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It is never explicitly stated what became of the Sulaco after the EEV was ejected from it. Most fans assume that the fire aboard raged on to the point where the ship got critically damaged and exploded. In the original script, the fire causes the Sulaco to eject all its EEV units, but a subsequent explosion of toxic gas damages their electronic systems and scatters them in different directions; one EEV gets launched back into the Sulaco and critically damages its hull, after which the ship drifts on aimlessly. This sequence explains how Ripley's EEV got knocked into the gravity of Fiorina 161 rather than escaping to safe space, and how her EEV's safety systems were damaged, causing it to crash into the sea rather than land via a controlled descent. This concept was scaled back for budget reasons, though models for the sequence were apparently built, and the explanation also appears in the film's novelization.
Yet another scenario is provided by the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines - Stasis Interrupted (2013): shortly after the events of Aliens (1986), the Sulaco is intercepted by a Company ship called the USS Legato, which carries captured colonists from other planets for the purpose of using them in Xenomorph experimentation. The Legato docks with the Sulaco, but a few Legato colonists manage to escape to the Sulaco's hibernation bay. There a fight ensues between these colonists and several Company soldiers, during which a stray bullet pierces Ripley's pod and grazes the facehugger attached to her face. Its acidic blood spills, causing the fire that leads to the pods being ejected via an escape pod. The fire then supposedly dies out or is put out, and the Sulaco is redirected back to LV-426 for further experimentation, where it is finally found by colonial marines from the USS Sephora, who are on a mission to find out what happened to the Sulaco. Both the Sephora and the Sulaco are finally destroyed during a battle between these marines and Company soldiers. The game was originally considered to be canon by 20th Century Fox, but following the negative reception by fans, this status was more or less revoked.
Yet another scenario is provided by the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines - Stasis Interrupted (2013): shortly after the events of Aliens (1986), the Sulaco is intercepted by a Company ship called the USS Legato, which carries captured colonists from other planets for the purpose of using them in Xenomorph experimentation. The Legato docks with the Sulaco, but a few Legato colonists manage to escape to the Sulaco's hibernation bay. There a fight ensues between these colonists and several Company soldiers, during which a stray bullet pierces Ripley's pod and grazes the facehugger attached to her face. Its acidic blood spills, causing the fire that leads to the pods being ejected via an escape pod. The fire then supposedly dies out or is put out, and the Sulaco is redirected back to LV-426 for further experimentation, where it is finally found by colonial marines from the USS Sephora, who are on a mission to find out what happened to the Sulaco. Both the Sephora and the Sulaco are finally destroyed during a battle between these marines and Company soldiers. The game was originally considered to be canon by 20th Century Fox, but following the negative reception by fans, this status was more or less revoked.
At one point, David Fincher was denied permission by the film's producers to shoot a crucial scene in the infirmary between Ripley and the Alien, where the latter menacingly closes in on Ripley. Against orders, Fincher grabbed Sigourney Weaver, a camera and shot the scene anyway. This scene not only appears in the final cut, but also featured prominently in trailers, and many regard it as the movie's most iconic shot.
The film's production process was so chaotic, and its reception by fans and critics so unfavorable, that it nearly ended David Fincher's career before he ever had a chance to gain momentum as a director. But two things ended up saving Fincher from permanent Movie Jail. The first thing was that Sigourney Weaver publicly (and often angrily) sided with Fincher against 20th Century Fox, telling journalists that the studio had made decisions that resulted in an impossible situation for the young director, and that he would have an excellent career if given further chances. The other thing was that producer Arnold Kopelson knew and didn't respect the management at Fox, and that was part of the process where he ultimately offered Fincher a new project a few years later; that project was Se7en (1995), and its massive success re-ignited Fincher's career, making him one of the most respected directors of his time.
First-time director David Fincher disowned the film, stating in an interview with the Guardian: "I had to work on it for two years, got fired off it three times and I had to fight for every single thing. No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me". He cited constant studio interference during production, and actually walked out when the studio rejected his initial cut and ordered extensive re-shoots. He was not involved in the final cut, but his initial rough cut later became the basis for the 'Assembly Cut', a longer version of the movie released on DVD in 2003, and on Blu-ray in 2010. Although Fincher was asked to work on this Assembly Cut, he considered it but eventually decided against it, giving supervising producer Charles de Lauzirika his blessing as long as it was not called a 'Director's cut'. With regards to the new version itself, he stated that he has no comments on it, as he has never seen it.
While off set, Sigourney Weaver had to wear a wig as her then two-year-old daughter Charlotte didn't like to see her mother bald.
Original Alien (1979) director Ridley Scott turned down the chance to direct. Scott and later Renny Harlin both thought the third film should explore the origin of the Xenomorph species. This concept was deemed too expensive by David Giler and Walter Hill, since most special effects work at the time still had to be done practically instead of by computer-generated images, so Scott declined to return and Harlin later quit the film because he found alternative concepts too repetitive. Scott ultimately got his wish with the movies Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017).