leading from
(Still collating )
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| A Ridleygram showing a quick sketch of the Ultramorph |
a) Introducing the Ultramorph
a.i) The Jocelyn Watts character takes on the Ultramorph in the script
In his Alien Engineers script, Jon Spaihts included the monster creature known as the Ultramorph.
It erupts as a chestburster from the Space Jockey now to be known as an Engineer in the mysterious derelict alien ship.
In Spaihts' mind, somehow this chestburster was more hideous than any other we've seen before.
Dark gray, armored and lethal, this thing would have been as big as a wolf even at birth.
Within a short time it grows to man height, before leaving the confines of the derelict ship, now known as The Juggernaut to hunts the character Jocelyn Watts (sater renamed Elizabeth Shaw) down amongst the wreckage of the Magellan (later renamed the Prometheus).
The creature impales her thigh with its tale as if it were a spear and as this thing is about to kill her, she rams a diamond bladed saw into it's face and kills it.
a.ii) Corrosive green blood
The creature impales her thigh with its tale as if it were a spear and as this thing is about to kill her, she rams a diamond bladed saw into it's face and kills it.
a.ii) Corrosive green blood
It bled acid blood that was coloured green and despite it's corrosive nature, she brings the head with her as a hunting trophy to hang over the door at the spaceship module belonging to the character Vickers
a.iii) No particular look to it
a.iii) No particular look to it
In this version of the script, Spaihts didn't actually describe it with any particular detail.
- INT. JUGGERNAUT - PILOT CHAMBER On the floor, DAVID’s eyes open. With his jaw he hitches his severed head around. Gets his eyes on the Sleeper. In the pilot chair, the Sleeper convulses. An ALIEN erupts from his chest. Big as a wolf even at its birth. Dark gray, armored, lethal. More hideous than any chestburster we've seen. An ULTRAMORPH. It wails hideously. The Sleeper dies. The Alien slithers free (Alien_ Engineers, Jon Spaihts, p110)
- LATER Watts is awakened by a beeping alarm. She looks at her wrist. Her suit flashes an oxygen warning: 20 MINUTES REMAINING. She looks up. The Juggernaut's doors are wide open in front of her. The ULTRAMORPH ALIEN emerges from the Juggernaut. As large as a man already. It sees her. With a sob of terror she pulls herself to her feet and runs.(Alien_ Engineers, Jon Spaihts, p112-113)
- EXT. MAGELLAN CRASH SITE - DUSK Watts flees through the storm, across the burning debris field. A wilderness of lightning, fire, and twisted metal. A thunderstorm with dust instead of rain. She looks back through the darkness. In a strobe-light flicker of lightning, she sees a gray demon approaching through the wreckage. She scrambles through a section of ductwork...under a hull fragment...running and clambering... The Alien hunts her, cat-and-mouse, among the fragments of the Magellan: corridors that go nowhere, shattered compartments. Jetsam. Her eyes sweep frantically through the stormy night: searching for a weapon. A hiding place. An answer. She stumbles into the remains of the Magellan's laboratory. A hypersleep freezer lies on the barren ground. Watts climbs inside. Pulls the lid shut. The Alien passes by, inches away. She watches it through the plexiglass, holding her breath. The Alien roots in the wreckage. Finds the rotting Engineer's head among the shards of its vat. It begins to feed on the head - GROWING as she watches. Her suit’s oxygen alarm goes off again. 15 MINUTES REMAINING. The beeping draws the Alien away from its dead meat. Watts is paralyzed. The Alien noses closer. Sniffs at the plexiglass case. With sudden, horrific violence, it lashes out. Sends the freezer flying. Watts tumbles out. Lurches to her feet and runs. The Alien follows. Ravening. She leads it a twisting chase through fragments of burning metal. Watts trips and falls hard. Picking herself up, she sees she’s tripped over a HULL SAW - the same diamond-bladed tool DAVID used to dismantle the terraforming engine. She seizes the saw - straining to manage its weight. Hides in the hollow of a massive girder. The Alien passes by. Scenting the air. She freezes. Her arms trembling with the weight of the saw. Waiting for it to pass. Almost it leaves. But a tiny rattle of metal from the quivering saw brings it back. Out of options, Watts powers up the saw. The blade whines up to speed. They lunge at one another in the same moment. The