Aliens (film)

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Aliens is a 1986 science fiction movie directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. It is a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien.

Contents

Overview

The movie tells the story of a group of futuristic Marines (and the protagonist, Ripley, accompanying them) who are sent to investigate a terraforming base on a far-off planet, which turns out to have been overrun by an extremely deadly race of xenomorphic aliens that implant themselves into human hosts in order to incubate. Directed by James Cameron, from a story written by Cameron, David Giler & Walter Hill, the film is more of a high-paced, action-horror film than its predecessor, an atmospheric sci-fi/horror film.

It was tremendously successful, and, directly following Cameron's The Terminator, helped him to establish himself as a major Hollywood director. The film, like its predecessor, was shot in England, this time at Pinewood Studios, with a budget of about $18 million. The work on the movie was beset by problems, being especially marred by disputes between Cameron and the film crew, which eventually led to an all-out strike late in the production.

Plot

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the only human survivor of the encounter with the Alien aboard the Weyland-Yutani Corporation star-freighter Nostromo, is found in suspended animation (stasis) aboard the Nostromo's escape vessel by a deep-space salvage crew. She is subsequently 'awakened' from stasis onboard an unfamiliar (to her) space station located in orbit above Earth. During her recovery, she meets Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), a Weyland-Yutani executive, and questions him about the duration of her time in stasis and the status of her daughter. Burke reveals to her that she was adrift in deep space for 57 years and that her daughter lived out her life and died two years previously.

During an inquest, Ripley attempts to explain to various Weyland-Yutani officials why she destroyed the Nostromo and its valuable cargo, but the officials, reading from an action report prepared by Ripley, are incredulous as it describes, among other things, a creature that attaches itself to a host, has acid for blood, and matures so fast it was capable of wiping out the ship's crew in a span of about 24 hours. She tries to convince them of the xenomorphs' existence and the danger they present, but as there are no other crew members left alive to corroborate her report concerning the threat her rationale is dismissed. Compounding her frustration, she learns at the end of the inquest that Weyland-Yutani has returned to LV-426 (the planet where the Nostromo crew discovered the derelict spacecraft which was carrying the alien "eggs") and established there a terraforming colony called Hadley's Hope.

Ripley's worst fears are later confirmed when Burke comes to her tiny apartment with Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope} of the United States Colonial Marines and tells her that contact with Hadley's Hope has recently been lost. Initially, she refuses Burke's request to join him and a USCM team led by Gorman on a mission to investigate the communications breakdown. However, her reluctance is undermined by her recurring nightmares about the xenomorph and she subsequently agrees to join Burke following his assurances that the mission will be to destroy the creature(s) and not bring any back for research or profit, and that her flight status will be restored. Additional motivation is provided by the fact that she has nothing to lose, her friends and family are long dead, and this mission will allow her to confront her fears.

The expedition, comprised of Ripley, Burke, and a squad of Marines, travels to LV-426 aboard the warship Sulaco (like Nostromo, the name is a nod to Joseph Conrad.) Following the expedition members' emergence from stasis, Ripley conducts a mission briefing during which she tries to explain to the skeptical squad of gung-ho Marines the true danger of the xenomorphs they might soon encounter. Once again, her warnings fall on deaf ears as the Marines believe that their superior firepower and training will be sufficient to deal with any possible threat.

Before touching down on the planet in a 'dropship' carrying an Assault Transport Vehicle (ATV) and the crew inside, Ripley gets acquainted with the Marines - among them, rock-solid Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews), mouthy Hudson (Bill Paxton), icy warrior Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), and soft-spoken Hicks (Michael Biehn). She also discovers that one of the 'men', named Bishop (Lance Henriksen), is actually an android or 'artifical person'. Although Burke apologizes for not telling her that having a 'synthetic' onboard is now standard practice, she remains extremely suspicious of Bishop given her previous experience with the android Ash onboard the Nostromo: Ash tried to kill her and was complicit in the deaths of the Nostomo's crew following orders from Weyland-Yutani to recover a live xenomorph at the expense of her crewmates. She is also concerned about the continuing cocky attitude of the team. During the drop from orbit, she and the squad learn that Lieutenant Gorman is very inexperienced - he has only completed two real combat drops (counting the current one). This information further undermines their already-scanty respect for the man.

