slowest here, low and eerie. It's a mechanical
problem, but
it sounds just like despair.
RIPLEY
Do you dream?
CALL
I ... we have neural processors that run through.... (stops) Yes.
RIPLEY
When I sleep, I dream about it. Them. Every night. All around me ...
in me.
I used to be afraid to dream, but I'm not anymore.
CALL
Why?
RIPLEY
Because no matter how bad the dreams get ... when I wake up it's always
worse.
Purvis enters.
PURVIS
I guess we're almost there.
RIPLEY
Right.
He exits again. Call finishes fiddling with her internal wiring. We
hear her voice slip back to normal as she says:
CALL
Let's get going.
CUT TO: INT. TUNNEL
As they come one by one through the wall.
DISTEPHANO
Not far now.
PURVIS
God, I'm so tired...
JOHNER
Yeah, well, we'll sleep when we're dead.
Ripley follows him through.
RIPLEY
Don't count on it.
The rest of them come through and walk into:
INT. THE GARDEN CONTINUOUS
The Garden runs nearly half a mile straight across, and then down on a
terraced slope.
Everywhere are different kinds of plants: trees, vegetable plants,
exotic and experimental hybrids.
Access paths crisscross the beds.
It's huge, the single biggest space on the ship. Yet the low ceiling,
laticed with grow-lamps now dim in nightcycle, and prodigeous
undergrowth make it labyrinthian, almost claustrophobic.
From where the crew is, they can barely see where it slopes down.
JOHNER
What's this fucking deal?
DISTEPHMO
This supplies most of the food for the unit.
VRIESS (holding a lucious ripe pear)
You guys got something against spam?
DISTEPHMO
And there's some lab work here too. Hybridization.
RIPLEY
At the other end?
DISTEPHMO
Runs down to the by the waste tanks. We can get to the dock from
there. You, okay?
Ripley is holding her head. She shuts her eyes.
CALL
What is it?
Ripley shakes it off.
RIPLEY
Nothing. I'm okay.
She looks out at the jungle, they have to cross.
CALL
We should get moving.
ST JUST
Hey! Check it out!
He has come upon a small loading truck, a sort of platform jeep.
Vriess checks it out, takes a huge bite of his pear.
VRIESS
Beats walking.
He hauls himself up-into it. Everybody piles onto the back flatbed just
a foot or so off the ground and just big enough to hold everyone but
Vriess, Call and Ripley, who pushes into the driver's seat.
VRIESS
Quickly and quietly, people.
Ripley stares unconprehendingly at the controls for a momen till Call
flips on the ignition.
RIPLEY
Thank,you.
The jeep pulls out. It's electric, so it emits just a low hum as she
takes it at a good clip toward the other side.
The access paths are just a bit wider than the jeep itself, plants
rising tall all around them.
Ripley concentrates on driving.
The pass through as section of wheat , then of corn. As they come to
another section,
The crew's expressions change to one of pleased disbelief.
You gotta be fucking me. St Just! Is this real?
ST JUST
So this is what heaven looks like.
We see they have driven into a healthy section of CANNABIS plants
growing ten feet high.
The car screeches to a halt. Ripley's at a crossroads of sorts.
RIPLEY
Which way?
HILLARD (looking at the plants)
I always wondered where the military got its funding...
An alien SHOOTS out of the brush and lands on Hillard everyone SCREAMS
-- Ripley SLAMS her foot on the pedal
The jeep PEELS OUT, as more emerge from the brush.
HILLARD
Get it off MeeeaaaaAAGGHRE!!!!
It bores into her head before St Just can blow it away. It's head
exploding in fragments of bone and sizzling blood as it falls away from
the jeep, Hillard's body still clutched in arms.
Another leaps out at them, but the jeep is going a good clip and it
misses.
The crew peppering it with bullets.
They look,about them, guns ready.
ANGLE: IN THE BRUSH
Something runs parallel to them in the plants.
ANGLE: ABOVE
Two more run on top of the grow-lamps, pacing them as well.
One DROPS DOWN -- Ripley SWERVES out of the way, driving in the plants.
They are varied, exotic -- and there are aliens behind half of them.
The crew BLASTS away all around them Ripley drives a drunkard's path
through the brush, avoiding trees that dot the scape.
An alien DROPS onto the hood, another grabs the side -- Vries takes out
the first, blowing it off, but the second grabs Johner, he goes flying
over the side,.dropping his gun.
St Just is too preoccupied with his own problems on the othe to see
that Johner is being
dragged, the alien still clutching onto him.
