1. Alien 3 - The Ending
There was no way the third Alien could have turned out successful. Aliens had already eschewed the horror of the original in favour of action so competently that any new ground was going to have to be spectacular. The film went through so many different hands and various concepts (including an intriguingly popular wood planet) that the final product is a poor shadow of the greatness that came before. However, the film manages to partially save itself come the final scene. The quadruped alien has been exploded and the film looks set to end, but in a surprising twist, the company turns up. As the creator of the Bishop android, Lance Hendrickson attempts to collect the xenomorph that is gestating in Ripleys belly. But the heroine has other plans, throwing herself into the fiery depths below, taking the new born alien with her. In a final, depressing shot, we hear Ripleys recording from the end of Alien, accompanied by a computer screen telling us the entire prison will be destroyed. The 2003 Assembly Cut, a longer, even less interesting edit of the film, extends the scene slightly, but doesn't really add anything; theres a needles media team and no chestburster. No matter which version you see, the scene is in sharp contrast to the rest of the film, clearly a stronger idea than the rest of the running time. It is the bureaucratic intrigue that the first two films had set up that wed been hoping would appear in this film, rather than the bland religious prison set mess we got. Its this showing of what potential there was that makes this moment top the list. Effectively ending the series, the final five minutes worked great as a finale to Ripleys adventures. Sadly, franchises dont work like that this marked only the halfway point of the original alien series. So there we have it. Anything we missed out? Do let us know...