Upon arrival at the colony's operations headquarters, Ripley and her companions quickly discover that the aliens attacked the colonists and the colony. Evidence comes at first from metal floor and ceiling gratings throughout the complex that have been melted through as a result of contact with the aliens' acidic blood, apparent battle damage from small weapons fire, and various attempts at barricading doors. More concrete evidence is provided by the presence of facehugger specimens that the colonists collected from human hosts (as established from medical records) and held in glass tanks for analysis. Two of them are still alive as is made clear by Burke's up-close, and foolhardy, look at one of the containers; fortunately for him, the facehugger proves unable to break through the glass. The colonists themselves, however, are nowhere to be found.

During the ongoing search of the base, they eventually find a sole human survivor - nicknamed "Newt", the furtive and traumatized young girl has managed to evade the xenomorphs by slipping unnoticed through the colony's system of ventilation and service ducts. Unfortunately, she initially remains mute due to her traumatic experiences and she cannot provide any useful information to the Marines.

While Ripley starts coaxing Newt out of her shell, Hudson is able to locate the majority of the colonists via transceivers that were implanted in each of them for just such a situation; they are bunched together just below the primary heat-exchangers of the atmospheric generators located a short distance from the main buildings. The expedition team hurries to the area aboard the ATV, with Bishop remaining behind to examine the dead facehuggers. Once at their destination, the Marines dismount from the ATV under the leadership of Apone - leaving Lieutenant Gorman, Burke, Ripley and 'Newt' inside the ATV to watch the Marines' progress via helmet-mounted video cameras. Inside the atmospheric generator, they discover a large nest that appears to have been constructed from alien secretions. While the Marines search the nest, Ripley realizes that the they are immediately beneath important hardware that, if damaged by weapons fire, could result in the atmospheric generator exploding (it is a nuclear reactor that, as Burke indicates without irony, is very expensive). The Marines are ordered to remove the ammunition from their weapons and rely on flamethrowers only. This order is followed but Vasquez, her smart-gun compatriot Drake, and Hicks resort to backup ammunition (Vasquez/Drake) or a shotgun (Hicks).

The hardened, but brittle, alien secretions cover the walls, floor, and ceiling and the nest is seemingly uninhabited except for the masses of unfortunate colonists, their corpses fastened in cocoon-like fashion to the walls. One of the cocooned colonists is discovered to be alive and she marginally awakens. To Ripley's horror, she dies as a "baby" alien begins to burst through her ribcage, forcing the team to incinerate the helpless woman and the squealing organism with a flametrower.

At this point, the Marines pick up multiple signals on their hand-held motion trackers indicating 'movement' coming from all directions; the xenomorphs that were lying dormant in the walls begin to attack. Due to the Marines' inability to see the aliens in the dark confines of the nest, the aliens' non-detectability using infrared sensors, and the previously stated removal of ammunition, the squad is quickly decimated. Apone, among others, is killed leaving the remaining squad members leaderless and cut off. Ripley, Burke and a panicked Gorman try to direct the squad. When Gorman proves to be useless, Ripley takes charge. She drives the ATV to the squad's location, crashes the vehicle into the nest, and rescues the handful of remaining soldiers, escaping out of the generator building at the cost of wrecking the ATV.

The squad is clearly defeated. With Hudson injured and Gorman unconscious as a result of falling equipment in the ATV, Hicks (the ranking soldier) assumes command. Over Burke's protests, he agrees with Ripley that levelling the colony from space with a thermonuclear weapon is the best way to handle the situation as there is no one left to save and it is the only way to be certain that the aliens will be destroyed. Before they can be evacuated by the dropship, the 2-person crew of the dropship (which was on the ground on standby) is killed during flight by an adult xenomorph that slipped aboard the ship. The vessel crashes into the generator complex. With no alternative, the survivors return to the operations headquarters and set up a defensive position utilizing automated machine guns recovered from the remains of the ATV and barricading significant entry points/doors by welding them closed.

