William Gibson's Alien 3 h/c back

"You caused the failure, Fox. Deliberately routed the Sulaco through the U.P.P. sector and brought her into Anchorpoint."
"We're with Military Sciences."
"I know that."
"We're with Weapons Division."
"The presence of Weapons Division personnel on Anchorpoint is specifically forbidden by our strategic arms reduction treaty with the United Progressive People. This isn't a military station."
"We appreciate your concern."
"You're violating treaties that exist to prevent nuclear war! You've deliberately caused an armed spacecraft to penetrate their border zone. If they can prove it..."
"They know. Proving it is something else."
"They boarded Sulaco, We logged a security breach and internal damage. We can certainly prove that if we have to."
"If that's true, I think you're crazy. Someone is crazy..."
"A calculated risk. And believe me, Colonel, the decision was made at the top."
"The top of what?"
"Sulaco was returning to Gateway with specimens of weapons-related material. The company's quantum detectors were monitoring data from the ship's hyper sleep vault. It became evident that the material in question had... become active."
"The decision was made to reroute Sulaco here, to Anchorpoint. Other factors outweighed the risk of entering U.P.P. territory."
"Status report on the biohazard sweep we requested?"
"We have a crew assembling in docking bay 8... You'll be going aboard yourselves?"
"We're in charge."
"We wouldn't have it any other way."

Ahhh... there's nothing like some hubris on behalf of the 'bad guys' to really antagonise the viewer / reader into wanting them to get their just desserts. Or in this case, just be dessert. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can guess how it is going to end for the two Weapons Division suits... even if you've never read William Gibson's legendary never-made screenplay which has been floating around the electronic ether for those of a curious mind.

I hadn't read it as it happens, but I do remember very well the truly immense disappointment and intense bemusement I experienced upon watching the Alien 3 film which did eventually appear at the cinema in 1992. As did most people... How had this travesty been made? Who could possibly have written such a downbeat movie that starts with two completely pointless off-screen deaths and only gets more dour from there?

With hindsight Alien 3 is actually a pretty decent movie, which is more in keeping with the claustrophobic tone of the original Alien film than the all-action sequel. But I think I am on fairly safe ground to state Aliens (1986) is as near perfect an action horror movie as has ever been made and certainly rightly matched the original in terms of acclaim. Anticipation was thus very high about the follow up with the expected trajectory of yet more insane action. When news broke that William Gibson had been tasked to write the screenplay that only made everyone even more excited. Could the man who invented cyperpunk possibly take the franchise to another level altogether?

From Gibson's foreword, it's clear he was a massive Alien / Aliens fanboy and set about writing something he felt would be the next logical step in building the trilogy, both in terms of plotline and tone. Reading this adaptation, he clearly succeeded in every respect, producing something completely in keeping with what had gone before in both films but also potentially allowing the franchise to expand in a new logical direction. Which then begs the question... why didn't it get made?

As I've commented before, it is a complete mystery to me why so many films that actually do get made have ever been greenlit at all. We are back to the hubris of bad guys aren't we? Just movie execs this time...

Anyway, the opening quote above is enough of a 'trailer' to give you fair warning of the mind (and stomach) rending horror that is to follow. Johnny Christmas' art is clean and crisp yet sufficiently visceral and bloody to convey the terror and carnage that is about to be unleashed on the inhabitants of the unsuspecting space station.