Aliens 3 has an interesting concept; the prison planet that is the setting is home to twenty-five prisoner-monks who are all described as rapists, murderers, child molesters, all the worst of humanity. The prisoners are described as being YY.
Being me, I looked up the possibility of the YY chromosome combination. Google ‘All possible X and Y chromosome combinations’. The results were interesting. The first website I read gives information about ‘abnormal’ chromosome combinations, one of which is XYY. XYY men have high levels of testosterone, and in adolescence are generally taller than average, have severe acne and are slender. Extra, more in depth information is available here, a document produced by www.geneticalliance.org.uk.
Interestingly, in the context of the film,
“Early studies of XYY syndrome done in European prisons initially led to the erroneous conclusion that these men were genetically predisposed to antisocial, aggressive behavior, below average intelligence, and homosexuality.”
I wonder whether these ‘facts’ about the effects of the XYY chromosome combination on behaviour informed the depiction of prisoners in Aliens 3 or were an inspiration for the script? The Aliens franchise is not something I know much about, since I’m watching all of them for the first time.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 
I am an Alien fan. It’s my all time fav. A great combination of horror, science, space, and fiction. Wonderful imagination is shown in the creation of the settings, characters, and the aliens.
Think of when this movie was out, not much research had been done on genetics and the double Y. I’d like to think Ridley and the script writers just used it as a inspiration and a way t add even more science to a fiction movie. Let’s not go popping my bubble 🙂 I like Ridley’s work. After the alien saga (the quality goes down hill after the 4th movie) try Alien vs Predator. There are two that are good entertaining movies. I forget which order they came out. And then another favorite of mine Prometheus, which is a prequel to Alien. And Pandorum is a newer sci/fi horror fav of mine that centers around genetics and psychology.
Either way, I hope you enjoy the movies. I certainly do.
I’ve seen all but Alien vs Predator now and I loved Prometheus, I’ll have to look up Pandorum, thanks for the suggestion.
If you like the Alien movies there is a good chance you will like Pandorum. 🙂