"ALIEN RESURRECTION" (1997)

ALIEN: RESURRECTION

EXTREME CLOSE UP: AN EYE

Not human. Not nice. Blinking balefully at us. The camera MOVES BACK as the creature moves its head, huge sharp teeth coining into frame. The camera continues to move back, giving us a clear view of the entire beast, just as an enormous finger squashes it.

And still we pull back, to show a soldier sitting bored in a sterile room, sucking down the gurgled end of a slurpy as he contemplates the squishy insect mess on his fingertip.

He takes the straw, sticks the bug in one end and puts the other in his mouth -- we are still moving back — he blows the insect right at us; it splatters on the window as we move back to reveal him framed in the window, to reveal the ship the window is in —

And the soldier himself becomes as small as an insect — smaller — dwindling to nothing as we finish pulling back, revealing:

surrounding the U.S.S. AURIGA, a massive research vessel that sics majestically just-beyond Pluto's orbit.

ANGLE: WHEAT.

A birds eyes view of a field, the soft golden waves filling che screen. Sharp contrast to what we have seen before.

Tnere is someone wandering through the field. A girl,seven cr eigne, in a dinghy sundress. She has black, tousled hair.

.GIRL'S VOICE My mommy always said there were no monsters-- no real ones — but there are.

The girl opens her arms'and lets herself fall back into the soft wheat. She lies there a moment, then the buzzing of inserts begins to-fill-our ears. Suddenly they swarm up around her, enveloping her like quicksand.

She is completely covered in insects, a skittering black shroud of them, and when she finally does SCREAM they flood into her mouth -- as she disappears completely.

Instruments show a jolt in heart rate, blood pressure. We TRACK from the cardiograph to a small cryotube. Inside we glimpse inside an adult-sized 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. Sleeping.

Scientists milling about take notes, look over at the thing in aspic. .

The camera moves back in on the cardiograph, then moves down, to show another one. Tracking a SECOND HEARTBEAT from within the case.

Smaller, much faster.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Lying in the wheat field, a grown woman now. 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.

And the cause of this dream becomes apparent:

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 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

His voice is soft, comforting, like the face that watches thoughtfully from behind thick glasses.

Gediman finishes cutting. Another man steps in with a clamp. Sets it. Pulls apart the chest.

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.

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.

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.

A surgecn looks at "Ripley's readings.

Gediman looks at Wren, hopefully. Wren nods.

Gediman and the surgeon get to work, as the others carefully remove the alien. • • *

Ripley's hand LASHES OUT, GRABS the surgeon's forearm. He yells in pain as her fingers dig into him —

-- Ripley's eyes pop open: wide, unseeing, consciousness flooding in behind them — her whole body so rigid it shakes

CONTINUED: (2)

[ ' The surgeon SCREAMS,.' trying to pry her hand off, the others scrambling, knocking things over — and we HEAR HIS BONE CRACKING.

Sudden stillness.

Ripley crouches in the middle of a small, dark chamber. She is 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, nor as slimy.

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, looks 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.

:

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 goes up to Ripley,-studies her face with satisfaction.

She grabs his throat with dazzling speed, applying deadly pressure as she brings", his face to hers. Her eyes are burning, but lost..

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 nanc into the alarm. Klaxons, red light fire up.

A guard rushes in, levels his weapon at Ripley. After a moment 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.

CONTINUED: (2)

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.. -

Wren and Gediman watch through a one way mirror as a scientist tests Ripley.- With them is General PEREZ, the man in charge of this boat. Ramrod straight and about as gruff as you would expect', he stares at Ripley suspiciously.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

She is restrained, iron collar and cuffs linked to cables that anchor her to the chair. Despite the high-tech, the whole get-up seems almost medieval.

Two armed guards flank her. The Scientist sits across the table, clearly a bit. nervous.

ANGLE: PEREZ

He watches as the scientist holds 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 shoots Gediman a stern look at his unscientific parlance.

He looks at Ripley through the glass, then exits into the

hall.

The twc scientists follow, pace him as he strides down toward a second observation room.

You' re not thinking*, termination?

I'm not anxious to see her picking up her

old hobbies.

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.

Darker than the first one.' Quieter. Perez turns to the others.

He looks into another cell. In the darkness we can barely make out the outline of an alien head. A really big one.

ANGLE: THE QUEEN'S POV.

Looking back through the" glass at the three men. As they stare at the queen,' the shot pulls up and back, the queen rearing to her full height. The whole room becomes visible, and we see that there•are no less than eight guards in here with them, standing ..post silently around the cage.

Ripley sits across from Gediman. She is still chained, though with enough free mobility to eat comfortably.

Gediman 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.

Ever so slightly, she smiles. The smile fades, and after a moment:

She thinks — and puts her hand to her hair, almost as if to check if it's there. Thinks some more.

She thinks, hard, but the' names don't come.

She looks up at him. ' ••

How did you know that?

He has entered behind her, comes up to the table.

11,

CONTINUED: (2)

She stops a moment, puzzled at the familiarity of the sentence. Then continues:

She laughs, bitterly.

This stops Wren, .and he retreats silently. Ripley repeats one word to herself, thinking.

CONTINUED: (3)

RIPLEY

We see the Auriga far in the distance. Suddenly A SHIP ROARS INTO FRAME, heading for it. A small vessel, it is every bit as 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.

As it passes, we see. on the side a painting — classic bomber cheesecake, a semi-clad wonderbabe riding a rocket, with the legend BETTY above her head.

The music is coming from nearby. Piloting the ship toward the Auriga is HILLARD, a roughskinned woman in her forties.

Behind her 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.

Hiliard Darlin', it's done.

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.

He proceeds into:

Elgyn enters,turning down the music that blasts from a box in here.

He leans down, looks under a prodigious block of machinery — part of the Betty's engine. Lying on a gurney-like steel dolly, working under the machine, is VRIESS, chief mechanic.

Elgyn hands him an old, compact soldering iron.

territories?

ANNALEE CALL suddenly bomes into frame, hanging upside down from the ceiling. She's been working on a tangle of cables, legs locked over a beam. She's young, tough — at home with this motley bunch despite, her youth and prettiness.

He exits.

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. He is strapping a contraption to his forearm. It resembles a derringer holder, but a very complex one.

ANGLE: VRIESS

Working intently, buried in wires and pipes.

The camera moves up over 'the engine block, past a balcony overlooking it. On the'Hailing leans JOHNER. He's thickset, mean and ugly, with ugly scars crisscrossing his ugly bald head. In his hand'is a throwing knife.

He lets it play along his fingers, looking down at Vriess. He's right above Vr.iess-'s exposed legs. He holds the knife over Vriess's crotch. • Smiling, he balances the knife on the palm of his hand, and then —

--as Call looks up and-sees —

-- he lets it fall.

She jumps down -- the knife falls, spinning — she races for Vriess -- the knife 'falls —

And lands, sticking solidly into Vriess's upper thigh.

ANGLE: VRIESS

Continues to work, humming to himself. Completely oblivious.

Johner laughs as Call looks up at him, fury crossing her face.

vriess hears, looks-down and sees the knife sticking out of his leg. He wheels out from under the machine in a second flat.

The second he's out-he hits a lever and the back of the dolly flies up, transforming it into a wheelchair.

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Johner climbs down to where the others are, smiling smugly. Call pulls the knife out of Vriess*s leg.

Call stares at him,.knife out. She's really pissed.

Call swipes with it,, sticks it between two metal blocks, and SNAPS' the blade off-. Johner gets in her face.

.•-. rr.-mer.t. She doesn't flinch, doesn't move. He exits, full :: annoying bravado.

He nits a lever, dropping the chair back down to a gurney, and wheels back under.-

As it opens to admit the proportionally tiny ship. The bay is on the bottom of the Auriga — the doors are actually OVER the ship, which rises .into the airlock.

The outer doors close under the ship. Pressurized air shoots into the airlock for a few seconds, and then the inner doors open, the ship rising into the bay.

The ship rises into the bay, the airlock doors closing under Locking clamps latch onto it from the top.

It takes up most of( the 'dock area — the rest stretching forth in a long platform to the entrance. Three soldiers in full armor stand rigid on the platform, waiting. Others mill about, working.