diamond blade shears off one of the Alien’s claws. The monster screams and recoils. Its lashing tail sends Watts sprawling. She loses the saw. The Alien comes after her, slinking low to the ground, injured arm tucked to its chest. All vengeful fury. Watts scrambles for the saw. The Alien leaps for her. She rolls aside - and like a scorpion the Alien impales her thigh with its spear-tipped tail. Nails her to the ground. Watts screams in agony. Reaches for the saw, still buzzing on the ground. Its grip tantalizing inches from her fingertips. The Alien stoops over her, slavering face inches from her faceplate. Its hideous jaws open. With all her strength, Watts pulls against the spike in her leg. Drags the point of the spear through the dirt. Excruciating pain. She snarls through her teeth. The Alien strikes - just as Watts GRABS the saw. She meets the Alien’s head with the buzzing blade. IMPALES THE ALIEN’S SKULL. A gout of green acid onto Watts’s helmet. The Alien falls aside, thrashing its death-throes, the saw still growling. Watts sees ACID COMING THROUGH HER HELMET - fast. With frantic haste she unlatches her helmet. Wrenches it off as it crumples and melts. She stands bare-headed in the toxic air. Desperate, she looks around with tearing eyes. In the distance she sees an intact module of the Magellan. She runs for it. Slaps the door switch. Incredibly, it opens. (Alien_ Engineers, Jon Spaihts, p113-114)
- EXT.VICKERS MODULE-DAYWatts arrives at the Vickers module. The ultramorph Alien’s head has been fixed like a grisly trophy above the door. (Alien_ Engineers, Jon Spaihts, p116)
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| Ultramorph by Carlos Huante |
b) Ultramorph as the spacejockey's chestburster
b.i) Carlos goes home to work on the design
Carlos Huante had visited Ridley and discussed the design progression of the creatures to the great alien beast of the first film.
He went home after his visit and thinking about it, the first thing that he would do is start working on some designs for
the creature known as the Ultramorph
b.ii) Connecting with the Space Jockey mystery
This alien beast that had erupted from the Space Jockey now called an Engineer, would become a fully grown Giger-esque biomechanical thing
In this earlier script, this Engineer would have been the Space jockey character from the original Alien movie but instead one that was a tall
humanoid within a suit that gave the Space Jockey its strange look, so a Ultramorph would presumably grow into a tall near humanoid creature..
- Carlos Huante: The ultra morph was the one that was supposed to come out and that would be the first time we start seeing this biomechanical erm kind of er you know, a xenomorph, er the first Alien er stuff come, you know, all that filigree and I went with,(Creature Talk 1)
- Carlos Huante: Immediately
after this, I was jumping on the ultramorphs and designing those this
might first hit on this project, designing the ultramorphs, er (6:00)
and the deacon was one of the first ones of those that I went to so and
er which would have been a primitive xenomorph and then I jumped on the
giant xenomorphs which would be the ultramorphs (Creature Talk 3)
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| Ultramorph by Carlos Huante |
c) The return to Necronom IV
c.i) Necronom IV
He decided to go back to HR Giger's painting Necronom IV that was the starting point for the design of the alien beast in the origina film Alien released in 1979
Huante began to design an alien creature with a head similar to the character in this painting, complete with bulbous black eyes like a hell's angels motorcycle goggles
He wanted this to be a homage to HR Giger, bringing that artist's work back to the first film, whatever Giger might have said about someone copying his design in that way.
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| Necronom IV (1976) by HR Giger |
c.ii) Beluga whale shaped forehead variation
Huante followed his obsession with Beluga whales with their ghostly pale skin and bulbous forehead to the extent that he would include such a forehead in some of his designs for this beast
He kept on with designing variations of this it for a while before he had discussions with Ridley about taking the creature concept in a different direction.
c.iii) Other creatures
As he worked, he thought to himself "Wouldn’t it be cool
if these Aliens who are born of humans and haven’t been mixed genetically with the Engineers, yet would look more human and less biomechanical".
