Deleted Alien Franchise Scenes That Would Have Changed The Movie

The "Alien" franchise is many things: A feminist battle cry, an existentialist nightmare, a multi-layered dive into the endgame of a capitalist dystopia. Even the first film, despite being the most contained of the bunch, signals a far-reaching movie universe waiting to be explored. The good news is that, for fans ready to dive below the surface and become completely immersed in the story's canonical nuances, lots of interesting stuff can be found hidden in the deleted scenes of each film.

The first cut of Ridley Scott's "Alien" clocked in at over three hours. By the time it hit the big screen, it had been whittled down to just under two hours, leaving a sizable chunk of footage on the cutting room floor — and that's just the first film. Of course, not every deleted scene is essential to the story, like the "Alien" scene that features Kane (John Hurt) casually making his space breakfast. However, there are a handful of scenes that add crucial information about the "Alien" universe, in some cases even changing its canon.

Poor Kane. As the first victim of the facehugger in "Alien," he becomes the unintentional test subject as the crew try to learn about the apex predator they have unwittingly awoken aboard the Derelict — at least, that's what we're supposed to think. When it's later revealed that Ash (Ian Holm) is an android sleeper agent working for Weyland-Yutani, the entire affair starts to take on a different color. And perhaps nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the deleted scene "Kane's Condition," which features an eerily passive Ash doing relatively little to help the poor victim as the concerned crew try to get an update on how he's doing.

This deleted scene finds navigator Joan Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) arriving first to find the facehugger still attached to a motionless Kane's mug. When she inquires about her colleague, the android stares blithely at the med bay monitor, blandly remarking that they shouldn't try to remove it again. More crewmates shortly join her, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) among them. Sharp as ever, she immediately hones in on Kane's medical imaging, asking, "What's that stain on his lungs?" — to which Ash simply replies he doesn't know, but it's blocking the scanner.

While the content of this deleted scene might seem fairly innocuous, its meaning is changed by later revelations: Not only do we learn that the "stain" is actually an embryo, but it's fairly apparent by Ash's blasé attitude that he does, too.

There are plenty of confusing things about the "Alien" franchise, and the "eggmorphing" scene is definitely among them. As with everything else in the franchise, the more fans delve into the scene's implications, the more complicated Xenomorphic biology seems to become. The scene, which had to be cut for length, begins with Ripley descending into a Gigeresque cavern, flamethrower lighting the way. As she glances around the room, she finds her captain, Arthur Dallas (Tom Skerritt), embedded in a wall cocoon. Weakly, he begs for death. Ripley also spots engineering technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) almost completely absorbed in a more developed cocoon. Realizing she can't save them, she torches the cocoons before taking her leave.

When the Xenomorph queen was later added to the franchise in "Aliens," it effectively changed the cocoon scene's take on alien reproduction, something fans picked up on. "Aliens" director James Cameron responded to some of their criticisms in a 1987 Starlog magazine essay, writing, "'Alien' screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's proposed life cycle, as completed in the deleted scene, would have been too restricting for me as a storyteller." Cameron goes on to compare his version of the reproductive cycle to that of ants, adding, "The drones and warriors also secrete a resinous building material to line the structure, creating niches in which they may lie dormant when food supplies and/or hosts for further reproduction become depleted (i.e. when all the colonists are used up)."

Ridley Scott changed his mind about Brett's death scene several times. In the cut that made it to cinemas, the scene leaves plenty to the imagination, but it was originally slated to be a lot more graphic. At first, the alien was going to remove Brett's heart. "When the others find him and turn him over, there's a huge cavity in his chest, reminiscent of the hole in the Space Jockey," Scott told Fantastic Films (via Scified). "But that was too much like Kane's death, so we eventually changed it."

In the shooting script, Brett's death scene is written as such: "THE ALIEN. Now seven feet tall. It leaps down and grabs Brett. He shrieks as it presses him close. Snaps his spine. Killing him as he screams." And that's not all — the script goes on to describe a horrified Ripley and Parker looking on as the alien "bounds down a companionway. Moves out of sight carrying Brett's still-writhing body." However, on the day, Scott changed his mind once again.

Speaking to the VFX journal Cinefex, special effects supervisor Nick Allder revealed how the conversation went. "Ridley brought me onto the stage and said: 'I want Brett to get it now, but I just don't want the creature to dart out and menace him to start with. I'd rather have it reach out and sort of caress his head — almost kind of inquisitive at first. Then you see it squeeze up, and blood starts running down Brett's face, and it cracks his head open.'" This is the scene that was shot, but ultimately not used.

