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Everyone keeps mentioning how in Alien 3, the first thing to get infected/eaten is a dog. I seem to remember this happening to a rottweiler. But I just saw Alien 3 and the facehugger killed a bull and the alien busted out of that. Did I watch a directors cut with a bull instead of a dog?

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  • perhaps this question belongs on the movies sight? I'm not sure, is is Science Fiction too...
    – AidanO
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 8:02
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    It belongs here, @AidanO
    – AncientSwordRage
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 8:34
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    @AidanO I asked a similar question on the movies site and they told me to come here
    – puk
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 9:57
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    Stack Exchange has many overlaps, I for example ask a lot math questions that border on the statistical and that I need to code...
    – puk
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 10:30
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    @AidanO: if you don’t think alien is science fiction I really don’t know how you sleep at night. Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 14:56

4 Answers 4

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If you watch the Assembly Cut on the DVD/ bluray sets (the equivalent of the directors cut, however Fincher refused to be involved), it is a bull like creature that they farm on the prison planet that is the first thing to be a host. The dog was part of the studios considerable recutting .

It's worth watching the Assembly cut, it's far from the sequel you hope for, but a hundred times better than the release version.

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  • I can't remember the original version but the "Assembly cut" seems to be a lot better at showing the world outside. I am not sure what other differences there are.
    – puk
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 10:00
  • Will have to track that down!
    – AidanO
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 10:06
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    The Special Edition DVD & Blu-ray section in the Wikipedia listing details the changes, over 30 mins, and generally the film makes much more sense. Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 13:38
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    My Alien quadrillogy DVD set has all the versions and I do recall the cow-like creature being first in one of the cuts. The dog was definitely in the theatrical version that I saw at the cinema. Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 17:44
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It's always the pet dog in any version I've seen. The dog is a pet of one of the inmates. And when the alien busted out it was in one of the air vents, I can't see a bull wandering around the air vents!

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    lol it's not in the air vents. They bring the bull in from the outside after it died of 'natural causes', then one of the guys SPOILERS---- picks up a facehugger underneath the corpse and he's like "WTF is this?!?!?"
    – puk
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 10:32
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I am watching Alien 3 streaming and a bull is infected, but the first time I watched it I recall it was a Rottweiler.

I think they changed it to a bull because it more videogenic

Dog

Dog

Bull vs Dog

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  • Given lack of any sources referenced or pictures or anything to back it up, this would be best as a comment, not an answer.
    – eidylon
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 18:55
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    I've added some sourcing. It wasn't a bad answer, just badly edited.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 8, 2014 at 0:50
  • You're a good man, @Richard! Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 12:37
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It was originally supposed to be a cow/ox, the cow was made & filmed but the studio then decided against it as the Xenomorph would have been too bulky and slow. That's the reason it was then changed to a dog (faster)

The whole idea was a mistake in my eyes as the CGI took a lot away from the film for me.

Alien 3 as a whole was a great concept 'Prison with no weapons etc' just poorly executed.

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    Saying it is poorly executed is an opinion and should probably be removed. Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 13:15
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    @FeldpauschAll4: I think we’re okay with some opinions here on scifi.SE. This isn’t Stack Overflow, nobody’s trying to get their job done by asking questions on here. Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 14:58
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    For completeness’ sake: Most of what you probably consider to be bad CGI, actually is not. It’s another kind of bad special effects. (Wikipedia on this)
    – Wrzlprmft
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 20:14

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