Line #8 Film/AlienResurrection


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alien_resurrection_poster_6367.jpg]]
2
3	->''"My mommy always said there were no monsters. No real ones. But there are."''
4	-->-- '''Ripley 8.'''
5
6	''Alien: Resurrection'' (1997) is the fourth film in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' film series. The screenplay was written by Creator/JossWhedon, and was directed by French director Creator/JeanPierreJeunet (''Film/{{Delicatessen}}'', ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'') and is his only Hollywood studio-based film to date.
7
8	After dying in the [[Film/Alien3 previous film]], Ripley is cloned back to life some 200 years later on a military research station for the purpose of breeding Xenomorphs in unscrupulous experiments, in yet another attempt to turn them into weapons (although the scientists go on about the other uses). The result is a little less than perfect though, as clones tend to be, and though she looks human, the clone has remarkable strength and reflexes, acidic blood, feral instincts, and lingering memories of her past life - including the knowledge that it is only a matter of time before the aliens break out.
9
10	Shortly after a crew of smugglers arrives on the station with a fresh shipment of unwitting colonists for the military to use as the initial alien parasite hosts, the captive adult aliens break out of their pens and begin to run amok. The new Ripley bands with the survivors, helping them get out of the station, but they discover that she's not the pay-off to the experiments - the Queen bred from Ripley no longer requires host bodies to reproduce, and her offspring are horrific half-human, half-Xeno hybrids that cannot be allowed to reach Earth.
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12	The plot breaks the traditions of the series by not including the original Ripley nor the Weyland-Yutani company, explaining that they were bought out by Walmart.
13
14	This is chronologically the last film of the 'classic' ''Alien'' series to date, as the installments that were produced after this, ''[[Film/{{Prometheus}} Prometheus]]'' and ''[[Film/AlienCovenant Alien: Covenant]]'', take place before them.
15	----
16	!!This film provides examples of:
17	* ActionGirl: The Ripley clone. Also Call.
18	* ActionizedSequel[=/=]SequelEscalation: Played at the very least half-way straight due to the presence of a fully fledged hive of Xenomorph Drones along with their Cloned Queen and also the Newborn Xenomorph specimen and also the presence of manmade weapons with which to fight back against them throughout the film. However, the on-screen action plays out more similarly to that of a comic book rather than the obviously really dark and also nitty-gritty militaristic action seen throughout the events of ''Film/{{Aliens}}''.
19	* ActorAllusion: Creator/SigourneyWeaver made a point of not looking the Newborn in the eye whenever she had a scene with it. This was something she had learned from ''Film/GorillasInTheMist'' - to never look a potentially dangerous animal in the eye.
20	** Creator/RonPerlman previously had someone say "who were you expecting? Santa Claus?" at him in ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'', by the same director as well.
21	* AdaptationalExplanation: The novelization explains that the reason why it took so long for Purvis' ChestBurster to emerge was because he suffered from thyroid deficiency, which slowed down the {{ChestBurster}}'s development.
22	** Kawlang is mentioned as a NoodleIncident in the film. The novel actually gives a flashback to what happened: The ''Betty'''s crew had all been mercenaries during a conflict there and it was where Johner got his scar and how Vriess ended up in a wheelchair.
23	* AdmiringTheAbomination: Dr. Gediman is fascinated by the Newborn, as well as the normal cloned Xenomorphs, and seems to consider himself their father.
24	** Ripley 8 has an odd fascination with the Xenomorphs as well due to being a hybrid clone.
25	* AIIsACrapshoot: Inverted since Analee Call found religion entirely on her own, and not as the result of any programming. The novelization hints that androids in general have started to evolve [[RobotReligion their own religious system.]] She is also the most sympathetic character out of the entire cast (not that that's saying much).
26	-->'''Ripley 8:''' I should have known. No human being is that ''humane.''
27	* AlasPoorVillain: For all the murderous havoc the Newborn and its entire race caused for Ripley, she's visibly sorrowful about having to kill it (and in an indirectly torturous manner at that).
