(Redirected from Aliens (1986 film)):''This article is about the film, for the video games of the same name see
Aliens (Square computer game) and
Aliens (arcade game).
'''Aliens''' is a
1986 science fiction/
action film starring
Sigourney Weaver,
Michael Biehn,
Lance Henriksen,
Carrie Henn,
Bill Paxton and
Paul Reiser and is regarded by many as a benchmark for the
action and
science fiction genres.
[ The 25 Greatest Action Films Ever! ][ 100 Best-Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies ] It is a
sequel to
Ridley Scott's 1979 film ''
Alien'' and takes place 57 years after the events of the first film. In ''Aliens'', Weaver's character
Ellen Ripley returns to the planet where she first encountered the hostile Alien "
xenomorph." This time she is accompanied by a unit of
Colonial Marines.
Directed by
James Cameron from a story written by Cameron, David Giler and
Walter Hill, ''Aliens'' is a high-paced action-adventure film which is in stark contrast to the atmospheric Sci-Fi horror of the original ''Alien''. Following ''
The Terminator'', the film helped to establish Cameron as a major action director.
[1] Sigourney Weaver received her first Best Actress
Academy Award nomination for her leading role in ''Aliens''.
[ IMDb Award Listing ] Like its predecessor, the film was shot in
England, this time at
Pinewood Studios, with a budget of approximately $18 million.
[2] The film went on to earn over $131 million internationally during its 1986 theatrical release, making it the highest-grossing entry in the
''Alien'' film series.
[ Movie Franchises Index ] Given the combat-oriented nature of the film, ''Aliens'' was promoted with the
tagline, ''"This Time It's War."''
Plot
Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the
Weyland-Yutani Corporation space freighter ''
Nostromo'', is rescued and revived after drifting for 57 years in
hypersleep. Ripley gives her report about the
Alien to a board of the company's executives, but is met with extreme skepticism, as all evidence of the creature was lost in the destruction of the ''Nostromo''. She in turn learns that
LV-426, the moon where her crew first encountered the Alien in a crashed extraterrestrial spaceship, is now home to a
terraforming colony. After Ripley takes a position loading cargo on a space-dock, Weyland-Yutani employee Carter Burke informs her that contact has been lost with LV-426, and the company is sending him and a unit of
Colonial Marines to investigate, and wants Ripley to go along as a consultant. Despite severe misgivings, Ripley joins the expedition as it travels to LV-426 aboard the warship ''
Sulaco''. Arriving in orbit, Ripley gets to know the Marines, led by the novice lieutenant Gorman and the veteran sergeant Apone, and accompanied by the
android Bishop. She gives a briefing on her original encounter with the Alien to the group, but her warnings go unheeded by the cocky unit members.
The windswept surface of LV-426.
The heavily-armed expedition descends to the planet's surface via dropship. They find the colony seemingly abandoned; the only living things are two of the Alien-implanting "
facehuggers" on display in the colony's medical lab, and a severely traumatized young girl, nicknamed Newt, who has survived by hiding in the colony's sprawling ventilation system. The Marines eventually locate the other colonists, by tracking their surgically-implanted transceivers, clustered together in the colony's nuclear-powered atmosphere-processing station. Traveling to the station, the Marines find a large Alien nest, filled with the
cocooned corpses of the colonists. When the Marines destroy a newborn chestburster-Alien, a swarm of mature Alien drones awakes and ambushes the unprepared unit. Most of the unit is killed or captured, but Ripley crashes their
APC into the nest, knocking Gorman unconscious but rescuing Corporal Hicks, Private Vasquez, and Private Hudson. Hicks assumes command of the mission and orders the dropship to recover the survivors, with the intent of returning to the ''Sulaco'' and destroying the colony from orbit, but a stowaway Alien kills the dropship pilots in flight, causing the vessel to crash into the processing station. The surviving humans
barricade themselves inside the main colony complex.
