The Alien franchise has received a boost of new energy thanks to the work of Alien: Earth and Alien: Romulus, and when combined with what’s been happening in the Predator franchise, the future is looking pretty bright these days. What isn’t looked at nearly as positively from famed Aliens and Avatar director James Cameron is a choice made during Alien 3, though that might be an understatement, as the director actually called this choice the “stupidest f****** thing” the franchise did after he left.
Cameron revealed what this choice was in a discussion with Michael Biehn on his Just Fooling About podcast, and it started when Biehn, who played Corporal Hicks in the film, asked Cameron if he was disappointed when the franchise decided to kill Newt. “I thought that was the stupidest f****** thing,” Cameron said, though he would also talk about the bad decision to kill Hicks and Bishop in the same film.
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Cameron went on to explain why that was such a terrible decision, especially if you were looking to build on what fans loved about Aliens. “You build a lot of goodwill around the characters of Hicks, Newt, and Bishop, and then the first thing they do in the next film is kill them all off. Really smart guys, you know, and then replace them with a bunch of f convicts that you hate and want to see die, right? Really clever,” Cameron said.
James Cameron Doesn’t Blame David Fincher For Alien 3’s Bad Decisions
After Aliens, Cameron would step away from the franchise to work on other acclaimed projects ike Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which led to the studio bringing in David Fincher to direct Alien 3. At this point in time, it’s important to note that Fincher wasn’t the powerhouse director he is now when that happened, and it was actually his first film, which is why Cameron also says he gives him a pass for the creative decisions. Those creative decisions included the pretty much immediate deaths of three beloved characters, including Biehn’s Corporal Hicks, Carrie Henn’s Newt, and Lance Henriksen’s Bishop.
“Now I’m a big fan of Fincher and his work and all that, and that was his first feature film and he was getting vectored around by a lot of other voices and all that, so I give him a free pass on that one,” Cameron said.
Alien 3 picks up on the starship USS Sulaco as it’s on the way back to Earth, but thanks to a stowaway facehugger, a fire breaks out and causes Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop to be ejected in an escape pod. They crash land on a planet with a high security prison, and while Ripley is found and taken to the prison’s medical ward, everyone else is found dead in the rubble of the ship. It’s actually hard to discern who you are looking at because of the crash landing, but we then see their names typed out and declared dead.
To say that was kind of a slap in the face to those who followed along their adventure in Aliens would be an understatement, and what makes it worse is that you don’t even get to see them die in some grand battle or event. They were effectively killed off-screen and stripped of their previous importance, and that’s one of several reasons Alien 3 isn’t one of the franchise’s most beloved.
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