James Cameron Didn't Mince Words About Alien 3's Infamous Opening Deaths

James Cameron has never shied away from expressing his feelings on 1992's "Alien 3," but his latest comments are as stark and candid as he's ever been. On a recent podcast appearance, the director said the decision to kill off three major characters from the previous movie was "the stupidest f****** thing."

Aside from being a general box office master, Cameron has demonstrated an uncanny ability to make some of the most undeniably awesome sequels in Hollywood history. In 1991, he accomplished the seemingly impossible by making a better movie than "The Terminator" with his sequel "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He later gave us the culmination of every James Cameron obsession with the 2022 "Avatar" sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water." But before either of those examples, the director did something arguably even more impressive.

With 1986's "Aliens," Cameron took over from the equally esteemed Ridley Scott to direct a sequel to 1979's "Alien." Scott's original had such a distinct tone, marrying a sharp and efficient plot with the creeping unknowability of cosmic horror to create a wholly unique experience that seemed impossible to recreate. So, Cameron didn't recreate it. He used elements of Scott's film to make something new, reinventing Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley as a full-on action hero and sending her directly into the Xenomorph hive alongside a crew of similarly badass Colonial Marines. It was an inspired choice that made for one of the greatest sequels in movie history.

Then, David Fincher took over. The "Seven" director was put in charge of the third installment and wasted no time in killing off major characters from the previous movie. What do you think Cameron thought of that? Yeah, he wasn't happy.

After he was put in charge of an "Alien" threequel, David Fincher emulated James Cameron's approach to the previous movie and took things in a different direction. "Alien 3" was many things: an oppressive interrogation of toxic masculinity, a troubled production that was practically disowned by its director, and a divisive entry in the franchise to this day. But while fans still debate the overall quality of the movie, one thing most can agree on is that it was probably a bad idea to immediately kill off three of the four survivors from the previous film.

Along with Ellen Ripley, youngster Rebecca "Newt" Jordan (played by Carrie Henn in "Aliens" and Danielle Edmond in "Alien 3"), marine Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn), and synthetic Lance Bishop (Lance Henriksen) all made it out of "Aliens" alive aboard the Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco. But when "Alien 3" begins, we learn that an alien egg hatched on board, releasing a face-hugger which killed the crew as they laid in cryonic stasis. The four were then ejected via an escape pod which crash-landed on Fiorina "Fury" 161, where their bodies were discovered by Charles Dance's Jonathan Clemens. Essentially, then, the events of the previous movie are very much invalidated within minutes of "Alien 3" starting.

Speaking to "Terminator" and "Aliens" actor Michael Biehn on his Just Foolin About podcast, Cameron made his view of that decision crystal clear. "I thought that was the stupidest f****** thing," he said. "[...] You build a lot of good will around the characters of Hicks and Newt and Bishop, and then the first thing they do in the next film is kill them all off, right? Really smart, guys."

James Cameron has been surprisingly candid about his thoughts on "Alien 3" before, calling the decision to kill off Newt, Dwayne Hicks, and Lance Bishop "a huge slap in the face to the fans." In his Just Foolin Around comments, he explained how things were made worse by David Fincher and the studio's decision to replace those fan-favorite characters with an all-new, less likable cast. "Replace them with a bunch of f****** convicts that you hate and want to see die," said the director. "Right. Really clever."

Cameron did go on to add that he remains a "big fan of Fincher and his work," acknowledging that "Aliens" was the director's first feature film. "He was getting vectored around by a lot of other voices and all that," said Cameron. "So, I give him a free pass on that one."

Interestingly enough, the "Avatar" filmmaker seemingly oversaw a very similar state of affairs with the abysmal 2019 legacy sequel "Terminator: Dark Fate." The movie, which Cameron worked on by developing the story and producing, opened with a scene featuring a CGI John Connor designed to look like Edward Furlong's version of the character from "Terminator 2." The future leader of the human resistance is then immediately dispatched by a Terminator, seemingly invalidating the entire story told in "T2." 

Did Cameron not stop to remember his experience with "Aliens" and "Alien 3?" Perhaps there's some tortured logic that differentiates the two examples in his mind, but that seems just as misguided as killing off Newt, Hicks, and Bishop in "Alien 3."