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 individualist group, their look varied — spots of bright color showing through more utilitarian space gear. Johner's bright turquoise bowling- shirt. Elgyn's floorlength leather duster. 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 SI>: of them emerge, one by one, looking around them. ?.-:ey file past the silent, uniformed soldiers. The last one suddenly puts a hand on Johner's jacket, stops him. There is r. c-ge under it. A sensor light on the back of the .-- .tier's glove blinks when he touches the bulge.

No projectile-weaponry is allowed on board the vessel, kir.

.:::r.ner opens his jacket, shows what he's packing: a large tnermos.

the vessel? All six of us?

18-.

He motions for the crew.to follow him. Vriess comes abreast of the soldier.

The soldier makes no response, simply falls in behind Call, the last of them.

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.

She is looking around her, somewhat tensely.

CONTINUED: |

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:

A good sized suite, decorated in a sparse, military fashion. Perez is behind his desk, the money sitting between him and ELGYN

Perez pours two whiskeys.

CONTINUED: - S

He takes a stack of bill, smells it. He likes the smell.

Perez hands a drink to Elgyn.

they don't call for the kind of cargo we brought. .

Elgyn drinks to that.

I'm famous for it.

CONTINUED: (2)

They drink.

Four soldiers and two scientists stand at the foot of the Betty, below the platform the crew came off on. A bottom hatch slowly opens, a ramp lowering to the floor.

From within comes the 'cargo', a metal box about six feet long and eight high: It rolls down slowly on a long dolly. . Call emerges with it, gently pushing it along. Behind her, JOr\r\€.\T

A pushes a second, identical box out. One of the soldiers

motions for them to follow him, and they do.

Call still watches everything intently, distrustfully.

Two guards stand before .the door marked "Restricted Area". They knock on it when they see the cargo approaching, and after a moment it opens, Wren standing behind it.

Call and A wheel.the boxes to the door. They are about to g." through when the guards silently step in their way. They step back as the soldiers wheel the cargo through. Call watcnes as the door slides shut behind them.

ZK~. . A CHAMBER - MOMENTS LATER

Wnere Gediman and a few others are waiting. Gediman looks a l:-t.e nervous, not'.su're this is a good idea. Wren enters, directing the first box to the middle of the room.

Tn*: cargo is locked into place on the floor and a soldier W.:TKS the electric lock. It springs open and the soldiers s.iae off a side panel.'

Tney are stacked one oh 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

with a long glass window looking at the chamber.

The last of the soldiers leaves the chamber and we see the door lock behind them. Wren starts working his computer screen.

The glass tops of the cryotubes slide open. We see temperature and lifesign gages 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.

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. Only her wrists are chained here.

At the other end are set up tables and folding chairs. The crew of the Betty, sari's Elgyn, are filing in to eat here. Johner spies Ripley, smiles.

Johner comes up to Ripley. Her expression makes it clear how much she enjoys having.him in her face.

She keeps dribbling, says nothing.

He falters a moment at her quiet threat, then:

He smiles his ugly smile. She smiles back.

She hits him solidly in' the chest with both hands — and he flies back ten feet," landing badly on a group of chairs.

His mates fly into action, Christie grabs a standing ashtray — Hiliard jumps Ripley, from behind. She throws her off with ease — chucks the -.basketball at her hard enough to pop the air out of it.

Christie swings at her with the ashtray and SMASHES her right in the face. She arcs back... reaches into her mouth and pulis out a bloody tooth. Christie hesitates, suddenly not sure he should have.done that.

She's at Christie's throat before he has a chance to react, squeezing, batting away the ashtray — Johner comes at her again and she leaps on him, throws him to the ground, snarling. Like she.'s gonna rip his throat out with her teeth. .

Ripley looks up and-four guards are pointing burners at her. Wren and Gediman behind them.

Call, standing to one sid.e with Vriess, reacts visibly to the name.

Everybody is slowly backing off. Christie stands with his hands behind his back, as if concealing something.

, v Call watches in rapt silence.

CONTINUED: (2)

Ripley lets go of Johner, stands.

She looks down on him •:-• in both senses of the phrase. Looks around at everyone stating at her. She spits a bit of blood from her mouth. Exits'', scooping up the basketball and easily sailing it into the'basket as she goes.

ANGLE: RIPLEY'S BLOOD

The few drops she spit sizzle on the floor — not eating through, but melting" a.small patch.

Sitting majestically in the starry black, as the sun disappears behind Pluto.

We see VARIOUS ANGLES of* people at night:

Hiliard and Elgyn, in a slightly more lush one.

Perez, in his quarters. '

Vriess, rolling about the Auriga's engine room, rummaging through the bins-for spare parts. He has a handful of bolts, wires and such.

Christie, Call and Johner, all playing pool in the mess hall.

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,' barely visible in the shadows. Two of them seem to be hibernating, curled up in the corner, but the third faces the glass, tilting its head and hissing at Gediman sits tight up close to it, his face just inches away from the beast's. •

It draws back its lip, opens its mouth. The metallic tongue issues slowly forth/, • dripping with slime.

He presses his face against the glass, like a kid outside a candy store. The alien.-SHOOTS its tongue at him, thwacking the glass hard.

Without taking his eyes off the cage, Gediman moves back and l.gr.tly hits a big red-fail-safe button.

.let? L£ Liquid Nitrogen*.squirt toward the monster. It sf.-r.ters back. After a moment it stars for the glass again. jed-mar. reaches for the button — and it stops.

Seme thing moves in the' dark behind him. Before he can :.ct-te, a hand closes on his shoulder.

It's Ripley. She steps*forward, eyes locked on the cage. Gediman seems only'mildly surprised.

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.

She looks at him.

She runs her hand through the back of his hair, gently urges him up off his chair. .

She pulls him close, kisses him. Lightly at first, then deep, holding his head---with both hands. He responds with surprising warmth, the kiss drawing out, pulling slowly apart. She looks at hinu smiles.

An alien tongue SHOOTS out of her mouth, burying itself in his face.

As she suddenly awakes, eyes wide, breathing hard.

She has been sleeping, we see, in the same position she was in before: squatting-in the middle of the room. She still wears her collar and cuffs, but here in her cell the cables have been removed from them.

She looks about her, recovering from the nightmare. Her breathing slows. With a somewhat fatalistic look, she settles back to sleep.

;

Christie, Call, and Johner are still at their all night pool marathon. Christie makes a couple of extremely impressive bank shots. Johner grumbles, throws some money on the table as the last ball clicks into the pocket.

Call takes a big swig — not her first -- from Johner's thermos, makes a face.*.She tries to stand up, takes a spill over her chair. The others laugh.

She stumbles out of the room. Johner shuffles the deck.

As soon as she is out of sight, Call straightens up, completely sober. She looks around her and takes off down the hall.

She comes to a door leading to the restricted area. Locked. She looks around, digs into her pocket. She pulls out a black rubber glove with wires coming out the back, running from the fingertips to the back of the wrist. It looks home- made.

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She slips it on, producing a small tube of cream and squeezing a little on the fingertips. She looks around — sinking back into the shadows as two guards pass in the next hall — and faces the door.

She begins punching in-code, with impressive speed and surety. When the screen next to it flashes, she places the gloved hand on it, continuing to type on the keypad.

It takes a minute, but it works. The locks clack open, the door rising silently before her. She pulls the glove off, steps in. •' "'

As Call pads silently down it, looking for one cell.

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. Looks back down at Ripley -- still sleeping.

Caii extends her hand,.- flexes her wrist. The meanest looking stiletto you've ever-seen extends from out her sleeve. It's 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.

Call starts, moving back a pace.

. • 29

A flick of her wrist and the stiletto whips back up her sleeve. Ripley sits up.

She raises her arm, the stiletto gliding out again.

Ripley holds her palm up, presses it against the point of the blade. • •

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.

CONTINUED: (2)

Ripley pulls her hand back suddenly, grimacing at the pain.

you.

" r.- smile is gone, some real vulnerability showing through. .:«!. softens, trying a different tack.

Call's expression changes. Those words terrify her, but she's not sure if Ripl.ey means what she thinks.

CONTINUED: (3)

Ripley raises her hand at Call's head — Call flinches — but Ripley stops a few inches away. Then touches her forehead gently, almost sensually.

