In Alien Resurrection, Ripley is reconstituted from the DNA in a blood sample 200 years after the events in Alien3. They do this to retrieve the alien embryo from her body where it was implanted. I'm confused by this: how would rebuilding her from her DNA in a blood sample also rebuild the alien embryo?
Gino (Richard Hervey) gets left behind when he stops to light a
cigarette, he is also attacked.
From the synposis of "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" at IMDB.
I would have thought smoking would have been banned in space ships by the
time distant future had rolled around. But then again, there is
smoking on the ship in "Aliens". It's the first thing John Hurt does
after waking from his cryogenic sleep.
"Alien" truly is a very original, very well-made science-fiction horror film. Considering how derivative most effects-laden blockbuster Hollywood movies are nowadays-- including it's own sequel, "Aliens"-- that's an accomplishment.
But it was not conceived ex nihilo. In fact, it is quite surprising to me how much of the story is derived from earlier books and movies. This should be a lesson to aspiring writers: steal from the best. No wait-- steal from the worst. They will have less money to sue you with.
First of all there is, "IT! The Terror from Beyond Space". First of all, what's "beyond space"? I have no idea. But here's the plot: a lone spaceman is the survivor of an expedition to Mars. He is rescued but where is the rest of his crew? He is suspected of killing the others but claims an alien creature is responsible. Earth does not believe him and plans to court-martial him.... until, his fellow travelers start disappearing one by one, including a gentleman stopping to light a cigarette. The creature has stowed away on the rescue ship and now stalks the rest of crew. Whoa-- the creature uses the air vents to travel through the ship! It hauls crew members into the vents, then attacks the others when they try to recover the victims. When an autopsy is done on a deceased crew member, it is found that every ounce of moisture has been taken from the body. They try nuking the creature but that fails. Then they finally get into their space suits and vent the atmosphere from the ship causing the alien to be sucked out into outer space.
Not quite exactly like "Alien" or "Aliens" but there some striking similarities.
In "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" an insect like creature called Ixtl implants it's eggs into living hosts. The author of the story upon which it is based sued the makers of "Alien" and received an out-of-court settlement. In other words, there enough similarities to make a court case out of it, or the studio wanted him, A. E. Van Vogt, to just go away. Vogt's stories revolve around a space ship staffed by a thousand castrati. I'm not making this up: that must be how he conceived peace and good order on this vessel during these grueling, extended absences. Thankfully, this particular detail was not plagiarized either by "Star Trek", which bears more than a few similarities, or "Alien", or it's sequels.
The makers of "Alien" acknowledge a debt to "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Star Wars", and "Texas Chain-saw Massacre". Apparently, that latter film blew away Ridley Scott who suddenly realized that he could make his movie a lot bloodier and more violent without offending mainstream audiences. However, he could not make Dallas or Lambert transgender, as originally written: decent, moral, law-abiding audiences draw the line somewhere. But go ahead with the exploding chests.