Ripley learns that Burke has ordered Bishop to preserve Alien specimens for return to the Company labs. She confronts Burke and declares that after investigation she has discovered it was he who sent the unprepared colonists to the original Alien-infested spaceship; she vows to expose him. Bishop shows them that the damaged nuclear processing station has become unstable and will soon detonate with the force of a
thermonuclear weapon. Having no other way to contact the second dropship still onboard the ''Sulaco'', he volunteers to crawl down a service pipe to the colony transmitter array and bring the vessel down by remote control. A recovered Gorman rejoins the team, while Ripley and Newt try and get some rest. Ripley awakens to find they have been locked in the room with the two live facehuggers. She sets off a fire alarm which alerts Hicks, Hudson, and Vasquez, who arrive and destroy the creatures. Ripley accuses Burke of releasing the facehuggers with the intention of using Newt and Ripley as hosts to smuggle the implanted Aliens past quarantine. The debate about what to do with him is interrupted when the power to headquarters is cut off, possibly by the Aliens, who pour in through a gap in the ceiling and attack en masse. During the battle Hudson is swarmed and pulled down through the floor, while Burke's attempt to flee alone is quickly cut short by one of the attackers. Newt leads the few remaining members into the air ducts. Gorman and an injured Vasquez, after being cut off and surrounded, detonate a grenade, killing themselves and several Aliens. The force of the blast pushes Newt down a shaft, where she is captured alive by an Alien.
The alien queen in the atmosphere processor hive.
Hicks is badly injured by the acidic blood of one of the Aliens while reaching Bishop and the second dropship. Ripley, unwilling to leave Newt, gears up to rescue the girl. She finds and frees a cocooned Newt in the bowels of the Alien hive, but while attempting to escape, they stumble into the nest's main breeding chamber, where they are confronted by the monstrous Alien queen. Ripley incinerates the chamber with her weapons--draining the last of her ammo and enraging the queen, who escapes the destruction by tearing free from her huge
ovipositor. Closely pursued by the wounded queen, Ripley and Newt rendezvous with the dropship and escape moments before the entire colony is consumed by the nuclear blast from the processing station. Back on the ''Sulaco'', Ripley's and Bishop's relieved conversation is abruptly interrupted when the queen, stowed away on the dropship landing gear, impales the android from behind with her barbed tail and then tears him in half. Ripley distracts the queen long enough for Newt to jump into a hole in the ship's deck plating. Just as the queen is about to pull the girl from her hiding place, Ripley reappears manning one of the ship's
exosuit "power-loaders". She battles the queen and succeeds in dropping the creature into a large
airlock and expelling her into space. Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop enter hypersleep for the return back to Earth.
Cast
Military Personnel
Civilians
Other cast
| Name | Occupation | Gender | Played By |
|---|
| ECA Rep | Extrasolar Colonization Administration Representative | Female | Valerie Colgan |
| Insurance Investigator | | Male | Alan Polonsky |
| Medical Technician | ''Gateway'' medical staff | Female | Alibe Parsons |
| Doctor | ''Gateway'' medical staff | Male | Blain Fairman |
| Amanda Ripley | Civilian | Female | Elizabeth Inglis |
Inspirations
Director James Cameron drew inspiration for the ''Aliens'' storyline from the
Vietnam War, with regards to situations where a technologically superior force was mired in a hostile foreign environment.
[ Help! They're Back! ][3] The name of the Colonial Marines' ship, "
Sulaco", is the name of the town in
Joseph Conrad's ''
Nostromo'', which was the name of the ship in ''Alien''. Cast members in the role of the Colonial Marines were also instructed to read Robert Heinlein's ''
Starship Troopers.''
Some critics
[4] have compared the ''Alien Queen'' to
Grendel's mother in ''
Beowulf''.
[5]
Production
History and pre-production
In 1983, while completing ''
The Terminator'', director James Cameron discussed the possibility of working on a sequel to the original 1979 ''
Alien'' with Twentieth Century Fox producer David Giler.
[ A big fan of the original film, Cameron was highly interested in crafting a sequel, and entered a self-imposed seclusion to brainstorm the concept for ''"Alien II."''][ After four days, Cameron had produced an initial story treatment for the film which eventually became ''Aliens.''][ Following the success of ''The Terminator'', Cameron and partner Gale Anne Hurd were given approval to direct and produce the sequel to ''Alien'', scheduled for a 1986 release.]
Sigourney Weaver, the star of the original film, was hired for the sequel with a salary of $1 million, thirty times her fee for the first film.[ The Years of Living Splendidly ] Weaver nicknamed her character "Rambolina," and stated that she approached the role as akin to Henry V or women warriors in Chinese classical literature.
Production disputes
The producing team behind ''Aliens'', James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd.
