Two hundred years after her death, Ellen Ripley is cloned aboard a research ship, together with an Alien queen's DNA. A crew of mercenaries arrives, the creatures escape, and everyone has to fight toward the exit. Watch how Jeunet builds weird, physical set pieces, especially the underwater chase.
Alien Resurrection is a 1997 science fiction, horror and action film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 cinematography, 1 psychology and 1 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring uses several of the same techniques.
Shooting actors and camera inside a large tank of real water, with wave machines and spray added. The cold, motion and exhaustion you see are physically real.
How this film uses it
The swim through a flooded kitchen was shot in a big tank of real water built inside a Fox soundstage. The tank held about 548,000 gallons, and the cast trained with divers, so the effort you see is physical.
Where to see it
Flooded kitchen: The group swims through a flooded kitchen where they are attacked, Hillard is taken and Christie sacrifices himself.
Building highly detailed scale models of places too big or impossible to build full size, sometimes called bigatures. They are filmed with real cameras and blended with full-size footage.
How this film uses it
All the spaceships were physical miniatures, because the team did not think computer graphics looked real enough. The ships feel heavy and solid, which fits the grimy tone.
Where to see it
Earth crash: The Auriga is set on a collision course with Earth, and the survivors escape in the Betty as it hits.
Showing a character's sense of self being built, borrowed or stripped away by pressure, roles or the group. Who they are shifts with what they wear, say or join.
How this film uses it
Ripley 8 is a clone with an Alien queen's DNA, so she is neither fully human nor fully monster. The film uses her body and her blood to show someone whose self was built by others.
Where to see it
Ripley's answer: Call asks Ripley 8 what she plans to do, and she replies that she is a stranger herself.
Hiding who someone is behind a costume or a stand-in so pursuers and the audience read the wrong person. Who is under the mask drives the twist.
How this film uses it
Call is introduced as one of the human mercenaries, and the film hides what she really is. You read her as one of the humans until the truth comes out.
Where to see it
Wren's betrayal: Wren shoots Call and reveals that she is a synthetic from a generation of androids that rebelled against their makers.
Building a creature as a full-size puppet worked by a team of operators, so the actors perform opposite something physically in the room. The weight and the wet movement look real on camera.
How this film uses it
Amalgamated Dynamics built the hybrid creature as an animatronic that needed nine puppeteers, and computer graphics only covered the full aliens in some shots. Because the creature is physically there, the final scenes feel more upsetting.
Where to see it
The hybrid birth: The queen gives birth to a hybrid that kills her, recognizes Ripley 8 as its mother and later attacks Call.
Questions
Alien Resurrection: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Alien Resurrection use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Alien Resurrection (1997): Water Tank Immersion, Practical Miniature Construction, Identity Construction and Loss, Swapped Identity Disguise and Full-Scale Creature Animatronics.
Who directed Alien Resurrection?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed Alien Resurrection, released in 1997. CineCode also covers Amélie (2001).
What films are similar to Alien Resurrection?
Films that share techniques with Alien Resurrection include The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Metropolis (1927), To Catch a Thief (1955), Lust, Caution (2007).
