Alien³

Alien³ Poster Country United States Directed by David Fincher Release Date 1992 Studio 20th Century Fox Distributor 20th Century Fox Main Cast Character Actor Ripley Sigourney Weaver Leonard Dillon Charles Dutton Jonathan Clemens Charles Dance Francis Aaron Ralph Brown Bishop II Lance Henriksen

Alien³ is the third installment in the Alien film franchise. The 1992 sequel was directed by David Fincher and this time finds Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) stranded on a prison planet where she has to once again deal with a spawned Alien. Plagued by numerous production problems, the film has since been disavowed by Fincher, and has received a mixed, even polarizing, response from fans and critics.

The following weapons were used in the film Alien³:

WARNING! THIS PAGE CONTAINS SPOILERS!

M41A Pulse Rifle

The M41A Pulse Rifle makes a return appearance in Alien³. Although the film takes place on a prison planet, Fiorina "Fury" 161, where no weapons are present, these rifles make a brief appearance near the very end of the film, carried by commandos (according to the novelization) from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation that land on the planet to retrieve the Alien and the Queen Alien embyro that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is carrying. The commandos fire the Pulse Rifle on Aaron (Ralph Brown) after he strikes Michael Bishop (Lance Henriksen, credited as Bishop II) with a wrench. The grenade launcher, while present, is never used in this film. In the novelization, the commandos carry M56 Smartguns instead.

The weapons were made from an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun with a Remington 870 shotgun underneath the shroud and foregrip of a Franchi SPAS-12. The weapon was finished with a custom-made futuristic aluminum shell. Only one functioning weapon was used on the production; this rifle had also been used previously in the filming of Aliens, although for this appearance the shroud was painted black instead of "Brown Bess" as it had been for the preceding movie. The remaining weapons were new, non-functioning props built for filming with black vacformed plastic shrouds. Notably, none of the weapons in this film feature LED ammunition counters, whereas they did in the preceding movie.

M1A1 Thompson with 30-round magazine - .45 ACP

M41A Pulse Rifle. The weapon pictured here is one of the actual screen-used pulse rifles from Aliens that was subsequently re-used in Alien³. Note that this prop has the black paintjob as seen in this film; it is also missing the LED ammunition counter from its previous use in Aliens.

A publicity photograph of one of the Weyland-Yutani commandos armed with the M41A Pulse Rifle.

Another publicity photograph of a commando preparing to fire his M41A Pulse Rifle at Morse.

Weyland-Yutani operatives carry the M41A Pulse Rifle as they enter the prison facility.

A Weyland-Yutani operative fires the M41A on Aaron. Note that the sound effect for the pulse rifle in this film is quite different to the sound effects used in Aliens; whether this is intentional or not is unknown. Also note that when the pulse rifle is fired in this scene, it is once again possible to see shell casings flying from the M1A1 Thompson submachine gun used to build the prop, even though the M41A is portrayed as a weapon that fires caseless ammunition.

A closeup of the M41A as they watch Ripley make her final plunge.

Remington 870

As last seen in Aliens, the M41A Pulse Rifles also retain the underbarrel 30 millimeter pump action grenade launcher which are carried by Weyland-Yutani operatives near the end of the film, although not seen fired.

Since only one functioning weapon was used on the production; this is an actual cut down Remington 870 shotgun mounted inside the heat shield of a Franchi SPAS-12 and operated using a cut-down SPAS forend.

Knight's Armament Masterkey version of the Remington 870 - 12 gauge. This shortened version of the 870 is often mounted on the M4A1 Carbine or similar weapons and is representative of the version seen in the film.

Franchi SPAS-12 Short Barreled Version - 12 gauge

A publicity photograph of one of the Weyland-Yutani commandos armed with the M41A Pulse Rifle with the 30mm grenade launcher. As seen in the photo, the trigger as well as the distinctive ejection port of the Remington 870 are clearly visible.

PFM-1

Two PFM-1 mines are carried on one of the commandos' sleeve.

PFM-1.

A commando with two PFM-1s on his sleeve.