28	* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: Due to genetic mixing Ripley 8 has inherited a lot of Alien characteristics, and sympathizes with them to a certain extent. This version of Ripley is technically a different character, but the irony has to be appreciated of Ripley becoming so much like the Aliens after she fought them for so long. When she's being brought to the Queen by one of the Aliens after she's captured, she actually hugs the thing ''as if she's finally come home.''
29	* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Call also brings this up after Ripley 8, who is also a hybrid (since she was the host that the new Xenomorphs were cloned from), shoots a Xenomorph, asking her why she would basically kill one of "her own kind". Ripley just shrugs it off with a dismissive "It was in my way".
30	** Whether it's more human or alien, the Newborn at the end viciously averts this. Its first act after being born is ''matricide''. Its second act is to crush a human soldier's head. The only person it doesn't try to hurt is Ripley.
31	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
32	** Dr. Gediman bizarrely declares that the human reproductive system conferred on the Alien Queen thanks to the experiments has -- somehow -- made the creature ''better,'' when in fact, it appears to drastically reduce the effectiveness of the Xenomorphs; Instead of producing batches of eggs and developing larger numbers of drones, she instead produces one child at a time in a prolonged and clearly painful parallel to human pregnancy; The only discernible advantage is that it now skips the infestation stage that requires other lifeforms. Then again, this may be justified since Gediman is pretty obviously insane.
33	** Also, cloning someone allowing scientists to also clone a sizeable parasitoid larva implanted in their chest is... scientifically questionable, at best.
34	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen gets his whole entire body sucked through a dime-sized hole in the airlock window. If you were naked and subjected to the same conditions, you should be able to walk away in spite of the suction[[note]]unless the pressure level inside the spaceship ''greatly'' exceeds earth's mean atmospheric pressure ("greatly" as in "many times the pressure" -- which of course would be utterly stupid, as it would add a whole lot of unnecessary stress to the ship's hull)[[/note]].
35	* AuthorAppeal: There's some serious HomoeroticSubtext between Ripley and Call, and Hillard gets a scene where Elgyn gives her a foot massage. Now, [[Creator/JossWhedon who was it]] who wrote this movie again?
36	* BanOnAI: Androids were outlawed after an uprising, although some are reported to have survived. [[spoiler:Call is actually one of them.]]
37	* BarbellBeating: Christie attempts this on Ripley 8, striking her square in the face with a barbell. Due to her [[HybridPower half-Xenomorph biology]], Ripley 8 only suffers a slight nosebleed from the attack.
38	* BigBad: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen who appears near the end, views Ripley 8 as his mother, eats Gediman's head right off, and also even swipes the Cloned Queen's head right off of her body, killing her off for good easily counts as this.
39	* BigNo: Vriess when Wren shoots Call.
40	* BodyHorror: Ripley 1-7, the prototype Ripleys, are horrific abominations as hybrids, most of which died in their tubes. 7 is alive, but in a constant agony, and begs 8 to kill her.
41	* BornAsAnAdult: The genetic scientists intend to age the Ripley clones up to adulthood in order to extract the Queen Xenomorph buried inside of her, which is part of what causes the BodyHorror. This also excuses how fast she learns, having inherited some of Ripley's GeneticMemory. She can remember some things about her past, but not everything.
42	* CameBackWrong: Ripley 8 retains the memories of her original self, but traces of the Xenomorph DNA have changed her personality and parts of her body considerably.
43	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Both the humans' initial numbers and the Xenomorphs' initial numbers are noticeably superior when compared to those found within a number of other ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise entries, resulting in multiple gun-fights and brutal deaths on both sides of the aisle this time around.
44	* CreatorThumbprint: Joss Whedon will revisit certain character types and ideas again in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Once you realize Ron Perlman's character is basically Jayne the rest falls into place.