Of course this was for a different version of the script that was where the creature known as the Bishop came from and soon was renamed the Deacon.
He would compare the difference being like a Mastodon in comparison to modern day elephants (although I might wonder if we compare it in terms of size to a mammoth that are closely related to elephants, since Mastodons weren't taller than modern day elephants anyway)
Perhaps
this alien beast would have grown to about thirteen feet in height assuming
that the humanoid in the picture further down showing below showing the size comparisons is of regular human height.
- Carlos Huante: Here was one effort that I tried with the original Giger's er Necronomicon er image that he did and I thought it should be the first one that we see because a good homage to Giger, keeping Giger right in the first film, so the Deacon in the first film would come out and be the alien that everyone dealt with during the film you know, and then we see this thing come out, that trog, you know that tentacled thing comes out of Shaw er and it implants this the first er egg ever implanted we see, and it comes out er the engineer and then it, this giant looks like a xenomorph (Creature Talk 1)
- Carlos Huante: When
they come out of an Engineer it was supposed to be an Ultramorph, a
giant. The Ultramorph is a prehistoric version of the xenomorph.. like a
mastodon is to modern day elephants. It would be giant because
obviously, it came out of an Engineer. So it would be this super tall
albino, biomechanical looking alien and that’s when we’d first see it,
the biomechanoid. (https://hnentertainment.co/exclusive-creature-designer-carlos-huante-says-original-prometheus-script-was-similar-to-aliens-with-an-army-group-and-talks-early-concepts-for-the-engineers-ultramorph/)
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| Ultramorph (without backpipes but with black eyes) by Carlos Huante |
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d) Ultramorph as the evil angels
d.i) As Angels
Huante thought of the Ultramorph as an evil
variant of the Engineers that were in a sense for him Angels.
d.ii) Doing away with the biomechanics
He thought about how the big beast from the original Alien movie had what biomechanical patterns and shapes across its skins, which seemed to be an exoskeleton
Bur he decided in his notes that the Ultramorph should be covered with smooth skin as genetically it was still a new creature and its hosts were the engineers who are the tall humanoids with very pale human skin
d.iii) Regal quality
These creatures would have a regal quality abut them that would have been inspired by the Engineers as hosts
- Carlos Huante: The Ultramorph - unlike the "Alien" from the first Alien which were covered / or had a exoskeleton, the Ultramorph should still be covered with skin as genetically it is still "New"... and its host are the engineers. it would be an evil variant of the (ANGELS) Engineers. Ultramorphs should still have a regal Quality about them as that quality has been inspired by their host. So, to carry the "No Bones" motif. (Carlos Huante's Prometheus notes)
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| Ultramorph by Carlos Huante |
e) Ultramorphs being clean and skin covered
e.i) Emergence of the biomechanoid alien
However instead of the Ultramorphs being clean and skin covered, after
some discussion with Ridley and what needs to happen sequentially with
the story of how they end up with this alien beast in the first film.
They would be the first we see of the bony exoskeleton on a creature.
e.ii) The nature of the ribbing
e.ii) The nature of the ribbing
Huante had thoughts about what if the engineer technology is all that ribbing and
bony architecture.
He would refer to it as filigree that's all over the ship and the alien beast itself.
e.iii) Difference in alien beasts born from human
With that idea, the alien beast that come out or are born out of the humans should be
clean and the skin covered.
They would not be saturated with the genetic material of the source (Engineers) yet, so, they would be more
human looking.