During this time, Ripley puts Newt down to sleep in the med-lab, and promises that she will protect the girl from the 'monsters', come what may. While there, Ripley tells Bishop to burn the two surviving facehuggers as soon as his analysis of them is done. Bishop responds that Burke wanted the organisms to be frozen and quarantined for shipment. Ripley then confronts Burke, telling him that she knows he, after hearing her story at the inquest, ordered the colonists to search for the derelict spacecraft which originally housed the alien eggs. Burke informs her that Weyland-Yutani is willing to pay a substantial sum for alien specimens, and that he is willing to share his profits with her if she cooperates. She responds that she will see him 'nailed to the wall' for his part in the massacre.

A major xenomorph attack begins; their advance is halted by the automated tracking guns, which use up most of their ammunition. The barricades remain unbreached for the time being, but the aliens are still out there, probing for an unguarded entry-point, when Bishop announces that the atmospheric generator is damaged (as a result of gunfire from the earlier battle and/or the dropship crashing into it) and that it, and everything in the immediate vicinity, will be detroyed in a matter of hours in a nuclear blast. Clearly if they are to prevail the survivors must get the other dropship from the Sulaco. Bishop volunteers to travel to the transciever station at the other end of the colony complex (via a crawl through a duct) in order to activate the other dropship and remotely fly it down to the surface to pick up the remaining survivors.

After his departure, Ripley goes to check on Newt and falls asleep beside her. She wakes up suddenly to find herself and Newt locked in the soundproof med-lab with the two facehuggers that have escaped their glass containers, placed in the room by Burke. Ripley set off a fire-alarm and she and Newt are rescued by the Marines. After the destruction of the two facehuggers, she informs the group that Burke had planned to have Newt and Ripley impregnated by the creatures then sabotage the Marines' hypersleep capsules on the Sulaco and dispose of them while en route back to Earth.

They debate executing Burke for his scheme (Ripley: "I don't know which species is worse...you don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage"), but before they can reach a consensus, the aliens cut the power and pour into operations, slipping in through a gap in the overhead ducting/roofwork. In the confusion, Burke escapes and locks a door separating himself from the other humans, only to turn and find himself face-to-face with one of the invaders.

On the other side of the door, a spectacular firefight ensues. The Marines fight heroically killing one alien after the other but, due to the number of swarming attackers, are forced to fall back before the charging xenomorphs. After Hudson is pulled through the floor, fighting to his last breath, Newt guides the group away through the ventilation system she used to stay alive before the arrival of the Marines. Vasquez and a revived Gorman kill themselves with a grenade after being cut off and surrounded. The resulting explosion causes Newt to slip off of a large ventilation fan, slide down a long air duct and into the reservoir of the plumbing system. Before Hicks and Ripley can rescue her, she is captured. Ripley and Hicks reach Bishop just as he finishes bringing down the other dropship.

Hicks is badly injured after killing an alien at close range and being sprayed with its acidic blood. Ripley tends to him, orders Bishop to wait on standby as she collects weapons and goes back to rescue Newt. She finds the girl cocconed in the previously described nest just in time to save her from impregnation, but in their haste to escape, they stumble into the xenomorph primary egg chamber where the Alien Queen (several times larger than the typical alien) is laying her eggs. Ripley uses her flamethrower to persuade the queen to call off her warriors, but after seeing two eggs hatch, she incinerates the nest. This enrages the queen into ripping free of her egg-sac and pursuing the two humans. With the queen snapping at their heels, Ripley and Newt manage to board the dropship and escape just before the reactor blows up, destroying the colony and, presumably, all of the aliens.