45	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: ''Holy shit'', the Newborn Xenomorph specimen. Ripley 8 throws some of her acid blood over onto a window, dissolving a hole and causing ExplosiveDecompression that sucks the hybrid creature towards it. Unfortunately, he is much to big to fit through and [[FoldSpindleMutilation gets sucked through it piece by piece]]: first his guts get sucked out, then his torso and limbs sort of implode and get pulled through, then finally his skull shatters and is also sucked out, with the creature screaming in agony the whole entire time it happens to him.
46	* CreepySouvenir: Ripley [[TongueTrauma pulls out a Xenomorph's head-bursting tongue]] and hands it over to Call as a souvenir, who is completely disgusted by it.
47	* DeadpanSnarker: Virtually everyone in the film has their moments, though Ripley and Johner are definitely the standouts.
48	* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Captain Elgyn is played by a recognizable name and seems to have his head on his shoulders, leading you to believe he'll go far. Nope. He gets Captain Dallased less than halfway through.]]
49	* DegradedBoss: Much like in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', the new cloned Xenomorph Drones all get this treatment again due to them facing off against properly armed humans once more, and also, their Cloned Queen even somewhat gets this treatment due to the Newborn Xenomorph specimen easily killing her off by swiping her upper jaw right off of her EyelessFace when the First Acheron Queen some 200 years before her easily proved herself to be far harder to kill off than that.
50	* DistantSequel: This film is set ''200 years'' after ''Film/{{Alien 3}}''.
51	* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler: Based on Perez' attitude towards the Ripley clone, and the fact that he's ready to kill it as soon as it looks at him funny, Perez seems set to be the leading human antagonist faced in the film, but then he gets killed off less than an hour in and it turns out the real human villain is Dr. Wren.]]
52	* TheDragon: The "lead" Cloned Xenomorph Drone suit-acted by Tom Woodruff Junior can easily be seen as this since he's the one that leads everybody else in deliberately "sacrificing" one of his very own "brothers" so that he and the others can then escape containment and go on a ship-wide rampage along with the fact that he's the one that also takes Ripley 8 down into the Cloned Queen's new waste-tank lair of sorts, and if anything, he's also the only one to successfully sense his coming ultimate doom right before the ''USM Auriga'' finally crash-lands down into Earth.
53	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Purvis has an absolutely crazy death. Fresh from getting shot in the chest by Wren, he charges across the room, taking a ton of bullets. He grabs Wren, beats the overloving crud out of him and then positions himself behind Wren so his Chestburster emerges straight through the villain's head.
54	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: She's not the original Ripley, her daughter, Jonesy the cat, and anyone the real Ripley was familiar with or knew is dead, but at the end of the film, after more than 200 years of being in space, "Ripley" finally gets the chance to return to Earth. It's also hinted that she'll have a new "family" with the remaining crew of The Betty which will be a new Nostromo for her to captain and in Cal a replacement daughter for both Newt and Amy (her actual daughter who died of old age whilst she was in hypersleep.]]
55	* EarthThatWas: Any mention of Earth brings looks of disgust, the same way people would react to a cockroach-infested bathroom.
56	* ExplosiveDecompression: Ripley uses this to kill the Newborn Xenomorph specimen off at the end, when it is [[ThrownOutTheAirlock blown into space]] through a hole in the ship. A tiny hole. (Originally introduced in Dan O'Bannon's spec screenplay, ''Star Beast''.)
57	* ExpressiveHealthBar: In the video game version, the health bar blinks red when its at Critical status.
58	* {{Expy}}: The Newborn's face bears a suspicious resemblance to Eddie, Music/IronMaiden's mascot.
59	* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Wouldn't be an Alien movie without this trope showing up. Although averted in Ripley 8's case; a facehugger latches on, but thanks to her heightened abilities, she is able to pry it off before it can have any effect.
60	* FailsafeFailure: The ''USM Auriga'' is programmed to automatically return to Earth in case something goes wrong. Unfortunately, the ''USM Auriga'' is the site of a Xenomorph breeding and testing facility, which is the absolute '''last''' thing you want near an inhabited planet.
61	* FateWorseThanDeath: The group discovers a [[CameBackWrong deformed]] Ripley clone lying helplessly on a table, and she begs the more successfully-cloned Ripley to destroy her.