Shots bang out, ripping into the alien, which lets go. Johner looks up
to see Purvis holding Johner's gun.
Johner drags himself back on.
One jumps down onto St Just, tears a good chunk out of his midsection
before he dusts it.
Another alien jumps on the hood just as the jeep SAILS over first ledge
of the terraced slope, comes-down hard enough knock it off, SAILS over
the next -- the crew can barely hang on as the jeep crashes down slope
after slope.
Ripley swerves back onto the road, the jeep sliding over onto the steps
beside it, rocking violently as they shoot down the remainder of slope,
the aliens close on their heels.
Still blasting away at the beasts, the crew is able to put little
distance between them as they come to the end of the garden. Here it
divides into three sections, all open halls with access for the jeep.
RIPLEY
Which way?
DISTEPRMO (looking over)
Left! Left!
She swerves left, the jeep-bouncing into the hall
INT. HALL CONTINUOUS
Where windows running along either side look out onto black space.
Ripley drives as far as she can, till a staircase -- going -- fills her
vision, too steep
for the jeep. She SLAMS on brakes. the jeep spinning out and coming to
a halt.
The crew piles out, Di Stephano grabbing Vriess. At the other end of
the hall, the aliens
can be seen approaching.
The crew BLASTS at them, the aliens, blood splattering the narrow hall.
ANGLE: THE BLOOD
Eating into the walls. the floor.
CALL/Ship
Warning. potential hullbreach. Clear sector.
DISTEPHANO (indicating the steps)
Down here!
They start down -- all but St Just. He gets out of the jeep with
difficulty.
Looks down at his wound.
Johner looks around to see him still standing atop the steps
JOHNER
St Just! Come on, man.
St Just looks down at the wound. Back at Johner. He walks calmly away,
towards the aliens.
CALL
St Just!
ST JUST
You go.
He looks at the appraching aliens.
ST JUST
I'm bored.
CALL\SHIP
Warning. Evacuate sector.
A moment, then the crew takes off.
St Just takes a handful of pills, pops them into his mouth. Only the
slightest grin suffuses his face ,as he waits for the aliens.
They close on him, and he raises his guns.
CALL\SHIP
warning...
CUT TO:
INT HALL NEARBY - CONTINUOUS
The crew runs full out.
DISTEPHANO
We have to get out of the sector!
RIPLEY
Where!
DISTEPHANO
There!
He points at a door that's down two flights and across the hall.
CUT TO: INT. HALL CONTINUOUS
The aliens close, and St Just FIRES, blasting away with bot guns.
Aliens writhe on the
floor before him, still they cover the bodies of their brothers, still
he fires,
Call\ship monotones of warning in sharp contrast to the chaos
-- St Just fires until both guns are empty. In one smooth motion he
drops them both
and jerks his wrists and TWO-MORE disposable guns fly into his palms
and he blasts away
ANGLE: THE BLOOD
Eating through the hull.
ANGLE: THE CREW
desperately racing for the door.
ANGLE: ST JUST
Firing with quiet glee.
ANGLE: THE CREW
The first of them are through the door.
ANGLE: St JUST
The aliens are getting closer, but still he mows them down Both his
guns click, spent.
ST JUST
Damn.
CALL\SHIP
Warning --
and BOOM!!!!, the hall BURSTS OPEN, everything explodes into space, the
wind rushes out as
BOOM!!!, the whole garden sector rips open, sucked out, as
ANGLE: RIPLEY
is the last to get out, but the pressure change SUCKS HER she flies
backwards, the section door coming down just in time as she SLAMS into
it, the door closing fully as she falls, lack of pressure sucks at the
door itself, it creaks and be inward slightly, but it holds.
The others have exited into the next hall. They've been tossed about,
but not as badly.
Call stops, runs back to Ripley, helps her up. Ripley is dazed; the
door hit the back of her head solidly.
CALL
Can you walk? RIPLEY
I think I...
CALL
I'm not fucking carrying you
Ripley doesn't even hear her; something else drowns Call out. Ripley
puts her hands over her ears.
RIPLEY
Mistake ... mistake...
CALL
Ripley.
RIPLEY
I can hear them, in the hive... it's close... We're on the hive.
CALL
Jesus. Come on.
RIPLEY
I can hear them... the queen...
CALL
What... ?
RIPLEY
She's in pain.
They CRASH UP through the floor panels, six of them, surrounding the
two women.
Call can barely spin before Ripley GRABS her and HURLS her fifteen feet
down the corridor, out of harm's way.
The aliens close on Ripley. She struggles but she's still weak. One
slams her onto the ground call recovers, looks back at Ripley
As the aliens drag her unconscious body back down under the floor.