I don' t care.

Ripley LASHES OUT and .GRABS CALL'S THROAT. Call swings with the blade but Ripley has her arm pinned before she can connect. Ripley squeezes the girl's neck.

Ripley looks at the.girl with a world of sadness.

Call's eyes are pleading, terrified. Ripley finally lets go and she drops to the ground gasping for air.

As soon as she can move, Call scrambles up and heads out.

Call comes out and before she can move a RIFLE BUTT hits her in the head. She* goes-' down but not out as two guards grab her. Wren is with them and three more.

Elgyn and Hiliard are pushed into the room, sleepy and confused. Christie arid Johner are being herded in by soldiers. Call is thrown into the group as well.

Christie is silent. Hands behind his back.

ANGLE: BEHIND CHRISTIE'S. BACK

As Elgyn speaks, two guns slip out of his sleeves and fill his hands.

With lighting precision; Christie raises his hands and blows twc 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 before Call'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 the handle of a gun inside -- he grabs it and another guard runs up -- Johner doesn't have time to pull the gun out of the thermos so he SHOOTS right through it, sending the guard flying.

Elgyn pulls a sawed off shotgun from under his jacket. There's not one of these guys that isn't carrying.

Alarms, flashing red lights. Gediman looking in a video monitor.

Oh, man... You three! Go! Sector two.

All but one of the guards rush out to investigate. Gediman works the surveillance screen, trying to see what's happening.

When the smoke clears, there are two guards still standing. They point their weapons ineffectually. Johner has gun to Wren•s head and a gun on the guards, who are also covered by Hiliard. '

Call starts to take off. ,

Elgyn grabs her by the hair, roughly pulls her back.

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. Pan over to the fail-safe button, safely out of Gediman's reach.

The aliens stop pacing".• One of them, to the right, looks over 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 a piercing, insectile SHRIEK 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

35,

the ground as a giant pool of its blood EATS A HOLE IN THE FLOOR.

He bolts for the fail-safe but it's too late -- 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.

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.

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.

The mexican standoff is getting even more heated. Call faces Elgyn, urgently explaining.

Another soldier, DISTEPHANO, rushes in. Johner shoves his gun in Wren' s mouth. «:

Johner puts his gun to Call's temple now.

Far away, there is SCREAMING. Everyone stops. Wren turns slowly in the direction it came from.

A guard in the hall fires wildly at the ceiling as an alien disappears up an airvent. There are three bodies lying dead before us. , .

The soldier connects, blasting the alien. It falls, its body stopped by the ceiling -grating — but its blood falls all over the soldier, burning through him.

ANGLE: IN THE PENS

We see that the aliens have been freed. Smoke, dead bodies - - the plexiglass partition to one cage is cracked and open.

Ripley sits in the dark, the noise of chaos just beginning to filter in. And she just can't help herself.

She is LAUGHING.

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.

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.

After a beat, he starts punching in the emergency override codes.

It's worst here — the aliens have taken out a dozen men in their sleep. The bodies lie in various poses of agonized death, blood peppering the walls around them.

In the stillness, the emergency lighting comes on, floor lights like an airplane's indicating the nearest exit to the unheeding soldiers. Father's voice is excruciatingly calm:

There is no sign of .the unfolding disaster down here, but Father's 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

is nothing. Just the floor lights pulsing in succession toward the exit.

vriess follows their lead, wheeling out.

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, backing up as the blood plops to the floor, eating casually through.

J0&S. She isn't laughing anymore, but there's still a hint of amusement in her eyes. She's perched on the edge of the bed. Seems to be waiting for something.

And something comes. Moving audibly somewhere nearby, getting closer. Like rats in the walls. Abruptly, it stops.

She cocks her head.

SLAM! She whirls as the'-big airvent shudders — the alien is slamming itself against it. She starts, the complacent amusement leaving her eyes. SLAM! The panel bends in slightly, the metal of the lock grating against itself.

Men are rushing into one of the lifeboats. They sit facing each other in the tiny vessel and strap themselves in. Perez is here, hurrying the soldiers in, pushing back the few who try to crowd in after.

The late soldiers, make .for the next boat as Perez seals the hatch. He hits the'eject button and steps back.

• CUT TO:

As the lifeboat FIRES out of the side of the giant craft.

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 Perez rolls in a grenade -- the doors.shut and Perez hits the eject button.

The second lifeboat comes shooting out and moments later, EXPLODES.

The noise of the explosion -- and of a few inside as well -- is all around the group. Father's voice still urges evacuation. • .

DiStephano steps forward.

(to Elgyn) (MORE)

They start out, dragging Wren along. Guns still on Call and the soldiers.

Vriess 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 are running through:

A soldier runs to obey, working the door controls.

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 dolly position, his head just CLEARS the closing door as the alien SLAMS into it, Vriess spinning out and flying off the chair as it tiltsf 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.

He reaches up for the chair and from the back of it he pulls out a shotgun.

The alien is still banging against the vent -- it won't hold much longer. Ripley stands at the door, looking it over.

She PUNCHES the locking panel, bending the metal and smashing the blinking lights.. Looks at her hand — her knuckles bleed only slightly. PUNCHES again and then rips the panel off, pulis out the wiring, we hear the click of the door unlocking.

The airvent panel burst partially out of the wall, screws flying across the room.

Ripley pulls the door open and steps into the hall. Moving quickly down the empty corridor, she rounds the corner.

Perez is trying to maintain order. He is failing. Grabs a corporal.

Perez slams him to the ground with his fist. The corporal whips out a pistol, private issue, and points it.

Perez is shocked. He doesn't see the alien rising up behind Then he hears it,, turns. Turns back.

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.

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 --

— 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. "

Warning. Potential hullbreach. Clear sector.

The blood eats a pinhole 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" A huge CRACKING sound, and Perez shuts his eyes.

The window EXPLODES outward, the air blowing everything into space. Debris, vehicles, men, all tangled and dead as they are blown out into the black.

ANGLE: THE CREW

Blown off their feet in .the adjoining sector.

ANGLE: THE SECTOR.5 DOORS

SLAM shut instantly — one cutting right through a soldier only halfway out.

ANGLE: AIR VENTS

Gates slam down here as well.

ANGLE: ELECTRICAL DUCTS

Foam SHOOTS into them, hardening instantly, sealing the breached sector.

Elgyn leads the crew inside, moving fast but cautiously. A female soldier, LOWENTHAL, tries a door.

Elgyn is up the hall a ways, taking point. He sees a hole in the floor, some of it burned with acid, some ripped out in a struggle. Cautiously, he goes toward it, shotgun pointed at it.

He looks down in it, can see the next level below.

He turns back to Christie, still standing over the hole, and an alien shoots out FROM ABOVE, coming out of another hole in the ceiling panel, grabs him, pulling him off the floor, breaking him and shooting its tongue right through his belly.

He twists, screams -- his shotgun drops right through the hole in the floor, to'the level below. Blood burbles from his mouth as he sputters and dies.

The crew is motionless for a second. Call, all of them -- they've never seen anything like this.

Then they start to-fife, raising their weapons as one and firing at the thing even as it disappears back up into the ceiling. Elgyn's body drops lifelessly to the floor, heaped just in front of the hole.

Most of the crew is loo*king at the ceiling, but Hiliard starts slowly for Elgyn; still in shock.

The alien smashes down through a ceiling panel right before

-

the crew. They fire at it, but they are much too busy running away to get a decent shot off. Call grabs Hiliard, pulling her back with the rest of them.

ANGLE: THE ALIEN

It starts slowly down the corridor after them. Stops, as it senses movement behind it;

It turns to see Elgyn,. still on the ground but moving slightly. It moves .slowly back to him, sniffingly.

It cranes its head at him. His face, still very much dead. His belly.

ANGLE: ELGYN'S STOMACH

Through the woundi "the end of Elgyn's shotgun pokes through.

And blasts the beast in the face.

It arcs back, slamming into the ground. Acidic blood peppers the floor, and Elgyn's corpse.

The crew, those who' can see it, look on with shocked wonder, waiting to see what"s coming next.

ANGLE: THE HOLE

For a moment, nothing. Then Ripley pulls herself easily out of the hole, looking about her with calm clarity, the shotgun in one hand.

