‘Alien 3’: HBO Max Drops 30-Minute-Longer Extended Cut of David Fincher’s Controversial Sci-Fi Epic!!

Nearly every studio has taken its turn at developing a sci-fi franchise, and while there have been plenty of misses over the years, one of the undeniable hits is Alien. Ridley Scott first launched the sci-fi franchise in 1979 with the release of the first Alien movie starring Sigourney Weaver, who returned seven years later for the equally beloved sequel, Aliens. It makes sense the sequel holds up as well as it does, though, considering it was directed by James Cameron. It wasn’t until 1992 that the release of Alien 3 brought on the first real criticism of the Alien franchise, despite it being directed by David Fincher. Fincher has gone on to produce some of the all-time great movies, like Se7en (starring Brad Pitt) and The Social Network (starring Jesse Eisenberg).

Alien 3 earned scores of 44% from critics and 46% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The film faced heavy criticism for killing off beloved characters off-screen, and it had such a troubled production that director David Fincher has come out in the years since its release and distanced himself from the final product, citing a severe amount of studio interference. Alien 3 still found success at the box office, though, grossing $159 million globally against a $50 million budget, and it was ultimately nothing more than a speed bump in what has gone on to become a successful franchise that’s still running strong to this day. 34 years after the original film hit theaters, the assembly cut of Alien 3 has quietly been added to HBO Max this afternoon. The assembly cut is two hours and 25 minutes, which is around 30 minutes longer than the one-hour and 54-minute runtime of the original film.

What Happens in ‘Alien 3’?

The official synopsis for Alien 3 reads as follows:

“Returning from LV-426, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) crash-lands on the maximum-security prison Fiorina 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcomed visitor.”

Vincent Ward, David Filer, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson wrote the script for Alien 3, which also stars Charles Dance as Clemens, Charles S. Dutton as Dilon, Paul McGann as Golic, Brian Glover as Andrews, Ralph Brown as Aaron, Danny Webb as Morse, Christopher John Fields as Rains, and Holt McCallany as Junior.