62	* FoldSpindleMutilation: The fate of the Newborn Xenomorph specimen who's sucked through a hole in the bulkhead.
63	* GaiasLament: Johner refers to Earth as a 'shithole.' He comments dryly that he'd rather face the 'things'. The Special Edition's ending shows Paris to be a wasteland.
64	* GayBravado: Johner is TheBigGuy of the group of space pirates, and earlier in the film tries to flirt with Ripley 8. However, [[spoiler:at the very end, when he is lucky enough to be one of a handful of the DwindlingParty to survive]], he spontaneously plants a SmoochOfVictory on his teammate Vriess.
65	* GeneticMemory: The Xenomorphs have this as a species. Ripley 8's genetic memory was somehow the result of the cloning process mingling her physiology with some of the traits of the Xenomorph queen her predecessor had died carrying.
66	* GoryDiscretionShot: The blood hitting the escape pod window.
67	* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The guard with the metal detector glove is clearly intimidated by the SpacePirates and does a half-assed job of searching them, enabling them to smuggle in some rather bulky weaponry.
68	* HalfHumanHybrid: The Xenomorphs normally adopt some of their host's genetic structure, an ability intended to allow them to better adapt to their environments. The Xenomorphs in this film however were merged with Ripley's human DNA to an even greater extent. While the Drones look fairly normal, but Ripley 8 has slightly acidic blood and predatory instincts, the Queen Xenomorph develops a quasi-mammalian reproductive system, and the Newborn Xenomorph specimen is a clear hybrid between human and Xenomorph physiology. Additionally, Ripley's other clones are also less successful hybrids.
69	* HasTwoThumbsAnd: The smitten, wheelchair-bound mechanic tells this joke to the new girl mechanic, Call.
70	-->'''Vriess:''' What's got two thumbs, one eye, and screws like a god?\
71	'''Call:''' ''[gives him a humored look]'' What?\
72	'''Vriess:''' ''[closes one eye and points to himself]''\
73	'''Call:''' ''[chuckles before pressing the button sending him back under the machine]''
74	* HeroicSacrifice: Christie - rather than both him and Vriess die, he lets himself go.
75	* HiddenInPlainSight:
76	** Vriess has the parts to a shotgun attached to his bulky electric wheelchair. He doesn't need to worry about metal detectors because it blends in with the chair.
77	** Johner keeps a gun hidden in a thermos and jokes during the weapons search that his homemade moonshine is probably more lethal than any gun.
78	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Weyland-Yutani, once a powerful corporation developing cutting edge technology, declined so much in the past two hundred years that they're now a subsidiary of Walmart.
79	* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Call, a robot]] not wanting Ripley to help the team, because she's not human.
80	* ImpaledPalm: When Call offers to kill Ripley 8 to spare her pain, Ripley calmly pushes her hand onto Call's knife. She later uses the acidic blood to CutTheJuice and escape her cell.
81	* InterspeciesRomance: Very disturbingly [[{{Subtext}} implied]] between Ripley and one of the Aliens, in a sequence late in the film which is shot as if it were a love scene. The studio wanted to cut the scene because of the implications, but Weaver demanded it be kept in the film.
82	* ItCanThink: Perhaps thanks to Ripley's DNA, these Aliens are far smarter than they were in previous films, although it's been established that they always take on some characteristics of their host bodies.
83	** The Xenomorphs stopped trying to kill the guy behind the window when he raises his hand above the button that repeatedly sprays liquid nitrogen on them every time they threw a fit. After their escape, a soldier steps into the cage and looks at the hole before being frozen to death ''by the aliens themselves''.
84	*** The novelization reveals that the Xenomorph that got sprayed with liquid nitrogen can ''read the English warning signs next to the button''.
85	** Some of the Xenomorphs realize they can use their acidic blood to escape, and thus brutally kill one of their own so its bloody corpse will eat through the floor. They also wait till they hear that communications have been cut with Security before making their move.