She kneels before- Elgyn's corpse, rifles through his pockets. Hiliard moves toward her, furious.

Ripley looks impassively at her, pulling a handful of shotgun shells from Elgyn's pocket and sticking them in her own. She stands, loading the last two into the gun.

Hiliard stops several feet away, unwilling to go to close to the prostrate beast. The rest of the crew gather about her, looking at Ripley.

Ripley starts walking"toward the bunch — and the alien jumps up at her. . Not dead — goes for her throat — she tries to train the gun on it — The crew raise theirs --

She grabs Lowenthal's burner and FIRES, frying both combatants and knocking >them 'to the ground. Ripley rolls under the thing, gets on top and trains the shotgun on it. Fires. Again, and'its grip loosens.

It brings its face close to hers, opens its mouth. 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. The crew has gathered near. They watch her, awed, wary.

46,

(~ 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 souvenir. The pincers at the end still twitching.

ANGLE: HILLARD

On the upper level, kneeling by Elgyn's body. No tears, but terribly quiet.

He is very calmly looking.up at the rafters, guns drawn.

Johner goes over to Wren, gun drawn. Distephano and Lowenthal, the only soldiers left, step in his way.

You got no authority here, you're a

fucking mole.!

The doctor looks around, almost guiltily.

Everyone looks around a.t- her. She is squatting in the corner, facing away from them.

They look at her, uncertainly. She makes them kind of

-

nervous. .

CONTINUED: (2)

Call stands by Christie, eyes locked on Ripley.

The group makes its way toward the cellblock, led by Christie and Wren. Hiliard is grieving, very quiet. Call tries to put her hand on Hiliard's shoulder, but Hiliard shrugs it off, staring at her.

He signals for the others to follow, everyone moving cautiously.

Ripley, bringing up the rear, watches the whole group with a sort of fascinated detachment. Call looks back at her. Ripley smiles, coldly. - .

ANGLE: IN THE CELLBLOCK .

The group makes their way slowly, quietly. They pass Ripley's cell, the door smashed in. But the hall is empty now.

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. Even twitchier .than they.

Vriess looks hit harder by that information than anyone.

Call looks over at Vriess, uncertain. To her surprise, he smiles warmly. '

They do.

ANGLE: THE CONSOLE.

A hologram of the ship appears above the screen. It looks as solid as the ship itself, except that parts of it occasionally 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.

No.

Everybody looks at her./'.

VRIESS

A With all- the devils of hell in between.

CONTINUED: (2)

Her voice is quiet, mourning still thick in it. Nobody backtalks her.

DiStephano works the console and the hologram splits, the route he's indicating revealed.

(points to the center of the shaft) — that runs-above level one deck. Take us right, to the dock.

CONTINUED: (3)

ANGLE: VRIESS

Is unloading additional •ammo from inside his chair. He tosses one of his shotguns to Hiliard.

He pulls out a grenade launcher. It's so compact it's almost cute, cradled one-handed like an uzi.

She looks around and he tosses it to her.

He indicates the hologram, the sections of the ship missing. Everyone gets it.

Call is working the computer now.

CONTINUED: (2)

( She moves to the .head of the line, and they start.

CONTINUED: (3)

As they progress. Everyone with a gun has it at the ready. Ripley is a few yards in front. She stops, sniffs. Listens.

Johner moves up next to her.

He lags behind a bit, thrown.

DiStephano points to a dobr.

And Ripley leads them in.

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.

The door to the next chamber is ajar. Christie and Vriess step in, then Ripley.

Something LEAPS at Ripley from out of the shadows — a metal bar SLAMS into her side, throwing her off balance.

Christie spins, 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.

But tne energy is out of him. The rod falls with a hollow clatter. He looks.weakly from face to face.

\'r.-:£~ looks at his name, stitched in his coveralls.

What ship? Where am I? I 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...

Ripley SNIFFS. Cocks her head.

CONTINUED: (2)

They all look at him, a bit sheepishly.

Ripley steps in front of the doctor.

Purvis is wide-eyed, stunned. After a moment he stammers:

She starts heading but of the chamber. Call turns to the others.

Come with us. You might even live. Get

twitchy on me and you will be shot.

CONTINUED: (3)

They move out.

Cut to:

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

It's in bad shape, so we might not recognize it as the chamber the queen was in.

He is looking 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.

Call instantly moves to attack, and Ripley grabs her, holds her tight. "

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 of the soldiers. Call ducks back down, terrified.

Christie hisses at-.her.

Wren shakes his head. •

No, but they can.

CONTINUED: (2)

Wren goes over to the fail-safe button.. The others look out at the aliens.

JOHNER

From what little the group can see, it looks like the aliens are interested. Dark shapes move forward -- then stop. Retreat.

CONTINUED: (3)

She indicates Call, who looks around, nervous at the lack of protest about this idea.

Ripley grabs her. Looks at the others.

CONTINUED: (4)

Wren hits the button just as the aliens are bounding across the cage — they're almost to the posse, people screaming, scrambling, when the freezing gas hits, turning the beasts into statues.

Everyone is silent, stunned. Breathing hard.

Ripley nods.

He pops up and fires at the frozen aliens -- they EXPLODE into fragments.

Gliding through space, passing Jupiter's moons with dazzling speed.

Ripley and Call are on point. Ripley looks down the hall. Call is staring at her, and Ripley can feel the girl's eyes on her back.

Ripley smiles. She may be right.

65,

Ripley stops dead,, staring at a door.

CLONING STORAGE FACILITY

is written on it. 'Stencilled beneath that is "1 - 7".Ripley stares. Tries the door,- which opens.

That's not the way.

Ripley is looking down at her arm, at the 8 tattooed on it. She looks at Call. Looks back at Wren.

She enters. •• •

She stands a moment, staring, before proceeding through it. Cail 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 clinging to collapsed bones.

Here is an attempt to separate the alien and grow it without the host -- boneless, bubbling tissue, a 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 to 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 turns its head ever so slightly to look at her. Recognizes her.

Ripley cannot even -.speak. She begins to shake slightly, looking at number seven.

Kill... me...

Ripley's eyes go saucered as it speaks — speaks out of nothing resembling a mouth. Ripley staggers back a step, shaking badly now. This is too much to bear...

Ripley turns, slowly, -still in a fever dream.

Call cocks the grenade.launcher with a loud CH-CHACK. Her eyes meet Ripley's.'

Call tosses it to Ripley as the crew steps back and even as she catches it Ripley FIRES, a grenade chugging to the end of the room and BURSTING in fire and noise, she FIRES another, glass and steel exploding into flame, she turns to number seven, her 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.

CONTINUED: (2)

Ripley stops. Weariness suffusing her expression.

The tension passes, wreri breathes a little sigh of relief.

Call PUNCHES him across the jaw, his head whipping around as he collapses to the ground. Call starts down the hall, not even looking at him.

Feeling his jaw, Wren actually smiles at the absurdity of all this. It's kind of winning. Christie helps him up.

Johner looks in at the burning lab.

ANCLE: DISTEPHANO

Opening a floor hatch. .

Vriess is pulling a coil of cords from the chair.

Call drops down into the room from a ladder. DiStephano and Johner are already down here, guns ready. They motion for Call to move on ahead, as more come down. Call proceeds to the end of the room, where Ripley is.

Ripley is alert, ready .-- but it's clear she's far from over the pain of seeing--the. other clones. Her eyes are red, a little too wide, and as she holds her hands in front of her, they still shake badly:

Call stop next to her, awkwardly.

Ripley giggles inanely, then chokes the giggle off before it can bloom into a scream. She looks back at Call.

She feels the new tooth with her thumb. Perplexed.

ANGLE: THE CREW

As they file silently along the room.

Bringing up the rear is Christie, toting a shotgun. He turns slowly, alert, and we see that Vriess is strapped to his back --facing the other way, also with a shotgun.

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.

ANGLE: THE COOLING TANKS

We see the round underbelly of two huge tanks. There are

:

gaping, twisted holes "in them.

Something MOVES on the surface — Lowenthal spins, ready -- a mop, floating serenely by- They move on.

ANGLE: LEGS

Sunk in black water up to the thigh. Extremely vulnerable.

