While Disney owns the Alien franchise, HBO Max is the latest streamer to get access to the saga. Almost all of the films became available on April 1, including Alien 3: The Assembly Cut. This version’s arrival gained attention around April 6, after fans began discovering it.
20th Century FOX
The Assembly Cut is a much longer version of the much-maligned 1992 Alien franchise film starring Sigourney Weaver, clocking in at two hours and 25 minutes. Compared to the theatrical cut’s one hour and 54 minutes.
The backstory behind this version is pretty well known among fans. Fox wanted a “Director’s Cut” of Alien 3 for home video. Director David Fincher declined to participate. So, the studio created this Assembly Cut and released it on the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.
Fincher has disowned the movie to this day, claiming the producers made the final edit. To be clear, Fincher does not claim The Assembly Cut either, precisely because that’s what it is: an assembly. Fincher himself has admitted being too scarred by the experience to ever want to revisit the film.
So what does this version actually restore?
The Assembly Cut includes deleted scenes and alternate takes. Plus, new versions of key scenes, such as the creature emerging from an ox rather than a dog. The fates of various characters not seen in the theatrical cut are also revealed. Ripley gets a more dignified ending without a chestburster popping out of her. The film even offers an expanded role for Golic, whose obsession with the Xenomorph fills in several plot holes from the original cut.
It was a rough version of the film, but in 2010, the Blu-ray version got full post-production treatment with color correction and sound mixing, with some cast members even returning for ADR.
The Assembly Cut was released without Fincher’s involvement, featuring alternate scenes and an extended runtime, and became the more favored version despite not being as widely available. Now that has changed.
Alien 3 isn’t the only extended cut HBO Max added.
The platform has also become the streaming destination for the theatrical and director’s cuts of Alien and Aliens, Alien Resurrection, including its Special Edition, and subscribers can also catch the extended cut of Alien vs Predator, as well as the official and extended cuts of Alien vs Predator: Requiem.
The three films not included are the most recent ones: Ridley Scott‘s prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and 2024’s Alien: Romulus, all of which remain on Disney+.
For anyone who has only seen the theatrical Alien 3, this is the version worth watching.