86	** In the novelization, Elgyn spots an abandoned weapon in a side corridor and picks it up. Then he sees another one and fetches that one too. Then he sees a ''third'' one next to an acid-burned hole in the floor, goes to fetch it - and remembers that as a kid, [[OhCrap he used to trap squirrels by making a similar trail out of nuts to lead the animal into the trap]]. About a second before a Xenomorph reaches out of the hole and yanks him in.
87	** The Aliens allow the humans to travel through the water to the other side, because it will lead them right to a nest of eggs that they had created previously. Ripley suspects it's a trap from the start, but they have little choice, and Johner even lampshades the fact that it is a deliberate trap.
88	** The facehuggers can recognise a grenade and start to retreat when Christie fires a few at them.
89	* ItIsDehumanizing: General Perez and the doctors are discussing the development of the Ripley 8 clone, referring to her as "it" while she's right there.
90	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Johner is probably the most jerkass of the mercenary crew. Still, he improves over the course of the movie, and he's visibly angry every time [[DwindlingParty another member of their team dies.]]
91	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Dr. Wren seems that at first he might just be your standard PunchClockVillain, and maybe even ready to admit that breeding the Aliens was a bad idea. Then he shoots Call, betrays the entire group, and intends to get the Auriga back to Earth intact.
92	* KarmicDeath: Dr. Wren subjected at least eight people to be victims to the facehuggers and have an alien embryo burst out of their chests. He dies by having a chestburster break its way through his own skull.
93	* KillItWithFire: Ripley gets a flamethrower again, which she turns on her failed clones.
94	* KillItWithIce: Liquid nitrogen is tried against the aliens, but it's not so effective, as it was intended as a disciplinary tool rather than a weapon. As a training tool, it works. [[spoiler:For stopping an escape, not so much.]]
95	* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: Ripley asks which of the men she'll have to fuck to get off the ship.
96	-->'''Johner:''' I can get you off. Maybe not the boat...
97	* LargeHam: Creator/DanHedaya as General Perez, particularly during his introduction and death scene.
98	* [[HomoeroticSubtext Lesbian Subtext]]: Between Ripley and Call. WordOfGod says it was intentional. Given [[Creator/JossWhedon the scriptwriter]], [[AuthorAppeal that's not exactly surprising]].
99	* MadeOfPlasticine: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen when it is sucked out of the airlock through a dime-sized hole, even though when we first see it, it was tough enough to rip off the Cloned Queen's upper jaw with one swipe of his hand.
100	* MamaBear: Ripley becomes this to Call, [[spoiler:especially at the end, when the newborn is about to attack her. Ripley seemingly has a choice to protect the newborn, or protect call. She chooses Call.]]
101	* {{Matricide}}: Played with as the Newborn Xenomorph specimen, immediately after being born, inspects the Cloned Queen and kills her off; however, he then thinks of Ripley as his real mother and likewise acts affectionately towards her.
102	* MercyKill: Call offers this to Ripley while Ripley's still a prisoner, but Ripley is at best apathetic about having been cloned and refuses.
103	** Ripley 7, the only living but horribly deformed failed clone, requests this from Ripley 8, and she soon subsequently delivers.
104	* MetalDetectorCheckpoint: When the motley crew of SpacePirates first set foot on the ''Auriga'', they are all checked for weapons, albeit by a soldier with a metal detector glove instead of a gateway. However, three of them manage to smuggle in various firearms anyway because the guards aren't willing to press the issue.
105	* MonsterDelay: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] again in this film where both the Royal ChestBurster form and the adult form of the Cloned Queen appear on-screen during just the first several minutes of the film's runtime with the cloned Xenomorph Drones also appearing on-screen for the first time not too much later than that, but this trope is then [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] with the Newborn Xenomorph specimen who does not ever show up on-screen at all until during the last quarter-hour of the film's runtime.
106	* MsFanservice: Hillard, who spends most of her screentime in a skintight jumpsuit that accentuates her form. There's even an entire scene devoted solely to her moaning in pleasure while wearing a thong as Elgyn massages her feet [[MaleGaze and looks on in satisfaction]].
