- - “Aliens” Director James Cameron Shares Scathing Review of “Alien 3 ”

Victoria EdelDecember 30, 2025 at 2:45 AM

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James Cameron (left); Sigourney Weaver in 'Alien 3' (right) -

James Cameron opened up about his disdain for 1992's Alien 3

Cameron directed the franchise's second film, 1986's Aliens

Cameron called the movie's early twist "the stupidest f------ thing"

James Cameron has some harsh words for 1992’s Alien 3.

Cameron, 71, opened up about the movie on the Just Foolin About with Michael Biehn podcast, in an episode shared Dec. 23. Cameron wrote and directed 1986’s Aliens, the sequel to the classic and extremely influential 1979 film Alien, directed by Ridley Scott.

In Aliens, Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) is woken up from stasis 57 years after she is the sole survivor of the events of the first film. With a new team, she goes back to the moon when she first encountered the alien that destroyed her crew, now home to a colony of people. The movie’s cast included Biehn as Dwayne Hicks, Paul Reiser as Carter J. Burke, Lance Henriksen as Bishop and Carrie Henn as Newt, a young survivor of the colony.

But in Alien 3’s first moments, Newt, Hicks and Bishop are all killed, making Ripley once again a sole survivor.

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Sigourney Weaver (center) with Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein and Lance Henriksen on the set of 'Aliens'

“Were you disappointed when they made the decision to kill Newt?” Biehn, 69, asked Cameron. Disappointed didn’t cover Cameron’s feelings.

“I thought that was the stupidest f------ thing,” he said. Biehn agreed.

“You build a lot of goodwill around the characters of Hicks and Newt and Bishop, and then the first thing they do in the in the next film is kill them all off, right?” Cameron said. “Really smart, guys. And replace them with a bunch of f------ convicts that you hate. And want to see die. Really clever.”

Alien 3, directed by David Fincher, sees Ripley crash land into a correctional facility. The new cast included Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Paul McGann, Danny Webb, Lance Henriksen, Holt McCallany, Pete Postlethwaite and Danielle Edmond.

Cameron noted he’s a “big fan” of Fincher and his work and noted that Alien 3 was his first feature film and had a famously difficult production. “So, I give him a free pass on that one,” he said. But Biehn said the plot of Alien 3 was a “bowl of s---” that he had to “overcome.”

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From left: Michael Biehn, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser and Jenette Goldstein in 'Aliens'

Biehn then talked about his own personal issue with the movie, connecting it to the issues around generative AI using an actors’ likeness. While Alien 3 was being made, Biehn learned they had used his likeness to create Hicks with his “chest blown out.”

“So we called them up and said, ‘This can't happen,’ ” he said. They “started throwing money” at him.

He was angry, in part, about how Hicks died. “You put so much effort into that f------ character and so much who he was,” he told Cameron, “And so did I. And the fact that you're going to dismiss him like this. No, that's not going to happen.” He eventually negotiated to let them use an archival photo of his character.

“We ended up negotiating and Fincher called me on the phone and I was like, "Go f--- yourself, man,’” Biehn remembered. Cameron joked, “I wonder why you've never been cast in a David Fincher film.”

Though Cameron is not a fan of Alien 3, he did praise the TV series Alien: Earth, which debuted this year. Still, he said, “You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to that franchise there. It's sort of almost become fan-driven at this point.”

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”