Facts for New Fans: Is Lance Henriksen in Alien 3 a Man or an Android?

This has been one of the oldest debates in the original Alien Trilogy, along with the famous "Where Did The Egg Come From?" (Covered HERE). Decades later, new and old generations of fans still debate the issue on multiple websites. Why? Simply because it isn't so clear in the movie, and it's somewhat ambiguous. "But he has red blood!", would scream a proponent of the idea that Lance played a human character. However, in the bigger picture, the red blood doesn't really give us an answer. But we'll get to that. Let's see the arguments for human and android, based on what is purely seen in the film, and then we will take a look at the official sources.

HUMAN

1. He has red blood

2. He shows some pain in the Assembly Cut (2003 Extended Version)

3. Shows emotions

All of the above are extremely weak arguments. Let's take a look

1. "He has red blood"

The guy's success depended on gaining trust of a person that's gonna first assume he's a droid right off the bat, and had been betrayed by droids and the Company before. 

If they would indeed send a droid, isn't red colored blood the least they can do? If Bishop II would've been indeed another Bishop, sending just another droid without any alterations would have been a very lazy and bad decision. They couldn't predict if Ripley would ask for a physical proof or not, but they knew she would definitely think he's a droid. So they wouldn't even color the blood red? The white blood is an instant and easy giveaway. Would they sent an android knowing a simple cut on a finger would render him useless? Would make Weyland Yutani complete idiots to send just another regular droid who can be revealed by the blood color to gain Ripley's trust. The red color is the least they could do for an android that's suppose to convince someone he isn't a droid. The least. Lance Henriksen actually addressed this, and you’ll see his quote later in the post below

2. He shows some pain in the Assembly Cut

Now that's a very faulty argument because Bishop showed pain as well

3. He Shows Emotions

Another invalid argument since Bishop showed emotions too

So let's take a look at the other side 

ANDROID

1. He does not go down after and brushes of a hit in the head from a metal pipe so strong that it takes some of his face off. Considered by some to be the reveal that he's inhuman

2. Parts of his face, including the ear, is taken off by the hit

3. He completely shrugs it off in the Theatrical cut  (but winces once in the Assembly Cut). "My ear and part of the face is off but I don't even know it. "

4. The Company's history of lying. Him actually being an android just felt so fitting that for some it just feels like Ripley had seen right through him (and them)

5. Problems with the idea of bringing in Bishop's Designer

A. Aren't androids simply produced in factories/labs with different appearances/models? So Ash looked like "his designer" too? Just sounds odd.

B. Fortunately for them, he happens to be a slimy bad guy as well who is obsessed with getting the alien without any regard for human life, just like them.

C. How convenient that the designer of this particular model started working for Weyland Yutani.  Bishop was a Hyperdyne company model (according to Kenner cards), so Bishop's designer worked for Hyperdyne company. Conveniently, he is working for Weyland Yutani at the time when they need him

D. Yet ANOTHER convenience is that he just happened to be close to Fury161 when they needed him, not weeks, months or years away. 

E. How would they know Bishop became a friendly face to Ripley? She was openly hostile to him in front of everybody who would fill out any kind of reports and didn't trust him until he brought them back to Sulaco.

6. One of the most important arguments - in the ending credits, Lance Henriksen is credited not as Bishop's Creator, but as Bishop II

Of course, 2004's Alien Vs Predator movie gives the clear answer, since the actual human model for the future Bishop androids live in 2004. 

Paul Anderson: " Lance, of course, was an android in the other movies (...) When Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. (...) It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates" (IGN 2004)But the debate is about is about what was intended in Alien 3, what is the answer within the Alien Trilogy World. 

That continuity was then erased by 2012’s Prometheus.

Answers were somehow mixed. Lance did say he was an advanced android, but that it was left ambigous in Alien 3

Lance Henriksen: "They were leaving [Bishop II's identity] open because they weren't sure what they were going to do with me. But what I saw was that it was a more advanced model certainly. Again, I love the idea of the advanced models." (IGN 2004)

Lance Henriksen: I think he was an advanced model, because one of the things that happened was, that, that, Fincher came up with that on the moment (…). But I thought, yuh, okay, if you're going to continually make an android or an artificial person, that they would advance it to the point where, okay, let's give him red blood instead of milk, so that was my rationale, you know, but I, I thought, I thought Fincher's idea was a good one, that you, you leave it, leave people guessing. (http://projection-booth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/episode-228-alien3)

Lance Henriksen: When I worked on Alien 3, it was up in the air as to what Bishop was. Was he an android or a human. Nobody knew. (Total Film 2004)

Lance Henriksen: They weren't sure, they wanted to leave a doubt, and they came up with a scene where I get hit on the head with the pipe very late on. (Empire 2009)

However, back at the time of the Alien 3 release, Lance said he was indeed playing a human character, although also admitted that the answer has not been clear in the movie and it was left somewhat ambigious

Lance Henriksen:"It's hard to tell (in the movie). Bishop II gets clobbered on the head with a piece of steel. It almost takes my ear off. It opens the side of my head up, but I don't die. They think I'm an android and they realize after they clobber me that I'm not an android. " (Starlog 1992)

Lance Henriksen: “I get to play what's left of Bishop, and I play Bishop II, his human creator. “(Starlog 1992)

So what’s the answer? Well, he was definitely intended to be human in the script. The script calls him Bishop II, but that's to keep the ambiguity until one scene that was changed in the movie 

The novelization even goes a step further and gives him a name, Michael Bishop.

The 1993 Arcade game, Alien 3: The Gun plays the advanced android card. The bio scanner scans the figure but gives seemingly two contradictory answers: “Unindentified Creature” but also types him as “Human”. However, have in mind that the scanner stats are all shorted. For example, he is an “Unidentified Creat” and his “Algn” (Alignment) is Unknown, so the “Human” is a short for “Humanoid” under the “Type” category. Scanned aliens also have “Human” in their type category, while Facehuggers have “Spider” 

Also, his blood is not red when shot, and he withstands multiple shots until shot in the head

For all the Doubting Thomases out there, here’s a screencap of Alien’s bioscan

Then again, the Alien 3 card with Lance Henriksen clearly states that he is indeed a human and the creator of Bishop, and uses the name given in the novelization

In the Dark Horse Comic Adaptatation there’s also no indication that he’s anything but human.

Lance’s character was definitely meant to be human in the script, but the onscreen ambiguity certainly allows the other way as well, hence completely opposite answers in different sources.The actor who portrayed him at some point said he was human, at others that he was an advanced android. Official movie tie-ins say both as well. He is actually listed as Bishop 2 in the credits! 

With various answers, I think it’s still permissable for anyone to make their choice. However, there’s no question that the answer lays much heavier on the human side

I myself never had a slightest doubt that he’s a droid when I first saw it until many years later when I read the novelization after AVP was released, and I was extremely surprised that he was actually human.