He is at the front with Ripley and Call, where the water is waist deep. He looks down at a stairwell, just the top of the railing visible above the murky water.

70,

ANGLE: DISTEPHANO ' «

He flips caps over the barrel of the gun, slides a panel over the digital readout. 'The burner is ready to go, watertight.

A couple of the guys smile.

One by one the entire crew slips down into the black water. Johner goes down reluctantly, leaving only Lowenthal behind. She takes one last look around, then starts deep breathing.

Something pulls her under, viciously fast.

It's all underwater." Visibility is poor. The crew move swiftly and gracefully down the stairs and into the kitchen. Nobody looks back to see that Lowenthal is not with them.

In here it's a tad labyrinthine, and the size of the room

:

makes 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 him.

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 the shadows with horrible ease.

Ripley, all the way to the stairs, sees. She hurries the others past her. They swim frantically for safety, Hiliard, Wren, Christie and Vriess Johner bringing up the rear, still firing at the third one, wounding it but not scoring the killshot.

Call is swimming up the .staircase, the growing light above indicating the surface; She is almost to it when she is CAUGHT IN THE WEB'.

A net of translucent, alien goo, it is spread just six inches below the surface. Cali struggles, the goo sticking to her, she's running out of air — as Wren and Christie encounter the s a m e t h i n g - - t h e y a l l t r y to tear t h r o u g h i t , b u t they are g e t t i n g w e a k e r --

Ripley looks back, as the last of the crew is passing her, the aliens close behind. She looks up to see the situation above and quickly makes for the surface — but an alien GRABS her foot, holding her down — now SHE is running out of air -- she KICKS at it, it lets go ~

The others are fighting, Call pops her stiletto and cuts through, but it's tough; she still can't get her head up --

—DiStephano, off to the side, is drowning. Takes in a huge mouthful of water and .begins thrashing.

Hiliard is firing wildly — an alien hand grabs her head, pulls her into the" darkness.

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, and A FACEHUGGER CLAMPS DOWN ON HER.

Ripley goes back under; pulling at the thing as others break the surface.

Wren comes up, looks around. Eggs have been placed all around the surface of the water. He barely has time to take this in before two more open. A facehugger springs out of LEAPS right at him -- But Call NAILS it in two shots.

Christie and Vriess break surface, still strapped together. They both begin FIRING,-back to back, in a circular sweep. They create a circle of fire as they spin, bullets blasting out both their weapons. They decimate a number of eggs.

ANGLE: UNDERWATER

Ripley pulls the (facehugger 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 out of her throat, thrashing horribly.

In utmost disgust, Ripley PULLS it APART. Looks around and the three aliens are COMING RIGHT AT HER.

ANGLE: ABOVE THE SURFACE

Most of the crew has., gotten up out of the water. Christie is holding a facehugger inches from his face, others screaming, taking a bead on it.

Christie wrenches it" off him, hurling it away. Johner nails it in midflight.

Johner pulls DiStephano out of the water, but he is not breathing.

Ripley comes up out of the water, and an alien rises right behind her. Everyone who can, shoots it. It falls back into the water.

He pulls the burner off- DiStephano'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.

DiStephano sputters back to life. Ripley picks him up with one hand.

He takes off, the others.'following.

He stops at a pair of sliding doors, starts working the panel.

Ripley comes up to the doors and pulls them apart with a grunt.

CONTINUED: (2)

He's referring to the noise and shadow of approaching aliens.

She herds them into the shaft.

It goes down about four stories, and up seemingly forever. Enough room for three elevators, one of which is two stories below.

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 --

Still POUNDING — o n e alien gets its head in, looks up, hisses, pulls it out.

ANGLE: LEDGE

Wren comes to a crawlspace ledge. He climbs on. Set back a few feet from the shaft is a small maintenance access door. He 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 alien's, a..facehugger crawls, constantly moving about on the adult alien's head like a frightened spider.

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.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Shocked. And surprised, .she 's shocked.

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.

Ripley is shaking, abandoning herself to her fury. 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 fail, 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 purchase.

We see it fall past the unmoving body of Call.

ANGLE: CALL'S 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.

ANGLE: JOHNER

He is firing down at the-'aliens. Looks up and SCREAMS.

ANGLE: JOHNER'S POV

There's a spider on the wall right in front of him. Unhesitatingly, he shoots the shit out of it.

Another alien is fast approaching Christie and Vriess. Vriess frantically tries to reload.

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, fires again. The alien has him in its grasp, though.

He flicks open his switchblade and slices through the bonds holding him to Vriess. '•

Christie falls, taking the alien with him.

They climb. And climb, the minutes stretching out, still no door. Ripley easily alidad of the rest.

Finally:

CONTINUED: (2)

(exhausted) Great.

ANGLE: DOWN THE SHAFT

There is silence until, from up the shaft we see two ALIENS COMING UP.

Company!

Hiliard looks up the shaft.

They start to climb, bu.t the aliens are making much better

time.

Purvis is keeping up with the others pretty well, but a pain suddenly grips his chest. He breathes deep, waiting for. it to pass. Keeps climbing.

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.

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 the emergency brake is flipped.

They wait, guns ready.

Out of the hatch pops Call, not especially dead.

A moment of stunned silence, then they all jump on top of .the lift. Call drops back down inside.

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 --

ANGLE: INSIDE

Call hits the emergency button and the lift stops halfway in front of the door -— giving both Ripley and Call access. But the alien is still grabbing for her --

-

-- Ripley pries openthe 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 Hiliard's shotgun. Levels it at the cables holding the lift. FIRES.

The lift PLUMMETS, 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-r

The lift SMASHES into the bottom of the shaft, crushing both to jelly.

ANGLE: UPPER DOOR

Johner triumphantly sticks his head in the shaft.

They all breathe hard, exhausted, before they can muster for the next stretch. Call'-stands with her back to them.

Ripley isn't buying.

Ripley spins her around. Call stares at Ripley sullenly. A small trickle of metallic blue fluid trickles down from the corner of her eye. 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:

:

DiStephano looks atthe blue liquid Call seems to be using for blood. :

Her voice shocks her more than anyone — her vocal track slips, affected by the wounds. The voice is a shade slow, and echoes strangely..

CONTINUED: (2)

Ripley looks at the girl.

out alive.,' but man... I never thought I'd

see one.

Vriess looks at Call.'s'wound. Amid the dark blue mess, a host of black, insectile. "threads are crawling up, automatically repairing .the damage inside.

He can't conceal his disgust, seeing it. Call pulls away. Ripley watches them, senses the new dynamic in the group: Call is outside, an unknown — not unlike Ripley herself.

CONTINUED: (3)

They start off again.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Letting DiStephano lead.

They have reached an access door. Debris blocks the way.

We're on the top of this thing. (pointing to the ceiling) That's hull.

Ripley turns to Call. The girl is still somewhat apart from the group.

CONTINUED: (2)

Call looks over at the group, staring at her with varying . degrees of contempt'. She knows she doesn't have a choice.

Ripley and Call enter the small room. It is a classic chapel, just a little cleaner and a lot smaller. Behind the alter, a small stained glass 'window' is bolted to the wall, lit by pinlights.

Call stands between the pews and reflexively crosses herself. Ripley gives her a look.

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. PRESS 'START".

Ripley pulls out the cord from the bible's port, holds it up.

That convinces Call! -She pulls up her sleeve, and begins. She 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 pprts on it. She takes the cable from Ripley and plugs it .in. It looks almost like she's mainlining heroin.

She cocks her head.

She reaches in her chest, reconnects some tubes. She . twitches, then her eyes.suddenly dilate massively.

It's beginning.

She begins speaking very rapidly.

Her voice has a slight mechanical quality as she rattles this off.

She stops, returns somewhat to herself.

As the crew works at getting the wall panel off.

Purvis is helping pry open a corner. He grimaces, beads of sweat popping out on his forehead.

Suddenly he lets go, clutching his chest. The others stop, look at him. Johner and DiStephano bring up their weapons warily.

Purvis grits his teeth/ waits it out. Looks up at the others as the pain passes.

One eye still on him, they get back to work.

4* RIPLEY Try to clear us a path to the ship. And start her up.

