This is a page listing characters in Alien³.
For recurring characters in the entire series, see the main characters page.
Warning: here be heavy spoilerage.
open/close all folders
Fiorina-161 Staff
Andrews
Superintendent Harold Andrews
"This is rumor control, here are the facts..."
Portrayed By: Brian Glover
The warden of Fury 161. He often begins his addresses to the prisoners with the line "this is Rumor Control, here are the facts...". Andrews often mocked the prisoners behind their backs, calling them "Dillon's God Squad". He becomes increasingly annoyed with Ripley as she leaves the infirmary, and also takes this frustration out on Clemens, who he has never trusted.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Subverted. While no one particularly likes him, due to his position as Superintendent his death causes some problems.
- Character Catchphrase: "This is Rumor Control, here are the facts..."
- Deadpan Snarker: Mostly just with this line:"It's an eight foot creature of some kind, with acid for blood... And it arrived on your spaceship. It kills on sight and is generally unpleasant."
- Death by Irony: Dragged up into the ventilation shaft and torn apart by the Dragon in front of everyone just as he is in the middle of vehemently denying its very existence to Ripley and calling her hysterical.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite how much of an asshole he is, he has the unenviable task of being the Warden of a prison of convicted rapists and murderers where a woman just arrived to, potentially riling them all up, a fear proven true true when a gang of them attempt to assault Ripley. Also from his perspective there is no solid evidence of Ripley's outlandish claim of an Always Chaotic Evil eight foot tall Alien with acid for blood stalking the corridors of his prison, beyond her seemingly hysterical word.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Doesn't believe in Ripley's tale, but his Surprisingly Sudden Death quickly convinces everyone else.
- Pet the Dog:
- In the novelization, he gives the oration at the funeral of Newt and Hicks.
- He's also always cordial and polite to his subordinate, Aaron, even outright consoling him by telling him that it wasn't his fault when Murphy's remains are discovered.
- Wardens Are Evil: Downplayed; he's something of a Jerkass, but given the unique circumstances of the prison is hardly in a position to abuse his power.
Aaron
Francis Aaron AKA 85
"Don't call me that."
Portrayed By: Ralph Brown
Dubbed By: Patrick Floersheim (European French)
Superintendent Andrews's assistant who serves as a prison guard. He is not a religious man because he believes that so long as he has a job he does not need faith, although he seems to have a lot of faith in Weyland-Yutani. At his arrival, several prisoners catch a glance at his personal file, discovering his IQ is only 85, which they began using as a nickname for him. Aaron will often respond by telling whoever said it to not do so again, but this is always ignored. He usually acts as Andrews's parrot, echoing his opinions without stating any of his own.
- Death Equals Redemption: While it does nothing but get him killed, him attacking Bishop with a pipe over one of his men shooting Morse argueably counts as him finally standing up against the Company.
- Embarrassing Nickname: The inmates call Aaron "85", which is his IQ.
- Malicious Misnaming: Calling Aaron "85" despite his dislike of the nickname.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The Prisoners don’t care for him (hence his nickname 85) and feeling is mutual is he considers them stupid and thinks their religion is stupid.
- Multiple Gunshot Death: He is shot several times by a Weyland-Yutani soldier after he attacks Bishop.
- Number Two: He has this role early in the film to Andrews, acting as his muscle and being his intended successor.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Attempts to give one to the inmates regarding their plans to kill the xenomorph, but since none of them care what he thinks, it doesn't take.
- Too Dumb to Live: Attacking the guy leading a team of heavily-armed mercenaries with a pipe? Not a good idea.
- You Are in Command Now: He doesn't want the job, and nobody wants him for the job. So he quietly doesn't take the job.
Clemens
Dr. Jonathan Clemens
"So, do you still trust me with a needle?"
Portrayed By: Charles Dance
"I really appreciate your affections. But I am aware that they deflected my question. In the nicest possible way, of course."
The medical doctor of Fury 161. When Ripley crashes into the oil sea, he nurses her back to health and begins showing her around. He even starts a personal relationship with her, much to the annoyance of Andrews.
- The Atoner: Part of the reason he remained on Fiorina even after the company shut the prison down (the other, more obvious reason being that nobody else would hire him).
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Does this to, and has this done to him by Ripley.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Went to work in an ER stoned out of his gourd on morphine, and accidentally killed eleven accident victims with an overdose of painkillers.
- My Greatest Failure: Considers seven years in jail and a reduced medical license a light punishment for what he did.
- Pulling the Thread: When Ripley tells him she needs to check Newt’s body because it might have Cholera, he simply tells her there hasn’t been a case of Cholera in 200 years.
- Sacrificial Lion: His amicable relationship with Ripley indicates he will play a large role, which is why his Surprisingly Sudden Death by the Dragon is a real indicator that things are getting serious.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: The Alien suddenly shows up and kills him in the midst of a conversation with Ripley with little build up.
