“My mommy always said there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are.”
In hindsight, Aliens must seem like a slam dunk. A sequel to a successful and critically acclaimed film, helmed by an exciting new writer/director and starring a bankable actress who had recently been in the blockbuster Ghostbusters. In reality, the success of the film was anything but a given, and the production had to deal with legal wrangling, delays, a reluctant star and a rebellious crew. Despite these issues (which included director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd quitting – twice), Aliens became a worldwide phenomenon, launching Cameron as a superstar movie director, giving star Sigourney Weaver her first Best Actress nomination, and cementing a franchise that continues to generate big-budget releases to this day. (This year will see the release of Alien: Romulus, the 7th film in the franchise – or 9th, if you include the Alien vs Predator movies.)
Since its release, Aliens has been lauded as one of the greatest sequels of all time, one of the best movies of the 1980s and the last great film of the Alien franchise. All of this is debatable – but what isn’t debatable is that this film deserves to be inducted into the ScreenAge Wasteland Canon.
What Aliens Means to Us
Who didn’t grow up fantasizing about warring with aliens on some far-flung planet? Who STILL isn’t pondering that very scenario? Leave it to James Cameron to give adolescent me and adult me what I have always wanted time and time again. Aliens plucks the xenomorph from the horror genre and overpopulates the militaristic action genre with the creature(s) to a flawless success. No other sci-fi movie comes to mind that delivers on such a simple premise, and a premise that will not be leaving my or any other guy’s mind until, well, we make first contact.
–Nokoo
I think I saw Aliens before I ever saw Alien. To be honest, horror was never my vibe back in the day. But sci fi was. Especially sci-fi/action. And James Cameron’s Aliens hit theaters when I was ten and just primed to scarf down all the sci fi action I could get ahold of. And what’s not to like? Cameron takes the original, keeps the creep factor, ratchets up the pace to about 11, and throws in a bunch of great action sequences. It’s got a great ensemble cast that you hate to see get offed by the xenomorph, great cinematography, and some kick ass new gadgets (I always loved that marine drop ship, man). For my money, as a kid, Aliens did everything Terminator did for me, but with higher production values and better effects. To this day, when I see it on tv or stumble onto it on streaming, I can’t help but hunker down and watch it.
–Billy Dhalgren
I first saw Aliens on HBO back in ’87 (most likely) at a firends houseand I absolutely loved it. The next day I went home and told my dad all about it. His response was, “Have you seen the original?”. I was dumbfounded. I had no idea there was an original movie before it. He ran to the video store and rented it for me and I popped it in the VCR instantly. Sadly I was bored by it, because Aliens was so action packed and even kind of funny in parts. They just felt WORLDS apart. But all that being said I do love the OG film now and this one as well. They are just the best one two punch of sci-fi if you ask me.
–K. Alvarez
We Manufacture Those, By The Way
Aliens, fittingly, was almost undone by a corporation. After the success of Ridley Scott’s first film there was an almost immediate interest in a sequel. Unfortunately, Twentieth Century Fox went through a number of high level executive changes (and a lawsuit from production company Brandywine over profits from the original Alien film) that delayed the project. The new executives didn’t see the need for a follow-up, and even into the early 1980s there wasn’t much support for a sequel. It was a different time, when there used to be a saying that “sequels cost twice as much and make half as much.” (Tell that to the studios today.)
It wasn’t until 1983 that things began to move. James Cameron was picked as a screenwriter on the strength of his Terminator script (the film itself wouldn’t come out for another year). He worked up a treatment in 3 days using a vague idea of “Ripley and soldiers” and combining elements of a previous story he’d written called “Mother.” The treatment, and eventual screenplay, was well received – but Cameron also wanted to direct. The studio was initially reluctant – to be fair, Cameron’s only directing credit at the time was Piranha II: The Spawning – but the surprise success of Terminator meant he ended up with the job.
Cameron always intended for Sigourney Weaver to return as Ripley and wrote the entire screenplay around the character. The studio – once again – balked, assuming (rightly) that she would be expensive to hire. Negotiations dragged on for months before Cameron spread a rumor that he was going to write Ripley out of the script. Weaver and Fox signed the contract soon after, with Weaver receiving $1 million – one of the highest salaries for an actress at the time.
More studio shenanigans – including budget issues and adding Gale Anne Hurd as producer – led both Cameron and Hurd to quit, twice. The second time, they ended up going to Hawaii and getting married before returning to find, finally, that Aliens was ready to move forward.
It’s Ripley’s World, We’re Just Dying In It
There’s a saying I attribute to my wife, “everything in this movie would work out if people would just do what Ripley says, when she says it.” I can’t say she’s wrong. Sigourney Weaver returns to the character she created and turns her from Warrant Officer Ripley, the “final girl” survivor of the original Alien, into the iconic badass that is Ellen Ripley, civilian mother figure. That transformation is the heart of the film, and all the macho posturing, explosive gunplay, and epic action – as awesome as they are – are nowhere near as cool as Ripley in a power loader suit, yelling “get away from her you bitch!”
It boggles my mind that the original edit of the film cut out the scene of Ripley finding out that her daughter has died. It seems so pivotal to understanding the character, her reaction to Newt and her dedication and willingness to sacrifice to keep that child safe. Without it, the film still works, but it’s so much richer with that scene. So much so that I don’t think I’ve even watched the original edit of the film since the “Extended Cut” was released. I understand the reasoning behind the original edit (pre-multiplex cinemas required a certain number of showings a day, necessitating films be roughly 2 hours or less in length), but that must have been a hard choice for Cameron.
