Monster Movie of the Week: Aliens (1986)

ALIENS (1986)
Director: James Cameron
Genre: Sci Fi/Action

THE MOVIE

It is widely thought that Aliens is one of the rare sequels that is actually better than its predecessor. I love both movies and find it very hard to compare the two. Whereas Alien is a chilling horror film with a distinct British pedigree, Aliens is a rock-em-sock-em ‘80’s American action flick. It is certainly one of director James Cameron’s finest films and it is a seminal piece of action filmmaking. Along with Robocop and Cameron’s earlier film, The Terminator, Aliens helped to launch the hard-core action sub-genre of science fiction films. Cameron’s movie was critically acclaimed for its intensity and the overall quality of its filmmaking. Lead actress Sigourney Weaver received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Ellen Ripley which something virtually unheard of for a science fiction or action movie.

Which one is Sigourney Weaver, again? I kid!

Aliens tells the wholly improbable story of Ripley’s second confrontation with the xenomorphic species first encountered by the Nostromo crew. After having survived her previous encounter with the Alien, Ripley put herself in suspended animation and drifted through space only to be discovered by a salvage craft almost 60 years later. After being reanimated she is held into account by the Weyland Yutani Corporation for the destruction of the Nostromo freighter. Her story about the Alien is ridiculed and she is stripped of her pilot’s license.

When contact is lost with the colony on the world originally investigated by the Nostromo crew, the military enlist Ripley (whose entire life and career have been destroyed by the Alien and her subsequent half century drifting in space) to serve as an adviser with a squadron of Space Marines. Once at the colony, the only survivor they can find is a small girl named Newt who has been living in the air vents. The marines use the computers to track the settlers to an atmosphere processor where they all appear to be gathered. Searching for the colonists, the marines stumble into an Alien nest and are ambushed by the creatures and barely manage to escape. Despite her civilian status, Ripley emerges as the natural leader of this group. The rest of the movie deals with Ripley and the survivors trying to hold off the Aliens in a fortified compound while trying to find a way off world before the reactor explodes.




Deleted scene from Aliens. The marines have set up automated gun turrets to keep the xenomorphs away from the doors. Incidentally, this can also be used at awards shows to keep Kanye West off stage.

While fast paced and action-packed, the movie also takes the time to develop characters and relationships. Aliens explores one of James Cameron’s most recurring themes: the survival of the family unit threatened by extreme circumstances. Ripley almost immediately adopts Newt as a surrogate daughter and risks her own life through out the movie to protect her. Corporal Hicks and Ripley, also develop a gentle affection for one another and these three characters and the family unit they represent are the heart of the movie. The marines as a group, despite their initially annoying macho banter also emerge as a sympathetic family unit.

Interestingly, while the movie is very different in tone from Ridley Scott’s film, it follows a plot structure that is almost identical. Instead of a small group of unarmed humans we have a squadron of galactic marines. Instead of being trapped on a ship, the humans are trapped in a terraforming facility. Instead of escaping from an exploding freighter in an escape pod while the timer counts down, Ripley escapes in a drop ship from an exploding power generator. Instead of an alien drone stowing away on the escape pod, the alien queen stows away (somehow) on the drop ship. Instead of blasting the drone out of the airlock of the escape pod, Ripley blasts the queen out of the airlock of the Sulaco. And so on. I point this out because I think it is interesting how the movie can be so derivative of the original and yet so strikingly different at the same time.

THE MOSTER/EFFECTS

Aliens features the Alien drone slightly redesigned from the creature in the original movie. Overall, they are smaller and less spindly. Gone is the smooth, dome-like head. Instead it is replaced with a smaller ridged head. These have become known as “Cameron Aliens.” Nerdier people than me have speculated that the Cameron Aliens are older than any of the other Aliens featured in the series and that the smooth dome is something that is lost when physical maturity is reached.

Okay, that was a lie. That’s actually my theory.

