Aliens' Facehugger Gets Animatronics
Just as the chestburster would be more fully actuated than it had been in the original film, the facehugger would be equipped to perform much more dynamic movement. “In the first film,” said Jim Cameron, “the facehugger —after its leap onto John Hurt’s face — appears simply as an inert form. In Aliens, we changed that. Now it has the physical capability, should it miss on that first leap, to run around on its eight legs and leap again — which made for a really interesting sequence.”
That sequence takes place inside a medical lab, where two facehugger specimens that have been released from containment attack Ripley and the little girl Newt (Carrie Henn), the lone survivor from the colony. In addition to running around on their eight finger-like appendages in the scene, the facehuggers would use their tails as grabbing and constricting devices. “Our facehuggers ran around all over the place in that scene,” noted Winston, “chasing and fighting Sigourney Weaver, jumping on things, scurrying across the floor. Our facehuggers were fully articulated, whereas the facehugger in Alien wasn’t articulated at all.”
More Aliens Behind the Scenes from Stan Winston School
- Sculpting the Alien Queen Head with Shane Mahan
- Aliens - Chestburster Behind-the-Scenes with Director/FX Designer Stephen Norrington
- Building Aliens Full-Size Alien Queen Puppet
- The REAL Alien Queen: Sigourney Weaver
- The Making of a Xenomorph Drone
- Alien Queen Attacks Bishop!
- The Practical Effects of Alien: Romulus
Courses with the Creators of Aliens
- Special Effects Sequence Design with Shane Mahan
- Hybrid Characters: Blending Practical & Digital FX with John Rosengrant
- Animatronics Design Basics with Richard Landon
- Cable Mechanism Basics - Tentacles with Richard Landon
- Directing Creatures with Alec Gillis
- Make A Monster Suit - Part 1: Creature Sculpting with Alec Gillis
- Monster Suit Performance with Tom Woodruff Jr.
- Character Design Techniques with Tom Woodruff Jr.
- How To Make Animatronic Characters - Organic Mechanics Part 1 with Rick Lazzarini
- How To Make Animatronic Characters - Organic Mechanics Part 2 with Rick Lazzarini
- Zombie Makeup: 3D Prosthetic Transfer Application with Howard Berger