Once aboard the Sulaco, all seems well, but as Ripley compliments Bishop for his skill in piloting the dropship, the android is abruptly impaled from behind by the queen's barbed tail and torn in half -- the creature managed to hitch a ride on the dropship's landing gear. Ripley and Newt separate, with Newt attempting to evade capture under the loading dock's grated floor. Ripley frantically jumps into a powerloader, a mechanical exosuit used mainly for cargo lifting. She emerges as the queen chases Newt, the girl she has poured all of her frustrated maternal love into, shouting "Get away from her, you bitch!"

During an intense battle between the two in the Sulaco's hangar, Ripley manages to lift the creature up and drop her into a large vertical airlock. However, the exosuited Ripley is pulled inside as well. After a close escape, she opens the outer door of the ship and expels the alien into space; the badly-damaged but still-functional Bishop grabs Newt as she, and the air in the hangar around them, is evacuated through the open airlock, saving the girl from sharing the queen's fate. With some difficulty, Ripley manages to close the airlock's inner door. Newt runs to her, and as they embrace, calls her "Mommy".

Along with Bishop and Hicks, Ripley and Newt enter hypersleep capsules as the Sulaco begins the long journey back home. Ripley and Newt are both free to dream again.

Spoilers end here.

Analysis

The story adds much to the overall mythos of the series, including Cameron's introduction of an insect-like social structure and life cycle for the xenomorphs, and is notable for its portrayal of strong women in leading action roles. It also re-introduces an android, this time in an extremely sympathetic role. Bishop is also the only character except Ripley (and her cat, Jonesy) to appear, more or less alive, in more than one film in the series.

Gun violence

Sigourney Weaver, who holds strong views on gun control, has stated that she was deeply uncomfortable with the amount of gun violence in the movie, most especially the fact that Ripley would be required to strap on firearms herself. However, she admitted she ended up enjoying the firearms training she received, and that this only added to the strength inherent in her character. She has also admitted that the gunplay held a seductive appeal. She talks about her opinions on gun violence on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD, and spoke at length on the subject in several articles in Starlog magazine in the 80's, mentioning that she was a bit more at ease with the guns because they were depicted being used 'against monsters and not other human beings'.

List of Conceptual Weapons

As noted below, the weapons in Aliens seemed to be mostly based around updated versions of modern armaments. Indeed, the two main weapons in the film were built around the basic frames of existing weapons:

M-41A pulse rifle with underslung 30mm grenade launcher — the basic armament of the Colonial Marines, this was, as mentioned in the Trivia section, actually a remodelled Thompson submachine gun with a Franchi SPAS 12 pump-action shotgun welded beneath the barrel to act as a grenade launcher. In the film, the M-41A was portrayed as a compact, angular assault rifle with an impressive rate of fire, using 10mm caseless explosive-point ammunition. It is seen in action in the Colonial Marines' various confrontations with the aliens, not to mention Ripley's epic battle through the Atmosphere processor towards the end, and has significant stopping power — enough to blow an alien in two with a single burst.
M-56A2 Smartgun — based on a modified MG-42 general-purpose machine gun, this was the Colonial Marine's tactical heavy support unit, and was portrayed as an auto-targeting computerized chain gun steadied by a suit-mounted battle mounting (actually a Steadicam harness — see Trivia). It was used to devastating effect against the aliens by the two smartgunners, Vasquez and Drake, during the chaotic battle under the heat exchangers midway through the film.
M-240A1 Incinerator — a futuristic-looking flamethrower unit, this powerful weapon was used to incinerate countless aliens during the Marines' battles and Ripley's epic Atmosphere Processor attack. Built using M16 and M203 parts, it fired a napalm compound with excellent adhesive properties but ran out of ammunition very quickly when used in extended bursts.
UA 571-C Sentry Gun — essentially a Smartgun with a motion sensor, set up on a tripod base. This robotic sentry gun used high-powered 10mm explosive rounds and supported extremely high rates of fire. When the Marines were sheltering in the Operations Centre, they set up four of these guns to guard the entrances. The guns destroyed dozens of aliens, but quickly ran out of ammo.
Shotgun — This shotgun, which resembles an Ithaca stakeout 12-gauge shotgun was used by Hicks. It is seen in the movie when Hicks pulls it off of his back inside the alien nest after the marines are forced to surrender their pulse rifle ammo. When the marines are fleeing the ambush at the alien nest, Hicks uses this shotgun and puts it into the mouth of the alien that is trying to enter the transport.