CALL
RIPLEY!
CUT TO: INT. AIR VENT - CONINUOUS
Dark, cramped, and already covered with a hardening layer of resin.
Skittering, insectile motion at one end heralds the aliens, as two of
them crawl rapidly along. The third craw upside down, the
semiconscious Ripley draped over its chest If she were awake, and
out.vf her mind, she could be kissin the beast.
Her eyes flutter open, but she is obviously still groggy.
ANGLE: RIPLEY'S POV
Alien head, dark tunnel passing beneath.
Scuttling through a small maze, the aliens come out into:
INT. WASTE TANK 5 - CONTINUOUS
A vast, dark chamber, entirely encrusted with alien goo. air vent opens
about three quarters of the way up the chamber. The aliens pour out and
imediately scuttle UP, carrying Ripley to the top of the chamber.
They circle her and begin secreting resin, spinning a web around her.
The resin comes out of ther backs in spits and globs.
It isn't pleasant, and Ripley struggles feebly as they begin to cocoon
her.
CUT TO: INT. ANTECHAMBER CONTINUOUS
The crew piles through it on their way to the loading dock.
Call brings up the rear, still looking back regretfully.
She hesitates, and Purvis takes hold of her arm.
PURVIS
We got to be moving, miss. Best gift you can give her right now is a
quick death.
CALL
It's not right...
PURVIS
I've been saying that all day, we need your help.
A moment more, and she heads out with him.
CUT TO: WASTE, TANK 5 - CONTINUOTJS
The aliens have finished webbing Ripley, and climb away.
When it is done she finds herself basically hung from the ceiling, her
legs encased and glued with glistening strands to the roof. She hangs
therefore at an angle, looking down on the chamber.
And so it is with her, as she swims to full consciousness, we get our
first real look at where we are.
There are no less than ten people strung up exactly as Ripley is,
encircling the chamber, and all looking some forty feet down at:
The Queen. Lying on her back at the bottom of the-chamber, belly
swollen and distended.
She is herself partially cocooned, strapped down to the at the edge of
a black pool of blood and ichor. Her head moves slowly back and forth,
in delierium of pain.
There are a four or five aliens tending her, spinning goo around her,
vomiting blood onto her belly. They might be serving her, or
imprisoning her. Both, in fact.
There is one thing missing from this tableau.
RIPLEY (softly)
No eggs ...
GEDIMAN (OS)
Multiple reproductive systems.
Ripley turn's slowly, to see the person next to her. It's Gediman,
looking wane and haggard.
He may be speaking to her but he stares straight ahead, his eyes
glowing with near insanity.
GEDIMAN
Complete asexual reproductive cycle, self-impregnating, we found six
different sets of ovaries in her. Egg laying is the first cycle,
immature. Redundancies, redundancies
... she'll bring forth legion.
RIPLEY
They didn't impregnate you?
Now he looks at her, regret and glee at what has happened battling for
his expression.
GEDIMAN
No... they've just been draining me.
She looks down, to see
ANGLE : GEDIMAN'S FEET
As blood from various wounds seeps slowly past his toes, dripping into
the pool.
A keening SHRIEK comes out of the queen, as her limbs begin thrashing.
The aliens around her back off slightly.
The bulge in her belly starts moving.
Ripley starts struggling with her bonds, terror and determination in
her.eyes.
RIPLEY
I'm getting out of here. Goddamnit, I'm getting the fuck out of here!
He looks at her, the last glimmerof his sanity sinking beyond the
horizon.
GEDIMAN
Don't you want to see what happens next?
CUT TO: INT: LOADING DOCK - CONTINUOUS
The crew rushes in, heads for the Betty.
JOHNER
How long till we can get airborn?
VRIESS
I'll need Call to patch in to the ship again, open the hatch.
CALL
Right.
JOHNER
We hit atmo in a few minutes, only gonna make it harder.
They all run on board
INT. THE BETTY
and head for the cockpit. DiStephano deposits Vriess in a wheelchair.
CALL
Johner, take Purvis to the freezer.
JOHNER
All right.. Nap time, buddy.
A GUNSHOT and Purvis goes flying, blood spurting out of his shoulder,
Johner draws but
Wren emerges from the shadows too fast.
Wren grabs Call and very carefully holds his gun to her back right
below her shoulderblades.
WREN
Fuck with me and I put a bullet where her brain is!
Johner stands, uncertain.
WREN
DiStephano! Take their weapons.
DISTEPHANO
Begging your pardon, sir, but eat my fuck.
DiStephano aims at Wren. Wren backs up a step.
