Newborn

"You are a beautiful, beautiful butterfly!"

―Dr. Gediman, regarding the Newborn (from Alien Resurrection)

The "Newborn", also known as the Newborn Alien or Alien Sapien, was a human/Xenomorph hybrid creature born aboard the USM Auriga. The Newborn emerged as a byproduct of cloning experiments conducted by scientists of the United Systems Military, created when the Queen produced as a result of the experiments became contaminated with human DNA, granting her a second reproductive cycle using a womb and a live birth.

Instead of the Queen that gave birth to it, the Newborn apparently viewed Ripley 8, the clone that had originally been host to the Queen, as its true "mother". It was killed when it was violently sucked into space through a small hole in the hull of the smuggling vessel the Betty.

History

Birth and attachment to Ripley 8

"Your beautiful, beautiful little baby. Look, it thinks you're its mother!"

―Gediman to Ripley 8, regarding the Newborn (from Alien Resurrection)

At some point, the Cloned Queen ceased laying Eggs and replaced her Egg sac with a womb, inside which developed the Newborn. After a rapid period of development, the Newborn emerged in the waste tank where the Queen had set up her Hive.^[3] Almost immediately after being born, the Newborn turned on the Queen, tearing off the front of her head with its bare hands; the Newborn then moved to Ripley 8, who was also present, whom the creature apparently considered to be its true mother. The creature became distracted by a now maddened Dr. Gediman, who was cocooned in the Hive, and brutally killed him by tearing out the top of his head with its teeth while Ripley 8 escaped.

Aboard the Betty and death

The Newborn pursued the fleeing Ripley 8 to the Betty, and there cornered Call in the ship's cargo hold. After killing Distephano by crushing his head when he arrived to investigate, Ripley 8 once again appeared and convinced the creature to release Call unharmed. Using the Newborn's apparent devotion for her to her advantage, Ripley 8 distracted the creature as she used her acidic blood to burn a small hole in a nearby viewing window. The subsequent decompression blew the Newborn into space piecemeal through the tiny aperture, killing it.

Traits

The Newborn's physical appearance was far more humanoid than any other Xenomorph. Notably, it was the product of a live birth, and did not involve the use of an Ovomorph, Facehugger and Chestburster like other Xenomorphs. Its physical appearance was also dramatically different, particularly in that it was twice as large as a standard Warrior. While the Newborn still possessed an elongated skull, it was far shorter and more human in shape, fusing with the upper back, and the creature's head included eyes, a nose and a mouth at the front. In fact, many of the signature physical aspects of the Xenomorphs were not present at all — the creature had no tail, no inner jaw and no dorsal tubes. The Newborn had pale skin that was fleshy in both appearance and texture, and was generally devoid of the bio-mechanical appearance associated with the Xenomorphs. The creature's teeth were also more akin to those of a human than the metallic teeth of the Xenomorphs, although the large fangs remained similar in shape. The Newborn adopted an upright, bipedal stance.

Intelligence

Perhaps the greatest difference between the Newborn and other Xenomorphs was its apparent ability to perceive and experience emotions; during the course of its short life it displayed signs of curiosity, anger, affection, rage and sorrow. In particular, it held a strong reverence for Ripley 8. Despite the creature's emotional capacity, the Newborn was psychologically immature and almost child-like in its behavior; it would often greet the aftermath of its horribly violent actions with curiosity, frequently toying with the bloodied remains of those it had killed. In short, the Newborn displayed a cruel innocence, similar to many human children who don't yet understand the repercussion of their actions.

List of Notable Victims

Behind the Scenes

The Newborn creature Joss Whedon originally scripted in Alien Resurrection was drastically different to the one ultimately featured in the film. In the script, it is an eyeless, ivory-white creature with six limbs — four, spider-like legs at the front with two dog-like rear limbs. It also has bulging red veins running along the sides of its elongated Alien head and an inner jaw, with the addition of a pair of pincers on the sides of its head. These pincers were used to immobilise the creature's prey as it drained its victim of their blood using its inner jaw.^[4] The Newborn was also meant to rival the Queen in size. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film's director, later asked Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. to lean towards making the human-Alien hybrid more human than Alien.^[5]

Chris Halls Newborn — Newborn concept by Chris Halls.

Chris Halls created several concept sketches of creatures that blended Xenomorph and human characteristics, but the final design ultimately bore little resemblance to these.^[6] The Newborn's eyes and nose were added to improve its expressions to make it a character, rather than just a "killing machine", and give it depth as a character. Originally, the production team considered giving the creature Ellen Ripley's face, although the idea was eventually dropped for fear of comparisons with Sil from the film Species, which had been released the previous year.^[5] Another discarded idea was that of giving the creature translucent, gelatinous skin, through which its internal organs would be visible.^[7] Notably, a similar concept had originally been proposed for Alien in Alien.

The physical shooting model was mounted on a crane, and incorporated a complex hydraulic system governed by a motion control computer, as well as a servo-operated face structure.^[5] The creature took 9 puppeteers to operate, and has been described as one of the most complex animatronics ever created.^[5] Jeunet was adamant that the Newborn have genitalia, a mix of both sexes. However, Fox was uncomfortable and even Jeunet eventually felt "even for a Frenchman, it's too much". The genitalia were digitally removed in post-production.^[5] While impressed with the animatronic, Jeunet subsequently expressed regret that, owing to the design, the creature was almost always seen from the waist upwards only, with just one brief shot showing the creature standing in full view.^[5]

Trivia

The Newborn is something of an amalgam of ideas taken from several of the unproduced early screenplays for Alien³. The concept of a human/Xenomorph hybrid creature was first proposed in Eric Red's unproduced script, while the creature's death, being sucked into space piecemeal through a small rupture in a ship's hull, is taken from David Twohy's unused script, although such a demise was also originally planned for Lambert in Alien.^[8]
According to the original scriptbook, the Newborn was male and had amorous intentions towards Ripley 8. ^{[citation needed]}
The Newborn in the novelization of Alien Resurrection had some slight differences when compared to the creature seen in the film. Most notably, it possesses a tail.^[9] It later also develops a second, inner jaw, apparently almost instantaneously, although it is never explained whether this is an intentional change or merely part of an incredibly rapid maturation process.^[10]
While the Newborn was a completely unintentional side-effect of the imperfect cloning process used to create the Xenomorphs aboard the Auriga, Dr. Gediman apparently viewed the creature as the apex of the entire cloning program, describing it as "a beautiful butterfly" and becoming completely enamored with his 'creation'. His reverence for the creature would prove to be his undoing.
It is possible the Newborn was female, due to the presence of female-like genitalia and something akin to female breasts on its chest.
Some fans have suggested that the Newborn screams, "Help me!" and/or "Mummy!" during its death scene,^{[citation needed]} but this has not been confirmed by any official source.