It's impossible to overstate the impact of artist H.R. Giger's work on the "Alien" franchise, work that extends far beyond the titular Xenomorph's form. A surrealist vision suffused with ancient Egyptian and Aztec influences, Giger's haunting renderings of the crashed Engineer Juggernaut known as the Derelict are part of the magic that elevates "Alien" from a blockbuster sci-fi horror to a work of art. That's why it's worthwhile for anyone with more than a casual investment in this cinematic world to check out the deleted scenes of the USCSS Nostromo crew inside the Derelict.

Most of this content was eventually released on various box sets for fans to consume. However, since it's still hard to comprehend the broad scope of Giger's vision with short clips, New York-based artist Steve Nyland took the time to source and compile footage and content from just about every source imaginable, giving fans a closer look at the vessel. Using sources like "Giger's Alien," "The Alien Legacy," and "The Beast Within: The Making of Alien," Nyland made a near-eleven minute video that really lets you appreciate just how huge the ship is. It's a real shame that it couldn't all be used in the film, but at least fans can see it in all its glory today.

James Cameron's 1991 re-release "Aliens: Special Edition" begins with an introduction in which the director tells viewers that what they're about to see is "the ride that we intended you to take." He also says that this is a "longer, more intense, and more suspenseful version of the film." However, it's not just the added suspense that makes these deleted scenes worth watching — it's also the extra character development and world building. At 17 minutes longer than the original release, the special edition includes several scenes that delve deeper into the human world outside of the Xenomorph mythology. One scene in particular lends significant insight into Ripley's relationship with Newt (Carrie Henn), the sole survivor of a terraforming colony.

Finally out of the medical facility on Gateway Station after spending 57 years in hypersleep, Ripley waits for Weyland-Yutani junior executive Carter Burke (Paul Reiser). When he arrives he just wants to talk about her upcoming hearing, but Ripley is only interested in news about her daughter Amanda, who was still a child when she last saw her. Sadly, she's told that her daughter passed away two years ago at the age of 66. Reiser shows Ripley a photo of Amanda (which is actually Weaver's mother, actor Elizabeth Inglis). Ripley learns that her daughter had no children of her own. It's sad, dark, and lonely — a perfect crisis to prime Ripley for clinging to Newt despite almost insurmountable challenges.

Anyone who watched "Aliens" in its original release but never caught the DVD version with deleted scenes missed out on a fascinating look at life in the Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony Hadley's Hope, population 158. In what is objectively one of the coolest deleted scenes in the "Alien" franchise, we see the inhabitants going about their daily routines. The scene begins with an exterior pan of Hadley's Hope: Viewers can see an industrial complex situated on the arid, desolate moon of Acheron (formerly LV-426), where the corporation's terraforming efforts seem to be still in the atmospheric phase. A rover enters the complex through a huge gate, escaping the whipping winds of the moon.

The inside of the complex resembles a 20th-century workplace: Hard hat-wearing workers go about their duties while their coffee-swigging bosses walk and talk. The camera follows administrator Al Simpson (Mac McDonald) and his assistant Brad Lydecker (William Armstrong) as they move through the busy corridors dropping exposition until they're interrupted by a gaggle of kids playing where they're not supposed to be. The conversation revolves around Lydecker's query about a survey team he sent to a grid point that Weyland-Yutani wanted checked out, and it seems like they've found something. Unfortunately for the doomed colony, that "something" turns out to be the Derelict.

Directly after the Hadley's Hope scene is a look at exactly what that "mom and pop survey team" was headed over to check out. Inside a bumpy moon rover bearing across the landscape, we see a family of four including a familiar face — Newt Jordan. She's just a normal kid here, looking a lot better than she does during her first appearance in the film's theatrical cut. She's hanging out in the back seat arguing with her brother Timmy (played by her actual brother Christopher Henn) about going into the air ducts at the complex. The rover arrives at the Derelict, but before calling it in, Newt's parents tell the kids to wait in the car while they climb into a crack to get a peek at their big score.

Hours later, Timmy is reassuring Newt everything is okay since their dad knows what he's doing. Just then, their mom appears, grabbing the scanner to frantically call for help. Terror sets in as Newt screams upon spying her father on the ground outside the rover with a facehugger attached. Ultimately, the entire extended sequence was removed for time after James Cameron was told he had to cut about 20 minutes from the film. On the DVD audio commentary for the special edition, Henn notes the scene's importance in helping establish the depth of her hatred for the Xenomorphs.