View of Futuristic Weapons Re-imagined

Aliens was part of a wave of films that defied the common assumption that futuristic guns and weapons would be variations on energy beam firing devices such as lasers, plasma or particle emitters; most notably the blaster weapons of Star Wars or the multisetting stun/kill/vaporize beam of the often imitated Star Trek phaser. In Aliens, weapons are depicted as simply more advanced versions of today's weapons. They still fire bullets or projectiles instead of clean "death ray" beams. The primary weapon of the Colonial Marines in the movie is an assault rifle/grenade launcher combination weapon similar in many respects to the contemporary assault rifles fielded by many modern armies. Even the more "high-tech" SmartGun used by two characters in the movie are little more than partially self-guiding versions of conventional squad-support machine guns. (A description of the actual construction of these weapons can be found below in Trivia.) However, a concession was made to technophiles during one sequence of the film, omitted in the theatrical release but later reintroduced in the Director's Cut sold on VHS and DVD. In this short scene, one of the marines lists several decidedly non-conventional weapons including a particle beam weapon, "phased-plasma pulse" weapons, as well as apparently advanced sonic weapons.

The Colonial Marines' battleship, the Sulaco, features a mixed, more typically futuristic arsenal, including atomic weaponry.

Genre Parallels

The film conforms to the majority of the common traits of the Western, as laid out in Will Wright's Sixguns and Society (University of California Press 1977). However, as the film borrows from and adapts so many genres and themes, it is more useful to classify it as an action-based sci-fi/horror film, with several developed subplots.

Indeed, it is one of the most surprising aspects of all of James Cameron's films that each contains a moving love story -- whether that of a soldier for a woman he had only met in his dreams (The Terminator), a mother for her newfound adopted daughter (Aliens), a husband for his estranged wife ('The Abyss', 'True Lies'), a boy for a strong robotic father-figure ('[[Terminator 2: Judgement Day]]'), or two doomed teenagers ('Titanic').

Accolades

Aliens was nominated for seven Academy Awards and ended up winning two (Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects). Sigourney Weaver received her first Academy Award nomination (Best Actress) for this film. Although Weaver did not win, it was considered a milestone for a Best Actress nomination to be granted to a science fiction/horror film, a genre that is usually given precious little recognition by the Academy, even today. Weaver has credited this reprise of her earlier role with placing her in serious contention for other leading female roles, and giving a significant boost to her career.

Another actor whose career benefited from Aliens was surely Bill Paxton who plays Hudson. Hudson, especially in the Special Edition, is perhaps the most gung ho and arrogant of the marines, only to descend into self-pity and near-madness when confronted with the aliens themselves, ultimately redeeming himself as he defiantly battles to the death when swarmed by the xenomorphs. Paxton's portrayal of the role through these facets endears the audience to the character, at first we are cynical of his confidence, then sympathetic to his pessimistic and reluctant attitude throughout the second act and finally we like him because he continues to fight after it is clear he will die shortly.

Some of his lines during his pessimistic stage may be seen as a comic relief, sometimes understating an intense scene in retrospect or exaggerating the hopelessness ahead: "Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!"

Impact

The depiction of the female characters, especially Ripley and the ultra-macho Private Vasquez, as fearless warriors made a considerable impression in the North American perception of women in action films, particularly in futuristic science fiction. The medic, Corporal Dietrich, and Pilot Ferro both demonstrated a professional competence in their military roles, a major difference from previous films in which most females lacked such strength and apparent sense of duty. Since Aliens, it grew to be expected in futuristic stories that the female characters be as ready to bear arms and do battle on an equal basis with the male characters.