Call closes her eyes and:

ANGLE: A DOOR

In a hall opens, then another, then a third opening to the antechamber, the last room before the loading dock. And

ANGLE: THE BETTY

In the loading dock, the lights on the ship come to life.

ANGLE: THE BETTY'S COCKPIT

We see the ship switch on in here as well, hear the humming of the engine. '

ANGLE: CALL

Wren is holding his hand, to the scanner, just as Call described.

The red light turns green and.we hear the locks in the door clack open.

The door begins to rise.' Looking around him, Wren waits to go 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.

Nothing happens. Wren.looks about him, beginning to sweat. Did the aliens do this?

Wren spins in shock.at the sound of Call's voice. It's everywhere around-him.-

ANGLE: THE CONSOLE

We see a reading: "Substitute voice matrix accepted." Call isn't speaking over the .'P.A. , she IS the P.A.

ANGLE: THE DOOR

SLAMS back down, locks, clack into place. The doors behind ' Wren open up, emergency lighting pulsing along toward him.

Wren is freaking. He runs back down the corridor, looking about him wildly.

Call pulls the cord out.of her port.

This as her voice track slips even more. She works the wires in her chest, trying to fix it.

Ripley backs off.

Ripley shrugs.

She looks at the hole in her chest, the blue and sticky fibers.

Her voice is at its slowest here, low and eerie. It's a mechanical problem,.but it sounds just like despair.

:

Ripley cannot help but feel some sympathy for the girl.

crew. And I'knew if they succeeded, it would be the-end of them.

90,

CONTINUED: (2)

( As she says it, her voice returns to normal.

This actually gets a smile from the desolate Call, when next she speaks, there is" a closeness in her tone that wasn't there before.

people..." Didn' t work out. There was a

girl. She had bad dreams. I tried to help her and she died... and I can't remember her name.

Call says nothing. .For. a moment, Ripley can't either.

DiStephano enters.

He exits again. Call looks up at Ripley.

CONTINUED: (3)

A moment, and then .they quietly start out of the chapel. Call's voice, now programmed permanently into the ship, calmly sounds over the P.A.

As the Auriga speeds along.

As they are prying off the last sheet of metal in their way.

Won't be far now.

Ripley appears next to him, Call behind her.

Ripley hands Call Elgyn's shotgun. She moves to the front, grabs the sheet of metal and easily RIPS it out of the wall. Beyond is darkness. The crew shine lights in there to see:

ANGLE: THE NEXT HALL

An alien scape. Covered with the smooth, dripping resin, it resembles a natural cavern more than a man-made craft. Though there is no movement, the alien presence is palpable. This is their homebase, or close to it.

Everyone stares.

Ripley's hand shoots out*, grabs Johner's tongue. He stops, unable to speak.

A moment, and she lets go. Johner knows better than to start up again. Ripley turn's to DiStephano.

Hundred yards.

They all look at the forbidding corridor.

Tne crew is running really fast. That's the plan. They ail look shitscared, but--nobody says a word. Johner has Vriess strapped to his back and he's still making the best time of anyone.

Ripley brings up the rear. She is disturbed, slightly overwhelmed by her surroundings. She looks about her constantly. So far, no movement.

She stops suddenly, clutching her head.

ANGLE: A WINDOW

At the end of the hail -- it looks down on the area leading to the docks, the floor "of which is fifteen feet below. The crew, minus Ripley, arrive. They look down at what appears to be relative safety.

Call steps forward with the shotgun and BLASTS the window. The noise echoes eerily in the corridor.

It seems to be answered by another noise. A kind of roar, coming from all around them.

Without a word they .start climbing through the window, dropping down into the next chamber. Call looks around, notices for the first time:

Purvis is the last one'left. He looks at call. She motions for Purvis to go, then heads back for Ripley.

Call finds Ripley staggering, nearly doubled over.

Ripley doesn't even hear her; something else drowns Call out. Ripley puts her hands over her ears.

They CRASH UP through the floor panels, six of them, surrounding Ripley. Call barely has time to raise her gun before they drag Ripley down, and when she does it merely clicks, empty.

She dives, comes up to the edge of the hole in the floor paneling, trying to grab Ripley. She looks down and sees:

ANGLE: IN THE HOLE '

A nest of vipers. A swarm of black, insectile bodies, enveloping Ripley. The woman sinks as though in quicksand -- or the sea of bugs from her dream. Call just has time to see Ripley's face disappear.

CALL

Dark, cramped, and already covered with a hardening layer of resin like the hall; above.

Skittering, insectile motion at one end heralds the aliens, as two of them crawl rapidly along. The third crawls upside down, the semiconscious' Ripley draped over its chest. It holds her almost gently.

Scuttling through a small maze, the aliens come out into:

A vast, dark chamber, entirely encrusted with alien goo. The air vent opens about'three quarters of the way up the ohamber. The aliens pour out and immediately 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 them in spits and globs. It isn't pleasant, and Ripley struggles feebly as they begin to cocoon her.

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.

A moment more, and she heads out with him.

WASTE TANK 5 - CONTINUOUS

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 wall. She hangs therefore at an angle, looking down on the chamber. And so it is with her, as she swims to full consciousness, that 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 chaftnber, 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 in the middle of a black pool of blood and ichor. Her head moves slowly back and forth, in a delirium 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 turns slowly, to see the person next to her. It's Gediman, looking wan and haggard. He may be speaking to her, but he stares straight ahead, his eyes glowing with near insanity.

A keening SHRIEK comes "out of the queen, as her limbs begin thrashing. The aliens, around her back off slightly, chittering their insectile hymn.

Ripley does look, barely fighting back tears of horror and frustration. Of despair.

The bulge in the queen's belly starts moving.

Ripley starts struggling' with her bonds, sudden determination in her eyes.

He looks at her, the last glimmer of his sanity sinking beyond the horizon.

The crew rushes in,.heads for the Betty.

They all run on board '••

and head for the cockpit. DiStephano deposits Vriess in another wheelchair.

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 shoulderblade.

Johner stands, uncertain.

DiStephano aims at Wren4 Wren backs up a step.

99,

Heaped in the corner, Purvis suddenly jerks forward. His . eyes go wide.

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 frantically agitated as the Queens belly begins moving more violently. She SHRIEKS,.and RIPLEY does as well, from effort or sympathy, it's hard to tell, as THE QUEEN'S BELLY BEGINS T O OPEN. It looks painful, blood seeping out around the belly, but also horribly natural, an obscene mockery of human vaginal birth.

And the Newborn emerges.

An alien, to be sure, but nothing we've seen so far. It's bone white. Its head is long, eyeless, like the others, but along its white expanse run red veins, coming out of the skin and running like thick bloody hairs to the back. It's much bigger than the others, nearly the size of the queen herself.

And there is something human about it. Maybe the stance, though its hindlegs are huge. Or the noise, like a hissing laugh, as it comes upright. Maybe it's just the tilt of the head.

He is crying with revelatory joy. Ripley is not. Grimacing at the sight and smell of the new beast, she begins pulling again at her bonds.

The Queen moans, thrashing gently now, reaching for its quivering issue. The newborn crawls up onto its mother, faces it.

It viciously RIPS the Queen's face off. The keening shriek of the collective brood becomes almost too much for Ripley as the newborn tears right through his mother's flesh.

One of the soldiers, at the other end of the room from Ripley, wakes u p . -Dangling uselessly at his side is a rifle ' — the real deal, not a burner.

He SCREAMS in uncomprehending horror. The newborn stops, . tilts its head.

It crawls gracefully up .'the side of the tank. Comes to the screaming soldier, gripping his sides as he screams lustily.

It holds him a moment, -then rips his scalp of, plunging its teeth into his brain. We watch it drain the blood from his body. Its external ventricles swell, red tinged, as the soldier's body goes-blue and slack. His rifle drops into the

;

black pool. "-

The Newborn finishes, withdraws.

Gediman stares, transfixed, and it LANDS ON HIM.

Johner's gun drops to the floor. Everyone backs off.

back into the Auriga and land it according to standard operational procedure '..

