Alien Resurrection: On the set of the Viper's Nest

leading from

Alien Resurrection: The Viper's Nest
and 
Alien Resurrection: Sex in Space

 

a) Various tentacles and protuberances  

 
Sigourney Weaver remembered when she first saw the set, she was amazed by this landscape of alien parts with various tentacles and protuberances, indeed for her a Hieronymous Bosch like nightmare, designed by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff.

"What are those things?" she asked Alec Gillis 

"You don't want to know" he replied with a smile "But we call the area where you're sucked down, the Sphincter"

Jonathan Leahy, was in charge of spread 55 gallons of Methocel slime to everything including Sigourney.

Sigourney crawls over this dark, squiggly, curiously prickly set and lies down.

 

 

b) Preparing the scene

 
Woodruff and Gillis were organising the scene and Woodruff would play one of the actual aliens in the environment. 

They took their cues from Sigourney, because she was the focus of the scene and everything they were doing, while it was in the background, was also a character in its essence, and it symbolically showed her sinking into the world of the aliens

They talked with her about what her emotions in the scene would be and how they sorted out their rhythms to that, perhaps these would not come across overtly on the film, but it would be there on what they considered as a subtextual level. 

Sigourney was actually very happy with the scene considering one of the most memorable images of any of the films

 

As behind the scenes camera footage was being caught , Sigourney notices the camera and begins to smile towards it as she sits in biomechanical landscape, busy with someone assisting her working out her movements, adjusting her legs, for when she's about to enter the sphincter.

Sigourney waves at the camera from behind an alien beast head.

Perhaps she says "I love you all"

 

 

 

 

 

She called out amidst the sounds of bustling activity wanting to get everything right "If I'm on the surface, if I'm on the surface, would I have slimy hair?"

c) Into the Sphincter 

 
"Open the sphincter" calls Alec

Sigourney closes her eyes and what is beneath her comes alive. Large greasy tails flick at her cheeks, limbs and members nudge and squeeze her. 

As she gingerly arranged her tall, lean frame into a slimy cavity full of flailing tentacles, it was as if the cosmic destiny of it all revealed itself. "

Sigourney joked "This has been my goal, Everything I've done in my career has built to this.' 

After a few moments, the platform beneath her sinks and the rubber sphincter indeed sucks her down until she disappears beneath the stage. Slowly, Ripley sinks into this Gigeresque nightmare of teeming vipers, all manipulated by subterranean puppeteers, directed by Alec Gillis. Lying precariously on a concealed , teetering plank, a prone Sigourney Weaver, her gaze haunted and hypnotic, disappeared into the morass, helped by Tom Woodruff, Jr, in his alien garb, as a crane dollied camera over the horrifying expanse. And then she opens her slime encrusted eyes and sees the beaming faces of the puppeteers.

d) Landscape of perversion

 
During the scene, somehow a tail always ends up between her legs.  For her this was of course very sexual, sometimes it was good and something it looks a bit strange, but on purpose they want to tread that line.

"Who's on that particular tail?" Sigourney asks Alec

"I am" he replies

"You're a sick puppy" she says

Alec then instructs another member of the team to be more intimate with his alien body part, but the puppeteer's response is "This is difficult for me. I'm married"

Turning to Sigourney, Alec then says "Nice guys need to be pushed to perversion"

 

 

 

Quote sources

1. Sigourney Weaver: Today we shoot the scene where the alien pulls me down into the Viper Pit and carries me off.  (Premiere: December 1997, p147)
2. Sigourney Weaver: Later that day, we move onto the most amazing shot in the picture - Ripley in the Viper Pit. Tom and his partner in creature effects, Alec Gillis, have designed a monstrous landscape of alien parts: writing tails and undulating limbs. When I arrive on the set, I am knocked out. It is a Hieronymus Bosch nightmare of tentacles and protuberances.  
   "What are those things?' I ask Alec
   
   "You don't want to know," he says, "But we call the area where you're sucked down the Sphincter. " He smiles.
   
   Jonathan Leahey, the slime meister does his spiderwebby thing, applying over 55 gallons of Methocel to everything, including me,
   
   I crawl over this dark, squiggly, curiously prickly set and lie down. "Open the sphincter," Alec calls. I close my eyes and what's beneath me shudders and comes alive. Large greasy tails flick at my cheek, limbs and members nudge and squeeze me. After a few moments, the platform beneath me sinks and the rubber sphincter does indeed suck me down until I disappear underneath the stage. I open my slime encrusted eyes and see the beaming faces of the puppeteers. Somehow a tail always ends up between my legs. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes it looks a bit strange. We just want to tread that line.
   
   "Who's on that particular tail?" I ask Alec.
   
   "I am" he says.
   
   "You're a sick puppy." I say.
   
   Alec instructs another member of the team to be more intimate with his alien body part.
   
   "This is difficult for me," says the puppeteer. "I'm married."
   
   "Nice guys," says Alec, turning to me," need to be pushed to perversion"(Premiere: December 1997, p148)
3. SIGOURNEY WEAVER HAD A MINOR epiphany. She was hard at work on the set of "Alien Resurrection,'' having her fourth go-round as Ripley, the alien-busting heroine of science-fiction-film lore. A giant alien nest called the Viper Pit loomed above her. Technicians liberally applied a gross, gooey gel to her entire body, from her hair weave to her dominatrix-style combat boots. As she gingerly arranged her tall, lean frame into a slimy cavity full of flailing tentacles, the cosmic destiny of it all revealed itself. "This has been my goal,'' she joked. "Everything I've done in my career has built to this." (http://www.newsweek.com/you-say-you-want-resurrection-done-173498)
4. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: When we played the (xxx) and the nest, it was an action scene on the script and I prefer to modify the scene to have this strange thing much more than Giger world. (Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)