The film heavily influenced many later science fiction works to depict a more realistic world that looks 'lived in': while in Star Trek, the sets and equipment usually look pristine, in Aliens they look 'banged up', like they've been given makeshift repairs over time. The film is often cited as an influence by writers and video-game designers who are designing a realistic-looking, near-future military. The Colonial Marine Corps has been used as a template in the 1998 movie Starship Troopers, the 1995-1996 TV series [[Space: Above and Beyond]], the popular RTS computer game Star Craft and the Halo video game series. One also feels that the look of the Nebuchadnezzar of 'The Matrix' trilogy owes much to the Sulaco.

Versions

The theatrical running time of Aliens was 137 minutes. Later, James Cameron cut together a 154 minute Special Edition (a true Director's Cut, since Cameron was forced to release the theatrical cut to fit a contractually mandated two-hour-and-fifteen-minute running length against his better judgment) that contained the daughter subplot, as well as scenes of the colony before the alien infestation, and extra battle scenes involving the marines' robot sentries.

The original theatrical cut introduces an element of uncertainty into the proceedings—the backstory exploring the fate of Newt's parents is not shown, and the audience is thus unaware of what has transpired beforehand. The scenes with Ripley's daughter and the robotic gun sentries provide subplots in themselves. However, some fans of the movie prefer the original theatrical release (the idea that the audience ought to know as much as the characters do, upon their arrival on LV-426, is crucial from this perspective) and consider the extra scenes in the Special Edition to be superfluous, despite the wishes of the director.

This Special Edition was first released on laserdisc and VHS in 1992 and in The Alien Legacy in 2001. Both versions of the film were released together for the first time in the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.

Video games

Direct Licenses

In 1990, Konami released an arcade game, Aliens, based on the movie. The game is an isometric-perspective 3-axis run and gun side-scroller (similar to Midway's NARC), where you play as either Ripley (Player 1) or Hicks (Player 2). Because it introduces additional monsters such as winged xenomorphs, giant spiders infested with chest-bursters, and undead soldiers, the game is not very true to the series. Still, the plot elements of the film will be apparent to fans of the series who play the game.

The marine campaigns in the Aliens Versus Predator computer games are heavily influenced by the action sequences of this movie, much more so than by the prequels and sequels.

Influence

The influence of Aliens on the video game industry is undeniable. The seminal first-person shooter Doom presented an environment quite similar to that of the colony in Aliens, complete with dark corridors and flickering lights, patrolled by space marines wielding futuristic upgrades of modern weapons (including a shotgun). It could be said that the corridor crawl sub-classification of the first-person shooter genre owes itself completely to the vision conceptualized in Aliens.

Specific instances of Aliens' influence on gaming:

The digital ammo counter on FPS machine guns in games like Unreal and Halo was influenced by the M41A pulse rifle.
The concept of a weapon with secondary-fire mode was influenced by the the M41A pulse rifle with its grenade launching capabilities. This concept was first heavily used in the game Unreal Tournament.
Halo and Halo 2 feature a character named Sargeant Avery J. Johnson who is heavily influenced by the character Sargeant Apone.
Starcraft is heavy with Aliens influence, including a Xenomorph-like species, the Zerg, and a human species complete with space marines, Terrans.
The machine gun sentry turrets in the game Half-Life 2 look similar to and serve the same purpose as the UA 571-C Sentry Guns.
A female character in the game Duke Nukem 3D is covered in "alien goo" and begs that the player kill her.

