Bishop (portrayed by Lance Henriksen) is a supporting character in the science-fiction horror film Aliens. He is a Hyperdyne Systems model 341-B android, made in the image of Weyland-Yutani executive Michael Bishop. In 2179, Bishop served as Executive Officer aboard the USS Sulaco and was assigned to the Colonial Marine Corps' 2nd Battalion combat unit deployed to investigate the colony of Hadley's Hope on LV-426.
History[]
Due to Weyland-Yutani and military regulations, Bishop was sent with the USS Sulaco Marines to LV-426 to record events and act as Science Officer. Before entering hypersleep, Bishop attempted to develop a rapport with the Marines, but his attempts to inquire about their personal lives were met with derision. He learned that they were particularly fond of displays of power and Private Hudson was particularly pleased with Bishop's prowess with a knife.
After waking from hypersleep aboard the Sulaco, Bishop was asked by Hudson in the mess hall to "do the thing with the knife", namely using his vastly superior android reflexes to perform the knife game at incredible speed. While he initially refused, continued goading from the Marines caused him to relent. Hudson was subsequently "volunteered" by Private Drake to be on the receiving end of the game, and with his own hand placed over the captive Hudson's, Bishop performed the trick at superhuman speed, much to Hudson's horror.
Despite an apparently flawless performance, Bishop actually nicked himself during the trick, thereby revealing to Ellen Ripley that he was an android. Due to her previous experience with the synthetic Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo, she immediately became hostile, despite Bishop's insistence that newer models such as himself could never "malfunction" as Ash had done. Ripley remained unconvinced and threateningly insisted Bishop stay away from her.
During the drop on LV-426, Bishop drove the unit's APC. Once Hadley's Hope had been secured by the troops, he joined them inside and began going through the facility's logs to try and ascertain what had happened to the missing colonists. He also found medical notes in the colony's med lab, and took a marked interest in the captive Facehuggers held there. He began dissecting and studying the dead specimens almost immediately. At this time, Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke informed Bishop that the two live specimens were to be preserved and shipped back to the company when the mission was completed. Bishop continued his work in the med lab while the bulk of the detachment moved into the atmosphere processing plant in search of the surviving colonists, listening in on the Marines' frequencies during the disastrous ambush there.
Following the loss of most of the unit and their dropship, Bishop initially focused his efforts on continuing to study the deceased Facehuggers, hoping to find some weaknesses that may help the survivors combat the Xenomorphs. He theorized that some form of Xenomorph the group had not yet encountered must have been laying the eggs seen inside the atmosphere processor.
However, as events continued to conspire against the remaining personnel on the planet — especially when it was discovered the atmosphere processor was going to explode — Bishop realized that he would have to take a more active role in the situation if any of them were going to survive. As such, he volunteered to travel out to the colony's transmitter, alone and unarmed, in order to pilot the unit's reserve dropship to the planet surface. The plan was successful, but before they could leave, Ripley insisted Bishop fly her into the atmosphere processor so that she could rescue Newt, the last surviving colonist who had recently been taken by the Xenomorphs. Despite the atmosphere processor exploding all around him, Bishop managed to stay on station until Ripley succeeded, then barely escaping before the processor's reactor went critical and detonated, destroying the colony. In doing so, he finally gained Ripley's trust.
Upon returning to the Sulaco, Bishop was suddenly and violently torn in two by the Xenomorph Queen, who had stowed away in the dropship's landing gear. Immobilized, he could only watch as Ripley fought the Queen using a Power Loader. When Ripley opened the Sulaco's cargo lock to expel the creature into space, Bishop managed to save Newt from being sucked out along with her, despite the damage he had suffered. Following the event, Bishop was placed into hypersleep, along with the other survivors of the incident — Ripley, Newt and Corporal Hicks.
Deactivation[]
In Alien 3, it is revealed that Bishop was further damaged when the Sulaco jettisoned the survivors due to an electrical fire in the hypersleep bay and the Type 337 EEV crash-landed on Fiorina 161. Hicks and Newt were killed in the crash, while Bishop's remains were deemed irreparable and dumped on the prison colony's scrapheap. Ripley later reactivated Bishop in order to access the EEV's black box recorder, learning from him that there had been a Xenomorph aboard the Sulaco, that it was now on the planet with them, and that this information had been transmitted directly to Weyland-Yutani. After giving Ripley the information she wanted, Bishop asked to be disconnected, stating that while he could be repaired, he would never be the state-of-the-art android he once was; Ripley obliged him and shut him down for the last time.