And Purvis LAUNCHES' from the corner, screaming, jumps on Wren — Wren gets off a couple of shots — DiStephano gets it in

( the shoulder and drops his weapon, spinning and falling — the other shots hit the ship, Call dives for cover as Purvis SLAMS his fist across Wren's face, Wren fires again and Johner is on the ground, rolling, grabbing his gun --

Purvis is a man possessed. He grabs Wren's gunhand and SMASHES it against an instrument panel, bone cracking audibly as Wren drops the gun.

Purvis jerks. Blood bfeoms in his chest.

Everybody stops, mesmerized. Wren drops to his knees, going for the gun, and Purvis grabs him from behind, pulls him, pins 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.

The alien BURSTS out of Purvis's chest, STRAIGHT INTO WREN'S SKULL.

Everyone else is still '.'frozen. Then the little critter bursts out of Wrens face," flying straight at Vriess.

Ripley TEARS one of.her arms free as the newborn feeds beside her. Gediman is already a shell. Still working on the scientist, it turns to her. It has no eyes, but she can feel them on her anyway. It.hisses that near-laugh.

Finishing, it makes to jump over to Ripley.

It regards her a moment.-," looks her up and down. She shakes slightly.

It extends a tongue..unlike any we've seen before — ridged and metallic seeming like the others, but flexible, writhing with a will of its own. Instead of killing Ripley, it starts licking at the webbing' that holds her head, gently freeing her.'

»

Ripley stares in near -shock as it frees her arm, bringing itself closer to her. Something like a sigh escapes it.

Ripley reaches out. and tentatively puts her hand on its ( smooth head, runs it gently along it. It turns its head and she can see a filmy,' reptilian eye open and regard her.

The Newborn wraps its arms around her. She is trying hard not to shake. She looks down as it presses itself against her... a slit in its belly moves, widens as a dripping protruberance begins to emerge. It looks mostly like a giant earwig. But it's not. Ripley gasps audibly as the creatures intentions become clear.

She pushes it away with a sudden jerk — pulls at her remaining bonds with a.terrible effort — she PULLS FREE with a scream, PLUNGING the thirty feet into the pool.

Ripley disappears beneath the surface of the gunk.

The newborn turns its head, hissing with fury, trying to locate her. Other aliens scuttle closer to the pool.

Ripley stands up out of the pool, covered in blood, HOISTING THE SOLDIER'S 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 her, trying to kill and trying to protect the newborn, 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

rolling and coming up in an instant. She looks around her. No 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... it's definitely not in the mood for love anymore.

Ripley jumps up, grabbing a pipe, and KICKS open the vent grate, throwing herself up the vertical shaft with astonishing ease.

Vriess is scrambling away, knocking over things to avoid the baby alien. Johner -SHOOTS at the creature as it speeds toward Vriess.

It knocks over cannisters as it speeds across the table and behind some instruments..

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 stiletto pops out as-the creature flies at it, the blade slides right into its mouth, running eight inches through its innards before it pokes out the other end.

Blood starts to burble out, and Call scrambles for the door. One drop falls and she' catches it, letting it burn through the palm of her hand. .She gets outside just as the creature wriggles and finally fails free, the stiletto melting inside

VfiSS»y it. '

Ripley is climbing up the cramped vent with the speed and grace of an alien. Unfortunately, so is the newborn, twenty feet below her.

Ripley grabs a pole and her hand begins to steam, it's so She cries out, lets go... then looks down. Grabs the pole again and, ignoring the searing agony, pulls, pulls... RIPS it out of the wall/ burning steam GUSHING out below her, barely slowing down the newborn.

She continues climbing," then kicks through a grate.

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 orbiting latticework of metal, a partial shell that rotates.slightly faster than the planet itself.

The Auriga heads for a .section of exposed earth. Not long now.

Ripley drops to the ground and heads for the dock.

She doesn't bother to try the door, she HURLS herself through the window, landing

in a hail of glass.

She is on the platform that runs the length of the dock. The Betty is barely visible past the far end, sinking into the airlock as the massive inner doors slide slowly shut over it.

A SLAM against the metal door behind her tells her the newborn is here. She picks herself up and RUNS — and she can run fast.

Speeds across the platform, faster, faster, the Betty sinks out 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 her, almost closed -.-

She DROPS right through-just before they close, falls another fifteen feet and lands '•— WHAM! ! -- on top of the Betty. Hits hard, rolls, lies there in extremes of pain.

Vriess and Call are in the pilot seats. The crew look up at the sound.

Ripley tries to pick herself up, is momentarily too wiped. She 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 fill the screen below."

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Struggling to get to the .-hatch.

And above her, through-a window on the inner door, we see the newborn appear.

ANGLE: JOHNER

Is looking at a monitor.screen.

Call looks up. Without a word, she abandons her post, heads up to the hatch.

106,

Call reaches the hatch, and unlocks it. It opens slowly.

ANGLE: ON TOP OF THE SHIP

Call pops out and grabs Ripley, hauls her in. A second after she does, the Newborn SMASHES an arm through the glass of the airlock above. Neither woman sees this, as the hatch closes above them.

ANGLE: IN THE SHIP ; ._ •

No time for greetings, as Johner calls out:

Call gets back in her chair, working the controls. Ripley also sits, straps in next to DiStephano.

There is another THUMP above them. They all look up momentarily.

Vriess punches it —

Speeding toward the earth. The Betty SHOOTS out the airlock — nearly smashes into the bottom of the ship as it passes, like trash thrown out of a speeding car.

The Auriga passes, huge above them —

The ship swerves as Call expertly avoids the Auriga -- The Betty gets clear, leveling out --

The Auriga still heads straight for earth, as the terrain below becomes clear -- empty land, no cities on ground zero

ANGLE: CALL

Fighting to control the Betty —

ANGLE: INSIDE THE AURIGA

Deserted halls, passageways —- bodies, and aliens milling here and there -- • •

ANGLE: THE AURIGA

SMASHES into the ground, obliterating itself in a fireball.

ANGLE: THE BETTY

Flying away, the thundering firestorm behind it.

ANGLE: INSIDE THE BETTY'

As we head for a distant .city, Call and Vriess fight to maintain control of the ship.

He is, flicking every switch, pulling out wires.

Johner is out of his chair and sliding under a console, digging around.

As she passes over the city, we see clearly that it's Paris. The most familiar landmark, the Eiffel Tower, has been replaced by a new, sleeker version. As the ship reaches the outskirts of the city,' it comes to a huge junkyard, filled with piles of old ships and scrap metal. At the edge of the yard, lying on its giant side., is the rusted remains of the old Eiffel Tower. •

JOHNER

Call pulls up hard — • '

( ANGLE: THE BETTY

And brings the ship down amid the mountains of metal. It slams to ground next to a huge crane with a magnet dangling off the arm.

ANGLE: IN THE COCKPIT

Everyone is thrown by the hard landing.

Call looks back at Ripley as the others get up. They smile at each other quietly.

They file out, one by one, looking around them. Ripley is in the lead -- Johner pushes Vriess on his back-up chair. No one says a word as they look about them.

ANGLE: THEIR POV

They are surrounded. Men, women, a few children all stare back at them from about the rusted spacecrafts. Their ragged clothes and frightened hostility mark them as greatly oppressed: homeless, or possibly even refugees. The men in front are pointing outmoded weapons, their faces dark.

Ripley and the crew fan out slowly, not sure of their welcome. " ' "

One of the men starts barking at them in French, gesturing at the Betty with his antique rifle. The crew look at each other uncertainly, then Johner replies, also in fluent French. Subtitled:

110,

From atop a nearby shuttle-hull, a small child suddenly shrieks, a keening, tea-kettle wail that rises as her eyes go wide.

Jesus, what's wrong with these guys?

It's unfolding, rising behind him as he speaks, coming out of the shadows of the Betty's hull.

Terror ripples through the scattered crowd — the crew all turn and look at an. uncomprehending DiStephano — and the Newborn grabs him.

His scream is short and hoarse as the Newborn pops his scalp like a beercan and sucks out his blood. Again, red fills its exterior vessels.

Chaos. Everyone screams, falls, scatters. Of the men with guns, only two of them bother to fire — the rest turn tail and run.