- Carlos Huante (talking about the development of the Deacon by way of the Ultramorph): The genesis of that character came after a conversation I had with Ridley about a design progression of the creatures to the Xenomorph of the first film. I went home and thought about it but kept on with the Gigeresque Ultramorphs. Then as I worked I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if these Aliens who are born of humans and haven’t been mixed genetically with the Engineers yet would look more human and less biomechanical“, of course this was for a different version of the script but that’s where the Deacon (or Bishop, as he was originally named) came from. He later became an Ultramorph and as the script changed slightly after I left the show, it became that thing at the end. (Carlos was talking about the development of the Deacon by way of the Ultramorph in an interview with ThisBethesdaSea for www.avpgalaxy.net)
- Carlos Huante: Okay, so instead of the Ultramorphs being clean and skin covered, after some discussion with Ridley and what needs to happen sequentially with the story of how we end up with this "alien" in the first film. I'm thinking that what if the engineer technology is all that ribbing and boney architecture that's all over the ship and the "alien" itself. So... the "aliens" that come out or are born out of the humans should be clean and the skin covered because they are not saturated with the Genetic material of the source (Engineers) yet. So, they are more human looking, the "Ultramorphs" should be the first we see of the boney Exoskeleton on a creature. The engineer tech should form as water (Milky Liquid) that pours unnaturally upward and over them (The Engineers) to form boney plating or ribs, and architectural surfaces. Like they control it at a molecular level.(Carlos Huante's Prometheus notes)
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| Ultramorph by Carlos Huante |
f) How the alien got its biomechanics?
f.i) Ridley's old idea
However
during the production of Alien back in 1978, Ridley had developed the
idea that the original alien beast's biomechanical look was inherited
from the Space Jockey.
It
was not really clear to Ridley how that would happen either, but he thought about it in Giger's painting as something that was a blend of
organic and machine, perhaps right down to the level of
DNA.
f.ii) Engineer technology would form as water
Huante thought about the nature of the biomechanics almost as if he were talking about casting the alien suit in latex rubber.
He imagined that the engineer technology would form as water (Milky Liquid) that pours
unnaturally upward and over them (The Engineers) to form bony plating
or ribs and architectural surfaces, as if they controled it at a molecular
level.
How the biomechanics would becomes infused with the alien Ultramorph itself remains unclear, but Huante went with the idea that the biomechanics was in the Engineer's genes.
This would mean that a human infected in the same way would give birth to a creature that was pale with smooth skin,
Only if the creature carried genetic material from the Engineers that would have been infused with their technology would it show signs of this biomechanical patterns.
f.iii) Steve Messings's take on alien beast as descendant of the Ultramorph
When Steve Messing would come to design the vast relief for Prometheus, he went with the idea that the Ultramorph was the pure form of this thing that the Engineers had created.
It was almost like a virus and this creature was in some way worshipped by them.
As
the virus became spread and as if it were polluted, supposedly the
creature in the Alien series that has come to be referred to as the
Xenomorph was an evolutionary descendant that was not as pure.
- Carlos Huante: Okay, so instead of the Ultramorphs being clean and skin covered, after some discussion with Ridley and what needs to happen sequentially with the story of how we end up with this "alien" in the first film. I'm thinking that what if the engineer technology is all that ribbing and boney architecture that's all over the ship and the "alien" itself. So... the "aliens" that come out or are born out of the humans should be clean and the skin covered because they are not saturated with the Genetic material of the source (Engineers) yet. So, they are more human looking, the "Ultramorphs" should be the first we see of the boney Exoskeleton on a creature. The engineer tech should form as water (Milky Liquid) that pours unnaturally upward and over them (The Engineers) to form boney plating or ribs, and architectural surfaces. Like they control it at a molecular level.(Carlos Huante's Prometheus notes)
- Steve Messing: The Xenomorph in my mind was the descendant of Ultramorph. In my mind it was the pure form of this kind of almost virus that these engineers had created. They’re a lot about sacrifice. So in my mind there was an engineer that sacrificed himself with this virus, and then created this horrific creature… This being that was gonna eradicate planets, It was, it was like a parasite that would, you know, destroy the planet, and then they could start over and rebirth it. And they kind of worshipped it, and that’s where you can see this relief sculpture, where it’s almost a religious sculpture. As it got kind of, the virus spread, and got polluted, the Xenomorph was a evolutionary descendant, that was not as pure. (Prometheus blu-ray, "Xenomorphology:The Deacon")
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| The mural as seen in Prometheus |
g) Reproduction
Huante's had an idea for an alternative method of reproduction for the Ultramorph rather than just by the creation of the facehugger.
