A fire starts and the ship's computer launches an escape pod containing Ellen Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and the damaged android Bishop; all four are in cryonic stasis.

The pod crash-lands on Fiorina "Fury" 161, a foundry and maximum-security correctional facility inhabited by male inmates with a genetic predisposition for antisocial behavior.

After being saved by Dillon, Ripley returns to the infirmary and re-activates Bishop, who, before asking to be permanently shut down, confirms that a Facehugger came with them to Fiorina, under knowledge of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

With Aaron's help, Ripley scans herself using the escape pod's medical equipment and sees the embryo of an Alien Queen growing inside her.

But Brandywine was less than enthused with an Alien 3 project, with producer David Giler later explaining he and partners Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll wanted to take new directions as "we wouldn't do a repeat of one and two".

[9] Various concepts were discussed, eventually settling on a two-part story, with the treatment for the third film featuring "the underhanded Weyland–Yutani Corporation facing off with a militarily aggressive culture of humans whose rigid socialist ideology has caused them to separate from Earth's society."

Michael Biehn's Corporal Hicks would be promoted to protagonist in the third film, with Sigourney Weaver's character of Ellen Ripley reduced to a cameo appearance before returning in the fourth installment, "an epic battle with alien warriors mass-produced by the expatriated Earthlings."

Weaver liked the Cold War metaphor, and agreed to a smaller role,[18] particularly due to a dissatisfaction with Fox, which removed scenes from Aliens crucial to Ripley's backstory.

The film ends with a teaser for a fourth movie, where Bishop suggests to Hicks that humans are united against a common enemy, and they must track the Aliens to their source and destroy them.

[22] The producers were on the whole unsatisfied with the screenplay, which Giler described as "a perfectly executed script that wasn't all that interesting",[9] particularly for not taking new directions with the initial pitch.

Following the end of the WGA strike, Gibson was asked to make rewrites with Harlin, but declined, citing various other commitments and "foot dragging on the producers' part.

Afterwards, it moved into a small-town U.S. city in a type of bio-dome in space, culminating in an all-out battle with the townsfolk facing hordes of Alien warriors.

Once the fall of Communism made the Cold War analogies outdated, Twohy changed his setting to a prison planet, which was being used for illegal experiments on the aliens for a Biological Warfare division.

Upon arrival of Ripley, and with increasing suggestions of the Alien presence, the monk inhabitants believe it to be some sort of religious trial for their misdemeanors, punishable by the creature that haunts them.

To avoid this belief and (hopefully) the much grimmer reality of what she has brought with her, the Monks of the "wooden satellite" lock Ripley into a dungeon-like sewer and ignore her advice on the true nature of the beast.

'Imagine the kind of vertical jeopardy sequence that could have been staged here—the Alien clambering up these impossibly high bookshelves as desperate monks work the platform'.

Ward managed to dissuade the producers of their idea of turning the planet into an ore refinery and the monks into prisoners, but eventually Fox asked for a meeting with the director imposing a list of changes to be made.

[36] Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, in deteriorating health following a diagnosis of Parkinsons Disease a decade earlier[37] worked only for two weeks before becoming too ill to continue.

His revisions included longer, thinner legs, the removal of "pipes" around the spine, and an idea for a sharp alien "tongue" in place of the secondary jaws.

Working from his studio in Zurich, Giger produced these new sketches which he faxed to Cornelius de Fries who then created their model counterparts out of plasticine.

[42] To make syncing the puppet's actions with the live-action shots easier, the effects team developed an instant compositing system using LaserDisc.

[42] Hoping to give the destroyed Bishop a more complex look that could not be accomplished by simple make-up, the final product was done entirely through animatronics, while a playback of Lance Henriksen's voice played to guide Sigourney Weaver.

[9] Scenes of the Emergency Escape Vehicle were shot with a 3.5-foot miniature against a blue-screen and composited onto large scale traditional matte paintings of the planet's surface.

[46] The bonus disc for Alien 3 in the 2003 Quadrilogy set includes a documentary of the film's production that lacks Fincher's participation, as clips where the director openly expresses anger and frustration with the studio were cut.

These clips were restored for the 2010 Blu-ray release of the Anthology set, with the integral documentary having a slightly altered version of the intended name, Wreckage and Rage.

[46][49][50] Unlike the 2003 DVD release, in the 2010 Blu-ray version the additional footage went through post-production, receiving color correction and sound mixing to match the rest of the film, which included bringing back some cast members to re-record dialogue.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Alien3 takes admirable risks with franchise mythology, but far too few pay off in a thinly scripted sequel whose stylish visuals aren't enough to enliven a lack of genuine thrills.

They criticized the drawn-out chase scenes near the end as well as the lack of suspenseful action, though they praised the art direction and Weaver's performance, with Ebert calling it "probably the best-looking bad movie I've seen in a while".

"[60] A number of cast and crew associated with the series, including actor Michael Biehn, director James Cameron, and novelist Alan Dean Foster, expressed their frustration and disappointment with the film's story.

[23] As part of Alien's 40th anniversary, on May 30, 2019, Audible released an audio drama of Gibson's script, adapted by Dirk Maggs and with Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprising their roles.