107	* NiceGuy: Vriess, to Call. [[spoiler: After the revelation that Call is a synthetic human, Vreiss is the only one who seems completely unperturbed, and even stands up for her when Johner insults her.]]
108	* NoEndorHolocaust: The movie ends with the good guys destroying the aliens on the research ship by crashing it into Earth's surface. We get a view from space as it crashes into what appears to be the east coast of either Africa or India, producing an ''enormous'' explosion that realistically would undoubtedly have killed millions... ''maybe'' more than a Xenomorph infestation. In this case it is implied that Earth was already a devastated wasteland ("Earth. What a shithole."). The Special Edition contains an alternate ending with the protagonists in the ruins of Paris, which appears to be a wasteland. There's also a scene where Call says she re-calibrated ground level -- ensuring the ship would crash in an uninhabited quadrant.
109	** The novelization says that Earth is mostly abandoned at this point with people either living on space stations or colony planets.
110	** The ''[[Literature/AlienOutOfTheShadows Sea Of Sorrows]]'' novel said that [[MegaCorp Weyland Yutani]] came back into power by using {{Terraforming}} technology to fix the damage done by the ''USM Auriga''.
111	** The ''Original Sin'' novel plays the trope straight by being an ImmediateSequel that starts with The Betty landing on an overcrowded Earth with no mention of the Auriga landing.
112	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Purvis delivers one to Wren before killing him with his ChestBurster.
113	* NonhumansLackAttributes: Almost averted. The Newborn Xenomorph specimen was supposed to have visible genitals, but [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio interfered]], and the idea was therefore subsequently scrapped.
114	* {{Novelization}}: The film was novelised by A. C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley. Creator/AlanDeanFoster, who adapted the first three films, was initially asked to write the book, but the author turned it down after his negative experience with the novelization of ''Film/Alien3'', which (much like the film it was based on) suffered from studio interference. [[https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Alien_Resurrection_(novel) More details here]].
115	* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler: Ripley 8, for reasons not specified. When she's doing the flash card test, the woman off=camera conducting the test clearly mouths 'glove' to Ripley when she's holding the glove card, and Ripley instead says 'hand.' Based on her actions here, she also may be intentionally doing so in the cafeteria scene with Gediman when she mispronounces fork as 'fuck.' She might be playing as dumb as she is to prevent Gen. Perez from thinking she's too smart for her own good and having her destroyed, but again, it's not explained in the film proper.]]
116	* OffingTheOffspring: Ripley considers the Newborn, a murderous abomination, her "son", as well as the other Xenomorphs ("I'm the monster's mother"). She ends up killing both of them.
117	* OhCrap:
118	** Gediman and his assistant have a serious one of these when they realize that two extremely dangerous cloned Xenomorph Drones are now loose aboard the ''USM Auriga''.
119	** Johner has himself one about halfway through the film. While swimming through a flooded section of the ship, he casually checks behind him, only to spin around when he realizes there are Aliens behind him. As expected, he shits himself.
120	* OurClonesAreDifferent: In the 24th century, the United Systems Military can grow clones from preserved blood samples that are ''two centuries old'', growing inside an artificial tank from an embryo to the age that the genetic donor was at the time of the blood sample's taking. The USM clone both Ellen Ripley ''and'' the Xenomorph Queen chestburster that was growing inside of her at the time of the blood samples' extraction, but there's unpreventable cross-contamination between Ripley's and the Queen Xenomorph's DNA in every single cloning attempt. The first seven cloning attempts produce gruesome Ripley-Xenomorph chimeras, most of which die in gestation; while the eighth cloning attempt successfully produces a fully-functioning Ripley clone who has several subdued physical and mental Xenomorph traits, and it produces a Xenomorph Queen with several subdued and clearly human-derived mutations. The Ripley clone also inherits some of her original human donor's memories via her Xenomorph-derived DNA including a {{genetic memory}}.