This thing would attack and bite, leaving the victim immobilized rather than injured or dead or ready to be cocooned.
It would pass its genes onto the victim either by saliva or some such thing into the host and mix with the host's genest to create a new creature
But having said that, he mentioned this idea was basically how his later idea, the "red Bullbox alien" reproduced and this was a step in the alien life form's evolution beyond a "neomorph" and the so called "Xenomorph" stage in the evolution of the alien beast and was not supposed to be one of these Ultramorphs at all , but it's an idea that could evolve further in his imagination
- Carlos Huante: and so now this thing you know would, this thing attacks right and now that they planned.... this was my idea that they pass on their genes too when they attack, either the saliva or something, so when they er when they attack someone, you know, people are made immobile by the er you know, by the attack , and they're injured and not dead yet, you know, and er, when the alien, this alien creature whatever when they bite them, they would also pass on genes so not only the egg that would er, erm, you know, when the face hugger comes on and implants erm you know, the embryo, but it's not necessarily a j.. not necessarily an embryo er being implanted, maybe I was thinking that it could be that whatever it implanted mixes with whatever the erm, the alien has passed on with its own saliva, you know, so it would be mixed happening there and then that's how these things would pass on er whatever they were er the egg anyway. So I mean that's just me making stuff up there. That was just an idea okay. (Creature Talk 1 11 Oct 2020)
- Carlos Huante:Er, graphite, er ultramorph drawing, Just screwing around, `(34:00) This friend bought this, this friend that worked with me on Prometheus. Very nice talented guy.
Erm this is based on the toy. Now, look, I just, I had some toys when I was younger you know, er, and I bought them as I was already a professional, I just thought they were hilariously er, erm, just over the top. The gorilla er xenomorph. I had to do a version of that so I did.
This is a character I invented, er, based on an idea that I had that would be between the er Neomorphs say and a Xenomorph, and er, in a. It's a long idea that I had. I wrote down some notes about this actually and erm. This is the bull box (35:00) alien and it's really mechanical, really biomechanical even and that's because the being that it went into was naturally this way and my idea was that regardless of how far out these neomorphs would initially come out from their first birth of whatever species they would invade right and they would use as hosts, that would eventually becomes what we know as xenomorphs and that would be in two generations right, so and the other idea I had was that, that you know how they're always salivated when they're opening, you see a drop, you know they find it on the floor that gel, these things are always dropping. One of the ideas I had is when these things bite, and I think that I mentioned this in the first Creature Talk One, that when they bite, er that, that fluid that would be er (36:00) released into the person that it bit or you know disabled by you know punching a hole with their you know mechanical mouth shooting out er and punching a hole in their heads or wherever you know, er they were... mostly head, just blow their heads out you know projectile jaw, erm that they will also release saliva in there and then it would mix into the blood er stream of that host, and that would have also an effect and it would influence what that xenomorph that is in that embryo that is implanted er in that body would look like. You know, so it's not just er you know, disabling of the host to cocoon them. I thought it would actually play a part in the er whatever this er, the xenomorph would actually look like. You know what would it come out influence er the actual final creature (37:00) so erm, I came up with all that when I designed this creature, erm, so er and this was done like you know well after everything, I just felt like screwing around. Er, the bull box er, xenomorph, well the red xenomorph but I like to call it the bull box because it just feels like a bull and it's so boxy, you know, erm, you know (Prometheus talk addendum 26 Oct 2020)
h) See: Prometheus: The Deacon
i) Another Ultramorph
Here Carlos Huante had another go at the Ultramorph developing some of the similarities to Necronom IV showing off some of the qualities of the head being like an eyebrow and the space at the back of the neck being like a eye space, belonging to the atrophied remnant of a cartoon character face.
Here the ribcage and back pipes might become like a side view of a leering face.
He shaped the back pipes as if there making it look as if there's a grin forming in the space between the lower back tendrils
The raised hand has become confusingly long
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| Graphite Ultramorph as shown in Creatures of Prometheus Talk Addendum (26 Oct 2020) by Carlos Huante |
"Prometheus: Ultramorph" was re-edited on 6th March 2022
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