- Stepford Snarker: Clemons tends to use sarcasm to maintain boundaries with other people.
- The Stoic: He maintains a calm composure in the face of the inmate’s Large Ham tendencies. Subverted when the Alien attacks him, as he rightfully freaks out.
- Sympathetic Murderer: The "murderer" part is an exaggeration, but he was sent to Fury 161 for prescribing the wrong dosage of painkillers while he was drunk, indirectly killing eleven people. But he definitely counts as sympathetic, since what happened was mostly an accident and he's not proud of it at all.
- With Friends Like These...: Admits that he's grown to like the "motley crew" of inmates.
The Mysterious Lifepod Crash Survivor
Ripley
See Main characters
Fiorina-161 Inmates
Dillon
Leonard Dillon
"I don't like losin' a fight. Not to nobody, not to nothin'. That damn thing out there's already killed half my men, got the other half scared shitless. As long as it's alive, sister, you're not gonna save any universe."
Portrayed By: Charles S. Dutton Other Languages
You're all gonna die. The only question is when. This is as good a place as any to take your first steps to heaven. The only question is how you check out. Do you want it on your feet... or on your fucking knees... begging? I ain't much for begging! Nobody ever gave me nothin'! So I say, fuck that thing! Let's fight it!
The man who is unofficially in charge of the Fiorina-161 prison, Dillon holds his own against others and manages to take charge when the situation with the Xenomorph goes south.
- The Atoner: He’s clearly not proud of his past life or crimes and steers himself and his fellow prisoners towards the righteous path so they will never sin again.
- Badass Preacher: In spirit, if not in actuality.
- Bald of Authority: He unofficially becomes the leader of the inmates, directing them in their final attempt to kill the Alien.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Agrees to this with another character that is... pregnant.
- Celibate Hero: Dillion is the religious leader of the inmates, and it's mentioned early on in the film that the members of the religious sect have to take a vow of celibacy.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When he stops his fellow inmates from raping Ripley, he's outnumbered five to one. He goes through them like a tornado through a trailer park. None of them so much as lay a hand on him.Dillon: (To Ripley) Get out of here. I need to re-educate my brothers.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novelization, he doesn't sacrifice himself in the forge and instead makes it to safety alongside Ripley... only for the alien to leap out of the molten metal and drag him back down.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Goes out with a Heroic Sacrifice physically grappling with the Dragon in a lead smelter, and lives long enough to keep it down there until the lead is poured on them.
- Face Death with Dignity - His penultimate speech on this subject in the above quote.
- Heel–Face Turn: By his own admission, he was a rapist and murderer. However, he found religion at some point, and even saves Ripley from being raped at one point.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He fights the Xenomorph to a draw single-handedly before they're both doused in molten metal.
- Offscreen Villainy: His past crimes are discussed, but by the time of the story he seems past all of that.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Despite being a past rapist and murderer himself, he considers it a serious breach of the prisoners' philosophy to do so anymore. He saves Ripley from a rape attempt by the other convicts and bashes them with a crowbar to do some 're-educating'.
- Redemption Equals Death: Its ironic that he would die this way and is probably the only way he felt he could ever fully redeem himself in the eyes of God.
- Religious Bruiser: When he interrupts the attempted rape of Ripley, he proceeds to beat multiple other inmates into submission without even breaking a sweat.
- Rousing Speech: Delivers an epic one to the terrified, demoralized remaining prisoners, rallying them to fight the Dragon.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Granted, this is only because we haven't seen the crimes he committed to end up on this prison planet in the first place...
- Think Nothing of It: A belligerent example:Ripley: I just wanted to, um, say thanks for what you said at the funeral. My friends would have appreciated it.Dillon: Yeah, well you don't wanna know me, lady. I'm a murderer and rapist of women.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Toward Ripley as they get to know one another more, sort of.
- With Friends Like These...: Even after stopping some of them from attempting to rape Ripley, Dillon is still close to his prison buddies.
Morse
Robert Morse
"How about if I sit here on my arse?"
Portrayed By: Danny Webb
"...we ain't got no entertainment center, no climate control, no video system, no surveillance, no freezers, no fucking ice cream, no rubbers, no women, no guns. All we got here is shit!"
A loud and argumentative prisoner.
- Atomic F-Bomb: After Andrew gets killed by the Alien, Morse blurts out the only appropriate response left.
- Dissonant Laughter: In the middle of a tense chase, he collides with Gregor, and they both share a laugh thinking the other was the Alien.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is the most hostile to Ripley early in the film (to the point that he even suggests that Ripley should be killed for bringing the xenomorph to Fury 161), but tells her how to kill the Dragon and helps her kill herself before Bishop could take the Queen inside her.