WREN
Drop it! Drop it or we all die together!
Heaped in the, corner, Purvis suddenly jerks forward. His eyes go
wide.
CUT TO: INT. WASTE TANK 5 CONTINUOUS
Ripley is frantically trying to pull at her bonds. It's just beginning
to work.
But the noise in here is getting worse, the aliens franitcally agitated
as the Queens belly begins moving more violently. SHRIEKS, and RIPLEY
does as well, from effort or sympathy, it is hard to tell, as
THE QUEENS BELLY POPS OPEN. Blood shoots everywhere, burning into the
walls.
And all the screaming stops. The movement stops. Even Ripley stops.
Silence.
Something emerges from the wound.
An alien, to be sure, but nothing we've seen so far, its forelegs arch
out of its back like spiders legs, its back legs set on enormous
haunches, thick and powerful.
Its head is long, eyeless, like the others, but along its white expanse
red veins, coming out of the skin and running like thick black hairs to
the back.
It has retracted pincers at the side of head that come out when its
tongue does.
Its much bigger the the others, nearly the size of the queen herself.
And it's bone white.
GEDIMAN
Beautiful.... beautiful butterfly...
He is crying with revelatory joy. Ripley is not. Grimacing the sight
and smell of the new beast, she begins pulling again at her bonds.
One of the soldiers, at the 'other end of the room from Ripley wakes
up.
Dangling uselessly at his side is a rifle -- the real deal, not a
burner.
SOLDIER
No, God...
He SCREAMS in uncomprehending horror. The newborn stops, tilting its
head:
It LEAPS up to the ceiling in a second, quick and effortless as a
monstrous flea.
Leaps again and lands on the screaming soldier, gripping his sides with
its four forelegs as he screams lustily.
pincers SWING out and pin either side of his head.. His eyes go wide
as:
Its tongue SHOOTS into his throat. Stays there, and we watch it drain
the blood from his body. We can see it, see its stomach swell, red
tinged, as his body goes
blue and slack. His rifle drops into the black pool.
Gediman stares, transfixed, and it LANDS ON HIM.
CUT TO: INT. BETTY - CONTINUOUS
Johner's gun drops to the floor.
Everyone backs off.
WREN
The fucking robot is going to plug back into the Auriga and land it
according to standard operational procedure.
CALL
No she's not.
DISTEPHMO
You're fucking nuts. You still want to bring those things back to
earth?
JOHNER
Have you been paying any attention today?
WREN
I can handle the animals!
CALL
Fucking shoot me.
WREN
Shut up!!!
And Purvis LAUNCHES from the corner, screaming, jumps on wren - Wren
gets off a couple of shots -- nails DiStephano in the face. The
soldier drops like a sack.
The other shots hit the ship, Call dives for cover as Purvis SLAMS his
fist across Wren's face, Wren fires again and Jo is on the ground,
rolling, grabbing his gun --
Purvis is a man possessed. He grabs Wren's gunhand and SMAS it against
an instrument panel, bone cracking audibly as wren drops the gun.
Purvis jerks. Blood blooms in his chest.
Everybody stops, mesmerized. wren drops to his knees, going for the
gun, and Purvis grabs him from behind, pulls him so that the back of
Wren's head is against his chest.
Purvis jerks again. It takes Wren a moment to understand what's
happening.
They both scream.
Then alien BURSTS out of Purvis's chest, STRAIGHT INTO WRENS SKULL.
Everyone else is still frozen. Then the little critter bursts out of
Wrens face, flying straight at Vriess. CUT TO: INT. WASTE TANK 5 -
CONTINUOUS
Ripley TEARS one of her arms free as the newborn feeds beside her.
Gediman is already a shell.
Having drained the scientist, it leaps blindingly fast onto the
ceiling. Looks around.
Targets Ripley.
It has no eyes, but she can feel them on her anyway. She rips at her
bonds with a terrible effort -- the newborn LEAPS at her and she PULLS
FREE with a scream, PLUNGING the thirty feet to the pool as the alien
flies over her, missing, landing on the far wall instead.
Ripley disappears beneath the surface of the water.
The newborn turns its head, trying to locate its lost prey. other
aliens scutter closer to the pool.
Ripley stands up out of the pool, covered in blood, HOISTING THE
SOLDIERIS GUN.
Killshriek rising from her throat as she FIRES, taking out a host of
aliens in a single sweep, just tagging the newborn as it leaps out of
the way. Aliens jump at her, trying to kill and trying to protect the
newborns, but she blows them out of the air.
It feels pretty good.