The crew scatters as well, in danger from the men's wild firing as much as the beast. Ripley dives at the gunmen, grabbing one of their rifles and moving around behind some machinery for better position. Call moves at the rest of the people, yelling:

Johner grabs Vriess-, stumbling and dragging him under an old ship, out of harm's -way.

Ripley gets to the side of the Newborn, pops up and FIRES! The moment she does, the Newborn jerks DiStephano in between them, using him as'shield. DiStephano's agony ends as Ripley inadvertently rips Him open.

The Newborn's maneuver- was casual and deliberate — and human. It laughs its breathy, staccato laugh as Ripley stops firing, shocked.

The newborn drops DiStephano's body and bolts, heading for the stacks of rusted spacecrafts and parts that the locals are swarming over in their effort to get away. Call is among them, herding the slower ones to safety.

Ill,

CONTINUED: (2)

The Newborn reaches one woman who stumbles and makes a meal of her.

ANGLE: ON THE STACKS OF SHIPS

Call is climbing up, as are others. She looks down to see the Newborn climbing behind her — and making much better time. She slips in between vessels, letting it pass her on the way up.

The Newborn continues climbing, eventually cresting the huge pile of metal. It stops, looking out at the horizon.

ANGLE: NEWBORN'S POV

The city is spread out before us, gleaming, humming with life. ;•• '

The Newborn is mesmerized. It's too good to be true. The creature sighs in quiet ecstasy.

A noise distracts it. It looks around, stepping down among the machinery, and grabs a piece of tin roofing. Pulls it away. Underneath are a gaggle of children, hiding with a couple of old women. They all look up in whimpering horror. The Newborn laughs, licks its lips.

It reaches in and pulls out an eight year old boy -- and Call drops on it, screaming, clawing at it. In a blur, it drops the boy and grabs Call instead. Unable to get immediate purchase on her head, it bites down hard on her shoulder, sucking massively. "

BLUE fills its exterior vessels. Dark blue. It stops, gagging, dropping the android. It lets out something resembling a roar. -•

Ripley crests the ship-pile, rifle in hand. The Newborn turns as she fires, getting in a few good shots to the belly.

Call scrambles away as .acidic blood spurts down at her.

The Newborn reels, staggers -- but doesn't fall. Ripley's rifle clicks repeatedly, spent.

For a moment, the two of them just stand there, the woman and the beast. Call and the children stare up at them as well.

Ripley runs at the- Newborn, a roar of her own welling up inside her, bellowing forth as she LEAPS at the creature and hits it, takes it sailing over the edge of the ship-pile, the two of them falling; falling -- smashing against the protruding end of a ship, then tumbling, dropping separately into the valley of this metal mountain range.

Ripley lands badly, her leg breaking very audibly. She gasps in agony.

She looks around — the Newborn rises nearby, coming for her. From its step, it doesn't seem to have landed a whole lot better than she did.

ANGLE: CALL

She looks down, sees the Newborn advancing on the hobbled Ripley. She looks around for something useful. Moving her arm opens the wound.in her shoulder more -- she grabs it, the dark blue 'blood' running between her fingers.

She stops .looks at her .-hand, the blood on it. Thinks a moment.

Then she scrambles down the pile, hits the ground running, screaming: ' •'

ANGLE: JOHNER AND VRIESS

PX They hear, pull themselves out from the safety of shadows.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Slowly, agonizingly, she pulls herself away from the advancing beast. She slips under a craft, through a small opening between two others, the haphazard stacking of vehicles affording her a rabbit warren of holes and passages just above the muddy ground.

The newborn follows, grabbing at her, throwing smaller coverings aside, always inches from snagging her.

She puts a small stack between herself and the Newborn. She drags herself to her feet and hobbles into a little tin shed.

She drops to her knees, looking about for a weapon. There are several metal poles and parts, but nothing that looks particularly handy.

The Newborn fills the "dopr, sniffing for her.

She tries to move .to the far side and it leaps on her, smashing her to the ground. Holds her there, preparing to

strike its tongue through her skull. It's definitely not interested in lovin* anymore.

The roof of the tin' shed is RIPPED ASUNDER by the crane's huge metal magnet disk.' The alien turns as the disk swings at it, over it.

ANGLE: CALL

is at the crane's controls, steering it ably and determinedly. Her arm is jacked in to the machine's rudimentary computer console.

ANGLE: JOHNER

Is atop the ship-pile, where he can see both Ripley and Call clearly. He sees the crane is in perfect position. He screams down at Call:

Call throws the switch magnetizing the disk.

ANGLE: THE NEWBORN

( stops, something suddenly very wrong.

CLOSE UP: CALL'S BLOOD.

The dark blue blood that's pooled about the Newborn's mouth is suddenly drawn -up, toward the magnet. First in drops and then in streams.

And the Newborn itself is pulled, drawn inexorably up toward the powerful magnet.. The blue in its exterior vessels visibly stretches.them, and it is clear: the magnetic liquid the Alien drank, is pulling it to the disk.

Sticking it to the disk, as the Newborn haplessly flies six feet up and slams against the cold metal. It doesn't loosen its grip on Ripley, though, and she is pulled right up as well, crying out in pain.

ANGLE: JOHNER

signals to Call.

Call hit the controls and the magnet rises quickly, pulling both combatants straight up.

Other metal bits in the shack fly up as well, pelting Ripley painfully. One small metal rod goes right through her side. After a moment they are high enough for that to stop. Thirty feet up, and the crane swings over to the side, over another pile of crafts, and.Ripley sees that they are heading for:

ANGLE: THE COMPACTOR

Where Vriess waits at the controls. He looks up and sees Ripley struggling in the Newborn's grasp.

ANGLE: RIPLEY AND THE NEWBORN

The beast has got its bearings, and it fights all the harder to kill Ripley. Its very grasp makes her arm spurt blood, but it cannot get its head away from the magnet for the kill. Ripley pulls one arm fr£e — the compactor looms closer — Ripley fights harder --

Call sees Ripley on -the*'magnet, hesitates. Johner is running up to her. climbing on the crane.

Call complies, eyes locked on Ripley. As are Johner's. And Vriess"s, and the few who have stayed close enough to see.

The magnet swings toward the compactor. Ripley looks up at the Newborn. And with all her might, WRENCHES herself free - - and FALLS!

Thirty feet, as the magnet continues over the compactor — Ripley lands just clear of it, but painfully as hell.

Call stops the crane. . One second, and she switches OFF the magnet.

The Newborn plummets- straight into the compactor, lands with an echoing metallic thud.

Vriess slams the control lever of the compactor and the top clangs shut over the beast.

A roar, vicious and piteous, bursts from the compactor.

And Vriess turns it on. '

Everyone watches, moving closer, riveted, as the compactor grinds to life, pushing down, -crushing the last of the aliens, the favorite son.

115,

Ripley gets to her feet, bloody but not bowed, standing right by the compactor as it grinds, grinds, and finally stops. She looks down to see the Newborn's blood eating through the metal of the machine.

It SMASHES through" the wall, right through it, getting an arm and its bloody head out, clawing at the air. Ripley starts back, then stands her ground.

It sees her, hisses. Mewls painfully.

Ripley picks up a spear-length metal pole. Goes up to the creature.

Johner starts toward Ripley, but Call stops him.

Ripley looks down at the Newborn. She raises the pole over her head -- the Newborn..looks up at her — and she DRIVES the pole through its head.

Its dying scream fills, her ears, hitting her like electricity. She staggers back, grabbing her ears. Blood drips between her fingers and she falls to her knees.

Finally, the noise abates. The monster dies.

For a while, there's silence. The Ripley finds Call next to her, helping her up. She leans on Call for support as the two of them regard, the Newborn's corpse.

A few people mill about, but the place is mostly empty. Vriess and Call sit by a small fire burning in an oil can. Call dresses her wound! Vriess drinks from a bottle of whiskey, passes it to Johner.

johner drinks.

He takes another swig, throws the bottle to Call.

She drinks, quietly grateful to be included.

Call steps up on the small hill of ship parts, up to where Ripley stands.

ANGLE: RIPLEY

Standing atop the hill of parts, staring out at the city. Call comes up next"to her. She hands Ripley the bottle, who looks at it a moment.

Ripley drinks. Call looks out at the horizon as well.

Call follows her gaze, toward the distant lights of the city.

They stand awhile.