The production of ''Aliens'' was affected by a number of personnel and cast disruptions.[Paxton, Bill. (Commentary) ''Aliens'' Special Edition DVD.] Shooting was said to be problematic due to an apparent lack of cooperation between Cameron and the British crew, with the crew having what actor Bill Paxton called in his audio commentary a "really indentured" way of working, which infuriated Cameron, who is known to be a very hard driving director, and at the time was bound to a low budget with a release date set that he couldn't delay, while the crew members seemed to be dragging their feet.[ The crew reportedly disliked him in part because he was not British, and they were all admirers of the previous director Ridley Scott, and many believed Cameron to be too young and inexperienced to be directing such a film as ''Aliens'', despite Cameron's attempts to show them his previous hit, ''The Terminator'', which they refused to watch.][ ]
At one point, the crew members mocked Cameron's then wife, producer Gale Anne Hurd, by asking her who the producer of the film was, and then laughing at her and insisting she was only getting the producer credit because she was Cameron's wife. Ultimately, a walkout occurred when Cameron clashed with an uncooperative camera man who refused to light a scene the way Cameron wanted.[Hurd, Gale Anne. (Commentary) Aliens Behind The Scenes, ''Aliens'' Special Edition DVD.] Specifically, the camera man believed in creative input on set lighting, and had lighted the alien nest in a bright manner, while Cameron insisted on his original vision of a dark, foreboding alien nest set.[ After the camera man was fired, Hurd managed to coax the crew members into coming back to work.]
It was not uncommon for the English "tea trolley" -- a mobile snack bar containing tea, beverages, and other food items -- to interrupt the filming of the movie during tea time. These interruptions further enraged Cameron and were viewed as more distractions to the completion of filming.[Aliens Behind The Scenes, ''Aliens'' Special Edition DVD, Alien Quadrilogy.]
Actor James Remar was originally cast as Corporal Dwayne Hicks, but was replaced by Michael Biehn after a falling out with Cameron. Remar can still be seen in a shot where the marines are entering around a corridor, but since he is in full armor and seen only from behind, it is impossible to tell that it is Remar and not Biehn.
Set design and construction
Some of the scenes inside the alien nest were shot inside the disused power station in Acton, West London. The Alien nest set wasn't dismantled after filming. It was unused until three years later when it was used as the Axis Chemicals set for ''Batman'' in 1989. When the crew of ''Batman'' first entered the set, they found most of the Alien nest still intact.[6]
As the marines explore the complex, they look up and see what appears to be a series of vents. These were the backs of old television sets pushed into service by the special effects team.
Weapons and props
Ellen Ripley wielding a pulse rifle in ''Aliens''.
The weapons used by the marines are all based on real, fully functional weapons.[ The M41A pulse rifle is made from a Thompson SMG with an attached fore end from a Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun, a Remington 12 Gauge Model 870P receiver with barrel while the smartguns carried by Vasquez and Drake are based around the MG-42 machinegun, and are maneuvered with the help of a steadicam camera harness.][ The pistol that most Marines carried was the futuristic Heckler & Koch VP70 9mm, and Vasquez carried a Smith & Wesson Model 59.][ The Colonial Marine Armour was made by specialist Film armourer Terry English. It is now highly sought after by collectors (and very expensive). ]
After the movie's premiere, the Caterpillar construction equipment company reportedly received inquiries from people interested in buying the power loader that Ripley uses to fight the Alien Queen, who were unaware that it was fictional and doesn't exist outside of the movie.
Music
Composer James Horner stated in an interview that he felt that James Cameron had not given him enough time to write a musical score for the film. Several tracks were to accompany the movie, but most were either truncated, mixed with each others, or completely left out. Because of this he said he was forced to cannibalize previous scores he had done as well as adapt a rendition of "Gayaneh Ballet Suite" (the same used in when it first cuts to the Jupiter mission) for the main and end titles. (The second half of those titles is considered by some to be a fairly literal adaptation of the opening of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony). Horner stated that the tensions with Cameron were so high during post-production that he assumed they would never work together again. Cameron, however, was so impressed with Horner's score from ''Braveheart'' that he later asked him to compose the score for ''Titanic''.
Horner received his first Original Score Academy Award nomination for this film.
Reception
''Aliens'' was released in the US and Canada on 18 July, 1986, and the 26 September in the same year in the UK.[7] It was released in Australia on 6th November It had a running time of 137 minutes. Eagerly anticipated by fans following the success of the original ''Alien'',[8] it took $10,052,042 in its opening weekend in the US,[ ]
''Aliens'' on the cover of TIME's July 28, 1986 issue.