A few shots go wild, and punch big holes in the side of the tank.
Light streams in through them. Ripley sees -- and continues firing in
that direction.
She makes a big enough hole that she can run and SMASH through to
INT. BY TANK - CONTINUOUS
rolling and coming up in an instant. She looks around her. exit this
way, but there is a vent above her.
The newborn's head lunges at her, the small hole making it impossible
for the creature to get all the way through. But it wriggles,
pushing...
Ripley jumps up, grabbing a pipe, and KICKS open the vent grate,
throwing herself up the vertical shaft with astonishing ease.
CUT TO: INT. BETTY - CONTINUOUS---
Vriess is scrambling away, knocking over things to avoid the baby
alien.
Johner SHOOTS at the creature as it speeds-towards Vriess.
CALL
Don't shoot it! Betty's hull is too thin!
JOHNER
Look out!
it knocks over cannisters as it speeds across the table and behind some
instruments. VRIESS
Where'd it go?
CALL
Don't shoot it!
JOHNER
Fuck that!
It LEAPS out of the darkness and heads straight for Call, she stumbles
back, trips -- it comes at her, leaps right at her face, she pulls her
hand back -- and-flicks her wrist The stilletto pops out as the creatu
flies at it, the blade slides right into its mouth, ramming eight
inches through its innards before it pokes out the other end.
Blood spurts on Call, on the floor. The creature wriggles and finally
falls free as the stilletto melts inside it.
JOHNER
Vriess! Get behind the fucking wheel!
CUT TO: INT. VERTICAL AIR SHAFT - CONTINUOUS
Ripley is climbing up the cramped vent with the speed and agility of an
alien.
Unfortunately, so are the aliens, twenty feet below her. Two drones in
front, with the newborn sqeezing close behind.
Ripley grabs a pole and her hand begins to steam, it's so hot. She
cries out, lets go... then looks down. Grabs the pole again and,
ignoring the searing agony, pulls, pulls...
RIPS out of the wall, burning steam GUSHING out below her, slowing down
the aliens.
She continues climbing, then kicks through a grate.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE
The Auriga races toward:
EARTH. But not as we've seen it.
The planet is still blue, but almost two thirds of it is obscured by a
giant orbitting latticework of metal, a part shell that rotates sligtly
faster than the planet itself.
The Auriga heads for a section of exposed earth. Not long now.
CUT TO: INT. ANTE CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Ripley drops to the ground and heads for the dock.
CALL/SHIP
Airlock doors closing. Stand clear.
RIPLEY
No!
She doesn't bother to try the door, she HURLS herself through the
window, landing
INT. DOCKING BAY
in a hail of glass.
She is on the platform that. runs the length of the dock. Betty. is
barely visible past the far end, - sinking into the airlock as the
massive airlock doors. slide slowly shut.
RIPLEY
NO!!
A SLAM against the metal door behind her tells her the aliens are here.
She picks herself up and RUNS -- and she can run fast.
Speeds across the platform, faster, faster, the Betty sinks of sight as
the airlock doors move closer together, fifteen feet apart, ten...
Ripley reaches the edge of the platform and LEAPS, just hurls herself
off of the platform, sails through the air, thirty, forty feet, and
down, the airlock doors thirty feet below almost closed
She DROPS right through just before they close, falls another fifteen
feet and lands
-- WHAM!! -- on top of-the Auriga, hard, rolls, lies there in extremes
of pain.
CUT TO:
INT. BETTY - CONTINUOUS
The crew look up at the sound.
VRIESS
Something's on us!
JOHNER
Forget it! we'll shake it off on descent.
Airlock secure. Outer doors opening... . CUT TO:
INT. AIRLOCK - CONTINUOUS
Ripley tries to pick herself up, is momentarily too wiped. breathes
heavily,
gets to her knees.
ANGLE: FROM ABOVE-
we see Ripley crawling toward the hatch, and the huge outer airlock
door opening beneath the ship. Blue sky and wind the screen below.
ANGLE: RIPLEY
Struggling to get to the hatch.
RIPLEY
God'...
And above her, through a window into the docking bay, we see the
newborn appear.
CUT TO: INT. BETTY - CONTINUOUS
CALL
Almost there...
JOHNER
We got about forty seconds till we kiss the ground!
Go full thrust on the downdraft! We'llget clear!
JOHNER
It's gonna be fucking close.
CALL\SHIP
Warning. Procedural interruption. Ship not leveling for vertical
drop. Braking
system nonfunctional. Collision imminent.
JOHNER
No shit.
CALL
Almost there.