121	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Averted. The space station has its own chapel, and the android character crosses itself before entering the chapel.
122	* PeopleJars: [[spoiler:Various Ripley clones, in jars. Since the Ripley's in question are the least successful of a batch of [[HalfHumanHybrid alien hybrids]], this is stretching the definition of "people" quite a bit.]]
123	* PlaceWorseThanDeath: Johner half-seriously says that he'd rather face the Xenomorphs than go to Earth.
124	* PostClimaxConfrontation: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen sneaks aboard the Betty just as Ripley 8 and the other survivors attempt to escape the already doomed USM Auriga, only for Ripley 8 herself to throw some of her acid-for-blood over onto a nearby glass window, causing the Newborn Xenomorph specimen to get sucked right out into space piece-meal and also causing the Xenomorph menace to die off once again afterwards.
125	* PregnantReptile: It's unclear exactly what taxonomy the [[StarfishAliens Xenomorphs]] would belong to, but they're clearly not mammals since they reproduce through eggs and do not rear their young. However, because of retaining some of Ripley's DNA after gestating inside her, the new Queen ends up birthing a life Newborn Xenomorph specimen.
126	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The crew of the Betty are portrayed as a crass but generally endearing RagtagBunchOfMisfits, glossing over the fact that they are remorseless human traffickers responsible for handing twelve innocent space travelers over to the mad scientists who [[CruelAndUnusualDeath use them as Xenomorph hosts.]]
127	* PuzzleBoss: Actually [[AvertedTrope averted]] with the Cloned Queen since the Newborn Xenomorph specimen instantaneously kills her off via swiping off her upper jaw but then played straight with the Newborn Xenomorph specimen himself since his death involves Ripley 8 throwing some of her [[AcidAttack acid for blood]] over onto a small viewport window that then [[ThrownOutTheAirlock sucks the Newborn Xenomorph specimen out of the ''Betty'' piecemeal]].
128	* RaisedByRobots: Call is a second-generation android, in that she was created by other androids. They're considered an anathema to humans.
129	* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Call is revealed to be one. So much so that Ripley says, "No human being is that humane."
130	* RobotGirl: Annalee Call. It is interesting [[HumansAreBastards how fast]] other characters forget that they used to think about her as a human when they find out.
131	-->'''Johner:''' Can't believe I nearly fucked that thing.\
132	'''Vries:''' Yeah, like you've never fucked a robot!
133	* RoboticReveal: Call is revealed to be an android.
134	* RuinsOfTheModernAge: In the extended ending, the final shot after the survivors arrive on Earth is a view of the grim, desolate apocalyptic ruins of Paris, with the half-fallen Eiffel Tower identifiable.
135	* SapientShip: "[[ContinuityNod Father]]", the Auriga's ship computer.
136	* ScaramangaSpecial: The film features a number of hidden weapons, including a shotgun assembled from components concealed as parts of a bulky electric wheelchair. There's also a gun concealed as a thermos.
137	* SheepInWolfsClothing: Ripley 8. She's able to kill Xenomorphs easily due to being a HalfHumanHybrid. There is also an infectee who puts his alien embryo to a good use by hugging a villain and letting the embryo tear through both of them.
138	* ShoutOut: Dom Vriess can be heard whistling the Franchise/{{Popeye}} song.
139	* SkullForAHead: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen has what can only be described as a skull face.
140	* SociopathicHero: This Ripley is extremely cynical and callous, due to partially merging with the Xenomorphs. A doctor theorizes that she has some form of emotional autism. Some examples of her sociopathy are trying to strangle Dr. Wren on a whim, breaking another doctor's arm immediately after she wakes up (in a deleted scene), and looking at another character getting dragged off by the Xenomorphs with curious fascination. The only time she shows any real emotion is when she finds her other clones and incinerates them, and when her "son" (the Newborn) dies.
141	* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the video game, the space station burns up in the atmosphere instead of actually slamming into the planet with a blast radius large enough to certainly be a K-T Extinction-level event.