[ Aliens - Rotten Tomatoes reviews ratings ] Roger Ebert called it "painfully and unremittingly intense" and a "hair-raising carnival ride that never stops", but also praised Aliens as a "superb example of filmmaking craft".[9] ''TIME Magazine'' featured the film on the cover of its July 28, 1986 issue, in which reviewer Richard Schickel declared the film "a sequel that exceeds its predecessor in the reach of its appeal while giving [Sigourney] Weaver new emotional dimensions to explore."[ ''TIME'' also detailed the development process of the film and the approach taken by its director and lead star. Rotten Tomatoes' survey of major reviewers received it as a 100%.][ ]
Other praise of ''Aliens'' included reviews calling it "one of the few cases of a sequel that far surpassed the original" (Amazon.com editoral review)[10] and "The most intense and satisfying piece of science fiction ever made" from local news (Blake Davis of KFOR Channel 4 News).
In 2007, ''Entertainment Weekly'' named ''Aliens'' as the #2 best action movie of all time, behind only ''Die Hard.''[ In Rotten Tomatoes' analysis of top 100 science fiction films, ''Aliens'' ranks #10 among the best-reviewed science fiction films of all time.]
In 2004, ''Aliens'' was named #35 on Bravo's ''100 Scariest Movie Moments'' for the facehugger attack towards Ripley; the original ''Alien'' was named #2 for the chestbuster scene.[11]
Awards and accolades
''Aliens'' was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won two (Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects). Sigourney Weaver received her first Academy Award nomination (Best Actress) for this film. Although Weaver did not actually win, it was considered a landmark for a nomination for Best Actress to even be made for a science fiction / horror film, a genre usually given little recognition by the Academy.[12]
Special Edition
A Special Edition was released in 1992 on laserdisc and VHS that restored 17 minutes of previously deleted footage.[Aliens - Special Edition details] the most notable addition was a segment early in the film showing the colony on LV-426 just as the colonists first encounter the derelict alien spacecraft which is infested with the alien eggs. Other notable scenes included the "sentry gun scene" in the operations building,[ Ripley's discovery of her daughter's fate while she was away,][ and a few other dialogue scenes between Ripley and the Marines. One of these exchanges provides Ripley's full name (Ellen Ripley). This version was then released on ''The Alien Legacy'' in 1999 on DVD. Both versions of the film were released together for the first time in the 2003 ''Alien Quadrilogy'' DVD box set and then later on the Special Collector's Edition DVD.]
Spin-offs
The success of ''Aliens'' spawned a comic book series of the same name, ''Aliens'', along with a series of 12 ''Aliens'' novels.
Two games based on the movie were released by Electric Dreams in the 1980s for the Amstrad CPC, the ZX Spectrum, and the Commodore 64 8-bit home computer systems. In 1990, Konami released an arcade game, ''Aliens'', based on the movie.
Trivia
When the Marines and Ripley are eating breakfast she discovers that one of them, Bishop, is actually an android. This angers Ripley since, in the first movie, a android named Ash had tried to kill her. Bishop asks what happened and is told by Burke that Ash was one of the older models created by Hyperdyne Systems. This line was originally supposed to contain reference to Cyberdyne Systems, which created Skynet and Terminator robots in James Cameron's ''The Terminator''.
Further reading
★ ''The Complete Aliens Companion'' (by Paul Sammon, Harper Prism, 1998, ISBN 0-06-105385-6)
★ ''Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films'' (by David A. McIntee, Telos, 272 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-903889-94-4)
References
1. Richardson, John H. "Iron Jim." Premiere Magazine, No. 12, August 1994, p. 44-54.
2. Imdb business data
3. Cameron, James. (Interview) Interview With James Cameron, ''Aliens'' Special Edition DVD, 1986.
4. The Alien Trilogy: A New Beowulf
5. ''Alien Queen'' in Cameron's ''Aliens'' (1986).
6. ABC News: Arts and Entertainment article (and DVD special features.)
7. Imdb release dates
8. Cosford, Bill. Let 'Aliens' Invade Your Peace of Mind. The Miami Herald, July 18, 1986, pg. 1D.
9. Roger Ebert review
10. Amazon.com - Aliens Special Edition
11. Bravo's ''100 Scariest Movie Moments''
12. Career of living dangerously: Sigourney Weaver ready for next risk. New York Daily News, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. March 21, 2001.
External links
★
★ Harry Harris, owner of the largest collection of screen used props as seen in ''Aliens''.
★ Aliens first draft script
★ Classicscifi.com, in-depth review.
★ The Aliens Legacy Aliens props and movie discussion
★ ALIEN Movies Resource Large Aliens film resource (scripts, music, trivia, and more)
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