FAQ for
Alien: Resurrection (1997) More at IMDbPro »

It is commonly thought that Aliens take on host characteristics, as indicated by the quadrupedal Alien that came from an animal host in Alien 3 and the 'Predalien' seen in the crossover Alien Vs. Predator. This is thought to take place on a genetic level, which would mean that at some point there would be mixing/exchanging of Alien and host DNA. Perhaps the Alien embryo takes up cells from the host, and incorporates parts of the DNA into its own cells. If the blood sample used to clone Ripley was taken while the Alien was in the middle of this intricate process, the resulting DNA sample would contain the DNA of them both. As indicated by the seven failed clones- grotesque Alien/human hybrids- it was very difficult to separate the two, even with late 24th century cloning techniques.

Another factor is that the blood samples were 200 years old. Even though they were frozen (the ambient temperature on Fury 161 was 40 degrees below 0), DNA won't be properly preserved in such a long time, breaking into pieces. Piecing them together must have been one hell of a job, let alone seperating the human strands from the Alien ones.

According to the FX crew, Jean-Pierre Jeunet didn't like the static, mechanical appearences of the previous films' eggs and wanted them to be more interesting.

It has also been proposed that the egg is a living entity in itself, with basic perceptional senses. As soon as it senses a host nearby, it opens up. The vibrations made by the crew of the Betty as they surface from the flooded kitchen probably 'awakens' the eggs, and makes them stir before opening.

One posibility is that the cloning process may have screwed the eggs up and caused them to open different.

No explanation has ever been given but most assume it is just an error made by writer Joss Whedon. In the fiction, either the character is mistaken or the name could have been changed after two hundred years.

Fury 161 was the nickname for the planet which was actually named Furina 161. Fury 16 could just be a shortened nickname.

The Alien under water probably didn't show much interest in her, since she was an android. She must have taken an alternate route, not visible from the elevator shaft. The elevator shaft where the Betty crew resurfaces looks pretty much like a dead end, so it is likely Call swam back into the kitchen after the Alien got out of the water. Perhaps she used a flooded air shaft used to vent off the air (visible when they swim through the kitchen). She may have been able to crawl one floor up, where she could get out and open the door from the other side. Or maybe there was a service elevator used to transport food, or an emergency escape tunnel leading to higher floors somewhere back in the kitchen. The reason that she did not drown might be explained by the fact that she is an android, able to hold her breath longer (or having a lower oxygen consumption than humans). Or air isn't even needed.

Christie was one of the most likeable characters and he sacrificed himself to save Vriess. He is hit in the face with acid, Vriess is hanging onto the ladder, gradually losing his grip, so Christie cuts himself loose and hits the water, but this doesn't explain how he actually died.

Self-Sacrifice is certainly the answer (as with Alien and Alien 3. The prominant African-American characters sacrifice themselves in an attempt to save others.) The question is, what exactly was the means of his death?

There are several possible answers you could use for this, or maybe a combination.

1. The dead Alien that was latched on to his foot held him underwater so he drowned (the Alien's grip does not seem all too tight, though).

2. The acid was eating through his skull, and while the water would possibly help neutralize it, it might have been too far along and he cut himself loose before he lost conciousness and died. This would also explain why he cut himself loose in the first place, knowing he didn't have long to live and didn't want to die while Vriess was still strapped to him thus pulling them both underwater. (Acid beginning to oxidize would make no difference. Let us not forget that the same amount of acid, if not less ate through 3 floors of a spaceship before it stopped.)

3. There were more aliens swimming around underwater and they grabbed him when he hit the water.

4. The force with which he hit the water may have been hard enough for him to lose consciousness and drown.

5. An extremely unlikely theory, but if you liked Christie, you could assume that he got out another way, (perhaps the same way Call got out) and made it to a lifeboat and escaped on his own.

She says that she is programmed to do so, and there is a solid basis for this. The famous science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov already proposed in 1942 that, for proper functioning, all robots should obey three laws:

1: A robot may never harm a human being, or cause a human being to be harmed by inaction.

