leading from
a) The strange scene
Ripley becomes separated from the crew of the Betty when she is pulled
by the aliens in through the gap in the floor in the
corridor and she falls into a pit filled with aliens or as it
intertwined in a slimy mass.
She lands on this living carpet before
passing
through its central sphincter as if disappearing into the writhing
horde.
From
one point of view, this scene was very important in order to come across
something that was terrifying.
From another more important view, it
was designed to be one of these abstract scenes that not everyone was
going to immediately understand.
It was in a way a sensuous, sinuous
world of parts and Ripley was surrendering to this strange thing.
Tom Woodruff understood that the "Viper Pit" place was symbolic of a den of snakes.
To
Sigourney, it might have been something that Giger and Ridley Scott
would have wanted to put in the film.
In terms
of this film, it was ideally the sort of odd thing that might have made
people ask questions about exactly what they were looking at and what it
was supposed to be.
Perhaps it might have potentially been the sort of scene to offer as much confusion as the scene of discovery of the
Space Jockey in Alien
b)
The living landscape
What
they ended up with was this large living landscape.
A floor surface was
sculpted.
It was a mixture of rubber, textured floor, but with
prosthetic and animatronic and costume pieces animated into it.
The four polyfoam mats covered with sculpted alien shapes, were butted together on an elevated platform creating a 20 by 20 foot surface that came to life.
It contained tentacles, tales of aliens, a couple of aliens.
Twenty
to thirty puppeteers, the exact number was soon forgotten, a challenge
to coordinate controlling various alien body
parts - from slithering tails to shiny heads to gesturing fingers -
crouched beneath a raised platform of slime and sponge plastic, in some
cases they were underneath holding part of the foam sculpture and
undulating it, keeping it alive.
 |
| Single segment from Vipers Nest (SFX magazine) |
 |
Vipers nest (from SFX Special Editions no.67, 2014) |
 |
| detail from above |
 |
Source: image from SFX magazine #32, Dec 1997, p32, (UK version)
merged with same photo printed in from SFX Special Editions no.67, 2014) |
c) Organising around Sigourney
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
Source Quotes.
- The key to the consistency of all the creatures in Alien Resurrection was to keep within the
boundaries already set by H R Giger. Although the artist was not approached to add his own signature to Jeunet's film,
his influence was still an important factor to the new to the new
film's creature designs. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the
nightmarish location of the Aliens' lair, or the Viper's Nest as it's
been affectionately labeled. (SFX magazine #32, Dec 1997, p30, (UK version)
- The Viper's Nest is one of the
biggest things ADI have ever had to create for any film. (SFX magazine #32, Dec 1997, p33, (UK version))
- Sigourney Weaver: A Hieronymous Bosch nightmare of tentacles and protuberances. (Alien The Archive, p290)
- Nigel Phelps:
that was an interesting set because it's not really a set. that floor
surface was sculpted and was a mixture of rubber, textured floor but
with prosthetic and animatronic and costume pieces animated into it. (Alien The Archive, p290)
- Interviewer: There is a sequence in which Ripley descends into the coils of the Alien. What do you think is going on in that scene
Sigourney
Weaver: Again, this scene is one we had to fight for. They did not want
Ripley descending into the sphincter of the alien world which is what
Alec Gillis Special Effects used to call it and to me it was everything
Giger, Ridley, everybody would have wanted, this sort of sensuous,
sinuous world of parts and god help you if you're there. And yet, at the
same time there's a great... there's sort of that thing of how she
wants to sort of surrender to it, to me it was, you know, all about
life. It's horrifying and you can't... you know you're attracted to it.
It's fabulous stuff. But we had to fight of course for that scene
because it was not an action scene, it was all sort of this subliminal
erotic stuff.(reported from Alien Evolution documentary 2001 interviews) - As
the crew push on, Ripley becomes separated, falling into a pit filled
with aliens or intertwined in a slimy mass. The disturbing image of the
'viper pit' was concocted using four soft polyfoam matts covered with
sculpted alien shapes. Butted together on an elevated platform the matt
created a 20 by 20 foot surface. A hole in the centre where one corner
of each mat that joined, allowed Weaver to slip through as if
disappearing into the writhing horde. As many as thirty puppeteers
manipulated the mats from beneath, creating an overall undulating
movement, while two suited aliens, along with miscellaneous limbs and
tails move about on top of the mass. (Cinefex #73)
- For
a surreal sequence in which the aliens kidnap Ripley, twenty
puppeteers, controlling various alien body parts - from slithering tails
to shiny heads to gesturing fingers - crouched beneath a raised
platform of slime and sponge plastic. Slowly, Ripley sank 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 (The Making of Alien Resurrection, p35)
- Woodruff: The
viper pit, it was important and it was important in terms of the story
because it was something that that we had never seen but it was it was
always sort of in your mind like, where would these aliens take Ripley
if they were ever got a hold of her.(Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)
- Tom Woodruff: So
we knew it was very important to come across something that was
terrifying and what we ended up with was this large living landscape of a
uh, a twenty foot by twenty foot set piece that basically came to life,
it was all containing tentacles and and er. tales of aliens and er , a
couple of aliens in suits and dragging Ripley through it, and erm, I
think at one point we must have had er er, probably twenty five or
thirty puppeteers underneath, in some cases they were people that were
just under there holding part of the, of the foam sculpture and moving
it, undulating it, keeping it alive. Some of them were actually
puppeteers performing er with a tentacle, erm, er, I was in a suit (Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)
- Tom Woodruff: And
coming up through a hole, and dragging her, she was being lowered down
on a lift, so there was a huge amount of er, of of motion and movement
going on and then the saving grace there was that, it could all happen,
you could have all these separate pockets of movement, they didn't have
to overlap, it was never. It was never one creature that was supposed to
be delivering a performance, it was always about a lot of little
pockets of living movement bringing this thing to life. (Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)
- Alec Gillis: Technically it was er er, it was a big undertaking, we're not usually asked to create, in essence, create sets.(Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)
- Alec Gillis: And
this was a twenty by twenty foot set that was a living sculpture. We
went through our processes on a, on a larger scale than we often do.
Erm. coordinating the puppeteers er, was, er, is always difficult when
you have twenty five or thirty puppeteers, er, it can always be a
challenge to coordinate that. Erm, we sort of er, took our cues off of
Sigourney because she was the focus of the scene and everything we were
doing. While it was a background, was also a character in its essence
and it symbolically showed her sinking into the world of the aliens.
Erm, so we talked a little bit with her about what her emotions in the
scene would be, er and how do we sort of time our rhythms to that, and
these may be things that don't necessarily come across overtly on film,
but in a subtextual level, they are there. Erm, but it really worked, we
were very pleased that Sigourney said it was one of the most memorable
of of images from any of the films. So we're happy about that. (Making of Alien Resurrection documentary)
- Alec Gillis. So
all of these things, it's very difficult to say, boil it down to one of
the one or two things we did to make the any of these characters erm
more alive because it really is many many things and its rare to have an
opportunity to er er, on a film to be able to explore the full
potential of animatronics.
- Tom Woodruff Jr: The
whole point of the viper pit, it was, it was the alien lair, it was
very symbolic you know of a den of snakes and, it's all cast out of
flexible material, and it was all covered in slime, we had er, just,
just gallons and gallons of of our slime based material (E! Behind the Scenes - Alien Resurrection)
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