CUT TO:
INT. AIRLOCK - CONTINUOUS
The airlock doors are almost.. completely open. Ripley has reached the
hatch, but cannot get it open. She pounds on it frustration -- and the
newborn SMASHES through the window,
JUMPS DOWN onto the ship.
RIPLEY
NOO!! NOOO!
CUT TO:
INT. BETRY - CONTINUOUS
CALL
NOW!!!
Vriess punches it
CUT TO:
INT. AIRLOCK\EXT. SKY CONTINUOUS
and the Betty SHOOTS DOWN out of the airlock -- Ripley and the newborn
just barely hold on, Ripley's body thrown straight up as she grips the
hatch door for dear life.
The newborn has a better grip -- it has more things to grip with but it
too struggles with the sudden drop.
ANGLE: THE ATJRIGA
Speeding toward the earth. The Betty SHOOTS out the airlock and nearly
smashes into the bottom of the ship as it passes, like trash thrown out
of a speeding car.
INT. BETTY
The Akiriga passes, huge above them
VRIESS
Look out!
CALL
I am!
EXT. THE BETTY
The ship swerves as Call expertly avoids the Auriga -- and see Ripley
and the newborn on top, still fighting for purchase
The Betty gets clear, leveling out --
The Auriga still heads straight for earth, as the terrain below becomes
clear -
- deserted, snow covered mountains
ANGLE: RIPLEY
Hanging on
ANGLE: CALL
Fighting to control the Betty
ANGLE: INSIDE THE AURIGA
Deserted halls, passageways bodies, and,aliens milling here and there
CALL\SHIP
Collision in six seconds ... five... four...
(softly)
Here we go...
ANGLE: THE ATJRIGA
SMASHES INTO THE GROUND, a deafening exposion eating the massive ship
in seconds, utter cacophony.
ANGLE: THE BETTY
Flying away, the thundering firestorm behind it.
ANGLE: CALL
An instrument panel suddenly SPARKS beside her warning lights flash,
the ship shaking as if under massive turbulence
CALL
Johner! Fire!
VRIESS
Vector control's fucked! we gotta put down!
CALL
Find me a path!
Johner sprays foam on the fire. There is a loud BANGING heard far
overhead.
What the fuck is that?
ANGLE: RIPLEY
is slamming her fist on the hatch doors, hanging on with her other arm.
The ship continues to tremble and buck -- she's nearly thrown off.
RIPLEY
Godamnit!
She looks around at the alien. It's almost on her.
Working its way painfully toward her, gripping with its legs and
tendrils. Hissing.
It slams a tentacle down at Ripley, but she rolls, just holding on
ANGLE: JOHNER
Above the cockpit, looking at a fuzzy external monitor.
JOHNER
It's Ripley! Ripley's on the fucking hatch!
In the cockpit, Call nearly goes white.
CALL
Let her in!
JOHNER
Fuck no! There's something else out there with her!
VRIESS
One of them.
Johner looks at the image, realizes how masive the newborn is.
Awed fear creeps into his voice:
JOHNER
No. it's something else.
Frustrated, Call jumps out of her seat.. Vriess fights to control the
ship as she climbs up toward the hatch.
VRIESS
Goddamnit, Call!
Johner grabs her, practically throws her at the monitor.
JOHNER
Look at that fucking thing! We can't open up!
They both tumble as the ship jerks
ANGLE: RIPLEY
Is bucked OFF THE SHIP
before she grabs the newborn's tentacle, holds on to it --
The newborn SMASHES it against he ship, trying to shake her again -
- she grabs an external grate and starts climbing painfully away.
ANGLE: CALL
Pushes Johner aside as she makes for the hatch release sequence.
ANGLE: VRIESS.
Desperately pulling up as wooded, snowy mountains zoom dangerously
close below.
ANGLE: THE ALIEN
Turns as the HATCH OPENS nearby, the door sliding slowly beast is torn
between Ripley and this new distraction --
Ripley sees it too, starts climbing for it frantically, one on the
newborn.
The beast makes for the doorway -- and CALL POPS HALFWAY OUT pointing a
GRENADE LAUNCHER at the thing.. She BLASTS it once, the beast roaring
and starting back, hurt but not nearly enough. Call fires again but
the ships rocking sends the shot wild.
she flies back for all of a second
The beast rears to attack but Ripley is at the hatch -- Call drags her
in and closes the hatch, the beast just SLAMMING in it as it closes.
INT. THE BETTY
Ripley is hanging on Call, exhausted.
Another BANG on the hatch, and they can see the door starting to give.
VRIESS
Call! NOW!