There’s been a ton written about the whole motherhood dynamic in the film. How Ripley and Newt are reflected in the alien queen and her brood. How after governments, corporations and the military have failed, it’s the core family dynamic that saves the day. About what it means that in order for one family to survive (humans) another needs to die (the aliens). It’s a deep well, and well worth reading about, even if you don’t agree with the conclusions. (I know the 80s were tough on folks, but single parents with latchkey kids fighting against a patriarchal structure – while a real thing – seems a stretch to apply here.)
For me, Ripley has always represented the ability of human beings to adjust to change. Everyone else is stuck in the same mindset they had coming in. The corporation, in the personage of Burke, only sees what it can exploit. The military only see things in terms kill or be killed. Even Newt, sole survivor – like Ripley – of her original family, thinks that she’s better off on her own. Ripley, on the other hand, sees when things have changed and reacts. She rescues the marines when Gorman loses his shit. She takes over leadership of the group when no one else stands up. She enters the belly of the beast to save a child. She levels the playing field against a giant monster with the most blue-collar technology on the ship, a glorified walking forklift.
Sigourney Weaver was nominated for an Oscar for her performance, one of the rare nominations for a genre film. I think she should have gotten it.
“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Absolute Badasses
If Ripley is the heart of the film, the soldiers of the Colonial Marines are the muscle – sometimes literally (Hello Vasquez!). Cameron had the actors go through training with the British SAS to help build a sense of camaraderie. Al Mathews, who played Sergeant Apone, was a Vietnam War vet who also helped train the actors, especially in weapons handling. The training worked and contributed to the sense of the marines as a tight-knit unit that have been through multiple missions together. While their idiosyncrasies make them seem more like Vietnam era regular army than marines, they also help them stand out from each other. From the deadly (verbally as well as physically) Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), to the motormouth Hudson (Bill Paxton), to the cool and collected Corporal (“Corporal?”) Hicks (Michael Biehn). Maybe they don’t all stand out (I always wonder which one is Wierzbowski when Hicks is yelling for him during that first firefight in the cooling towers), but they all seem like part of the unit.
As much as I love them, they’re almost immediately in over their heads, despite their bravado. Nominal leader Lt. Gorman (William Hope) is (rightfully) given crap over his relative inexperience, but the others really fair no better. The aliens are an out of context problem for the military, and – with more echoes of the Vietnam war – they don’t know how to handle an enemy that doesn’t give them a stand-up fight. I’ve had friends complain that Aliens is “basically a military recruitment film,” but I’ve never understood that take. Yes, there are a lot of guns and shooting and dead aliens – but in the end, the military is ineffectual in stopping the threat. And most of them end up dead.
A shout out to Lance Henriksen as the android Bishop. While Cameron toys with our expectations, given how Ash turned out in the original film, Henriksen plays the android as a gentle, straightforward soul that will do whatever it can to save the humans in its charge. He’s occasionally creepy, but that’s probably just the haircut.
Magnificent, isn’t it?
Given the iconic status of the alien creatures in the original film – facehugger, chestburster and xenomorph – Cameron and special effects supervisor Stan Winston didn’t stray to far from the H. R. Geiger designs. They made things slightly more flexible, and they made a ton more of them, but the aliens are recognizably the same threats as the original film. Where they expanded, they did so in genius fashion, extrapolating an entire social structure for the xenomorph that was based on that of social insects on earth. Ants, bees and termites all have a colony structure, with eggs, workers, warriors and – most importantly for the film – a queen.
The alien queen does triple duty in Aliens. First, she answers the question “where the hell did all those eggs come from?” The film shows us, in gloriously goopy detail. Secondly, she provides a twisted reflection of maternity for Ripley to face. They are both, after all, just trying to protect their children. Finally, the queen provides that necessary third-act antagonist, a massive and terrifying foe for our heroes to stand against.
Winston and his crew did an amazing job with the queen, providing a hulking creature that is still obviously related to the alien threats we’ve already seen. The way she looks, with massive, plated head, distended jaw(s) and deadly tail, manages to up the terror factor from the original design. And she knows how to use an elevator. I’m always astonished at how dangerous the queen feels, even with quick cuts and closeups preventing us from seeing her in all her glory (except for a few choice seconds). I still remember the moment I first saw the spiked tail ripping Bishop in half. Absolute silence in the room. I thought “well, they’re screwed.” I didn’t see how they could do anything but run away – and there was nowhere else to run.
Cue Ripley in a power loader and massive cheers.
Another shout out – this time to Paul Reiser as the corporate suit, Burke. He did such a good job getting us to hate him that when his own mother watched the film and Burke got killed, she said “good.” That’s talent, my friends.
Legacy
With the success of Aliens, the franchise was pretty much secured. While subsequent entries have yet to rise to the level of the first two films, they were still successful. Beyond the films, the Aliens universe has been expanded into books, video games, comics, roleplaying games and more. (That RPG is quite fun and tense, having played it a few times.) A new film, Alien: Romulus is about to be released and early reviews look fairly positive.
Aliens launched James Cameron’s career into the stratosphere, and has allowed him to make two of the greatest sequels of all time as well as a massively popular movie about a boat (amongst others). Sigourney Weaver would go on to an illustrious career, and she would finally get that Oscar. Many of the actors and actresses in the film also had successful careers – particularly Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Michael Biehn.
The basic structure of a team of “absolute badasses” being taken apart by a foe they don’t understand has become a recurring theme in media, including films like Predator and Dog Soldiers, and the Ripley heroine template has also been oft imitated (if not always understood).
Finally, I’ve got to mention James Horner’s banger of a score. Despite a troubled process, the music would become iconic – and was reused in a lot of movie trailers for years afterwards. That mix of a martial tone and classic horror “stingers” works amazingly well, despite the truncated production time and the way Cameron used it in ways not originally intended.
Have you seen Aliens? What did you think of the film? Do you have a fun fact or piece of trivia about the making of the film? Please share it in the comments below!