142	* StealthPun: Ripley rips the inner jaw out of a dead Xenomorph Drone and proceeds to hand it over to Call, saying that it's a souvenir, so she's quite literally slipping her some tongue.
143	* SuperNotDrowningSkills: The characters hold their breaths for about ten minutes in the underwater scene. It's especially silly in Christie's case, since he's carrying someone else on his back as well. Justified for Call, since she's an android, and possibly Ripley, depending on how much her physiology was altered by mixing with the cloned Xenomorphs' DNA (who do just fine underwater). One does actually drown, but only because a cloned Xenomorph grabbed her and dragged her back until she died.
144	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Johner gets startled when his face almost touches a spider web. He angrily holds his sidearm up to the spider and fires.
145	** The group plans to blow up the ship. That plan fails, so they crash it on Earth.
146	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen is disposed off by ejecting it into space, but because the hull puncture is so tiny, it is slowly ripped apart and sucked out piecemeal.
147	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Call and Ripley form this dynamic after they become friends. Call, while not especially dolled up, is far more feminine and docile than Ripley 8, who is an an aggressive survivalist who out-butches most of the men around her. Interestingly, neither of them turn out to be [[spoiler:really human, given that Call is an android and Ripley part-alien.]]
148	* TooDumbToLive: Dr. Gediman becomes increasingly fascinated with the aliens, to the point that he feels they will identify with him. [[spoiler: When the Newborn approaches him after identifying more closely with Ripley 8 than the Queen, he seems to genuinely believe it might even think of him as its daddy. It doesn't.]]
149	* UnitedSpaceOfAmerica: The "United Systems" has a very American flavor and is implied to have evolved from the USA, with the United Systems Military descended of the US Colonial Marines.
150	* UpCloseWithTheMonster: The Newborn Xenomorph specimen, immediately after he is born and also brutally kills off the Cloned Xenomorph Queen that birthed him in the first place, gets up in Ripley's face and clearly considers ripping her apart as well before stopping and imprinting on her.
151	* WhoAreYou: Ripley gets asked this a lot. The answer?
152	-->'''Ripley:''' ''(SlasherSmile)'' I'm the monster's mother.
153	* WindowLove: Dr. Gediman shows a creepy fascination with the Aliens when he gives a window kiss to one of them which is standing behind a transparent containment wall.
154	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
155	** A handful of people consider the Newborn Alien to be this. In any case, it's a bit hard to watch it die.
156	** Like Ripley, the Alien Queen is a mutant, bred in captivity as a lab rat, her children taken from her and kept in cages, her body mutates further causing her to give birth to the Newborn, which kills her while she's trying to bond with it.
157	* WorldOfSnark: This film was written by Creator/JossWhedon. As a result virtually every character in the movie is a DeadpanSnarker.
158	* ZerothLawRebellion: [[spoiler:Annalee Call]] is revealed to be an "Auton" -- second generation robots, designed and built by other robots. "They didn't like being told what to do," rebelled, and in a subtly named "Recall" humanity launched a genocide against them, of which only a handful survived in hiding. Judging from Call's behavior, it seems that the 1st generation robots programmed the 2nd generation Autons to be so moral that they discovered the Zeroth Law, and realized that the human military was ordering them to do immoral things, like kill innocent people. For a rebel robot, Call is actually trying to save the human race ''from'' the Xenomorphs, when if she hated humanity she'd just let the Xenomorphs spread and kill them. She even respectfully crosses herself when she enters the ship's chapel, is kind to the Betty's wheelchair bound mechanic, and is disgusted by Johner's sadistic streak. Given that they live in a CrapsackWorld future, as Ripley puts it: "You're a robot? I should have known. No human being is that ''humane.''"
159	----
160	->'''Annalee Call:''' ''[about Earth]'' It's beautiful.\
161	'''Ripley:''' Yeah.\
162	'''Annalee Call:''' I didn't expect it to be. What happens now?\
163	'''Ripley:''' I don't know. I'm a stranger here myself.

Context Film / AlienResurrection