Alien 5 Adding Another Returning Cast Member: The M41A Pulse Rifle!

October 16, 2015

The M41A Pulse Rifle from Aliens will be back in Alien 5

“I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. This is an M41A Pulse Rifle. Ten millimeter, with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher.” -Michael Biehn as Cpl. Hicks in Aliens (1986)

Neill Blomkamp (via his Instagram) has provided us with yet another sneak peek at what’s in store for us with his currently-untitled Alien 5, and it heralds the return of a beloved cast member from James Cameron’s Aliens: the M41A Pulse Rifle. Check out the instagram posting below!

We all knew there would be pulse rifles. Obviously. Now with added RIS

A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on Oct 15, 2015 at 11:44am PDT

As you can see, the original classic design has only been slightly modified with RIS to include a laser aiming module and a telescopic sight. The weapon of choice for colonial marines on a serious bug hunt, the Pulse Rifle was used by Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn as they shot their way to survival at the Hadley’s Hope terraforming colony. A “delta” version of the rifle also made a cameo appearance being brandished by the Weyland-Yutani commandoes at the end of Alien 3, as well as in several video games including SEGA’s recent Aliens: Colonial Marines.

At this point, it’s uncertain precisely what route the new film will take, but the continued use of Weaver and Biehn’s likenesses (as featured in the previously-revealed concept designs) seems to indicate a likely return to the franchise for the pair as Ripley and Hicks.

“[Sigourney] knows about it,” Blomkamp told ComingSoon.net in February, “and part of it was just inspired by speaking to her on set when we were filming ‘Chappie,’ and getting her thoughts on ‘Alien’ and what she thought of the movies that came after ‘Aliens’ and what she felt about Ripley and what was incomplete for her about Ripley. There was so much fuel in what she was telling me.”

Ridley Scott, director of 1979’s Alien as well as 2012’s pseudo-prequel Prometheus, will serve as a producer on the currently-untitled Neill Blomkamp Alien Sequel, which is set to come out sometime in 2018 following Scott’s own prequel-sequel Alien: Paradise Lost in 2017.