leading from
a) Lambert's incomplete death scene
When Parker is killed by the Alien, Lambert is supposed to sneak along the wall and get into the locker, the same one that the cat was in earlier in the film.
The Alien was supposed to have tracked her down with its sensory abilities and she dies of fright.
That's what she was told.
She kept asking when they were going to finish the scene but quickly they would go onto something else, in this instance they were going on to film the scene where Ripley confronts the alien and starts singing "You are my lucky star" and the next thing Veronica knew, and then they had her go in later and they hung her on a hook, so that they show her dangling legs. (Hung up on a meat hook? Was this some sort of a homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre?)
b) Lambert's death intercut with scenes from Brett's death
All Veronica can assume is that Lambert got raped by the alien in the final film.
When the creature seemed to do is raise its tail up between her legs and indeed those were Harry Dean Stanton's legs from his death scene earlier in the movie.
He was wearing the tennis shoes and blue pants that Lambert was seen to wear at her moment of death. while in fact she should have been wearing white pants and cowboy boots.
When she saw what they did with her death, she was very surprised.
Later for the director's cut they altered the colour to make the trousers more like the colour of Lambert's.
But the floor was still not correct.
c) Possibilities of the alien's motives
When they made the movie, they didn't really know how she died, but there was the implication that there was a kind of sexuality to this androgynous male/female alien beast who could give birth itself and it could also impregnate, so it was as what Ridley could find about insects, based on a little bit of good old mother nature.
But it was as if there was some sort of dreadful ending, a terrible invasion of her body, as if it was a rape and therefore there would be an alien version of the Cartwright character, and more humanoid aliens in general on board this craft and this possibility is what Ripley now has got to destroy
d) Repercussions from the change in Lambert's death
After the movie, then there were the reporters asking "they said how did it feel to have the tail going under your legs" and Veronica replied "I don't know, why don't you ask Harry"
She was actually very pissed off but she thought in hind sight that it worked, but it might have helped if they had warned her.
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| Veronica Cartwright's legs from the time she's suspended from the hook as Lambert |
Source quotes
- Veronica Cartwright: From what I understand, remember when Yaphet Kotto gets killed? I was supposed to sneak along the wall and get into the locker - the same one the cat was in earlier. The Alien is supposed to track me down with his sensory things and I die of fright. Well, that's what they told me but the next thing I knew, I was hanging from a meat hook (Starlog, Yearbook vol 7, p32-33)
- Veronica Cartwright: All I can assume is: I got raped by the Alien. Also, those were Harry Dean Stanton's legs. If you look at the movie, he was wearing tennis shoes and blue pants. I was wearing white pants and cowboy boots. When I was the actual screen version I was very surprised.(Starlog Yearbook vol7, p33)
- Veronica Cartwright:(1:30:00) See those, that's Harry Dean's legs, cause I wear white pants and cowboy boots through the whole thing, that was taken from the scene where the alien comes down in that warehouse thing (1:32:00). Now they manipulated the film so they don't look blue, but that's not even the grating what's on the floor. So I remember the first time seeing this with an audience and then there were of course reporters, they go "well how does it feel?", and I say "I don't know, why don't you ask Harry?" I was so pissed off, I mean later it works, so it's fine but I think they could have warned me. But you see this death scene, it was never completed, originally what I was supposed to do is crawl away and I basically die of fright in the locker and it was supposedly the same locker that Jones had been in. That was, er, never shot, and erm, I kept asking when were we going to finish the scene, I mean the next thing I knew they were on to something else.(Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray)
- (1:30:08 /1:32:52 ) Ridley Scott: I mean we didn't know how she died but er, the implication that there was a kind of sexuality to this androgynous (1:33:00) male/female who could give birth itself, it could also impregnate, so it's like a , there are insects like that, we based that on a , you know a little bit of good old mother nature and erm, was that some dreadful ending, was that some terrible you know invasion of her body, a rape and therefore would there be a version of the Cartwright character. There'll certainly whatever happens, there'd be more humanoid aliens now on board this craft and that's what she's now got to destroy. (Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray)
- Interviewer: What did you think of the finished film?
Veronica Cartwright:I never got to finish my death scene and I was really blown away when I saw how I died. Because originally I was to go inside where the cache had been originally found in, so one of those silver things, and I’m supposed to basically die of fright. And we never ended up shooting that. So those are Harry Dean Stanton’s legs and if you look at the death when the tail comes up and under, those are Harry Dean Stanton’s legs and he’s wearing blue pants and he’s now wearing sneakers. And I wore white pants and cowboy boots in the whole movie. So when I saw that for the first time, I was pissed off because I never actually got to shoot my death and then they had me go in at some point and they hung me on a hook, you know, so you just see the dangling legs. So that was disappointing too. -
Interviewer: Why did that happen?
Veronica Cartwright: I don’t know. We shot for five days with the alien coming towards us and I kept saying when are we going to be shooting the stuff inside of the cubicle and they kept saying oh, we’ll get around to it, and the next thing I know, they started shooting Sigourney and the lucky star thing. And I said, well when are we going to be shooting the end of my death scene? And I was informed that we weren’t. That it had been shot. So, the first time I saw what the death scene was, and then of course, all the when they come and the press talk to you and eveything, they said how did it feel to have the tail going under your legs, and at that point I was so pissed off I said, I don’t know, they’re Harry Dean’s, it wasn’t my legs and if you look at the movie, it’s right there - blue pants and sneakers. And through the entire movie I’m wearing cowboy boots and white pants! That was a bit of a shock when I saw the movie.
Interviewer: Did you fall out with Ridley?
Veronica Cartwright:No. There was no falling out, as far as I knew I was supposed to shoot the end. Maybe they couldn’t decide on how, maybe it was a time element, maybe money had run out and they had to move on. I have no idea why it wasn’t shot. To this day I don’t know. I just showed up to work every day and I did my thing and I kept saying when are we going to shoot it because originally it had been, I was supposed to die of fright or something. They brought me in and hung me on the meat hook, there. I really I don’t know. Could have been a money thing. Could have been time element I don’t know.
Interviewer: Ok that aside - what did you think of the film?
Veronica Cartwright: Well, as I said before, I was disappointed in some of the elements.
(As reported from the interview for Alien Evolution)
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