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Corporal Dwayne Hicks was a member of the military branch USCM (United States Colonial Marines) that was deployed to the moon LV-426 aboard the Sulaco to investigate the sudden loss of contact with the colonists.
History[]
Mission to LV-426[]
Cpl. Hicks and the rest of his squad was sent in response to the loss of contact with the colony Hadley's Hope on LV-426 in 2179. Under the command of Lieutenant Gorman, the squad also brought along two civilian advisors: Weyland-Yutani rep Carter Burke and Lt. Ellen Ripley. Hicks also made time during the last part of the journey bantering with several of his squad mates. The general feeling from Hicks and the rest of the squad was that they were going to find a bunch of colonists that just had communication failures. During the drop planetside, Hicks took a nap with all the turbulence.
Arrival on Hadley's Hope[]
After landing, Hicks and the squad made their way to the administrative building in the complex. After the building was clear and Gorman and the advisors joined the squad in the colony, Frost picked up a signal on the motion tracker. The signal was soon discovered to be a young girl hiding. Hicks then reached out to get the girl and was bit on the hand by her. After Ripley caught and calmed the girl down, the squad then investigated further to find the whereabouts of the missing colonists and found them in the atmospheric processor.
When they reached the atmospheric processor and proceeded to the sub levels, the station changed from machinery to being covered in a secreted resin which Hicks asked what it came from. Hicks and the rest of the squad then received an order to slung the Pulse Rifles and Smartguns so a stray shot doesn't overload the reactor. Hicks complied and pulled out his antique shotgun to compensate.
After a live colonist was discovered, and very soon died from the emergence of an Alien Chestburster, both the creature and the body were torched by Apone. This action antagonized the hive and the creatures struck, taking two Marines and attacking the rest. In the chaos, Hicks rescued Wierzbowski from an explosion and would later call out to him when he was killed. Shouting what happened to Apone and being told by Hudson he's dead; Hicks ordered the survivors to pull back. By the time they made it back to the APC and just about had the door closed, one of the creatures, got its hands in the door forcing it open. Hicks the stuck his shotgun in the creatures mouth shouting "Eat This!" as blew the back of its away, but the acidic blood destroyed his shotgun and injured Hudson.
During the escape from the processor, Lieutenant Gorman was knocked unconscious by loose items in the APC, making Hicks the acting commander of the mission. Ripley, points this out when she came head-to-head with Burke over the next course of action after the danger of the Xenomorph became apparent. Hicks, as acting commanding officer, declared that they would leave immediately and use a thermonuclear warhead to destroy the colony. Hicks then radioed Ferro for an immediate evac to and would meet her at a designated landing spot.
Due to some interference with the creatures, the dropship lost control and crashed, stranding Hicks and the others planet side with the xenomorphs. Hicks then ordered Vasquez and Hudson to salvage what gear they could from the APC and dropship wreckages and meet back up at the administrative building. Once there, Bishop pointed out that the processor was using it's emergency venting stating it was about four hours before it went critical.
During this time Hicks and the others formulated a plan to get the space dropship down and to hold out in the meantime. As Bishop left to go link up to the main dish outside, Hicks and the others fortified their position by welding shut the doors and reinforcing the colonist's blockades on the doors and deploying sentry guns in the main corridor. Hicks also instructed Ripley how to use the M41A Pulse Rifle for self defense. It wasn't too long until the creatures attacked the main corridor but were gunned down by the sentries' fire and exhausted their ammo completely. So Hicks and the others waited for Bishop to get the dropship down and anticipated the creatures to make another push at them.
Sometime later Hicks heard the alarm go off in the med lab portion of the station where Ripley and the girl where resting. When Hicks and others got there the door's lock was sabotoged and the two were stuck in the room with several of the specimens from the med lab running loose. Hicks shot out the glass and helped Ripley get the one that was strangling her off and killing it while Hudson dealt with the other one. Ripley managed to let the Marines know who set her up : Burke.
Ripley explained to Hicks and the others that Burke was the one who originally gave the orders to the colonists to check out the derelict and caused the infestation. Ripley also revealed that Burke wanted to get a live specimen back to Earth in herself and Newt, Hicks interrupted her saying that he and the others would know. Ripley said he could sabotoge certain cryotubes namely Hicks' and the others. Hicks was all for killing Burke right there but was interrupted when the creatures cut the power and Burke escaped.
