- "Alien Resurrection"
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- Screenplay by Joss Whedon
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- Story by Joss Whedon
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- 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.
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- We TRACK ALONG the side of the ship, and
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- INT. AURIGA
- along the silent, empty corridors, coming at last to a doorway with two guards standing
rigid in front of it. Full armour, powerful shockrifles, expressions empty and cold.
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- 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 TRACK 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.
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- Still TRACKING around it, we glimpse inside some vague, fetal mass encased in a
clear, aspic-like gel. Tubes and cables are 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.
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- Sleeping.
- Dreaming.
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- ANGLE: WHEAT.
- A bird's eye view of a field, the soft golden waves filling the screen. Sharp
contrast to what we have seen before.
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- There is a woman wandering through the field. Beside her a girl, seven or eight,
in dingey sundress. Both have black, tousled hair.
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- GIRL'S VOICE: "My mommy always said there were no monsters -- no real ones
-- but there are."
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- The girl stops, looks around her. The wheat comes all the way up to her chest,
and nothing else is visible as far as she can see.
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- She looks back at the woman but the woman is already more than fifty yards way.
The girl's expression becomes perplexed.
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- She slaps a bug on the back of her neck. Pulls it off and it is HUGE, wriggling
fleshily in her hand. Her expression becomes even more distraught, but she
cannot muster forth a shout.
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- The sound of insects fills the air. Another bug lands on her, another. She
looks down in growing horror and sees:
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- 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 --
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- 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.
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- The camera moves in on the cardiograph, then moves down, to show a second one.
Tracking a smaller, much faster heartbeat.
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- CUT TO:
- INT. HALLWAY
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- Tiny, dark, and we are moving throught 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 flesh --
it welcomes us in, envelops us...
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- ANGLE: RIPLEY
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- 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 it. Hard. Tearing at it, as blood wells up, spilling
over her sides.
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- CUT TO:
- INT. OPERATING CHAMBER
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- And the cause of this dream becomes apparent:
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- ANGLE: RIPLEY'S CHEST
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- 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.
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- Around her are several men in operating masks. Cutting her is GEDIMAN, a young
and enthusiastic scientist. One man, seemingly in charge, stands a bit off,
watching. This, by the tag on his coat is DR. WREN.
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- WREN: "Careful... ready with the amnio... "
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- Gediman finishes cutting. Another man steps in with a clamp. Sets it.
Pulls apart the chest.
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- GEDIMAN: "There she is.. "
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- He says it like he's found a lost kitten. He reaches in and pulls out a sleeping,
fetal but nearly ready to burst ALIEN. Others work at severing umbilical
threads that tie it to Ripley's chest.
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- GEDIMAN: "Here we go."
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- 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.
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- WREN: "Watch it!"
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- 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 a moment.
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- GEDIMAN: "Well... "
- WREN: "The host?"
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- A surgeon looks at Ripley's readings.
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- SURGEON: "Doing fine."
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- Gediman looks at Wren, hopefully. Wren nods.
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- WREN: "Sew her back up."
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- Gediman and the surgeon get to work, as the others carefully remove the alien.
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- GEDIMAN: "Well, that went as well as could be expected-- "
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- 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.
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