Aliens’ conniving corporate stooge Carter Burke is one of the most hated characters in the franchise, and a deleted scene gave him what he deserved. It’s rare that a sequel is so good that many fans consider it to be better than the original film, but director James Cameron’s 1986 sci-fi/horror classic Aliens is one such follow-up. That’s not to say it’s universally seen as better than Ridley Scott’s Alien, but it’s at the very least on the same level of quality, while also providing a very different experience.
Alien is a claustrophobic, tense straight-up horror movie in which a creature of bizarre alien biology slowly picks off the crew of a spaceship one after another. By contrast, Aliens leans into action and excitement, teaming Sigourney Weaver’s survivor Ripley up with badass space marines, and expanding the threat to dozens of Xenomorphs. Aliens doesn’t skimp on the horror factor either though, seeing multiple characters get brutally killed, presenting lots of surprising scares, and introducing the terrifying, enormous Xenomorph Queen into the mix.
In Aliens, the titular monsters aren’t actually the only threat. Much like how the android Ash (Ian Holm) turned out to be untrustworthy in the first Alien, Aliens features a human villain in Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), a junior executive for the franchise’s almost always malevolent Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Despite first appearing to be an ally of Ripley, it becomes clear where his loyalties truly lie, and that’s to the people who sign his paychecks. He’s a rotten, treacherous scumbag, and the audience can’t wait for him to die.
Aliens Deleted Scene Gave Carter Burke The Death He Deserved
In the theatrical cut of Aliens, Carter Burke looks to be killed by an approaching Xenomorph, but his death isn’t shown onscreen. This is a bit disappointing, considering just how much of a jerk (to put it mildly) Burke was to both Ripley and the Space Marines. It turns out a deleted scene bestowed upon him a much more fitting demise. As Ripley searches for Newt late in the film, she finds Burke cocooned to a wall. He reaches out to her and begs for help, as he can feel a chestburster already moving around inside his body. Ripley’s response is to hand him a grenade, then leave so he can end his own suffering. It’s cold, but not unwarranted.
Many might wonder why such a satisfying death was left on the cutting room floor, and that would be because James Cameron just wasn’t a fan of how the scene turned out. Additionally, he realized too late that it introduced a continuity error into the plot, as by the established Xenomorph life cycle, Burke should’ve still had a facehugger attached at that stage, and not yet been impregnated with a chestburster. Carter Burke’s deleted death scene has never been restored into any version of the film, which now has multiple available cuts. It is at least available for fans to watch as a special feature on the Aliens Blu-Ray release.
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