Alien: Containment

Alien anniversary shorts

Containment

Specimen

Night Shift

Ore

Harvest

Alone

Alien: Containment is a 2019 fan-made short film written and directed by Chris Reading and starring Gaia Weiss, Theo Barklem-Biggs and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. Created as part of the Alien 40th anniversary shorts project run by Tongal in association with 20th Century Fox, the film follows four survivors who have escaped the destruction of their ship in a shuttle, only to learn that one of them may be harboring a Chestburster.

Plot[]

Moments before the colonial transport Borrowdale breaks up and explodes, a shuttle escapes from the vessel carrying four survivors. Having safely escaped their ship's destruction, the shuttle's pilot, Ward, tends to the injured members of the crew — Mills remains unconscious and unresponsive on a medical gurney, but Nass wakes in a panic. Ward calms him and asks if he knows what happened aboard the Borrowdale, but he responds that he was knocked out during the incident and remembers little other than waking up on the escape deck, although he fearfully refers to creatures that he saw on board. The fourth survivor, Albrecht, a member of the Borrowdale's science crew, informs them that there was an outbreak aboard the ship and that there is a chance one or more of them may have been subject to contamination.

Ward demands that Albrecht check the comatose Mills to see if he is contaminated. As she works, an increasingly agitated Nass accuses her and her team of being responsible for the loss of their ship and crew, and Albrecht admits that her people destroyed the Borrowdale in an attempt to stop the outbreak spreading. Nass becomes convinced that Mills is carrying the infection and pulls his knife, intending to kill him. Ward attempts to defuse the situation, but Nass grabs her by the throat and tells her that if she had seen what he saw, she wouldn't be trying to stop him. He throws her aside and approaches Mills, but suddenly collapses to the floor and begins convulsing violently, coughing up blood, revealing that he himself has been infected.

Ward goes to his aid, but when she implores Albrecht's help, the science officer instead backs out of the room and seals the hatch. Watching on as the Chestburster tears its way out of Nass. Ward begs Albrecht to open the door, but she refuses, pointing out that they need to keep the creature contained. However, an impact on the shuttle's outer hull causes her to stumble and accidentally release the hatch. Ward overhears a radio transmission that reveals the source of the sudden jolt — they have been found by another ship and are being brought in for docking. With the newly born Alien scurrying around beneath the seats in the cabin, Ward climbs across to the door and escapes into the corridor; Albrecht, still sprawled on the floor and blocking the hatch from closing again, is attacked and mauled by the creature. Reaching the shuttle's outer hatch, Ward finds herself with nowhere to go. Glancing back at the Chestburster tearing into Albrecht, she resignedly scrawls "DO NOT OPEN" on the window in blood as the shuttle is brought aboard by the rescue vessel.

In a post-credits scene, the unconscious Mills finally wakes aboard the shuttle, only to witness Nass' corpse beside him. Terrified, he clutches his oxygen mask to his face, lays back down on the gurney and shuts his eyes.

Cast[]

Production[]

Filming took place over two days at 3 Mills Studios in London.^[2] Matter SFX handled practical effects work, while visual effects were provided by The Brewery VFX, in particular the lengthy opening and closing shots of the film, which were created using CGI.^[2]

The film crew did not originally plan to include the darkly humorous post-credits scene in which Mills wakes alone aboard the shuttle to find he is trapped with the growing Xenomorph, feeling 20th Century Fox would not approve of the intentionally comic tone. However, when they suggested it as an option during post-production, they found that Fox loved the idea.^[1]

Release[]

As with the other 40th anniversary short films, Alien Specimen was released through IGN; Containment was the first short to be released, becoming available from March 29, 2019.^[3]