Trivia

When Jenette Goldstein heard about casting for the film Aliens, she mistakenly thought that the film was about illegal aliens and came to the audition wearing lots of make-up and long hair. This incident was later used as an inside joke in the film's shooting script.
The 19-foot queen alien model is currently on display at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, as of 2005. It is on loan from its owner and an advisory board member of the museum, James Cameron.
Burke tells Bishop that Ash from the original mission was a "Hyperdyne" model of android; this is an inside joke by James Cameron as the the Terminator in his film of the same name was a "Cyberdyne" model.
The Alien nest set wasn't dismantled after filming. It was unused until several 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.
Apparently, names of some Marine characters were drawn from A Bridge too Far, Cornelius Ryan's account of the Operation Market Garden in WWII. Gorman, Wierzbowski, Hicks et al feature as prominent actors in the book.
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. Because of this he said he was forced to cannibalize previous scores he had done as well as adapt a rendition of "Gayane Ballet Suite" for the main and end titles. 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.
As the end titles finish scrolling and the score fades to silence, an extremely faint sound can be heard in the background: an alien egg sac opening to release a facehugger. This can be interpreted as foreshadowing the events at the start of Alien 3.
"Sulaco" is the name of the town in Joseph Conrad's Nostromo, which was the name of the ship in Alien. Ridley Scott, director of Alien, is an admirer of Conrad's.
The weapons used by the marines are all based on real, fully functional weapons. The pulserifle is made from a Thompson SMG with an attached Remington 870 shotgun that was mounted in a Franchi SPAS-12 barrel shroud, while the smartguns carried by Vasquez and Drake are based around the MG-42 machinegun, and are maneuvered with the help of a steadicam harness.
The film contains numerous (and often somewhat obscure) nods to Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers." The references to "bug hunts," "drops," and having female pilots all echo Heinlein's work. (In a discussion about the then-upcoming film version of "Starship Troopers," Harlan Ellison wondered aloud why anyone would make the film, since in his opinion it had already been made, and was called "Aliens.")
The film has had huge influence on the Bungie Studios' Halo video game, as well as a few references in games like Blizzard's StarCraft and Westwood's [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun]] as the dropships look remarkably similar. In [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun]], GDI's Orca Fighters were loosely modelled on the dropship, and GDI's Amphibious APC is also loosely modelled on the APC in this particular movie. In the Halo series, the marines have the same 'Gung-ho' attitude to killing aliens, and even the sergeant says the famous line, Go go go! The corps ain't payin' us by the hour! "The Sarge" --Sergeant Johnson-- is even a hard-talking veteran black man, like Apone. In addition the Xenomorphs could also be compared to The Flood who also leach onto humans to reprodce.
In the Family Guy episode 'Da Boom,' Stewie Griffin mimics Hudson's lines from the movie: "Game over, man! Game over!"
The optional director and cast audio commentary on the film included in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set has the director and cast talking about their disappointment with the "Alien 3" film, and Weaver (jokingly) mentioning how she only agreed to do "Aliens 4" because she wanted to prevent the making of the "Aliens vs. Predator" film.
Paul Reiser (Burke) mentioned a humorous story in his book Couplehood, about how early in his marriage when he was a struggling comedian and actor, he and his wife one day made a playful list of celebrities they were "allowed" to cheat with. One person on his list was Sigourney Weaver. This made for much playful teasing of his wife when he was cast in Aliens.
In the cut scene where Burke shows Ripley a picture of her aged daughter, Amanda (Amy) McClaren, it is actually a photo of Sigourney Weaver's real life mother, Elizabeth Inglis.
Carrie Henn (Newt) never appeared in another role in film or television. She is currently a school teacher.
Carrie Henn's brother Christopher appeared in Aliens as Newt's brother, Timmy. The scene was cut from the original release, but is available on the Special Edition DVD or the European Edition VHS.
In Halo/Halo 2, The Humans use a Pelican that is based on the UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship .
The two hospital levels of the PC game Ghost Master feature mortals with modified names of the Aliens cast and their characters (first name of the actor and last name of their character) with patient descriptions that match their fates in the film.
In the Mary Gentle novel Grunts, a squad of orcish marines reports in via a Corporal Hikz - this coming specifically at a time when large, chitinous insectile aliens with acid blood are threatening the planet.

