In Alien Resurrection, we’re introduced to Frank Elgyn, a space smuggler. He is smooth-talking, black-clad, level-headed, hard-drinking, and is the leader of a band of criminals who all respect his seedy smarts. He calls the shots from the beginning but is the first of the main cast to die at the hands of the Aliens.
I believe the writer, Joss Weden, intended to shock both audiences and the main characters by removing the metaphoric ship’s mast at the start of the chaos, thus forcing the group of survivors to have to trust Ripley whose allegiance in the 4th installment is dubious at best.
When I saw Resurrection at the age of 8 by myself, I was cinematically traumatized by the death of this character. I rooted for him to be one of the ending survivors because I liked him, but I was certain he wasn’t going to be the first to die because of everything that made him cool. I didn’t have any notion that such a story device could be possible. It changed the way I percieve character set-up and expectation. It also changed how I view group dynamics and what happens when you remove specific pieces. The dramatic potential is infinite.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how different the film would have been if he had survived longer or been on the ship at the end along with Ron Perlman’s character and Sigorney herself. Below are a list of scenarios:
Elgyn and Ripley hesitantly form an alliance as the most capable of the group in terms of route finding and charisma and strength. But Elgyn maintains his distrust of her allegiance and makes a fatal misstep to remove her from the group before making it to the evacuation.
Elgyn and Ripley initially strife with differences in approach to their planned escape and this causes the group tension as half of them want to trust their captain, but the other half feels like Ripley is better equipped to handle this very unique situation. This scenario likely ends with a full-fledged bond by the end or a sacrifice on part of Elgyn to save her and thus his crew.
I have since been so inspired and hurt by this type of death that I have tried to emulate it in my own writing. In my script, Darkspeed, which centers around a crew of astronauts attempting to use a faster-than-light engine to warp to a nearby solar system, the leader, Jim Vikandless, has all the right answers and soothes all anxieties, but is the first to die when they encounter and inter-dimensional entity named Color.
It almost seems cheap, but necessary to emphasize the tension, to kill off the most well-adapted character when the shit hits the fan. Now we are battered by the circumstance and the lesser of us must grow relationships and force from themselves the solutions when the God/Father figure is eliminated.
I’ll never forgive nor forget what Joss did.