Few moments in the "Alien" saga would have been as satisfying as the one that sees corporate stooge Carter Burke get his comeuppance by becoming an alien cocoon. But, much like the cocoon scene in "Alien," this one didn't make the final cut. Those who saw the film in theaters weren't filled in on the fate of Paul Riser's character — he gets ambushed by a Xenomorph, but we don't get to see if he's killed or taken away to be cocooned. "It originally started that Sigourney [Weaver] was supposed to have run into Paul Riser, and he did a cocoon scene as well," Carrie Henn explained on the Special Edition DVD commentary. "And she gave him a grenade."

This deleted scene begins with Ripley creeping down a stairwell and through a narrow corridor covered in Xenomorph biomatter. After dropping a flare, she creeps into a tight space and is immediately grabbed by the cocooned Burke, who is hanging from a wall. Writhing in pain, he begs for help and says, "Oh God! It's inside — God, God!" Given their history, she's not exactly moved by his pleas. Ripley hands him a grenade, and, seconds later, as she emerges from the passage, the boom from the explosive can be heard behind her. This scene would have served as a window into the integrity of this heroic woman through her willingness to help end the suffering of a man who schemed against her and the crew of the USS Sulaco.

David Fincher's "Alien 3" placed Ripley in an all-male penal colony full of antisocial dudes. According to those who worked on the sequel, which takes place directly after the events of "Aliens," the original film would have upped the body horror to a nearly unwatchable point. One of the most notable examples of this is the so-called "dogburster," which is exactly what it sounds like: The scene, which centers around prison canine Spike, has the rottweiler shaking violently until the uber-grisly moment when a doggy chestburster pops out. As gruesome as this deleted scene is, Fincher's film originally had a scene that was even worse according to makeup artist Greg Cannom.

The theatrical cut of "Alien 3" has an autopsy being performed on poor Newt at the behest of Ripley, who wants to make sure the departed child isn't carrying an alien embryo. It's a hard scene to watch, but not nearly as hard as the one that was filmed, which showed a lot more of the process. It was so disturbing that some viewers abandoned test screenings in protest. "I like certain gore in films, I do it, and it made me sick," Cannom said in the 2003 documentary "Wreckage and Rage: Making Alien 3," adding, "It really grossed me out and I remember that people got up and left, walked out of the theater at the time. And I was just thinking, this'll never be in the film. They can't show this stuff. It was just too much."

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Alien Resurrection" takes place 200 years after "Alien 3" and features a cloned version of Ripley. The script was written by "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon, who came up with several alternate endings. Whedon was determined to bring Ripley back to Earth at the film's climax, something that had never been done in an "Alien" movie. His first ending took place in a forest, with Ripley, the film's alien (known as the Newborn), the synthetic Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), and two others crash landing there. The Newborn is eventually taken out with what is essentially a futuristic combine harvester. As it's torn to shreds, its acid blood starts a fire around them.

When that ending was rejected, Whedon came up with a few more. He told In Focus: "The second one was in a futuristic junkyard. The third one was in a maternity ward. And the fourth one was in the desert. Now at this point this had become about money, and I said, 'You know, the desert looks like Mars. That's not Earth; that's not going to give people that juice.' But I still wrote them the best ending I could that took place in the desert." Ultimately, the powers that be decided that they didn't need to touch down on Earth, but they definitely considered it: In one unused ending that was actually filmed, Ripley and Call land in a post-apocalyptic Paris, complete with a half-collapsed Eiffel Tower.

Just when fans finally felt like they had Xenomorph mythology figured out, the "Alien" franchise threw a new wrench into the works with the Engineers. In "Prometheus," we learn that this ancient, godlike alien race created humanity, only to later try and wipe it out for reasons we can't grasp (one theory is that Jesus was an Engineer and they're angry at humanity for killing him). The Engineers are behind the archaeological findings that bring Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) on an expedition to LV-223. That's why it's such a drag that some of the group's conversation with the Last Engineer ended up getting cut from the film's theatrical release.

After he is discovered in stasis by the crew, the Last Engineer gets revived by synthetic David (Michael Fassbender). In an angry foreign tongue, the Engineer demands to know what they're doing there before losing his cool and ripping the android's head off. In an expanded deleted scene, the conversation is much longer. Under the direction of Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), David tells the Engineer that his boss wants to live forever. Weyland claims that he deserves to live forever since he created a synthetic human, telling the Engineer, "You and I, we are superior. We are creators. We are gods. And gods never die." The extended scene helps explain what really sets the engineer off and puts the entire plot into perspective.