2. A robot must obey orders given by a human being (unless these orders are in conflict with law 1).

3. A robot must protect its own existence (unless this is in conflict with law 1 and 2).

These three principles have been widely recognized throughout the genre of science fiction, and have become known as the Three Laws of Robotics. It is most likely that the androids in the Alien continuity (except for Ash in Alien, who is violent) are programmed according to these laws. Bishop mentions in Aliens that it is 'impossible for him to harm, or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being', which is a paraphrase of the First Law. Call is also acting according to the second part of the First Law: if she does nothing to stop the scientists to create the Aliens, the entire human race may die.

What remains unexplained is how she would be able to kill Ripley (which is a direct conflict of Law 1, even if Ripley would agree). Perhaps Call's programming allows for a high degree of free will, and loose interpretation of the Three Laws. Or perhaps since Ripley wasn't entirely human (mixed DNA with Queen) then her computer system didn't consider her a "human being". But it should be noted that she was initially just going to cut out the alien that was in her chest, but because the alien was already cut out by the scientists she made no further attempt to kill Ripley. We can assume from what she said at many points throughout the movie that she did not see Ripley as a human though as she repeatedly pointed out that Ripley was "one of them" and would turn on the others at any time.

Added: As explained in Asimov's Foundation series of novels, there is also a "zeroth" Law of Robotics: "A robot cannot harm humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. This law overrides the First Law." According to this restriction (which not all robots have), Call could kill Ripley, if doing so would prevent possible harm to humanity as a whole. Since the harm is only possible, not inevitable, Call apparently has a bit of wiggle room, so she's not actually required to kill Ripley.

It is confirmed in the movie by Gediman: the Queen layed her eggs, which spawned Facehuggers, who would "impregnate" a host. But then "she started to change, she started to have a second cycle (of eggs). This time, there is no host. There are no eggs. There is just her womb, and the creature inside of it. That is Ripley's gift to her, a human reproductive system! She is giving birth for you! And now she is perfect!"

The DNA exchange worked both ways; Ripley got Alien characteristics, and the Queen got a human womb and human ovaries, enabling her to self-impregnate and spawn Alien/human hybrids. An early version of the script confirms this:

GEDIMAN: Multiple reproductive systems. Complete asexual reproductive cycle, self-impregnating, we found six different sets of ovaries in her. Egg laying is the first cycle, immature. Redundancies, redundancies... she'll bring forth legion.

Although it is not clear just how far the ship was from the colonists camp, the nuclear explosion at the end of Aliens could quite feasibly have destroyed the ship, or the subsequent radiation rendered the eggs useless.

Bishop refers to the Hadley's Hope colony to becoming a vapour cloud the size of Nebraska. It's safe to assume that Newt's family didn't drive across 430 miles of ground to find the derelict ship. (though it would explain why nobody else came across it.) So the nuclear explosion would have reached it without any problem.

Weyland-Yutani is mentioned by Dr. Wren and he said "Weyland-Yutani, Ripely's former employers. They once had contracts with the military." In a deleted scene, included in the Special Edition, Wren says that Weyland Yutani was bought out by Wal-Mart (yes, that Wal-Mart).

Camouflage. As seen in the first two films films, The Nostromo and Hadley's hope had a fairly sterile and dark environment, based on a planet that was all lava rock. Therefore the majority of surroundings were black.

In the last film, the installation was a dimly lit, but large leadworks that had a very rusty-brown colour to the piping and brickwork. This film, the ship is a very stale looking old metal type spaceship. Thus the creature adapts to the colourization

According to the introduction of director Jeunet, the Special Edition is not the Director's Cut. The Theatrical Cut is his favored and authorized Version. The SE is mainly made for completists who really want to now everything. Thus, the SE only features more background-knowledge about characters, which were cut from the Theatrical Version with a reason, since they're probably not very interesting to non-Alien-Fans. A detailed comparison between both versions can be found here.