- Hidden Depths: Wrote a book on his experiences with the Dragon, which despite being banned by Weyland-Yutani, still had at least one copy preserved even two centuries after his death.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Of all the inmates, he peppers his speech with the most profanities.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He is initially set up as a Deadpan Snarker (with few lines), who doesn't want anything to do with the fight against the xenomorph, but ends up being the Sole Survivor of the inmates by the end of the film. Then the next film explains that his writings indirectly inspired Call to fight against Weyland-Yutani.
- Sole Survivor: Although wounded, he ends up being the only non-company person who makes it off the planet alive.
- Spanner in the Works: Alien: Resurrection reveals that he wrote about the incident that still exists two centuries later. The Expanded Universe (for instance, Alien: The Roleplaying Game) reveals that his book ("Star Beast") was banned but circulated in samizdat form.
Golic
Walter Golic
"In an insane world, a sane man must appear insane."
Portrayed By: Paul McGann
"It was a dragon! Feeds on minds. It was- nobody can stop it!"
A strange, unpredictable prisoner who is something of an outcast.
- Ax-Crazy: Was originally sent to prison for multiple violent murders. He mentions that he "knew lots of pretty girls, back home" and that they liked him
"for a while". - Apologetic Attacker: Apologizes (a little frantically) after slitting another prisoner's throat to get to the alien.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: Well, sort of. He winds up splattered with a hell of a lot of blood through no fault of his own, so he's technically innocent. In that, at least.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes him about the alien but Ripley. The rest think he murdered the others on his crew.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: And is proven right in a really gruesome way.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Many of the other prisoners keep their distance from Golic and think he’s nuts due to his unpredictable nature. Considering the rest of the population are a bunch of mass murderers, serial murderers, rapists, serial rapists, kidnappers, child murderers and child molesters-rapists???? That says a LOT. The only one are even remotely nice to him and treat him with any respect are Dillon, Murphy and Morse.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: in the Assembly Cut, the prisoners actually did manage to trap the alien. Unfortunately Golic, who worships the thing as a kind of dragon, kills the guard and lets it out again. Oops.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He's easily excited, easily upset, and apologizes frantically to his murder victim like a misbehaving child.
- Talkative Loon: Halfway. He doesn't say a lot, but when he does speak, he tends to babble.
David
David Postlewaite
Portrayed By: Pete Postlethwaite
An older, more educated inmate.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a rapist, he is respectable to Ripley and cooperates with the plan despite his fears.
- Enemy Rising Behind: The Alien travels through the vents to get past the door he’s watching, dropping down behind him, which leads to his death.
- Noodle Incident: When collecting chemical barrels with Ripley, he mentions witnessing the chemical's explosive properties firsthand. He doesn't go into much detail, but the blast was big enough to put a ship in dry dock for 17 weeks.
Junior
Ted 'Junior' Gillas
Portrayed By: Holt McCallany
A younger and more silent prisoner, sentenced for aggressive sexual crimes. He is easily recognizable via the teardrop tattoo he has below his right eye and the welding goggles he often wears.
- Attempted Rape: He's the leader of the group that attempted to rape Ripley when she went to get Bishop.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Junior’s silence might make him appear harmless but as Ripley finds out later in the scrap heap, that this man is in prison for life for very good reason.
- Death Equals Redemption: In the Assembly Cut, he sacrifices himself to lead the xenomorph into the waste vault, allowing the other inmates to seal it in.
- The Quiet One: Has like two lines total throughout the theatrical cut and in the assembly cut only three.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He's a sex offender and one of the people who attempt to gangrape Ripley.
- Tattooed Crook: His aforementioned teardrop tattoo.
Arthur
Arthur Walkingstick
Portrayed By: DeObia Oparei
A large, muscular inmate.
- Slashed Throat: How Golic kills him in the Special Edition.
- Man on Fire: How he dies in the theatrical cut, being killed by the explosion of the quinitricetyline.
Murphy
Thomas Murphy
Portrayed By: Christopher Fairbank
An inmate sentenced to life for the death of four people in a vehicle hijacking, and the first victim of the Dragon.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: How he dies, falling into one after the Alien attacks him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He takes good care of his dog, and is appalled when he sees he has scars, thinking an inmate was to blame.
- Facial Horror: His face is spit on by the acidic Dragon, causing him enough pain to blindly flail and fall to his death.
- Ludicrous Gibs: He has to be identified by his boot after he falls into the Deadly Rotary Fan.
- Too Dumb to Live: He sticks his head deep into a strange hole, and keeps going even when it’s obvious something else was inside.
Boggs and Rains
- Expy: Of Parker and Brett, being a pair made up of a white man and a black man who provide comic relief to an extent, and end up being killed by the Xenomorph.