Call and Ripley head into the cockpit.Johner continues looking at the
vidscreen at the beast.
VRIESS
We can't to do a vertical setdown! Braking systems are shot!
CALL
Find me a patch of land! I'll put her down.
Call jumps back into the pilot's seat by Vriess. He pulls up hard on
the wheel, but the ship is still dangerously close to the ground.
JOHNER
That thing isn't going anywhere!
VRIESS
Johner, strap in! We're coming down hard!
ANGLE: -BETTY Approaches the rough, wooded terrain, just above the
trees. Hits a relatively clear patch, touches down -- bounces back up
and then down again
ANGLE: CALL
Fighting the wheel -- she can't pull it up hard enough.
ANGLE: THE BETTY
The ship blasts through trees. The newborn moves to the back of the
ship to avoid debris.
JOHNER
That things gone back behind the thrusters!
Call and Ripley look at each other.
RIPLEY
Hit it.
Call throws on the thrusters, the ship ROCKETS forward ANGLE: THE
NEWBOM
Engulfed in flame, losing its grip --
THE BETTY
Going too fast -- Call can't control it
VRIESS
Kill thrust! Now!
Call does.
ANGLE: THE BETTY
Skids, skids, throwing up enormous debris. It hits another wooded area
RIPLEY
is thrown bodily into the windshield --
THE BETTY
mows down a half acre of trees before finally grinding to a halt.
As soon as they've recovered, Call throws off her seatbelt.
CALL Is everbody all right-?
JOHNER
Where're you going?
Call opens the hatch.
CALL
To make sure that thing is really dead
Its giant face LUNGES down at her, piston tongue shooting out.
It has charred black skin -- in some places that skin has fallen off
and wet pink flesh shows through.
Call drops to the floor, the tongue just missing her. Johner scrambles
for his gun as
Ripley drags her out of the way.
AS quickly as it came, the head lurches back out.
JOHNER
I think it's gone!
VRIESS
No, it's waiting for us to come out!
Can we fly?
VRIESS
We can't fucking crawl!
RIPLEY
It's gone.
Call looks at her.
CALL
Are you sure?
JOHNER
Good! Great!
CALL
No...
Call grabs a grenade launcher.
CALL
I've got to stop it.
VRIESS
Call
CALL
That thing is thirty minutes old! In a few hours it'll grow up. If it
reaches a place with people...
She heads for the door but Ripley is on her way. They exchange a look.
RIPLEY
You'll never catch it.
Call tosses her the grenade launcher.
CUT TO: EXT. BETTY - MOMENTS LATER
The ship sits silent in the woods, the trees around heavy with snow.
Ripley comes out the top. She looks around her, sees the tracks in the
snow.
Huge, loping. She jumps.down off the ship.
And runs.
Through the blur of trees, she moves with the grace and speed of an
animal, leaping from boulders, racing through the powdered brush this
is Ripley at peak speed, and it is something to see.
She starts going up, the way getting steeper and rockier, til she
reaches a cliff face, and looks out on:
A CITY.
Sprawling, huge, a million tiny lights cutting through the darknes it's
just before the horizon.
The newborn RISES in front of Ripley, STRIKES her before she has a
chance to aim her weapon.
Its tentacle cuts deeply into her, sends her flying.
The beast is on her in a second, its enormous jaws missing her head by
an inch as she rolls, grabs the grenade launcher, FIRE
The beast is thrown, but just grazed, back on her as she tries to get
off another shot, it SLAMS a foot down RIGHT ON HER she SCREAMS, the
launcher rolls free, the beast coming in for the kill and over the
ridge FLIES THE HARVESTER, Call at the controls. aiming right for the
newborn.
It rears up to see it just as the girl RAMS it into the creatures head,
it knocks it on its ass, the harvester shaking but not quite spinning
out, as Call comes around for another shot.
Ripley scrambles to safety as the Newborn prepares for the oncoming
harvester, it whips its tentacles at it but Call swerves at the last
second -- The monster spins with it, screaming, sees Ripley and slashes
at her. KNOCKS HER OFF THE CLIFF --
She falls, grabs brush it snaps -- she starts slinding down rockface
and she takes her hand, SLAMS her fingers into the smooth rock face
like a pick axe -- it rips her nails bloody but she digs out purchase.
ANGLE: CALL
SLAMS into the newborn from behind, the girl nearly thrown out of the
harvester, the newborn spins and grabs it, Call throws it into reverse
but the newborn is too strong, holds on, bringing its head up to face
Call herself.