Six Degrees of (Aliens) Separation aka The Aliens Effect...?

Director James Cameron has been known to use Aliens actors in other films. Michael Biehn (Hicks), Lance Henrickson (Bishop) and Bill Paxton (Hudson) all appeared in the first Terminator film. Jenette Goldstein (Vasquez) appeared in 'Terminator 2' and 'Titanic'. Biehn was also in 'The Abyss'. Bill Paxton has also appeared in 'True Lies' and 'Titanic'.
Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen are also the only actors to have been killed by The Terminator (Terminator 1), an Alien and a Predator ('Predator 2' for Paxton, 'Aliens vs. Predator' for Henriksen).
Kathryn Bigelow (now Cameron's ex wife, though at the time they were married) directed 'Near Dark', a vampire movie starring Aliens alumni Henricksen, Goldstein and Paxton. She also directed the music video for the New Order song, "Touched by the Hand of God", which starred Bill Paxton.
Paxton and Biehn appeared together in Tombstone as well as Navy Seals. (Navy Seals also had Rick Rossovich, a Terminator alumnus.)
Lance Henricksen also starred in Pumpkinhead, the first directing effort by Aliens special effects wizard Stan Winston
In a South Park episode entitled [Cat Orgy], Cartman is shown watching a cartoon-version of Aliens on TV, specifically the scene where Newt says" we better be getting back because it'll be dark soon and they mostly come at night...mostly." Later in the episode, Cartman repeats the "mostly" line to himself.
When the Marine viewpoints are seen on monitors via their helmet cameras, their surnames and first initial are shown on the read-out. With the exception of Hicks, the first name initials are that of the actors who played the respective marines: W. Hudson, J. Vasquez, A. Apone, etc.

Licenced Toys

Micro Machines The rare US. larger size action fleet drop ship has been asking for as much as $100.00, somewhat less in other language packaging. A set of 3 of the standard size toys normally retail for $50.00, far more than the average vintage Micro Machines sets.

Prequel

2004: Alien Vs. Predator, considered a stand-alone by director Paul W.S. Anderson

Alien Quadrilogy

1979: Alien, directed by Ridley Scott
1986: Aliens, directed by James Cameron
1992: Alien³, directed by David Fincher
1997: [[Alien: Resurrection]], directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cast

Actor	Role
Sigourney Weaver	Lieutenant Ellen Ripley
Carrie Henn	Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden
Michael Biehn	Corporal Dwayne Hicks
Lance Henriksen	L. Bishop
Paul Reiser	Carter J. Burke
Bill Paxton	Private W. Hudson
William Hope	Lieutenant S. Gorman
Jenette Goldstein	Private J. Vasquez
Al Matthews	Sergeant A. Apone
Mark Rolston	Private M. Drake
Colette Hiller	Corporal C. Ferro
Daniel Kash	Private D. Spunkmeyer
Cynthia Scott	Corporal C. Dietrich
Ricco Ross	Private R. Frost
Tip Tipping	Private T. Crowe
Trevor Steedman	Private T. Wierzbowski
Paul Maxwell	Van Leuwen
Barbara Coles	Cocooned Woman (aka Mary)
Alibe Parsons	Med Tech

Crew

Who	Position
James Cameron	Director and Screenwriter
Gale Anne Hurd	Producer
David Giler	Executive Producer
Walter Hill	Executive Producer
Gordon Carroll	Exectutive Producer
Adrian Biddle	Cinematographer (replaced Dick Bush)
Ray Lovejoy	Editor
Stan Winston	Creature SFX
James Horner	Composer

External links

Alien movie series

Alien | Aliens | Alien³ | [[Alien: Resurrection]]

Predator movie series

Predator | Predator 2

Movie cross-overs

AVP: Alien vs. Predator | AVP: Alien vs. Predator 2

Cross-overs

Alien vs. Predator | Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator | Batman vs. Predator | Alien Loves Predator

Relating to the Alien universe

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