Escape[]
As they escape, Hudson, Vasquez, and Gorman are killed in the ensuing fight. After, Gorman and Vasquez commit suicide with a grenade, the force of the blast knocked Newt down into the sewers. Ripley; unable to leave the girl, talked Hicks into cutting out the flooring to reach her before the creatures came. Regardless of how fast Hicks moved the young girl was taken by one of the creatures. Unable to do anything for her, Hicks and Ripley had to escape before the creatures took them as well.
As they made it to the elevator one of the creatures got into the door and pried it open. The creature was cut down by gunfire and the blowback from the blood spray got on Hicks. He was injured when acidic alien blood hit his chest and the left side of his face even with Ripley franticly pulling off his armor. Ripley still managed to get him to the dropship, and he was stabilized by Bishop. Right before Ripley leaves to rescue Newt, they reveal to each other their first names. He was then passed out from the meds to stabilize him and relieve the pain of the burns. Dwayne Hicks was one of only four survivors who made it off Acheron alive. Newt, Ripley and Hicks all went into hypersleep for the journey back to Earth.
Apparent Death[]
The death of hicks in Alien 3
Although Hicks survived the events on Acheron, he and Rebecca Jorden were apparently killed when her cryochamber failed following the crash landing on Fiorina 161. Hicks was supposedly impaled by a loose beam in the EEV when it crashed. His death was included in a report by facility superintendent Harold Andrews to Weyland-Yutani. Corporal Hicks was later cremated with Rebecca Jorden on Fiorina. After Weyland-Yutani came to deal with the incident at the prison colony, they kept the final fate of Hicks from the Colonial Marines and was assumed missing as late as thirteen years after his death. He was later discovered to be alive after the Marines from the USS Sephora arrived on LV-426 after receiving a distress call from Hicks. Corporal Winter and a few fellow Marines were sent to rescue him and succeeded. Hicks aided them in the fight against Weyland-Yutani and Xenomorphs on the LV-426 and after the fight he escaped along with Winter and the other Marines that were still alive.
Personality & Traits[]
Corporal Hicks was a soft spoken and level-headed heroic leader, providing contrast to other members of the team, including the hot-tempered Private Vasquez, the emotionally unstable Private Hudson, the inexperienced Lt. Gorman and the greedy Carter J. Burke. Hicks is mostly calm, although he does attempt to attack Burke after learning of his betrayal. Hicks was shown to be able to sleep during a turbulent planet side drop, showing he was almost always calm, even in troublesome situations.
Hicks is also skilled in the use and understanding of most weapons as shown when he instructs Ripley in the use of the M41-A Pulse Rifle and the fact he had an old pump-action shotgun as a backup weapon so as not to damage processors.
Equipment[]
Hicks; as a Colonial Marine, was outfitted with fairly standard issue M10 Pattern Ballistic Armour with a Shoulder lamp attatchment for illumination. Hicks also carried a Tracer Bracelet with him that eventually ended up with Newt. The Corporal also carried a handheld blowtorch which came in handy on fortifying baricades or cutting through obstacles. Hicks was also profficent with several types of firearms including the standard issued M41A Pulse Rifle and also his Ithaca M37 "Stakeout" shotgun that he kept as a back up.
Trivia[]
- Hicks' serial number is A27/TQ4.0.48215E9.
- Corporal Hicks was orginally portrayed by James Remar before being recast with Michael Biehn.
- In the original writing of the script in Alien 3, Hicks was the main character as he and another team of US Colonial Marines travel to another surveyed planet where colonists use the Xenomorphs as some kind of bio-weapon. But because of so many re-writes of the script, Michael Biehn (along with director James Cameron) dropped out of the movie entirely, causing Hicks to be removed from the movie.
- In the original writing of ther script in Alien 3, Ripley supposedly was shown Hicks' dead body (with a Chestburster coming out). But Michael Biehn denied to give the filmakers' permission to use his likeliness and even threatened to sue if they go ahead and use his likeliness anyway.