Aliens also created a life cycle for the creatures that somewhat contradicts the original movie by creating an Alien Queen that lays the eggs which we first saw in Ridley Scott’s movie. Deleted from the theatrical cut of Alien was a scene towards the end of the movie in which Ripley comes across the Alien nest where she finds her crew members being cocooned and being TURNED INO EGGS. So the original idea was that all those eggs in the derelict ship from Alien were actually the crew of that ship. Does this contradict Aliens? Possibly. But I like to think that in the absence of a Queen a drone can produce an egg from a host body.

*adjusts glasses*

The Queen herself was designed by James Cameron for this movie and is a larger more terrifying version of the Alien. She rather looks like a cross between the original Alien, a dinosaur skeleton and Joan Rivers. When we first see her she is disgustingly perched on her bloated, slime-filled egg sack (paging Mr. Lovecraft, your table is ready). Her crowd-pleasing battle with Ripley at the end of the movie is one of science fiction’s most iconic scenes.

The effects in Aliens are clever and largely done in-camera. Cameron uses all of the tools and tricks available to him in 1985 such as extensive miniatures, reverse photography, forced perspective and suitmation. The Aliens here are not designed for long lingering shots but for quick impressions and movement. Cameron tries to make the Aliens move more like living creatures than in the previous movie and he provides us with a variety of movement styles that recall different types of animals. My personal favorite is the quick shot of the Aliens crawling roach-like through an air vent.

Ripley impresses Hicks and Hudson with her pinball prowess.

Now, of course, there are some wince-worthy effects moments. We’re talking the mid 1980’s here. The moment I hate the most occurs in the Alien hive while the marines are making there initial exploration. There is a moment when one of the first Aliens we see seems to zip down from the ceiling and rubberly grabs on to a marine and somehow zips back up. Perhaps for the 25th anniversary in 2011 Cameron will give us a Special Edition with some revamped effects.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Dozens of Alien drones, several face huggers, a chest-burster, a queen, and a partridge in a pear tree.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on its own or in a couple of boxed sets with the first three Alien movies or all four.

Sarah Palin takes Bristol on a particularly dangerous moose hunt.

I have the Aliens Collectors Edition which is a two DVD set (and I think identical to the one in the Alien Legacy and Alien Quadrilogy sets.) This version contains both the theatrical cut of the movie and the longer, but far superior Director’s Cut, which contains several interesting scenes that were edited from the original cut of the movie, one of which is of vital dramatic importance. This is the scene early in the movie in which Ripley learns that her daughter has recently died while she was frozen in hypersleep. This scene is pivotal as it gives depth to Ripley’s relationship with Newt and helps to explain more clearly why she goes back into the Alien nest looking for her at the end of the movie. This is the version of the movie (or one very like it) that was shown on CBS in the 1990’s and subsequently put onto an exhaustive Laserdisc set. It’s definitely worth checking out even if you are familiar with the theatrical cut of the movie.

Can we tawk?

Absent is the infamous scene in which Ripley encounters a cocooned Paul Reiser at the end of the movie. I don’t believe this scene has ever appeared in any broadcast or home video version of the movie.

The Alien Anthology Bluray set is truly beautiful thing, with all of the above features and plenty of Bluray exclusive content, and it offers a customizable way to watch the bonus features according to what you are interested in seeing.

Good thing he didn't have that cornbread, after all.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

Six words: "Get away from her, you bitch!"

Five words: "Game over, man! Game over!"

SEQUELS:

Followed by Alien 3 (1992) Alien Resurrection (1997) and Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2008) although the two AVP movies are technically prequels.

SEE ALSO:

Starship Troopers (1997)

"Get away from that bitch, you whore!" Or something like that. Whatever.

THE TRAILER:




TRIVIA


The scene in which the marines are making their initial survey of the Alien nest in the atmosphere processor is a great example of suspense-building editing. In about a minute of screen time there something like 67 cuts. The resulting scene is an unsettling montage of the marines nervously poking around this unexpectedly creepy environment, grainy first-person video feed from the helmet cams, Burke and Ripley bathed in blue light from the monitors as they observe, and the handheld motion sensor with its eerie beep. You jump from one shot to the next in under a second and you never get a chance to get your bearings before the attack.