- Tattooed Crook: Boggs has a a distinctive cross and snake tattoo on his forehead.
- Those Two Guys: Usually seen together.
The Alien
"The Dragon"
The Runner "AKA The Dragon."
"The Dragon did it! Slaughtered them like pigs!"
Portrayed By: Tom Woodruff Jr.
"I haven't seen one exactly like this before. Moves differently."
—Ellen Ripley
A Xenomorph spawned from a quadrupedal animal.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Regardless of its origin, it's shown being born at the exact same moment of Hicks and Newt's cremation.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: As displayed multiple times in the film, it refuses to attack or even harm Ripley — due to her carrying a Queen inside her — instead running away or shrugging off her attacks. This is then defied at the end of the film when it breaks its own ingrained instincts in an attempt to kill her after it gets doused in molten lead.
- Fragile Speedster: Its quadrupedal stance enables it to move with great speed — and in spinoffs it's presented as being faster than other castes, but less durable as a tradeoff. Ultimately averted though; see trope directly below.
- A Molten Date with Death: Subverted; the big push of the third act (to trap it in the leadworks and douse it in molten lead) doesn't work... but it does superheat the Runner's body enough that, when Ripley douses it with cold water, the creature's structure becomes brittle and explodes from thermal shock as a response.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: It is the first creature in the series (from a production/release standpoint) to display properties characteristic of the species it infects. As it result, it displays the ability to run much faster than normal xenomorphs and spit acid, properties it didn't show in previous entries.
- P.O.V. Cam: The first xenomorph in the series whose personal viewpoint is shown, including its perspective as it runs along corridors and up walls.
- Primal Stance: It's quadrupedal and lacks dorsal spines.
- Rage Breaking Point: The Dragon spend the entire movie refusing to harm Ripley, on the account of being able to smell the Queen, the future of its race, gestating inside her body; not even being goaded and beaten on the head by her with lead pipes and burning flares was enough to make it raise a single clawed-finger against her. However, the sheer agonizing pain of being drowned in molten hot lead was enough to make it spectacularly snap, leap out of said metallic deluge, break inprogrammed-instinct and charge Ripley in a blind rage with every intent of tearing her and the Queen inside her to pieces to avenge this painful insult.
- Super-Toughness: It shares every adult Alien's immunity to fire, shown most disturbingly by it surviving having been drowned in molten fucking lead, full of rage and very much alive.
- Villainous Breakdown: It turns out that having multiple people attempt to drown you in molten lead really hurts, and that enough to send the Runner scrambling after Ripley in a rage, breaking its own inherent genetic instinct in the process, in an attempt to kill her.
- Why Isn't It Attacking?: As part of the scene where it kills Clemens in the infirmary, it's refusal to kill Ripley is a major tipoff that it either senses something in her or has another unexplained reason for wanting to keep her alive. This comes before The Reveal that Ripley is carrying a Queen chestburster inside her — essentially, the Runner's future.
- Your Head Asplode: Having ice cold water added to its superheated body is what finally finishes it off.
Weyland-Yutani
Bishop
Michael Bishop II
Portrayed By: Lance Henriksen
"Think of all we could learn from it!"
A Weyland-Yutani executive that the Bishop model was based off of, who approaches Ripley at the climax of the film to offer her a chance to begin a new life free of the xenomorph menace.
- Affably Evil: He was chosen to approach Ripley since he's a familiar face, and he's rather pleasant to her. When one of his men shoots Morse through the leg, he seems rather genuinely distraught that things have turned violent.
- Ambiguous Robots: Depending on the interview, Henriksen can't decide if Bishop is a human or an android pretending. According to Aliens: Colonial Marines, he may or may not have switched himself with an android double after leaving Fury 161.
- Big "NO!": As part of his Villainous Breakdown, he lets one out.
- Blatant Lies: He assures Ripley he'll kill the alien queen she's carrying. She meets this claim with well-founded skepticism.Bishop II: Can't let it live. Everything we know would be in jeopardy.[[five minutes later]]Bishop II: You must let me have it. It's a magnificent specimen.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's a high-ranking Weyland-Yutani executive, which makes him corrupt by default. His men open fire on poor Aaron, although that was against his orders.
- Just Think of the Potential!/For Science!: He's an untrustworthy fellow and everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt, but this is what he pitches to Ripley."Ripley, think of all we could learn from it. It's the chance of a lifetime! You must let me have it. It's a magnificent specimen."
- Not So Stoic: He begins to lose his composure after Aaron hits him, telling Ripley that the xenomorph is "...a magnificent specimen... you must let me have it." In some versions of the film, he then yells at a scientist filming Ripley that he wants, "NO PICTURES!"
- Robotic Reveal: Subverted. While he tells the other people he's human, Aaron hits him in the head calling him a robot... causing him to bleed red.
