Alien Resurrection (1997): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Alien Resurrection is about a cloned Ellen Ripley, brought back by military scientists who want the creature growing inside her, and about the mercenaries who bring them a fresh supply of human hosts. The story opens two hundred years after Ripley died, aboard the spaceship Auriga, where the scientists have rebuilt her from blood samples.

The clone, known as Ripley 8, is not simply the old Ripley returned. She carries alien DNA, which gives her extra strength, acidic blood and a link to the creatures. The scientists also grow the offspring of a Xenomorph queen, because their real aim is to breed the species and keep it under their control.

The second thread arrives with the Betty, a ship of mercenaries who deliver kidnapped humans to the Auriga to serve as hosts. One of them, Call, recognizes Ripley's name and secretly wants her dead. If you have followed the story through Alien 3, this is where the saga jumps furthest forward, and it comes last in the chronological order set out in Alien movies in order.

The full plot follows a breakout on the Auriga, a journey through a ship that is slowly falling apart, and a final confrontation with a creature that the scientists never planned for.

The scientists clone Ripley and remove the alien queen growing inside her, which leaves a clone with alien traits. The Betty crew delivers its frozen humans, who become hosts for new aliens. The creatures break out of their enclosures and kill many of the crew, including General Perez and Elgyn. Dr. Wren then reveals that the ship's automatic course is Earth, which would let the creatures loose on the planet.

Ripley 8 and the survivors head for the Betty, planning to escape and destroy the Auriga. On the way, Ripley finds a lab holding the ruined remains of earlier failed clones, and she burns it. A flooded kitchen section costs the group Hillard and Christie, who blinds himself to save the others.

Wren betrays them and shoots Call, which reveals that Call is an android. She links to the ship's systems and sets it to crash into Earth. Ripley is captured and taken to the nest, where the queen, now able to give live birth, produces a pale, human looking hybrid. The hybrid kills the queen and Gediman, and it treats Ripley as its mother.

Ripley reaches the Betty, but the hybrid follows and kills Distephano. She makes a hole in a window with her acidic blood, and the hybrid is sucked out into space. The Auriga hits Earth as the survivors escape in the Betty.

Alien Resurrection premiered in Paris on November 6, 1997, and reached US theaters on November 26, 1997, according to Box Office Mojo for the US date. The UK release followed on November 28, 1997, and the Australian release date is reported as January 1, 1998.

The film is rated R in the US, 18 in the UK and MA 15+ in Australia, and its running time is 109 minutes.

Was Alien Resurrection a flop? The figures give a mixed answer. Box Office Mojo lists a production budget of $75 million against $47.8 million at the domestic box office and $113.6 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $161.4 million. That is a little more than twice the budget. For comparison, Alien 3 earned slightly less worldwide on a considerably smaller budget, so the fourth film grossed a little more but cost far more to make. Every film in the series is compared in the Alien box office breakdown.

The ending of Alien Resurrection resolves the plot cleanly, but it leaves Ripley's future deliberately open. Ripley kills the hybrid by letting her acid blood eat a small hole in a window, and the vacuum pulls the creature through. The Auriga is destroyed on impact with Earth while Ripley, Call, Vriess and Johner get away in the Betty.

Why does the hybrid die the way it does? In my opinion, the choice is neat because it uses the one trait that makes Ripley 8 different from the original Ripley. Her alien blood, a product of the scientists' experiment, becomes the tool that finishes the experiment's most unnatural result. The hybrid treats her as its mother, and it is her own altered biology that turns on it.

The last exchange matters more than the spectacle. On Earth, Call asks Ripley what she will do now, and Ripley says she does not know, because she is a stranger there too. It could be argued that this is the only honest line for a character who was rebuilt from blood samples two hundred years after she died and who has no home to return to. Call is an android and Ripley is a clone with alien traits, so the two survivors who step onto the planet are both outsiders to it.

The film sets up no direct sequel. Later releases such as Prometheus go back to earlier points in the timeline instead, which is why Resurrection remains the seventh and last film in chronological order among the main films and prequels. See the Alien timeline for how the pieces fit.

Alien Resurrection was filmed at the Fox studios in Los Angeles, California, from October 1996 to February 1997.

The underwater sequence was the first scene shot, in a converted Fox stage filled with a 548,000 gallon tank.

Alien Resurrection trivia centers on a long shoot at Fox studios, an underwater tank and a crew of Jeunet's own choosing.

• Filming ran from October 1996 to February 1997 at Fox studios in Los Angeles.
• The underwater sequence was the first scene shot, in a converted stage filled with a 548,000 gallon tank.
• Sigourney Weaver received a coproducer credit.
• Jean-Pierre Jeunet hired Pitof for special effects, Darius Khondji as cinematographer and Marc Caro for costume sketches.
• Jeunet said he had almost total freedom, and that David Fincher phoned to warn him that Alien 3 had been a nightmare.
• Joss Whedon, at the time of hiring, was a sought after script doctor who had worked on Speed and Twister.
• Vriess whistles the Popeye theme, written by Sammy Lerner.