Before I left, many Australians expressed surprise that I was travelling all that way into the country to go somewhere as godforsaken as Gulargambone.

BBC: Deserting the bush

Here, the heroine of the previous films, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), crash-lands on a godforsaken planet whose population consists of a couple of dozen mean-looking convicts running some sort of dilapidated foundry.

NEWYORKER: Alien 3