ANGLE: RIPLEY'S
Bloody and torn, it SMASHES into the rockface, as she climbs back to
the top
ANGLE: THE NEWBORN
SWINGS the harvester into a tree, Call nearly knocked loose again. The
monster is jolted as well, lets go, Call pilots the machine back
through the trees, the alien watching it, growling --
Call flies deftly through the trees, away, away, then spins out, heads
back for the beast at TOP SPEED, the wind roars as she closes
The newborn spins and she SLAMS into it, it goes flying, screaming in
pain, the harvester bouncing off it, flipping over, CRASHING against
the trees and landing tilted upside down, Call unconscious between it
and the ground.
The newborn shudders, rises, makes for the harvester -- it clearly
pissed.
Ripley pulls herself over the ridge, sees the situation, rushes toward
them.
Call awakens to see the monster approaching the machine. Terrified,
but determined, she reaches for a lever
RIPLEY
No! Over here!
Calling out to distract it, she runs, waving her arms.
CALL
Ripley! Let it come! Let it come!
Tears run through her voice as she strains for the lever. The beast is
torn, and for a moment doesn't move.
Ripley looks over to where Call is, and understanding blooms on her
face.
She looks around and spots:
ANGLE: THE GRENADE LAUNCHER
Halfway between her and the newborn.
For a moment neither of them moves. Then Ripley RUNS, the newborn
comes at her with equal speed, like they're playing chicken, Ripley
DIVES at the ground, rolls, comes up holdin the grenade launcher, and
she FIPES!
The newborn is hit up close and dead center this time, and it rears
back, screaming -
- Ripley FIRES and FIRES, driving it back toward the upended harvester.
The alien rears up to its full height, and Ripley pulls.the trigger.
There is a hollow click.
Furious, Ripley stares a moment at the beast. A SSCREAM wells up in
her throat and she
THROWS herself at it, leaping impossibly high, smashing into it and
sending both of them tumbling onto the Harvester.
Call pulls the lever.
In an instant the machine roars to life, a thousand blades grinding to
top speed, pulverizing the beast, consuming it, sucking it down as
layer upon layer of alien flesh is chopped into messes.
And it SHRIEKS, a noise unheard before, as it thrashes frantically.
Ripley tries to pull herself off it before the blades get too close --
but the beast grabs her, holds her. The blades ever closer as she
struggles with it.
ANGLE: CALL
Still trapped below, she sees the aliens blood seeping through the
machine all around her!
She squirms, trying to get away, but she's stuck. A stream of blood
lands on her shoulder, eating it away. Another on her leg, and panic
blooms, bright in her.
CALL
RIPLEY!
Galvanized by the cry, Ripley TEARS herself out of the beast's dying
grasp, flips backwards off the Harvester as it begins to smoke and
spark, blood eating through the controls.
Call writhes, blood everywhere now. She is lost in primal terror.
Ripley wriggles her way under, and, regardless of the streams of blood
splattering her, wrenchs Call free. She drags her' out.
A section of the harvester explodes, raining fire and debris or the
dying alien.
Call lies on the ground, Ripley behind her, arms wrapped tight around
her.
Covered in blood and grime, the two watch the alien go up in flames,
breathing hard, holding each other as if their lives depended on it
still.
DISSOLVE TO.- ANGLE: THE NEWBORN'S SKULL
Burning, hollowed out by the licks of flame that caress it. Collapsing
gently on itself.
WIDE ANGLE:
EXT. SAME - LATER
The four of them sit by the huge camp-fire, watching the flames.
Vriess tosses 'Christie a bottle of whiskey.
JOHNER
The bitch takes her time in burning.
VRIESS
Well, it looks like she's finally giving it up.
JOHNER
Troopers should be finding our ship any time now. 1 don't much love the
idea of being around when they do.
Ripley gets up, looks out over the cliffs edge at the lights the city.
Christie offers the bottle to Call. She takes it and drinks.
VRIESS (to Call)
I guess you won't want to be answering any official Questions either.
CALL
I guess not.
She is grateful for the suggestion that they are in it together.
VRIESS
Well, we're on Earth, for Chrissake. Plenty of places to get lost here.
CALL
So I've heard.
After a moment, she gets up as well, goes over to Ripley. She hands
her the bottle.
Ripley looks at it.
CALL
It's a drink. You drink it.
RIPLEY (smiling) I remember. She drinks.
CALL
So, what do you think?
RIPLEY
Think?
CALL
What should we do now?
RIPLEY
I don't know.
She looks out in the distance...
RIPLEY
I'm a stranger here myself
The two of them stand side by side staring out at the unfamiliar
horizon, as the newborn dwindles in the dancing flame.
THE END